“This ain’t no garage,” he said.
“Even if it was it wouldn’t help me, ’cause I ain’t got no money for a mechanic,” I said, filling my mouth with words and self-deprecation.
“So what you want from me?” George asked sensibly.
“I wanna call my cousin,” I replied. “He come over and gimme a jump or whatever.”
“There ain’t no phone here for you,” he said. “Phone for guests or people who work here.”
“I know you got a phone at your station, man. I’ll give you a dollar and you can dial the number yourself.”
Dollar was the magic word in porter/valet/waiter language. A dollar was ten tips. A dollar bought six packs of cigarettes, enough to last a week if you didn’t have any broke friends.
George snuck me into a little cubby where he had a chair, a desk, and a phone. I fed him Milo Sweet’s number. He dialed and then handed me the receiver.
“Sweet’s,” Loretta Kuroko said pleasantly.
“You sayin’ that in my ear almost makes everything else okay,” I said.
“Hold on.” Her reply was cold and curt. I wondered if she was insulted somehow by my friendliness. I knew they didn’t have another line that she needed to answer.
“Paris,” Fearless said into the phone.
“You okay, Fearless?”
“Yeah, yeah. When the detective took off, the other cops just let me walk. I looked for you and then figured that you came here, so I did too. I’m sorry, Paris, I really am.”
“About what?”
“The bond.”
“They took it?”
“Naw. The girl saw the cops behind you. She told me an’ I saw ’em too. She said that she could hide the bond in the linin’a her purse and so I give it to her —”
“I know what happened after that,” I said.
George tapped on the door, indicating that my time was up.
“Listen, Fearless,” I whispered. “I’m at a hotel called the Pine Grove up on Shatto. I don’t know how long I’ll be here, so you sit tight until I call back.”
“You got it.”
I cut the connection with my finger and said in a slightly louder tone, “Well when is she comin’ in?… No?… Shit!” Then I hung up the phone.
I opened the door, looked at George, and said, “Never let one’a your relations marry a woman think she’s a beauty queen.” I gave him the dollar and went back across the street.
23
I PUT UP the hood on Layla’s pink Packard and stood behind it, pretending to be working on the engine. From there I could watch the front of the hotel without causing too much concern in the staff or the chance police cruiser. I had to wait about an hour before Latham and Love came out. They were escorted by a tall white man in a gray suit.
They all spoke at the curb while the valet ran to retrieve Latham’s car. Latham and the man clasped hands, then the man took both of Elana’s hands in his and said something that was meant to be sincere. It was odd to see a black woman so well treated at a fancy Hollywood hotel. I didn’t even think that a police detective had the clout to make a place like that serve a Negro. That made me wonder about the man they were talking to. But there was no time for thinking. I jumped in my car and made a U-turn. By the time Latham and Elana were ready to go, I was too.
The ride wasn’t very far. They drove toward the south side of downtown; a rougher neighborhood with motels instead of hotels, hot dog stands instead of fine restaurants.
They pulled into a motel call Las Palmas on Adams. Latham and Elana went into the main office together. He didn’t want to let her out of his reach. I wondered if he knew about the bond in her purse.
After they took room 12B on the second floor of the open-air two-tiered motel, I went to call Fearless at a pay
