Crow Bait

Thirty-four

“Adderly.”

“He was here?” Lancaster asked.

The girl looked at him and said, “That’s what I just said. He was here.”

There were two whorehouses in town, and this was the second. The girl was a pretty, slightly faded, and plump girl of about thirty. Her name was Angel. She was sitting on a bed with grimy sheets in a tiny room with one dirty window. Lancaster had seen cleaner campsites.

“His name is kinda weird,” she said. “That’s why I remember him.”

“Adderly?”

“No, his first name,” she said. “It’s Chester.”

“Chester.”

“He said his friends called him Chet, but he wanted me to call him Chester while we did it.”

“How many times was he here?”

“A few,” she said. “He was in town for about a week, and then he left.”

“Did he come by to say good-bye?”

“What the hell?” she said. “I’m a whore, I wasn’t his girlfriend. Who says good-bye to a whore when they leave town?”

She was right, of course.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Hey,” she said as he turned to the door.

“What?”

“My money?”

“Oh, sorry.” Lancaster gave her the money he’d promised her.

“Don’t forget to tell that bitch downstairs what a good ride I gave you.”

“I won’t forget,” he promised.

“Thanks.”

He opened the door, but before leaving he asked, “Did Adderly go with any of the other girls?”

“One,” she said. “He went with Lisa first, but after that he was with me, and he stayed with me. That Lisa, what a skinny bitch.”

“Lisa,” he said. “Thanks.”

“Tell that bitch downstairs to send up the next one,” she said.

“Right.”

“Another one?” the bitch downstairs asked.

“Yeah, Lisa,” Lancaster said.

“What, Angel wasn’t enough for you?”

“Angel was great,” he said. “Worth every penny. But then she told me about this skinny girl—”

“You like ’em skinny?”

Lancaster was getting impatient. He took out some money and shoved it into the woman’s hand. “Look, I need to talk to Lisa. Five minutes. She knows something about a man I’m looking for.”

She looked at the money in her hand. “For this you can talk for half an hour.”

“Five minutes.”

“Go ahead,” she said. “Room three.”

He started up the stairs, then turned and said, “Angel said to send up the next one.”

“Already?”

“She’s a helluva worker.”

“I guess so,” she said. “Okay.”

He went up the stairs, walked to room three, knocked, and went in.

Lisa didn’t know a thing about a man named Adderly.

“Oh, Chet!” she said, when he explained who he was looking for. “I didn’t get his last name.”

“You called him Chet? His name was Chester, right?” Lancaster asked.

“Yeah, but I called him Chet.”

He could see her shoulder and hip bones through the thin robe she was wearing. She was older than Angel, but either not as busy or cleaner, because the room—and the sheets—were not as grimy.

She screwed up her face.

“Maybe he didn’t like that, because he never came back to me. Started using that bitch Angel.”

“You don’t like Angel?”

She wrinkled her nose and said, “She’s dirty.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“So you’re lookin’ for Chet?”

“Yeah.”

“You gonna kill ’im?”

“Probably. What made you ask?”

“You look like a gunman,” she said. “He looked like an outlaw.” She shrugged. “I slept with so many men—cowboys, gunmen, gamblers, lawmen—that I can tell them apart.”

“And can you tell me anything about him?” Lancaster asked.

“Like what?”

“Like where he was going when he left Henderson?”

“We didn’t talk much,” she said. “In fact, he was finished with me pretty quick.”

“Sorry to hear it.”

“No, no,” she said, “those are the best kind of customers, the ones who finish fast, roll over, break wind, and then leave. Well, except for customers like you.”

“Like me?”

She nodded. “The kind who pay to talk.”

“Oh.” He took out the money he promised her and she shoved it into the pocket of her robe.

“Anything else I can do?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “That’s it. Thanks.”

“Any time,” she said. “Come back and talk some more.”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’m leaving town.”

“Too bad.”

He started to leave but as he grabbed the doorknob she said, “Wait.”

“What?”

“He asked me a question before he left.”

“What question?”

She screwed her face up again. “He asked me if I knew a place called Peach…something.”