Lee Child - The Enemy

“There’s a motel across the street,” I said.

She nodded against my shoulder.

“I know there is,” she said.

“I’m looking for whoever went over there last night with a soldier.”

“Are you kidding?”

“No.”

She pushed against my chest. “Are you here to have fun, or ask questions?”

“Questions,” I said.

She stopped moving. Said nothing.

“I’m looking for whoever went over to the motel last night with a soldier.”

“Get real,” she said. “We all go over to the motel with soldiers. There’s practically a groove worn in the pavement. Look carefully, and you can see it.”

“I’m looking for someone who came back a little sooner than normal, maybe.”

She said nothing.

“Maybe she was a little spooked.”

She said nothing.

“Maybe she met the guy there,” I said. “Maybe she got a call earlier in the day.”

She eased her butt up off my knee and pulled her dress down as far as it would go, which wasn’t very far. Then she traced her fingertips across my lapel badge.

“We don’t answer questions,” she said.

“Why not?”

I saw her glance at the velvet curtain. Like she was looking through it and all the way across the big square room to the register by the door.

“Him?” I said. “I’ll make sure he isn’t a problem.”

“He doesn’t like us to talk to cops.”

“It’s important,” I said. “The guy was an important soldier.”

“You all think you’re important.”

“Any of the girls here from California?”

“Five or six, maybe.”

“Any of them used to work Fort Irwin?”

“I don’t know.”

“So here’s the deal,” I said. “I’m going to the bar. I’m going to get another beer. I’m going to spend ten minutes drinking it. You bring me the girl who had the problem last night. Or you show me where I can find her. Tell her there’s no real problem. Tell her nobody will get in trouble. I think you’ll find she understands that.”

“Or?”

“Or I’ll roust everybody out of here and I’ll burn the place to the ground. Then you can all find jobs somewhere else.”

She glanced at the velvet curtain again.

“Don’t worry about the fat guy,” I said. “Any pissing and moaning out of him, I’ll bust his nose again.”

She just sat still. Didn’t move at all.

“It’s important,” I said again. “We fix this now, nobody gets in trouble. We don’t, then someone winds up with a big problem.”

“I don’t know,” she said.

“Spread the word,” I said. “Ten minutes.”

I bumped her off my lap and watched her disappear through the curtain. Followed her a minute later and fought my way to the bar. I left my jacket hanging open. I thought it made me look off duty. I didn’t want to ruin everybody’s evening.

I spenttwelve minutes drinking another overpriced domestic beer. I watched the waitresses and the hookers work the room. I saw the big guy with the face moving through the press of people, looking here, looking there, checking on things. I waited. My new blonde friend didn’t show. And I couldn’t see her anywhere. The place was very crowded. And it was dark. The music was thumping away. There were strobes and black lights and the whole scene was confusion. The ventilation fans were roaring but the air was hot and foul. I was tired and I was getting a headache. I slid off my stool and tried a circuit of the whole place. Couldn’t find the blonde anywhere. I went around again. Didn’t find her. The Special Forces sergeant I had spoken to before stopped me halfway through my third circuit.

“Looking for your girlfriend?” he said.

I nodded. He pointed at the dressing room door.

“I think you just caused her some trouble,” he said.

“What kind of trouble?”

He said nothing. Just held up his left palm and smacked his right fist into it.

“And you didn’t do anything?” I said.

He shrugged.

“You’re the cop,” he said. “Not me.”

The dressing room door was a plain plywood rectangle painted black. I didn’t knock. I figured the women who used the room weren’t shy. I just pulled it open and stepped inside. There were regular lightbulbs burning in there, and piles of clothes, and the stink of perfume. There were vanity tables with theater mirrors. There was an old sofa, red velvet. Sin was sitting on it, crying. She had a vivid red outline of a hand on her left cheek. Her right eye was swollen shut. I figured it for a double slap, first forehand, then backhand. Two heavy blows. She was pretty shaken. Her left shoe was off. I could see needle marks between her toes. Addicts in the skin trades often inject there. It rarely shows. Models, hookers, actresses.

I didn’t ask if she was OK. That would have been a stupid question. She was going to live, but she wasn’t going to work for a week. Not until the eye went black and then turned yellow enough to hide with makeup. I just stood there until she saw me, through the eye that was still open.

“Get out,” she said.

She looked away.

“Bastard,” she said.

“You find the girl yet?” I said.

She looked straight at me.

“There was no girl,” she said. “I asked all around. I asked everybody. And that’s what I heard back. Nobody had a problem last night. Nobody at all.”

I paused a beat. “Anyone not here who should be?”

“We’re all here. We’ve all got Christmas to pay for.”

I didn’t speak.

“You got me slapped for nothing,” she said.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry for your trouble.”

“Get out,” she said again, not looking at me.

“OK,” I said.

“Bastard,” she said.

I left her sitting there and forced my way back through the crowd around the stage. Through the crowd around the bar. Through the bottleneck entrance, to the doorway. The guy with the face was right there in the shadows again, behind the register. I guessed where his head was in the darkness and swung my open right hand and slapped him on the ear, hard enough to rock him sideways.

“You,” I said. “Outside.”

I didn’t wait for him. Just pushed my way out into the night. There was a bunched-up crowd of people in the lot. All military. The ones who had trickled out when I came in. They were standing around in the cold, leaning on cars, drinking beer from the long-neck bottles they had carried out with them. They weren’t going to be a problem. They would have to be very drunk indeed to mix it up with an MP. But they weren’t going to be any help either. I wasn’t one of them. I was on my own.

The door burst open behind me. The big guy came out. He had a couple of locals with him. Both looked like farmers. We all stepped into a pool of yellow light from a fixture on a pole. We all faced each other. Our breath turned to vapor in the air. Nobody spoke. No preamble was required. I guessed that parking lot had seen plenty of fights. I guessed this one would be no different from all the others. It would finish up just the same, with a winner and a loser.

I slipped out of my jacket and hung it on the nearest car’s door mirror. It was a ten-year-old Plymouth, good paint, good chrome. An enthusiast’s ride. I saw the Special Forces sergeant I had spoken to come out into the lot. He looked at me for a second and then stepped away into the shadows and stood with his men by the cars. I took my watch off and turned away and dropped it in my jacket pocket. Then I turned back. Studied my opponent. I wanted to mess him up bad. I wanted Sin to know I had stood up for her. But there was no percentage in going for his face. That was already messed up bad. I couldn’t make it much worse. And I wanted to put him out of action for a spell. I didn’t want him coming around and taking his frustration out on the girls, just because he couldn’t get back at me.