Motel and Suites¶
The Motel and Suites is a seedy, de-branded former Holiday Inn in Dahlonega, Georgia, where the man in the Chewbacca costume stayed as "John Doe" and where the team searched the dumpster.
| Type | Location |
| Aliases | Express & Suites; former Holiday Inn |
| Region | Dahlonega, Georgia |
| First appearance | Appalachia 01 |
Description¶
The motel lost its Holiday Inn franchise. The "Holiday Inn" part of the old sign has been chiseled off, and the air conditioners rattle out of phase, which Zack said sounded like cicadas. The front office is behind bulletproof glass with a slot for passing things through. A nicer place "up the hill" is where better guests stay (Appalachia 06).
When the team first arrived in town in Appalachia 01, the sign read only "Express & Suites"; it had clearly been a Holiday Inn until the franchise was lost. The team chose the Smith Hotel instead.
History of events there¶
The dumpster search. Apollo's dry cleaners had pointed the team here: its owner recognized the dead man's photo as an out-of-town drifter who stood around watching, sometimes on a walkie-talkie, and believed he was staying at the Motel and Suites. The clerk confirmed the man registered as "John Doe," had been seen with a walkie-talkie a couple of times, and was picked up on an ATV once or twice by another man. His belongings were thrown out after he stopped renewing (Appalachia 06).
The clerk warned them off a green garbage bag, which held linens from a pornographic shoot of a scatological sort. The dumpster held about a dozen bags. Kurt phoned McManley, who sent three teenage interns about half an hour later to help sort the trash. Snakeskin cowboy boots, which the clerk remembered taking from the room, identified the right bag (Appalachia 06).
The haul: a briefcase with a false lining and a slot for a high-caliber handgun, about $10,000 in bank-banded hundreds and twenties, a thick coil of animal hair in one boot and a walkie-talkie in the other, plus plastic bags and duct tape. Nothing identified the man. See Dead Man's Briefcase. Kurt's read, confirmed by Andre as an intuitive impression, was that the man was a mercenary rather than a spook, perhaps sent to kill someone and double-crossed. The dead man's room had already been rented to a family (Appalachia 06). He was later identified as Troy Cleaver (Appalachia 07).
Inhabitants¶
The unnamed clerk, who had worked there a few months and said such messes happen conservatively four times a year. He gave Andrew a fatherly pat through the slot and a pep talk about being in the right line of work (Appalachia 06).