looking at her I figured she was reasonably familiar with getting
hit.
‘Tell me again,’ I said. ‘It was the soldier, not the owner.’
She looked at me like I was crazy.
‘The owner never hits us,’ she said. ‘We’re his meal ticket.’
I gave her the ten bucks and we left her there at the quiet
table.
‘What does it mean?’ Summer said.
‘Everything,’ I said.
‘How did you know?’
I shrugged. We were back in Kramer’s motel room, folding
stuff, packing our bags, getting ready to hit the road one last
time.
‘I saw it wrong,’ I said. ‘I guess I started to realize in Paris.
When we were waiting for Joe at the airport. That crowd. They
were watching people coming out and they were kind of half
prepared to greet them and half-prepared to ignore them,
depending. That’s how it was in the bar that night. I walked in,
I’m a big guy, so people saw me coming. They were curious for
a split second. But they didn’t know me and they didn’t like
what I was, so they turned away again and shut me out. Very
subtle, all in the body language. Except for Carbone. He didn’t
shut me out. He turned towards me. I thought it was just
random, but it wasn’t. I thought I was selecting him, but he was
selecting me just as much.’
‘It had to be random. He didn’t know you.’
‘He didn’t know me, but he knew MP badges when he saw
them. He had been in the army sixteen years. He knew what he
was looking at.’
‘So why turn towards you?’
‘It was like a double-take. Like a stutter step. He was turning
away, then he changed his mind and turned back. He wanted me to come to him.’
347
‘Why?’
‘Because he wanted to know why I was there.’
‘Did you tell him?’
I nodded. ‘Looking back, yes I did. Not in detail. I just wanted
him to stop people from getting worried, so I told him it was
nothing to do with anyone, just some lost property across the
street, maybe one of the hookers had it. He was a very smart
guy. Very subtle. He reeled me in like a fish and got it out of
me.’
‘Why would he care?’
‘Something I once said to Willard. I said things happen in
order to dead-end other things. Carbone wanted my inquiries
dead-ended. That was his aim. So he thought fast. And smart.
Delta doesn’t hire dumb guys, that’s for sure. He went in and
smacked the girl, to shut her up in case she knew anything.
And then he came out and let me think the owner had done it.
He didn’t even lie about it. He just let me assume. He wound me
up like a clockwork toy and pointed me in the direction he
wanted. And off I went. I smacked the owner on the ear and we
fought it out in the lot. And there was Carbone, watching. He
saw me work the guy over like he knew I would and then he
put in the complaint. So he got it coming and going. He got
both ends bottled up. The girl was silenced and he thought I
would be taken out of the picture because of the disciplinary
procedure. He was a very smart guy, Summer. I wish I had met
him before.’
%Vhy did he want you dead-ended? What was his motive?’
‘He didn’t want me to find out who took the briefcase.’
‘Why not?’
I sat down on the bed.
‘Why did we never find the woman Kramer met in here?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Because there never was a woman,’ I said. ‘Kramer met
Carbone in here.’
She just stared at me.
‘Kramer was gay too,’ I said. ‘He and Carbone were getting it
on.’
348
‘Carbone took the briefcase,’ I said. ‘Right out of this room.
Because he had to keep the relationship secret. Just like we
thought about the phantom woman, maybe he was worried
there was something personal to him in it. Or maybe Kramer
had been bragging about the Irwin conference. Talking about
how Armored was going to fight its corner. So maybe Carbone