Halfway to Hell

Halfway to Hell Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

The guy who opened the door to Rachel’s apartment was wearing a string vest and boxer shorts. He had a slice of pizza in his hand that was dripping melted cheese onto the carpet. I think it was pepperoni but the smell could just as well have been coming from him. After he’d finished taking a good look at my face and asking me if I got the number of the truck that must have run over me, he told me that Rachel had moved. No, he didn’t know where to and did he look like her secretary? He looked like something you fish out of the shower drain when the pipes back up, but I resisted the temptation to tell him that. Instead, I thanked him for his time and went back to the car.

            So Rachel had moved. No big deal. No big surprise.  Gals in her line of work move all the time. She had no reason to keep me up to date with her address. I always knew where to find her if I wanted to.

            The Pretty Flamingo.

            This time I swear the shill on the door crossed himself when he saw me. I must have looked pretty beat up, and I hoped it would be enough to throw anyone who heard the description the cops were probably circulating right about now off the scent. I barrelled straight through to backstage and barged straight into Lou’s office. He had his pants around his ankles and a girl called Doris had her head in his lap. He jumped to his feet when he saw me.

            ‘Jesus Christ on a crutch!’ he said.

            Doris didn’t say anything, just sat on the floor picking her teeth with a long, red fingernail. Lou pulled up his pants and gave her a shove. ‘Get the hell out of here and get back to work,’ he said. She rose shakily to her feet and gave me the sort of smile you only see on laboratory monkeys. She took her own sweet time leaving. I kicked the door shut behind her.

            ‘Where’s Rachel?’ I didn’t have time for small talk. ‘Some guy at her apartment says she moved. Is she here?’

            How the hell should I know? I ain’t seen that flaky broad for a month. Not since the last time you came here throwing your weight around.’

            ‘What are you talking about? She was here yesterday. I was here yesterday.’

            ‘You got rocks in your head. It was a month ago I’m tellin’ ya. And right after that she walked out and that’s the last I seen of her. Didn’t tell me she was going or nothin’. Just up and left. Put me in a jam, I can tell ya. I hadda get Mabel to come do a turn.’

            ‘Mabel? From Mabel’s Diner?’

            ‘That’s the one. Me and Mabel, we go back a ways. Now and then the old broad likes to strut her stuff just to prove she still got it. She do still got it, too. ‘Cept it ain’t all in the same place as it used to be, if you get my drift. I’d rather have had that waitress of hers, that Patty. Have you seen the rack on that? But the face...’ he shuddered. ‘Enough to put the customers off their booze and I can’t have that, so Mabel it was.’

            ‘And this was a month ago?’

            ‘That’s what I said.’

            My head began to pound. Was the whole stinking world in on some kind of conspiracy to drive me nuts? If it was, they were sure doing a swell job of it.

            ‘She ever say anything to you about movies?’ I said.

            ‘No. And we didn’t discuss her favourite books neither. We weren’t that close if you get my drift.’