Cooper yelled then, unintelligible words in the darkness between the bed and the wall where we struggled. I grabbed a loose pillow and crammed it against his face, stifling the noise and trying to keep the gun away. Valerie pounced on us, pulling at the gun in Cooper’s fist. It happened before I knew it. Cooper’s muffled screaming ended the instant she fired the gun into the pillow. Cooper’s body collapsed beneath me. My vision tunneled. The small room filled with the smell of shit, gun powder, and burnt pillow foam.
The light from above the sink came on. Valerie stood above us, the gun in her hand.
I saw a cut across her right cheekbone. A thin line of blood trickled from it, leaving a teardrop’s path.
That’s the one I told you about before. The last one of her.
“Karl.” I could barely hear over the dull ringing from the gun. “Karl, we have to get our asses out of here, now!”
The phone started to ring.
“Don’t answer it,” she said.
Valerie above me. Yeah, that shiny streak of blood on her cheek. I could crawl to her to lick it off …
I scrambled away from Cooper’s body.
She kicked his legs to the side and searched his pockets, pulling out a set of keys and his wallet. She ripped the wallet open and pulled out the cash, stuffing it into her jeans. She threw the wallet back against his chest.
The ringing stopped.
The pillow remained over Cooper’s face.
A dark stain spread on the cheap carpet beneath him.
She went to her knees and grabbed the bag. She threw the gun into it along with the items that had spilled from it in the struggle.
“Karl, we gotta go now!” she said, getting to her feet.
Valerie pulled at me.
“You’re hurt,” I said.
“I’ll live.” She shoved me toward the door. “Move!”
Her fingers fumbled with the chain, finally pulling it off. She pulled the Do Not Disturb tag off the inside knob and looped it over the outside knob. I slammed the door shut behind us and pushed against it once. The day’s heat still soaked into it, warm against my back.
“Worst thing, I figured, is maybe we’d have to smack him around a little, you know. That’s it.”
Her in the car next to me. The light at Fifteenth Avenue and Grand had turned red. Through the windows of the boxing club, I could still see the kids working out in the ring.
“Stupid fucker. Why’d he have to bring a gun?”
“All the jewels are in the bag?” I asked.
“What do you think?”
She ran her fingers down my shoulder. I reached a hand up toward her face to touch her, stroke her hair.
She leaned back and lit a cigarette, using the dash lighter.
“You got another one of those?”
She pulled another butt from the pack and handed it to me. I used hers to light it.
I sucked in deeply and exhaled. It’d been a long time since I’d smoked. I’d forgotten how good it felt.
“No one saw you? The desk clerk, anyone like that?” I asked her.
“No one. He got the room. I waited in the car.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m sure. No one saw me. I stayed in the car.”
“Okay then,” I said at last. “Where do we go now?”
I tried not to think about what she’d done to Cooper back at the hotel. She’d pulled me into this mess and I didn’t know how to get out. I felt no closer to her for it. She sat there smoking, thinking about what, I had no idea. About me? About where we’d go next? I was half tempted to just drive her to the bus depot and leave her there.
Be done with it.
No tail was worth it.
Then she put her hand on my leg.
I could smell her body, closer to mine now.
“Your place?” she asked.
I drove, imagining how she’d look in my bed. It had been too long since I’d had a woman in my bed. Okay, she’d just killed a guy and didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about it, but Cooper had it coming to him. He should have stayed in Scottsdale, with his television dad, rich girlfriends, and phony so-called business associates.
She had no choice.
I told myself this as I imagined the feel of her dark body beneath mine, the coffee hair spilling across my chest.
We stopped for a bottle on the way.
Vodka.
That’s what she wanted.
She took the vodka from me as soon as I got back into the car.
“You sure you don’t want to wait until we get to my place?”
She took a pull from the bottle, sighed, and leaned her head back on the seat. “I need this now.”
“I’ve got clean glasses at home.”
“Here.” She handed me the bottle. I put it to my lips and drank. It burned. I didn’t like vodka, but I wanted to make her happy. And I had done everything she asked me to do. What difference did it make what kind of bottle we should get?
I sat down behind the wheel and passed the bottle back to her. She put the cap back on it and set it down on the floor between her feet.
The vodka didn’t make much of a dent against the jangling of my nerves. It would take more than a few shots for that.
My hand shook as I turned the key in the ignition.
She put her hand over mine. “You’ll be fine now, Karl. It’s over.”
“I didn’t think anyone was supposed to get killed, that’s all.”
“No one did.”
“How much you think we got? In the bag, I mean.”
“We count it at your place. We count it, then we go to bed. It will be good for both of us, Karl. I promise. Soon, you’ll not worry anymore about Cooper. Valerie will worry for both of us.”
“No,” I said. I reached for her and pulled her next to me.
“We’re in it together, Valerie. I said I’d do this with you.” But I didn’t really mean it anymore.
I kissed her. I closed my eyes and kissed her in the darkness of the car, tasting the vodka and cigarettes. I tried to put it out of my mind but I could only see her now above Cooper, the gun in her hand, the look of triumph in her eyes.
We parted.
I started the Impala and backed out onto Grand.
Once we got back to my place we would split the goods. I would let her stay the night, if that’s what she wanted, but after that I was gone. I needed to get a story. If anyone connected me to her I’d just tell them she was a pickup and that’s all. I didn’t know shit about Cooper, the money, any of it. It was better that way. I’d let her go. I would miss her, a lot, but I didn’t have any choice.
I had driven about half a mile when she told me to pull over, that she was going to be sick.
I steered the car off Grand, beneath the eastbound lanes of I-10. She lurched out of the car and stumbled to one of the pillars that held the freeway above us. I could see her hunched over in the shadows of the overpass, shoulders hitching.
I waited.
The bag was on the floor of the passenger seat next to the bottle.
The jewels were all there in it.
All I had to do was shut the door and drive. Get on I-10 and drive west and don’t stop until I hit the Pacific.
She’d have to go back to the stripper pole and escort jobs. Too bad about that, but I didn’t ask to be part of a murder.
Her door remained open, leaving the interior light on. I reached over to pull the door shut when I heard her cry out. I wasn’t sure. The cars were so loud above us. I called out to her.
No answer.
I got out of the car and went around to her side. Her door was still open. Before shutting it, I looked down at the bag.
I had to see them. Seeing them all there would make it easier leaving her.
I leaned down and reached for the bag. That’s the moment I felt the punch of the bullet hit me from behind. Right under my rib cage. It knocked me down against the seat of the car. I could smell her there on the vinyl, and the hot odor of the dirt and tires beneath me.