Old Bones
Page 23
Wonder came over and began furiously digging in the freshly turned ground.
“Psalms. I guess you can take the girl out the church, but you can’t take the church out the girl.”
“Meal’s ready.” He put his arm around her shoulders. “It’s good to have you back,” he said, acknowledging her return to verbalization.
“It is good to have myself back,” she said as they walked up the steps. “Now that we have a plan of action, I don’t feel so trapped.”
As they entered the kitchen, Wills said, “Or as Popeye says, ‘I’ve had all I can stands and I can’t stands no more.’” He went over and uncovered a skillet and gave her a one-eyed glare.
“Is that a spinach omelet?”
• • •
Although he would never say it, Lil D hated Magic Girls. He wanted it to make him feel like he was big-time, but it did just the opposite. He wasn’t about to throw cash at the strippers like the big-money guys did. Most of the time he just stood against the wall—too short to see over the shoulders of all the men in the packed room. He decided to wait out in the parking lot in Man’s SUV.
They’d parked next to Flash Daddy’s Bentley. Lil D sat there a while, eyes adjusting to the dim light of the parking lot. He looked over at the tinted windows of the Bentley. There inside in the backseat was a white girl’s face. She dropped her head to her chest and her long, straight, dark hair fell like curtains over her face and hid her whiteness in the dark of the car. He went over and tapped on the window beside her. Slowly she raised her head and blinked as if she were trying to focus. She fumbled at the door and window, but wasn’t able to get either the window down or the door unlocked. He tried the doors and found them all locked. Shielding his eyes with his hand so he could cut through the glare, he peered closer in the window. She had tattoos on her really white arms and, even sleepy looking, she was pretty. He opened the door of Man’s ride and sat down with the door open so the girl could see him. He raised his hand palm up and lifted his chin to her, trying to let her know he was cool, that he was there and would be looking out for her.
• • •
Across the street from Magic Girls in a vacant four-story building, Salt and Felton watched from either side of one of the large wood-frame windows of a dark room on the top floor. The man-size neon letters of the Magic Girls marquee threw pink and gold rectangles on the wood floor. The marquee also illuminated the sky above for miles. Below, a single light lit the entrance of the club. As men came and went through the double doors, a pink glow escaped from within, along with the sound of heavy bass beats.
“Your kid there, Lil D? Doesn’t seem to have much of a taste for the club.” Felton lowered the binoculars.
“I wish we could see what’s all that interesting to him inside Flash Daddy’s car.”
“Maybe I should go take a look.”
“Hold on.” Salt fished for her phone vibrating in her coat pocket.
“This is Maya,” the woman’s voice said.
“Maya,” Salt repeated, taking a second before it registered that she was speaking to Flash Daddy Jones’ housekeeper.
“He’s losing control,” the woman said.
“Flash?”
“He’s got people looking for one girl called JoJo. And he’s got some drugged, really young white girl he’s carrying around with him.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because he’s coming undone. And I don’t want to be anywhere near him when he goes down. I’m taking the children and going to California, as far away as I can get.”
“Children,” Salt repeated.
“I don’t want my children to know or hear anything about or from their father.”
“How can I reach you?” Salt asked.
“Saundra and Otis Wilson, Mill Valley. My parents, I’ll tell them you are the only one to trust with my whereabouts.”
Below, the doors of the club opened. Two men, not Flash or Man, came tumbling out laughing. Salt took a breath. “I hope things go well. I didn’t see you as his wife.”
“Thank you,” Maya said, and the phone went off.
“There’s a girl in Flash’s car,” Salt said, already headed for the stairwell.
“Wait,” Felton said, following on her heels. “If they think you’re involved, they’re sure to release the video and charge you.”
“I’m not going to sit up here while you go down there alone,” she told him.
“Call Wills and Pepper,” Felton said, heading for the hallway.
Wills answered on the first ring.
“Are you with Pepper?” she asked, moving back to the window, breathless as if she were with Felton. “How quick can you get to Magic Girls?” Felton’s footsteps echoed from the far end of the hall. The doors to the club opened again, discharging several men. “Flash has a young girl, in his car.”
“On the way.” Wills hung up.
Felton crossed the street below into the poorly lit parking lot. Salt shifted her weight back and forth as if readying for a sprint, torn between watching and going after him. The men who’d just come out left, their car kicking up a cloud of dust that rolled over the Bentley. In those moments the doors of the club once again opened and Flash Daddy and Man came out. Salt ran for the exit. The stairwell door banged against the brick wall, the sound reverberating as she flew down the four flights and out the side door of the building. She rounded the corner just as Felton, Man, and Flash, followed by two burly associates, converged near the Bentley. The two muscle men moved in on Felton before he came within conversation distance of Flash.
Salt reached Felton’s side just as Man stepped forward. “Oh, it’s the fairy detective,” he said, stopping in front of Felton.
Flash glowered at Salt from under his brows, eyes narrowed, mouth set tight. One of his guys bumped his chest into Felton. Salt made the briefest eye contact with Lil D as he came out of the open door of Man’s SUV parked on the other side of the Bentley. In that second he widened his eyes and cut them to the interior of Flash Daddy’s car. Salt moved forward as if to pass the guy threatening Felton. As she hoped, he turned from Felton and grabbed her by the upper arm with both his meaty hands. She sissy-slapped him with her left hand, moved forward, pulling him off balance, circled his wrist with her right hand and, gaining leverage, brought him to his knees just as Pepper and Wills’ Taurus collided with the gravel of the parking lot. They moved from the car amid the rising dust, fedoras at jaunty angles. Salt stepped around the kneeling goon to the other side of the Bentley, next to Lil D at the door of Man’s SUV.
The tinting on the windows of the Bentley was dark, and the glare off the overhead marquee made it doubly hard to see inside. But just barely Salt made out the shape of a female slumped in the backseat: dark hair obscured her face; white hands, almost disembodied, ghost-like in the dark interior, confirmed her corporeality. Salt rapped lightly on the window.
Flash came up beside her, his face set to hard. “You got no right, no warrant, nothing.”
Salt withdrew the asp baton from her back, swung it high, and brought it down, shattering the front passenger window, safety glass spraying and falling in and out of the Bentley. Flash averted his face, covering it with his hands. She reached in, unlocked the back door, leaned in, and lifted the young girl out.
“You gone pay for this, bitch,” Flash said.
• • •
Flash Daddy’s story, backed by Stokes, was that the girl, a minor, had tried to come into the club, and because they could see she was high, they refused her but she wouldn’t leave. So they put her in the car until she could sober up and tell them where she lived.
Fellows called from the hospital. The girl and her mother wouldn’t say anything about Flash or Stokes or the club.
They had no basis for charging Flash. He was released.
• • •
Huff put his hand on her shoulder. She looked up. He nodded. She got up and followed him to his office. “City of Atlanta police detective caught on video surveillance . . . looting . . .” The voiceover followed her as she went to be officially suspended and charged for abetting the crime of theft, for giving the looted shoes to Lil D.
• • •
Lil D could see himself plainly on the TV and Salt handing him the shoes. While he watched it over and over, he thought back to that second, the news people saying she was suspended and charged with theft. There would be a warrant for his arrest by now. Or would there be? He didn’t know how that would work. If she gave him the shoes, which she was being accused of, then how could he be guilty of stealing the shoes? She had put the box in his hands. Salt and Pepper had to tell that she knew him. The down-looking spy camera didn’t catch any of their eyes. She did hand him the shoes. Stone, bare-chested and handcuffed, lay in all the glass. He’d been yelling. Salt had offhanded him the shoes so she could get Stone out of the glass that was cutting him. That’s what Lil D thought. But then he wasn’t sure. There had been less than a second when maybe she realized what she was doing, handing the box that she’d just taken from him back to him. The camera got him holding the box and running out of view. TV was making a big thing of it like she or he was stealing the shoes. They were saying she was going to be fired because cops can’t testify if they ever had done any dishonest thing.
Danny T grabbed the remote out of his hands and punched the off button. Lil D grabbed him and nuzzled his neck, blowing raspberries. “You a smart guy! Ain’t you?” His son laughed and laughed, kicking his feet, pulling at Lil D’s head. “I’m gone give you a big spot like mine,” he teased, pointing to the birthmark on his own neck. “Come here.” He lunged for the boy, but instead of trying to get away, Danny grabbed Lil D and tucked his little fat neck up against Lil D’s mark.
“You two stop now.” Latonya came around the counter from the kitchen. The shoes weren’t there on the counter anymore. He didn’t ask. Ever since it came on TV, she’d been acting like a zombie or something, her eyes not ever looking into his. She didn’t laugh or get mad—nothing, Danny watching her close.
“Supper’s ready. JoJo!” Latonya yelled toward the bedrooms.
JoJo came out of Danny’s room, where she was staying most of the time, got her plate, and went back. La and Danny sat down in one of the bag chairs, sharing a plate, and Lil D sat in the other. He left the TV off.
“Man gone front you bail?” La asked, not looking at him, just looking at Danny, giving him little bites.
“I don’t see why they gone arrest me. She give me them shoes.”
Latonya cut her eyes at him, hard. He flung his fork on his plate, stood, and went in the kitchen.
“Eat some a them greens,” La said to Danny like she was mad at the kid.
“You don’t got to be like that,” Lil D shouted. “It ain’t his fault.”
JoJo came out, her plate hardly touched. “Why, D? Why did she give you the shoes? That ain’t no cop thing to do. You told me she straight, that I should trust her. Why she gone give you them looted shoes?” JoJo came into the kitchen and scraped her leftovers back in the pots. “You gone answer?” she asked, not mad or judging.
“I don’t know why. She know me. I got her out of a couple of bad things. She try to help me with my daddy before he died. I ain’t gone say no more ’bout this shit.” He slammed his plate beside the stove and went to the back bedroom.
JoJo in her bare feet and big T-shirt came and stood in the doorway again. “She off the poleese?” she asked him.
“I guess.” He kept his back to her.
“How I’m gone call her then, she off the poleese?”
“You ready to do that?” He turned to face her.
JoJo shrugged, a corner of her mouth pulled tight. “I got to, Lil D. Ain’t no other way.”
• • •
She had been staying at Wills’ house since a news truck had shown up in front of her house. Felton and Pepper stopped by from time to time. Wills was home just barely long enough to sleep because he was working his cases and helping Felton and Pep. She had time. She’d set her phone to go directly to messages and was just getting around to scrolling through them, notepad and pen beside her coffee at Wills’ kitchen table. One was from her brother; he’d seen a news story on the Internet. There were some messages of support, one from recovering Big Fuzz, whom she called back. She came to an unidentified number and listened to the message.
• • •
“I’m shamed is part a why I ain’t tell what happen. I ran away from my mama thinkin’ I was all that.” JoJo eyed the Rotties and Wonder, each lying at an entrance to Wills’ kitchen. “You sure them dogs not gonna come after me?” A plastic garbage bag, her only luggage, spread itself on the floor beside her. She looked very different from the way she’d looked at the club. Not a spot of makeup, her hair in a ponytail, like before, but without the glitter or sequins. She was wearing a “Thug Life” oversized T-shirt, gray sweatpants, and pink sneakers.
“Do you want something to eat? I’m not much of a cook, but I can make a mean sandwich. How ’bout it? Something to drink? Tea? Coffee? Cola?”
“I hate to put you to trouble.”
“Really, what sounds good?”
“I like peanut butter.”
“Aha!” Salt said when she opened the refrigerator and saw the jar of no-sugar-added organic peanut butter. “Peanut butter.” She held the jar aloft to show JoJo. “Jelly?”
The girl nodded, then watched as Salt got out the whole-grain loaf and bread knife and sliced through the dark bread. Salt had to stir the peanut butter. “I can put it on,” said JoJo, reaching for the cutting board and bread. “I like milk, too. But you don’t got to make it or nothin’, do you?”
Salt smiled to herself and took the organic hormone-free milk in its returnable bottle from the fridge. “Wills is kind of particular when it comes to food.” She poured the milk and sat down across the table with a cup of coffee.
“Latonya and Lil D good to let me stay with them. I tried not to eat so much since I ain’t bringing any money ’cause I too scared to work.” The whole-grain slices crumbled as the girl slathered on the peanut butter. “This ain’t no regular kind of bread,” she said. Eventually she got the slices together and took a bite, closing her eyes as she chewed. Mouth still full, she said, “This good, though.”
“How old are you really, JoJo?”
“I lied to get my permit for the clubs.” As she drank, she looked at Salt over the rim of her glass of milk.
“No one is going to charge you for faking your age.”
“I’m fifteen.”
“Why were you hiding? All I’m trying to do is find out whoever killed Mary. Do you know anything about who would want her dead?”
“I ain’t seen Glory since not too long after you came around to the club. Man come tell us Flash Daddy got some party he want us to work, like we used to.” JoJo put her sandwich down. “I don’t truss Flash. He think me and Glory gone snitch to you ’cause you lookin’ for Mary. He know you was at the club.”
“I’m sorry I have to bring all this up to you,” Salt said.
Pansy got up from the floor, her droopy eyelids and heavy jowls expressing concern about the sadness she heard in Salt’s voice. She put her big head in Salt’s lap.
“W
hy that dog sad?”
“She hears how my voice sounds. She’s a pack animal, so anything that worries me she worries about.” Salt rubbed the furrows of Pansy’s brow.
“How come them other two ain’t worried?”
“Look at their eyes. See how they’re watching? JoJo, I’m so sorry. We found Glory. She’s dead. Somebody shot her and dumped her body in the quarry on the west side.”
JoJo held the sandwich, focused on it, and put it in her mouth. She took another bite, then another until it was gone, then washed it down with gulp after gulp of milk until the glass was empty.
Salt waited, rubbing and rubbing at the wrinkles above Pansy’s eyes. She looked up at the girl. “You want more?”
JoJo shrugged. Shoulders slumped, she looked around at Wills’ in-progress renovations, the lath-and-plaster walls, partially stripped trim and doors propped against a wall. “How come you ain’t have no nice place to live? Poleese make good money.”
“My . . . Wills likes to fix up things. The way houses were built a long time ago, they used really good wood, built things sturdy, to last. So he tears things down to get back to the good stuff.”
“It don’t look good.”
“It will someday.”
“I can’t ever think about someday. I jess always have to think about today.” She put her head down on her crossed arms on top of the table.
“I’ll be right back, JoJo,” Salt said. “I’m going to go make some calls. Get you a safe place to stay.” Salt called the dogs as she went out to the front porch.
Sergeant Fellows answered. “You get my message?”
“I appreciate your support.”
“Command ordered us not to interfere with the looting. The way I saw that scene is you were freeing your hands to deal with the perp on the pavement. People have no idea what it’s like, situations like that.”
“Thanks, Sarge. But the reason I’m calling is I need a safe place for a victim/witness, a fifteen-year-old girl who I suspect has been sexually exploited.”
“Call you right back.” Fellows hung up.