The corridors were carpeted in red. The mahogany doors of each room were shined fine and the brass doorknobs polished bright. As he passed down the hallway, Guild heard small snippets of lives behind each door: a married couple snapping at each other here, an old man coughing up phlegm there, and the last a woman with a pretty voice singing “Beautiful Dreamer” to an infant she was apparently rocking in her arms. The infant made happy sounds as the woman sang on.
The room he wanted was at the end of the hall. There was a fire exit door on the back wall and a window that looked down on an alley. Two black men were loading a buckboard with crates from the back of a store, and they were laughing about something secret as they worked.
Guild put his ear to the door. What he heard made him walk back down the hall aways. He felt almost ashamed listening to the noises they made. This sort of thing was their business. He was just glad that Sarah hadn’t come along. It would be rough, hearing them go at it that way.
He gave them ten minutes before trying again. He walked back to the door and put his ear to it.
Just then an impressive-looking man with white muttonchop sideburns and an expensive Edwardian suit came out of a room down the hall. He saw Guild there, pressing his ear to the door. Guild blushed. He started to explain and then decided the hell with it. The man had already made up his mind about what sort of person Guild was anyway.
They were done making noise. Guild knocked.
“Who is it?” Frank Evans said.
“Guild.”
“Leo?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be a son of a bitch.”
“Who is it, sweetheart?”
“Leo Guild.”
“Who’s that?”
“Old friend of mine.”
Which wasn’t exactly true, Guild thought, but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.
He could hear them scrambling into their clothes now, buttons snapping shut, boots being jerked on.
Frank Evans opened the door.
The first thing Guild noticed was his hair, how it had gone heavily salt-and-pepper. And the second thing he noticed was that Frank held a Colt right in Guild’s face.
“Sorry, Leo. Just had to be sure.” Frank dropped the gun.
“Same goddamn Frank as always.”
Frank paid no attention. “Come on in, Leo, and meet my sweetheart.”
She sat at a dressing table, combing long lustrous red hair into a fancy pile on top of a well-shaped head rising from a long white neck. She was not at all what Guild had expected. She was elegant and beautiful. She wore a green organdy dress. In the mirror he saw that she had green, intelligent eyes and a soft, friendly smile.
Guild felt sorry for Sarah. This wasn’t the chippie she’d described.
This was a decent woman, at least judging by appearances.
“Good morning, Mr. Guild.”
“Good morning.”
She patted white powder on her face with a puff. Just the right faint amount. “Would you care to join us for breakfast?”
“No, thanks, miss.”
“We’d be happy to have a guest.”
“All the same, miss,” Guild said. He’d taken off his hat and was picking at its brim with his fingers.
She stood up. She was tall and most intimidating. The organdy rustled as she went over and gave Frank a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll go for a walk for awhile then meet you downstairs. I know you two want to talk.”
“Thanks, sweetheart.” As he said this, Frank winked at Guild, as if he were bragging about what a find she was.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Guild,” the woman said at the door.
“Nice to meet you, too,” Guild said.
She nodded and was gone.
A long moment after she had closed the door and could be heard walking down the hall, Frank said, “Sarah sent you, didn’t she?”
“Yes.”
“Goddamn her, Leo. Goddamn her anyway.”
Frank wore black pants and a starched white shirt that still needed a collar. He paced. He moved quick like a kid, but now there were lines in the almost pretty face and around his eyes.
“I hear she’s Rittenauer’s woman.”
He stopped pacing and looked at Guild. “You know something I don’t understand, Leo?”
“What’s that?”
“Why you care so much about Sarah? After what she did to you, I mean.”
“She’s a good woman.”
“She slept with me while she was still married to you.”
“I wasn’t the easiest man to live with.”
“Didn’t it hurt, what we did to you?”
Guild tried not to think about it. He couldn’t ever remember crying in quite the way he had in those days, crying so hard in the solitary night that he felt as if he’d vomit. He’d traveled wide and far in those days—up into the mountains and then along down the river, into cities bright on the plains at night, and villages lazy and happy in the sunlight, but the pain had been always with him, always. How he’d hated them in those days, lying Sarah and quick-smiling Frank. He’d even in the longest and blackest nights planned somehow to murder them, but he never had, of course, and in the passing of years the rage had gone, and he was even able to find happy memories amidst the grief. Then when he’d seen her five years ago, when she had dragooned him into getting Frank out of that farmhouse, he’d forgiven them all, Sarah and Frank for betraying him, and himself for not being the husband Sarah had deserved.
To Frank now he said, “She loved you, Frank.”
Frank sighed. ‘This isn’t easy for me, Leo.”
“I can see that. Nice hotel room. Beautiful woman. It’s probably real hard work.”
“You know what I mean.”
“No, I don’t know what you mean.”
“It’s just—” and he started pacing again. “You know how some people get old and other people don’t?” Before Guild could say anything, “She thinks because my dad was a farmer, that’s what I should be. There’s some family land in Missouri. She wants me to take it over and raise corn and cattle.”
Guild pointed to Frank’s face. “You taken a look in the mirror lately?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You still think you’re this cute little kid, Frank. And you’re not. You’re getting to be as old as the rest of us.”
Frank nodded at Guild’s white head. “At least I’m not as old as you, Leo.”
Guild sighed. “She loves you, Frank. And she’s a damned good woman.”
“I know she’s a good woman, Leo. You don’t have to tell me that.”
“You could have dinner with her tonight.”
“I’ve got dinner tonight, Leo. With Beth.”
Guild shook his head, went over to the window. In the sunlight the railroad tracks almost glowed. “I’m told Rittenauer’s coming in tonight,” he said without turning around.
“I’m not afraid of Ben Rittenauer, Leo. Just in case you’re trying to scare me.”
Guild turned around and faced Frank. He wanted to slap him around, but he knew it would do no good. “You should be afraid of him, Frank.”
“He’s a punk.”
“He’ll kill you, Frank.”
“All he’s ever fought are old men.”
“You’re an old man now, Frank. At least for a gunny.”
Frank took an Ingram pocket watch from his trousers. “I’ve got to go meet Beth now, Leo.”
“You remember what I said.”
“You remember what I said. Ben Rittenauer doesn’t scare me.”
Guild walked over to the door, put a hand on the fancy brass knob. “It won’t last long, you know. You and Beth.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.”
“And there’s no guarantee that Sarah will be there waiting for you.”
“That’s my problem, Leo. Not yours.”
“A nice spot in Missouri could work out real nice.”
Frank grinned. “It sure could, Leo. When I get to be an old man. But not now. Not right now.”
Guild turned the knob and opened the door. He’d said all there was to say.
Behind him, Frank said, ‘Tell her I appreciate everything, Leo.”
Guild said, “I don’t think that’s what she wants to hear, Frank.”
He left.