“ It won’t take that long. Have a drink in the bar. By the time you finish the room will be ready.”
Five minutes later he was drinking a rum and coke in the restaurant bar when he saw Maria out by the pool, having lunch with a man. He slow sipped his drink and started drumming his fingers on the bar. So that’s why she’d left him, she was seeing someone else. He wondered how long it had been going on and why he hadn’t been able to see it.
“ Another?” the bartender asked, jerking Earl’s attention away from the couple on the other side of the window.
“ No, I’ve gotta go see if my room is ready.” He didn’t know what kind of man shaved his head, but he sure planned on finding out.
Fifteen minutes later he was back in the restaurant, the money safely up in the room, and this time he was sitting at a table instead of the bar by the window, and he was staring at his wife and her man friend. He wanted to squeeze the bastard till he popped.
“ What joo having?” Earl turned away from the scene outside and faced a young waitress. She was short, dark, and obviously Puerto Rican.
“ A rum and coke,” he said.
“ Joo know Kojack?”
“ The ugly one with the shaved head?”
“ Sure, him.”
“ Never seen him before,” Earl said. “Who is he?”
“ He’s American, I heard the accent.”
“ Really?” Earl said. How long had Maria known the man? “And the woman?” Earl asked. “She’s a looker.”
“ She’s staying solo. I think she’s a stewardess.”
“ Can I have my check?” The voice was melodic and belonged to a stunning woman at the next table. Normally Earl would have noticed her first thing, but he’d been so caught up with the idea of Maria and another man that he’d missed her completely.
“ Would you like another, ma’am?” Earl offered, ever the gentleman.
“ No thanks, I have to get back to work,” the woman said. Her blue eyes twinkled, clear as the South Texas ocean, and her smile promised hidden delights.
“ Maybe I’ll see you again,” he said. He couldn’t help himself. When he saw a pretty woman he had to flirt, and if she was receptive he had to give chase.
“ Maybe,” she said. “I come here a lot.” She handed the waitress a blue bill. “Keep the change, Elena,” she said.
“ What did you pay with?” Earl asked.
“ TT hundred dollar bill.”
“ How much is it worth?” Earl asked, a funny feeling rising in his stomach.
“ About eighteen dollars US,” she said. “There’s about six TT per US dollar.”
“ Shit.” He felt dumber than a roadkilled skunk.
“ Why?” she asked.
“ I paid the cab driver with green money.”
“ He must have been very pleased,” she said.
“ He was smiling,” Earl laughed. Then he added, “Name’s Earl Lawson.”
“ Dani, Dani Street,” the woman said, holding out her hand. “Are you staying here at the Hilton?”
“ Sure am.” Earl beamed, thinking he was making headway.
“ Then maybe we really will see each other again.” She smiled and took her hand back. He watched her shapely walk till she was out of the restaurant. When she was out the door he turned his attention back toward the pool, but Maria and her boyfriend were gone.
He spent another twenty minutes nursing three rum and cokes. Normally he was a scotch and soda man, but he was in the Caribbean and rum seemed to be the drink of choice. At first he didn’t like the sweet taste of the Coca Cola, but he found he was warming up to it.
“ Joo going for another?”
“ I’d sure like to, but then I’d follow it with another, then another, and you know how that goes.”
“ Sure do.”
“ So I guess I’d better pay and get on my way.”
“ Joo can sign for it, if you’re staying in the hotel.”
Five minutes later he opened the door and instantly grabbed for a gun that wasn’t there.
“ Stay calm, Earl, and stay alive,” Dani Street said. He relaxed his hand and let it fall to his side. She was sitting at the desk by the window. Her handbag was on it and a chrome plated thirty-eight police special was sitting next to the purse. She was still wearing her smile and by the tone of her voice he knew she could pick up the gun and use it before he got close to her.
“ What’s going on?” he said, trying to sound calm. His money was piled on the center of the bed, still wrapped in ten thousand dollar packets.
“ There’s more going on than you could possibly understand,” she said.
Dani looked at Earl’s strong jaw. His deeply tanned face looked like it belonged on a movie poster. He was a man used to the sun. His eyes bore into her, but he was restraining himself. She took in the cut above his eye and the bruise on his chin. He was no stranger to violence. He was going to be perfect, she just knew it. She wanted someone else to pull the trigger on this one. The job was too close to home.
“ Sit down, Sheriff.” He stared at the gun on the desk and she could see the calculations going on in his head. “Try it.”
“ I been around a long time. I know when to fish and when to cut bait. I’ll sit and see what you have to say.”
“ You’re not as dumb as you look, Earl,” Dani said.
“ It was my questions about the man with the shaved head, wasn’t it? You were watching him, too?”
“ In a way,” Dani said. “You were kind of clumsy.”
“ I got my way of doing things,” Earl said.
“ The money is counterfeit,” Dani said.
“ What?” Earl grabbed a bundle from the stack. He pulled a bill out and looked at it against the light. “Looks okay to me,” he said, but she saw his furrowed brow and his shaking fingers.
“ The serial numbers are all the same, Earl, and the paper is wrong. They have two dollar marking pens all over the world that will tell even the most unaware kid behind a register that you’re passing bad money. You might as well burn it.”
He peeled off another bill and compared them. “Shit,” he said.
“ But you have bigger problems,” Dani said.
“ I can’t wait to hear.”
“ The manager told me you were a big tipper, when he figures out you tipped him with funny money he’ll be up here and after your balls.”
“ Shit,” Earl said.
“ You’ll have to go down and make it right,” Dani said, opening her handbag. She pulled out a roll of hundreds and counted out twenty bills. “Here’s two thousand. When you buy back your bad money give the man an extra two hundred. That should satisfy him and it’ll leave you an extra thousand for walking around money.”
She got up and handed him the money. She left the gun next to the handbag on the desk.
“ You’re awful sure of yourself,” Earl said.
“ You’re not a stupid man, you’re curious,” Dani said.
“ I’m curious,” Earl said.
“ Stick with me and I’ll turn that pile of paper on the bed into the real thing. You can leave Trinidad a wealthy man.”
“ I’d like that,” Earl said, as Dani turned her back to him and moved back to the desk. “I’d like that a lot.”
