the water with a flat-nosed soft-lead bullet, shoveling them into a bag before they could regain their senses and escape. Raymond also killed three dogs and their master, his own stepfather. After that he married Etta and I joined the army for the comparative safety of World War Two.
“No time for relaxation, Dom,” Mouse said. “Easy got to get you outta trouble before Jo loses her mind.”
A pitiful emotion spread over Dom’s already damaged face.
The front door led into a makeshift dining room. There was a dark wood table just inside the door, surrounded by six chairs.
I grabbed a seat and turned it backward.
“Who was this girl you’d been seeing, Domaque?” I asked. I wanted to get down to business quickly.
“You ever learn how to read books, Easy?” he asked.
“Yeah. Yeah.”
When I’d met Dom and his mother I knew how to make out what words I needed to pick through instructions or read a love letter from a girl. But when I saw him read hard books out loud I got jealous because I realized that he could go further than I could in the world of his mind. It struck me that it was because of Dom that I learned to read.
“Her name is Merry,” Dom said. “E-R-R-Y Merry not A-RY the way it is usually. She was just on the beach one day while I was fishin’. You know you cain’t shoot the water in the sea for fish, Raymond. It’s too big.”
“Dynamite prob’ly work though,” Mouse replied.
“Tell me about Merry,” I said.
“She was real pretty, Easy. Real pretty and nice. She didn’t care I was ugly and humpbacked. She liked to laugh. For a few days she’d come around and talk to me. She even kissed me on the cheek and let me hold her hand.” A sigh shuddered through Domaque’s diaphragm. He was more upset about the girl than the police intent on sending him to prison. “But then she had me go to a supermarket-like place on the coast highway one day. She said that the guy who ran the place always tried to make her kiss him and she hated him. But she owed him some money and said for me to take it there.”
“Did the armored car come while you were there?” I asked.
“Uh-huh. It did. You know how much I like trucks and other big cars. I looked at it and they told me to get away.”
“Did Merry tell you that you could see the money car if you went down to pay her debt?”
“Sure did. But they didn’t have no record of her owin’ money and they told me to get away from there.”
“And the next thing you know the car is robbed?”
“Not till the next week,” Dom said, shaking his head. “It was a week later that we found that bag in the bushes.”
I glanced at Raymond. He just hunched his shoulders and looked away.
“What bag?”
“Jo fount a bag in the bushes outside our house,” Dom said.
“Was that after the cops came?”
“Uh-uh. She got the sight, you know. She felt somethin’ and started nosin’ around. That’s when she made me hide in the space. She knew the cops would be there.”
Before I could ask what was in the bag Raymond pulled it out from a closet next to the table.
It was a Wells-Fargo bag that had three stacks of a hundred twenty-dollar bills and a short .38 with a rough black handle the shape of a lightbulb. I didn’t touch the money or the gun.
It was a beautiful frame: the girl with the fake name that nobody ever saw; the witnesses at the country market and evidence poorly hidden in the bushes.
“But what about the guards?” I asked out loud. “I mean there’s no mask in the world that could hide Dom.”
“Dead,” Mouse said. “Both of ’em shot in the head. And I bet you ten to two that it was this here .38 done it.”
“Damn.”
“She prob’ly had partners,” Mouse said. “I mean Dom says she wasn’t big or tough or nuthin’.”
“Yeah,” Dom put in. “She was prob’ly tricked by some guy wanted to fool me too. I don’t wanna get her in trouble for that.”
“You see why I called on you, Easy,” Mouse said. “If I knew who they were it would be a piece’a cake. But I got to find ’em before I could convince ’em to let up on my cousin here.”
I had to laugh then. It was really funny. Maybe I wasn’t an African prince but I had my own domain. I wasn’t a sovereign maybe and I didn’t wear a crown or signet ring. But I too spent my time working for my people.
“What the hell you laughin’ about, Easy?” Mouse complained.
“It’s good to see you, Ray. It really is.”
THE FRONT DOOR OPENED and a tall and lanky youth came in tripping over his own big feet.
“LaMarque!” Dom shouted.
The boy, who was at least six foot three, winced.
