You're nobody 'til somebody kills you

Nineteen

The drive to L.A. took less than three hours. Jerry kept the Caddy between ninety and a hundred miles an hour most of the way and, surprisingly, we never got pulled over.

As we entered L.A., Jerry asked, “Where to?”

“Wait,” I said. “I’ve got to wait for my stomach to catch up.”

“Aw, Mr. G….”

“I’ve got directions to the motel Danny was stayin’ at,” I said. “I want to check there first.”

“Sure, Mr. G.”

The motel Danny had stayed in was just off 405, about half an hour’s drive from Marilyn’s house. He might have gotten something closer, but I knew he looked with a budget in mind. After all, I was going to be footing the bill.

We pulled into the parking lot of the Starshine Motor Court.

“You stay in the car,” I said. “I want to do this without being noticed, if I can.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll watch yer back from here.”

I decided to go to the room first. I opened the gate and entered the pool area, taking the stairs to the second level. Penny had written the room number down along with the address. When I got to Danny’s room I knocked. I thought, Wouldn’t it be a kick if he answered? Well, I was going to have to get my kicks somewhere else. He didn’t answer and the door was locked.

I heard something squeaking, turned my head and saw a maid pushing her cart. She wasn’t stopping at any of the rooms, so she must have finished for the day-at least, on this floor.

I started fishing around in my pocket, as if looking for my key. I didn’t know if this would work. In fact, it probably wouldn’t have worked on the maids in the Sands, but maybe here … then again, maids in L.A. hotels and motels had probably seen everything.

“Can you help me?” I asked, as she reached me.

She looked at me with bored, middle-aged eyes. Yeah, she’d seen it all. “You want in?”

“I forgot my key-”

“Don’t try to bullshit me, mister,” she said. “I been pushing this cart for too many years.”

“Well … okay. See, it’s my brother’s room and he said-”

“Ten bucks,” she said, cutting me off.

“What?”

“Ten bucks and I’ll let ya in.”

“Okay,” I agreed, handing over a sawbuck.

She used her key to open the door, swinging it wide and stepping back.

“Actually,” I said, trying one more time, “I think my wife’s cheating and using this motel-”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, waving her hand, “you don’t say nothin’ and I won’t say nothin’.”

She moved on. I went inside and closed the door behind me. She had obviously already cleaned the room. The bed was neatly made. There were fresh, dry towels in the bathroom. The bottom of the tub was dry. Maybe she hadn’t needed to replace the towels.

I looked through the dresser drawers and found nothing. There was no suitcase in the room. Danny may not have had time to pack anything. If he’d followed Marilyn from Tahoe he might have been resourceful enough to get on her flight and follow her all the way. He could have picked up whatever he needed in LAX when they landed, maybe even a t-shirt or two and some underwear. I looked in the wastebasket to see if there were any clothing tags or empty bags, but there was nothing. The maid had done her job well.

In fact, there was nothing in the room to indicate that Danny had ever been there. I went back into the bathroom and looked on the counter. Okay, there was a comb, and a bottle of cologne. It was Hai Karate. Danny used it, but so did a lot of other guys.

Playing detective in the room had gotten me nowhere. I decided to go to the front desk and ask. After all, what was I trying to hide? I just wanted to know if my friend had ever checked in.

I left the room, letting the door lock behind me.

“Sure,” the desk clerk said, “he took a room here. Been here … what? Four days?”

Sounded right. I had been in Brooklyn for three days. The desk clerk had answered my question for the same price it took to get the maid to open the door. I wasn’t sure if I had gotten a deal or not.

“Have you seen him lately?”

“Whataya mean lately?”

The clerk was in his fifties, and had been dozing when I walked in. I had the feeling he spent a lot of his time dozing.

“Today? Yesterday? Maybe you saw him comin’ in, goin’ out?”

“Nope.”

“You sure?”

“I hear and see everything.”

“You didn’t hear or see me come in.”

He showed me a wolfish, yellow-toothed grin. “Yeah, I did.”

“Okay,” I said, “okay.”

“If he came in late or early, then I wouldn’t’ve been here. You’d have to talk to whoever was on nights.”

“And who would that be?”

“Mmm, that’d be … Harry two nights, and … oh, yeah, Hilary the other two.” From the guy’s tone of voice Hilary was apparently a babe.

“What time do they come on?”

“Whoever it is tonight would be comin’ on at eleven tonight. Leaves at 7:00 A.M. You’ll catch ‘em any time between there.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Don’t let ‘em hit ya for more than a sawbuck. It ain’t worth more.”

“Oh, yeah, thanks.”

I started out, stopped at the door and turned back.

“Where would I go to talk to the police who handle this area?”

“That’d be the West Los Angeles Station. You want directions?”

“How much will it cost me?”

He made a face and said, “Up to you. I trust ya to do the right thing.”

He wrote the directions down for me.

I gave him a fin.