The Last Call

CHAPTER TWENTY

“Wake up, Bill.”

It was Hank, shaking me awake.

“What? What?”

“Bill. She’s gone.”

Who’s gone? That’s what I wanted to ask, but before I could even articulate the question, the answer came to me.

“Julie,” I said.

“Yeah.”

My eyes darted around the room. All my stuff was there, but what little she had of her own was gone with her.

I got up on wobbly feet. Probably I looked like hell. I wasn’t starting to hurt yet. I was still in shock. Would be for some time. It would come though. This I knew.

“What happened?” I asked.

“She didn’t bother to check out,” he said. “Ohhh, my head.”

“She must have heard me.”

“Heard you what?”

“I got a call last night. It was Carpin. He wanted to trade the little girl for Julie. I told him no way. She must have been listening on the other side of the door. Decided to take him up on it.”

Hank nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. “That must be it. I already went downstairs and talked to the owner. I apologized for the gun-play. Gave him an extra hundred-dollar bill.”

“And, Julie?”

“Oh. She banged on his office door about five-thirty this morning. Used his phone. A half-hour later a light-blue Ford pickup picked her up.”

“Jake. Freddie.”

“Yeah,” Hank said. “Also, she left you a note. It’s both short and sweet.” He handed me the note, written on motel stationery.

Bill, I gotta go. Me for Jessica is not a bad deal. Go home. You’d only get killed. -Julie.

“What time is it?” I asked.

“Almost ten. Bill. It’s okay. I was asleep too. We can’t change it now.”

I wanted to curse. It wouldn’t have done any good. Red hot needles of betrayal were beginning to poke at my gut, my heart.

I could see that Hank wanted to ask me a lot of questions. He didn’t, though. Just the same, it was all right there on his face. I wasn’t anywhere near in the mood to talk, but then I guess he knew that.

“Hank. I’ll tell you all you wanna know. Not now. We’ve got to get going.”

I started putting my clothes on.

“Alright,” he said. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“Right.”

I was warned.

She had told me to run. Very fast.

It didn’t help, though.