On the other hand, I didn’t like the idea of asking to change. The hotel management wasn’t dumb. It wouldn’t have taken Mrs. Spitz more than a minute to figure out that I was up to no good. Hotels don’t take lightly to pranksters and thieves. She’d seen me at close range, and at this point, the security guards probably had a fairly accurate description of me. Notice would have gone out to all the relevant staff — the hotel equivalent of an APB. If Vikki Biggs, the night clerk, remembered my name, I’d have someone knocking at my door very soon. Conversely, if the management hadn’t figured it out, I’d be an idiot to go down there and call attention to myself. So forget the room change.
As for vacating the premises, I’d already laid out close to a grand for plane fare and expenses. I couldn’t go back and confess to Chester I’d abandoned the pursuit because Ray Rawson might show up at my door unannounced. My best bet was staying right where I was, especially now that I had access to Laura Huckaby’s room. I put my clothes on again. If someone came banging at my door in the dead of night, I didn’t like the idea of being caught unprepared. I tucked the complimentary toiletries in my handbag and added my toothpaste and my traveling toothbrush, ready to flee if necessary.
I removed the key from my bag, wondering if there might be a safer place to keep it. In the morning, I’d stick it in an envelope and mail it back to Henry. Meanwhile, I surveyed the room and the various furnishings, considering possible hiding places. I was ambivalent about the prospects. If I were compelled to depart in haste, I didn’t want to have to stop and retrieve the key. I took the complimentary mending kit from my handbag. I removed my blazer and studied the construction, finally using the scissors on my Swiss Army knife to pick open a small slit on the inside seam near the shoulder pad. I eased the key in along the padding and stitched the hole shut. I’d never make it past the metal detector at an airport security check point, but I could always take the blazer off and send it through X-ray.
I slept in my clothes, shoes on, feet crossed, lying flat on my back with the spread thrown over me for warmth.
When the phone rang at 8:00 a.m., I felt like I’d been electrocuted. My heart leaped from fifty beats per minute to an astounding hundred and forty with no intervening activity except the shriek I emitted. I snatched up the receiver, pulse banging in my throat. “What.”
“Oh, geez. I woke you. I feel bad. This is Ray.”
I swung my feet over to the side of the bed and sat up, rubbing my face with one hand to wake myself. “So I gathered. Where are you?”
“Down in the lobby. I have to talk to you. Mind if I come up?”
“Yes, I mind,” I said irritably. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking after you. I thought you should know what you’re dealing with.”
“I’ll meet you in the coffee shop in fifteen minutes.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
I flung myself back on the bed and lay there for a minute, trying to compose myself. Didn’t help much. My insides were churning with a low-level dread. I finally dragged myself into the dressing area, where I brushed my teeth and washed my face. I sniffed at my turtleneck, which was beginning to smell like something I’d been wearing for two days. I might have to break down and buy something new. If I sent all my clothes out to be cleaned and pressed, I’d be stuck in my red uniform until six that night. Meanwhile, if Laura Huckaby took off, I’d have to trail her across Texas looking like a parlor maid. I rubbed some hotel lotion on the relevant body parts, hoping the perfume would mask the ripe scent of unwashed garments.
I tucked the two room keys in my pocket — mine and the one I’d stolen from Laura Huckaby’s desk — and peered through the spy hole. At least Rawson wasn’t lurking in the corridor. I went down the fire stairs, avoiding the elevator, and found myself emerging on the far side of the lobby.
When I reached the hotel coffee shop, I paused in the doorway. Rawson wasn’t hard to spot. He was the only guy in there with a swollen green-and-purple face. He had a bandage across his nose, one black eye, a split lip, assorted cuts, and three fingers on his right hand bound together with tape. He drank his coffee with a spoon, possibly to spare himself the pain from broken, cracked, or missing teeth. His white T-shirt was so new, I could still see the package creases. Either he was buying his shirts a size too small or he was built better than I remembered. At least the short sleeves allowed me to admire his dragon tattoo.
I crossed the room and slid into the booth across from him. “When’d you get here?”
There were two menus on the table, and he passed me one. “Three-thirty in the morning. The plane was delayed because of fog. I picked up a rental car at the airport. I tried calling your room as soon as I got in, but the operator wouldn’t put me through, so I waited until eight.” His eyes were bloodshot from the battering, which gave his otherwise mild features a demonic cast. I could see that his left earlobe had been stitched back into place.
“You’re too considerate,” I said. “You have a room?”
“Yeah, 1006.” His smile flickered and faded. “Look, I know you got no particular reason to trust me, but it’s time to deal straight.”
“You might have done that two days ago before we got into this … whatever it is.”
The waitress appeared with a coffeepot in hand. She was the motherly sort, who looked as if she’d take in stray dogs and cats. Her frizzy gray hair was held in place by a hairnet, like a spiderweb across her head, and her gravelly voice suggested a lifelong affection for unfiltered cigarettes. She flicked a speculative look at Ray. “What happened to you?”
“I was in a wreck,” he said briefly. “You got any aspirin, I’ll leave you money in my will.”
“Let me check in the back. I can probably come up with something.” She turned to me. “How about some coffee? You look like you could use some.”
Mutely I held up my coffee cup, and she filled it to the brim. She set the coffeepot aside and reached for her order pad. “You ready to order or you want more time?”
“This is fine,” I said, indicating that the cup of coffee would suffice.
Ray spoke up. “Have some breakfast. My treat. It’s the least I can do.”
I looked back at the waitress. “In that case, make it coffee, orange juice, bacon, link sausage, three scrambled eggs, and some rye toast.”
He held up two fingers. “Same here.”
Once she’d departed, he leaned forward on his elbows. He looked like a light-heavyweight boxer the day after the championship went back to the other guy. “I don’t blame you for feeling sour, but honest … after the break-in at Johnny’s, I didn’t think he’d come back. I figured that was the end of it, so who was the wiser?”
“‘He,’ who?”
“I’m getting to that,” he said. “Oh, before I forget. You know the key Bucky took from Johnny’s safe?”
“Yes,” I said cautiously.
“You still have it?”
I hesitated for a flicker of a second, and then I lied on instinct. Why confide in him? So far he hadn’t told me anything. “I don’t have it with me, but I know where it is. Why?”
“I’ve been thinking about it. I mean, it has to be important. Why else would Johnny keep it in his safe?”
“I thought you knew. Didn’t you tell Charlie I was in danger because of it?”
“Danger? Not me. I never said that. I wonder where he got that idea?”
“I talked to Henry last night. He says that’s how you persuaded Charlie to tell you where I was. You said I was in danger and that’s why Charlie gave you the information.”
Ray shook his head, baffled. “He must have misunderstood,” he said. “Sure, I was looking for you, but I never said anything about danger. That’s odd. Old guy can’t hear. He might have got it mixed up.”
“Never mind. Just skip that. Let’s talk about something else.”
He glanced over toward the entrance to the restaurant, where a motley group of adolescent kids were beginning to collect. It must have been the same kids I’d seen running out on the road the day before. They must have been in town for some kind of track-and-field event. The noise level increased, and Ray’s voice went up to compete with the din. “You know, you really surprised me in my hotel room the other day.”