they could do that for you
…
A storm passed through during the night, waking me. By dawn, the few inches of rain had already evaporated into the parched pavement and I knew we were facing another ninety-degree day.
I lay in bed, listening to the undulating wail of an ambulance, then the blast of a fire engine racing to some distant catastrophe; a few doors away a car maneuvered from a parking spot and moved on a whisk of tires down the street into silence.
Five A.M . An hour before the day actually intruded, before time to shower, walk Ruffin, and before Dad and Alvin stirred. After some research at the Schomburg on early black social work organizations, I wanted to call Deborah to find out how she was feeling; visit Claudine’s parents even though I had nothing new to tell them. Call Elizabeth. Perhaps she’d want to come with me.
The sound of the phone cut into my reverie.
“Mali. You awake?”
“I am now,” I said, easing to sit up straight. Tadcame on sounding as if he’d been up all night and he wasn’t calling to tell me how much he missed me.
“What … what’s going on?”
The slight hesitation let me know bad news was coming.
“It’s Marie,” he whispered.
“Marie? What happened?”
“She was found in her apartment around one A . M . Door was ajar and a neighbor pushed it but was afraid to go in. Thought robbers were inside. The neighbor ran back to her own place and called in a nine-eleven. It’s a good thing she didn’t go in.”
“Was it a break-in? Were the perps still in there?”
“No.”
“What, then?”
“She was killed the same way Claudine was. Wire.”
My stomach contracted. Marie. She’d had the gun. She’d been prepared. How had someone slipped past?
“Mali? You still there?”
“Yes. Barely.”
“We got a net out for James but he’s gone up in smoke. It’ll be in the
Daily Challenge
this morning, that’s why I wanted to let you know. Before you read about it. Anything breaks, I’ll call right away.”
The phone went dead and I stared at the receiver in my hands, waiting for more information to spill into the silence.
… Wire. Like Claudine. And James has disappeared.
It was hard not to fold up and crawl back under the sheets, shut my eyes, and shut down my brain.
Marie had been prepared to fight, to pull that piece at the slightest provocation. How had this happened?
I kicked the covers away and padded to the bathroomto stand under the shower until the stinging-cold water beat me fully awake.
“I’ll tell you something,” Dad said as he folded the
Daily Challenge
flat on the dining table. I had opened the door as soon as the paper had been delivered along with the rest of the mail. I was hoping that Tad had been wrong but the lead story stared me in the face.
Now Dad was reading it. “You know, James really showed his colors the other night in the Lido,” he said. “No wonder the cops are looking for him.”
My throat went dry and I put my cup down. “At the Lido? You never said anything had happened that night. You said everyone had had a good time and Betty’d been happy that you showed.”
I watched Dad refill his cup. The breaking sun slanted in through the window and chased the earlier gray, revealing his face in frowning profile.
“I kept quiet ’cause I know how you feel about James and how he treated Claudine,” he said. “Claudine’s gone and James is still here and it seems a leopard don’t never change his spots.
“When me and the fellas popped in, the Lido was in full swing. We stepped in, tuned up just like I planned, then made our way to the back and was settin’ up on the bandstand when we hear this noise, this loud crash up front near the door. A table was overturned and there was James, doin’ a ‘60 Minutes’ profile. Except when he opened his mouth, I thought a toilet had backed up. Every other syllable was ‘f’ and ‘n’ and ‘b.’
“Finally this woman”—he tapped Marie’s photo on the
…
A storm passed through during the night, waking me. By dawn, the few inches of rain had already evaporated into the parched pavement and I knew we were facing another ninety-degree day.
I lay in bed, listening to the undulating wail of an ambulance, then the blast of a fire engine racing to some distant catastrophe; a few doors away a car maneuvered from a parking spot and moved on a whisk of tires down the street into silence.
Five A.M . An hour before the day actually intruded, before time to shower, walk Ruffin, and before Dad and Alvin stirred. After some research at the Schomburg on early black social work organizations, I wanted to call Deborah to find out how she was feeling; visit Claudine’s parents even though I had nothing new to tell them. Call Elizabeth. Perhaps she’d want to come with me.
The sound of the phone cut into my reverie.
“Mali. You awake?”
“I am now,” I said, easing to sit up straight. Tadcame on sounding as if he’d been up all night and he wasn’t calling to tell me how much he missed me.
“What … what’s going on?”
The slight hesitation let me know bad news was coming.
“It’s Marie,” he whispered.
“Marie? What happened?”
“She was found in her apartment around one A . M . Door was ajar and a neighbor pushed it but was afraid to go in. Thought robbers were inside. The neighbor ran back to her own place and called in a nine-eleven. It’s a good thing she didn’t go in.”
“Was it a break-in? Were the perps still in there?”
“No.”
“What, then?”
“She was killed the same way Claudine was. Wire.”
My stomach contracted. Marie. She’d had the gun. She’d been prepared. How had someone slipped past?
“Mali? You still there?”
“Yes. Barely.”
“We got a net out for James but he’s gone up in smoke. It’ll be in the
Daily Challenge
this morning, that’s why I wanted to let you know. Before you read about it. Anything breaks, I’ll call right away.”
The phone went dead and I stared at the receiver in my hands, waiting for more information to spill into the silence.
… Wire. Like Claudine. And James has disappeared.
It was hard not to fold up and crawl back under the sheets, shut my eyes, and shut down my brain.
Marie had been prepared to fight, to pull that piece at the slightest provocation. How had this happened?
I kicked the covers away and padded to the bathroomto stand under the shower until the stinging-cold water beat me fully awake.
“I’ll tell you something,” Dad said as he folded the
Daily Challenge
flat on the dining table. I had opened the door as soon as the paper had been delivered along with the rest of the mail. I was hoping that Tad had been wrong but the lead story stared me in the face.
Now Dad was reading it. “You know, James really showed his colors the other night in the Lido,” he said. “No wonder the cops are looking for him.”
My throat went dry and I put my cup down. “At the Lido? You never said anything had happened that night. You said everyone had had a good time and Betty’d been happy that you showed.”
I watched Dad refill his cup. The breaking sun slanted in through the window and chased the earlier gray, revealing his face in frowning profile.
“I kept quiet ’cause I know how you feel about James and how he treated Claudine,” he said. “Claudine’s gone and James is still here and it seems a leopard don’t never change his spots.
“When me and the fellas popped in, the Lido was in full swing. We stepped in, tuned up just like I planned, then made our way to the back and was settin’ up on the bandstand when we hear this noise, this loud crash up front near the door. A table was overturned and there was James, doin’ a ‘60 Minutes’ profile. Except when he opened his mouth, I thought a toilet had backed up. Every other syllable was ‘f’ and ‘n’ and ‘b.’
“Finally this woman”—he tapped Marie’s photo on the
Similar Books
