“That’s what I was telling her. I’ll just return the money and that’ll be that. But now you tell me that Ms. McLaughlin’s missing, it might look like trouble.” His eyes were wet. “I swear this was the first and only time I ever did something like this. And I only took the money because she told me to.”

“Ms. McLaughlin told you to take the money?”

“Yes, sir.”

Decker pulled out his notebook. “Mr. Booker, let’s back it up. Start with the time. When did all this happen?”

“It was about…three, three-thirty in the afternoon.”

“Sunday afternoon?”

“Yeah, Sunday afternoon. I was doing my rounds. Just checking the grounds, and I heard the arguing coming from Ms. McLaughlin’s hotel room.”

“Okay.” Decker kept his face flat. “When you say ‘arguing,’ could you define it?”

“Yelling.”

“Who was yelling?”

“Both of ’em.”

“Ms. McLaughlin and…”

“I don’t know the man’s name. He never did say it. Just offered me the money, and like a damn fool I took it. Only reason I took it is because she said for me to take it.”

“Ms. McLaughlin did.”

“Yes, sir. Boy, she was angry. Angry at him…but she looked angry at me for bothering them.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a wad of hundred-dollar bills. “I didn’t even spend it. I knew it was wrong.” He thrust the bundle in Decker’s face. “Just take it from me. That stuff is poison!”

“I can’t do that, sir.”

“Well, I sure as hell don’t want it.” He threw the money on the table.

The bills started to uncurl. Decker didn’t make a move to take them, but he knew later on that he’d bag the money as evidence. Maybe it was payoff from Donatti to do something bad. “Let’s backtrack a little, Mr. Booker. You were doing your rounds. It was about three, three-thirty on Sunday afternoon.”

“Yes.”

“You heard some arguing coming from Ms. McLaughlin’s room.”

“Yes.”

“Then what happened?”

“I knocked on the door. I called out her name, asking her if everything was okay.”

“What happened after you knocked and called out to her?”

“Well, for one thing, the arguing stopped. The yelling. After I knocked, no one said a peep.”

“Okay. Go on.”

“I knocked again, calling out her name. I started to put my passkey into the door, but then she opened it up before I had a chance.”

“How’d she look?”

The man’s skin darkened. “She was a beautiful woman.”

“I mean what was her emotional state?”

“Angry.”

“Angry and afraid?”

“No, sir, just angry. If she woulda looked afraid, I wouldn’t have gone away. She just looked pissed, pardon my French.”

“So what happened after she answered the door?”