overwhelmed. It was possible that she subscribed to the same theory he did, that people were most attracted to the person already taken. When he and Sandy had legitimized each other for a few minutes, they had parted with an affectionate hug and found other partners.
Sonia Rivers had seemed to Carver to be more promising. She didn’t have that protective wall of self- satisfaction that Sandy had. She was not at ease in bars trying to meet men. The first night he had met her, he had caught an expression now and then on her face that he interpreted as a kind of astonishment at finding herself in a club.
He had approached her in a quiet moment while a band was leaving and the DJ was getting set up, and asked if he could buy her a drink.
“Gee, I don’t think so, thanks.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want one.”
“It’s not really about wanting the actual drink. It can be a soft drink. No alcohol. It can be water, and you don’t have to swallow any of it. A drink is symbolic.”
“Of what?”
“That you’re willing to hang out with me for a bit and talk and stuff.”
“And stuff?”
“I’m not promising stuff. That’s only if we like each other. Otherwise, just a friendly chat, and no stuff. If the issue is me and not the drink, you say, ‘Get lost.’ Now, would you like a drink?”
“I feel funny about it, to tell you the truth.”
“Why?”
“I don’t want to look like a woman who goes to bars to pick up men.”
“Isn’t that why you’re here?”
“Not really.” She considered. “But I guess that’s one way to look at it.”
“What’s another way?”
“That I’m here to have fun.”
“Great,” he said. “Let’s have some fun. Do you have any board games? A pinata?”
“I’m sort of starting to see your point. The fun I was thinking of does involve meeting a guy. So, okay, let’s see about that fun. Do you dance?”
“Tonight I do.”
They had fun that night. They danced for a while. Then he took her to the Pacific Dining Car for a late-night dinner, and then back out to the clubs. He had always favored champagne for late-night excursions because it was less debilitating than distilled liquor, and since he was buying champagne for a woman, it had to be good champagne. He had not wanted to leave a credit history in the name Joe Carver because of the Storronos, so he had to spend cash. So he supposed he had been guilty of flashing a lot of cash in front of her like a bank robber. That was certainly where those accusations had come from. She hadn’t imagined it. But there was an incredible distance between spending a lot of cash and being a robber, and he wondered what he had done to make her take that leap.
That night while they were alone in the relative quiet of the all-night restaurant, she had asked him lots of questions and he had answered them more or less truthfully. He had mentioned that he had come to Los Angeles only a month earlier. So that had supplied the other half of the story. He was a man from elsewhere who had arrived a month ago and was around town spending lots of cash. But that was all.
He got into his car and drove. He was going to find Sonia Rivers and see what he could do to correct her first impression of him. Telling Kapak he hadn’t robbed him hadn’t worked. Maybe getting the two women who had implicated him to change their minds might add some credibility to his denials. If that didn’t work, somebody was going to end up dying.
21
MANCO KAPAK AWOKE in Sherri Wynn’s bedroom and then remembered the hospital. He’d had a heart attack—or maybe he hadn’t, but he’d had something. He walked carefully into the bathroom to urinate. His prostate gland was enlarged—not unusually so for his age, his doctor said—and he was used to getting up from sleep like this. He moved slowly and silently to keep from waking Sherri. This time the darkness was already being replaced by half-light, so he could see some of the obstacles he had missed in the dark.
He stepped into the bathroom, and when he turned to close the door, he saw his naked reflection in the mirror on the medicine cabinet. It was a terrible reminder.
While he was with Sherri early in the evening, he had somehow fallen into imagining himself as he had been when he was young. How could he have forgotten what time had done to him? He had been, in his own mind, a fit and distinguished-looking man in middle age. He wasn’t that anymore at all. He was an old animal that was limping toward death. In the dark, with the help of the Armagnac, he had simply forgotten. But his heart had remembered how old he was.
Kapak felt an overwhelming urge to get dressed, to cover himself. When they had made love it had been in the dark, so she had probably not really seen him. Maybe he didn’t have to leave her with the memory of his body. He sneaked into the bedroom and began to gather his clothes from the floor.
Sherri stirred. “What are you doing?”
He faced away from her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up. I was just getting my clothes off the floor.”
“Come back to bed. It’s too early.”
“I don’t want my clothes to be wrinkled.”
“You’ve just been through a big ordeal. You shouldn’t be doing things like this.” She got up out of bed, still naked. She picked up his shirt and his pants, walked to the closet, took down two hangers, and hung them. “There.” She came up behind him, put her arms around him, and kissed the back of his neck. “Come lie down with me. There’s nothing you have to do at this hour. We’ll get some more sleep and I’ll make you a nice breakfast.”
She slipped around him and tugged the sport coat he was holding in front of him, but he didn’t let go.
“I get it. You’re shy.”
“Don’t be silly.”
She pressed her body against the coat and spoke with her lips against his cheek. “I’ve seen everything there is to see, really close up, if you remember. And I think you look just fine. You’re not twenty anymore. Neither am I. I’ve had my own problems with that over the years, but not last night. I feel comfortable with you, and I don’t want to put clothes on now, and I don’t want you to, either. Come on.”
He let the coat drop and sat on the bed. In a moment they were lying on the bed together in a gentle embrace. “It would have hurt me if you sneaked away at dawn. Don’t worry. I can keep a secret. Nobody ever has to know this happened.”
He remembered what he had done at Rogoso’s house, and that she was his alibi. “No,” he said. “That’s exactly what I don’t want. If somebody asks who you were with last night, tell them.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Only don’t tell them I had a problem and had to go to the hospital. If you do, say I had an erection that lasted four hours.”
“That doesn’t sound like a very nice time to me.”
“No? Then make up what does sound nice and say that.”
“He made me feel happy and special. Afterward I was so sleepy that I slept better than I have in months.”
“That’s good? Sleepy?”
“If I tell other women that, they won’t leave you alone.”
“Then you don’t have to tell them.”
“I won’t. Now close your eyes, relax, and lie still.”
He took a few deep breaths and lay there with Sherri’s smooth body touching his. He gave a tentative snore that woke him, and then she turned away from him and they lay together like spoons in a drawer. Then he was
