Bad Boy Brawly Brown (41 page)

was makin’ noise that he wouldn’t let Brawly be part of any robbery.

25

He told me to ask him to my house so they could talk, alone.”

26

“So you were in on the plan to kill him,” I accused.

27

“No. I wasn’t even in town. I was in Riverside, like I said. I didn’t 28

know what Merc was gonna do.”

29

“What you think he was gonna do?”

30 S

“Talk,” she complained. “Like he said. But after . . . after he told 31 R

me that Aldridge attacked him. It was self-defense.”

2 9 6

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 297

B A D B O Y B R AW LY B R O W N

“And was Henry Strong self-defense, too?”

1

“I told Merc that Henry planned to run. I had to. Henry 2

wouldn’t let me in on what they was doin’. He wanted to take me 3

away but he didn’t wanna get married. What would I do if he left me 4

high and dry in Jamaica?”

5

“So what was I doin’ there?” I asked her.

6

“Mercury told Henry that you were followin’ Brawly and Con-7

rad. He said that he wanted to beat you up bad enough that you’d lay 8

off until the job was over. Then he told Conrad that Henry and you 9

was gonna throw ’em ovah.”

10

“So they planned to kill me, too?”

11

Isolda looked away.

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

S 30

R 31

2 9 7

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 298

1

2

44
/ “WHERE’S BRAWLY?”
I asked, just to see what she would say.

3

“I don’t know.”

4

“If you in on the plan, then why wouldn’t you know?”

5

“They were all shaken up with the bust and you nosin’ around.

6

With all that heat, they went into hiding,” she said. “Mercury said 7

that he was gonna come to me after it was all over. He said that we’d 8

go down to Texas and split his share.”

9

The fact that she could say those words amazed me. I just stared 10

at her, wondering how she could get so deep into evil and not seem 11

to have any remorse at all.

12

“What?” she asked. “What?”

13

“Why did Strong want to get in with Mercury in the first place?”

14 S

I asked. “I mean, he’s no race man.”

15 R

“Henry didn’t talk to me about that. He didn’t even know that I
2 9 8

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 299

B A D B O Y B R AW LY B R O W N

knew anything,” Isolda said. “But Brawly told me that he was inter-1

ested in the construction business from the beginning. He talked to 2

him about payrolls and the police. And when he heard that Mercury 3

and Chapman specialized in payrolls, Hank said that he wanted to 4

meet them.”

5

I just shook my head.

6

“It’s not like you think,” she said. “I’m just tryin’ to make it.”

7

“By turnin’ Brawly in?”

8

“I was tryin’ to save him.”

9

“Save him how? By blamin’ him for murder?”

10

“I only said that. I knew he had a alibi. He was with me. He the 11

one drove me up to Riverside. All kindsa people saw us. I thought 12

that if I told John and Alva that he might’a killed Aldridge, that they 13

would have taken him away or somethin’. I didn’t want him messed 14

up with Merc an’ them. I knew that it’d be dangerous.”

15

“Why was Brawly with them in the first place?”

16

“He thought that they were raising money for the First Men,”

17

she said. “That they were going to use it to build their school.”

18

“Where’s Brawly?” I asked again.

19

“I don’t know. They in hidin’, like I told you. They was in a 20

house down Watts but they got scared because that bitch Tina was 21

supposed to show up but she never did. They thought that you 22

must’a grabbed her or somethin’.”

23

“Then they called off the robbery?”

24

“They never told her about what they were doin’,” Isolda said.

25

“They asked me to rent ’em a house, but I said no. I didn’t want to be 26

tied to no robbery. So they got her to do it, but she didn’t know why.”

27

“If you know where they ain’t, then why don’t you know where 28

they are?” I asked.

29

“I don’t,” she whined. “They broke up and went into hidin’. All S 30

they told me was that they was gonna take refuge, that was somethin’

R 31

2 9 9

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 300

Wa l t e r M o s l e y

1

Strong used to talk about. They only gonna come out when it’s time 2

to do the job.”

3

For some time I had wanted to slap Isolda Moore across her face.

4

The desire became stronger as the minutes went by. Finally I stood 5

up. The suddenness of my motion scared her enough that she pushed 6

back and fell over in her chair.

7

I didn’t help her to her feet.

8

“You better run, woman,” I said. “Because I’m not gonna let that 9

robbery take place. And when they catch your boy Mercury, you bet-10

ter believe he’s gonna turn over on you.”

11

12

13

14

D
OWN ON THE STREET
and in my car I didn’t know what to do.

I had solved a crime that nobody asked me to solve. It wasn’t my 15

job to catch murderers or foil robberies. All I had to do was keep 16

Brawly out of trouble. But that was impossible because he was in 17

trouble before I was called in.

18

I drove in circles, wondering what I should do. I was afraid to go 19

to John because he might have put his own life on the line trying to 20

save the boy. Lakeland was planning to catch them in the commis-21

sion of the crime, I was sure of that. He would clean out the problem 22

by setting them up.

23

Tina wouldn’t have talked to me; neither would Xavier.

24

25

26

27

C
LARISSA WAS AT SAM’S HOUSE
but she refused to come to the phone.

28

I finally decided to go over to John’s lots. Him and Chapman 29

were working on the support for the front porch of a faux-adobe 30 S

house. It struck me as senseless to be working while so much wrong 31 R

3 0 0

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 301

B A D B O Y B R AW LY B R O W N

was going on. How could those men still lift their hammers, knowing 1

that their best friends and loved ones had gone so far astray?

2

“Easy,” Chapman said, seeing me first.

3

“Ken, John.”

4

“What you want, Easy?” John’s tone was exasperated, as if he 5

were Job in one more conflict with the Deity.

6

“What’s wrong with you?” I said.

7

“Alva’s in the hospital.”

8

“What’s happened?”

9

“Nerves. They got her under sedation, she so worried about 10

Brawly and upset over Aldridge.”

11

“I’m sorry, John. I just tried to do what you asked me to do.”

12

That got me a hard look. John’s fists clenched, his shoulders 13

hunched. Chapman took a step backward. But John wasn’t going to 14

hit me. He knew I was right.

15

“I came by to ask you men some questions,” I said.

16

“What?” Chapman asked.

17

“I’m lookin’ for Brawly. I think he might’a run to ground some-18

where for the day and part of the night. You got any idea where he 19

could be?”

20

“If I knew, I’d be there,” John said.

21

Chapman looked at the ground.

22

“Yeah?” I asked.

23

“I don’t know nuthin’ ’bout Brawly, Ease,” he said. “I’d tell you if 24

I did.”

25

I had no idea if Chapman was lying to me or not. For all I knew, 26

he and Mercury were in the heist together. They’d been partners for 27

years, since they were children.

28

I had no idea what their childhood was like, so an image from 29

my own early years crossed my mind. My mother was dead and my S 30

R 31

3 0 1

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 302

Wa l t e r M o s l e y

1

father was gone. My older half sister and half brother had been taken 2

away to live with cousins on their mother’s side in El Paso. I had 3

been passed on to a man named Skyles. He had been married to one 4

of my mother’s sisters and owned a farm. He took me on to be his 5

slave.

6

Skyles worked me from sunup to sundown and then fed me only 7

the scraps from his nightly supper. After three weeks I decided to run 8

away. I made up my mind on a Tuesday, but the train I had to jump 9

didn’t go by till Thursday night. I stole a full sack of Skyles’s food and 10

hid in an abandoned barn across the road from his house.

11

Those two nights I watched him through the loose boards yellin’

12

and smashin’ his own things — he was that mad that I stole from 13

him and ran.

14

“Walk with me, John,” I said to my friend.

15

We went out to my car in the street.

16

“Lemme have the keys to your apartment,” I said.

17

“Why?”

18

“Don’t ask me, man. Just trust me.”

19

He hesitated for a moment and then produced a steel ring that 20

held dozens of keys. He removed a brass Sergeant and handed it over.

21

I took the key to my car and drove it over to John’s.

22

23

24

25

I
FOUND THE NUMBER
in John’s little phone book in the top drawer of their bureau. I dialed it. He answered on the second 26

ring.

27

“Hello?” The voice was breathy but brooding. I could almost see 28

the taciturn young man’s face in the words.

29

“Rita there?” I asked in a voice that, I hoped, sounded nothing 30 S

like mine.

31 R

“Wrong number,” he said, and then slammed down the phone.

3 0 2

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 303

B A D B O Y B R AW LY B R O W N

1

2

I
HADN’T BEEN
to Odell’s house in over a year. His wife, Maudria, 3

had passed sixteen months earlier. I had gone to the funeral and 4

then to their house to eat salami sandwiches and sit with Odell.

5

He was near seventy but didn’t look much older than he had 6

twenty years before. He was just softer and a little shorter — his ears 7

were larger, too.

8

“Easy,” he said through the brittle screen door. “How you doin’?”

9

“Fine.”

10

He studied me for a moment and then said, “Come on in.”

11

The house had become a mausoleum. The heavy brown drapes 12

were drawn. The furniture was neat and for the most part unused.

13

There was the smell of mothballs and scotch whiskey in the air.

14

He escorted me to a pitted maple table next to the sink in the 15

kitchen. The unwashed windows allowed only a small amount of sun-16

light in, but it was enough. He poured me a glass of lemonade made 17

from frozen concentrate and took out a bottle of scotch for himself.

18

“How you doin’?” I asked my oldest living friend.

19

“Oh, okay,” he said. “Not too much. Like Maudria used to say, 20

no news is good news.”

21

“You goin’ out?” I asked. “Seein’ anybody?”

22

“No. Ain’t nobody to see. You know when you get to be my age 23

everybody’s dyin’. Dyin’ or dead. If I walk out that door wearing jeans 24

and with bus money in my pocket, it means I’m goin’ to the hospital 25

to visit a friend. If I’m in a suit, it means a funeral.”

26

We talked like that for a while. Odell kept quoting his dead wife 27

or talking about funerals and disease. I was sad to see my old friend 28

so broken-down. I wondered about Brawly while we talked. If I saved 29

the boy, would he end up like my friend? Sad and broken-down at S 30

the end of his life?

R 31

3 0 3

REAL PAGES

12374_i-vi_1-314_r4sw.qxd 4/18/2002 2:00 PM Page 304

Wa l t e r M o s l e y

1

“Well, you didn’t come by to hear me complain,” Odell said.

2

“What can I do for you, Easy?”

3

“I need a pair of your thin cotton huntin’ gloves and that rabbit 4

gun,” I said.

5

“What for?”

6

“Somethin’ Mouse told me,” I said. “In a dream.”

7

He nodded as if my answer were perfectly reasonable.