“Who you talked to so far?” When Michelle told her, Baldwin smiled and then chuckled. “Them gals have no clue, you understand me, no clue about nothing. Did little Miss Julie tell you she was there when Martin Luther King Jr. was shot?”
“Yes, she mentioned that. She actually looked a little young for that.”
“I’ll say. She knows Martin Luther King like I know the pope.”
“So what can you tell me about that day at the hotel?”
“A day like any other. Except we knew he was coming, of course. I mean Clyde Ritter. I knew about him, from the TV and all, and I read my newspaper, every day I do. The man’s thinking was more in line with George Wallace before he found the light, but he seemed to be doing okay, which tells you all you need to know about this country.” Then she stared at Michelle, a look of mirth in her eye. “Is your memory that good? Or maybe I ain’t saying nothing you think is important enough to write down.”
Michelle started and then pulled out a notepad and began scribbling. She also set a small recorder down on the table next to the woman. “Do you mind?”
“Hell no. Anybody sues me I ain’t got no money. See, that’s the poor person’s best insurance policy: no assets.”
“What were you doing that day?”
“Just like any other day, cleaning rooms.”
“Which floor did you have?”
“Floors. Always had people calling in sick. Most time I had two floors all by myself. Had it that day, second and third. By the time I finished, seemed like it was time to start over again.”
Michelle tensed at this. King had stayed on the third floor. “So you weren’t on the main floor when the shooting occurred?”
“Now, did I say that?”
Michelle looked confused. “But you said you were cleaning.”
“Is there a law against coming down and seeing what all the hoopla was about?”
“Were you in the room where the shooting happened?”
“I was right outside the door. There was a supply closet down that hall, and I had to get some things, you understand.” Michelle nodded. “Management didn’t like us maids to show ourselves in the main area, you see. Like they don’t want the guests to know we’re even there. Now, how do they think the place stays clean, you see my point?” Yes, Michelle said, she did. “Well, the room where Ritter was shot was called the Stonewall Jackson Room. It’s not like down here we have us any Abraham Lincoln or Ulysses S. Grant Rooms.”
“I can understand that.”
“Well, I poked my head in and I saw that man shaking hands and talking real slick and smooth and his eyes would hold anybody’s he was talking to. I read where he was a TV preacher too. I could see how that man could get dollars and votes, yes indeed. He just had that way. But from a person of color’s perspective I think Clyde Ritter was right at home in the Stonewall Jackson Room and was probably sleeping in the Jefferson Davis Penthouse Suite and loving that too, and damn if he was going to get my vote.”
“I can understand that too. Besides Ritter, did you notice anyone else?”
“I remember a police officer blocking the doorway. I had to kind of look around him. I could see Ritter like I said, and there was the man behind him, real close.”
“Secret Service. Agent Sean King.”
Baldwin stared hard at her. “That’s right. You say that like you know the man.”
“Never met him. But I’ve been doing a lot of research.”
Baldwin ran her gaze up and down Michelle, a scrutiny that made the younger woman finally blush. “You got no ring on your finger. What, are you telling me there ain’t any eligible men that would appreciate a beautiful young thing like you?”
Michelle smiled. “I keep really crazy hours. Guys don’t like that.”
“Hell, honey, men don’t like nothing but a meal and their beer in front of them when they want it, nobody questioning the stupid things they do, all the free time in the world and a warm body to do the sex thing when they feel like it, and no talking after.”
“I see you have them pretty well figured out.”
“Like it takes a lot of deep thinking?” She fell silent for a moment. “Yep, a real nice-looking man. When he fired that gun, though, he wasn’t real nice-looking.”
Michelle tensed again. “You saw that?”
“Yep. All hell broke loose when Ritter got shot. You wouldn’t believe it. The policeman in front of me, he turned to see what was going on, but he got knocked down and people tripped over him. I just froze. I’ve heard guns go off, fired ’em myself growing up, to scare off critters and trespassers and such. But this was different. Then I saw King shoot Ramsey. Next I seen them run off with Ritter, but that man was dead, anybody could see that. And I watched that King fellow stand there just looking down, like, like…”
“Like he’d just seen his life end too,” Michelle suggested.
“Just like that. How’d you know?”
“I know someone who had a similar experience. Did you by chance hear a sound before Ritter was shot, something that might have distracted Agent King?” Michelle didn’t want to mention that that sound could have been the ding of an elevator car because she didn’t want to influence Baldwin’s recollection.
The old woman thought about this and then shook her head. “No, I can’t say that I did. There was lots of noise. I tell you what I did do. I ran down the hallway and hid in the supply closet. I was so scared I didn’t come out for an hour.”
“But before all that you maybe cleaned the third floor?”
Baldwin looked over at her. “Why don’t you ask me what you want to ask me and save us both a lot of time?”
“Okay, did you clean Agent King’s room?”
She nodded. “They had all checked out before the event. But I got people’s names down on my list. Yes, I cleaned his room before all the shooting started, and let me tell you it needed cleaning.” She looked pointedly at Michelle.
“Why, was he a real slob?”
“No, but there was just a lot of activity in that room the night before, I guess.” She raised an eyebrow as she said this.
“Activity?” asked Michelle.
“Activity.”
Michelle had been perched on the edge of her rocker. Now she sat back. “I see.”
“Looked like a couple of wild animals had gone through that room. Even found a pair of black lace panties on top of the ceiling light fixture. Don’t know how they got there, and I don’t want to know.”
“Any idea who the other animal was?”
“No, but it seems to me you don’t look too far away, you see my point?”
Michelle’s eyes narrowed as she thought about this. “Yes, I think I do,” she said. “So you didn’t notice anyone getting off the elevator when all this happened?”
Baldwin looked at her strangely. “Trust me, honey, I wasn’t paying attention to no elevators.”
She looked at her notes. “So I see the hotel is closed now.”
“Shut down not all that long after Ritter was shot. Bad publicity and all. Bad for me, ain’t had a steady job like that since.”
“I see they have a fence up.”
Baldwin shrugged. “Folks who want to take a piece of the place, boys doing drugs and dragging their girlfriends in there for you know what.”
“So any plans to reopen it?”
Baldwin snorted loudly. “Knock it down more than likely.”
“Any idea who owns it now?”
“Nope. It’s just some big old empty pile of nothing. Sort of like this town.”
Michelle asked her a few more questions and then thanked her and took her leave, but not before giving Loretta Baldwin some money for helping.