Instead of driving to Riverside, she turned off Washington Boulevard and headed for home. When she parked outside, she heard loud rock music playing from the back of the house. She let herself in, yelling as she did so, “Ray! Do you hear me? Turn that goddamned music down!”
She walked through the kitchen to the yard. There she saw Ray lying on one of the sun loungers, playing air-guitar, his eyes closed. Next to him, reading the newspaper and picking his nose, Duke sat, bare-chested, with a six-pack of beer beside him.
Bonnie slid back the patio door and stepped outside. She was halfway across the yard before Duke glanced up. He froze, with his finger still halfway up his nose.
“What are you doing here?” Bonnie demanded. “I thought you were starting work today.”
“They—uh—they said they didn’t need me today. Overstaffed. They sent me home.”
“They said they didn’t need you, on your first day?”
“That’s right.… It happens sometimes. Business gets slack. They don’t need so many people stocking the bar.”
“This is the middle of the vacation season and we’re talking about the Century Plaza Hotel and business is slack and it’s your first day?”
Duke stared at her and obviously didn’t know what to say. On the next sun lounger, Ray had suddenly become aware that she was there and opened his eyes.
“Duke,” said Bonnie, “I can think of two possible options here. The first is that you’re telling me the truth, in which case I’ll call your boss at the Century Plaza and check it out. The second is that you’re lying, which will save me the trouble.”
Duke looked over at Ray, but all Ray could do was shrug. In the end, he looked back at Bonnie and said, “Save yourself the trouble.”
“Okay, you’re lying. So I can think of two further options here. The first is that you haven’t shown up for work without bothering to tell your boss, in which case I’ll call him and make an excuse that you’re sick. The second is that you don’t have a job at the Century Plaza at all—that you never made even the slightest attempt to get one—in which case I don’t have to make the phone call at all, do I? I can save myself even more trouble.”
Duke chewed over this for nearly half a minute. Then he said, “Yeah.”
“Yeah what, Duke?”
“Yeah, save yourself even more trouble.”
She called Esmeralda shortly after three. Esmeralda said, “Everything’s arranged. Come downtown and see us at eight o’clock.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.”
“You don’t sound so good. Is everything okay?”
She turned to look at Duke and Ray, still sprawled on their sun loungers out in the yard and said, “Sure. I can manage. I’ll see you later.”