Free Big Kiss-Off by Day Keene Page B

pardon?”
    “Just thinking out loud,” Cade said.
    He ordered a package of Turkish cigarettes and two liqueurs to finish off the meal. It had been a good meal. He’d enjoyed it.
    Mimi sipped at her anisette. “It was nice, ver’ nice.
Gracias
.”
    Cade lighted a cigarette for her. He wished he knew what to do with Mimi. He couldn’t leave her alone in New Orleans any more than he could have left her alone in Bay Parish. Mimi was a problem. Cade leaned his forearms on the table. “Look, little honey.”
    “Sí?”
    “Now we’ve failed to locate Moran how about you changing your mind and going back to Caracas?”
    Mimi blew smoke through her nose. “No.”
    “But Moran isn’t registered here. You heard the clerk. He checked out two weeks ago.”
    “There is more than one hotel in New Orleans. I will go from one to the other.”
    “But we don’t even know they are still in New Orleans.”
    “They?”
    “You heard that, too. Seemingly, Janice cheeked out with him. At least, at the same time.”
    Mimi laid her hand on his. “Thees girl to whom you were married.”
    “What about her?”
    “You love her?”
    “At one time I thought I did.”
    “How long have you been divorced?”
    “According to the date on the final decree, about as long as since you’ve seen Moran.”
    “You knew she was divorcing you?”
    “No.” Cade tried to keep the bitterness from his voice. “They didn’t serve divorce papers where I was.”
    “Where was that?”
    “North of the Yalu River in Korea.”
    Mimi was incredulous. “She divorced you while you were in a prison camp?”
    “Yeah. I slept with the final decree on my first night back in Tokyo.”
    Mimi’s breasts rose and fell with her anger. Cade watched them, fascinated. “I am right in what I say in the lobby. Thees woman, thees Janice, is a she no-good. Even if, how you say, I hated hees gots, eef my man had been a prisoner, eef he had been fighting for me, he would nevair have known. I would have been waiting weeth all the love in the world.”
    “I believe that,” Cade said.
    “What did you do to her to make her want thees divorce?”
    “Nothing. Except perhaps not make enough money.”
    “You are colonel.”
    “Ex-colonel. But a colonel’s pay was chicken feed to Janice.”
    “And now she ees weeth my man.”
    “So it would seem. Moran has money?”
    Mimi’s full lips twisted in wry smile. “If so, he nevair sent me some. If he had sent me money I would not have to hide under the canvas of a lifeboat.”
    Cade glanced casually around the bar. It was beginning to fill with early evening trade. “Not so loud,” he cautioned Mimi. “You never can tell who might be listening in a joint like this.”
    A pleasant-faced waitress appeared in front of the booth with a silver thermos jug. “How’s the coffee situation?”
    “Thanks. I can use some,” Cade said. He made his cup more accessible, then looked at the waitress again. “Are you the girl who served us?”
    “No,” the girl said. “That was Annette. I just came on shift. We change shift at five.”
    “I see,” Cade said.
    The waitress hesitated and said, “Say, Charlie, that’s the day barman, said you were inquiring about a good-looking blonde and a big black-haired man who were stopping at the hotel but checked out about two weeks ago.”
    “That’s right. James Moran and Janice Cain.”
    “You aren’t a cop, are you?”
    “Do I look like one?”
    “No,” the waitress admitted, “you don’t. Still, a girl can never tell. You want to locate this couple, is that the idea?”
    “Yes,” Mimi said, “ver’ much.”
    “How much?” the waitress asked.
    Cade laid ten dollars on the table. “Say, ten dollars’ worth.”
    “Let’s say, twice ten dollars.”
    Cade laid a second bill on top of the first.
    The waitress was fair. “First, let’s make sure we are talking about the same people. She’s a blonde, blue-eyed, this side of thirty, with no need of falsies? Looks and