She sat opposite me and looked at me with a certain somber speculation. “One man from Garcia loves a hotel girl. I hear a thing. I wonder something. You go in there? Kill a dog? Almost kill some man too?”
“Me? No.”
“Yesterday your skinny woman is in the red car with the Heechin rubia. Then you are alone in the red car. And one time you are in the car with your skinny one. And one time Heechin is alone, eh?”
“So?”
She slitted the anthracite eyes. “Felicia is not stupid. It is about Sam, eh? These things?”
“Felicia, those men who hurt you, they had a white car?”
“Ah, such a beautiful car, si.”
“How was Sam going to get to the States from Los Mochis?”
“He gets to Ensenada by little airplane, it is easy from there, Trrav. Many ways.”
“Where no one will look in that heavy case he had?”
“Many ways. For a man who has some Spanish and some money.” She closed her strong coppery fingers around my wrist. “The hotel girl says one thing. There is one bad man at Garcia. One killer, eh? Miguel, I think. You are trouble to Garcia, maybe they send him. Cuidado, hombre.”
“Why would they think I’m trouble?”
“The rubia could think so, eh? Too many questions, maybe? One thing. You have trouble, Trrav, you have friends here. Okay?”
“Okay.”
“Miguel is most sad of the dog. His dog, Brujo.”
“What does Miguel look like?”
“Tiny small skinny man with a sad face. Maybe forty years. Very quick.”
“And he worked with Sam on the Garcia boat?”
“Ah, you know it too! On that boat, La Chispa Very pretty. But not using it now a long time. Months, maybe. Garcia use it every day almost, long ago, many people, fishing, drinking, music. Nobody to run it now, unless Miguel.” She patted my hand. “Have care, amador. Come back to Felicia.”
“I think we are leaving soon.”
She concealed a sharp look of disappointment with an almost immediate impassivity. She nodded. “Maybe this is not a good place for you.”
I trudged the seven hundred miles to the Casa in my dirty shirt, feeling unwell. I had the cold sweats, and the residual twitches of alcoholic poisoning. And I had the guilts. You think that you have laboriously achieved adult status. Then you prove there must be an incurable streak of adolescence. I knew that Nora would be wild with worry. When I went to the desk for my key I had the impression everybody knew exactly where I had been all night. Arista seemed blandly contemptuous.
He said, “At the lady’s request, sir, I made flight arrangements for you. But you would have had to leave here at ten-thirty by bus. It is now too late. Please let me know if you want this arranged again for tomorrow. It is a considerable inconvenience to me when such plans are changed.”
“Aren’t you being paid to be inconvenienced, Arista?”
“In the case of valued guests, I would say yes.” For a moment I debated pulling him over the counter by the front of his spotless jacket, and running him down his front steps. But the effort would joggle my head.
“What kind of guest am I, Arista?”
He smiled. “We have discovered a small difficulty in the reservations. We shall require that your rooms be vacated by tomorrow, sir. I trust you will be able to settle your account in cash?”
“Or you will call the village cop?”
“I would not imagine you are entirely unacquainted with the police, sir.”
I had difficulty in thinking clearly. I could not imagine what had so abruptly changed his attitude. Could Almah Hichin have made some kind of complaint? Had I been seen going in or out of my room window? Could he really be so prim about a night on the town?
“That’s a dangerous smile, Arista. It tempts me to see if I can knock it off.”
He took a hasty step back. “If you and… the lady leave quietly tomorrow, sir, I will not cause you any trouble. As you leave I shall turn over to you an object I now have in my office safe. It is not customary for tourists to bring such things into Mexico. The room maid reported that a toilet was not flushing properly. The maintenance man discovered… the hidden weapon and turned it over to me. I will give it back to you when you leave. I wish to operate… a quiet and respectable resort, sir.”
I stood for a few minutes in thought. “I suppose your whole staff knows about this by now.”
“It is the sort of thing that would entertain them.”
“When was it found?”
“Yesterday, in the early afternoon. I expected you to deny any knowledge of it, sir.”
“Why.
“Possession of a weapon can be an awkwardness for a tourist, I would think.”
I smiled at him. “Arista, it just grieves me that I can’t ever tell you how stupid you’re being. I might be able to tell the owners, but I can’t ever tell you.”
It was a childish counterattack, but it knifed him neatly. I saw his face go blank as he began to think of certain legitimate reasons why I might have a gun in the room.
“But, sir, I can only go by what…”
“Forget it, Arista.”
“But… it could be possible that reservations might be rearranged so that…”
“Forget that too. Set us up to get out of here tomorrow morning.”
“Operating a place such as this is often a very… ”
“You have lots of problems,” I said and walked away.
It was after twelve. The interconnecting door was closed. It was locked on her side. There was no answer to my knock. I took a tub, hot as I could stand it, and topped it off with a cold shower. I pared the sandpaper stubble from my jaws. All the thorn gashes were cleanly scabbed, and I got rid of the last of the little bandages. The gnawed place on my arm was healing well too, and did not look too much like toothmarks, so I left the bandage off also. I dressed in fresh clothing, and looked at my face in the mirror. Eyes sunken and slightly bloodshot. Slight tendency toward cold sweat. A faint beginning of hunger. Small motor tremor of the hands.
Just as I was about to leave the room, I heard Nora stirring around on the other side of the door. I knocked and heard her call, “Just a minute!”
In a little while she unlocked the door and opened it and said, “Yes?” She wore a robe and a small and rather formal smile.
“I thought you might have wondered about me.”
“Not particularly, Trav.”
“Oh.”
“I wandered out to the road and I saw Miss Hichin go by, alone, heading up toward the house, driving quite slowly. I thought you would come back and tell me what she had told you. I thought you might realize I was quite anxious to know. Then it got to be dark, I sent Jose down to the vilIage to find you, on his scooter. He said you were singing and dancing. I hope you had a jolly time. I made reservations but…”
“I know, I talked to Arista. He’s making them for tomorrow.”
“I’ve been at the pool. I’ll be going down to lunch in a little while.”
“I don’t think that would be a good place to talk to you.”
“Why not?”
“It’s public. You might be upset.”
“I don’t imagine anything can get me that upset.”
“It upset me, Nora. I got pretty drunk.”
“Evidently. You look it.”
“I stayed there.”
“More research, no doubt.”
“You can’t do much research after you pass out.”
“Let me explain something to you. You don’t have to justify yourself to me. I haven’t put any strings on anything. You’re a free agent, Trav. I expected a little more consideration. Not on the basis of anything between us, but just because… you know I was anxious to know what you found out.”
“When you get dressed, come in here and I’ll tell you.”
She came in when she was ready. I told her. Long after she kept denying that Sam could have done that, tears running down her face, I knew that she had begun to accept it. And I was certain when she began to blame Almah. I tried to explain to her how I had felt about the little broken blonde, but she could not comprehend that, because hers was a different kind of toughness. It wasn’t the hard and fragile kind. Then I told her about Arista and the gun. She understood then why Arista had been rude and impertinent to her.