'She called both numbers,' I said.
'Did she. And what did you say her name was?'
'Paula Hoeldtke.'
'And she called this number and the store?'
'My records may be wrong,' I said. She was still asking questions when I broke the connection.
I walked to the rooming house on Fifty-fourth Street. Halfway there a kid in jeans with a scraggly goatee asked me for spare change.
He had the wasted look of a speed freak. Some of the crack addicts get that look. I gave him all my quarters. 'Hey, thanks!' he called after me.
'You're beautiful, man.'
When Flo came to the door I apologized for bothering her. She said it was no bother. I asked if Georgia Price was in.
'I'm sure I don't know,' she said. 'Didn't you get to talk to her yet?
Though I don't know what help she
could be. I couldn't hardly rent her the room before Paula was out of it, so how would she know her?'
'I spoke to her. I'd like to talk to her again.'
She gestured toward the staircase. I walked up a flight, stood in front of the door that had been Paula's.
There was music playing within, with an insistent if not infectious beat. I knocked, but I wasn't sure she could hear me over the noise. I went to knock again when the door opened.
Georgia Price was wearing a leotard, and her forehead glowed with perspiration. I guess she had been dancing, practicing steps or something. She looked at me, and her eyes widened when she placed me.
She took an involuntary step backward and I followed her into the room. She started to say something, then stopped and went to turn off the music. She turned back to me, and she looked scared and guilty. I didn't think she had much cause for either emotion, but I decided to press.
I said, 'You're from Tallahassee, aren't you?'
'Just outside.'
'Price is a stage name. Your real name is Prysocki.'
'How did you—'
'There was a phone here when you moved in. It hadn't been disconnected.'
'I didn't know I wasn't supposed to use it. I thought the phone came with the room, like a hotel or something. I didn't know.'
'So you called home, and you called your father at his store.'
She nodded. She looked terribly young, and scared to death. 'I'll pay for the calls,' she said. 'I didn't realize, I thought I would get a bill or something. And then I couldn't get a phone installed right away, they couldn't send someone to connect it until Monday, so I waited until then to have it disconnected.
When the installer came he just hooked the same phone up, but with a different number so I wouldn't get any of her calls. I swear I didn't mean to do anything wrong.'
'You didn't do anything wrong,' I said.
'I'll be happy to pay for the calls.'
'Don't worry about the calls. You were the one who ordered the phone disconnected?'
'Yes, was that wrong? I mean, she wasn't living here, so—'
'That was the right thing for you to do,' I told her. 'I'm not concerned about a couple of free phone calls. I'm just trying to find a girl who dropped out of sight.'
'I know, but—'
'So you don't have to be afraid of anything. You're not going to get in trouble.'
'Well, I didn't exactly think I was going to get in trouble, but—'
'Was there an answering machine hooked up to the phone, Georgia? A telephone answering machine?'
Her eyes darted involuntarily to the bedside table, where an answering machine stood alongside a telephone.
'I would have given it back when you were here before,' she said.
'If I even thought of it. But you just asked me a couple of quick questions, what was in the room and did I know Paula and did anybody come looking for her after I moved in, and by the time I remembered the machine you were gone. I didn't mean to keep it, only I didn't know what else to do with it. It was here.'
'That's all right.'
'So I used it. I was going to have to buy one, and this one was already here. I was just going to use it until I could afford to buy one of my own. I want to get one with a remote, so you can call from another phone and get your messages off it. This one doesn't have that feature.
But for the time being it's okay.
