Body Rides (36 page)

Where’ve I heard that before?

‘Maybe I should,’ he admitted. ‘I don’t know. Anyway, I’ve already got a room for tonight, so . . .’

‘In a Nevada casino.’

‘What makes you think so?’

‘Just call me Sherlock.’

‘The sounds of the slot machines?’

‘I’ll never tell.’

‘So much for hiding out,’ he said.

‘I still don’t know what town you’re in.’

‘I
could
be in Atlantic City.’

‘Not likely. You would’ve had to fly, and I don’t think you’d want to risk running into me or one of my friends at the airport.’

‘Could’ve flown out of Burbank or Orange County.’

‘Nope. You get
lost
every time you try to drive in those places.’

‘You sure know a lot about me.’

‘More than you’ll ever know,’ she said, her voice teasing.

‘That sounds ominous.’

‘Why should it?’ she asked. Neal could imagine the smile on her face. ‘You feeling guilty about something?’

‘No.’ When he heard the sound of his ‘No,’ he wished he could take it back. It had sounded all wrong.

‘What is it?’ Marta asked. She wouldn’t be smiling now. Neal could imagine her big, blue eyes studying him.

He didn’t want to lie to her. Not again. He’d already told her far too many lies.

I can’t tell her about Sue. No way
.

But if I don’t, and she finds out later
. . .

Neal realized that she was almost certain to find out about Sue. The girl seemed determined to stay with him, intending to accompany him back to Los Angeles and be his partner in the hunt for Rasputin.

Marta obviously planned to be his partner in the same quest.

This might get sticky
.

Unless he could figure out a way to ditch Sue . . .

He didn’t want to ditch her, though. He liked her. He wanted to help her.

Better cut my losses right now. Let her know I’m not trying to hide anything
.

‘I don’t want you taking this the wrong way . . .’ he started, and realized immediately that it was a lousy choice of starts.

‘Oh, boy,’ Marta said.

‘There’s this girl with me. She wanted a ride.’

‘So, naturally, you obliged her.’

‘Yeah. Well, she’s a nice kid. Anyway, one thing led to another, and . . .’

Any way I put it, this is gonna end up looking bad
.

‘Don’t stop now,’ Marta told him. She sounded as if she were still trying to keep it light, but having difficulty.

‘It’s just that she knows all about Sunday night. About me and Elise and the murder. And about you, too. The thing is, we heard about the reward, so now she has this idea in her head that we should try to collect it.’

‘We?’

‘She wants to split it with me, fifty-fifty.’

‘You picked up this
total stranger
, told her your life story – including your involvement in a murder – and agreed to go in halvsies on the reward for Rasputin?’

Neal grimaced. ‘I guess it
sounds
kind of funny.’

When Marta spoke again, all traces of humor were gone from her voice. ‘Well,’ she said. ‘Hey. It’s your life.’ After a long pause, she asked, ‘So, how do I fit into all this? Or don’t I?’

‘Of course you do.’

‘Have you fallen in love with her yet?’

‘No!’

‘You sure about that? You fell in love with Elise Waters in about two minutes . . .’

Never should’ve told her
. . .

‘And you’ve been with
this
girl how long?’

‘Most of today, I guess. But we’re not . . . I’m
not
in love with her. She’s just a twerp. She’s an eighteen-year-old gum-snapper with hardly a brain in her head. My God, you should hear her talk – it’s like she strayed off the set of the
Beverly Hillbellies
.’

‘And where’s
she
going to spend the night?’

‘I got her a separate room.’

So much for telling the truth
.

‘Well,’ Marta said. ‘Whatever. Like I said, it’s your life.’

‘I love
you
, Marta. I don’t care at all about this girl. She’s a good kid, though. I can’t just dump her by the side of the road.’

‘Doesn’t she have a home?’

‘No. Not really.’

‘What
are
you going to do with her?’

‘Nothing!’

‘That’s not what I meant. Of course, maybe it’s none of my business.’

‘Of course it’s your business. I don’t know what I’m going to do with her. Maybe bring her back to Los Angeles. That’s what she wants.’

‘Cool.’

Neal groaned. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I’ll try to get rid of her. I might not be able to, though. I mean, she’s
really
pushy. But I’ll do what I can. You’ve got no idea what a pain in the ass she’s been. I’d like nothing
more
than to get rid of her. But I feel sorry for her, too. I mean, she’s got no one.’

‘She’s got you,’ Marta said.

‘In a way. But not . . .’

‘I have to go.’

Neal grimaced. ‘Oh, man,’ he muttered.

‘I’m sorry. I’d like to be big and understanding about everything, but . . .’ Her voice broke. ‘I’ve gotta go. Have fun. Bye.’ She hung up.

Shit!

Neal hung up, and stared at the phone.

She thinks I’m having a fling with Sue! Damn it! Didn’t she listen? It isn’t fair!

He picked up the phone again and called Marta back.

He listened to the ringing.

Come on, I know you’re there. Pick up. Damn it!

‘Okay,’ he muttered as the ringing continued.

She wants to play games, she can play them without me
.

He hung up.

He was breathing hard, his heart pounding. He hurt inside. He felt as if he’d lost her.

Lost her, but for no real reason.

Just for being nice to a person
.

He realized that his fists were clenched. He wanted to slug the telephone.

Or Marta.

He opened his hands and shook them by his sides.

It’ll be all right, he told himself. She just doesn’t get it.

What makes you think she’ll ever get it?

‘Who cares?’ he muttered.

Let her think what she wants. If she isn’t gonna listen to the truth, anyway, the hell with her
.

He turned away from the telephone and started walking back through the casino. He’d been away from Sue too long.

What’ll
she
think? he wondered. Maybe
she’ll
figure I’ve been in the back room boffing the desk clerk.

Women!

Never should’ve told Marta about her. That was the big mistake. Trusting her to understand
.

Just because she’d been okay about Elise
. . .

Who says she was okay about Elise?

Maybe that had been an act
.

Besides, by the time I made that bonehead confession about falling for Elise, she was dead. Hardly in any position to steal me away from Marta
.

Whereas Sue is alive and well and a threat
.

Striding across the hotel’s parking lot, he could see her through the rear window of his car. She seemed to be slumped sideways against the passenger door.

Neal went to the opposite side. As he climbed in behind the steering wheel, she sat up. She looked at him. Though she smiled, her eyes were wet and red, and she had tear streaks down both sides of her face.

‘So,’ she said, ‘we all set?’ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. ‘Ya git us a room?’

He stared at her.

He knew why she’d been crying.

Shaking his head, he muttered, ‘Great. Terrific.’

‘Huh?’

‘You were in me, weren’t you?’ he asked. ‘The whole time.’

Without being asked, Sue slipped the bracelet off her wrist and gave it back to Neal. ‘I’m awful sorry,’ she said.

‘How could you
do
that to me?’

She lowered her head. ‘I’m a shit.’

‘You’re damn right you’re a shit! I trusted you!’

‘I know.’

‘Damn it!’

‘I aimed to lie and let on I’d gone off in someone else, but then . . . I ain’t never lied to ya, Neal. Didn’t seem like a good time to start, right after ya got yerself in such a jam by tellin the truth to Marta.’

Recalling things he’d said about Sue, he felt a sickening rush of shame. ‘It wasn’t all the truth,’ he told her.

‘Ya mean like how I’m a teenage lame-brain gum-chompin hillbelly?’

He grimaced. ‘I was . . . exaggerating.’

Sue raised her head and gave him a crooked smile. ‘I know that, pal. I was in yer
head
, remember? In the resta ya, too. I got me a purty good notion
exactly
what ya thinka me. How ya
feel
’bout me, too.’

‘You think so?’

‘I know so.’ With that, she clapped him on the thigh. ‘C’mon, let’s get up to the room.’

Sue had only her paper sack for luggage, so she helped Neal by carrying his overnight bag while he hurried along with his suitcase.

He knew that he ought to be furious with her. Bad enough that she’d snuck into him with the bracelet, but she hadn’t
gotten out
when he told her to.

Knew everything . . .

But it was hard to be furious with someone, knowing that she was aware of all those terrible things he’d said about her.

Especially when she’d seen beyond the words and recognized the truth: that he hadn’t really meant them, that he’d said them to mislead Marta about his true feelings for her.

They must’ve hurt her, anyway.

She’d been in tears.

In his own limited experiences with the bracelet, Neal had discovered that his body had reacted in certain ways, even though abandoned – apparently responding to things that happened on the ‘ride.’ He’d returned to find it sweaty, breathless, agitated . . . even aroused.

What had he thought, or said, to make Sue cry?

The insults? Something else?

Ask her?

Maybe some other time
.

Following him through the dim and smoky casino, Sue said, ‘There’s that nudie gal.’

He glanced at the painted panel near the end of the bar, and blushed.

‘She looks sorta lumpy to me.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, and wished she would drop the subject.

‘She ain’t gotta you-know-what, either.’ Sue flashed a grin at him. ‘But I reckon ya already noticed.’

‘Very funny.’

The elevator was just beyond the pay phones. Sue pushed the button. As they waited for the elevator to arrive, she said, ‘Hasn’t.’

‘Hasn’t what?’

‘
Hasn’t
gotta you-know-what.’

The doors slid open. They stepped inside. As the doors shut, Sue said, ‘It’s room four-twenty?’ She hadn’t yet seen either of the keys; she apparently knew the room number because she’d been in Neal at the front desk.

‘Yeah,’ he said.

She set her bags on the floor and pushed the button for the fourth floor. The elevator started upward.

‘Hey, look at us!’ she blurted.

Looking around, Neal realized there were mirrors on three sides of the elevator, and on its ceiling. The glass was flecked with gold. ‘Fancy,’ he said.

In the mirror to his left, he gazed at the reflection of Sue standing beside him. She was leaning forward slightly, studying the same images, a look of amused curiosity on her face.

They could not only see themselves in the mirror, but also its reflection of the mirror to their right, which showed them and the mirror to their left, which showed them again and . . .

‘We just keep on goin and goin,’ Sue whispered.