'People tend to go back to the same hotel.'
'Even if he is you don't know what name.'
'Why would he use a fake one?' I said.
'Beats me,' Bernie said, and hung up.
In ten minutes Bernie called back.
'Marty'll be there at one,' he said.
'Okay,' I said.
I hung up the phone and said to Bibi, 'Come on, let's collect Anthony.'
She looked at her watch.
'He may still be in bed.'
'Okay, we'll start there. You knock on his door, and stand where he can see you through the peephole. When you hear him start to take the chain bolt off, step out of the way.'
'What are you going to do?' Bibi said.
'Reason with him.'
We went up four floors from my room and found 1415 at the other end of the corridor. I stood against the wall to one side of the door, the side the doorknob was on. Bibi rang the bell. There was no movement. She rang it again. A voice said something indistinguishable. Then silence. Then the voice again. Still indistinguishable. Then the sound of the chain being removed. Bibi stepped to the other side of the door, and when it opened, I rolled off the wall and stepped through it, and hit him with a left hook and he staggered back into the room and sat abruptly on the bed. I took Bibi's arm and pulled her with me into the room, and shut the door.
Anthony's eyes shifted toward the night table and I took a long step past him and picked up a.380 Colt off the table and put it in my coat pocket.
'What the fuck are you doing?' Anthony said.
'Solving this case,' I said.
'What case?'
'This one,' I said.
'I don't know what you're talking about,' he said.
'Why the fuck'd you hit me?'
'Get your attention,' I said.
He was wearing his bathrobe and the right side of his jaw where I'd punched him was beginning to puff.
'Put some clothes on,' I said.
'We're going out.'
'What are you, nuts? You can't come in here and order me around, for cris sake 'That's what the punch was for,' I said.
'To remind you that I can come in here and order you around. Get dressed.'
'Bibi, honey, this is crazy, what's going on?'
'You have to do what he says, Anthony.'
I gave him a light pat on the cheek.
'Move it, Anthony, any reason to pop you again is a good reason.'
Anthony said 'For cris sake again but he went to the back of a chair where his pants were, turned his back modestly, took off the robe, and slipped into the pants. When he went to the bathroom, I went with him and watched him splash water on his face and comb his hair, and came back with him while he took a clean white-on white shirt out of the top bureau drawer and put it on. He buttoned the shirt up and turned back the cuffs and tucked the tail inside his stretch waistband. There were no belt loops on his pants.
'Where we going?' he said.
He was putting on his wristwatch.
'We're having a meeting with Marty Anaheim.'
He froze. His mouth opened but he didn't speak. His eyes shifted to Bibi. She nodded.
'He'll kill me,' Anthony said and his voice was scratchy.
'He'll kill Bibi too.'
'No,' I said.
'He won't.'
'Yeah, he will, you don't know. He will kill me.'
'I won't let him,' I said.
'Come on, we need to get going.'
'Why don't we call the cops?' he said.
