All The Way Down

Chapter 5

I woke to the sound of pounding at the door. Bright sunlight was coming in through the thin drapes. I checked the clock on the night stand on the way to the door and it said it was two in the afternoon. I pulled the door open as far as the chain would allow and a housekeeping woman stood outside the door with a cart stacked with linens. "I'm still sleeping," I told her. She nodded and said something in Spanish. I didn't understand her, so I pointed at the bed and shook my head. She nodded, smiled, and rolled her cart away. I closed the door and sat on the edge of the bed, trying to remember what had happened last night.

The message light on the room telephone was flashing. I picked up the phone and pressed "0."

The receptionist at the front desk told me that there were two messages for me. The first was from Michelle. She had left her phone number for me and asked me to return her call. I found a pen and pad in the desk and had them read me the number again. The second was from Dean Elliott at the quarry, saying that he would be there until five if I wanted to pick up Brick's car or talk about Brick’s insurance policy.

I did several sets of pushups and sit-ups, using the elevation of one of the chairs in the room to increase the resistance. Then I took a shower and dressed in jeans, a red and white University of Oklahoma T-shirt, and jogging shoes. I dialed Michelle's number and she picked up on the third ring.

"Hello?" she said.

"Michelle, this is Del."

"Hi, Del, how are you?"

"Better. Thanks for all your help last night. I was pretty wiped out."

I could hear another woman's voice in the background on Michelle's end of the connection.

"You're very welcome, Del. Do you still need a ride out to the quarry to pick up Brick's car? Dean mentioned that he’d talked to you about it."

"Right," I said. "I do. I can take a cab if it's too much trouble."

"Oh, no problem," she said. "I'll be there as soon as I can. It'll probably be about forty-five minutes or so."

"Thanks, Michelle. See you then."

I slid the room key and Brick's keys into my jeans pocket. I took a good look at Brick's watch. It wasn’t an expensive make, but it was nice looking and matched his style: thick with a heavy metal wristband and chronograph dials on the face. There were scratches on the side of the watch, but it had survived the accident. I put the watch on. The second hand ticked smoothly around the dial.

I tuned around on the television set until I found a cable channel that ran ads for local businesses but played music. Then I opened the drapes and sat on the edge of the bed, watching the traffic go by. I was hungry, so I took a handful of change from the night stand and went down to the snack machines to get a soda and a small bag of peanuts.

I still felt drugged from sleep, but the cola felt okay in my stomach. The lump of keys in my pants pocket reminded me that I would be going by Brick's house that evening to start the process of going through his belongings. I picked up Brick's wallet and pulled the driver's license from it. My brother's face smiled back at me, relaxed and full of confidence. When I had identified the body at the morgue, brutal lacerations and bruises made it almost impossible to recognize him. It jarred me to think about it. The address beside the picture showed 941 Guerrero. I put the license inside my wallet and waited.

Michelle knocked on the door a few minutes later. She wore blue jeans, low-heel red pumps, and a shiny sea-green short sleeve shirt. Her auburn hair was pulled back in a pony tail. She looked fantastic.

"Hi," she said.

"Hi, yourself. Thanks for helping me out with the ride." I switched off the television set.