Durham washed his face and rolled on some of the girl’s deodorant from out of the medicine cabinet. He went to the kitchen and looked around for something to eat, but he couldn’t find nothin’ he liked. Then he thought of that market on the corner. He could get a soda and some chips down there, couple of those Slim Jims that his brother liked to eat and that he liked, too. And then he thought, While I’m down there, might as well do a little more business, put some cash money in my pocket. It had gone pretty smooth the last time.
He gathered up the rest of the dummies, and some cash to make change, and dropped the vials in a pocket of his Tommys. He fitted his knit Redskins cap on his head, adjusting it in the mirror so it was cocked just right, and left the apartment.
Mario walked down the darkened street to the corner where the market was still open and the streetlight stood. It was quiet out now. He didn’t wear a wristwatch and hadn’t thought to check the time. But he knew it must be late.
He stood on the corner, one hand in his pocket, his posture slouched.
A car came and went, and it was nothing. Then another came, five minutes later, and slowed down. The driver rolled his window down and Mario went there and they caught a rap. It was even easier this time, knowing when to listen and what to say. He was busy selling the driver a couple of dimes, so he didn’t notice the old gray Toyota as it passed.
Mario did his business and the car drove away. He pocketed two twenties for a double dime and walked back to the corner and stood under the light. He put one hand in his pocket and jiggled the vials he had left. He looked furtively around the street.
Mario heard light footsteps behind him. Before he could turn, he felt something hard and metallic pressed against the base of his skull.
“Deion,” said a dry, raspy voice.
He didn’t hear the shot or anything else. The bullet blew his brains and some of his face out onto the street.
chapter 33
SO you got no idea where your boy is,” said Strange.
“None,” said Donut, sitting on the couch, his knees scissoring back and forth. “I told the other cop all this already. How many of y’all they gonna send over before someone believes what I got to say?”
Quinn was standing by the shelf holding Donut’s video collection. He picked The Black Six out of the row and had a look at its box.
“Hey, Derek, you know Carl Eller starred in a movie?”
“Black Six,” said Strange. “Mean Joe Greene, Mercury Morris. Gene Washington was in it, too.”
“Like a Magnificent Seven with black guys, huh?”
“Except they didn’t need seven. Eller counted as two.”
“Don’t mess with that,” said Donut. “Please.”
Quinn returned the tape to its space. He was just killing time while Strange worked the ugly little man. It had taken them a while to find his apartment. This time of night, Donut’s neighbors had been reluctant to answer the knocks on their doors. But an old man on the first floor had given them Donut’s unit number.
“Donut,” said Strange. “You don’t mind I call you by your nickname, do you?”
“Ain’t nobody call me anything else.”
“We’ll leave right now, you tell us where Mario is.”
“Believe me, if I knew, I would.”
Strange stared down at him, all sweat and nerves. “Maybe you could put us up with his brother.”
“That wouldn’t be such a good idea.”
“We got time. We could sit around here, see if the phone rings. Mario calls you, we’d all know you been lying to us. That’s obstruction in a homicide. I’m guessing, and it’s just a guess, mind you, that you might have some priors.”
“Shit, y’all just enjoy fuckin’ with a man, don’t you?”
“Dewayne’s number?”
“I got it somewhere in this mess,” said Donut. “But don’t tell him where you got it from, hear?”
After they’d left, Donut watched from his window as the salt-and-pepper team walked across the parking lot.
Donut smiled, pleased with himself. All these police trying to get him to talk, and not one of them had. He could hardly wait for Mario to call him, so he could tell his boy that he hadn’t gave him up.
STRANGE and Quinn walked toward their cars.
“Surprised he even let us in,” said Strange.
“You impersonating a police officer had something to do with it.”
“I only told him I was with the police. As in, I’m behind them one hundred percent.”
“Okay. You gonna call Dewayne?”
“I don’t know what I’ll say to him. But I can’t think of anything else to do.”