'He the cause of all yo' pain, Easy. And anyway, I needed to show that girl how serious I was.'
'But she already hated him fo' Frank; maybe you could'a worked on that.'
'It was me killed Frank,' he said. This time it was Mouse reminding me of DeWitt Albright.
'You killed him?'
'So what? What you think he gonna do fo' you? You think he wasn't gonna kill you?'
'That don't mean I had t'kill'im.'
'Hell it don't!' Mouse flashed his eyes angrily at me.
It was murder and I had to swallow it.
'You just like Ruby,' Mouse said.
'What you say?'
'She wanna be white. All them years people be tellin' her how she light-skinned and beautiful but all the time she knows that she can't have what white people have. So she pretend and then she lose it all. She can love a white man but all he can love is the white girl he think she is.'
'What's that got to do with me?'
'That's just like you, Easy. You learn stuff and you be thinkin' like white men be thinkin'. You be thinkin' that what's right fo' them is right fo' you. She look like she white and you think like you white. But brother you don't know that you both poor niggers. And a nigger ain't never gonna be happy 'less he accept what he is.'
They found DeWitt Albright slumped over his steering wheel just north of Santa Barbara; it took him that long to bleed to death. I could hardly believe it. A man like DeWitt Albright didn't die, couldn't die. It frightened me even to think of a world that could kill a man like that; what could a world like that do to me?
Mouse and I heard it on the radio when I was driving him to the bus station the next morning. I was happy to see him off.
'I'm'a give all that money to Etta, Easy. Maybe she take me back now that I done saved yo' ass and come up rich.' Mouse smiled at me and climbed on the bus. I knew I'd see him again and I didn't know how I felt about that.
That same morning I went to Daphne's apartment where I found the little boy. He was filthy. His underwear hadn't been changed in weeks and mucus was caked in his nose and on his face. He didn't say anything. I found him eating from a bag of flour in the kitchen. When I walked up to him and held out my hand he just took it and followed me to the bathroom. After he was clean I brought him out to Primo's place.
'I don't think he understands English,' I said to Primo. 'Maybe you could get something out of him.'
Primo was a father at heart. He had as many children as Ronald White and he loved them all.
'I could give some mommasita a few hundred bucks over the next year or two while she looked after him,' I said.
'I'll see,' Primo said. He already had the boy in his lap. 'Maybe I know someone.'
The next person I went to see was Mr. Carter. He gave me a cool eye when I told him that Daphne was gone. I told him that I'd heard from Albright about the killings Joppy and Frank had done. I told him about Frank's death and that Joppy had disappeared.
But what really got to him was when I told him that I knew Daphne was colored. I told him that she wanted me to tell him that she loved him and wanted to be with him but that she would never know any kind of peace as long as she was with him. I laid it on kind of thick but he liked it that way.
I told him about her sundress, and while I talked I thought about making love to her when she was still a white woman. He had a look of ecstasy on his face; I had a darker feeling, but just as strong, inside.
'But I've got a problem, Mr. Carter, and you do too.'
'Oh?' He was still savoring the last glimpse of her. 'What is that?'
'I'm the only suspect that the police have,' I told him. 'And unless sumpin' happens I'm'a have to tell'em 'bout Daphne. And you know she gonna hate you if you drag her through the papers. She might even kill herself,' I said. I didn't think it was a lie.
'What can I do about that?'
'You the one braggin' 'bout all your City Hall connections.'
'Yes?'
'Then get'em on the phone. I got a story t'tell'em but you gotta back me up in it. 'Cause if I go in there on my own you know they gonna sweat me till I tell about Daphne.'
'Why should I help you, Mr. Rawlins? I lost my money and my fiancee. You haven't done a thing for me.'
'I saved her life, man. I let her get away with your money and her skin. Any one of the men involved with this would have seen her dead.'
That very afternoon we went to City Hall and met with the assistant to the chief of police and the deputy mayor, Lawrence Wrightsmith. The policeman was short and fat. He looked to the deputy mayor before saying
