'You all right in this?' I said to her.
'No,' she said.
'All I can do is sit here and wait for the men to do whatever they'll do. How all-right is that?'
'We can get you out of this,' I said.
'Have you on a plane out of here in an hour.'
'To where?' she said.
I didn't answer. I knew the question was rhetorical.
'She stays,' Anthony said.
'She does what she wants to,' I said.
'I'll stay,' Bibi said.
Her voice was small and nearly empty. The words were its only content. I nodded.
'Okay,' I said.
'Sit tight. No one knows quite where you are.
There's two doors. This one and the one in the bedroom. Leave the door in the bedroom chained and bolted. Use the living room door.
Check everybody through the peephole. No room service. No messages. No housekeeping services. Nobody but me or Hawk. There's trouble call hotel security.'
'You don't even know where his room is,' Anthony said.
'Maybe he's not even staying here, how you going to find him?'
'He'll find me,' I said.
'Technically, he's still my client.'
'You going to sell me out to Julius,' Anthony said. His voice was shrill.
'You gonna leave me here and sell me out, like a goddamned sitting duck?'
'You could call the cops,' I said.
'You guys are scared,' Anthony said.
'And you won't admit it.
That's the fucking problem, isn't it? You're yellow.'
'Maybe we could shoot him,' Hawk said, 'and go get ten thousand from Julius.'
'Hell,' I said, 'we could double-dip. Get ten from Julius, get ten from Marty.'
'Hey,' Anthony said.
'Don't kid around, you know. This is a fucking life-or-death deal.'
'Ain't it always,' I said.
I patted Bibi's knee again and headed for the door.
'We'll be in touch,' I said.
CHAPTER 25
When Hawk and I came into my room, I thought the air-conditioned stillness hinted at the memory of Susan's perfume, but maybe it was nostalgia. The message light was flashing on my phone.
'A Mr. Ventura called, please call him in his room.'
Hawk smiled and shot me with his forefinger.
Julius had several rooms in another wing, without a view of the volcano. I wondered if he knew he was not A list. Hard to be sure.
There might be people closer to the volcano than I, who thought I wasn't A list. His suite was bigger than mine, though it was smaller than Delaware. A fat guy named Steve, whom I knew slightly, let us into the living room. He was in his shirtsleeves and had a Glock 9mm on his right hip. There were four other men in the living room, all in shirtsleeves, all with guns. One of them was Jackie, Shirley's driver. I nodded at him. He nodded back. A pump shotgun lay across a hassock near the couch. The remnants of lunch littered the coffee table and the bar top, and spilled off the rollaway room service table. A bottle of red wine stood on an end table.
'Julius was looking for us,' I said.
Hawk stepped to the side of the doorway and leaned on the wall again. There was nothing specific about the way he leaned but somehow it projected menace.
'He's in with the missus,' Steve said.
'She's pretty shook up about Shirley.'
'Probably is,' I said.
'Can you let him know we're here?'
