Read John Rain 08: Graveyard of Memories for Free Online Page A

wasn’t itself remarkable—plenty of men checked in to love hotels by themselves and then phoned for takeout. But they probably had a clue about how long they wanted the room.
    Still, all she said was, “Four thousand yen.”
    I fished the money out of a pocket and pushed it through a hole in the glass. She scooped it into a drawer and slid a key in the other direction. “Three-oh-two,” she said. “Left as you come out of the elevator.”
    I took the key and thanked her. She nodded and looked down again, to whatever I guessed she was reading in her lap. I wanted to say something more, but couldn’t think of what, or even why. If she noticed my hesitation, she gave no sign.
    After a moment, I turned and went to the elevator. I didn’t want to think about my situation, or what I was going to do about it. All I cared about right then was the thought of the hottest bath I could stand, then my bento dinner, then sleep. I’d worry about tomorrow once it arrived.

chapter
five
    I headed out early the next morning, wanting to get to a public phone and see if there was news from McGraw. I took the stairs, not liking that coffin-sized elevator, and as I reached the bottom, I heard a man’s voice, slurred and aggressive, shouting in Japanese. “I already told you, I just want a rest!”
    I opened the stairwell door and emerged into the tiny lobby. A Japanese man in a rumpled suit and holding a cheap battered briefcase was standing in front of the reception window. I could smell the sake from ten feet away. A salaryman, I guessed, who’d stayed out too late and now just wanted a place to sleep it off for a few hours before going back to the office.
    “I understand, sir,” came a soft female voice from the other side of the glass. “A rest is two thousand yen.”
    I recognized the voice. The same girl who’d checked me in the night before.
    “I told you, I only have a thousand. I’ll get you the rest later, when the banks are open. When the banks are open I’ll even give you an extra thousand for your trouble. All right?” He shoved a crumbled bill under the glass.
    The girl pushed the bill back. “I’m sorry, sir. Full payment in advance. No exceptions. Company policy.”
    “Fuck your policy!” the man shouted.
    On a whim, I dug a thousand-yen note out of my pocket and walked over to the window. I put the bill down in front of the glass. “I’ll pay the difference,” I said.
    The girl looked at me like I was crazy. The money just sat there.
    The guy turned to me. “Who the fuck are you?”
    “The bank, apparently.”
    He glanced at the thousand-yen note, then back to me, his eyes narrowing. “Why would you pay for me?”
    I glanced at the girl and shrugged. “A thousand yen seems like not very much to get you to leave her alone.”
    He leered at me. “What are you expecting, you pay for the room, you’re going to follow me up there so I can suck your dick? That what you’re thinking?”
    All he was looking for, I should have recognized, was the opportunity to save a modicum of face. That, or it was some weird kind of projection or trial balloon, and he was hoping I really did want him to suck my dick. Either way, all I had to do at that point was calmly say something like, Do you want the money or not? It was clear he would have taken it.
    But I was still young, and stupid, and prone to take things personally. I said, “I’m expecting you to take the money, while it’s still on the counter. It’ll be a lot easier to retrieve from there than it will be after I shove it up your ass.”
    His eyes widened and he flushed. His mouth twitched, but whatever he saw in my eyes got the twitching under control before it turned into words. He pushed the note under the glass. The girl took it and slid him a key. He picked it up and headed toward the elevator. As he got inside, he spat, “ Baka yaro! ” Asshole!
    When he was gone, I turned to the girl. She was dressed as she had been when I’d