'Eleven. Okay. And tell him not to bring his friends? Sure. Okay, thanks. I'll tell him - he said he'd call me before I go to work tonight.' She put down the phone.
'Good girl,' I told her.
She tossed her head, smile flashing in the sun. 'You just wait and see,' she promised.
76
I took the wheel. As I pulled out, I noticed the back seat full of cartons. 'What's all that stuff?' I asked her.
'Stuff I needed,' she said. Case closed.
'You hungry?'
She made a noise like Pansy does when you ask her the same question.
I pulled in behind Mama's, taking Belle by the hand as we walked through the kitchen. Mama's collection of thugs watched us impassively - they'd seen stranger things come through the back room.
The joint had a few customers - no way to keep them all out at lunchtime - but my booth was empty, the way it always is.
The waiter came over to us, blocking Belle's side of the booth, looking a question at me with his eyes. I shook my head, telling him Belle wasn't trouble. He flicked his eyes toward the front of the room. I nodded - send Mama over.
Mama's dress was a deep shade of red. Opal earrings matched the ring on her hand. She returned my bow, face a mask.
'Mama, this is Belle,' I said. 'Belle, this is Mama.' I said it carefully. Nice and even, same tone of voice. Mama was stone-solid reliable when it came down to a crunch, but she was funny about women.
She bowed. 'Friend of Burke, friend of Mama.'
Belle started to reach out her hand, thought better of it. Bowed gently. 'Thank you, ma'am.' Polite as a little girl in church.
Mama slid into the booth next to me, barking something in Cantonese over her shoulder.
The waiter brought the soup. Mama served me, then Belle, then herself. Watched carefully, smiling with approval as the bowl emptied. 'You have more soup?'
'Yes, please. It's delicious.'
Mama bowed again. 'Very good soup - good for strength. Special for my people. Always here.'
Belle looked a question.
'Burke my people,' Mama said. No expression on her face, nothing in her tone. But a low-grade moron would have caught the warning.
Belle quietly worked her way through beef in oyster sauce, snow-pea pods, water chestnuts, fried rice, hard noodles, paying no attention to us.
Mama took a look at the empty plates, raised her eyebrows, called the waiter over again. Belle had a portion of lemon chicken, washing it all down with some Chinese beer. She patted her face with her napkin. 'Oh, that was good!'
'You want more?' Mama asked.
Belle smiled. 'No, thank you.'
'You come back sometime. When no more trouble, okay? See my granddaughter, yes?'
'You have a granddaughter?'
'Why not?' Mama asked, her face hardening.
'You don't look old enough.'
A smile flashed. Disappeared. 'Plenty old enough. Burke explain to you sometime.'
'Do you havve pictures of her?'
Mama scanned Belle's face, taking her time. 'Many pictures,' she said, tapping her head. 'All in here.'
Belle walked past the warning like she hadn't heard it. 'What's the baby's name?'
'Flower.'
Belle sipped her tea, prim and proper. Her eyes were soft. 'If I was a flower, I know what kind I'd be,' she said, half to herself. 'A bluebell.'
Mama bowed, as though she understood. The way she always looks.
77
'I have to go in the street for a while,' I told Belle as we climbed in the Plymouth. 'I'll call you when I'm done with Marques. Late, okay?'
'Can't I wait at your office?'
'It's only a little after two now - I'll be coming back there to change around eight. It's a long time to be cooped up.'
'I won't be cooped up.'
'Yeah you would. I could leave you there with Pansy, but she wouldn't let you out.'
'It's okay.'
I drove back to the office, helping Belle carry her boxes up the back stairs.
'I'm not playing, girl. Pansy lets people in, but they're always there when I come back, understand?'
'Sure. Go ahead. I'll just take a nap.'
'Don't use the phone. And don't open any of the file cabinets.'
'O-
I gave her a kiss.
78
I found Michelle at The Very Idea, a transsexual bar on the East Side. I walked through a jungle of hard looks until I got to her table, feeling them fall away when she kissed me on the cheek.
'Hi, handsome.' She smiled. 'Looking for me?' I sat down next to her, lit a cigarette, waiting patiently for her two girlfriends to leave. Michelle didn't introduce me.
'The Prof's in the hospital,' I told her.
'What's the rest of it?'
'His legs are broken. Somebody did it to him. For poking around, asking questions.'
'You know who?'
'Guy named Mortay.'
Her big eyes went quiet, two long dark fingernails flirting with her cheekbone, meaning she was thinking. 'I don't know him . . . but it seems like I heard the name . . .'
'It's Spanish for 'death.' '
'Honey, you know my language is French.'
I didn't say anything, looking straight ahead. Michelle's hand grabbed my wrist. 'Honey, I'm sorry. But it's business, right? The Prof was poking around, like you said. It's not the first time he stepped on a nail.'
'The guy didn't have to do it, Michelle. It was a message. He's some kind of freak -wants to fight Max. That's why he worked the Prof over.'
'He wants to fight Max?'
'That's what he said.'
'He should change his name to 'death wish.''
'Yeah, great. Thanks for your help.' I got up to leave.
