experience.
Twenty minutes after four we pulled off the highway into the Ho Jo, and I used the phone in my room to call Karen Lloyd at the bank. She said, 'Charlie called.' Her voice was low, as if Joyce Steuben might be outside the door, listening.
'I thought he might.'
'He was livid. He told me I shouldn't have brought you in.'
I said, 'It's not anything we didn't expect, but we had to try. Did you print out a record of the transactions for me?'
'Yes. I have them here.'
'Okay. I need to see them.'
'Don't come to the bank.' There was a pause, as if she had to think through the variables and find the best one. 'Come to the house, say at seven-thirty. We'll be finished with dinner then and Toby will be doing his homework. Is that all right?'
'Fine.'
There was another pause and then she said, 'Thank you for trying.'
'Don't mention it.'
I put down the phone and looked at Pike. 'We'll go out to her place at seven-thirty.'
Pike nodded, then went out to the lobby and checked in, taking one of the rooms adjoining mine. I stood in the door and watched him bring in an olive-green Marine Corps duffel bag and a long metal gun case that looked like something for a Vox guitar. Anyone saw it, they'd think Pike played bass for Lou Reed. After he was settled he came back into my room and we looked at each other. It was four-forty-five. He said, 'Anything around here to do until seven?'
'Nope.'
'Any good places to eat?'
I shook my head.
Pike looked out of my window down onto the parking lot and crossed his arms. 'Well,' he said. 'We didn't have it this good in Southeast Asia.'
Nothing like support from your friends.
At five o'clock we went down to the bar and drank beer, then enjoyed an early dinner in the restaurant. I had a very nice chicken-fried steak. Pike had lentil soup and a large mixed vegetable salad and four slices of whole- wheat toast and a thick wedge of Jarlsberg cheese. Vegetarian.
The female bartender who was thinking about moving to California came in from the bar and kidded around with us until two older couples in heavy coats and loud shirts walked in and then she had to go back to the bar. The two older couples didn't eat. They just drank.
After a while we bought four beers to go and took them back to my room and watched the local New York news. The weather forecast said that the skies would continue to clear for the next few days, but that then another front would move down from Canada bringing cold and snow. The sports report was fine, but the hard news stories were mostly about subways and city strikes and local personalities and things indigenous to New York. They seemed alien and sort of empty.
Midway through the newscast, a male anchor with a lantern jaw and a rough-hewn face and squinty eyes reported a federal study that concluded that the L.A. basin had the dirtiest air in the country. He grinned when he said it. The black female co-anchor grinned, too, and reported a corollary story that Angelenos drive more than urbanites in any other major American city. The jut-jawed anchor grinned even harder and said that maybe Los Angeles wouldn't have such a bad smog problem if they put in a subway to the beach. That got a big laugh from everybody. Especially the weatherman.
Joe Pike said, 'Assholes.'
I turned off the television.
It was ten minutes before six.
We sat and stared, neither of us saying much, and then Joe Pike went into his room. After a while I heard his water running. I took off my clothes and did a little yoga, stretching to warm myself, then working through the cobra, and the locust, and the wheel pose, but I couldn't concentrate. I tried doing push-ups and sit-ups instead, but with no better luck. I kept losing count. After a while I got off the floor and called the local news station in New York and told a young woman that I wanted to speak to the jut-jawed anchor. When the young woman asked me why, I said that I wanted to call him a prick. She wouldn't put me through.
Pike stayed in his room and I stayed in mine, and at twenty minutes after seven we went down to the Taurus and drove to Karen Lloyd's.
Tough guys like me never miss home.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The air was crisp and cold and the sky was a velvety black as we parked in Karen Lloyd's drive and walked up to the door. I rang the bell and Karen Lloyd answered. When she saw Joe Pike, she said, 'Oh.'
I said, 'Karen Lloyd, this is Joe Pike. Joe, this is Karen Lloyd. Joe is my partner. He owns the agency with me.' Dark, and he still wore the glasses.
Pike said that he was pleased to meet her. Karen looked uneasy but she said hello. Another person invading her life.
The three of us went into the dining room. There was a 9 X 12 manila envelope on the table and a glass of white wine next to it. Most of the wine was gone. I said, 'Where's Toby?'
'In his room, doing homework. I told him that people were coming and that I had work to do. He has his radio on. He won't be able to hear us.'
'All right.'
Karen picked up the 9x12, handed it to me, then picked up the wineglass. 'This is what I had in the computer.'
'Okay.'
Pike and I took off our jackets. When Pike took off his jacket, Karen leaned forward and made a little sound like
Pike had two bright red arrows tattooed on the outside of each deltoid when he was in Vietnam. They pointed forward, and looked like the kind of red arrows you see on jet intakes or rocket nozzles or other dangerous things. With the jacket off and Pike in a sweatshirt with no sleeves, you could see the tattoos as clearly as if neon tubes had been laid beneath his skin. Karen looked away, not wanting him to catch her staring. People do that.
The orange and white cat came in from the hall, walked over to Pike, and rubbed against his ankles. Pike bent down and held his fingers out. The cat began to buzz. Karen said, 'Do you like cats, Mr. Pike?'
Pike nodded.
She said, 'His name is Tigger.'
Pike nodded once, then stood and walked into the kitchen. Karen said, 'Excuse me, the bathroom isn't that way.'
Pike went through the door without looking back.
I said, 'He isn't looking for the bath. He's looking for how someone might get into your home, or get out, and for where they might hide while they are within it.'
She blinked at me.
'It's one of his more colorful habits.'
The back door opened and Pike went outside. Karen went to the window and tried to look out at him, but she couldn't see out of the light and into the darkness. No one ever can. 'What a strange man.'
'Perhaps, but he is someone that you want on your side. He will never lie to you, and he will give you every piece of himself.'
She looked doubtful. 'Has he been your partner for a long time?'
