chapter 89
SEBASTIAN AND WALTER asked Lucille and Bernard to meet in the library of the old hotel. Outside the big windows, Bernard stared at the traffic on Commerce Street. It was as though he were in a trance. This meeting demanded privacy, so Walter asked the two other residents, playing cards, if they would leave. Once they did, Walter shut the door, turned to Lucille, and fired the first question: “Have you heard from Bailey?”
“No. She’s not answering her phone.”
“Is there some family she could be staying with?”
“Hell, she’s got over a million bucks; she could stay anywhere she damn well wants,” Sebastian aggressively chimed in.
“We don’t know that she took it,” Lucille said defensively.
Walter took a deep breath and held his hand up, indicating Sebastian needed to remain calm. Walter prodded, “Do you have any idea where she might be?”
“Why? What are y’all gonna do?”
“We just wanna talk to her,” Sebastian offered.
“Y’all sound like the cops on them TV shows.”
“Lucille, don’t you want to know what happened?” Walter asked. “This isn’t like Bailey…but the truth is, for this much money, people will do crazy things.”
Lucille remained quiet but fidgeted in her chair.
Walter tried to read her body language and get her to talk instead of shutting down. “What we did was wrong, and now somebody’s wronged us. We just wanna know who.”
“And why,” Sebastian said. Then he added. “Although…I suppose we know why.”
Lucille glared at Sebastian.
Walter knew that he needed to defuse the situation. “Okay, everybody, let’s just stay calm and focus.”
Walter shifted his attention to Bernard, who was still staring out the window. He was watching two Mexican men standing on the sidewalk. They were looking at the hotel building as though they were considering buying it. They made eye contact with him and then walked away.
“Do you know them, Bernard?” Walter asked, taking a hard look at the men walking down the sidewalk. “Bernard!” Walter said loudly enough that Bernard jumped. “Do you know them?”
“Who? Those two? Naw, I’ve never seen ’em before in my life,” Bernard answered.
“That was odd. Kinda creepy,” Walter said as he realized everyone could see them. “It’s like we’re in an aquarium and those guys were just watching.”
“Or a zoo,” Sebastian offered.
“Bernard, did you take that big bag to the police station?” Walter asked.
“Yeah, after Bailey and I bought some luggage for the money…I knew the police officer really wanted it.”
“Okay, just checking. We ran into him earlier and didn’t know how it got to him.”
Bernard looked at everyone at the table. “What? Did I do somethin’ wrong?”
“No, that’s fine.”
“So what are we gonna do now that we’ve lost all our money?” Sebastian asked. Then he added, more to himself than the group, “I don’t think my heart can take any more breakin’ and enterin’.”
“I don’t know. I sure would like to talk to Bailey. Anybody got any ideas?” Walter asked, looking at Lucille, who was waving at a guy standing on the sidewalk who was staring at them. He looked like he had just stepped out of an Abercrombie & Fitch catalog, except nothing was pressed.
“Who the hell is that?” Sebastian asked suspiciously.
“That’s Levi. Bailey works with him at the Gold Mine,” Lucille said.
Walter smiled. “Really? Invite him in. I’d like to meet him. We can finish this discussion later.”