'Never mind that.'
'Weak stomach?'
'My stomach doesn't factor into it,' Stone said. 'You're tasked to do something, you do it, and I handle my end of the business. We decided early that, in everyone's best interests, compartmentalization would be our business model.'
'Yeah, we did.' Victor thought he might have to remind Palmer of that in the near future.
'Listen, Victor, I know Jewel's a hindrance, but Jill must be deleted because of her link to the old Madeline Scott. And don't forget she's gotten at least a glimpse of the new Madeline.'
Victor stopped with the chin rubbing. It had become so vigorous that it had left a red mark. 'Okay, Palmer. It makes sense. You're right, as usual.'
Just the kind of talk Stone wanted to hear. 'It's a business decision, Victor, pure and simple. It best serves our select client, and it best serves the company. Think of it that way, and it's our only reasonable option. It's important, of course, that Jill Clark never be found.'
'There's a place in New Jersey.'
'I don't want to know about it. That's your department, and I trust you can manage it as well as you always have.'
Stone deliberately hadn't mentioned Gloria again. Victor would be acting on his own.
'When do you want it done?' Victor asked.
'Soon,' Stone said.
'How?'
'That's totally up to you.'
Victor smiled.
69
The old man behind the desk at the Tumble Onn Inn watched the Louisiana state patrol car pull into the lot with its lights out. That made four cars.
'What're you waiting for?' he asked one of the troopers in the motel office.
There were two troopers in the office, making it feel half as big as it was. It seemed the only space to move around a little was behind the desk. That was where the old man, whose name was Ike, sat on a high stool that had a low but rigid bentwood back. He hauled his scrawny body up onto the stool now and then to ease his perpetually aching spine. It was better than standing and trying to make nice with the guests. Or with the cops. Ike had suffered in his life at the hands of the police and was wary of them.
Neither of the troopers bothered answering Ike. They were polite enough when they chose to speak. It was just that they didn't seem to think of him as someone worth answering.
Ike had misplaced his glasses, which made the two troopers look almost exactly alike. Burly six-footers with dark, flat-topped military haircuts and aggressive chins. One of the troopers had on some kind of cologne or aftershave that made Ike feel like sneezing.
Ike persisted. 'She's just one woman alone, an' she probably ain't the one you're lookin' for anyways.'
'You called us,' one of the troopers reminded Ike.
'Well, I figured she wasn't right somehow, the way she flew off the handle when I told her no.'
The other trooper smiled.
'Imagine a woman like that,' Ike said, 'offerin' to sell sex to an old guy like me. Hell, testosterwhatever's just a memory to me. These days, the only part of me that ain't stiff-'
'Don't tell us,' the trooper who'd smiled said.
'You might not believe it to look at me, but I'm eighty-six years old. And she just up an' bold as you please said she didn't have the money to pay for her room these past two days, an' would I take a-'
'We don't need to know that part,' the same trooper said. 'We only need to know if it's the woman we're looking for. The description you gave on the phone makes us suspect she is.'
'Lookin' for her for what?' Ike asked, raising his thick gray eyebrows, making his cadaverous face seem even thinner. 'You two guys want a-'
'Hey!' the other trooper said, raising a cautioning forefinger.
'I don't understand you guys,' Ike said. 'Hell, I just thought a patrol car'd swing by here and you'd take her in for vagrancy or tryin' to peddle her ass. Who is she, Bonnie Parker?' He fixed his bleary eyes on them. 'You two even know who Bonnie Parker was?'
'Owned a diner outside Slidell, if memory serves,' the trooper on the right said. 'Big redheaded woman, loud voice.'
'Different Bonnie Parker,' Ike said, eyeing the trooper with contempt. 'I guess you ain't heard of Bonnie and Clyde.'
'We know a lot of Clydes,' the other trooper said.
'John Dillinger?'
'He had something to do with Enron, right?'
'Christ on a stick! You call yourselves law enforcement officers?'
The troopers were both grinning. Ike, knowing he'd been had, glared at them and shifted position on his stool. 'They stayed here once, the real Bonnie and Clyde. Room number eighteen.'
Both troopers were staring dead eyed at him, not buying it.
One of them turned at the soft sound of gravel crunching out in the driveway. Another car arriving. This one had its lights off, too, but Ike could see it out the window and it wasn't a state police car. It was a sheriff's department car from nearby Pool County.
'That's him,' one of the troopers said.
'Who?' Ike asked.
He didn't think they were going to answer him. Then the nearest trooper said, 'The only one of us here other'n you who's seen Mary Smith.'
'An' she offered me a-'
'Forget that part of it,' said the trooper farthest away.
The other trooper winked. 'Excuse my partner. He's kind of a prude. And we don't think the woman really is Mary Smith.'
'Don't make me no never mind,' Ike said. 'That's the name she signed in under. Said her husband'd be here the end of the week with some money, an' she'd pay me cash when she checked out.'
'That before or after you got that offer of sex?'
'After. She went to cryin' when I turned her down. Then she gave me the husband story.'
'And you believed her, even though she signed in as Mary Smith?'
'I pretended to. She's a sweetie. An' she seemed all frazzled an' I felt sorry for her. Thought she might have some kinda mental or drug problem an' she should be in the hands of the authorities. Anyways, I seen more Smiths sign in here than you can imagine.'
'I can imagine a lot of Smiths,' said the trooper farthest from the desk.
'Let's go,' said his partner. To Ike: 'Just sit tight here, old fella, and we'll finish our business and you can go back to that girlie magazine you've been reading.'
Ike started. He'd thought he'd concealed Bizarre Desires under People on the table behind the desk. Now he saw that People had been knocked sideways and Bizarre Desires was plainly visible. He must have brushed up against the table.
'Hell, I got no idea where that came from. I used to read Playboy years ago.'
But the troopers were gone. It was amazing how quickly and quietly they'd moved, for such big men. They hadn't let the screen door slam behind them. Ike hadn't even heard the stretched-out spring squeal the way it usually did when the door opened and closed. They were here; they were gone.
Ike went back to his magazine, but he couldn't read it or even focus on the photographs.
Too much going on outside.
