like a woman you’d take home to Momma. She was long-term parking. The pickpocket had the kind of ass a man wanted to saddle up and ride off into the sunset. Or up and down Sunset. She wore heels, sexy pointed-toe shoes that helped pimp out her rotund ass that much more. Shoes were rust-colored, just like her leather jacket, a jacket that she wore wide open. Forty-plus with the body of a twenty-year-old.
Freeman’s stoic image and name were up all over the joint. Thirty-foot banners. Bold letters. Reds, golds, and greens. Like it was a movie premiere at Mann’s Chinese Theatre.
THOMAS MARCUS FREEMAN
AUTHOR OF
POOL TABLES AND POLITICS
AND
ALL THAT GLITTERS
AND
truth is stronger than lies
READS AND SIGNS His
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
DAWNING OF IGNORANCE
25
I didn’t know what was going on at the time.
Had no idea what was going on back at Shutters.
Later on I’d find out the way everything went down.
The Asian woman got out on Freeman’s floor, soaked in Starbucks. Watched Freeman storm into his room. Saw the maid’s cart down the hallway, went down and peeped to make sure the maid was on the floor. An older Spanish woman. Too busy cleaning up someone else’s mess to look up. Then the Asian woman went and stood near the elevator. When Freeman came back out, she passed him in the hallway again, let him rush and get on the vertical carriage. Then she took out the bottled water she had in her bag. She undressed. Head to toe. Got butt naked. Wearing her birthday suit was no big deal to her. She worked in that uniform three, sometimes five nights a week at Strokers. Worked naked in six-inch stilettos, music bumping while she was swinging from a pole, breasts and vagina on display, smoky dollars raining at her feet.
After she undressed at Shutters, she stuffed her clothing in a plastic bag and hid them in the trash container by the elevator. She took her bottled water, opened it, and poured the overpriced purified water made by Coca-Cola all over herself. Next she took out a bottle of shower gel, soaped herself up head to toe, used a bath sponge and got a decent lather going. She let her hair down, let it shadow her features so the cameras—if there were cameras and if those cameras were on—wouldn’t get a good shot of her face. Then she ran down the hallway all wet and smelling good, breasts bouncing like two kids on a trampoline, and rushed to the Spanish maid, embarrassed and hysterical, the bath sponge throwing soap and water every which- away, bad acting at its best, but good enough to shock the maid and make her say things in Spanish and genuflect. The Asian woman told the Spanish maid that she thought she heard somebody knocking at the door while she was showering, went to the door, didn’t see anybody, took a step out, then the door closed hard, hit her foot, she jumped out of the way to keep her pedicure from being messed up, and she got locked out.
A naked Asian woman running up and down the hallway at a swank hotel.
Then, of course, just like any normal person in California, she threatened to sue the hotel. Her toe might be broken. And her pedicure, well, they owed her a free night because of that.
The maid didn’t question her story. Maybe she’d seen stranger things. She just wrapped the con woman in a towel as fast as she could and let her in the room so fast it wasn’t funny.
Two minutes after Freeman had gone, the Asian woman was inside his room.
Elvis had entered the building like a motherfucker.
The silver briefcase was on the unmade bed, locked and heavy.
She showered the gel off her body, rushed through Freeman’s personal things without drying off, piled up everything she wanted to take. She pulled Freeman’s suitcase out of the closet and put everything she had gathered inside. She pulled out a pair of gray sweats that Freeman had packed, put them on, then wiped down everything she had touched. Made sure none of her hair was left behind. She grabbed the suitcase and wheeled it out the door like it was no big deal. Her hair was still down, shadowing her face, head down, eyes on the ground.
The silver briefcase was tucked inside the luggage.
She tossed her used towels into the maid’s cart.
At the elevator, she opened the trash container, got her clothes, put her sandals back on.
She went