The note just inside the doorway was almost identical to the first one. A clear warning to leave town and stop asking questions. Jim sat on the edge of the bed, eyes hard to focus and mouth dry. He tried to remember if the note had been there when he came in lat night from talking to Lucy in the lobby. It had been late and he was dead tired, but he didn't think it was there. Someone had been watching and waiting to make their late night drop off.

He dropped the note on the bed and went to the bathroom to take a hot shower. He needed the hard pounding that the water pressure at the hotel could produce to wake him up. If there was one thing he liked about the silence of the desert night, it was the coma-like sleep it induced.

No need to show the latest note to Sheriff Puster, Jim thought as he turned on the shower adding hot to the already cold raining down. The man didn't seem too concerned about the first note of warning. It was all just a local joke to him and nothing to worry about.

After his eye opening shower, Jim got dressed and headed over to the diner on the corner for some breakfast. He was looking forward to some hot eggs and bacon, some French toast and fresh coffee. Maybe a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and home made hash rounds. He missed the home cooked buffet style restaurants he was accustomed to enjoying back in Fallbrook. Living alone afforded certain luxuries and eating out almost every meal was one of them.