I'm a fool to kill you

THIRTY-TWO

We started with the clerk. Ava stayed in the bungalow.

‘Keep the door locked,’ I told her. ‘We’ll be right back.’

‘Ya want this?’ Jerry asked, holding out his forty-five.

‘Ooh, yes!’ she said, eyes wide.

‘Oh, no,’ I said. ‘Put that away, Jerry.’ I looked at Ava. ‘Just lock the door. We won’t be long.’

She pouted as we went out the door.

‘Let’s go to the lobby. Hopefully, the clerk is on duty.’

He was. He saw us coming, and looked like he wanted to run. The fact that he didn’t had me thinking he might not be the guilty party.

‘Jerry, don’t hurt him, just scare him a little.’

‘You don’t think it’s him?’

I shook my head. ‘Maybe he’ll give up the manager though.’

We approached the desk.

‘Can I help you, sir?’

‘Do you know my name?’ I asked.

‘Um, I‘m sorry, sir,’ he said. ‘I know I heard it when the phone call came in, but I can’t remember.’

‘Try,’ Jerry said, putting his big hand on the young man’s chest.

‘I, uh, I’m sorry-’ he moved his eyes nervously between us. ‘Is he gonna hurt me?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ I said. ‘Unless. .’

‘Unless what?’ he asked, leaping at what he thought might be salvation.

‘Somebody made a call,’ I said, ‘when I got here.’

‘A call?’

I nodded.

‘That’s why there were two men waiting to put me in the hospital when they heard me being paged,’ I explained, ‘only the cab driver took the call, and the beating.’

‘Oh, I. . I think I understand.’

‘Did you place that call?’

‘N-no, I swear.’

‘Then who did?’

He looked frightened, and not only of Jerry.

‘Look, if you’re worried about your job, don’t. Nobody will know. When I got here and asked for Lucy Johnson’s room, somebody made a call. Who was it?’

The clerk didn’t answer fast enough, so Jerry made a fist, gathering the kid’s shirt in it.

‘It was M-Mr Gentry. B-but I don’t know who he called. I just know he made a phone call.’

‘Where is he?’

‘In his office.’

‘Show us.’

The clerk nodded and Jerry released his shirt. He came out from behind the desk, walked us around the corner and pointed to a door.

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Go back to work.’

‘Sure thing.’

Jerry stopped him by putting his hand on his chest.

‘Don’t make no calls.’

‘No sir!’

‘Now get lost.’

The kid ran back to the desk.

‘Do we knock?’ Jerry asked.

‘Why warn him?’ I said. ‘You go in first.’ I figured Jerry’s sheer size would put the manager in the right frame of mind.

‘Should I kick it in?’ he asked.

‘Let’s try the doorknob first.’

‘Spoilsport,’ he muttered.

He reached for the knob, turned it slowly and then nodded to me. I gestured for him to go in. He opened the door quickly and stepped inside. I followed, and closed the door behind us.

‘Mr Gentry-’ I said, and stopped.

Gentry was sitting behind his desk. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t looked at us. In fact, he wasn’t looking at anybody.

‘Jerry. .’

Jerry approached the man, examined him without touching him, then put two fingers to his neck.

‘He’s a stiff, Mr G.’

‘How, and for how long, do you figure?’

Again, he examined the corpse as well as he could without touching it.

‘I don’t see no marks,’ he said.

‘Maybe he was strangled?’

‘His tongue would be out, and swollen,’ Jerry said.

I looked at the desk top. No glasses to indicate he might have been poisoned with a drink.

‘His skin feels like it’s coolin’, Mr G..’

‘So not in the past hour or so, huh?’

‘Naw,’ Jerry said, ‘maybe this mornin’.’

‘We could ask the clerk when he last saw him, but I don’t want to alert him yet.’

‘He’s gonna give us up when he finds the body.’

‘He doesn’t know your name, and if he was on the level, he can’t remember mine.’

‘He might mention Miss Gardner.’

‘You’re right about that,’ I said. ‘We’re gonna have to get out of here now. I’ll call Ava and tell her to pack up-’

I was reaching for the phone when he stopped me.

‘Not from this phone, Mr G.,’ he said.

‘Damn it, what was I thinking?’ I said, snatching my hand away from the phone. ‘Let’s see if we can get back to the bungalow without passing the clerk.’

‘If we can’t, maybe we can get to a house phone.’

‘If we pass him he’s gonna wonder what went on,’ I said. ‘He might even decide to come back here to ask.’

Jerry examined the doorknob.

‘We can lock this and pull it shut,’ he said, ‘then tell the clerk his boss don’t wanna be disturbed. It might keep him out of here for a while.’

‘OK,’ I said, ‘but let’s take a quick look around first. Maybe we’ll find something helpful.’

‘Yeah, we can do that,’ Jerry said, ‘but don’t touch nothin’, Mr G..’

‘I gotcha, Jerry.’