The Waiting Game (Garvey Fields) (6 page)

The dial above the lift door was starting to move from the top to the ground floor, I checked my computer tablet; no one had left her room since the passkey had been used to open it. After a while the light of the lift was visible as a straight yellow line under the lift doors. The doors opened and Sebastian wandered out and nearly jumped out of his black skin when he saw me standing and staring at him like an expectant sergeant major. A thin smile grew on his face, his eyes were a little glazed and he swayed a little as he stood.

“Garvey, listen,” he began.

I don’t like it when people assume I'm thinking the worst, it usually means they are up to something they think I will disapprove of. I took him by the arm and marched him quickly away from the lobby area into a recess behind a large potted tree.

“Well?” I said.

He reached into his pocket and came out with a wedge of cash, “he gave me this.”

I waited, whilst he prepared another sentence.

“And a glass of Kool-Aid,” he said as one would if they'd just thought of a great idea. Also, the statement made no sense.

 “Who?”

“Guy in the Penthouse Suite Two,” he said and held up two fingers.

I leaned into him, he smelled of Bacardi and coke, and weed, “you smoke and drink whilst you were in his company?”

“A little,” he said nervously.

I was disappointed with him, in life you sometimes project onto others what you want them to be and not what they are. He wasn’t a bad kid, just as easily influenced as most still in or barely out of their teens. I checked the names of the occupants in the Penthouse Suites, only my almost conquest was shown having checked in.

“I don’t have anybody in suite two?”

Sebastian looked like he was standing up and sleeping at the same time; it surprised me when he spoke. “There is, he’s dark you know for a white person.”

“Okay, so there’s a guy in the second penthouse and he gave you a little drink, some money and a couple of puffs. Then what?”

“He’s got a burner under his arm; all holstered up like a cop off
Miami Vice
,” he said and blinked himself awake.

 “Okay, go sleep off whatever you took in my security room and I’ll cover for you. Fuck up again though and you're on your own, understood?”

He nodded and went into my office, I had a chaise lounge in it for emergencies like this and had used it more times than I’d cared for. Happy well trained staff don’t make as many mistakes as they did here. It was a nice place, great equipment and didn’t need the investment from the multinational. Its short comings were its business ideology that didn’t pay well or staff the place properly. Veronica with her tits and ass was essential the night time manager despite her very service assistance contract. I checked the tablet again as I went over to Veronica.

“V, we got a new check in, my tablets not showing anything.”

“My bad, I wrote it down but got caught up in modalities of the northern territories,” she said showing me her study book.

“Name.”

“Calgo Crum, he checked in whilst you were out.”

“Okay, but make sure you keep on top of these things, we don’t want guest burning to death without anyone yearning for them.”

“We all pine for something Garvey.”

“You know that one day I’m going to come around that counter fix you.”

“I’ll be waiting,” she said as I went to the bank of elevators.

The inside off all the elevators had was a mixture of real wood finishing and chrome metalwork. I put the special code for the penthouse suites and glided up the building towards the most expensive rooms in the hotel. The lobby area for the suites only had four doors, the best carpet and a filtration system that left the air purer than anything above Mount Everest. Each door was black with a gold number with a half wreath around it. I walked over to Saffron’s room and put my ear to it, I didn’t hear anything not even the soft puppy like snore I expected her to have. I imagined she must be asleep or showering in the bathroom with its rainforest setting cascading water down her naked body over those supple breasts. Given my reprimand of Sebastian it was probably better if I moved away from his door. I went to the suite with a big number two on the door and repeated the ear to the door routine. This time it was different. There was a sound; a man coughed. I couldn’t hear another person respond; it was a lonely cough. I pressed the doorbell and waited.

I could hear steps, but they weren’t hurried, they weren’t panicked. A voice came from the other side, it was deep and gravely. I didn’t answer; if he looked through the spyhole he’d see my uniform and identification tag. Once again he repeated a question that was muffled by the thick door. Perhaps a little cynically I pressed the bell again.

Mr. Calgo Crum should now be pissed and open the door to hurl a torrent of abuse at the deaf security guard that had decided to interrupt his evening for several hundred dollars a night. But he didn’t, instead there was a silence that fell like a sudden avalanche. I put my ear to the door again and silence muttered nothing to me.

I took my master keycard out and pushed it into the slot, the light went green, I turned the handle and began to ease the door open. Then I waited.

“All right,” the voice said excitedly. “I’m a blow you back through that fucking door.”

It was dark inside the room; I took out my gun, held it at my side, crouched and pushed the door open with my shoulder. He knew the room well and where he was threatening from there was a couch in between. The light from the lobby hit him like a spotlight. He was tall, his hair shorn close to the scalp; he had a strong prominent jaw and deep set eyes that looked vacant against his tawny skin. He couldn’t see me and was squinting towards the door.

“Mr. Crum?”

“Yeah, what of it? Speak quick or I'm fittin to light up that doorway,” he said in accent that sounded some way south of the Mason-Dixie.

“I’m head of security.”

“You're killing me,” he said as if I was trying to beat him down on the price of car.

I stood and turned on the light on, he was handsome and looked like DJ Khaled might if he spent a lot of time training for a marathon. I put away my gun.

“So you were saying you're security? I’ve been in this place an hour and I get a visit from the head of security. Check the bathroom and under the bed if you want but the only woman I'm going to see today left with a nice tip already.”

“You expecting to see anymore women?”

“Why?”

“You haven’t seen her yet then?”

“Who?”

“Saffron!”

He swallowed, put the gun on the coffee table and dropped himself into the couch like man defeated by the weight of life. “I only got here an hour ago, had to bang a hooker for my nerves you know. I didn’t see her car in the underground car park so I thought she’d left. She’s got a little red Porsche Boxster I bought for her before I went down.”

“She’s still here. It’s been five days since she first arrived, living off room service and daytime television. She hasn’t left the hotel once.”

 He looked like he was talking to himself or muttering an incantation or some kind, then he smiled in a manner that said ‘she still loves me’.

“I got delayed in Buffalo, Lake Erie is always beautiful, I got a few friends up there. I must say you seem to know a bit of my business.”

“True Mr. Fratp.”

The sound of his own name startled him and he dived for the gun on the coffee table, ready to roll and fire when he had possession of it. I kicked it off the table before he could reach it and complete his action pose. He lay on the floor looking forlorn and a little silly stretching at nothing in his dress shirt.

“Man, women talk too much,” he said.

“It wasn’t a woman that told me,” I returned.

“What?”

“I said it wasn’t a woman.”

“Who then?”

“Some gangster twins pissed at you for something.”

He was silent as the clockwork of his brain processed what I had just said; it straightened him slowly as he rose to his feet. For a dark man his face had lost a lot of color very suddenly, his eyes were haunted like someone who had just experienced an encounter with some kind the headless horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

“Those guys with their high and mighty act, straight crooks,” he said and licked his lips like a man who’d walked through the most arid of desert.

“So you know them?”

“All day every day, they think their old school. You hear stories about how they don’t like to be crossed, only kill bad people, it’s all bullshit. They robbers and murderers trying to look legit like the government. But if you don’t do what they want they twist your cap back without hesitation.”

“I’m surprised you're taking it so well.”

“The news isn’t new to me, just a different measure. I got out early, that’s why they didn’t top me off and I owe some boys money for protection inside. Where is she?”

“Next door.”

“You're shitting me,” he spluttered.

He walked to the wall uninterested in getting his gun back; studying it like a new found hieroglyphic tablet he ran his hands against it to smooth it out. He put his ear to the wall like someone would listen for the heartbeat of someone they loved who had taken ill. I'm not sure what he heard but he nodded and moved back, I thought he was going to run through it but he spoke.

“I’ve got some money, enough to get us settled and avoid the hustler for a while, Saf sent me some dough and I added to it, got in on a couple of ball games, helped some players make money and I made money. Nothing heavy, just a couple of scores, fouls, you know. Anyway the twins are after me because I used their own cheating schemes against them, I figured out they had a few tables with mechanisms that could be manipulated; I’ve always been good with electronics. They think I took them for fifty grand, but that was just one casino. I did my research and found a few they had under umbrella companies and visited them and increased my take.”

“So you got the money they think you took?”

“Course I have.”

“Why not just pay up?”

“That’s not how these things work, you don’t reason with these people, you run, die or take them out. Besides she’s holding the cash for me, wouldn’t want to have to explain myself to the authorities if I get stopped.”

“Can you ride?”

“Sure.”

“I got a bike and helmet.”

“Yeah.”

“Well the twins found Saffron and wanted to use her to bait you.”

“Why you care?”

We talked, I figured she needs a break, everyone deserves a break now and again.”

“You talked?”

“I don’t sleep with married women.”

“What if I don’t want to give her a break?”

“I think you will,” I said.

“Why?”

“Because a guy I know paid me a visit and told me people were coming for her, you might have missed that earlier. He didn’t have to tell me and he knew that I would try and get her out. She’s got a Range Rover Evoke in the basement, moneys probably in the trunk. I can get you the keys and you can head north or get a false passport take a cruise liner and stay in the presidential suite until you reach England.”

“You got this figured out huh?”

“Used to work with the D.A, sometimes you turn a blind eye for the greater good, besides you don’t trust her.”

“You're a funny man.”

“I can make the call, money and new broads, sounds good to me.”

“I could take her with me.”

“You could.”

“But I like what you suggested, it’s your funeral if they find out you crossed them.”

“They won’t know.”

He poured himself a drink and knocked it back, ” I should see her before I go, maybe get one for the road, next door right?”

“And you have no key, don’t waste my time handsome or I’ll change my mind. Get the money out the trunk, take my bike and leave New York.”

“How I know you ain’t working for the twins.”

“I’d shoot you in the leg, gag you, put you in a bag and make a delivery if I was.”

He went to the bedroom and came back out with a leather jacket with a fur collar like mustang pilots used to wear. He was carrying a leather holdall and car keys, he threw me the keys.

“BMW 4 series, silver, it’s been tuned, couple of NOS tanks, pinks slips in the glove box.”

“My bikes a Triumph Speed R, the parking guy will give you the helmet.”

He nodded and as he walked past me I slipped his gun into his hand, he didn’t acknowledge the fact I had past him back his weapon. I called the garage attendant and directed him to give the escapee what he wanted. I gave him five minutes before I got the lift back into the desolate lobby; Veronica was doing her university work at the desk.

“You done tucking everyone into bed?” she said with a smile.

I looked at her ill-fitting uniform with her breasts straining to get free as she leaned forward, the top two buttons on her blouse open.

“You know I’ve learnt a lot of things over the last few years,” I said walking over to the main doors and locking them.

“Like what?” she responded, her hand slipping under the counter and switching off the lobby CCTV cameras.

“Patients and only denying yourself when you have a reason,” I said sliding behind the reception desk and her ass. I kissed her neck.

“Good to know and about fucking time,” she said pulling up her skirt.

I kissed her again and as she allowed my hands to slide up her thick legs and clasped her butt, pulling her up against my hardness. She wrapped her arms around the back of my neck and began to grind herself against my now rock hardness.

I opened her blouse, all the time kissing her neck and grinding, and slid it off her shoulders. Then I pulled her breasts out of her lace bra so that they hung like ripe melons ready to be eaten. She moved a hand down to my trousers and started to stroke my shaft. With only one hand she slid me out of my trousers and pulled me back and forth as I massaged her chest. I pulled her panties to the side and slid my fingers across her wetness.

"You know I’ve wanted you from the first day you started right?" I asked her like a hungry lion presented with a fresh gazelle carcass to devour.