And Jackie said, “Just a minute, honey. Wait right here, something I want to ask the man.”
I waited while she doubled back to the desk. I heard her ask what room Albert Schapiro was in. “Something I got to leave with him,” she said. “Soon as I handle this John.”
He flipped through a stack of cards and found the right one. She hurried back and joined me. “305,” she said. “He gave us 214, we better go there long enough for him to forget about us.”
We went to 214. It was dirtier than the Times Square hotels, and, in the light of dawn, even more depressing. I looked at the sagging bed, the sheets stained with past performance. Jackie had worked in this hotel, perhaps in this room, perhaps upon this bed. I tried not to think about this. I was not jealous. What I felt was closer to disgust, and annoyance with myself in the bargain. I told myself, hating the phrase, not to look gift whores in the mouth. I kept my eyes away from the bed and tried to concentrate on Phillie. I wondered if he would have a knife, and if he would be able to use it.
We gave the hotel ten minutes to forget us. Then she nodded shortly and opened the door, and we went back to the staircase and up a flight and found Room 305. I listened at the door and couldn’t hear anything. I tried the knob. The door was locked.
Jackie knocked. There was no answer and she knocked again, louder. A muffled voice wanted to know who the hell it was.
“Dolores.”
“What is it?”
“Lemme in, it’s important.”
There was slow movement within the room, approaching footsteps, then the snick of a bolt being drawn back The door eased open a few inches, and he said, “What the hell, you’re not-”
I put my shoulder into the door and it flew backward, taking him with it. We went in after him. The roundfaced man had described him perfectly. There could be no mistake, he was the one. He was wearing dirty underwear, and he had needle tracks all over both arms and legs.
He looked at my uniform and he looked at Jackie and he was lost. “Whatever your thing is,” he said, “you got the wrong boy. I don’t get it at all.”
“Albert Schapiro,” I said. Phillie.”
“Yeah. So?”
“Who paid you to kill her, Phillie?”
“Kill?” His face said he didn’t understand a bit of it “I never killed nobody. Not ever.”
“And you never saw the watch?”
“What are you talking about?”
I let him see the watch. He stared at it, and he did not quite manage to hide the recognition in his eyes, and then he looked at my face and saw my face instead of my uniform, and this time he didn’t even try to keep it a secret. He said, “Oh, Jesus Christ, it’s you,” and he shoved Jackie into me and started for the door.
I got Him by the arm. I yanked the arm and he spun toward me, off balance, and I let go of his arm and hit him in the face. He yelped and fell back. I grabbed the front of his undershirt with my left hand and drew him close, and I hit him in the face with my right hand. I hurt my hand but I didn’t notice it. I just kept hitting him, and he went down and I landed on top of him, and I kept on hitting him until Jackie managed to drag me away from him. My hand was bloody, I’d cut it on his teeth, and there was more blood from his broken nose. Jackie bolted the door and made me wash my hand in the sink and we waited for Phillie to wake up.
When he came to, Jackie soaked a pillowslip in the sink and cleaned up his face for him. He was in bad shape. The nose seemed to be broken, and his mouth was a mess. I had knocked two teeth out. Now, with the rage cooled, I felt oddly embarrassed by the violence.
He said, the words warped by the missing teeth, “You don’t have to play so fucking rough. You coulda killed me.”
“Like you killed the girl.”
“I never killed nobody. You can beat me up all day long, it don’t matter. I never killed nobody and I’ll never say different.”
“You were in the hotel room.”
“I shoulda thrown that fucking watch in the river. Ten bucks and I got a broken face and more troubles. Yeah, I was in the room. By the time I got there the chick was dead and you were out cold.”
“You’re lying.”
“The hell I am. I thought you were both dead. The first I looked, I saw the two of you, I almost fell out. I wanted to get away from there.”
“Why didn’t your?”
He looked at Jackie. “She’s a user, isn’t she? Ask her.”
Jackie said, “Why were you in that hotel?”
“I was boosting, what do you think? Those hotels, they get a lot of drunks who leave their doors open. They forget to lock them. I was up tight, I was boosting. Is that a crime?”
The question was too silly to answer.
“Jesus, my nose.” His fingers patted it gentry. “You broke my nose.”
“How did you get in the room?”
“The door was open. That goddamn watch. Ten bucks, but I never figured Solly would sing. You can’t trust anybody.”
I asked Jackie if Robin would have left the door unlocked. She shook her head. “Well,” he said, “somebody did.”
I said, “I think he killed her.”
But she shook her head again. “No, he didn’t.”
“I could beat it out of him.”
“I don’t think so. Let me try.” And to Phillie, “You don’t want cops on this. And you don’t want Alex angry.”
“I never killed anybody-”
“I know. But you got to tell this right, Phillie. The door was open and you went inside and took the watch and the wallet and Robin’s purse. Right?” He nodded. “And then what?”
“I split.”
“How?”
“I just walked out.”
“No. When Alex woke up the door was bolted. You better tell this straight, Phillie, and then you’ll get out of it clean, no police, nothing. But don’t buy yourself more trouble.”
He thought about this and evidently decided it was reasonable enough. “I went down the fire escape.”
“Why?”
“I had to lug the purse, didn’t I? Can you see me walking through the lobby with the purse?”
“You’re lying, Phillie.”
“Look, I swear to God-”
She spoke slowly, patiently, logically. “You would of emptied the purse. You could walk right out, no problem. Instead you locked the door and took the fire escape, and that’s always dangerous, going down a fire escape in the middle of the night. You took the purse instead of taking the time to rifle it, which means you were in a hurry, Phillie. Now you better tell it the way it is.”
“I heard somebody in the hallway.”
“So?”
“So there was a dead girl in the room and I panicked! Who wouldn’t? I wasn’t going to get tied into it. You know how they lay it on a junkie. You know the chance you get from them.”
“You heard somebody in the hallway, why didn’t you wait until they went away?”
“I was nervous. Who had time to think?”
She took a cigarette. I lit it for her. She said, “Phillie, it would all go smoother if you didn’t try and hold out. You saw the killer leave that room. You saw him go, and you thought maybe the room was empty and you took a peek inside. You locked the door because you were afraid he was coming back, and when you heard noises in the hallway you went down the fire escape. You were scared bad because you knew what would happen if he found you there. You knew all along Alex didn’t kill Robin because you saw the man who did, and that’s the only way it makes any sense, Phillie, that’s the only way it reads, and now all you have to do is tell me who the man was. You tell us that, Phillie, and you can take your face to a hospital.”
“I didn’t recognize him.”
“Otherwise there’s going to be cops. I mean it now. He never has to know who fingered him.”