We were all relieved at the outcome of the chase but we’re worried about Aerin. The lady said that the emergency techs had managed to stabilize her. But still ….

Philip and Matt left for LA, soon after while I stayed to re-pack my stuff up to get ready to drive back to LA myself to join Aerin in the hospital.

The men had also left it to me to see what we would do about the rooms we’d rented at the inn. Matt had had to pay for two nights for the room that they’d used because that was the minimum number of nights that were required to book the rooms. I’d paid for at least three nights when I’d made arrangements before leaving LA for Joshua Tree National Park.

So I was mulling over how to quickly get this over with when I overheard the conversation between a man whose back was facing me and the manager of the inn.

“As I said earlier, Mr. Guerrero, the two rooms we have are booked tonight. One of them will be available tomorrow …”

The body language of the man whose back was to me was agitated and his hands were chopping the air as he continued to argue with the manager, asking that a room miraculously be freed up for him.

Mr. Guerrero? Could it be…?

I blew out calming breaths, and clenched my fists as I strove to keep walking towards the front desk in the slow, absent-minded manner I’d had just a few seconds ago. He’s not the one … he’s not the one… I mentally repeated to myself, remembering that Brom had told the lady I’d talked to that it was likely the Mr. Guerrero would be anyplace but here.

They were wrong.

The manager spied me, waved me over, and called out, “Ma’am! Would you know if the gentlemen who’d checked into the room last night will be coming back?”

Mr. Guerrero spun around.

Same face as in the file I’d looked at years ago. Older, but the same. Even had the same mustache.

I nodded. “Umm… yeah, they will. They just had an early start to the day, to go on a hike, or something. That’s why they left before breakfast time.”