I pulled my gun and pushed first into the women's room and then into the men's. Empty. I ran down to the exit door and kicked through it and ran down two flights of stairs and through another door into the hotel's laundry. There were huge commercial washers and steam-circulating systems and dryers that could handle a hundred sheets at a crack. But there was no Mimi.

In Vietnam I had learned that the worst parts of life and death are not where you look for them. Like the sniper's bullet that takes off a buddy's head as you stand side by side at a latrine griping about foot sores, the worst parts hover softly in the shadows and happen when you are not looking. The worst of life stays hidden until death.

On a heavy gray security door that led onto a service drive beneath the hotel, someone had written WE WARNED YOU in red spray paint. Beneath it they had drawn a rising sun.

Chapter 13

When the first wave of cops and FBI got there, they sealed off the Blue Corridor and herded all the principals into the Blue Room and sealed that off, too. An FBI agent named Reese put the arm on me and Ellis and brought us outside and walked us past the restrooms and down the stairs. Reese was about fifty, with very long arms and pool player's hands. He was about the color of fine French roast coffee, and he looked like he hadn't had a good night's sleep in twenty years.

He said, "How long this guy Davis been working for you, Ellis?"

"Two years. He's an ex-cop. All my guys are ex-cops. So am I." He said it nervous.

Reese nodded. "Davis says he's standing down the hall back up by the bathrooms grabbing a smoke when the girl comes by, goes into the women's room. Says the next thing he knows this gook dude is coming out the women's room and gives him one on the head and that's it." Reese squinted at us. Maybe doing his impression of a gook dude. "That sound good to you?"

Jack Ellis chewed the inside of his mouth and said, "Uh-huh."

In the laundry there were cops and feds taking pictures of the paint job and talking to Chicano guys in green coveralls with NEW NIPPON HOTEL on the back. Reese ignored them. "Didn't anybody tell the girl not to go off alone?" He squatted down to look at something on the floor as he said it. Maybe a clue.

Ellis looked at me. I said, "She was told."

Reese got up, maybe saw another clue, squatted again in a different place. "But she went anyway. And when she went, nobody went with her."

I said, "That's it."

He stood up again and looked at us. "Little girl gotta go potty. That's no big deal. Happens every day. Nothing to worry about, right?" A little smile hit at the corner of his mouth and went away. "Only when you got serious criminals out there, and they're saying things, maybe going potty, maybe that's something to think about. Maybe calling the police when the threats are made, maybe that's something to think about, too." He looked from Ellis to me and back to Ellis. "Maybe the cops are here, maybe the little girl does her diddle and comes back and this never happens."

Ellis didn't say anything.

Reese looked at me. "I talked to a dick named Poitras about you. He said you know the moves. What happened, this one get outta hand?"

Ellis said, "Look, Mr. Warren signs the checks, right? He says jump, I say which side of my ass you want me to land on?"

Reese's eyes went back to Ellis and flagged to half-mast. I think it was his disdainful look. "How long were you a cop?"

Ellis chewed harder at his mouth.

I said, "You gonna bust our ass about this all day or we gonna try to get something done?"

Reese put the look on me.

I said, "We shoulda brought you guys in. We wanted to bring you guys in. But Ellis is right. It's Warren's ticket and he said no. That's half-assed, but there it is. So this is what we're left with. We can stand here and you can work out on us or we can move past it."

Reese's eyes went to half-mast again, then he turned to look at the door with the paint. He sucked at a tooth while he looked. "Poitras said you got Joe Pike for a partner. That true?"

"Yeah."

Reese shook his head. "Ain't that some shit." He finished sucking on the tooth and turned back to me. "Tell me what you got, from the beginning."

I gave it to him from the beginning. I had told it so many times to so many cops I thought about making mimeographed copies and handing them out. When I told the part about Nobu Ishida, Jack Ellis said, "Holy shit."

We went back up the stairs to the Blue Room. There were cops talking to Bradley Warren and Sheila Warren and the hotel manager and the people who organized the Pacific Men's Club luncheon. Reese stopped in the door and said, "Which one's Pike?"

Pike was standing in a corner, out of the way. "Him."

Reese nodded and sucked the tooth again. "Do tell," he said softly.

"You want to meet him?"

Reese gave me flat eyes, then went over and stood by two dicks who were talking to Bradley Warren. Sheila was sitting on the couch, leaning forward into the detective who was interviewing her, touching his thigh every once in a while for emphasis. Jillian Becker stood by the bar. Her eyes were puffy and her mascara had run.

When Bradley saw me, he glared, and said, "What happened to my daughter?" His face was flushed.

Jillian said, "Brad."

He snapped his eyes to her. "I asked him an appropriate question. Should I have you research his answer?"

Jillian went very red.

I said, "They knew you were going to be here. They had someone come up through the laundry. Maybe he waited in the restroom or maybe he walked around and was in here with us. We won't know that until we find him."

"I don't like these 'maybes.' Maybe is a weak word."

Reese said, "Maybe somebody shoulda brought the cops in."

Bradley ignored him. "I paid for security and I got nothing." He stabbed a finger at Jack Ellis. "You're fired."

Ellis really worked at the inside of his mouth. Bradley Warren looked at me. "And you? What did you do?" He looked at Jillian Becker again. "The one you insisted I hire. What did you say about him?"

I said, "Be careful, Bradley."

Warren pointed at me. "You're fired, too." He looked at Pike. "You, too. Get out. Get out. All of you."

Everyone in the small tight room was staring at us.

Even the cops had stopped doing cop things. Jack Ellis swallowed hard, started to say something, but finally just nodded and walked out. I looked at Sheila Warren. There was something bright and anxious in her eyes. Her hand was on the arm of the big cop, frozen there. Jillian Becker stared at the floor.

Reese said, "Take it easy, Mr. Warren. I got a few questions."

Bradley Warren sucked in some air, let it out, then glanced at his watch. "I hope it won't take too long," he said. "Maybe they can still make the presentation."

Joe Pike said, "Fuck you."

We left.