'I'm sick of you, Spenser. You got that? I see you again and I'm going to fucking beat you to fucking death.'
My head was clearing. I steadied against the railing as my legs re solidified and my knees unbuckled. Fighting with Marty Anaheim wasn't going to help me figure out what was going on.
I said, 'Not here, Marty. Not now.'
He extended his arm straight out from the shoulder and pointed his finger at me.
'You been warned,' he said and turned and stomped back toward the emerald palace.
I glanced down the overpass in the other direction. The little guy with the Panama hat was leaning on the railing looking at me and shaking his head. I felt my cheekbone. It was hot and already puffy. I had learned nothing and gotten popped on the kisser in the process. I was willing to take one on the chops now and then if it furthered my cause. I wasn't sure my cause had been furthered.
But Marty would probably be overconfident next time. Which was a good thing. And Hawk would be amused. No cloud without a silver lining.
The little guy strolled down the walkway and tucked a small business card into my shirt pocket.
'Take a pretty good punch,' he said.
'Yeah, it's one of my best things, but I try not to do it too often.'
'I'm in business out here,' he said.
'You ever need some work done, gimme a call.'
'You figure I need help?' I said.
The little guy shrugged.
'I know I need business,' he said, and strolled off toward the MGM Grand.
CHAPTER 28
When I got back to the hotel Hawk and Bibi were sitting in my room.
'Anthony's gone,' Hawk said.
'Tell me about it,' I said.
'Went in the bedroom to lie down,' he said.
'Turned on the television, left the door ajar.
'Bout twenty minutes ago she went in to use the bathroom. He was gone. Chain off the hall door from the bedroom. I could look for him or I could stay with her.'
Bibi sat forward on the front edge of one of the easy chairs near Hawk.
'Well, he didn't hire us to keep him in,' I said.
'What I thought.'
'He got any money left?' I said to Bibi.
She shook her head.
'He took ours,' she said.
'Ours?'
'We had five thousand put aside, win or lose, to take us out of here, and give us a start. I had it in my makeup case. It's gone.'
'Anything else?'
Bibi shook her head.
'He was going to be the one,' Bibi said. Her voice was quiet.
There was no hint of tears behind it this time.
'He was going to be the one got me out of it, away from Marty. Find some town on the Oregon coast, start a store or something. Bookstore, maybe. I like books. He was going to bust The Mirage and then we were going to go to Oregon and open a bookstore.'
'You have any money left?'
She shook her head again. Her face was still, her eyes were empty. If she felt anything it showed only in the slump of her shoulders as she sat on the edge of the chair.
'I was going to run it, read up all the new books, tell people when they came in what was good. Get a cat maybe, a store cat, let him sleep on the books in the window. You know how they stretch when they wake up and sort of slide around?'
'You got a plan?' I said.
'Even if he lost everything,' she said softly, as if I hadn't spoken, 'we had the five thousand. That was my idea. I kind of knew what Anthony was, and I wanted some money to be mine so he wouldn't lose it, and we could at least get to Oregon. I could maybe get some waitress work. I know he wouldn't work, not regular work. But if I got to Oregon, it wouldn't matter so much about him, then.'
'You go back to Boston, Marty'll find you,' I said.
