Chapter 16
It took about a half hour for us to walk back to the Biltmore Plaza. It was cold and April had no coat. We couldn't find a cab, so I had to give her my jacket. That left the .38 in its hip holster out in the open air and several people looked at me askance as we went by. When we got to the lobby I retrieved my coat and covered the gun.
It took me a half hour to pack, check out, get my car, and head for home. In that time April had said not a word, but she stuck close to me. When we were heading up Route 95, I said "Dinner in Boston, okay?"
"Okay,'.
"Ever been to the Warren Tavern?"
"No."
"It's in Charlestown, good place. Old. Food's good." She didn't say anything. I wasn't too worried about Mrs. Ross and the friendly folks who owned the sheep ranch. It was probably connected, and Angelo was probably a mob watchdog. But they didn't know who I was, and they probably had a good supply of teenage whores. I checked the rearview mirror occasionally, but no one had followed us, and no one was following now.
"You going to take me home?" Her voice was louder than it had been in her room but not more animated.
"If you want me to."
"What if I don't?"
"I won't."
"They hired you to make me come home."
"Actually, to find you."
"You'll make me go home."
"hope.'
"I won't stay."
It was dark now. We crossed the state line into Massachusetts at Attleboro. "That bad at home?" I said.
She was quiet.
"Worse than the sheep ranch?"
Out of the corner of my eye I could see her shrug.
"How'd you get those chafe marks on your wrists?" I said.
"Lots of guys like to tie you up when they do it," she said in her small monotone.
"And the bruises on your butt?"
"Some guys like to paddle you."
Route 95 had a wide dividing strip. The cars heading south were barely noticeable and not many cars were heading north. There was just the two of us in the small car, talking in the dark.
"And home's worse than that?"
"When you're not working, they leave you alone."
"Except you couldn't leave," I said.
"They left you alone. And…" Her voice stopped. "You like the life?"
"Sure. Nobody hassles you. Nobody tells you what to do."
"Except occasionally some stranger ties you up and hits you with a 'stick."
"Yeah. They do other stuff too."
"I imagine," I said.
"You want to hear about it?"
"If you want to tell me."
She struggled again. "Some guys like to hear about it."
"I'm not one of them," I said. "If you want to talk about it, I don't mind hearing."
She shook her head. I was watching the road and looking at her in quick peeks. She was slumped still in the seat of the MG. Her feet were out straight in front of her.
"How'd you end up in Providence?" I said.
"Red sent me down here."
..Why?" She shrugged again. It was a hard conversation to follow if you were driving.
"How'd you meet Red?" I said.
"You a cop?"
"No." "How come you had a gun?"
"Private cop," I said.
"Umph." "Everybody is thrilled like that," I said. "How'd you meet Red?" She shook her head. "Red had you on the street before?"
"Uh-huh."
"That's a tough work. Classy girl like you, I would think he, might set you up in a call operation."
She didn't comment.
"Weren't you a call girl first?"
"Yeah."
"So how come you got demoted?"
"Red ordered me around too much. I don't like being ordered around."
"So you were on the street and then Red sent you down here?"
"Yeah."
"You getting punished again?" I said.
"No. I didn't give him any trouble. He just drove me down to Providence and said I had to work there."
"When?"
"Last week?"
"When last week?"
She made an impatient gesture with her head. "I don't know, last week sometime."
"Today is Monday," I said. "How many days ago did you arrive?"
She was looking down at her knees, her feet pushed out straight in the low leg well of the sports car. It was dark, but I could see a sulky set to her shoulders.
"Come on, April, how many days?"
She shook her head in disgust and took a long exasperated breath and made a considerable show of thinking and counting on her fingers. She was overacting badly-I was already willing to believe that thinking came hard for her. "Five days," she said. "Thursday," I said. "I guess so." "What time of day?" "Jesus, mister, what difference does it make? Get off my ass, will you?" "What time?" "I don't know, late in the day." "Was it dark yet?" "It was just getting dark." "Red put on the headlights?" "Not at first." "Four maybe," I said. "Four thirty?" "Sure," she said. "And you weren't having any trouble with Red?" "No. When I started I got a little out of line maybe, and Red slapped me around and said I'd have to work the Zone for a month." "How long did you have to go?" "Two weeks." "And you weren't getting out of line?" "No." "So why'd he send you to the sheep ranch?" "I don't know." "Isn't it usually a place they send troublemakers?" She nodded. "You a troublemaker''" "Just that one time, honest to God. I only did it that once time." "What did you do?" "I got a call and I didn't go. You know? I said I was going, and I went out and everything, but I didn't go. I went to the show instead. And Red finds- out and he's pissed, right? And he beats the shit out of me and makes me work the Zone. But I was good after that. I didn't do a goddamned thing. I wanted to get back on call, you know? Guys take you to nice hotel rooms. You can sleep over, in-room movies sometimes, breakfast in bed, take a shower, everything, right? I wanted to get back on that. So I didn't give anybody any trouble."
"Everybody's gotta have a dream," I said.
"Just that one time," she said. "Only time I ever did anything bad."
We were quiet then. She dreaming heavily of in-room movies and room service, me thinking about how she seemed to have been shipped to Providence shortly after I talked to Amy Gurwitz, before I spoke first with Trumps, and long before Red told me the Chandler Street address.
April said, "Can you pull over a minute? I gotta go to the bathroom."
"Want me to pull off at the next exit and find a gas station?"
"No, I gotta go real bad. Just stop here and I'll go in the woods. Please, I gotta go bad."
I pulled over onto the shoulder and April got out as soon as the car stopped moving. She ran down the small gully along the road and up the other side and into the dark trees. It took me maybe ten minutes to realize I'd been had. I waited another ten and got out and walked into the woods and yelled. Beyond the reach of the headlights on Route 95 the woods were opaque. I couldn't see anything, and I was pretty sure that by now there was nothing to see.