07: Frederick

After checking out, the front desk went so far as to show Laura the exit. At first, she thought it was a nice gesture from a simple middle-aged man, but took her words back almost immediately after he opened his lips. He kept asking awkward questions about what Martha had said to coax her into checking in, what the Martins had got to do with her, and what business the police had for visiting her. The most annoying of all was when he tauntingly phrased out, with his horrible singsong voice, that Laura might have just been a naughty little young girl. Of course, as someone who didn’t want to stab anyone with harsh-coated words, she kept her mouth shut. He didn’t seem to care, though. For as long as he could talk, even with silence as a response would work well for him.

Their one-sided conversation seemed to drown on and on that, after what seemed to be an eternity, Laura was glad to watch him bounce back to his post, waving his hand in the air without looking back at her.

“What a nosy