Like what?
Never mind. I had to book three nights because I couldnt go through all that song and dance about how only two-oh-four would do, not if I was only going to keep the room for a single night. I wonder if theyve even got a diagram of the layout on their website.
I wonder if theyve even got a website.
Everybody does, Keller. Even I have a website.
Its under construction.
And it may stay that way for quite a while. Ill book us a couple of tickets, or do you want to drive? How far is it?
Its got to be a thousand miles, or close to it.
And our reservations for tomorrow night, so I guess we fly. Do you still have a gun?
The SIG Sauer I picked up in Indiana. I cant take it on a plane.
Not even in checked luggage?
Theres probably a regulation against it, and even if there isnt, its too good a way to draw attention. Some clown sees the outline of a gun in your bag and youre in for a long day.
You want to drive? Ill fly up and pick up the room key and you can hit the road in your dusty pickup. Des Moiness north of here, right?
Like most of the country.
But pretty much due north? Right there on the Mississippi, isnt it?
He shook his head. West of it.
Werent you in Iowa, that time the client did a number on us
That other time a client did a number on us.
The Mercenary Times case. Wasnt that Iowa, and didnt you throw something into the Mississippi?
That was Muscatine.
Thats the name of the damn place. I was trying to think of it earlier and I kept getting Muscatel, and I knew that wasnt it. Des Moines is west of there, not on the Mississippi?
Now youve got it.
Unless I get on Jeopardy! I dont know why I need to fill my head with all this crap. You want to do that, drive up while I fly?
Just so I can bring a gun? No, the hell with it. Anyway, I dont want to be there in a vehicle that somebody could trace back to New Orleans.
I didnt even think of that. Well both fly. She picked up her phone. Ill book our flight. Tell me your name again, will you? I dont know why I cant remember it. What they need to do, Keller, is put your picture on a stamp.
35
Shed booked her ticket in her new name, Wilma Ann Corder. Shed found the name years ago, the same way Keller had found Nicholas Edwards, and had assembled a whole identity kit, passport and drivers license and Social Security, along with half a dozen credit cards. Shed rented a post office box in that name and even subscribed to a needlepoint magazine, which she tossed every month when she checked her box. Then for three years, she said, they sent me these plaintive requests to renew my subscription. But what the hell do I care about needlepoint?
As Wilma Ann Corder, she picked up a rental car in Des Moines. It wasnt from Hertz and it wasnt a Sentra, and Keller thought that was all to the good. On the way to the Laurel Inn
she said, You were lucky, Keller. Nick Edwards suits you, especially with the new haircut and glasses. And Edwards is common as dirt. Corders pretty rare, but there are just enough of them around so that I keep getting asked if Im related to this one or that one. I tell them it was my ex-husbands name and I dont know anything about his family. As for Wilma, dont get me started.
You dont like it?
I cant stand it. Ive got just about everybody trained out of calling me that.
What do they call you?
Dot.
How did Dot get to be short for Wilma?
I made an executive decision, Keller. Tell me you havent got a problem with that.
No, but
People call me Dot, I say, and thats generally enough. If anybody asks, I just say its a long story. Tell people somethings a long story and theyre usually happy to let you get away without telling it.
Keller waited in the car while Dot went to the front desk to register, wishing shed parked in back, or at least somewhere other than the waiting area opposite the front door, wishing hed remembered to bring his Saints baseball cap. He felt more visible than he wanted to be, and tried to remind himself that no one at the Laurel Inn had ever laid eyes on him.
She came out brandishing two key cards. One for each of us, she said, just in case we get separated between here and the room. The girl who checked me in must have been a Chatty Cathy doll in a previous life. Oh, I see weve got you in two-oh-four, Ms. Corder. Thats sort of a celebrity suite for us, you know. The man who shot the governor of Ohio stayed in that very room.
Oh, Christ. She said that?
No, of course not, Keller. Help me out here, will you? Where do I park?
Something made him knock on the door of Room 204. The knock went unanswered. He slid the key into the slot and opened the door.
Dot asked him if it looked familiar.
I dont know. Its been a while. I think the layouts the same.
Thats a comfort. Well?
For answer he tugged the spread off the bed, lifted a corner of the mattress, and burrowed in between the mattress and the box spring. He couldnt see what he was doing, but he didnt have to see anything, and at first his hand encountered nothing at all. Well, that figures , he thought, after all this time, and