No Quit

Chapter 13

Morning found Gerald Maxwell enjoying the ministrations of his tireless assistant Zeena West, clad in the peek-a-boo leather suit they'd purchased together. After a long afternoon and evening of meetings, meals and many drinks, the Crawford company representatives had flown home and Gerald had retired with Zeena to his hotel room. Now he lay in bed luxuriating as Zeena performed her specialty. The room phone jangled and he cursed aloud at the intrusion. Zeena sat up and gave him a sleepy-eyed query.

"Yes?" Gerald snapped. "Oh, Mr. Fong, sorry, I didn't mean to sound like that. Just woke up, heh, heh. What can I do for you?" Gerald waved at Zeena to continue and he closed his eyes as the manager informed him that while the money had been replaced, there would have to be a temporary hold on the account while the bank auditors conducted their investigation. He was most apologetic. He jerked upright, knocking Zeena off the end of the bed with a squeal.

"Hold? You mean I can't use my own card?"

"I'm sorry, yes. Just for a day or two until they finish looking into things. Of course you can still write checks, as long as they won't be cashed before say four days."

Shit! "Thank you, Mr. Fong for alerting me."

"I hope this doesn't inconvenience you in any way, Mr. Maxwell. It's all for the protection of our clients."

"What about the convenience of your clients? What the hell am I supposed to do for four days? I'm at a convention of clients here, Fong, I'm expected to comp them at this hotel."

"I am trult sorry, Mr. Maxwell, I have to follow the direction of the investigators. You do underst–"

"Yes, yes. Thank you again." Gerald hung up and swore. Zeena had her chin resting on the mattress and was staring at him from the end of the bed.

"Trouble?"

"My bloody account has a hold on it."

"Why?"

He explained about the robbery and the missing money and waved it all aside as he pointed out that the room had been put on his card and now it wouldn't clear.

"You can get cash from a branch can't you?"

He looked at her. "Cash, yeah, I can. Zeena, you are such a clever woman. Didn't you hear what I just said about a hold on my account?"

"But you said you could write a cheque."

"Because a cheque has to clear; it takes a few days and by then the account will be open again. Meanwhile I have to pay the bloody hotel bill!"

"I could lend you the money. We could get cash from my account."

He looked at her with genuine admiration and relief. "You are a clever woman, Zeena. He reached down and pulled her head toward him.

******

Arlene Maxwell shrieked noisily and the man responsible clapped a hand over her mouth as they both broke into fits of laughter.

"Oh my God," she panted. "Thank heaven we don't have close neighbours."

The man rolled away and groaned, slapping his flat stomach and taking a deep, full breath. "You are a vixen Arlene, a foxy vixen."

"That's what a vixen is, John. A female fox."

"Well that's you, bushy tail and all." He rolled back and kissed the object of his observation.

"John..."

"What now my love?"

"A shower, some breakfast and a little more of that."

"When will hubby be returning?"

"I'm just going to call the hotel and ask him." She sat up and dialed the hotel number he'd left.

"Gerald? Good morning dear, did you get any sleep?" She winked broadly at John. "How was the meeting?"

"Oh good. Oh poor dear, well I'm really sorry I woke you, I just wondered about your schedule for today. Mmmn, I see. So you can't make it until dinner then? Oh, you'll eat there and then come home. Well, okay if that suits you better. Me? Nothing special." She reached down and grabbed John and he had to bite his tongue to stay quiet. "Just a bit of cleaning and maybe call some of the girls. Fine then. Make sure you have a good dinner, none of that, on the fly, stuff." John buried his face in the sheets and shook with laughter. "Alright then. See you tonight. Love you too, sweetheart. Bye."

"On the fly! Jesus, Arlene you like to walk the edge don't you?"

"Gerald is no more having to work on the meeting results than I am. He's probably got the delectable Zeena eating out of his... hand." She grinned wickedly.

"So we have all day?"

"You don't." She said, with a commanding voice.

******

Back in his own, fresh clothes, Ted opened the map on the seat beside him and rechecked the distance and his calculation of time. All he could do was go to Hammond and see if there was any clue to where Bonnie and Clyde might be. He knew their last car and he also knew the man's name and what he looked like. He would have liked a better handle on the woman but he figured he'd recognize her easily if she hadn't changed her appearance too much.

The highway was a pleasant drive with a well paved surface that wound its way through a series of low hills and thickly studded forests of oak, birch and a variety of evergreens. The unsurprising corpses of roadkill appeared at intervals like gruesome milestones, a sorry display found on all the provincial highways of the uncaring motorists that plied them.

A rare sight however was advertising signs, promoting everything from car parts to lodging and as far away as the next Province in a few cases. Ted thought of the old Burmashave signs he'd seen once on a car trip through New York State with a friend's parents when he was a little kid. The car performed well and Ted sank back and let it do the work, with a few minor corrections.

He thought long and hard about Toni and where that might possibly lead. It was definitely an attractive idea. He wasn't getting any younger and if his dreamed of book ever came to fruition and paid off, well... Then again, if it didn't. Well! A raccoon trundled onto the road ahead and paused long enough to give him a dirty look before just beating him to the shoulder.

A high blue sky with a few stringy clouds that darted in and out of the tree line as he held the car at a steady fast pace and as he came down a twisting stretch of road and onto a rare flat plane, he saw the town of Hammond about twenty-minutes away. It would be just after lunch when he arrived. It was a strange sensation, seeing your destination but not feeling like you were getting any closer. When he arrived at last he was a little surprised.

He didn't really like the idea that the town was a large as it was. Forty-five odd thousand didn't sound big but it was spread over quite an area. He cruised down the main drag taking in the various businesses. Theatre, restaurants, retail and professional sites. The usual bank, post office and town hall. He spotted a hotel sign and pulled into the lot, shut off the car and climbed out. The heat gave him a whack like an open-handed slap. He'd had the air on all the way and wasn't ready for the change.

The desk man told him the rate, had him sign a registration card, handed him a key, pointed him to the stairs and forgot him.Ted plodded up to the second floor and found his room. It overlooked the main drag, which was a plus for viewing but he could tell that it would be noisy at night; the drive-in diner directly across the road sported a large flashing sign that read; Twenty-four hour service. He put some of his things away and then sat on the bed and thought about his next move.