Voyeur Page #5

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then that might reflect on

all that I believed of what he saw.

The thing you gotta know in life is

when to make a choice and when not to.

I can definitely testify

to the accuracy of the room.

I mean the attic. I know that was...

I saw it. I was there.

But the rest of it, I'm getting from him,

and he's my single source.

And you're unwise to have one source.

In all that I write,

I try to guard against

being wrong about something

that could be checked upon

and found part of sloppy reporting.

The issue of that murder.

It's unresolved as of now.

I know the date, the year.

A woman in her mid-20s, or maybe younger

or maybe older, was found dead.

We have to find out

who in the hell that person was.

I'd love to have that,

because there's gonna be

a lot of skepticism

about the veracity of this.

I went to the police,

I went to the coroner,

and I went to the newspaper,

the Denver Post.

They checked on their records,

and they came back and said,

"We don't have anything about this death."

How could they not have records?

I don't know how it's possible.

They would have to have records.

I shouldn't have to search far.

You should just have the date,

the location of the death.

There should be somebody

meeting the description of a woman

dying on a motel floor...

and be that age, 20 to 30.

It shouldn't be...

I think we're here.

Thank you.

Right here, please.

- Keep walking, Mr. Talese.

- Thank you.

Jamison Stoltz,

the editor working on the book,

uncovered a murder that occurred

a couple of miles away in a motel

within a two or three week period.

This came out because

I was looking for more information,

just as you were,

on the murder that he writes about.

Could Gerald have

conflated this?

I don't know the answer.

I don't think the actual total truth

of all these incidents

are ever gonna be known.

The only person that knows them is Gerald,

and he may not even know them,

because he may not remember them.

I really like this line,

"I don't keep secrets from my readers."

As he put it, she fell through the cracks.

Yeah.

Why would this guy depict himself

in a cowardly way?

Why would a guy make up the worst story

in the book about him?

To repeat that story

is to lose any sympathy

from even the most sympathetic sick reader

I had.

You know,

Gerald's a fascinating character,

but would I stake my life or my reputation

on every single thing that he's recounted

in this story

of being absolutely accurate?

No, I wouldn't.

GT, which is how I refer to him

when I'm not speaking directly to him...

said, "Why don't you do something?"

Why don't you do an illustration

for The Voyeur's Motel?"

Little bit brighter.

This is the sort of thing

you do for your parents.

So he gave me this postcard to work from.

This is a picture that he had.

I didn't like the perspective,

and I didn't want it to be snow,

and I had this idea to look

for other pictures on the Internet.

Let's see if anything comes up.

When I looked at the street view,

this is what I got.

The most recent time.

And I called my father and said,

"Guess what? It's been torn down."

What'd he say?

"How do you know that?

How did you find that out?"

And I said, "Google Maps."

"Oh, you and the Internet!"

Come on.

Jesus! How in the hell...

All right.

- Hello?

- Hello, Gerald?

Hey, Gay.

I heard just last night...

that the Manor House Motel

is not there anymore.

Who told you that?

- It's been leveled.

- Really? That's news to me.

- I'm telling you...

- That's really not a big problem, though.

Wait a minute.

It probably makes you relieved,

because you were the guy told me

don't use the name of that motel.

Yes, I did.

I just told Anita,

and she said that's good.

Yeah, listen...

I don't know.

They probably got a good price for it.

- Listen...

- They probably got...

Probably got a million bucks

for it, easily.

Kind of makes me feel good,

to be honest with you.

Does it?

We don't have to fight

with any of these jerks, you know?

You mean

the Korean people that owned it,

- or whoever owned it.

- That's right.

We got the story written

prior to the demolition of it.

Of course we do, and we have films

and pictures and everything else.

- Even...

- We got all kinds of stuff.

That documentary crew even went in

and took pictures of the rooms

when they were there visiting you

and filming your story.

I'm pretty excited about this book, Gay.

I think this could be

one of your great books.

Well, it's gotta get that New Yorker

to publish it.

In other words, all you're waiting for

is for this thing to be published

by New Yorker magazine,

- and then we can go to town.

- That's what we're waiting for.

- I'll see you.

- This is something to shout,

thank the Lord for.

All right, well, it's a hurray

for you and the motel.

Bye-bye, Gerald.

Okay.

When you hold on to stories,

things change.

When you're writing nonfiction, thinking,

now here this piece was all set.

And then what happens?

The whole location of this story,

the motel itself,

vanishes in space,

so I have to figure it out.

So you don't need to go back

out there to see this lot?

- Would it be worth a trip?

- Yeah.

- Well, for us...

- Would it?

For us, the visual

of an empty lot would be very powerful.

If you're gonna do it,

I might as well go with you.

I can't see much out here

that's remaining.

They cleaned it off pretty good.

I feel a little uncomfortable in this...

I always loved this property,

and I built most of it

with my own two hands.

And now it's gone.

In the Bible, of course,

there's that great saying about

there's a time for everything

under the sun.

And I believe that the time

on this particular motel was up.

- What do you think?

- Sad.

- Still sad?

- Yeah.

Last night I had a dream about this place,

and I cried.

And Gerald says, "What's the matter?"

I said, "Nothing,"

and he said, "What's the matter?"

And I said, "I miss the motel."

And I was dreaming

that I was still working...

"and I felt like it was real."

I woke up, I was in bed sleeping, crying.

Yeah, it's somebody else's

property now.

He used the word "redemption" to me.

He says, "I wanna clear my conscience."

To identify or have people identify him

with this work of some worthiness,

and kind of redeem himself.

We'll see.

Sit down and I'll push your foot over.

Thank you, man. God, you're so kind.

I hope when this is all over,

that you and I and Anita

can be as good as friends

as we are before.

We'd better be better.

I've known this man since 1980.

Going over this man's

massive amount of scribble,

having to clarify what is real

and what's not real,

I'm trying to be as careful

as you humanly can...

with an unreliable person.

When you're dealing with the New Yorker,

you have to get the facts right.

I want the facts right.

But I'm worried about the fact checker.

That goddamn magazine

really has fact checkers.

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