The Sunset Motor Lodge sits on Route 66 like a pulled tooth. Twenty-three rooms. Color TV from 1991. Ice machine that works every other day. The kind of place where people check in with MasterCard and check out through the bathroom window.

Room 7 has words instead of wallpaper.

Every surface. Floor, ceiling, inside the closet, behind the toilet. Black Bic pen. Red Sharpie. Brown something that flakes when touched. Something that might be blood but probably isn't. The handwriting starts neat in the...