“There’s no room number here.”
“Duh. He hasn’t checked in yet.”
I could barely talk, and not because I had exerted myself to catch her.
“Go to the hotel, and ask for him by name. He said he would leave word with the front desk that he had a guest coming.”
“I don’thave his name.”
“You served him all through the flight.”
“I did?” Oh, no. “Who-”
“I don’t remember his name, but he was in 5F. Have fun, sweetie.”
Monica pulled ahead quickly as I slowed to a stop and tried to think. 5F…5F…5F…was themadras plaid shirt, the man I had eliminated and proceeded to ignore for the rest of the flight. Leland Cole drank club soda with no ice, dressed older than he was, and that was the extent of what I knew about him. I couldn’t even remember what he looked like.
I was so screwed.
Chapter 21
THIS WAS A CHALLENGE. IKEPT REPEATING THAT to myself as I rolled down the concourse. The situation was not impossible. If I concentrated hard, I could find the way out. I could recognize the thread of an idea that, if followed to the logical conclusion, would spin itself into a workable plan, and where the hell was my cell phone? Miniaturization run amok. Electronic devices so small you can’t find them in a space the size of a grocery bag.
By the time I’d reached the escalator, I had my phone in hand and Harvey ’s number ringing.
“Hello?”
“Harvey, it’s Alex.”
“Good. I have what you need. I could have used a few more hours, but I think I have managed to come up with something that will be useful to you.”
“ Harvey -”
“You already know that your chiropractor is thirty-eight years old and divorced, so nothing there. But listen to this. He coaches his thirteen-year-old daughter’s soccer team. This all seems so unseemly to me, but-”
“ Harvey.”
“Yes? What is it?”
“Forget the chiropractor.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“We have a new target.”
“We have a-I do not understand. How could the target change?”
I hated even to go into it with him. I was barely staying afloat in my own whitewater rapids of anxiety. “There was another hooker onboard, and she decided to take that guy.”
“Take him?”
“Yes. I have a new one, and I need you to do it again. I need you to check him out.”
For the longest time, he didn’t talk, but his breathing was perfectly audible, a faint whistle through his perennially blocked nasal passages. It grew shallower and quicker until he finally exploded. “This is absolutely preposterous. What in the world have you gotten yourself into?”
“ Harvey, I know how ridiculous this seems…is, but I need your help. I can’t do what you do. Give it a shot, please. If we can’t do it, we can’t, but let’s at least try. Maybe there is something obvious we can use. If not, I’ll have to bail.”
“How much time?”
“I’m meeting him at eight o’clock my time.”
I stepped outside to the curb. It wasn’t until the cool breeze coming off Lake Michigan hit me that I realized how much I had been sweating. A shower would definitely be in order if I were going to pretend to have sex with a man I didn’t know.
“This is absurd. You are putting yourself at unnecessary risk. I cannot support this. I will not. It is not worth it.”
“Think about this, Harvey. The risk is no more or less than it was half an hour ago. It’s the same scam. Angel might also be doing this on purpose. We know this is a test. Maybe the switch is part of it, and if I bail, they’ll know I’m a plant. I think we have to go through with it.”
I checked up and down the curb, looking for the crew van, hoping they hadn’t left without me. I wondered if I was in the right spot. I hadn’t flown into O’Hare that much for OrangeAir.
“Do you understand that you will be in a room by yourself with a complete stranger?”
“Yes, Harvey.”
“Have you considered the possibility that if you threaten him, he will not take it lightly? Have you considered the possibility that he could rape you? Or injure you? Or kill you? Please do not do this.”
He could have been right. Maybe he was right. But I also knew Harvey was inclined to give up, whereas my bias was toward never, ever giving up. I knew that I was capable of holding out beyond the point of all reason, trying to salvage what was clearly already lost. I just didn’t think this cause was lost yet. I closed my eyes and pressed the heel of my hand against my forehead. I had probably missed the damn shuttle.
“ Harvey, I appreciate the fact that you are worried about me, and I am really annoyed that this thing went off the tracks, but I don’t think it’s too late to get it back on. I believe we have to try, and if you won’t help me, I’ll do it myself. It would be nicer to have the information, but if I don’t, I’ll play the trump card.”
“Which is?”
“No matter who he is, he will not want the world to know he hired a hooker for his layover in Chicago. I’ll threaten to look him up and tell his wife. Or his kids. Or his boss. Or the good citizens of the PTA. Whatever makes him vulnerable. It might work.” I was talking to myself more than to Harvey. I hadn’t really given this option much thought until now. “I’m not asking him to do that much.”
“I knew from the beginning you would do it your way no matter what.”
“You were right. Will you help me or not?”
He hung up.
Even for a Days Inn, the hotel struck me as shabby, more so because it was supposed to appeal to families and may have at one time. Just off the lobby was a dingy game room with tired pinball machines and electronic games about one generation too old. It had an indoor swimming pool behind a greasy wall of windows. I knew because I had been walking the halls procrastinating and trying to get in touch with Harvey.
He hadn’t answered his phone for more than an hour, so it was no surprise when he didn’t answer again. He hadn’t categorically stated that he wouldn’t help, although that could have been one interpretation of his hanging up in my ear. I chose to believe that his line was tied up because he was working on his computer. That wouldn’t explain why his cell phone was off, but his cell phone was usually off.
His voice-mail tone sounded.
“ Harvey, I don’t know if you’re checking your voice mail, but I hope so, because I want you to know that I’m sorry. I had no right to pressure you, but I’m so wound up over this case. I feel somehow that if I don’t…if we don’t solve it, then everything I want to do will be out of my reach. That doesn’t leave much room for you and your point of view, and for that I’m sorry. If by any chance you have managed to find something on this Leland Cole, please call me on my cell phone. I’m going up there right now.”
I slapped the phone shut. A searing pain shot across the webbing that held my thumb to my hand. I had pinched it at the phone’s hinge.Dammit, that hurt. I jammed the throbbing wound into my mouth and paced around the lobby again. It was already four minutes after eight. If I waited much longer, my date would call hooker central and report me as a no-show. I could make up an excuse. Traffic. Illness. The dog ate the address. Monica ate the address.
I went to the elevator and pressed the call button. After waiting at least two seconds, I decided to take the stairs. With no other delay tactics available, I found myself at his room in front of his door. I raised my hand to knock and didn’t. I stood there, frozen in front of the last barrier between my client and me. If I was going to do this, I had to do it.
I knocked once, then three more times quickly.
Mr. 5F opened the door, and I realized how little attention I had paid him throughout the flight. Seeing him in this entirely new context, as a patron of hookers, was like seeing him for the first time. He was probably five-nine or five-ten-only slightly taller than I was-prissy, flat-chested, and fragile. His head was small compared with his squared-off ironing-board shoulders, and he had the posture of a man married to a woman who wore sleeveless shifts and tailored shorts and kept him on an allowance. If it came down to a fight, I could take him.