Dark End of the Street

She accepted it and pulled it onto her shivering body.

Chapter 22

PERFECT LEIGH LOVED good hotels. She loved the way they folded back your covers at night and left little mints beneath your pillow. She loved the smell of clean sheets and tiny hotel soaps. She liked room service and the list of services like massage or laundry or whatever kiss-ass kind of thing they could come up with. Basically, she loved being pampered, loved people tripping over themselves to please her. She wished the world could be one big luxury hotel, she thought, walking through the lobby of the Peabody. She wished everybody could just keep kissing her ass like they couldn’t get enough.

The air smelled cleaner here, like rich people didn’t fart as much as the farm trash who stayed down in Tunica. Smelled like hot coffee and potpourri and new shoes fresh from the box.

Today she was wearing a nice pair of knee-high brown boots with a tan suede skirt and white cotton shirt rolled to the elbows. Her hair shone a honey-colored blond. She smelled good, too. Smelled like body powder and Calvin Klein soap.

She felt so damned good that she even hated to touch the jive-talking bellhop who was handing baggage tickets to a Japanese couple. They were doing a lot of oohing and ahhing about the marble fountain in the middle of the lobby and all the gold trim and oriental rugs.

As soon as they left, she grabbed the bellhop’s hand. He was in his late forties or early fifties. Hard to tell with blacks. He had bloodshot eyes and reeked of body odor. Still she smiled, head back like her mama taught her to do in all those child beauty pageants.

“Hello,” she said, pulling him into a narrow hallway that led up to the banquet rooms. It was quiet and cold in there. Fresh paint and cigarettes.

“Hello yourself, miss. Can I get your car for you?”

She hugged him and began to cry. His nametag smashed into her eye. Renaldo.

“Renaldo, he’s gone.”

“He? He who?”

“My husband. Left with another woman. Left me with the kids.”

“Miss, I’m sorry and Lord, you are pretty and all. But-”

She hugged him tighter, getting a good smoosh of her breasts against his chest, letting him check out her cleavage and smell her Calvin Klein. This was too easy. She almost wanted to yawn.

“He’s a big fella. Black-and-gray hair. Has a scar down one eyebrow. Wears boots.”

He shook his head. Perfect released her grip and handed him fifty dollars.

“Find the man who checked him out of the hotel and he’ll get a hundred.”

“Lord, he musta done you real bad.”

“You have no idea, Renaldo. Please.”

Renaldo tipped his slanted green hat and disappeared. In a few minutes he returned with a small black man with ears that reminded her of the movie Gremlins. He had a big grin on his face and almost danced in front of her as he bounced from foot to foot.

“You’ve seen him?” she asked.

He looked back at Renaldo and then smiled at Perfect. She handed him the hundred.

“I seen him. Left with a young woman. Wasn’t as pretty as you, ma’am.”

Perfect finally yawned and pulled a long thread that had somehow attached itself to her suede boot. She ran her tongue over her teeth and made a quick smile that fell. “And?”

“That’s what I seen.”

“Where did he go?”

He shook his head and looked down at his hand.

Perfect stood up to her full six feet (boots helping with four inches), tucked her hair behind her ears, and scanned each direction of the hallway. She suddenly ripped a long section of her blouse.

The men started backing away like they were watching a mad dog circling and foaming at the mouth.

“You tell me where they went or I start yelling rape.”

“Lord God!” Renaldo said under his breath, pulling away his hat and pulling the little black boy close to his chest. “You crazy.”

“You’re right, I’m one crazy fucking bitch. Now tell me where they went.” She started grunting and expelling little gasps of air like she was trying to scream. She tore at her blouse again and flashed the men her lacey bra. They averted their eyes but seemed to have their feet stuck in concrete.

“Mi-Mi-Mississippi,” the boy said. “Asked if they needed a cab and he asked for his truck. Said he goin’ to there. That’s all I know. Don’t know nothin’ about them.”

Perfect patted his cheek and straightened the hat for Renaldo.

“All I needed. You boys are so kind.”

Perfect seemed to float as she skipped down the hall and out to the car where Jon waited.