ELEVEN
The doors of the postwar apartments faced a cement rectangle the width of a boxing ring. On the windowsills were red clay pots containing cacti and other succulents, some of which were alive. The area smelled of fried food.
Red Diamond knocked three times on a screen door that had a sign saying MANAGER.
A middle-aged woman in a helmet of hair rollers opened the door. She wore a housecoat.
He asked her about Mona as if he had a right to.
'Mona Diamond?' she said. 'She moved out of apartment number four about two years ago. Who wants to know?'
'Routine credit investigation,' said Red. 'She's applied for a loan with our company.'
The woman nodded tediously, as if she had something better to do.
'Was she living with anyone?'
'Lived alone. Seldom saw her with anyone. Once in a great while some man would spend the night and leave the next morning. Different guys. This only happened every couple of months. She kept to herself. Did you know her husband was in prison? Some kind of a confidence man. Apparently he really dumped on her. She hated him.'
Red shook his head calmly.
'That's all I know about her. Nice gal. Kept to herself. No parties.' The woman took a bobby pin from the pocket of her housecoat and plunged it into one of the hair rollers. 'Is there anything else?'
'Where did she work?'
'She was a waitress-you know, coffee shops, restaurants-nothing too fancy.'
'Where is she working now?'
'I saw her a couple months ago at a coffee shop about six blocks from here. It's on Wilcox below Hollywood Boulevard…the left side…Who did you say you were with?'
'National Credit Bureau,' said Red.
'I always ask. You never know who you're talking to these days. There's millions of rapists and stranglers. I hate like hell to even open the door.'
'Yes, ma'am,' said Red in patrolman style. 'Thanks for your help.' He walked away holding his breath.
Though dark, it was still sweltering in Hollywood.
Red parked the Cadillac in front of the bay window of the Movieland Coffee Shop. He got out of the car and walked to a sidewalk pay phone without taking his eyes off Mona. Looking bored, she served steaming coffee to customers at the counter. He dropped a dime in the telephone.
A woman answered. 'Sovereign Rent-a-Car, Hollywood office. This is June speaking.'
Red cupped his hand around the mouthpiece. 'Hello, June. This is Dr. Richard Sanders. I rented a Cadillac from you two weeks ago.'
'Dr. Sanders…uh…we've been expecting you to return the car. Your contract was a two-day rental.'
'That's what I called about. I'm in Phoenix for a heart surgeons' convention and I just wanted to let you know I'll have the car back to you in another week or so.'
'Oh…well, I guess that will be okay. It's just that you didn't have any credit cards…'
'Young lady, I certainly wouldn't call if I didn't intend to pay for the rental.'
'Certainly, doctor. I apologize if.
'No problem. See you in a week.'
'Thank you for calling, doctor.'
Red hung up the phone. He wrote 'Heart Convention Phoenix' on a card in his wallet, because he knew that details were always important. Stories must be kept straight.
Mona wiped the counter with a rag. Red asked himself how many women over forty could be attractive, yes, sexually attractive, dressed in a puff-sleeved waitress uniform? Perhaps it was the combination of the tiny waist and the full, high breasts. Her blonde hairdo was the same as years ago, when she served drinks at the Sahara in Las Vegas.
Red remembered how the high rollers all had their tongues hanging out when she swished between the crap tables with trays of drinks, and the legs of a fashion model.
Though she could have had anyone she wanted at that time, it was he who had ended up at the Chapel of Dreams saying vows, with a young Tony Dio as best man. It was in the frenetic days of casino credit, room service, and quick, solid scores; his partner, Tony Dio, bringing in the suckers from Atlanta and Chicago to buy stock, land, and gold that didn't exist.
Mona flitted along the counter, filling cups again from a steaming glass pot. She was making her best thin- lipped smile.
Red rolled up the Caddy's windows and concentrated for a moment on relaxing, then tightening, his stomach muscles. It was his own device for trying to calm nervous intestines.
He got out of the car and walked across the street to the coffee shop. With a deep breath for sphincter control, he swung open the glass door and walked in. He took a seat at Mona's section of the counter.
Her back to him, she arranged plastic-wrapped crackers around a bowl of soup. Knowing her temper, he would not be surprised if she saw him and slammed the soup and crackers directly in his face. That's the way she was: quiet, almost docile until anger flamed. Once, in the parking lot of the Stardust Casino she almost scratched a would-be mugger's eyes out. 'Cherokee Indian blood,' she always said.
'Hi, Mona,' he said in the softest tone he could muster.
She turned and frowned at him as if she had known he was there. She placed the soup bowl in front of a black man wearing a gas-station uniform farther down the counter. Then she picked up silverware and a napkin from a box and placed them in front of Red.
'I thought I'd just stop by, now that I'm out,' he said.
Mona took a pencil and order book from her skirt pocket. 'I heard you were out. May I take your order?' She leaned on one foot.
'After all this time you don't have to be so hostile,' he said.
'What do you want?'
'I just thought we could talk.'
'About what?' Mona snarled. She glanced around to see if anyone was listening. 'One of your
'I'll take a cup of coffee,' Red said.
She served the coffee and kept busy with other customers as he drank it. His guts felt mushy. He restrained the bathroom urge.
'What time do you get off?' he said as Mona flashed by with a pie à la mode.
'Eleven,' she mumbled without looking at him.
He sat for a half hour fiddling with cream, sugar, and spoon. Finally she returned.
As she made out the check for the coffee, Red spoke in his best bedside manner. 'I want to talk to you about something important. It'll just take a couple minutes. Can I meet you out in front when you get off work?'
'Wait out in front,' she said without looking up, and handed him the check.
Outside in the Caddy, Red looked at his watch over and over again. He knew he couldn't expect wonders. After all, it had been five years. But looking at it realistically, the foot was in the door, and the first step was always the hardest. It wasn't as if he hadn't conquered her once, tamed her hot little ass and made her legs stick straight up in the air when they screwed. The facts as they stood were that she
At 11:00 he broke into a sweat. He knew once she was in the car it would be easy to talk her into joining him for a drink, and with good ol' Mona, liquor was always quicker. At 11: 15 he wondered if his watch was slow.
He walked back inside the coffee shop and spoke with a young waitress. 'Mona? She just got off a few minutes ago. Went home.' She pointed. 'Left out the back door. She always goes out that way.'
