by Rod Reynolds
My face flushed. ‘If you came here to dress me down—’
‘Dress you down? I could arrest you. How about obstruction of a Federal investigation? Hell, I don’t even need to bother with that – I can just take you back to the sheriff’s office and let them take turns bouncing your head off the floor.’
I was stunned, my comeback lodged in my throat.
‘How’d you do it?’ he said. ‘Just waltz right out the door?’
I flattened the hair on the back of my head. ‘Lang pulled through, he’ll smooth it over.’
‘Still, a hell of a risk to take, them all riled up that way.’
‘So’s snatching Rosenberg from under their noses.’
He opened his hand. ‘Who’s to say he was ever there? You? The girl?’
I felt as if he could see through walls.
He pushed his suit coat aside to put his hands on his hips. He stared at me that way for a long moment. Then he walked to the wooden chair and toed it like he understood the significance of it sitting in the middle of the room, all by itself. He sat down. ‘Why didn’t you clue me in to what you were doing?’
‘What?’ I could feel my neck twitching.
‘The ranch, the girls.’
I held a breath. ‘I never had a chance. By the time I had the address, they’d sent up a warning to Siegel’s men. I thought they’d kill her.’
‘I understand that but I mean before, the whole thing; why didn’t you tell me what you were doing back in Los Angeles?’
‘It wasn’t pertinent. At least at the start. Not for a long time.’
He watched me, his look as good as telling me I was lying. It riled me enough to fire back. ‘Besides, you knew already. You were at their guest house asking after me.’
He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, eventually nodding once to concede the point. ‘I didn’t understand the relevance then. But you did as soon as you came here; you were wrong not to say something at that point.’
‘It unravelled fast. Would it have made a difference?’
He looked away, interlinking his fingers as if he was praying for patience. He got to his feet and went to the mirror, rubbing at one of the smudges as he looked into it. ‘As it happens, I didn’t come here to chew you out.’ He turned around.
I waited, saying nothing.
‘Look, the fact is, whatever your intentions and your cackhanded methods, you’ve had an effect.’ He put his hands in his pockets. ‘Siegel is gone.’
I took a step towards him. ‘What?’
‘My information is that after your actions last night, he went to the airport and hopped a flight to Mexico on a oneway ticket. Our working theory is that there’s no way he’ll get his licence now, which, apart from deep-sixing his plans, is an embarrassment to the money men back East, so he’s gone to ground. If we’re right, it ought to stay a one-way deal.’
I was lightheaded – Siegel gone. After everything he’d put us through. I wasn’t sure what to feel; relief, anger, a spool of emotion uncoiling inside of me. But just that – no violent lurch of feeling. ‘You can’t be satisfied with that.’
‘If I’m wrong and the door’s open for him to come back, then I won’t be. But that’s not my read on the situation.’
I knocked on the table with my knuckles, working up a rage thinking about the injustice. ‘What about your grand plans? What happened to blowing his organisation apart from the inside?’ I suddenly remembered Nancy in the other room and lowered my voice. ‘You never said anything about him getting off scot-free to sit on a Mexican beach.’
‘That’s not how I’d characterise the situation. You ever heard of a Federale wouldn’t off a gringo for a sawbuck? Think about it: every minute of every day, looking over his shoulder.’
‘He’s not another gringo, he has connections—’
‘Not if he’s running from them. They’ll cut him off faster than you can sneeze.’
I righted myself, eyeing him. ‘You’ve changed your tune because you’ve got Rosenberg on ice. You mean to make him sing instead of Siegel.’
He returned my look without speaking.
‘What deal are you offering him?’
He sighed, shaking his head as if there was nothing more to say.
I came around the table to stand in front of him. ‘Rosenberg killed Julie Desjardins, the girl they found in the desert. Did you know that?’
‘According to whom?’
‘Someone who’d know. Makes him the prime suspect for Henry Booker as well. To add to the list that includes Trent Bayless. Real swell guy to pick up a sweetheart deal from the Bureau.’
‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I went to say something more but he had his two forefingers up, motioning for me to let him speak. ‘Look, you’ve had one hell of a night and you’re lashing out, I realise that. But I came here as an ally. There’s something you deserve to hear.’
I cocked my head, waiting.
‘Siegel issued a contract on you, before he left. We picked up on some chatter from a source in LA.’
My skin prickled. ‘What about Lizzie?’
He closed his eyes too long, and I knew even before he nodded.
I heard the faraway sound of another car pulling up outside, my senses overloaded by the scream inside my head. I drifted to the window to look, my eyes refusing to focus, my spine rigid but weak, like a stick of chalk. Tanner said something else but it was white noise to my ears.
I expected to see Siegel out there, even though it made no sense. Through the haze I saw a flash of red bounce out of the car. My car – the one I’d had to abandon at the Flamingo. She looked over and her eyes met mine. Seeing me, Lizzie darted the short distance the rest of the way across the lot.
I threw the door open and she crashed herself into my arms. She smacked me on the chest with the flat of her hand. ‘You swore you wouldn’t do that to me again.’
She must have seen Tanner over my shoulder because she drew back to compose herself, reddening.
‘Mrs Yates.’
‘Special Agent Tanner.’
I glanced at the car. ‘How did you … Did you go back to the Flamingo?’
She nodded. ‘That man has taken enough from us already. It was either that or stay here and …’ She looked at Tanner. ‘Well, anyway. You know.’
‘But what if …’ I looked at her in disbelief.
‘He wouldn’t be there at this hour, not after last night.’
I had to stop myself from saying how wrong she was.
She looked at me and then at Tanner. ‘Have I interrupted something?’
He broke the stare, swivelling away to lean on the wall. She turned to me. ‘Charlie?’
I took a breath, Lizzie watching me, stock-still.
‘Siegel’s gone,’ I said.
She waited, then said, ‘There’s something else. You’re as white as a sheet.’
I closed my eyes and told her.
Her gaze slid to the window behind me and she twisted her hands across her chest.
‘Who did he give the contract to?’ I asked Tanner.
He drew closer. ‘I don’t have that information. It might be open season – whoever wants to claim it.’ He glanced downward, holding a hand up in apology. ‘I didn’t mean for that to sound flippant.’
The room fell silent, the implications sinking in.
Lizzie was the first to speak. ‘What of it?’
We both looked at her.
She let her arms unfurl and fall to her sides. ‘That was his intention all along, so it needn’t change anything. We already knew we couldn’t go back to Los Angeles.’
Tanner was tapping his finger against his palm. ‘I don’t want to alarm you but the threat is more serious than that, Mrs Yates.’
‘I’m well aware how serious it is, Special Agent.’
He turned to me. ‘I can arrange some form of protection for you, if you’d stand for it this time.’
‘For how long? Indefinitely?’
/>
He cleared his throat, giving no answer. I could feel Lizzie’s discomfort at the idea.
‘That’s what it would amount to, isn’t it? As long as Siegel’s on the lam,’ I said.
‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Will you give it consideration at least?’
I nodded, relieved he was shaping up to go.
‘I wouldn’t take too long thinking about it. It’s my strongest counsel that you remove yourselves from Las Vegas today – with or without my help.’ He stepped over to the door and stopped. ‘Did you have a chance to speak with the girl?’
My face drained again.
Lizzie laid her hand on my wrist. ‘Nancy Hill? You found her?’
I nodded and turned back to Tanner. ‘There wasn’t time. She was helping me search for the others and then they arrested us and kept us in separate cars.’
Lizzie screwed her face up. ‘Arrested?’
Tanner ignored her. ‘What about at the department?’ His eyes moved from mine to someplace behind me and it took all my restraint not to look around to the bathroom door.
‘No. Why do you ask?’
‘I mean to have a talk with her once the sheriff’s men have cooled down. With all of the women, but her in particular – seeing as how she came to be here from Los Angeles. If Siegel’s outfit transported her to Nevada for immoral purposes, it’s a violation of the Mann Act. The courts go wild for anything looks like white slavery – gives us a real chance to make something stick.’ He flicked his eyes behind me one more time and back again. ‘I’d like to make that plain to her.’
He opened the front door and held it. ‘Meantime, give my offer serious thought. I’ll have a man here in an hour to keep watch, but that’s strictly an interim measure.’ He went out and was gone.
Lizzie came over to me. ‘What was the meaning of that? What was he driving at?’
I planted my hands against the wall, seeing his angle as clear as day. ‘He wants me to deliver a message.’
‘To who?’
I waited until the sound of Tanner’s tyres on the gravel had faded and then crossed to the bathroom door.
‘Charlie?’
It was opened from inside before I could do it, and Nancy Hill came out. Faltering, uncertain steps.
‘Lizzie, this is Nancy.’
*
I sat on the bed watching Lizzie rifle through her bag for something Nancy could wear. She was two inches taller, and broader in the shoulders than Lizzie, but they agreed anything had to be better than a dress dotted with blood.
I’d already thrown my trousers and shirt in the trash and changed into fresh threads. It felt like the first step into a new life. Colt Tanner’s words were clear in my mind, his motives less so. I thought for sure he’d known Nancy Hill was stashed in the bathroom and he wanted me to convince her to tell the story the way he’d laid out. It made me furious that he gave no care to knowing what had really happened to her.
The girls settled on a patterned green shirtwaist number and Nancy went into the bathroom to change. Lizzie watched until she shut the door, then came over to me, putting her hand on my cheek. ‘How are you feeling?’
I offered a thin smile, nodding my head. ‘She’s in shock.’
She nodded. ‘I think she’s coping as best she can.’
I laid my hand over hers, savouring her touch. ‘She asked me when she could see Siegel.’
She glanced at the bathroom door. ‘She what?’ Her stare lingered as if she couldn’t believe my words. Slowly, she turned to me again. ‘You don’t think …’
I nodded, Lang’s take echoing in my ears – Siegel only cares for money or women. ‘He has a reputation as a charmer.’
She pulled a face in disgust. ‘But after what he’s done to her. How can she think that way?’
‘She’s young, maybe he seemed glamorous. A misplaced crush.’
She brushed her mouth with her fingertips. ‘That man is sickening.’
‘I don’t think she has a grasp on what’s happened to her. It could take a long time.’
I’d closed the drapes as soon as Tanner left. I went to the window and parted them to look out, counting it as the third time I’d done so in a half-hour. The other wings of the motor court were on either side of us, forming a U-shape, the parking lot spread in front, only our car and two others in view. The sky stretched above, a thin gauze of white cloud hardening the blue. ‘We need to get her away from here.’
Lizzie came over and took the drape from my fingers, smoothing it closed. ‘Charlie, what about us? What are we going to do?’
The bathroom door opened and I snapped around to look, whispering, ‘Disappear.’
Nancy Hill stepped out. It was jarring to see another woman in my wife’s dress.
I stood by the closed drapes, a glow from the daylight behind them, thinking how strange the situation must have seemed. Lizzie moved a little towards her, holding her hand out. ‘You must have a lot of questions.’
Nancy positioned herself on the far side of one of the beds. A barrier. ‘What that man said about Ben going – is he telling the truth?’
I looked at Lizzie, choosing my words. ‘I don’t know.’
‘You said he was with the police but you called him Special Agent.’ Her tone was flat.
‘Look, what’s important right now is that we get out of here. Will you let me take you home to Iowa?’
She shook her head. ‘You can’t make me go back there. I told you.’
I could feel Lizzie reach for my hand before she spoke. ‘Nancy, would you mind if Charlie and I stepped outside a moment?’
She didn’t wait for an answer, leading me to the door. I cracked it a fraction to check outside before opening it the rest of the way. We came out squinting in the bright daylight, the cold still like sandpaper on the skin. Lizzie went to speak but I glanced at the highway across the parking lot, the other rooms all around overlooking us. ‘We shouldn’t be out in the open.’ I took her arm and guided her to the car to sit inside.
When the doors were shut, she said, ‘Did you mean what you said back there? Iowa?’
‘It’s as good of a place to disappear as any.’
She frowned. ‘She said she doesn’t want to go.’
I rested my hand on top of the steering wheel. ‘Her mother’s worried sick. Nancy just needs time to adjust, it’s the best place for her.’
She looked thoughtful, her eyes distant. Then she focused on me again. ‘Shouldn’t we take her to the authorities?’
‘They arrested her, Liz. She’s the victim here but all they see is another whore. They’ll chew her up and she’ll either end up in a cell or back on the street.’
She tilted her head back, shaking it in resignation. ‘So no one pays. Again.’
I gripped my hands together. ‘I’ll make sure they do.’
‘In Iowa?’
I let out a long breath. ‘One day at a time. We play the long game. I promised you we could run as soon as we found her.’
She closed her eyes, interlinking her fingers and resting her chin on them. ‘I know.’
‘What’s the matter?’ The question sounded ridiculous spoken aloud. I was dangling a life on the run as a reward.
‘Perhaps I never believed the day would actually come.’
She looked away from me then, as if it was an admission of doubt in me. I couldn’t deny feeling the same.
A big rig strapped with lumber rumbled past on the highway, loud, even at a distance. I wondered if it was headed to the Flamingo. When the noise died, she said. ‘What about Colt Tanner?’
‘What of him?’
‘I worried you might be tempted by his offer of protection.’
I ran my hand over my mouth, buying a moment to confirm my own feelings about his offer still held. ‘I couldn’t face it – a life under guard. You?’
She shook her head. ‘Are you going to ask Nancy to speak to him before we take off? If she’s soft on Siegel I can’t imagine her telling it
how he wants.’
I rubbed my temples, a throbbing pulse building in my head. ‘Liz, what did you say to Tanner after I left you at the Sheriff’s Department last night?’
She kept her eyes forward.
I waited a moment but she didn’t speak. ‘What?’
She slipped her mouth behind her fingers. ‘Charlie … I didn’t try to contact him. Please don’t be mad at me.’
I felt the same nervous rush as when he’d showed up at the ranch.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘There were just so many questions in my mind, I didn’t think he could be trusted. When you didn’t come back, I felt so awful. That’s why I went to the Flamingo again, I thought if I could at least retrieve the car that would be something. And we’d be able to get away when you came back.’
In my mind I was already running through the chain of events. The last time I’d seen him before the ranch was in this same parking lot, almost twenty-four hours previous, when he’d told me to go to the gala at the Flamingo. That was long before I’d tracked down Harry Heller and followed the trail from the Kitten Litter to Siegel’s ranch. So how the hell did he find me there so fast? Or was that asking the wrong question?
‘Charlie, say something.’
I blinked, returning to the moment. I heard a distant echo of my own voice and then realised I was speaking. ‘I think you made the right decision.’
*
We cleared out in a rush. I was determined to get gone before Tanner’s man showed up.
Nancy was adamant she wouldn’t go back to Iowa. Lizzie made a hurried effort to talk her round, but she dug her heels in – enough to make me question whether we were doing the right thing by her. But it came clear her reticence wasn’t born out of a desire to speak to the law – local or Federal; all she wanted was to see Siegel. I tore through a half-dozen ploys trying to get us out of the room, out of the motor court, out of Las Vegas.
In the end, it was a promise to head upstate to Reno that did the trick. It was close enough to the California line to tempt her. She made mention of holing up at a divorce ranch until he surfaced again, and it broke my heart to hear the fantasy she was living in. More so to play on it.
Reno meant heading west not east, but the old Lincoln Highway routed right through the town, before running all the way to New York City – and passing through Iowa on its way. It was a compromise I could work with.