“I told ’em that it was you shootin’ out the windah,” she said.
“So now Douglas thinks it was me killed his friend?”
“I’ont know what he’s thinkin’,” Elana protested. “Anyways, I worked on Conrad’s wounds, and then Leon forgot how mad he was and started lookin’ at me like a man looks at a woman.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said.
“You cain’t blame me,” Elana said as if we had a relationship that had gone bad. “I’m alone out here. Men all gruff and mean, lookin’ at me like I’m a piece’a meat.”
“Look how you dressed,” I said.
“Look how you just pushed your way into my house,” was her retort.
I didn’t have anything to say to that.
“You see,” Elana said. “There’s people out there kill me in a second. Sure I took your money and your car. But I left the five dollars in your shoe. And if you weren’t out after me now, you’d be safe while my life is still on the line.”
“I wouldn’t be here if your boyfriend didn’t burn down my motherfuckin’ store,” I said, getting hot.
“Leon didn’t burn down your store.”
“If he didn’t, then who did?”
“I don’t know. But he asked me the same question when he grabbed me off the street.”
“That could just be a lie,” I said.
“Why he wanna lie about that? Why he wanna burn your place down anyway?”
“So what happened with you and Leon?” I asked.
“We went to see William. Leon fount out where he was through a fence he knew.”
“Leon the one messed up his face like that?”
“What are you, a cop?”
“Just talk, sister,” Fearless said.
The timbre of his voice drew a strange stare from Elana.
“Yeah,” she said, answering my question. “Leon slapped him around a little but —”
“But then he realized that the good William was tellin’ the truth and you still had the bond,” I said to cut off whatever lie she was going to tell.
“If you know so fuckin’ much, then why you askin’ me?”
“Does Leon have the bond?”
Elana’s nod was as subtle as a first kiss.
“What’s he plan to do with it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” she lied.
“Is the bond here?”
“No,” she said. “He like me, but he don’t trust me.”
“Smart kid,” I said.
“So we got to get the bond from this Douglas,” Fearless said to me.
Elana Love was beautiful, but she had an ugly laugh, cruel and cold. “You’re pretty, Paris’s friend, but you don’t have the stuff to take Leon Douglas down.”
Fearless gave her a smile and a salute.
“What did you do after you braced Grove?” I wanted to get the conversation back to business.
“We went to my place, but the cops were there. I guess somebody found somethin’a mines at Conrad’s.”
“Why did your boyfriend kill Fanny Tannenbaum?” Fearless asked.
For the first time Elana lost her poise. “What?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know what he’s talkin’ about,” I said. “Somebody killed her. I’m almost sure that Leon and his friend the cowboy went to Fanny’s house after we got away. He stabbed Sol and ran. Cowboy or Leon just went back to finish the job.”
“I don’t know about Tricks, but I been wit’ Leon almost every minute,” Elana said uncertainly. “An’ why go after her if we already had the bond?”
“Maybe he wanted more,” Fearless suggested.
“No,” she said.
“Why not?”
