Insurgents

9

A couple of hours later I was dimly aware of the phone ringing, and then Jessie was shaking me. "Wake up." She said. I groaned my annoyance. "It's David, wake up."

I took a deep breath as Jessie handed me the phone. She sat next to me on the bed and listened. "What's going on?" I asked.

"I need to get out of here, I think I'm about to get caught." He said.

"What? Why?"

"There was some guy asking about me at the front desk." He said.

"You're at a hotel?"

"I was." He said.

"Where are you now?"

"I'm at a Denny's in Cleveland. This morning I got a call from the front desk and the lady said there was a guy there who wanted to ask me some questions about my credit card, so I just took off. I bailed out a side door and came here."

"Did you get a look at the guy?" I asked thinking it might've been Borgano.

"No way, I stayed clear of the lobby." He said.

"You were using a stolen credit card?" I asked.

"No," he said, "well, sort of. It's a safe card, it used to belong to a dead guy. You know Mr. Gill who works at the morgue?"

"No." I said.

"Well my uncle hooked me up with him. I bought this guy's ID and credit cards a year ago and I've been using 'em ever since."

"For a year?" I asked. "And they're just now catching up to you?"

"This card is different, I make the payments every month. I called the card company and did an address change to the motor lodge, and I've been paying it off. This dead guy had shitty credit when I started, but now he's up to a two thousand dollar limit because of me." He said.

"Wait a minute," I said, "Were they asking about you, David Telano, or about the guy on the card?"

"I don't know," he said, "I assume they still thought I was Ray. I can't go back there though, and I can't be Ray Denardo anymore either."

"What are you gonna do?" Jessie asked.

"I have no fucking idea." He said. "You don't happen to know of a Unabomber shack in the woods, do you?"

"No man, sorry."

"Well, I'm fucked here." He said. "I got nowhere to go and I got no cash. I know this isn't your problem, but I need help man please. My fucking life depends on it."

"We'll come get you." Jessie said, taking the phone from me. I put my hand up to my face and rubbed my eyes. "You're at the Denny's downtown? The one on Fifth?"

"Yeah." He said. "You really gonna come pick me up? You're not gonna call the cops?"

"The cops?" Jessie said. "We're your friends."

"Ben?"

"No one's calling the cops." I said, taking the phone back. "And hey, go to an ATM and take a cash advance for as much as you can, then ditch that card. Be sure to keep your face covered or block the little camera, just in case they don't know the guy using Ray Denardo's card is you. They could just be investigating a stolen credit card. We should be there in a half hour or so."

"I'll be here." He said.

I hung up the phone and exhaled. "He's not staying here." I said to Jessie. "There's no fucking way. He was on America's Most Wanted. If we put him up, we'll be committing a felony. I'm not going to jail for him. He's not staying here and I'm serious."