'I don't have the time right now, man. I gotta go.' I had doubled my pace so that I was nearly running.
'Jump in. We'll take you where you're going,' he said, and then he said 'What?' not to me but to whoever his passenger was.
'Easy,' he said again. I hate it when someone I don't know knows me by name. 'My boss wants to give you fifty dollars to take a ride.'
'Ride where?' I didn't slow my stride.
'Wherever you want to go.'
I stopped talking and kept on walking.
The Cadillac sped on ahead and pulled onto the curb about thirty feet ahead of me. The driver's door swung open and he came out. He had to unfold his long legs from his chest to climb out from the seat. When he stood up I could see that he was a tall man with a thin, almost crescent face and light hair that was either gray or blond—I couldn't tell which by lamplight.
He held his hands out in front of him, about shoulder height. It was a strange gesture because it looked like he was asking for peace but I knew he could have grabbed me from that pose too.
'Listen here, man,' I said. I crouched back thinking that it would be easiest to take a tall man down at the knee. 'I'm goin' home. That's all I'm doin'. Your friend wanna talk, then you better tell'im to get me on the phone.'
The tall driver pointed behind with his thumb and said, 'Man told me to tell you that he knows why the police took you in, Easy. He says he wants to talk about it.'
The driver had a grin on his face and faraway look in his eye. While I looked at him I got tired. I felt that if I lunged at him I'd just fall on my face. Anyway, I wanted to find out why the police had taken me in.
'Just talk, right?' I asked.
'If he wanted to hurt you you'd already be dead.'
The driver opened the door to the back seat and I climbed in. The moment the door shut I gagged on the odors. The smells were sweet like perfume and sour, an odor of the body that I recognized but could put no name to.
The car took off in reverse and I was thrown into the seat with my back to the driver. Before me sat a fat white man. His round white face looked like a moon in the flashes of passing lamplight. He was smiling. Behind his seat was a shallow storage area. I thought I saw something moving around back there but before I could look closer he spoke to me.
'Where is she, Mr. Rawlins?'
''Scuse me?'
'Daphne Monet. Where is she?'
'Who's that?'
I never got used to big lips on white people, especially white men. This white man had lips that were fat and red. They looked like swollen wounds.
'I know why they took you in there, Mr. Rawlins.' He gestured with his head to say the police station behind. But when he did that I looked in the storage area again. He looked pleased and said, 'Come on out, honey.'
A small boy climbed over the seat. He was wearing soiled briefs and dirty white socks. His skin was brown and his thick straight hair was black. The almond-shaped eyes spoke of China but this was a Mexican boy.
He climbed down to the floor and curled around the fat man's leg.
'This is my little man,' the fat man said. 'He's the only reason I can keep on going.'
The sight of that poor child and the odors made me cringe. I tried not to think about what I was seeing because I couldn't do anything about it—at least not right then.
'I don't know what you want with me, Mr. Teran,' I said. 'But I don't know why the police arrested me and I don't know no Daphne nobody. All I want is to get home and put this whole night behind me.'
'So you know who I am?'
'I read the paper. You were running for mayor.'
'Could be again,' he said. 'Could be again. And maybe you could help.' He reached down to scratch the little boy behind the ear.
'I don't know what you mean. I don't know nuthin'.'
'The police wanted to know what you did after you had drinks with Coretta James and Dupree Bouchard.'
'Yeah?'
'I don't care about that, Easy. All I want to know is if somebody used the name Daphne Monet.'
I shook my head, no.
'Did anybody,' he hesitated, 'strange … want to talk to Coretta?'
'What you mean, strange?'
Matthew Teran smiled at me for a moment, then he said, 'Daphne is a white girl, Easy. Young and pretty. It means an awful lot to me if I can find her.'
'I can't help ya, man. I don't even know why they pulled me in there. Do you know?'
Instead of answering me he asked, 'Did you know Howard Green?'
