Margot put a twenty on the bar and told her, “Keep it.”
“Considering how much we charge for drinks, that's not much of a bribe.”
“You saw me talking to Theo?”
“It’s not like I had something better to do.”
“So, you pay attention. Were you here two nights ago?”
“I was, but I had customers that night, so I wasn’t keeping tabs on Theo, who hates it when people call him that, by the way.”
Margot took out her pictures and set them on the bar. “Was she one of them?”
Like Theo, the bartender gave them a good looking over.
“What did Theo say?” she asked.
“Tell me what you saw first.”
“She wasn’t at the bar. If she came through the lobby, I didn’t see her. Sorry.”
“Nothing to be sorry for. If you didn’t see her, you didn’t see her.”
“She looks familiar though. Should I know her?”
“No, you shouldn’t,” Margot told her, even though it was possible she’d seen her on the news. “Theodore said something about a bellhop.”
“Yeah, Dylan. He’s helping a guest. He’ll be down in a bit. You might as well wait and enjoy your drink. It’s a sin to waste good whiskey.”
Margot sipped her drink and decided she had a point about the whiskey.
She took her time and finished the tumbler without Dylan showing up. She was considering ordering another, even though that was really breaking her ‘no drinking during work’ rule, when a big man in a suit jacket too small for his massive shoulders sat down next to her.
Another good-sized man who was a little older and wearing a suit that did fit him sat down on the other side. Margot decided she should have been more concerned about Theodore’s phone call.
“I heard you were asking about a friend of mine,” the second man said.
Margot gave him a good going over before she said, “Harry Lee?”
“What makes you think that?”
“Educated guess. Am I wrong?” Margot replied as she moved her purse to her lap and slid her hand inside.
“No, you’re not. You got a name?”
“Didn’t Theo tell you?”
“He said the name on your license was Margot.”
“It’s my license.”
“I’d like you to come with me, Margot. You and I need to have a conversation.”
“We can talk here.”
“I’d prefer somewhere more private.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“Maybe I’m not asking.”
“Maybe I don’t care if you're asking or not.”
“Come on, Margot, you don’t want to make a scene in this nice hotel. Follow us out to my car.”
“What makes you think I don’t want to make a scene?”
“Tough chick. I kind of like that,” Harry said as he looked over her head at the bruiser on the other side.
Margot felt a big hand on her shoulder.
“We can play rough if you want, but we both know you don’t want to,” Harry told her.
Margot pulled the mace out of her purse and gave Harry’s thug a faceful before she grabbed the stool he was sitting on and yanked it out from under him. She got to her feet and stomped on the thug’s groin before she pointed the mace in Harry Lee’s direction.
He was standing, but he froze when he saw the wrong end of the tube of mace.
While he was looking at the mace, she reached into her purse with her other hand and took out her gun. She lowered the mace and let Harry get a good look at the wrong end of her gun as well.
“Tell your ape to stay down or I put a bullet in your face and then do the same to him.”
Harry looked past her to see his man had one hand trying to rub the toxic spray off his face and the other on his balls.
“I don’t think he’s going to be a problem.”
From the desk, Theodore called out, “You need to leave or I’m going to call the cops.”
“Shut up, Theo, before I come over there and kick your ass,” Margot ordered.
“Listen to the lady, Theo,” Harry added.
Theo decided to listen.
“You had something to say to me?”
“I’m guessing you know what I wanted to say. It would have been more effective the way I was originally going to say it.”
“Something to the effect of ‘don’t go around asking about Phoebe’?”
“Yeah, considering how this would look, I’d rather my name didn’t come up.”
“Even if it means she goes to prison for a crime she couldn’t have committed?”
“What makes you think she couldn’t have done it?”
“She was with you.”
“Not when the crime took place.”
“She didn’t meet you here?”
“She did, but I was gone by eight-thirty. I had to pick up my kid from basketball practice at nine. People saw me there. Normally, I spend a lot more time with a girl like Phoebe but not two nights ago. Can you lower the gun now? I think you’ve proved your point.”
Margot lowered her gun. “Why would Phoebe tell me different?”
Harry shrugged. “Because she killed her husband?”
“You know, you could have just told me that.”
“Maybe.”
“I only care about you in relation to my client.”
“Okay, since I can’t actually help, can we forget I was involved?”
“If you’re telling the truth, yeah. I’m not looking to trip anybody up.”
“Good, because now that I know you like to play rough, if we have to do this again, it might go differently. Now, I’m going to reach into my jacket pocket and pull out a business card, so don’t shoot me okay?”
“As long as it’s a card.”
Harry handed her the card and said, “If she has an alibi for the rest of the night, go ahead and call me. I may be a bastard, but I’m
