NOON WATCHED THE ROOM PALE AS THE MORNING CAME ON and the noise of the street grew louder. He swung his feet to the floor and stood from the bed. He hadn’t slept a moment the night before. Hadn’t even closed his eyes. Everything was just as it was when he had entered the apartment. He looked at the girl’s clothes on the floor.
I guess you are not coming, he said.
He went to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. He took out a carton of orange juice and opened the spout and took a drink. He looked around the apartment. He drank some more of the juice and then put it back in the refrigerator and went to the door and put on his boots and walked out.
Outside the sidewalks and streets were covered in a thin layer of snow. The snow was wet and already melting from the awnings and hoods of cars. The sky was a pale blue with a little lavender to it and the sun had not yet crested the mountains to the east. He walked across the street to a café and took a table near the window and ordered a Coke and sat drinking it through a straw and watching the building. The waitress had asked if he’d like anything to eat but he said the Coke was enough. The waitress was in her mid-thirties and sleepy eyed. She said she’d be back to check on him.
An hour passed. People came out of the building and went in but none of them were her. The waitress came by again and refilled his Coke and asked, Would you like me to get some eggs going for you or something?
Noon watched her. She had nice hips. Then he looked up.
I already told you the Coke was enough, he said.
Figured you might be getting hungry by now.
What would bring you to that conclusion?
She waited for him to smile but he never did and she said, Okay.
Before she left Noon stopped her and said, Do you know this woman?
He took the photo strip from his shirt pocket and put it on the table. She bent over to look at it.
The one here, she said, that’s a gal named Dani. Lives across the street. Did anyway. They found her last night.
Yes, Noon said. I heard. How about this one here?
She squinted. She furrowed her brow.
No, she said. I’ve seen her maybe a few times. But I don’t know her name.
Her name is Ruby, Noon said.
Ruby.
Yes.
Sounds like you already know her.
Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. I’m asking if you know her.
You some kind of private investigator or something?
Yes, Noon said. Something like that.
He took a pack of cigarettes from his shirt pocket and tapped the pack on the heel of his hand and shucked one from the pack and put it between his lips and flipped open the Zippo and was going to light it when she said, You can’t smoke that here.
Why?
You’re in the nonsmoking section.
I’ve never understood that, he said.
Understood what?
The sections. Do you have different air being pumped into this section?
No, she said. Same air.
Same air.
Yes.
Same air as the smoking section.
Yes.
I see.
He snapped closed the Zippo. He laid some money on the table.
How old are you? he asked.
Thirty-four.
You’re quite beautiful.
She blushed but not from flattery.
What are you doing tonight? he asked.
Tonight?
I want to take you to dinner.
Dinner?
Yes, he said. I want to take you someplace where you can eat food and then I want to have sex with you. And I want to film us having sex. Would that be something you would enjoy?
Again she waited for him to smile but again he never did. She held up her left hand to show him the ring on her finger.
Lucky you, he said.
He stood and walked out of the café and she watched him go and he turned and looked at her through the window and there was not a single emotion on his face and then he walked on and disappeared.