President Garner Hotel
The President Garner Hotel in downtown Denver is a grand, stately establishment that briefly becomes the stage for the novel's most harrowing confrontation. It is here that Juliana Frink and Joe Cinnadella, having driven up from Canon City, Colorado, check in after a day of extravagant shopping. The hotel, with its uniformed doorman, maroon-clad bellboys, and thick carpeting, represents the height of luxury and normalcy—a stark contrast to the violence that will erupt within its walls. It is also the place where Joe's carefully constructed facade finally crumbles, revealing the SD assassin beneath the guise of an Italian truck driver.
The Arrival and the Shopping Spree
Juliana and Joe arrive in Denver after a long drive, during which Joe has already revealed unsettling aspects of his character—his dyed blond hair, his sudden insistence on visiting Abendsen, and his growing tension. At the hotel, they are given a "superb, breathtaking room" on the second floor, and Juliana is delighted by the amenities, including a bookstore in the lobby where she buys a new copy of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. The shopping spree that follows is both a fulfillment of Joe's promise and a means of control: he buys her an expensive Italian blue dress, new shoes, stockings, hats, and a handmade leather purse, while also purchasing a new suit for himself. Yet the mood sours when Joe insists they leave for Cheyenne that very night, revealing his true purpose. Juliana's protest—"I don't want to go and see him tonight; I'm not going"—is met with a chilling ultimatum: "Put on the dress or I'll kill you."
The Revelation and the Struggle
In the hotel room, the tension escalates as Juliana realizes the truth about Joe. She notices his knowledge of valet service, his dyed hair, and his evasiveness, and finally confronts him: "You must be an SD man," she says. "Posing as a wop truck driver." Joe, now identified as a Swiss national working for the SD, admits his mission: to kill Hawthorne Abendsen, the author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy. He reveals that he fought in North Africa with the Brandenburgers, a Wehrmacht commando unit, and that the "fountain pen" Juliana saw is actually a two-watt transmitter and receiver for radio contact. He needs Juliana to accompany him because Abendsen is "attracted to a certain type of dark, libidinous girl." The revelation shatters Juliana's remaining illusions, and she begins to experience a dissociative breakdown, speaking in fragmented, nonsensical phrases and taking razor blades from the bathroom.
The Fatal Slashing
Juliana's mental state deteriorates rapidly. She takes two yellow capsules Joe offers, but instead of calming her, they seem to heighten her confusion. In a moment of clarity, she retrieves a razor blade from the medicine cabinet and, when Joe tries to stop her from leaving the room, she slashes his throat. The act is swift and decisive: "Whisk." Joe collapses to the floor, clutching his neck, and tells her, "You cut my aorta. Artery in my neck." Juliana, now composed, corrects him: "The aorta's in your chest; you mean the carotid." She leaves him bleeding on the floor, telling him she will inform the hotel desk, but she does not. Instead, she gathers her belongings, including the blue dress and the Reichsbank notes, and drives away in her Studebaker, leaving Joe to die.
Aftermath and Escape
Juliana's escape from the hotel is almost anticlimactic. The doorman helps her load her luggage, and no one tries to stop her. She drives through Denver, crying and howling, until she pulls over to consult the I Ching. The oracle's response—Hexagram Forty-two, Increase, changing to Forty-three, Breakthrough—tells her to "resolutely make the matter known at the court of the king" and to "report to the prince." She interprets this as a command to warn Abendsen, and she drives through the night toward Cheyenne. The next day, she reads in a newspaper that Joe's body was found in the hotel room, the death described as a "fatal slashing" resulting from a "marital quarrel." The police have misidentified her as "Mrs. Cinnadella," and she is not yet a suspect. The President Garner Hotel, once a symbol of luxury and escape, becomes the site of a murder that propels Juliana toward her final, transformative encounter with Hawthorne Abendsen.
