Part 51 (1/2)
The door opened, and the manager looked in. Jay waved him away.
”What address did he give you?”
Kaydee Nineteen's paper lay on the desk. Jay held it up so the small woman seated abovethe telephone could read it.
”The print's too small,” she told him. ”You'll have to say it.”
”It doesn't bother you?”
”Why should it?”
Jay sighed. ”I don't know. When I was in college, I used to play chess. Now I feel like I'm playing chess again and I've forgotten how.”
He reversed the slip of paper. ”Building Eighteen, Unit Eight in the Greentree Gardens?”
”That's it. When will you be here?”
The black raincoat had slits above its pockets that let Jay reach the pockets of the camouflage hunting coat under it. Extracting a bill, he held it up. ”Can you read this?”
”Sure.”
”I'll give it to you if you'll pick me up. You've seen me and how I'm dressed. I'll be in that little park at the corner of Sixth and Fortieth.”
”No,” she said.
”I'll be there, and I'll buy. I'll pay you this just for the ride.” He hung up, rose, and left the store, waving to the manager.
There was a hotel down the street; he went in and stood at the front desk, a vast affair of bronze and marble. After five minutes a black woman in a transparent plastic blouse asked, ”You checkin' in?”
”I'd like to.” Jay laid two hundreds on the counter.
”We can't take those.” She eyed them as though they were snakes. ”Got a credit card?” Jay shook his head.
”You got no bags either.” Jay did not deny it.
”You can't check in here.”
He indicated the hundreds. ”I'll pay in advance.”
The black woman lowered her voice. ”They don't let us take anybody like you, even if you got two dots.”
In a department store a block away, Jay cornered a clerk. ”I want a lightweight bag, about this long.”
The clerk yawned. ”Three feet, sir?”
”More than that.” Jay separated his hands a bit.
The clerk (who probably called himself an a.s.sociate) shook his head and turned away.
”Three and a half, anyway. Forty-two inches.”
”Soft-sided?” The clerk clearly hoped Jay would say no.
”Sure,” Jay said, and smiled.
”Wait right here.” Briefly, the clerk's fingers drummed the top of a four-suiter. ”I'll be gone a while, you know?”
Jay removed his slouch hat and wiped his forehead with his fingers. The hat had been a comfort in the chill air of the street, but the store was warm.None of the milling shoppers nearby were giving him any attention, as far as he could judge; but, of course, they would not. If he was being watched, it would be by someone some distance away, or by an electronic device of some kind. Looking around for the device, he found three cameras, none obtrusive but none even cursorily concealed. City cops, store security, and somebody else-for a minute or two Jay tried to think who the third watchers might be, but no speculation seemed plausible.
Men's Wear was next to Luggage. He wandered over.
”What do you want?” The clerk was young and scrawny and looked angry.
With your build, you'd better be careful, Jay thought; but he kept the reflection to himself. Aloud he said, ”I had to buy this raincoat in a hurry. I thought I might get a better one here.”
”Black?”
Jay shook his head. ”Another color. What've you got?”
”Blue and green, okay?”
”Green,” Jay decided, ”if it's not too light.”
The clerk stamped over to a rack and held up a coat. ”Lincoln green. Okay?”
”Okay,” Jay said.
”Only if you turn it inside out, it's navy. See?”
Jay took the coat from him and examined it. ”There are slits over the pockets. I like that.”
”Same pockets for both colors,” the clerk sounded as if he hoped that would kill the sale.
”I'll take it.”
The clerk glanced at a tag. ”Large-tall. Okay?”
”Okay,” Jay said again.
”You want a bag?”
Jay nodded. A stout plastic bag might prove useful.
The clerk was getting one when the clerk from Luggage returned. He frowned until Jay hurried over.
”This's what we call a wheeled duffel,” the luggage clerk explained. ”You got a handle there. You can carry it, or you got this handle here that pops out, and wheels on the other end. Forty-four inches, the biggest we've got. You got a store card?”
”Cash,” Jay told him.
”You want a card? Ten percent off if you take it.”