Robert Randisi - I'm a fool to kill you

‘Do we knock?’ Jerry asked.

‘Why warn him?’ I said. ‘You go in first.’ I figured Jerry’s sheer size would put the manager in the right frame of mind.

‘Should I kick it in?’ he asked.

‘Let’s try the doorknob first.’

‘Spoilsport,’ he muttered.

He reached for the knob, turned it slowly and then nodded to me. I gestured for him to go in. He opened the door quickly and stepped inside. I followed, and closed the door behind us.

‘Mr Gentry-’ I said, and stopped.

Gentry was sitting behind his desk. His eyes were open, but he wasn’t looked at us. In fact, he wasn’t looking at anybody.

‘Jerry. .’

Jerry approached the man, examined him without touching him, then put two fingers to his neck.

‘He’s a stiff, Mr G.’

‘How, and for how long, do you figure?’

Again, he examined the corpse as well as he could without touching it.

‘I don’t see no marks,’ he said.

‘Maybe he was strangled?’

‘His tongue would be out, and swollen,’ Jerry said.

I looked at the desk top. No glasses to indicate he might have been poisoned with a drink.

‘His skin feels like it’s coolin’, Mr G..’

‘So not in the past hour or so, huh?’

‘Naw,’ Jerry said, ‘maybe this mornin’.’

‘We could ask the clerk when he last saw him, but I don’t want to alert him yet.’

‘He’s gonna give us up when he finds the body.’

‘He doesn’t know your name, and if he was on the level, he can’t remember mine.’

‘He might mention Miss Gardner.’

‘You’re right about that,’ I said. ‘We’re gonna have to get out of here now. I’ll call Ava and tell her to pack up-’

I was reaching for the phone when he stopped me.

‘Not from this phone, Mr G.,’ he said.

‘Damn it, what was I thinking?’ I said, snatching my hand away from the phone. ‘Let’s see if we can get back to the bungalow without passing the clerk.’

‘If we can’t, maybe we can get to a house phone.’

‘If we pass him he’s gonna wonder what went on,’ I said. ‘He might even decide to come back here to ask.’

Jerry examined the doorknob.

‘We can lock this and pull it shut,’ he said, ‘then tell the clerk his boss don’t wanna be disturbed. It might keep him out of here for a while.’

‘OK,’ I said, ‘but let’s take a quick look around first. Maybe we’ll find something helpful.’

‘Yeah, we can do that,’ Jerry said, ‘but don’t touch nothin’, Mr G..’

‘I gotcha, Jerry.’

We looked the place over, mostly the desk, but didn’t find anything. I was looking for a phone number scribbled on something.

‘Maybe the clerk knows more than he’s saying,’ I said.

‘I don’t think so,’ Jerry said, ‘I don’t think we can take the time to find out. We gotta get out of this hotel, Mr G. .’

He was right. We needed to get Ava away from this murder.

‘Jerry,’ I said, ‘any chance this man died of natural causes? Maybe a heart attack?’

‘I dunno,’ he said. ‘There are no marks, but every heart attack victim I’ve ever seen looks calm. This guy looks. . well, surprised.’

He was right, again. With his eyes wide open Gentry looked like he’d been taken by surprise.

‘OK,’ I said, ‘let’s get out of here and lock the door. Look for a back way out to the bungalows.’

We got out of the office and pulled the door shut, locking it behind us.

‘This way,’ I said, and we went in the opposite direction from the front desk. After a few false starts we found another exit from the hotel. We came up to Ava’s bungalow from the other side, and let ourselves in.

‘What’s goin’ on, boys?’ she asked.

‘Pack up,’ I said. ‘we’ve got to get out of here.’

‘Why? What’s wrong?’

‘The hotel manager got himself killed,’ Jerry said.

‘What?’

‘It’s probably murder,’ I said. ‘We’ve got to get you out of here before the police are called.’

‘What about you two?’ she asked. ‘Are you in trouble?’

‘The clerk saw us,’ I said, ‘knows that we went to see the manager.’

‘He don’t know our names, though,’ Jerry said. ‘We just need to get out of here before somebody finds the body, Miss Ava,’

‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll pack. But where will we go? Vegas?’

‘Not tonight,’ I said. ‘We’ll get in the cab and figure it out. We just need someplace overnight.’

‘What about my house?’ she asked.

‘Somebody may be watching it,’ I said.

‘What if they’re not?’ she asked. ‘What if whoever’s looking for me has already looked there? Besides, if I was running from somebody would I go back home?’

‘She’s got a point, Mr G.,’ Jerry said. ‘I can check her place out, see if it’s bein’ watched.’

‘All right,’ I said, ‘get your bag and let’s get going.’

‘Take me just a minute,’ she promised.

Most women, no matter how little or how much they have to pack, need a lot of time. She was true to her word and came back out in a few minutes.

‘Let’s go.’

‘Jerry,’ I said, ‘you got a bag?’

‘Nope. Figured I’d get some clothes out here.’

‘OK,’ I said, ‘we’ll pick up some things for you on the way.’

Jerry played the gentleman, took Ava’s bag and we left. At the cab we looked around to see if anyone was watching us, then we all got in with Jerry behind the wheel and Ava in the back seat.

‘Where to?’ Jerry asked.

‘I live on Vine Street, between Hollywood and Selma.’

‘Hollywood and Vine?’ Jerry asked.

‘Close by.’

‘Ava, tell Jerry how to get there.’

With Ava’s directions we drove to the neighborhood, but stopped down the block from her house.

‘OK, Jerry, take a walk and see what you can see.’

‘Sure thing, Mr G.’

It was getting toward dusk as he got out of the cab and walked down the street.

‘So tell me, Eddie, how did you and Jerry meet?’ Ava asked.

‘He didn’t tell you while you were playin’ gin?’ I asked.

‘He doesn’t like to talk about himself,’ she said. ‘All he told me was that you and he were both from Brooklyn. Is that where you became friends?’

‘No,’ I said, ‘it was in Vegas a couple of years ago, when Frank, Dean and the fellas were shootin’ Ocean’s Eleven .’

‘Oh, that thing about Dean being threatened?’ she asked.

‘Yep,’ I said. ‘Frank brought Jerry in to help me with that.’

‘You have quite a friendship,’ she said.

‘Well-’

‘He’d do anything for you, did you know that?’

‘Well-’

‘And you like him. Don’t try to deny it.’

‘Well. . of course I like ‘im,’ I told her. ‘Why would I try to deny that? Plus he’s saved my ass more than once.’

‘He is a terrible gin player, though,’ she said. ‘Just awful. But he is sweet, and gentle as a lamb. Are you sure he’s a torpedo?’

‘He doesn’t like that word,’ I said, ‘but yeah, he’s broken an arm and a leg or two in his time. I think he’s just sweet to you, the way he was to Marilyn.’

‘He met Marilyn?’ she asked.

‘Yeah, earlier this year he helped me with something I was doing for her,’ I said. ‘But he was mad at me, said I ruined her for him.’

‘Ruined her how?’

‘He said after meeting her he couldn’t help but think of her as a little sister.’

‘And is that the way he thinks of me, now? As a little sister?’

‘Oh, no-’

‘Then what? A big sister?’ I could see that neither one appealed to her.