Chapter 9
The desk clerk advised Guy that the car rental agency in the lobby closed at seven in the evening and that his best bet would be to hire a taxi. Guy asked for a map of the city and spread it out on a table in the lobby. It wouldn't do to arrive at the address that Barbara had given him for Jack Lockwood in a taxi, so he located the street and chose a corner two blocks away. He wrote down the names of the streets and folded the map to return it to the desk clerk.
Sandy stood quietly behind a large bulletin board announcing the daily events at the hotel and watched Guy. Suddenly she became aware that someone else was watching her husband. The young girl was sitting at a table close to the door in the bar off the lobby. Sandy noted that the girl never took her eyes off Guy as he studied the map and made his notes.
When Guy walked to the entrance to look for a taxi, the girl quickly paid her check and stood up ready to follow. The minute that Guy climbed into a taxi, the girl walked quickly across the lobby. Sandy continued watching until the girl climbed into a taxi and drove off.
For the life of her, Sandy couldn't understand what was going on. If the two of them were going somewhere to make love, why all the elaborate effort to show that they weren't together? Unless they thought that Sandy might have followed Guy and was watching! That didn't make a lot of sense, but in her state of mind it was the best explanation that she could come up with and the thought infuriated Sandy.
All of his promises to work things out! His damned assurances that they would talk things over! Well, they certainly would talk things over, she said to herself, her anger making her tremble as she stood behind the bulletin board.
Sandy decided that what she needed was a drink. She felt so terribly alone in the world. In a few short days her marriage was a shambles ! To hell with Guy! If he could take off with a sexy teenager, why did she have to stay in the room and rest? She wasn't his goddamned slave!
Inhaling deeply and squaring her shoulders, Sandy walked slowly to the bar off the lobby. I'm not a useless, dirty rag that he can dump whenever he wants, she said to herself as she stood in the entrance to the bar!
It was a quiet room with a few couples sitting at tables and a half-a-dozen men seated at the bar. Sandy allowed her eyes to adjust to the dim light, studied the men at the bar, chose the most handsome of the group and walked over and sat on the stool next to him. Guy probably has that little tart in his arms right at this minute, Sandy rationalized as she smiled at the man and ordered a scotch and water.
At that moment, Guy was paying the taxi on a lonely deserted corner in what appeared to be a medium-to low-class neighborhood of Lima. The streets were dark, lighted only here and there with dull rays escaping from windows of the houses. He took a last look at the address that Barbara Salton had given him, Sanchez Munoz 137, and started off down the street. He followed the route that he had memorized from the city map and arrived at Sanchez Munoz street without difficulty.
The names of the streets were on small metal plaques mounted on the buildings and Guy checked carefully before he started down the dark street. Checking the numbers mounted above the doors, he was glad to find that he had chosen the correct block and was headed in the right direction.
The sequence of numbers was a little confused at times and Guy walked by the vacant lot next to number 135 only to find that the next building was numbered 141. He lighted a match and checked the slip of paper again. It said 137, but could he have taken it down wrong? He walked back to the vacant lot and hesitated on the curb for a moment. It was so dark that he couldn't see the back part of the lot. Perhaps there is a building there, he said to himself, stepping into the tall weeds and walking toward the rear of the property.
"That's far enough, Prince Valiant. Don't move. I have a gun in your back and I won't hesitate to use it. Just stand still."
Guy recognized Barbara's voice immediately. He couldn't see her, but the sharp object pressed against the middle of his back testified that she was behind him. His heart sank to his stomach as he realized that he had been led into an elaborate trap.
"I have to give you credit, Barbara," he said, remaining perfectly still. "You played me for the complete sucker. But why bring me to Lima?"
"Because this is where Jack is. You don't think I'd lie to you, do you?" she added with a chuckle. "You still want to meet him, don't you?"
"Yes," Guy replied, not daring to move a muscle.
"We wanted to be sure you were alone," Barbara said. "Now stand still, Prince Valiant. I'm going to search you, and I'll use this gun if you move a muscle. You're in the big league now."
Guy's mind raced a mile a minute as the young girl's experienced hands frisked his clothes. What in the hell was he into? Where did Barbara Salton fit in?
"Good, you're clean," she announced.
"I never carry a gun," Guy said. "I know you won't believe me, but I'm not in your league at all."
"Oh, I believe you," Barbara said, coming around to face him, but holding the gun in her hand trained steadily on him. "I would have bet anything you were clean, but we can't afford to take chances, Prince Valiant. That's why we brought you here, so we could see who came with you and what contacts you made. If you had talked to anybody, I wouldn't have been here to greet you."
"Very thorough," Guy said sincerely. "Am I supposed to put my hands behind my head?"
"That won't be necessary," she laughed. "Just don't make any fast moves. Now, if you're ready, we can go see Jack. I have a car waiting on the next block. Just walk naturally and try your best not to make me nervous, Prince Valiant. I told you that you hadn't seen the last of me."
"I should have listened more closely," Guy laughed. "Lead on. Or should I say take me to your leader?"
"A word of advice!" she said quietly.
"Yes?" Guy replied. He had been about to say "shoot", and then changed his mind under the circumstances.
"Play it straight," Barbara said. "Save the wise remarks until after you've established your relationship with Jack."
"Okay, and thanks," Guy responded. He noticed that Barbara kept the gun trained on him steadily as they walked slowly down the street. The situation was absolutely ridiculous, but he was convinced that they were dead serious. He wondered how long this would take, and he hoped that Sandy had done as she had promised and gone straight to bed and sleep.
Sandy Morrison was anything but asleep. She was sipping her fourth highball with Hugh Anderson, the man that she had casually picked up at the bar. Hugh was an ex-professional football player from Detroit, a tall, hulking man with little education and rugged good looks. The very size of the man both frightened and excited Sandy.
She had nursed her first drink until the pleasant glow returned to her body. She knew that she was drunk again, but it felt good and she didn't give a damn. The more she thought about Guy and the girl, the madder she became.
"So you followed the Lions?" Hugh said in his gravely voice.
"What? Oh, the Lions! Yes, yes. They're one of my favorite teams." Sandy had seen two professional football games in her life and hoped that the conversation remained very general.
"I spent three seasons with them," Hugh continued. "It wasn't so bad. Rough, but good pay. They wanted me when they opened the new franchise in Denver a couple of years ago, but I told them I was through! What the hell, a guy can take just so much of that bruising. That's when I landed this job with the food company. Public relations, you know. Pretty good for a guy like me with no formal education. I don't mind traveling in South America, but I'll tell you something, I don't like these Latin women. Too pampered and stuck up, if you know what I mean."
"Well, thank you, kind sir," Sandy said.
"Why? You ain't no Latin, are you?"
"No, but I gathered you were saying you preferred American women."
"Exactly! Say, you're real smart, you know that? You're my kind of woman! Say, how about splitting out of here and having some fun together?"
Sandy was beginning to wonder if he would ever ask! "Why not? I feel in the mood for some real fun!"
"We can go up to my room. You know, have a drink and things like that," he suggested.
"Better yet," Sandy said, "why don't we go up to my room?" She had planned this since she had sat down at the bar, and she hoped and prayed that Guy came home and found them in bed!
"Hey, that's great!" Hugh said, calling the bartender for the bill.