Chapter 2

I had spent a long time looking over my shoulder since meeting Alice, but when the trouble came it was not in the form of an FBI agent with a warrant or even a goombah with a gun. No, it was in the form of a dumpy looking businessman with a briefcase.

A customer of mine had flown into town and had called me and asked me to meet him for lunch at the motel where he was staying. By coincidence it was the motel where I had been putting Alice when we returned from my road trips.

I was sitting in the coffee shop with my customer when I happened to see Alice walk in the front door. She walked directly to the door that said "Manager" on it and without knocking she opened the door and went in. Darrel and I had finished eating and there was no reason for us to stay any longer, but something told me that I needed to stay there and keep an eye on that door.

"You know Darrel, I think I've changed my mind and I will have some dessert. I think I'll try some of that New York Cheese Cake after all."

I was half way through the wedge of cheesecake when the door opened and Alice came out followed by a short, fat guy carrying a briefcase. Alice said something to him and he gave her a nervous smile and then the two of them headed down the corridor that led to the first floor rooms.

Alice was home and fixing dinner when I got there. She turned to greet me when I walked into the kitchen and gave me a big smile.

"You want dessert first?"

"I don't know, what's for dessert?"

"Silly man" she said as she grabbed my tie and led me to the bedroom.

Over a late dinner I asked her how her day had gone.

"Nothing exciting. Watched some soaps most of the day and worked a few cross-word puzzles."

Uh huh, and that was your twin sister I saw at the motel.

The next day I didn't go to work and I was siting down the block from the house when Alice came out. I followed her back to the motel and I was behind a magazine rack in the gift shop watching the manager's door when the man I recognized as the manager came out with Alice. He went to the front desk and got a key and brought it back and handed it to her. He said something, she nodded a yes and then she headed down the corridor in the direction of the rooms.

I was outside, parked where I could see her car, when she came out an hour and a half later and I followed her back home. I let her get inside before I pulled up and parked. I was a little on the quiet side as I let myself into the house and closed the door behind me. Alice was sitting on the toilet using her douche bag when I walked up to the bathroom door. Until that moment I wasn't at all sure of what had been going on. The little dumpy man could have been taking statements maybe. For all I knew Alice might have gotten tired of running and was now cooperating with the law in some way. But you don't need to douche after just talking to some one.

I just stood there looking at Alice for a minute and then I turned and walked away. I was in the kitchen getting a beer out of the fridge when Alice came into the room.

"It isn't what you think lover."

"It isn't? Well let's just look at it from my point of view shall we? I see you heading for a motel room with a short, dumpy looking guy yesterday — a day by the way that you said you stayed home and watched soaps — and today I followed you to the same motel and watched the manager give you a key following which you headed for a room. So, you going to tell me that it isn't what I think, that two and two don't equal four?"

She stood looking at me for several moments and then she turned to walk out of the room. "Where are you going?"

"To pack."

"You would rather go pack than talk to me?"

"I've nothing to say that you want to hear and if I did talk you would probably throw me out anyway."

She headed for the bedroom and I finished my beer and got up and followed her.

She had a suitcase on the bed and was dragging stuff out of the closet. I stood and watched for a bit and then I said, "I hate to make this sound like it's an "All about me" thing, but haven't I been through enough shit with and for you to at least get an explanation?"

"Straight up lover? I've been hooking."

"I don't understand."

"A hooker, a prostitute, a play for pay girl. I've been fucking for money."

"I know what a hooker is, what I don't understand is why."

The same thing that got me into trouble in the first place — wanting to stay away from cops."

I made a 'come on, gimmie' motion with my hands.

"I'm walking around that fucking motel in my heels and revealing clothing and the manager comes up to me and says he's not going to have hookers dealing out of his place, at least not as long as he wasn't getting something out of it. I tried to convince him I wasn't a hooker but he wouldn't buy it. He told me to step into his office and we would discuss it. I told him we had nothing to discuss and he pointed to the front door where a cop car just happened to be sitting."

"In my office now" he said, "or I go tell them I've had complaints from some of the guests about you trying to hustle them."

"You were out of town and I didn't know how to reach you and I didn't want anything to do with the cops so I went into his office. He wanted a blow job to cement our new business relationship and I've been taking care of whoever he sets me up with ever since."

"And you just went along with it?"

"Yes, I just went along with it."

"Why? You could have told me and I would have gotten you out of there."