Dominion (60 page)

“Where did you get that sign?”

“When I saw the Jack sign graffitied, I thought about all the Crips and all the tagging around here. I figured, if one sign gets a
ck
tagged out, others do too. I thought, just suppose someone spray painted a Jackson sign the same way. So I called the city. If it’s minor defacing they leave it or clean it up. But if it’s a thorough job, they replace it. They keep records, and they’ve got a big bin full of old signs—save them for recycling or something. I got into the bin, and after ten minutes I found this sign. Turns out they ordered a replacement August 24. Put up the new sign September 5, three days after the murder.”

“So…?”

“So the little gray cells,” Ollie tapped his head, “tell me to go back to Jack Street. I drive up to 920. Same number, same side of the street, same color, same basic floor plan.”

“I never noticed this Jackson sign when I visited Dani.” Clarence looked transfixed at the piece of green metal in his hands.

“Why would you? You know the area. You know where to turn. You wouldn’t look at her street sign. Neither would anyone else from around here.”

“So you’re saying—”

“The perps weren’t locals. Couldn’t have been. If they were, they’d know Jack
and
Jackson—no way they’d get them mixed up just because of a sign. I say they were from out of town, just following directions. They had a street name and house number, maybe the house color to make absolutely sure. They saw what looked like Jack Street and didn’t go any farther north to the real Jack Street.”

Clarence looked at the blue house. “Who lives here?”

“That’s the sixty-four-thousand-dollar question. So far I’ve just got a name. The Fletchers. Manny’s running a background check right now. After we do our homework, I plan on knocking on the door and introducing myself. I especially want to know whose bedroom is on the front right side of the house. And who might have reason to want them dead.”

Clarence and Geneva drove into Janet’s driveway, Jake’s Mustang cruising in right behind them. All three came to the door together.

“Hi, you guys,” Janet said, smiling but sounding frazzled. “I’m warning you, it’s kind of a zoo around here. Carly and I’ve been watching kids all day. My friend Sue Keels and her daughter, Angela, took a little two-day retreat, and we’ve got Angie’s baby, Karina. And we’ve also got—”

“Hi dere, Unca Jake!” the familiar but other worldly voice rang out. Jake had just stepped in the door when he was surrounded by young gangly arms.

“Hi dere, Little Finn,” Jake said with obvious delight. He picked up the Down’s syndrome boy and hugged him tight.

“Finn,” Jake said to the boy six inches from his face, “this is my good friend, Mr. Clarence Abernathy.”

“Hi dere, Mista Abernassy!”

“Hello, Finn. I’ve heard all about you.” Finn reached both arms out to Clarence, the possibility of being dropped never occurring to him. Clarence embraced him gently, touched by the realization Finn didn’t know how to hold back—he kept nothing in reserve. The boy trusted Clarence immediately and completely, like someone accustomed to trusting. Clarence wondered if he had ever exercised that kind of trust.

“Boy, Unca Jake, Mr. Abernassy is
really
big!” Little Finn almost shouted the words, stretching out the “really.” Everyone laughed.

“And this is Geneva Abernassy,” Jake said to Finn, “big Mr. Abernassy’s lovely wife.”

Finn and Geneva grinned at each other. Still in Clarence’s arms, he rubbed his pale white hand against Clarence’s face, studying the difference with obvious fascination. When he touched Clarence’s hair, Finn said, with wonder in his voice, “It’s just like a brillo pad!”

“Yeah, I guess it is,” Clarence said, his smile even broader than Little Finn’s.

“My dad used to say dat God made people of every color ’cause all colors need each other fo’ da world to be what he wants it to be.”

“My sister used to say something like that too,” Clarence said.

“Unca Jake told me your sister’s in
heaven
with my dad! Maybe they’re watchin’ us right now, huh?”

“Maybe so.” Clarence wanted to believe it.

“So dere’s at least two colors already in heaven!”

“Yeah.” Clarence turned away, not wanting to show his eyes. What was it about this boy that reminded him so much of Daddy? They both seemed on the inside track, as if they knew something the rest of the world didn’t. They had one foot here and one foot somewhere else.

“Have you seen Carly’s baby, Mr. Abernassy? He was named after my dad and me!” Little Finn slipped out of Clarence’s arms and tugged him toward the child’s room, Geneva following. Geneva and Clarence hugged Carly and fussed over baby Finney.

After a few minutes Janet announced, “Okay, Carly, we’re ready to take off. Are you sure you can handle everybody?”

“Positive. As long as I’ve got Little Finn to help me.” She put her arm around the beaming boy. “He can entertain Karina and Finney both.”

“Bye, Mista Abernassy!” Finn yelled at Clarence.

“Bye, Mista Finn!” Clarence said. “You behave yourself or I’ll rub you with my brillo pad.” He lowered his head and rubbed his hair on the side of Finn’s face as the boy squealed with delight.

The two couples drove to Dea’s in Gresham, since everybody felt like eating hamburgers. Clarence and Jake claimed a booth, while Geneva and Janet made one of their long journeys to the restroom.

“How’s it going with you and Janet?” Clarence asked.

“Good, I think. We love each other. We love the Lord. We’re rebuilding. Doesn’t mean it’s all easy, of course.”

“Most things aren’t.” Clarence thought about Jake’s faith, realistic yet idealistic at the same time. It was still fresh and new. Jake had a touch of Little Finn in him, an ability to see through the eyes of a child. Clarence’s own faith felt cynical and jaded, blunted by years of abrasions and injustice.

“You know, Jake, sometimes I envy you coming to faith later in life.”

“Strange to hear you say that. I’ve often thought how wonderful it would’ve been to grow up in a home like yours, with parents who loved the Lord.”

“Sometimes you take it for granted,” Clarence said. “Like it’s more of a family thing than a personal thing.”

“Still, to have Christian parents. I can hardly imagine. As for coming to faith later in life? Well, I look back at my first fifty years, and I think so much of it was wasted. Every day I’ve got now, I want it to count for eternity. Funny. I say something like that and I think of my old buddy Finney and how I never understood it when he said those things. He’s been gone two years. Janet says sometimes I remind her of Finney. Sue, Finney’s wife, she says the same thing. I can’t think of a higher compliment. But I have so far to go.”

“You’ve already come a long way, bro. My faith seems stagnant. Like I’ve lost my first love. Don’t know what to do, really. Geneva says I’m angry with God. I guess she’s right. It’s hard to trust somebody, to put yourself in his hands when I look at…”

“What happened to Dani and Felicia?”

“Yeah.”

“Still, what’s the alternative?” Jake asked. “We’re not God. You think things are a mess now, can you imagine what would happen if
we
were in charge of the universe?”

Clarence thought he’d like to have a shot at it anyway.

“Seems like,” Jake said, “it doesn’t take much faith to follow God when it’s going the way you think it should. Maybe faith is learning to trust God even when it looks like everything’s going wrong.”

“Uncle Antsy?” Ty startled Clarence. He hadn’t initiated a conversation with him for weeks, and he never called him by that name anymore.

“Hey, Ty. What is it?”

“I know you’ve been talkin’ with the cops. What’s happenin’? Are they gonna find the killers?” He even sounded like the old Ty.

“I hope so. Don’t know for sure.” Clarence debated how much to tell him, but he was so eager to talk, he decided to chance it. “Detective Chandler thinks the shooting was a mistake.”

“Mistake? The house was shot to pieces.”

“No, I mean they meant to kill somebody, but they got the wrong house.”

“How could they do that?”

“He thinks they didn’t know the streets around here. See, somebody painted over the Jackson Street sign on MLK, trying to change the
k
to a
c
, you know, because of the Crip killer thing? Well, the way the paint was sprayed on, it covered up the rest of the word.
So Jackson
ended up looking like
Jack.
Possibly they were going for a house over on Jack but got the wrong street.”

Ty sat quietly, shoulders hunched. Suddenly he got up and walked to the door.

“Ty, wait. Come back. I—” Before he finished the sentence, Clarence heard the screen door slam shut.

At Keisha and Celeste’s insistence, Clarence began reading the third Narnia book,
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
Jake had given him a copy of
Mere Christianity
by C. S. Lewis. After reading it twice he’d passed it on to Dani, who devoured it and started reading other Lewis books. Even though he was a Lewis fan, this was Clarence’s first trip through Narnia.

The children laughed after Clarence read the opening line: “There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.” Hearing the name “Clarence” helped set them off.

“Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on a card.” The portrait of the surly, arrogant Eustace continued. He thought things and did things that were selfish and hateful. Eventually Eustace Clarence’s inner condition transformed his appearance. The boy turned into a hideous pathetic dragon.

For some reason this frightened Clarence.

“I want to introduce you to someone,” Torel said to Dani. She looked at the man Torel towered over. He appeared very pleasant, with an impish twinkle in his eye that reminded her of her daddy. He smiled with polite reserve, but his eyes shined. Though she’d never seen him, she instantly felt as if she knew him.

“Welcome to Elyon’s world, daughter of Eve,” the man said brightly. She enjoyed his delightful British accent and his deep drawn-out, Hitchcock-like voice.

“Dani,” Torel said, “this is C. S. Lewis.”

“Lewis!” she exclaimed, wide eyed. “Oh, I
loved
your books. They’re wonderful. My family’s reading through Narnia right now in the Shadowlands!”

“Yes, so your guardian told me,” Lewis said. “Torel spoke to my own advocate, Eldil, and asked if I might come and help tutor you for part of your orientation. That is, if you wish it.”

“Wish it? I’d die for it!”

“Well,” Lewis said with a smile, “there’s no need for that, is there? You already have.”

Torel seemed to enjoy Dani’s obvious delight. “Those who impact Elyon’s children on earth,” the angel said, “often take a role in orienting them to heaven. Sometimes that includes people you knew on earth, other times ancestors you’ve never known, such as Zeke and Nancy. It may include someone whose writings Elyon used in your life. Lewis is one of those, and since he still speaks to your family in the Shadowlands, it seemed appropriate to seek him out.”