The Big Dirt Nap

Forty

"We're going to Georgie's."

"It's starting to freak me out that you know everyone in this town after less than a week," Lucy said, checking herself out in the mirror and fixing her hair.

"I don't know everyone," I said. "It's a small town. People tell you their names and you remember them; it's not as if there are eight million of them."

I hadn't really expected the homeless guy to still be standing where I'd seen him yesterday, but Georgie's was as good a place to start looking as any.

"You mean Sam?" Georgie asked. Were there many homeless guys pushing Big Y shopping carts with American flags on them in this town? I said yes.

"That was a wonderful thing you did for him. I been telling everybody how you gave Sam a whole new start."

I don't usually give money to people on the street. In New York, conventional wisdom says they'd only go straight to the liquor store with it and buy another bottle; here, it seemed different. But twenty bucks hardly qualified as a whole new start. "It was only a few dollars. Have you seen him?"

"Not since yesterday." He clammed up as if he thought I might be looking for change from the twenty.

"He might be in trouble," Lucy said.

"Scout's honor, I haven't seen him," Georgie said. "I kidded him, maybe he was going to Florida with all that dough."

And who would have blamed him if he did leave town. Especially if Sam suspected what we did: that Billy Crawford was being set up and hunted for what he'd seen that night, and thought he might be next.

I scribbled a note on the back of a business card and left it with Georgie. "If you see him, please ask him to call me. We're only trying to help.

"Is Betty Smallwood around?" I asked.

Georgie shook his head.

Betty had been running around trying to raise Claude's bail. He looked from me to Lucy and back again. "Were you the girl in here with Claude the other night?" he asked.

"That was me," Lucy said.

"Yeah, that Claude always had an eye for the ladies. You be careful now."

We left Georgie's and headed back to Titans, to see if anyone there had seen Sam/Big Y, the homeless guy who now had a real name.

Taylor, the clerk in the oversize jacket who was on duty the night I first arrived, was at the front desk. He was grinning and pleased with himself that he remembered my name.

"Hello, Ms. Cavanaugh. Welcome back to Titans."

Lucy answered him and the kid looked confused. Then she did.

"Never mind," I told her, "it's too complicated."

I asked if he'd seen Hector and he told me Hector and Rachel had been in the bar when he came on duty.

"I don't know if they're still there. I only noticed because I like to keep an eye on Amanda when she's in the hotel." So he was the boyfriend.

I was in no hurry to see Rachel Page again and knew she wouldn't be helpful if we did see her. "Taylor, will you do us a favor?" He looked nervous, but Lucy picked up her cue and turned on the charm. "Will you call Mrs. Page's number and see if she's in her office? We don't want to disturb her if she's discussing important business with Hector." I felt sorry for deceiving the guy, but what harm would it do? He thought about it for a minute, then Lucy flashed her baby blues at him and he couldn't pick up the phone fast enough. Sometimes I hated her.

He put the phone on speaker and dialed. "Mrs. Page? Oh, there you are."

"You just called me, you halfwit. Who did you think would be here? What is it?" she asked. Taylor paused; he hadn't thought that far ahead and since the phone was on speaker we couldn't help him out. "Young man, are you trying to get fired?" She slammed the phone down.

Once we knew Hector wasn't with Rachel, we went into the lounge looking for him. He was at the far end of the bar, nursing what looked like an iced tea.

"You ladies just can't get enough of this place, can you? Or is it me?"

"Hey, Hector." We slid onto bar stools on either side of him.

"I like this. A Hector sandwich."

"Dream on. Do you remember the homeless guy who was behind the hotel, near the Dumpster, the night Nick was killed?"

"Why?"

"C'mon. It's a simple question," I said, trying to sound tougher than I felt.

"Y. Big Y. We call him that because of the shopping cart."

Clever.

"I haven't seen him since that night. Some of Nick's friends were asking, too. They think he rolled the body before he reported finding it. Seems Nick had an expensive watch or something." Hector took a sip of his drink and I revised my first guess about what was in the glass. "Don't look at me like that, mamí, I'm off duty."

Having seen Sam recently—and not looking flush—I didn't buy it, but I said nothing to Hector.

"Is there anything else I can do for you ladies? Private tour of the grounds? The hot tub?" He knew the answer was no, so he finished his drink and left us sitting at the bar.

Lucy looked at me. "Now what?" she said.

I wasn't sure. I only knew two other places in town, the trailer park and the Crawfords' cabin on the mountain.

"You can forget about that cabin," Lucy said. "I've spent enough time there, thank you very much."

The bartender came over to see if we needed anything. I felt like a drink but didn't order one so we sat there with club sodas, as I had a few nights earlier when Nick Vigoriti was alive and Billy Crawford wasn't on the run. The bartender came back with a bowl of Goldfish.

"Did I hear you guys are looking for old Sam?" she whispered.