Guido and Fiore picked up her trail at the bus station. Guy there remembered her real good. Said she only had enough money to buy a ticket to Baker, so that’s where she went. They’re on their way there now.”
“Did she have the case with her?”
“He didn’t know.”
“What time did she buy the ticket?”
“She went west on the 8:50 bus.”
“Shit! She’s way ahead of us.
We talked to Chicago. They want their money and they want this Kiko broad to disappear. Forever.
Tommy Bones has put a ten thousand dollar price on her head!”
When Guido and Fiore pulled into the east end of Baker, the town was almost completely dark. Their headlights picked up nondescript buildings on both sides of the highway.
“Jesus! What a dump. Can’t believe people live here.”
“Yeah, well, I guess everybody gotta live somewhere, Fiore.”
“Spare me the philosophy. Start lookin’ the bus station.”
They drove slowly through town.
“There, on the left.”
“Closed.”
“Better check the motels, then.”
“Guido, if the chick didn’t have enough money for a bus ticket to anyplace other than here, how’s she gonna pay for a motel room?”
“You may be right, but you wanna tell Eddie we didn’t check the motels?”
Fiore made a U-turn, and they started checking motels
The last one they stopped at was on the very north edge of Baker. It was so run down they hadn’t even realized it was a motel when they had first driven into town. It looked more like a collection of abandoned shacks.
“Hey, if she had fifty cents she coulda got a room in this dump!”
When they pulled in, the office was dark. The “motel” sign was hand-painted. The place didn’t even have a name.
They parked in front of the closest cabin and walked to the office door.
It was locked.
There was a piece of cardboard taped to the door that read “Press button for after-hours service.”
Guido pressed the button.
They could hear no sound from inside.
Fiore hammered the door with the flat of his hand.
Nothing.
They waited a few minutes, and Fiore hammered again.
Still nothing.
Fiore stepped back and began to kick the glass door. It rattled in its cheap, aluminum frame.
There was no response from inside. No lights came on.
“Get me the tire iron out of the trunk.”
When Fiore returned, Guido wedged the flat tip of the iron between the frame and the door and heaved his considerable bulk against it.
The door popped open.
The two men walked into the office and went behind the counter.
Guido tried the knob on the door there. It didn’t turn.
“Want me to knock?”
“We’re done knockin’.”
Fiore lifted his foot and smashed it into the door next to the knob. The door flew open and banged against the wall in the next room.
There was a disheveled young man coming awake on a couch. Empty beer cans were scattered around the room. There was a girlie magazine splayed open on the man’s chest.
“Hey, bozo, get up!”
“Huh?”
“Get your lazy ass off that couch.”
The young man was suddenly wide awake. He looked at the splintered door jamb.
“How’d you get in here?”
“Through the door, stupid.”
“You can’t come busting in here like that!”
“We just did.
Now get up.”
“Look, I don’t know who …”
Which was as far as he got.
Fiore reached down, grabbed the lapels of a ratty bathrobe and yanked the kid off the couch and onto his feet.
“Stop talkin’, unless we ask you a question.”
The young man started to say something, and then thought better of it.
Guido held the picture of Kiko in front of him.
“You seen this woman?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. There’s only two people staying here, and she isn’t one of them.”
Fiore pushed the man hard, and he fell awkwardly onto the couch.
“Have another beer.”
The two men stomped out of the room. The young man heard a car start, but by the time he got off the couch, pulled on his pants and shirt and got into the office, it was gone.
When he saw the ruined glass door, he picked up the phone and dialed the Smoke Tree Sheriff’s substation.
The last stop Guido and Fiore made was at the Bun Boy restaurant. False dawn was brightening the sky above the distant Kelso Mountains when they walked in.
“Two for breakfast?” asked the waitress.
“Nah.
You seen this woman?”
Guido showed her Kiko’s picture.
“No.”
“What time did you come on?”
“Midnight.”
“Who was here before that?”
The woman hesitated.
“I’m not sure if …”
Fiore interrupted her. “Look … Debbie,” he said, gripping her arm as he read her name tag, “We gotta find this woman.
Now, who was on last night before midnight?”
“Hey,” she said, trying to pull free, “you’re hurting my arm!”
Fiore squeezed harder.
The door to the kitchen swung open and a boxy man wearing slacks and a short-sleeved white shirt with a clip-on tie walked toward them.
“Mike, these men ….”
“Shut it, lady.”
“Do we have a problem here, gentlemen?”
“Not yet, but might.
You the manager?”
“That’s right.”
“Let’s go talk in your office.”
Mike saw the fear in Debbie’s eyes and nodded to the men.
“Follow me.”
The “office” was a small desk in a storeroom full of paper products, cleaning supplies, canned food and stacks of hamburger buns. The room smelled like insecticide. There were dead roaches on the floor.
Guido and Fiore squeezed inside and closed the door.
Mike found himself crowded against his own desk.
“We’re lookin’ for a woman made some big trouble in Vegas.
We need to talk to someone was workin’ the swing shift last night.”
“Well, I don’t know …”
Guido held out his hands, palms down.
There was a fifty dollar bill sticking up between the fingers of his left hand.
“Look, Mike. We don’t want no trouble, but my partner here, he gets a little rough at times. I have to hold him back. We don’t let him out in polite company a lot.
Now, you tell us where to find the waitress who was on last night so we can show her a picture of this woman, the Benjamin is yours.
You don’t, I can’t be responsible for what this guy might do.”
Mike swallowed.
“That would be Maureen.”
“There you go! We just want to show her this picture, see this woman was in your place last night. Won’t take two minutes.
Where can we find this Maureen?”
“Down the street. Take the highway toward Death Valley. Half mile you’ll see a mobile home on the left. Got a bunch of those wooden airplanes with propellers that spin in the wind all over the place.”
Guido handed Mike the fifty, and he and Fiore turned to go.
Guido stopped in the doorway and turned back.
“And Mike?”
“Yes?”
“If we learn you called her after we leave, I’m gonna come and get my fifty dollars back, and my friend here? Re-arrange your place.
Now, you sit right here until you’re sure we’re gone.”
The two men walked out into the restaurant.
Debbie was sitting in a booth having a cup of coffee and a cigarette. Her hand shook as she raised it to her mouth.
Guido stopped at her booth.
“Debbie, sorry if my pal hurt your arm. He gets real excited sometimes. Don’t know his own strength.”
He reached in his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills. He sorted through them until he found a twenty.
He put it in front of her on the table.
“Now, Debbie, I want you to sit here until we’re gone.”
He wagged his finger.
“No fair peekin’ out the window at our license plate.
Okay?”
Debbie looked away.
“Sure, mister, sure.”
Guido drove past the mobile home, made a U-turn and parked the car far enough down the road that it would be almost impossible to read the license plate.
They walked back to the mobile home and roused Maureen from her sleep. She opened the door only as far as the security chain permitted. When they showed her Kiko’s picture and encouraged Maureen’s memory with a twenty, she opened the door and invited them in.
The three of them sat in the tiny living room.
“You know my name, but I don’t know yours.”
“Uh,” stammered Guido. “I’m Sammy and this is Frank.”
Maureen smiled.
“Oh yeah. I think I caught your act on the strip.”
Guido and Fiore stared at her.
“That’s a joke. I know you’re not going to tell me your names. But the girl in the photograph was in the Bun Boy last night around eleven o’clock.
She stood out, you know?”
“Not sure I do. Tell me.”
“Well first, the place was dead. When it’s quiet like that, I usually notice when a car pulls into the lot, but I didn’t see one. The door just opened and she walked in.
Second, as you can tell, she’s some kind of an oriental. I don’t know which kind. I can’t really tell them apart.
And she was wearing a black, strapless evening dress and high heeled shoes. Don’t see that a lot at the Bun Boy.
But what was really odd was she didn’t have a jacket. She must have been freezing ‘cause it was really cold last night.”
“Did she have any luggage with her? Case of some kind?”
Maureen thought for a minute.
“I’m not sure.”
“How long did she stay?”
“Not long.
She ordered a burger and went after it like she was starving.
But then, a bunch of young guys came in.”
“How young?”
“College guys would be my guess. Looked like they had been drinking. When they saw the woman they made a beeline for her.
I didn’t hear everything they said, but it sounded like they wanted her to go to Vegas with them.”
“What’d she say?”
“She was polite at first. Said she wanted to go to L.A. But those boys wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. They got pretty insistent.
I went over and told them to leave her alone. While I was arguing with them, she went out the door.
I tried to slow them down, but they went out after her.”
“Then what?”
“In a few minutes, I saw the boys tear out of the parking lot. The woman wasn’t with them.”
““The girl come back in after they left?”
“Nope. Never saw her again.
And I didn’t see another car pull out after those boys left, so I don’t think she was driving a car of her own.”
“So, you have no idea where she went?”
“Don’t know where she came from. Don’t know where she went.
Mystery woman.”
“Thanks for your time, Maureen. Sorry to wake you up.”
“Twenty bucks for answering a few questions? You can wake me up anytime, boys.
Tell you something for free, though.”
“What’s that?”
“Girl that pretty, dressed like that? She walks out on the highway and sticks out her thumb? She’s gone in two minutes.”
At nine o’clock that morning, Eddie Mazzetti, Melvin Meyer, Herman Silverstein, Clemente Malaleta, Guido Battagliano, Lino DeLuca, Vincenzo Zamparo and Fiore Abbatini were gathered in Eddie’s office far above the casino floor. Only Eddie, Melvin and Herman were seated. The other men were arrayed in front of Eddie’s desk.
“All right, things are worse than before. Chicago’s pissed. Believe me, we don’t want to be remembered as the clowns let some little slant eye kill a made man from The Outfit, steal the skim, just walk away.”
There were nods and murmurs of assent from the five standing men.
“Just so everybody knows what everybody else knows, Guido and Fiore, tell us about the bus station.”
“Guy there remembered her real good. We asked him if she had luggage with her. He didn’t remember, but he told us she only had enough money for a ticket to Baker.
We drove down there.
I gotta tell you, that’s one sorry ass town. I mean, whadya gotta do wrong to have to live in a dump like that? Checked all the motels. No luck.
Then we started at the restaurants. She was seen at a place called the Bun Boy at about eleven o’clock.
We greased the manager, and he told us where the night manager lived. We drove out there, give her twenty bucks. She fell all over herself talkin’ to us.
Said the girl was there.”
“Did you ask about the case?”
“Said she wasn’t sure.”
“Go on.”
“Said the girl come in, ordered a burger, didn’t get to eat it. Some college boys came in, started botherin’ her. Wanted her to come to Vegas with them. She wasn’t interested, but they wouldn’t leave her alone, so she left.
This woman said the boys went out the door after her, but she saw them drive off a while later. Said the girl wasn’t with them.”
“Did the woman see the girl again?”
“No, but she said somethin’ made sense. Said a broad that good lookin’, dressed like that? Goes out on the highway, sticks out her thumb, gone in two minutes.”
“Vincenzo, Lino, tell us what you found when you went to the broad’s apartment.”
“Her roommates was there. Squeezed them pretty good.
And by the way, they ain’t gonna complain. Turns out they both work for the Serengeti.
Anyway, they hadn’t seen her since yesterday mornin’. Hadn’t heard from her, either. They both work the swing shift and they were gone before she woulda come home.”
“Did this Kiko have a car?”
“No.”
“She didn’t take one of theirs?”
“Nope.
They only got one car between the three of them. It was in the parkin’ lot.”
“So, they’re due at work this afternoon?”
“Yeah. One’s a cocktail waitress. I coulda guessed that by the bazoombas on the broad. Probably gets a five dollar tip every time she bends over.”
“And the other one?”
“Plain Jane. Works one of our restaurants.”
“Okay. Get them out of town.
Melvin, give Vincenzo six thousand.
Vincenzo, give each a them three thousand. Tell them to pack up their stuff and get out of Dodge. Right now. Tell them the ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign don’t apply to them no more. Ever. Make sure they understand what will happen if we see ever see them back. We don’t want nobody talkin’ it around about this Kiko person missin’.”
“What if they put up a fuss?”
“About what? Christ, for three thousand they can buy a new Thunderbird!
Stay there until they’ve loaded up and gone. Then get all the Kiko broad’s stuff, bring it with you.
This girl’s got a family somewhere.
I want to know where they live.
She must have friends somewhere. Bound to.
Was in college.
We’re lookin’ for address book, letters, phone numbers. Anything can help us figure out where she’s goin’ to go to ground.
He turned to Silverstein.
“Herman, we still got that house on the dead-end street in Henderson?”
“Yeah, Eddie.”
“Okay, that’s gonna be the headquarters for this search.
We’ll meet there seven o’clock tonight, hand out the assignments.
Now, get movin’.”
By the time they met that evening, they knew a few things. They knew Kiko’s parents lived in Salinas, up by Monterey. They had an address for a friend in New York and one in Seattle. Eddie assigned Vincenzo and Lino to check on the family. He assigned Guido and Fiore to check on New York. Clemente was to take a quick trip to Seattle.
“Clemente, soon as you’re done Seattle, get back here. Gonna run the search from this house. I don’t want you other goombahs comin’ and goin’ through the casino or hotel to my office. Scares the citizens.
You other guys, remember, Clemente’s only one who comes here.
Okay, this broad’s in more trouble than we are. She don’t have much she can use. Got a case with a ton of money in it. Maybe she’s got it with her, maybe she don’t. If she does, got no easy way to get into it while she’s on the run. She’s wearin’ the only clothes she has. She’s got some expensive jewelry she can pawn, but we already put out the word and her description to all the shops in L.A. She tries to turn the stuff into cash, we’ll know about it.
Now, I gotta go to Chicago as soon as they call me. Frankie’s funeral. Melvin will be in charge until I get back.
One more thing. Just so you know how serious this is.
Tommy Bones has put a price on this Kiko woman’s head. Ten large, the guy finds her. But you have to make her disappear. And I mean forever!
I’m takin’ the employment card with her fingerprints on it to Chicago with me.”
“What for?”
“Tommy wants it. If you get the girl, he wants proof. He’ll pay the ten thousand when he gets the fingers that match the prints.”
Fiore laughed.
“Hell, for another yard, I’ll throw in her feet.”
Chapter 4
Las Vegas, Nevada, Smoke Tree, California
Oatman, Kingman, and Parker, Arizona
Twentynine Palms, California
Mojave Desert Sanctuary Page 4