Blossom

'I got a better idea. How about if I go outside to the car with you. Let you take your look. Look at me too, you want.'

The big cop nodded.

We went outside. They took a look, patted me down. Carefully. Got back into their cruiser. The big one said 'Have a nice day' through the window.

'Same to you,' I told him.

82

BACK INSIDE. When Blossom came back around, the canvas bag was gone.

'How'd you know?' I asked her.

'One day, when I was leaving the precinct, one of those cops came up to me. Sort of implied Sherwood and I had been trading something besides information.'

'He knew why you were there?'

'No. Guess he asked Sherwood and got blown off. A real philosopher. Had a lot to say about niggers and white girls who didn't know where they belonged.'

'Revis?' Remembering the name on the smaller one's badge.'

'Yes, that's him.'

'Thanks.'

'We're partners, right?'

I felt those turquoise eyes on me. It didn't feel like she was talking a fifty-fifty split.

'I'll give it back to you later. Tonight. Today's my last day. I gave Leon notice— he said he had a dozen other girls with applications in, no problem.'

'Want me to wait, give you a ride home after work?'

'No, I have to hang around. Cyndi's boyfriend's coming in. She wants me to meet him.'

'Check him out? See if he's right for her?'

'You think I can't?'

I nodded a disclaimer. Thinking how good she was at watching people.

83

I DROVE BACK over to Virgil's Picked up Lloyd. Had him take me to where he and the other boys had been prowling when he'd opened his puppy mouth and brought all the trouble down. Went over the ground, getting nothing. I don't know what I expected to find— it wasn't a job for a scientist.

The rest of the time, I drove around, learning the streets. Lloyd at my side, filling in the blanks when I asked him where we were.

84

CALLED BOSTICK. 'You entitled to discovery even if Lloyd's not indicted?'

'No. He's got to be charged with something first. What d'you need?'

'Anything the killer might have left at the crime scenes. Blood, hair, shell casings.'

'I can probably get that. Anything else?'

'He would've left something. I'll think about it, get back to you. On the meter, okay?'

'You're covered. Your man Davidson's handling a federal matter for me over in New York. We'll work it out.'

85

I DUMPED QUARTERS into the pay phone. Dialed Mama's number, expecting the Prof.

'Gardens.'

'It's me, Mama. The Prof around?'

'Everybody around. Everybody here except you.'

'I'll be back soon.'

'Max ask…when?'

'Soon. I told you.'

'Any trouble?'

'No trouble.'

I heard the phone being put down on the counter.

'Read me a poem, 'home.'

'Prof, you bring Vincenzo?'

'I got him, bro'. Go easy. My man gets real strange when he's off his range.'

I knew what the Prof meant. Vincenzo lived in the Public Library. Main branch on Forty-second Street. Every day he showed up to do his 'research.' A tall, gentle-looking man, walking his own road. Carries a knapsack full of notebooks with writing only he can read. Lives on another plane from us. Vincenzo, he's one of the few guys who wouldn't know where to buy cocaine in the city. But he could tell you the precise spot in Colombia where the soil composition and annual rainfall would yield the best coca crop. If it was on paper, he could find it.

'Hello?'

'Vincenzo, my friend. You know who this is?'

'Yes.'

'Can you do a research job for me?'

'I'm very busy with my own work. Did you know…?'

'Listen, Vincenzo, I know how important your work is. But this is kind of an emergency. And you're the only one with the ability to do it.'

Silence.

'Okay?'

'What do you need?'

'I need anything you can find me on sex-snipers. Like Son of Sam. Or Zodiac, on the Coast. And there was a case in New York, within the last few years. Lovers' lane sniper. Anything, Vincenzo. Anything you can find. Okay?'

'I don't do analysis— I just find facts.'

'That's what I need, pal. Facts. The Prof'll take care of you, any costs involved.'

'I can give it one research day, that's all. Then I have to get back to my work.'

'Okay. So I'll call you tomorrow night.'

'You can't call me. There's no phones…'

'I'll call you there, Vincenzo. Right where you are now. The Prof will bring you back again, pick you up at your office tomorrow at closing time. Okay?'

'All right.'

The Prof came back on the line. 'You find your thrill in the hills yet, man?'

'Still looking. Thanks for t.c.b. on Vincenzo. Can you bring him back tomorrow night? Same time?'

'I say what I mean, I mean what I say, and those who don't listen, they'd better pray.'

86

ALMOST TEN when I tapped on Blossom's door. Wearing a T-shirt that reached almost to her knees, feet bare. Her hair was tied in a loose knot on top of her head. I followed her back to the kitchen.

There was a black plastic ashtray on the kitchen table. I lit a smoke while she brewed coffee. One of the caterpillars had formed a cocoon. 'What kind are they?' I asked.

'Black swallowtails. Beautiful big things. Long-distance fliers.'