52 Pickup by Elmore Leonard Page B

wasn’t into drugs anymore and didn’t have to work every day. Pretty soon, that first time, she started to play around, striking exaggerated nude-model poses. He took a half-dozen pictures that came out sharp and clear in the brightly lit room, but didn’t take the pictures with him when he left. That evening they went to the Caravan Motel for the first time. Three weeks later he leased the apartment and she quit the modeling job.
    Now, the second time Mitchell had come here, he was again self-conscious walking in and seeing the three girls and the guy behind the desk look up at him, knowing they were judging him: horny, middle-aged guy who had to pay to see a naked girl; dirty old man trying to act casual.
    The guy behind the desk was heavy, soft-looking, with sculptured sideburns and thin hair combed carefully to the side in an attempt to cover his baldness; a thirty-year-old thirty-pounds-overweight guy in a tight mod sport shirt. He smelled of aftershave lotion and stared at Mitchell, not moving, as he approached the desk.
    Mitchell said, “There was a girl named Cini, Cynthia, used to work here. Is she still around?”
    The fat man, whose name was Leo Frank and was the owner of the place, stared at Mitchell another moment before he said, “We got a Peggy, we got a Terry, we got a Mary Lou, but no Cinis.”
    “Nice-looking girl about five-four,” Mitchell said. “Blond hair. She was going to school at the time.”
    “They’re all going to school,” Leo Frank said. “These are probably the most educated young ladies you’ve ever met in your life. Pick any one you want.”
    “Her name’s Cynthia Fisher,” Mitchell said.
    The fat man looked off with a thoughtful expression.
    Finally he said, “Yeah, she worked here a while. Quit sometime ago. Couple months at least.”
    “You haven’t seen her since then?”
    “Can’t help you. They come and they go. They don’t leave any forwarding addresses.” Leo Frank nodded toward the three girls, lowering his voice. “That Terry there, one in the middle, you want to look at some nice goodies.”
    Mitchell glanced over at the girls, not wanting to stare at them. “How long she worked here?”
    “About a week is all. Her and Mary Lou just started.”
    “What about the other one there?” Mitchell said.
    “Peggy? Yeah, Peggy’s been here maybe acouple of months.”
    “I’ll take her.”
    “Nice goodies,” Leo Frank said. “Peggy might have a little extra going, if you know what I mean.”
    Mitchell paid the fifteen dollars and walked over to the girl, not looking at the other two. All three of them were watching him now. He said, “Peggy?” The girl took her time getting up. Mitchell waited. She walked past him toward the hallway. Mitchell followed, feeling his age and the two girls watching him.
    Leo Frank swiveled around in his chair, putting his back to the two girls across the room. He picked up the telephone and dialed a number. When a voice answered, Leo Frank said, “He’s here . . . . Who the fuck do you think I mean? The guy. He’s here.”
    The girl stared directly at Mitchell as she unbuttoned her shirt and took it off. For several moments she stood there, bare to the waist, before she said, “You don’t happen to be a cop, do you?”
    Mitchell said, “I thought it was legal.”
    “It is,” the girl said. “I was just wondering.”
    “Do I look like a cop?” He was thinking that probably he did. On the force twenty years. The vice squad.
    She said, “You can’t tell anymore,” unzipping her slacks now and stepping out of them. She wore bikini panties. “Some of them, vice and narcos, they got long hair, mustaches, even beards. There ought to be a law they have to wear their uniforms at all times.”
    “I’m not a cop,” Mitchell said. “I just like to look at bare-naked ladies.”
    “That’s all you do, just look?”
    “That’s what the sign says.”
    “Would you be interested in something else?” She hooked her