The two desk clerks were laughing when I came in, though one of them, Morgan, was laughing the loudest. “What’s so funny?” I asked.
“Henry just said a transvestite came in last night and said he was Stanley Bard’s son,” Morgan said.
When I heard that I cracked up too.
“So what did he look like?” Morgan asked Henry.
“He was tall,” Henry said, indicating with his hand.
“Was he dressed in women’s clothes?” Morgan asked.
“No, but he had on all the makeup and everything.”
“Did he look like Stanley ?” I asked.
Henry seemed to be tiring of the interrogation. “Well, he was the same color.”
“I wouldn’t just dismiss it out of hand,” I said.
“Yeah, you never can tell what kind of weird shit goes on around this place,” Morgan said. “You’d have to get a DNA test to rule it out.”
“He didn’t have one of those,” Henry said, irritably.
“Are you sure it wasn’t just David?” I asked, naming Stanley’s actual, known son.
“No! I know what David looks like!”
“So did you give him a room?” I asked.
“Joe talked to him. He was going to rent him one, but I guess he didn’t like the price, so he went away.”
“I’m gonna call Joe right now and ask him about this!” Morgan exclaimed, snatching up the phone.
I didn’t wait around to hear from Joe. “Hard to believe you can’t even get a decent rate when you’re the owner’s son,” I said. (Copyright 2006 Ed Hamilton)
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