Slow Burn Read Online Free PDF Page B

"I'm Gloria Ricci."
    Her hand was
smooth and dry. The kind you wanted to hang on to. Up close, she was about my
age. Somewhere between forty and fifty, with the wide oval face of a farm girl
hiding the observant eyes of a red-tailed hawk. "Pleased to meet
you," I said.
    "Marie has
taken care of your needs, I trust?"
    "Perfectly."
    "Good. I
wanted to assure you that the resources of this hotel are completely at your
disposal. Should you require anything further, please don't hesitate to
ask." She stuck two fingers into her side pocket and pulled out a business
card and a small gold key. Ms. Gloria Ricci, General Manager, Olympic Star
Hotel. 'I've added my home number to the back," she said. "The key
allows access to all floors. Regardless of the time of day, please don't
hesitate—Ah, here he is," she finished.
    Marty Conlan
nearly tripped over his jaw when I turned to greet him. "Long time no see,
Marty."
    "Ah,"
Ricci said from behind me. "I somehow expected that you two would already
be acquainted."
    Since Marty
seemed disinclined, I jumped right in. "Yeah," I said, "Marty
and I go way back. You don't know how lucky you are to have a guy like Marty on
board." What the hell. One good turn.
    As Ricci
directed her attention his way, Marty held his face together pretty well. Other
than the arrhythmic tic in the corner of his right eye, he seemed almost
placid. "Mr. Waterman will be acting as security liaison for the
convention. I trust you will provide him with whatever resources he might
require."
    "Depends
on what he requires," Conlan said.
    She fixed him
with her gaze. "Should Mr. Waterman require any assistance whatsoever, I'm
sure that you will be more than happy to assist in any way possible. Isn't that
correct, Mr. Conlan?" Her voice held an edge of authority. Apparently
Marty thought so, too.
    "Anything
at all," he said with a smile so tight it threatened his dentures.
"Anything at all."
    "Funny,
Ms. Ricci," I piped up, "but Marty and I were just discussing being a
team player. Weren't we, Marty?"
    The veins on
Marty's head looked like a relief map of Tibet. He nodded slightly and checked
his watch.
    Gloria Ricci
said, "I'll leave you gentlemen to work out the details." She turned
on her heel and exited in a rustle, as Sir Geoffrey would say, from whence she
came. Marty's expression changed to that of a kid who's been sent to his room
without dessert.
    I started
across the lobby toward the escalator. Marty yapped at my heels like a terrier.
"You broke his goddamn thumb, you know that, don't you, you big dumb
jackass. You broke that kid's thumb."
    "He needs
to learn some manners."
    "What am I
gonna tell the brass? Huh? What?"
    "Tell them
he hurt it pulling it out of his ass." "The son of a bitch will be
claiming he's permanently disabled. You know that, don't ya?" "From a
broken thumb?"
    "These
kids are like that, man. They get a blood blister, they're looking for
workman's comp."
    Halfway across
the wide expanse of lobby, I stopped and pointed back toward the elevators.
"Are those the only way down?"
    "Except
for the stairs and freight elevator in the back." "Is the freight
elevator keyed?" "Yeah. Why?"
    I again started
toward the escalator. "I'm going to need to put a couple of guys here in
the lobby."
    "Not those
friggin' bums, you're not. You may think you've got big-time juice with the
suits, but you start hanging that crew of yours around here in the lobby, I
don't care if if s old Sir Larry Olivier watching out for you, you're all gonna
find your asses back out in the street where they belong."
    He had a point.
The Olympic was the sort of place which considered matching shoes and a full
set of teeth to be pretty much de rigueur. My crew was great for the streets.
Out there, they were virtually invisible. We've trained our eyes not to see the
poor and the homeless. We tell ourselves that these people had their chance.
That the rewards of the free society were once theirs for the taking, and they
blew it. That they