I CALLED LAURA from a pay phone at the Y.
“I’m sorry to ask you this, but I have no one else,” I said, crowding against the scratched wood wall. The men’s locker room door was behind me, and this narrow hallway smelled of decades-old sweat. “Can you pick Jimmy up from the after-school program and keep him for the weekend?”
“Why?” That one question crystallized her voice, as if she hadn’t been paying attention before and she was now.
“Lacey just got home yesterday, and Marvella’s busy tonight. I really need someone to watch him.”
“You’re not going to tell me why,” she said.
My breath caught. She was going to say no. I was sending these women into that hotel unsupervised all because I couldn’t find someone to keep an eye on my kid.
“Are you protecting me, Smokey? Because I’m a big girl. I can handle what you’re going to tell me.”
I let out that breath. “Laura, listen, if something happens to me, will you make certain that Jimmy’s cared for? I can’t ask the Grimshaws, and he’s got no one else—”
“What the hell, Smokey?” she snapped. “What’s going on?”
“I should have asked that a long time ago,” I said, “and I’m just realizing it now. Can you, until I figure out something formal?”
“Yes,” she said. “Yes, of course.”
“And can you watch him at your place this weekend?”
She made a small sound, a release of air maybe or an exasperated grunt. “I take it you’ve all postponed the party.”
Party? I blinked. Something fell in the men’s locker room, echoing throughout. I didn’t even jump. Party. And then it clicked. We were going to have a surprise birthday party for Jimmy. I had given it a moment’s thought back on Tuesday, and forgotten it. Althea hadn’t mentioned it, either.
“The Grimshaws can’t host anything this weekend. We’ll have it next week. It’s closer to his birthday anyway,” I said.
“Well,” Laura said, sounding all businesslike. “I’d set aside time for that, and I had been on the fence about going to this stupid conference anyway. I’ve been very worried that I was there to play either the stupid woman or the villain. I’ll have Judith cancel me out of that, and Jimmy and I will have a great weekend trying not to worry about you.”
She sounded flip, even though we both knew she wasn’t. Her words made me feel guilty. I rested my head on three different phone numbers scratched into the wood.
“I’m sorry, Laura,” I said.
“You’ve got to stop doing this, Smokey,” she said.
She didn’t even know what I was doing. And she didn’t seem to mind when I was doing something similar for Sturdy. Not that I’d ever told her everything that I had done, even for her company.
“Thank you for taking care of him,” I said.
“I’ll make sure he’s fine, no matter what happens,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said, and hung up.
I didn’t move for a long moment, my entire body frozen in place. I was committed now, and while I wasn’t going to do it exactly the way I wanted to, it would get done.
I stood up. A clock above the front desk said I’d been here less than an hour. I could go home and get some sleep. I would need that to be sharp—if I could sleep at all, which I doubted.
I also needed to do just a little extra planning, so that I would feel comfortable.
I left the Y, nodding at the man at the desk as I went out. The cold air hit me like an open palm. The Y’s interior had been a lot hotter than I had realized, and just a bit humid. I sneezed, clearing the dust and mold out of my lungs, then walked to the van, head down.
I didn’t plan to stop near the Starlite. I didn’t plan to do anything except drive by. It took longer to get there than it had earlier. The streets were congested with Friday traffic, people leaving the first week of work in the New Year as early as they possibly could. For people who didn’t like their jobs, work seemed especially hard at the holidays.
Ironically, I usually liked mine. The freedom. The hours that I could choose. Doing things my way.
I was truly doing things my way here. I wasn’t even getting paid. Which was good, because if I got paid for tonight’s job, I would be no better than some of the men who worked security for the mob.
I smiled a little bit. It was a tiny, irrelevant distinction. What I was going to do, with the help of some very determined women, was completely against the law.
Not that the law was working here.
I passed one school bus as I reached the Starlite. A few teachers’ cars were backing out of the parking lot.
The Starlite’s kitchen door stood open, and steam poured out like it had the day before. No one parked in the alley, but the alley would be a death trap in the middle of the night.
Sounds there would alert the neighboring houses, and maybe bring in the cops.
I drove around the block so that I would pass the Starlite on the right side of the street. As I approached, I saw Loring and his gang of three hunching their way inside.
My stomach clenched. I didn’t want them at the Starlite. I hadn’t told them about it, but apparently, it didn’t take a lot of brains to figure out where Donna Loring had gotten her introduction to the life.
Or maybe these guys occasionally used the place. I had no idea, and I didn’t want to know. Just watching them walk a little unsteadily on the ice made me realize that I had been right not to count on them for anything.
I turned the van around and headed home, feeling calmer than I had in days.