The registration card is still in the Cedarline's files, filled out in a careful hand: one night, single occupancy, paid cash. The clerk remembers nothing remarkable about the man — a salesman, mid-forties, a sample case and a tired smile. He asked for a room at the back, away from the highway.
By the weekend the maid had stopped knocking. The case was open on the bed. The bill, somehow, had been paid through Friday — three days he never checked out of, and three days no one can account for.
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