Chance

CHAPTER 28

When I got back to the hotel Hawk and Bibi were sitting in my room.

"Anthony's gone," Hawk said.

"Tell me about it," I said.

"Went in the bedroom to lie down," he said.

"Turned on the television, left the door ajar.

"Bout twenty minutes ago she went in to use the bathroom. He was gone. Chain off the hall door from the bedroom. I could look for him or I could stay with her."

Bibi sat forward on the front edge of one of the easy chairs near Hawk.

"Well, he didn't hire us to keep him in," I said.

"What I thought."

"He got any money left?" I said to Bibi.

She shook her head.

"He took ours," she said.

"Ours?"

"We had five thousand put aside, win or lose, to take us out of here, and give us a start. I had it in my makeup case. It's gone."

"Anything else?"

Bibi shook her head.

"He was going to be the one," Bibi said. Her voice was quiet.

There was no hint of tears behind it this time.

"He was going to be the one got me out of it, away from Marty. Find some town on the Oregon coast, start a store or something. Bookstore, maybe. I like books. He was going to bust The Mirage and then we were going to go to Oregon and open a bookstore."

"You have any money left?"

She shook her head again. Her face was still, her eyes were empty. If she felt anything it showed only in the slump of her shoulders as she sat on the edge of the chair.

"I was going to run it, read up all the new books, tell people when they came in what was good. Get a cat maybe, a store cat, let him sleep on the books in the window. You know how they stretch when they wake up and sort of slide around?"

"You got a plan?" I said.

"Even if he lost everything," she said softly, as if I hadn't spoken, "we had the five thousand. That was my idea. I kind of knew what Anthony was, and I wanted some money to be mine so he wouldn't lose it, and we could at least get to Oregon. I could maybe get some waitress work. I know he wouldn't work, not regular work. But if I got to Oregon, it wouldn't matter so much about him, then."

"You go back to Boston, Marty'll find you," I said.

She nodded.

"I don't want to go back to Boston," she said.

"He will not be forgiving of your little fling with Anthony," I said.

She shrugged.

"If you didn't go to Boston, where would you go, Oregon?"

"Oregon is no good now. He ruined it."

"You got to go somewhere," I said.

"What's the difference if I haven't got any money anyway?"

I reached into my right-hand pants pocket and took out Julius's money and handed it to her.

"Should be about five thousand."

"I can't pay you back."

"Why should you be different," I said.

"You want to go to Oregon?"

"No. Not now."

"You got family anywhere?"

"I don't want to see them," she said, "and they don't want to see me."

"Makes it nice and even. How about L.A. You ever been to

L.A.?"

"No."

"Time you went," I said.

I got up and made some phone calls leaning against the bar in the living room, staring out the window at the un-erupting volcano.

Hawk leaned back on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table, his eyes half closed, as if he were asleep. I knew he wasn't.

When I got through I came back and sat on the couch beside her.

"Okay," I said.

"You're on the five P.M. Southwest flight to L.A.

Gets in at six-oh-two. Hawk and I will take you to the airport, put you on the plane. In L.A. a guy named Chollo will meet you at the gate. He'll carry a sign that says CHOLLO on it."

"Chollo?"

"Yeah. There's also a cop in L.A. named Samuelson. I'll write it down for you. You need cop help, you call him. He'll know who you are."

"What's this Chollo guy going to do with me?"

"Look out for you," I said.

"You can trust him."

She nodded.

"So you want to pack some stuff?"

She nodded.

"Maybe one shoulder bag, so we can move right along?"

"Yes, that will be okay."

She didn't move. Hawk opened his eyes slowly and smiled at Bibi.

"Come on," he said.

"I'll help you."

"Pack?"

"Sure."

"You can't help me pack."

"No?"

"God no."

"We better get going then," he said.

She stood and we went up to her room and stood around while she packed.

"You thought of a name yet for that mouse you got on your cheekbone?" Hawk said.

"I thought I'd wait and let it pick its own name when it's older."

"Marty give you that?"

"Yeah."

"Neither one of us looking too good today," Hawk said.

Bibi came out of the bedroom with her suitcase, and stood quietly near the door.

"Okay," I said.

"What about the hotel bill?" Bibi said.

"We'll let Anthony worry about that," I said.

Hawk went out first, then Bibi, then me. We let her carry her shoulder bag, because if we had to fight neither of us wanted to be carrying it when the fight started.

But there was no fight. We got into Lester's car out front and drove to the airport.

At the security gate, I handed Hawk my gun and went through with Bibi and walked her to the gate. Before she boarded she hesitated and looked at me.

"What are you going to do?" she said.

"After I leave?"

"I was thinking we might get drunk," I said.

She nodded to herself and then she smiled and kissed me very carefully on the cheek and went on down the ramp. I stayed at the gate until the plane took off.