Bad Boy Brawly Brown (12 page)

smiling but with an edge that said she knew the stakes had just been 28

raised.

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“I thought you said that you was gonna be up north, Ray baby,”

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she said. And even though I was girding for fatal violence, I saw the 2

attraction of a woman so brazen.

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“Thought I’d stick around and see if you wanted to dance,” Ray-4

mond said pleasantly.

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“Delmont Williams,” the bruiser said to Mouse, holding out his 6

hand.

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Ray looked at the hand but he didn’t take it.

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I fought the urge to back out the way I’d come.

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“Where you from, Del?” Mouse asked.

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“Chi-town’s my home,” he said proudly. “Three generation outta 11

Mississippi but I still eat hog maws and call my mother ‘ma’am.’ ”

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“How long you been in town?” Mouse asked.

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“What’s it to ya, little man?”

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“Oh. I just wondered.”

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Millie was beginning to understand the seriousness of the con-16

versation. But she was more amused than she was worried. Men 17

fighting over her charms was like a box of chocolate creams to her.

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“ ’Bout a week or two,” Delmont said. “Long enough to meet the 19

most beautiful woman in Los Angeles.”

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He let his big hand rub over Millie’s breast. She didn’t even feel 21

it, though, entranced as she was by the spectacle promising to un-22

fold.

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“I see,” Raymond said politely. “It’s Delmont — right?”

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“Yeah.”

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“Delmont, would you step outside with me?”

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“What for?”

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“ ’Cause I don’t wanna get no blood on my woman.”

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A little sound came out of Millie’s throat then. Whether it was 29

fear or humor, surprise or just a burp, I did not know.

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Delmont looked at Millie and asked, “Are you his woman?”

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“What do you think?” was her reply.

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Delmont turned back to Mouse and said, “Get away from here 2

’fore I hurt you, boy.”

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“Come on outside,” Mouse said. “And we’ll see just what kinda 4

man yo’ ma’am made.”

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Delmont was high on liquor and he was intoxicated by the wild 6

and beautiful Millie Perette, but I think at the last minute there he 7

got an inkling of the iron core of my friend. It wasn’t enough to stop 8

him from getting to his feet, though. It wasn’t enough to keep him 9

from going out the door.

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Nobody followed them out there, because no one wanted to be 11

witness to Mouse’s rage. Less than a minute after they’d gone out-12

side, a shot was heard. Two minutes after that, Raymond returned to 13

the restaurant. The horn had stopped playing by then.

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Mouse walked up to Millie and whispered a few words into her 15

ear. She hopped off her stool and walked out with him. I remem-16

ber that she kept her thighs close together as she walked, making her 17

posterior sway in the most intoxicating way.

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Silence trailed in their wake.

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A minute or two later a few of us went out to see what remained 20

of the big man from Chicago. He wasn’t in the street, so we went 21

down two doorways and turned into the alley there. Under a weak 22

lamp I saw Delmont, a small puddle of blood next to his head.

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When he moved and moaned I jumped. Then I leaned closer 24

and saw that he’d only been wounded in the ear.

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N
AW, MAN,”
Mouse said to me a few days later, when we’d finally 28

caught up with each other. “I didn’t intend to kill ’im. He was 29

from Chi, didn’t know shit. I wouldn’ta even shot ’im but he had to S 30

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go callin’ me names in there like I was some kinda chile. But you 2

know, baby, Millie really liked that shit. She give it up all night long.

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I just touch her and she start to call on the Holy Spirit.”

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S
ITTING OUT THERE
in front of Hambones, I found myself smiling. Ray had a short life but just one day out of it was a year or 8

more to most other men. I could never feel sorry for him — only 9

guilty that in the final moments I had let him down.

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/ CLARISSA WALKED OUT
of Hambones at about 1

eleven-thirty. It was a Sunday night and Hambones 2

wasn’t the hot spot that it had once been. She turned left and walked 3

down the street. I let her go about a block or so before turning the 4

engine over. I drove a block past her and then pulled over to the curb 5

on the opposite side of the street.

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When she walked past me again, I turned off the engine. After 7

she was a block away I got out. She was walking swiftly, clacking her 8

wooden heels. My shoes were rubber soled, however, so I could keep 9

up without being heard.

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She wasn’t nervous, but like any woman with some sense she 11

cast a glance backward now and then. I avoided detection by keep-12

ing to the shadows across the street. We went like that for six or seven 13

blocks. Then Clarissa turned right on Byron. She went a block and S 14

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a half before coming to a squat three-story building that looked like 2

an oversized incinerator. It was covered with kumquat-colored plas-3

ter and seemed to sag under its own weight. Clarissa went into a door 4

on the ground floor. A light came on in a tiny window.

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I went over to her door and strained to listen. The building was 6

so cheap that I could hear her footsteps. She opened a door, put 7

down something metal, probably a pot. Something like a chair or 8

couch sagged and then a radio went on in the middle of the song 9

“The Duke of Earl.”

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She was cooking or brewing tea and listening to music. I figured 11

that I’d wait around until she decided to go to bed.

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Clarissa’s building had a sister structure across the street. On its 13

north side was a small entryway where the garbage cans were stored 14

until trash day. I climbed in behind the lidded metal cans, lit up a 15

Chesterfield, and breathed through my mouth.

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The desert quiet of southern California nights was always a 17

pleasure to me. In the South around Texas and Louisiana there were 18

loud bugs and night birds, wind in the trees, and less identifiable 19

noises from the wetlands and its inhabitants. But in L.A. the night 20

was wrapped in silence as if there were always a predator near, wait-21

ing to pounce on some hushed victim.

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That night, I suppose, the predator was me.

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A
LMOST NOTHING HAPPENED
for the next hour or so. A family of spiders had set up a system of webs above my head, so even 27

the rare moth didn’t stay around long.

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The entrance to Clarissa’s apartment was illuminated by a con-29

crete lamp that was set in the lawn in front of her door. The light in 30 S

her window stayed on, so I kept to my post.

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My copper-faced Gruen watch said 12:48 when a lime green
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Cadillac drove up and stopped in front of Clarissa’s building. I could 1

see the damage done by the wooden fence he’d hit broadside the 2

night before. Handsome Conrad was still in the driver’s seat. He was 3

still edgy, looking around nervously. He even glanced in my direc-4

tion, but I was too deep in shadow to be seen.

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Brawly hopped out of the passenger’s side and said something 6

into the back window. Conrad squealed off down the street, as if he 7

thought the police were still chasing him. Maybe they were.

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Brawly knocked on Clarissa’s door. She answered with a kiss and 9

an embrace. Brawly was a bulky kid, but Clarissa managed to get her 10

arms around him. She was whispering something in his ear, holding 11

on hard.

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They retreated into the house, leaving me to wonder about my 13

next move.

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It didn’t take me long. I crossed the street and walked up to her 15

door. There was some kind of argument going on.

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“You didn’t answer my question!” Clarissa was saying in a loud 17

tone.

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I rapped on the hollow door much harder than was necessary.

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What followed was a sudden silence. I knocked again.

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“Who is it?” came the voice that had sounded the alarm at the 21

revolutionary headquarters the night before.

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“Easy Rawlins,” I said out loud. “Open up.”

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“Who are you?”

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“Open up, Brawly, Clarissa.”

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That did the trick. Brawly pulled the door wide so he could see 26

the man who knew his name.

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As the door was coming open, I felt the flush of victory. But 28

when I saw his size up close, and the anger knit into his brow, I 29

feared that my triumph could turn into defeat.

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“Who the fuck are you?” he asked.

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“A man who’s been to Isolda’s front doorway,” I said.

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The words didn’t seem to cause him any discomfort or fear.

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“What she got to do with you?” he asked.

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“Let me in, Brawly. We shouldn’t be talkin’ murder out where 5

any ear could hear.”

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“Let him in, honey,” Clarissa said. She was standing at his 7

shoulder.

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He backed up and I entered the apartment.

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It was even smaller than John and Alva’s place, more like a play-10

house than an adult’s home. If I had laid down and stretched out my 11

arms, I could have touched one wall with the flat of my feet and the 12

opposite one with my fingertips.

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“Who is he?” Brawly asked his girlfriend.

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“He’s a friend’a Sam’s,” Clarissa said. “Easy Rawlins, like he said.”

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“Your mama sent me,” I said.

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There was a big yellow chair in a corner of the sad little room. I’d 17

been on my feet for over an hour, so I took the opportunity to sit.

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Brawly remained upright while Clarissa hovered close to him, 19

fearful, I imagined, that he might lose control.

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“What you doin’ bangin’ on my woman’s door in the middle’a 21

the night?”

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“Lookin’ for you,” I said.

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That was a good time to light up a cigarette. It made me feel con-24

fident while relaxing my nerves in the presence of the behemoth 25

John asked me not to harm.

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“Don’t fuck with me, niggah,” he said. But the words didn’t 27

sound genuine. He was big but he was still playacting, not yet a man 28

in his own right.

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“Are you the one slaughtered Aldridge Brown?” I asked him.

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“What? . . .”

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“Aldridge Brown,” I said. “Was it you who killed him?”

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Brawly grabbed me by my arms and picked me up out of the 1

chair. He lifted me high enough that the ceiling was no more than 2

an inch from my head.

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The sense of weightlessness reminded me of when I was a de-4

fenseless child in the grip of some rough adult, yearning for the 5

ground beneath my feet.

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“What the fuck you talkin’ ’bout?” he said, his voice a full octave 7

higher.

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“Put me down,” I said without tripping over a single syllable.

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“Put him down, baby!” Clarissa yelled.

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“He was killed at Isolda’s house,” I said. “Beat to death at the front 11

door yesterday morning. Ain’t you read the papers?”

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Brawly let me down gently enough but when he slumped onto 13