The Sun Down Motel

It’s a week after the motel went dark, and Viv has to call the police while working her night shift. She considered quitting and going back home to Illinois, but she wasn’t sure what she would tell her mother. After seeing the woman in the flowered dress, she feels the need to stay in Fell and find out what happened to her. There are a few people checked into the motel that night. Earlier Viv purchased a notebook and has begun writing in it, noting everything that happened the night the lights went out at the motel.

Viv goes to the vending machine, and a Thunderbird pulls into the parking lot; it looks brand new. A woman in her late twenties with dark, short hair gets out and goes to the room where a man with no luggage is staying. Viv overhears the man call the woman Helen, and as the man opens his door, she hears the woman call him Robert. The door swings shut and the room goes black. When she finds her way to the door, it swings closed again, and she hears the ice machine turn off. Something shoves her and she hits the candy machine with her shoulder. Then she hears something tell her to run. The door flies open and Viv hurries to the parking lot, certain she felt hands on her when she was shoved.

Viv goes back to the office to look for the police number Janice has written down. She picks up the phone and instead of a dial tone, she hears Robert speaking to Helen from his motel room telephone. Helen tells Robert she heard two truckers arguing in the parking lot and that the night shift girl said she’d call the police. He asks Helen when she’ll be home but she isn’t sure. Viv calls the police. Ten minutes later, the fight is still happening, and Viv smells smoke as she watches the parking lot from the office.

A police officer named Alma Trent arrives and breaks up the fight. Alma and Viv have an in-depth conversation about working night shifts. Viv asks Alma who died in the pool. She tells Viv that a boy died there two years ago and mentions Henry, another death at the motel. Henry called in the pool accident before having a fatal heart attack six months later in the motel office chair.

Carly gets hired at the motel by Chris, Janice’s son. He tells Carly about the motel. There is no Wi-Fi, a woman named Nancy resets the used rooms during the day, and Carly won’t see her or the laundry service. Chris tells Carly his parents bought the land and built the motel. He claims that no one bothers the night clerks, but Carly mentions that a night clerk went missing in 1982.

Carly’s shift is slow, but Heather texts her to remind her to give it time. Carly decides to look around the motel grounds. A room door swings open on the second floor where nobody is checked in. Carly thinks the lock must be broken.

It’s cold outside and the motel sign makes a strange noise. Carly closes the door to room 218, which is unlocked. The door to room 216 opens, and Carly smells a floral perfume as it continues to open and close; she thinks someone is standing behind the door but nobody is inside. When she says hello, the door slams shut.

The door to 210 opens and a man steps out. He is a little older than Carly, and she knows he hasn’t signed the guest book. The young man is cursing and mad because he thinks she’s the one that’s been banging the doors in the middle of the night. Carly says he shouldn’t be there and that she’s calling the cops. He tells her to wait. His name is Nick Harkness, and he tosses his wallet on the ground between them for Carly to check his name. Carly is hesitant but picks up his wallet and introduces herself.

Nick, who Carly thinks is attractive, tells her he has an arrangement with the owner: That’s why he’s staying there and didn’t sign the guest book. He responds defensively to her questions and tells her to stay in the office. She notices a gun on his night table and wonders if he knows about the doors opening and closing on their own, but she doesn’t say anything. At their apartment, Carly tells Heather about her night and then sleeps.

At 5:00 P.M. the next day, Carly is eating toast. Heather is working on an essay. She tells Carly to stay away from Nick, and Carly has a feeling of dread that she’s never experienced before. She tells Heather she spent her shift trying to get an old computer to work and answering the phone three times. One call was a wrong number, and two were heavy breathing. Heather asks about the old computer, and Carly says Chris tried a computer booking system but that the motel has an electronics problem.

Heather again mentions the death in the pool; Carly says there’s no evidence, but Heather is convinced it happened. The idea of Viv being dead haunts Carly, and she feels determined to search more. Carly wonders if Nick is actually a cop or if he can help her. Heather has already looked up his background: Nick is from Fell but doesn’t have an address there anymore. His father shot his brother and went to prison and Nick left town after his brother’s death and father’s arrest.

No one is at the motel when Carly gets there, and the parking lot is empty except for a truck that she assumes is Nick’s. Carly smells the cigarette smoke and calls out. She notices somebody named James March is checked into room 103. She wonders if he’s the one smoking.

Carly has printouts of articles about Fell and Nick in a folder. Nick is 29. His mother died in a swimming accident when he was little, and he lived with his father, Martin, and older brother, Eli. Martin Harkness was a well-known lawyer in Fell, but his partner said he became erratic. One day when Nick was 14 at and up in his bedroom playing video games, his father came home with a gun and shot Eli twice in the chest. Nick escaped the house and fled to a neighbor’s. Carly wonders why Nick is back in town.

The lights flicker and the motel sign flashes on and off. Outside, Carly hears metal clanking in the amenities room and smells cigarette smoke again. She hears a man cursing, and all the lights start to go out. When the lights are all out, she sees an eight or nine-year-old boy standing on the second level. He is dressed in summer clothing, and when she says hello to him, he runs away.

The motel doors start unlocking with a click. Carly hears the sound of a woman’s heels and sees room 216 is open: A woman in a floral dress moves into the corridor. She is about to speak to her when Nick grabs her arm. She asks him if he saw the woman standing there as the doors open overhead. He tells her to come with him, and they hurry to his truck.

In Viv’s timeline, Viv is on her night shift and listening in on people’s phone calls through the office telephone. Jamie Blaknik is checked in and ignores the no smoking sign, which disrupts Viv’s ability to detect the smoking man. She is attracted to Jamie and assumes he is selling pot from his motel room. Viv knows her mother would be enraged if she brought him home.

Viv and Jamie have a casual conversation promising not to be in each other’s business, and Jamie tells her if she wants to party, she can knock on his door anytime. Viv eavesdrops on his telephone line and listens even though she understands little of what he’s saying.

Viv recalls a previous night, when she eavesdropped on a prostitute who called her babysitter in between clients to check on her 4 year old. The woman left at 5:30 a.m. and Viv watched her go to her car, fascinated by her life.

At their apartment, Jenny asks Viv if she sees anything creepy at the motel. They talk about the types of people that stay there. Jenny tells her to be careful not to end up like Cathy Caldwell, who was murdered and found under an overpass two years prior. Jenny says Viv shouldn’t go jogging either, or she’ll end up like Victoria Lee. She tells Viv she should carry a knife, and then they both get ready for their night shifts.

Viv is at the front desk of the motel and takes her journal out. She writes the names of the women Jenny mentioned and a list of safety items such as a whistle, flashlight, and knife. Viv hears a car enter the parking lot. It’s Robert White, a man cheating with a woman named Helen. Viv goes to the amenities room and watches them enter their motel room together. Another car pulls in and Viv sees a camera lens duck back into the sedan. Viv wonders if she’s been photographed as well.

Viv has a busy night. A traveling salesman comes in who seems oddly familiar to her. He makes Viv uncomfortable when she gives him the key to room 210 and he asks her name. His name is James March according to what he’s written in the guest book. The salesman distracts her and she doesn’t notice Helen and the sedan photographing her leave the parking lot. After the salesman leaves the office, Viv flips back through the guest book and sees he previously used the name Michael Ennis.

In Carly’s timeline, Nick and Carly are in a Denny’s parking lot in Nick’s truck. Nick tells her to wait and goes inside. Carly panics as she realizes she doesn’t have her bag or mace, and she tests the door to make sure she isn’t locked in. Nick comes back and says he got her a hot chocolate, handing her a takeout cup. Carly is relieved but still suspicious.

Nick asks if she saw the woman in the dress too, and Carly tells him she did, asking what else he’s seen happen at the motel. He tells her that there are always noises and smells, doors opening and closing, and lights going on and off. He saw that same woman sitting on his bed two weeks ago.

Carly admits she’s read about Nick and his family and questions the gun on his table. He says it’s for protection. Nick says Fell is the only place he can get a good night’s sleep.

Carly tells Nick about her missing aunt, and Nick suggests figuring out who the woman and the little boy are: Maybe she can learn something about her aunt too. She tells Nick about the man who wrote James March in the guest book. When they get back to the motel Nick knocks on 103, where the man had checked in, to ask him if he has heard anything strange, but there’s no answer. Inside the motel office, they see he has returned the key to 103 and left.

Viv is at the Turnabout Diner on the outskirts of Fell. She appreciates the connection the locals inside have with one another, as she is used to seeing people pass through town. Viv waits in a booth with her folder and notebook and thinks about Cathy Caldwell and Victoria Lee. She has a collection of articles from the Fell Central Library and waits for Officer Alma Trent to join her.

Alma arrives at 10:15 p.m.: Both she and Viv are due to start their shift by 11:00 p.m. Alma tells Viv she’s the night officer and doesn’t handle murder cases when Viv says she wants to speak about Cathy Caldwell, Victoria Lee, and Betty Graham. Cathy Caldwell was killed in December 1980, Victoria Lee in August 1981, and Betty Graham in November 1978, and Viv finds the timeline suspicious. Alma dismisses Viv’s theory due to a lack of evidence, but Viv continues to make her case. They have 10 minutes until their shifts start, and Viv tells Alma that the last person to see Betty alive was a neighbor who saw a traveling salesman knock on Betty’s door. Betty let him in and was never seen alive again. Viv tells Alma about the traveling salesman who uses fake names every time he checks into the Sun Down Motel.

Alma asks Viv to get her something she can use to look him up, like a real name, the make and model of his car, his license plate number, or the company he works for. She tells Viv to be careful but to try to get information from him the next time she sees him.

Back at the motel, Viv smells the cigarette smoke again and thinks about the man she hitched a ride from and how he put her hand on her thigh. She continues to wonder about the three murdered women and the traveling salesman. She wonders when he’ll come to the motel again.