Charlie Hustmyre - House of the Rising Sun

Jenny turned and looked at him. “They let you leave?”

“They wanted me to sign a form saying I was refusing treatment.”

“Did you sign it?”

“As soon as the nurse went to get it, I walked out.”

“When my cell phone rang, I almost jumped out of my skin.”

“I used the pay phone in the coffee shop,” he said. “I’m just glad you wrote your number on my hand.”

“I was walking across the parking lot, about to go into the emergency room to look for you.”

Ray laid a hand on her leg. “Thanks.”

Jenny dropped one hand from the steering wheel and rested it on top of his.

Next morning, Ray felt like shit. His ear had hurt so badly during the night he hardly slept. Jenny ordered a room service breakfast. When the food came, she spread it out on the small round table crammed into a corner next to the air conditioner. They sat opposite each other on thinly cushioned wooden chairs.

After two cups of coffee and three cigarettes, Ray started to feel better. Munching on a piece of toast, he said, “I’ve got to go back to Tony’s house.”

Jenny stopped chewing her melon slice. “Are you crazy?”

Besides his ear, there was another reason he hadn’t been able to sleep. “Tony has the gun.”

“What gun?”

“The gun I had last night. The one I got from Dylan Sylvester’s apartment. It’s the one he tried to shoot me with at the House.”

“How’d you get his gun?”

“I took it from him.”

“Now Tony’s got it, so what?” Jenny said.

“It’s got my fingerprints on it.”

“Big deal!”

“I’m a convicted felon. My prints on that gun can send me back to prison.”

Jenny pushed her plate away. “It’s not like Tony’s going to turn it over to the police.”

“He knows the system. If he’s trying to pin the robbery on me, all he’s got to do is make sure that gun gets into the right hands. With a piece of evidence like that, Carl Landry can put me away.”

“Landry’s straight. He doesn’t have anything to do with Tony.”

Ray nodded. “Landry junior is a straight arrow, but he blames me for his old man going to prison, and he wouldn’t pass up a chance to send me back. He’ll deal with Tony if he has to.”

“That’s a lot of trouble to go through just to catch a convicted felon with a gun.”

Ray stared across the table at her. “Sylvester is dead, and that’s the gun that killed him.”

“What?”

Ray told her what had happened in the apartment.

When he finished, she was too shocked to speak.

“I’ve got to get that gun,” Ray said.

“How are you going to get it if it’s in Tony’s garage?”

“I’ve got to get into his house while he’s at work.”

“You’re trying to stay out of jail by breaking into someone’s house, Tony Zello’s house? Where you almost just got killed?”

“Jen, I’ve got no choice. I’ve got to get that gun. If Tony finds out he has that kind of leverage on me, he won’t hesitate to use it.”

Jenny shook her head. She looked disgusted. “What about his wife?”

“Charlie Rabbit said she goes out almost every night.”

“I thought you were changing,” she whispered. There were tears in her eyes.

Ray picked up his pack of Lucky Strikes from the table and shook one out. With a cigarette dangling from his lips, he raised his lighter and flicked it. Nothing happened, so he flicked it again, still nothing. He spun the wheel four more times but couldn’t get the damn thing to light.

“They got any matches in here?” he asked.

“What if Tony comes home while you’re there?”

Ray was getting jumpy. He held up his hand. “Hold on a second.” He stood up and scanned the room. On the nightstand, inside the hotel ashtray, he found a book of matches. He slid back into the chair and lit his cigarette, then breathed the smoke into his lungs. Another drag and the jumpy feeling started to fade.

He tossed the matches on the table. Jenny was staring at him, still waiting for her answer. Ray looked at her through the haze of smoke hanging between them. “Sorry, what did you say?”

“What if Tony comes home?”

“That’s where you come in.”

Jenny arched her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

Jenny got to the bar at a quarter to nine. Early enough so she could have a drink by herself. It would be easier with a drink or two in her. The Carousel Lounge at the Monteleone Hotel was crowded. There were a lot of expensive suits, beautiful dresses, and sparkling jewelry. The Monteleone was the oldest and classiest hotel in the French Quarter.

She had argued with Ray all morning, at one point telling him she was leaving him and going to California. He could straighten out his own damn life without her. But she hadn’t left, and by early afternoon she had agreed to his plan.

Ray said, “Meet him in a bar. Have some drinks and keep him talking. One hour is all I need.”

“What do we talk about?” she asked. Ray didn’t have any advice about that. Typical. But she had her own idea. “I’ll tell him I’ve been thinking about him.”

Ray hadn’t been so sure that was a line of conversation he liked. Jenny said tough shit. She would handle it her own way or not at all.

At nine o’clock on the dot, Tony strolled into the Carousel. He ran his fingertips along her back as he took the stool next to her at the Carousel’s unique revolving bar. Her dress was low in the back, and his fingers on her skin gave her the creeps. She had bought the dress at Lakeside Mall in Metairie on her way into the city.

Tony was dressed in a silk suit, looking like he just stepped off the cover of GQ magazine, except for the bandage on his ear. He signaled to the bartender and ordered a drink. Then he said to Jenny, “You surprised me.”

She pointed to the bandage. “What happened?”

He waved a hand in the air. “It’s nothing.”

“How did I surprise you?” she asked.

“Calling me. I thought you didn’t like me anymore.”

Jenny shrugged. “I go back and forth.”

Tony grinned at her like a cat that had just swallowed a canary. When the bartender brought Tony his scotch and soda, Jenny noticed he didn’t ask for money. Jenny ordered a refill-Jameson on the rocks-and glanced at the clock behind the bar. Ray said he needed one hour. Fifty-four minutes to go.

Tony turned to face her, his right arm propped on the bar. “So what’s this about?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to see you.”

“You haven’t been at work.”

She shook her head. “I quit.”

“Really.” He seemed surprised. “What are you gonna do?”

The bartender set Jenny’s drink in front of her, and again didn’t ask for any money. She took a big sip to steady her nerves. “I don’t have any plans yet,” she said.

With his left hand, Tony traced a circle on her bare shoulder. “Maybe I can help.”

“I’m thinking about leaving town,” she said.

He pulled his hand back. “Where you going?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know that either.”

“You don’t know much, do you?”

Jenny swallowed her first response, then said, “I know I’m going to need money.”

Tony swirled a finger in his glass, then took a sip. “Why are you telling me?”

“You still looking for Ray?”

“You mean your old boyfriend?”

She shook her head and took another gulp of whiskey.

“You know where he is?” Tony asked.

“I’ve got a friend, and she knows where he is.”

From the inside pocket of his suit coat, Tony pulled out a cell phone. He held it out to Jenny. “Call her.”

She made a show of looking at her watch. “She’s not home.”

“How do you know she’s not home?”