After thirty seconds he opened the door, looked both ways in the empty hallway, and then down at the table. He realized there were no plates on the table. He lifted the tablecloth and looked underneath. There was a warming oven built in below the table. Satisfied, Karch pulled the table into the suite. The table was difficult to move and he made a mental note to tell Grimaldi the carpets were too thick in the rooms. He kicked the door closed and pushed the cart toward the bedroom doors, putting the . 25 down on the entrance table as he went by.
After opening the doors he pushed the cart into the room and beside the bed.
"Come and get it," he said to the girl.
"I'm not hungry," she said.
Karch gave her a look and said, "Suit yourself. I'm starved."
He flipped up the end of the tablecloth and opened the plate warmer. A blast of warm air greeted him. There were two dishes with aluminum covers sitting on a shelf. He pulled the first plate out and was holding it with both hands when he realized it was burning him. He quickly brought it up and put it down on the table.
"FFFFFUUUUCCKKKK, that's hot!"
He shook his hands out and bent down to look under the shelf. There were three cans of Sterno flaming directly below the aluminum shelf where the plate had been.
"Fuckers!"
He looked at the girl to make sure she wasn't finding humor in what had happened. She was just staring at him, a note of fear on her face.
"I know, I talk dirty. I gotta put some water on this."
As soon as Cassie heard the water running in the bathroom she crawled out from beneath the other end of the room service table. Kneeling on the floor next to the table, she took a quick look around to see if Karch had left a weapon nearby. He hadn't.
"Hey!"
She turned to Jodie and quickly leaned over the bed. She had her ears trained on the sound of the water. The bathroom door was open and she could see Karch's back in a mirror reflection. She knew as soon as the water went off she had to be out of sight.
"Jodie, I'm here to take you away from that man," she whispered quickly.
"Good, I want - "
Cassie put her finger across the girl's lips.
"Whisper, whisper, so he won't hear. Do you want to go with me?"
The girl was a fast learner. She nodded.
"Okay, then you have to do what I tell you, okay?"
Jodie nodded again.
Karch pulled his hands out of the cold water and looked at them. Both his thumbs and index fingers had red marks. He cursed again. He felt like going down to the hotel kitchen and grabbing whoever was responsible and holding his head down on a hot stove. He went into a short reverie in which he envisioned doing it, then realized the person whose head he was holding over the stove was Vincent Grimaldi. Karch looked at himself in the mirror and smiled. He was sure there was something a shrink could do with that.
He turned the water off and went back out to the bedroom. The girl was now standing at the other end of the table and looking under the tablecloth. Karch came over quickly and, realizing the . 25 was in the other room, brought his hand inside his jacket to his Sig. He didn't want to draw it in front of the girl if he could help it.
"What are you looking at?"
"Nothing."
He pulled her aside and then whipped up the tablecloth, ready with his other hand to pull the Sig. There was nothing underneath on this side.
"Looking for a place to hide, huh?"
"No, just looking."
Karch grabbed one of the napkins off the top and went back around to the plate warmer. He used the napkin to take the second plate out.
"So let's see what we've got," he said.
Still using the napkin he removed the cover from the first plate. It contained a New York strip steak in a pool of still sizzling butter next to a pile of mashed potatoes. The steak was rare and bloody juices were mixing with the hot butter.
"Gross," Jodie said.
"What are you talking about? This is a goddamn thing of beauty. Now let's see what you got."
He removed the other cover revealing a large bowl of rigatoni with meat sauce.
"That's not Spaghetti-Os."
"You're right. But what do you care? You're not hungry, remember?"
He walked over to the bed and took the pillowcase off one of the pillows. He folded it to quarter-size and then put it in his open palm. He used the napkin to push the hot steak plate onto the pillowcase and then put a set of utensils into his shirt pocket.
"Tell you what, I'm going to eat out there and leave you with your cartoons in here. Eat, don't eat, I don't care, kid. Doesn't bother me one way or the other."
"Fine, I won't, then."
"Good. Just don't burn yourself on that plate."
He carried his food out to the desk, then went back to the bedroom for his Coke and the salt shaker. After he left he tied the doorknobs again with the phone wire. He then went over to the entrance table and brought the . 25 back to the desk. He started sawing through the steak and putting large hot chunks of it into his mouth.
"This is fucking good," he said with his mouth full.
44
CASSIE rolled out from under the bed, put her finger to her lips to remind Jodie to be quiet, and picked up the television remote. She slowly raised the volume so that it would better cover their whispering and any other noises that were made. She then walked around the side of the bed to where Jodie was sitting. Cassie pulled her daughter into a heartfelt embrace but noticed the girl's arms were held down at her waist. Jodie had no idea who this woman was who was hugging her. Cassie pulled back and put her arms on the girl's shoulders and leaned down close to her to whisper.
"Jodie, are you all right?"
"I want my mommy. I want my daddy."
Cassie had thought about this moment for a long time. Not these circumstances but the moment when she would be close to her daughter and what it was she would say and try to explain.
"Jodie, I'm . . . ," she started but didn't finish. In that moment she decided this was not the right time. The child was already confused and scared. "Jodie, my name is Cassie and I'm going to take you out of here. Did that man hurt you?"
"He made me - "
Cassie quickly put her finger across Jodie's lips to remind her to whisper. The girl then started over.
"He made me go in the car with him. He said he was a magician and that my daddy was having a party here for my mom."
"Well, he's a liar, Jodie. I am going to get you away from him and out of here. But we have to be very - "
Cassie stopped when she heard a sound from the doors.
Karch unwrapped the telephone line from the knobs and opened the bedroom doors. He stepped in and looked at the girl lying on the bed, her face propped in her hands. He stepped further in and surveyed the room and saw nothing amiss.
"Loud enough for you?" he asked.
"What?"
"I said, 'Loud - ' "
He stopped when he saw her smile, realizing the joke. He pointed a warning finger at her and stepped over to the curtains. He opened them, revealing another floor-to-ceiling wall of glass. He stepped close enough that he could see his breath on the glass and looked down. He could see through the atrium below to the crowded gaming tables.
"They're all suckers," he said. "Nobody beats the house."
"What?" Jodie said from behind him.
He turned and looked at her. Then his eyes moved to the room service cart and her untouched plate of pasta.
"I said you better eat your dinner, kid. You won't be getting another."
"I'll eat when my daddy comes."
"Have it your way."
He stepped through the door, closed it and this time decided the telephone wire wasn't necessary.
"Where's she gonna go?" he said to himself as he returned to his steak.
After she heard the bedroom doors close Cassie closed her Swiss Army knife and got down off the toilet, where she had been poised to jump and attack if Kar
ch had come in to search the bathroom. She went out to the bedroom and whispered into Jodie's ear that she had done a fantastic job in handling his visit to the room.
"Now, I have to go back into the bathroom, close the door and make a phone call. This time I want you to come with me. This way if he comes back you can say you're going to the bathroom and that he can't come in."
"I don't have to go to the bathroom."
"I know, sweetie, but you can tell him that."
"Okay."
"Good girl."
Cassie kissed the top of her head and realized that the last time she had done that had been in the hospital ward at High Desert. A nurse was standing impatiently next to her bed, waiting for the baby with her arms outstretched.
Jodie's hair smelled like Johnson's baby shampoo and for some reason Cassie's identification of it served to remind her of all she had missed. She faltered for a moment while leaning over her child and the bed.
"Are you okay?" Jodie whispered.
Cassie smiled and nodded that she was. She then led the girl to the bathroom and quietly closed and locked the door. She took one of the bath towels off a shelf over the bathtub, put it on the floor and pressed it against the bottom crack of the door.
"My daddy does that when he smokes in the bathroom," Jodie whispered.
Cassie looked up at her and nodded.
"Mommy doesn't like him to do it because it smells funny."
Cassie got up and picked Jodie up and sat her on the closed toilet. The black gym bag was on the tank behind her.
"Now if he tries the door or knocks, you tell him he can't come in because you're going to the bathroom. Then flush the toilet and go on out, okay? But remember, before you go out take that towel from the door and throw it into the bathtub so he doesn't see it, all right?"
"Okay."
"Good girl. You stay here. I'm going to go into the shower stall to make the phone call."
"Are you calling my daddy?"
Cassie smiled sadly.
"No, baby, not yet."
"I'm not a baby."
"I know. I'm sorry."
"He called me that."
"Who did?"
"The magician. He said I was a baby."
"He was wrong. You're a big girl."
She left her there, grabbed the gym bag and another towel and went into the shower stall. She carefully and quietly closed the door and then got her cell phone out of her pocket and unfolded it. She had a page of blank note paper she had torn from a hotel pad in the bedroom. The toll-free number for the Cleopatra was printed on the bottom. She pulled the towel over her head to further deaden the transmission of sound out to Karch and punched in the number. In a low voice she asked the operator for Vincent Grimaldi. The call was transferred and picked up by someone who was not Grimaldi. He told Cassie that Mr. Grimaldi was too busy to take a call at the moment and that he would be happy to take a message.
"He'll want to talk to me."
"How so, ma'am?"
"Just tell him there are two-and-a-half million reasons to talk to me."
"Hold, please."
She waited a nervous minute, wondering how long it would be before Karch checked on Jodie again, saw the bed empty and came to the bathroom door. Finally, another voice came on the line. It was calm and smooth and deep.
"Who is this?"
"Mr. Grimaldi? Vincent Grimaldi?"
"Yes, who is this?"
"I just wanted to thank you."
"For what, I don't know what you're talking about. Two-and-a-half million reasons? What two-and-a-half million reasons?"
"Then I guess Jack hasn't gotten it to you yet."
This was met with a long silence. Cassie lifted the towel and looked out through the glass door of the shower stall. Jodie was where she had left her. She was rolling the toilet paper into a pile on the tile floor.
"You say Jack Karch has this money?"
Cassie dropped the towel back down. She noted Grimaldi's use of the word money for the first time in the conversation. Also the name Karch. He was getting hooked in.
"Well, yeah, I gave it to him like we agreed. I was calling just to thank you. He told me it was you who okayed the trade."
Grimaldi's voice took on an urgent tone now. Cassie was getting juiced because she thought it was working.
"I'm not clear on what you are - could you speak up? I can hardly hear you."
"I'm sorry. I'm in the car on the cell phone and my daughter's sleeping. I don't want to wake her. Plus out here in the desert, I think I'm losing reception."
"What exactly did Karch say I okayed? What trade?"
"You know, the trade. My daughter and me for the money. I told him, we didn't know about the payoff or Miami or any of that. We didn't want to be greedy. As soon as we opened the case and saw all that money we knew we'd made a mistake. We wanted to give back the money. I'm just glad we were able to - "
"You're saying Karch has the money now?"
Cassie closed her eyes. She had him.
"Well, I think he was going to bring it down to you. But he had some arrangements to make first, he said. He was on the phone when we left. He was - "
The line went dead. Grimaldi had hung up.
Cassie closed the phone and slid it into her pocket. She dropped the towel and came out of the shower. She went right to Jodie and knelt down in front of her. She started untying the girl's sneakers.
"We're going to go now, Jodie. We have to take these off so we don't make any noise."
"How come?"
"Because we're going to climb up into the wall and crawl through a tunnel that will take us out to the elevator."
"I'm afraid of tunnels."
"You don't have to be afraid, Jodie. I'll be right behind you the whole time. I promise."
"No, I don't want to do it."
The girl looked down at her hands, which were in her lap. She looked as if she might be about to start to cry. Cassie reached a finger under her chin and tilted it up.
"Jodie, it's all right. There won't be anything to be afraid of."
"No . . ."
She shook her head. Cassie didn't know how to budge her. If she threatened her she would only scare her. And she didn't want to lie to her, either.
She leaned forward, her forehead against her daughter's.
"Jodie, I can't stay here. If that man comes back in and finds me he'll take me away. So I have to go. I wish you would go with me because I want you to be with me. But I have to go now."
She kissed Jodie on the forehead and stood up.
"No, don't leave me," the girl protested.
"I'm sorry, Jodie, I have to go."
Cassie picked up the gym bag and went to the bathroom door. She kicked the towel aside and put her hand on the knob. Jodie whispered behind her.
"If I go with you, will I have to see that man again?"
Cassie turned and looked back at her.
"Never again."
45
THE steak was a bloody mess, just the way Karch loved it. He had been so hungry and the piece of meat was so good that he was on the verge of having a religious experience as he worked his way toward the last bite, dipping each chunk that he cut into the mashed potatoes before delivering it to his mouth. Being totally consumed in this process, he was taken by surprise when the door to the suite opened. He looked up, a forkful of meat and potato poised in front of his mouth, and saw a man he remotely recognized entering the sitting room followed by Vincent Grimaldi and then Grimaldi's top thug, Romero. The new man and Romero held guns at their sides.
Karch put the fork down on his plate.
"How's it taste, Jack?" Grimaldi said.
"It's excellent, Vincent. You know, you're a little early."
"I don't think so. More like a little late."
Karch frowned and stood up from the desk. He instinctively knew something was wrong and that he was in trouble. He picked up the napkin from the desk and wiped his mouth. He then held his hands down at
his sides, the napkin still in his right hand. Very casual. Michelangelo's David.
"She's going to call any minute now," he said. "But you don't want to be up here when it all goes - "
Void Moon Page 32
