Quinn punched the gas, going up 9th. He headed for the salon off Good Hope Road.
The strip center was quiet as Quinn entered the lot. He parked his car two rows away from the salon, facing it. From this space he could look through its plate glass storefront. Even with his poor long vision, he could make out the tiny owner, talking on the phone. The Stokes girl was there, looked like she was working on a customer. He could see her son, walking around and then dropping to the floor, in there, too. All of them were secure in the shop. It didn’t look to Quinn that the girl or her boy was in any kind of danger.
Those couple of hours of weekday activity, people getting off work and grabbing groceries and fundamentals on their way home, had come and gone. Until now, Quinn had not even noticed that the day had passed. The rumble in his stomach told him that he had not eaten anything since the meeting at the diner. The sun was dropping fast, lengthening the shadows in the parking lot as it fell.
The customer came out of the shop, examining her nails in the last light of day before dusk. She walked out into the lot and got into an old green Jag. Quinn sat for a little while longer, then phoned Strange.
“Derek here.”
“Where you at?”
“Someplace on Richmond Highway, near the city. I’ll tell you where I been when I see you. I’m gonna catch the Beltway and come around now. Where are you?”
“Baby-sitting Stokes, like you told me to. McKinley’s at his place on Yuma.”
“Three-Ten to Yuma.”
“Was wondering when you were gonna make that connection.”
“I’ll be there in about a half hour.”
“I’m gonna roll over to Naylor, check on that Welles lead.”
“Your call. You think the girl’s okay, go ahead.”
“Looks like business as usual in there. She looks fine.”
“I’ll meet you back there, then,” said Strange. “In the lot.”
“THERE he goes,” said McKinley, talking into his cell, watching through the windshield of the Benz as the Chevelle backed out of its space and drove from the parking lot.
“That Strange’s boy?” said Montgomery, his cell to his ear, sitting behind the wheel of his late-model Z in the lot near the Benz.
“His partner.”
“How you know?”
“The Coates cousins said some white boy was in Strange’s car while he went to talk to Stokes at her apartment.”
And I been told.
“Oh, yeah.”
“Boy’s stupid, too. Trying to be all undercover and shit, driving a loud-ass car. Anyway, we better hurry up. Man’s prob’ly just going to take a pee.”
“We gonna go in the back?”
“Like we said. Let me get off here and call Inez. You follow me then, behind the store.”
In the salon, Devra sat at her work station, watching as Inez Brown went to the phone. She spoke to the caller briefly, then ended the call. Inez went around the counter, taking her keys with her, and locked the front door.
Devra looked out into the parking lot. It had begun to get dark.
“Come here, Juwan,” said Devra. The boy got up from where he was playing, his action figures scattered around him, and walked to her. She brought him into her arms.
“What’s wrong, Mama?” said Juwan. He could see something funny in his mother’s eyes.
“Nothin’. You just stay here with me, now.”
Inez Brown went into the back room, then quickly returned to the front of the shop, coming over to where Devra sat in a chair, holding the boy.
“Why you lockin’ the door?” said Devra. “It ain’t closin’ time.”
“It is for you,” said Brown, showing a little row of white teeth. It was the first time Devra could remember seeing her smile. The smile scared her some.
“Why you doin’ this?”
“You don’t know? Girl, you fucked up. Runnin’ that pretty-ass mouth of yours.”
“I never did you no wrong.”
“I just don’t like you, is what it is. Did I mention that you were fired, too?” Brown laughed from somewhere shadowed and deep. As she laughed, Horace McKinley walked in from the back room.
“Let’s go,” said McKinley. “Out the back.”
“Where?” said Devra, her voice catching as she stood, keeping her hand on her son’s shoulder.
“You’re coming with me,” said McKinley. “The boy’s gonna stay with Mike.”
“No.”
“No nothin’. I got no time to argue with you. You didn’t listen, and now we got to do somethin’ else. We’re just gonna put you somewhere, let you think about the things you did that I told you not to do. See how quick you get to missing your little boy.”