Lost Light

fountains.”
    I nodded. I could picture her there at the railing, the dancing fountains lit up in front of her. I could hear the music and the splash of water over the phone.
    “How was Commander’s Palace?”
    “How did you know about that?”
    “Had a visit from the bureau tonight.”
    “That was quick.”
    “Yeah. I heard that’s a good restaurant. Shrimp like marshmallow. Did you like it?”
    “It’s nice. I like the one in New Orleans better. The food’s the same but the original is the original, you know?”
    “Yeah. Plus it’s probably not so great eating by yourself.”
    I almost cursed out loud at how lame and transparent that was.
    “I wasn’t alone. I took a friend that I play with. One of the girls. You didn’t tell me there was a spending limit, Harry.”
    “No, I know. There wasn’t.”
    I needed to steer away from this. We both knew what I had been asking about and it was getting embarrassing, especially considering there might be other ears listening.
    “You didn’t notice anybody watching you, did you?”
    There was a pause.
    “No. And I hope you didn’t get me into any kind of trouble, Harry.”
    “No, you’re fine. I’m just calling to let you know the scam is over. The bureau knows I’m still here.”
    “Damn, I never got the chance to go shopping and get myself that present you promised.”
    I smiled. She was kidding and I could tell.
    “That’s okay, you can still do that.”
    “Is everything okay, Harry?”
    “Yeah, fine.”
    “You want to talk about it?”
    Not on this line, I thought but didn’t say.
    “Maybe when I see you next time. I’m too tired right now.”
    “Okay, then I’ll let you go. What should I do with your cards? And you know you left your bag on my backseat.”
    She said it like she knew I had done it on purpose.
    “Um, why don’t you just hold on to that stuff for now and maybe when I get past this thing I’m working on I’ll come back out and get it from you.”
    It was a long time before she answered.
    “Just give me a little more notice than you did today,” she finally said. “So I’m ready.”
    “Sure, no problem. I will.”
    “Okay, Harry, I’m going to go back in. Maybe talking to you will have changed my luck.”
    “I hope so, Eleanor. Thanks for doing this for me.”
    “No problem. Good night.”
    “Good night.”
    She disconnected.
    “And good luck,” I said into the dead line.
    I hung the phone up again and tried to think about the conversation and what she had meant. Just give me a little more notice than you did today. So I’m ready. It was like she wanted a warning before I came out. So she could do what? What did she have to get ready for?
    I realized that I could drive myself nuts thinking and worrying about it. I put Eleanor and all of that aside and grabbed a beer out of the refrigerator and took it out to the back deck. It was a cool and clear night and the lights of the freeway far below seemed to sparkle like a diamond necklace. I could hear a woman’s laughter carrying up the hillside from somewhere down below. I started thinking about Danny Cross and the song she had gently sung to her husband. In love and in loss the night is always sacred. It’s only a wonderful world if you can make it that way. There are no street signs pointing to Paradise Road.
    I decided that when all of this was over I would go to Vegas and not turn back. I would throw the dice. I would go see Eleanor and take my chances.

27
    The next morning I spread the documents I had rescued from the engine compartment of Lawton Cross’s muscle car across the table. I went into the kitchen to brew a pot of coffee but found out I was out of coffee. I could go down the hill to the store but I didn’t want to leave the phone. I was expecting Janis Langwiser to call early. So I sat down at the table with a bottle of water and started in on the reports Cross had copied and taken home almost four years before.
    What I had was a copy of the currency report prepared by the bank which had loaned the cash to the movie company, and the time and location sheets that Lawton Cross and Jack Dorsey had been working on before their schedule became crowded with other cases.
    The currency report was four pages of typed serial numbers taken from randomly selected one-hundred-dollar bills contained in the shipment to the movie set. The report was prepared by two people listed as Linus Simonson and Jocelyn Jones. It was then signed off on by a bank vice