Alabama smiled.
“I’m going for eight later, so be warned.”
Wilde guarded the towel with his hand.
“Not now,” Alabama said. “Later. Anyway, the other thing I did was talk to the desk clerk at Mitchum’s hotel. At first he didn’t want to say much so I had to show him my boobs. Then he opened up.”
“Tell me you’re kidding.”
She shrugged.
“No can do,” she said. “Anyway, according to him-his name’s Dick by the way, ironic, huh? — Mitchum did in fact return to the hotel with a woman. The person he described sounds like Gina Sophia. They were in the room together all night.”
“How does he know that?”
“Because they were drunk and loud and playing music and dancing,” Alabama said. “People in the adjoining rooms were complaining. Dick went up personally and knocked on the door four or five times to get them to knock it off.”
“Did he actually see Mitchum?”
Alabama nodded.
“Every time he went up, Mitchum opened the door. Every time, Mitchum apologized and said he’d knock it off, but he always started back up again. Finally, about four in the morning, Dick called the cops. A half-hour later, a cop showed up. Dick took him up to the room and the cop knocked on the door. Mitchum opened it, the cop told him to knock it off or else. That got his attention and things settled down.”
Wilde chewed on it.
“So he was there continuously until at least four,” he said.
“Four-thirty. That’s when the cop showed up, four-thirty. Oh, Dick had one more thing relevant to the issue, but he wanted to squeeze my boobs. I let him and here’s what he told me-”
“You let him?”
“God, Wilde, they’re just boobs. Calm down and listen. The cleaning crew started at five and a housekeeper named Maria went into Mitchum’s room by mistake. He was passed out in bed with a woman. They were both naked. Maria eased back out. Mitchum never knew she opened the door.”
“How did Dick know?”
“One of the other housekeepers ratted on Maria,” Alabama said. “Apparently they don’t get along.”
“Apparently not.”
Alabama exhaled.
“I have a theory,” she said. “Maybe there’s another guy who looks like Robert Mitchum. Maybe he’s the one who frequented that New York club.”
“So you’re saying there are two Robert Mitchums?”
“Three, actually, if you count the original.”
65
The noise turned out to be someone rolling a cleaning cart down the hall, singing mumbled words in a terrible, raspy voice.
The singing stopped at Bristol’s door, followed by a twist of the knob, a twist that found the bolt thrown from the inside. Waverly and Su-Moon didn’t blink or breathe. The singing started again, glass got swept up then the voice disappeared down the hall. The women waited until it was good and gone, then got the hell out of there.
Outside the storm was even meaner.
Traffic lights swung in the force of the weather.
Except for a few muddled headlights, all the sane people of the world had retreated.
Leaving on Su-Moon’s scooter wasn’t an option.
What to do?
Half a block up the street was a blue neon sign that said California Hotel. They ran for it through sloppy puddles and slippery concrete. It turned out to be a nice place with a crowded bar at the far end of the lobby. They paid more than they wanted but ended up with a nice room on the fifth floor. The concierge managed to wrangle up dry clothes-nothing fancy, just Ts and sweatpants-which he delivered personally with a smile.
“Just leave them in the room when you check out,” he said. “No charge.”
“Thanks. You’re a prince.”
They tipped him good.
Technically, the black book from Bristol’s desk was an address book. To its credit, it did have that type of information, namely names-female names, to be precise-together with addresses and phone numbers.
But there was more.
Much more.
There were dirty little notes about what Bristol had done to them and when.
“The guy’s a dirty little freak,” Waverly said. “He has a dark side two miles long.”
Su-Moon nodded, then tapped a finger and said, “Look at this one.”
Waverly did.
“Rooftop,” Su-Moon said. “There’s our connection, right there.”
“You think?”
She did.
She did indeed.
“I’ll bet you dollars to donuts that
They checked the envelope.
Inside was a passport and $10,000 cash.
“This was his ticket to ride in case he had to get out of Dodge fast,” Su-Moon said. “He’s not going to be happy about this being gone.”
