8 JUNE, 1963 – SATURDAY – THREE HOURS PAST SUNDOWN
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“I’m lookin’ for a mark, about my height with a red tie. Did he just come in here?” said Woody LaRivière.
“Yeah, just about ten minutes ago,” said Gabriel, the night manager of the Evangeline Hotel. He noticed that Woody was talking through clinched teeth. “What’s got ya so nervous? We got a setup tonight? Relax, you need some chewing gum.”
“Yeah, I’ll take a pack. You got that clove gum that I like.” said Woody.
“Yeah, here you go. On the house.”
“What room he take?” said Woody, peeling back the gum and popping it into his mouth.
“Didn’t take a room. He asked about a room.”
“What room?”
“Three eighteen. Registered under the name of Anne Rivers.”
“Who’s she to him?”
“A woman,” said Gabriel. “If you just let me finish. I’ll tell ya –“
“– Give me a room that has an adjoining door.”
“But, ya need to know that– ”
“– I said ‘What room?’”
“That room, that’s three twenty,” said Gabriel with some resignation.
“Ain’t you just an angel as always,” said Woody as he left and took the stairs rather than the elevator. When he got to the third floor, he caught his breath in the stairwell and adjusted the pistol tucked into in the small of his back.. When he walked in the hallway, he heard a radio playing softly through the door of three eighteen. He opened three twenty and then locked it behind himself. When he put his ear to the door leading to the adjoining room, he heard a woman’s voice and then a man’s.