There was a problem. In order for me to talk to Chance I had to find him, and she couldn't tell me how to do it.
'I don't know where he lives,' she said. 'Nobody does.'
'Nobody?'
'None of his girls. That's the big guessing game if a couple of us should happen to be together and he's not in the room. Trying to guess where Chance lives. One night I remember this girl Sunny and I were together and we were just goofing, coming up with one outrageous idea after another. Like he lives in this tenement inHarlem with his crippled mother, or he has this mansion in Sugar Hill, or he has a ranch house in the suburbs and commutes. Or he keeps a couple of suitcases in his car and lives out of them, just sleeping a couple hours a night at one of our apartments.' She thought a moment. 'Except he never sleeps when he's with me. If we do go to bed he'll just lie there afterward for a little while and then he's up and dressed and out. He said once he can't sleep if there's another person in the room.'
'Suppose you have to get in touch with him?'
'There's a number to call. But it's an answering service. You can call the number any time, twenty-four hours a day, and there's always an operator that answers. He always checks in with his service. If we're out or something, he'll check in with them every thirty minutes, every hour.'
She gave me the number and I wrote it in my notebook. I asked her where he garaged his car. She didn't know. Did she remember the car's license number?
She shook her head. 'I never notice things like that. His car is a Cadillac.'
'There's a surprise. Where does he hang out?'
'I don't know. If I want to reach him I leave a message. I don't go out looking for him. You mean is there a regular bar he drinks in?
There's a lot of places he'll go sometimes, but nothing regular.'
'What kind of things does he do?'
'What do you mean?'
'Does he go to ball games? Does he gamble? What does he do with himself?'
She considered the question. 'He does different things,' she said.
'What do you mean?'
'Depending who he's with. I like to go to jazz clubs so if he's with me that's where we'll go. I'm the one he calls if he's looking for that kind of an evening. There's another girl, I don't even know her, but they go to concerts. You know, classical music. Carnegie Hall and stuff. Another girl, Sunny, digs sports, and he'll take her to ball games.'
'How many girls has he got?'
'I don't know. There's Sunny andNan and the girl who likes classical music. Maybe there's one or two others. Maybe more. Chance is very private, you know? He keeps things to himself.'
'The only name you've got for him is Chance?'
'That's right.'
'You've been with him, what, three years? And you've got half a name and no address and the number of his answering service.'
She looked down at her hands.
'How does he pick up the money?'
'From me, you mean? Sometimes he'll come by for it.'
'Does he call first?'
'Not necessarily. Sometimes. Or he'll call and tell me to bring it to him. At a coffee shop or a bar or something, or to be on a certain corner and he'll pick me up.'
'You give him everything you make?'
A nod. 'He found me my apartment, he pays the rent, the phone, all the bills. We'll shop for my clothes and he'll pay. He likes picking out my clothes. I give him what I make and he gives me back some, you know, for walking-around money.'
'You don't hold anything out?'
'Sure I do. How do you think I got the thousand dollars? But it's funny, I don't hold out much.'
The place was filling up with office workers by the time she left.
By then she'd had enough coffee and switched to white wine. She had one glass of the wine and left half of it. I stayed with black coffee. I had her address and phone in my notebook along with Chance's answering service, but I didn't have a whole lot more than that.
On the other hand, how much did I need? Sooner or later I would get hold of him, and when I did I would talk to him, and if it broke right I'd throw a bigger scare into him than he'd managed to throw into Kim.
And if not, well, I still had five hundred dollars more than I had when I woke up that morning.
After she left I finished my coffee and cracked one of her hundreds to pay my tab. Armstrong's is onNinth Avenue between Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth, and my hotel is around the corner onFifty-seventh Street . I went to it, checked the desk for mail and messages, then called Chance's service from the pay phone in the lobby. A woman answered on the third ring, repeating the four final digits of the number and asking if she could help me.
