Paper Doll

chapter twenty-one

THE PHONE IN my room at the Alton Arms had a long cord on it. You could stroll around the room as you talked. I was looking out my window while I told Quirk about Jefferson’s story.

“You got an address for her in Nairobi?”

Quirk said.

“Yeah, took it off the envelope,” I said and gave it to him.

“We’ll give her a call,” Quirk said. “If she’s actually there, we’ll maybe get somebody from the American Embassy to go over and interview her.”

“Farrell going to come down here?” I said.

“Somebody will,” Quirk said. “Say the stuff about Cheryl Anne Rankin again.”

“All I got is her picture in the track kitchen. Looks just like Olivia Nelson did in her high school graduation picture. Looks like she’d grow into that portrait in the living room in twenty-five years.”

“You think they’re old pictures?”

“Yeah. And the woman who says she’s Cheryl Anne’s mother is probably around seventy.”

It was bright and hot outside the hotel window. The trees across the street seemed to hang lower than usual, and their leaves were motionless. The blue Buick pulled up as I was looking at the trees, and swung in and parked in front of the hotel. A cruiser pulled up behind it and then another one. The shield on the side said Alton County Sheriff. Uniformed deputies began to unload. They spread out around the hotel, trying to be inconspicuous. A couple headed around back in case I made a dash through the kitchen.

“You thinking she could be the victim?” Quirk said.

“She looks too much like the victim to ignore,” I said. “But right now I got another problem.”

“Yeah?”

“I think I’m going to get busted by the Alton County Sheriff’s Department,” I said, and described the arrivals. There was a knock on the door.

“Here they are,” I said. “Tell whoever comes down to see if I’m in jail.”

“I’ll come down,” Quirk said.

I hung up and took my gun out of my holster and laid it down on the bedside table with the muzzle facing away from the door. Then I opened the door and smiled at the cop who had her hair done in Batesburg.