consequences were unfamiliar to him. I favored the latter.
What puzzled me was his choice of hotel. I assumed he and Rachel were attending something nearby and he had simply been careless. Even that gave him too much credit. He had booked the Hawthorne precisely because he knew I would be there. Rachel knew nothing of his reason.
Chapter 2: The Lobby
The Hawthorne lobby had all the charm of an ordinary suburban hotel beside the highway: patterned carpet, brown leather seating, a decorative gas fireplace, a rear bar with
