Fearless Jones

When I first met Milo I wanted to do business with him. I was always asking his advice and suggesting that he take me in as a partner. But as time passed and I saw how he never got past the first stages, I was happy that he was too jealous to let anybody else in on his deals.

So when Milo left for one of his clandestine negotiations, I didn’t expect much. I had business of my own, business in which failure was not an easy pill to swallow.

“Paris,” Loretta said to me as I was following her boss out the door.

“Yeah?”

“Hold on a minute, will you?”

The door shut behind Milo, and I went back to Miss Kuroko’s desk.

“I didn’t want to say anything in front of Milo,” she said hesitantly. “You know how he gets when he thinks that he’s being taken advantage of.”

“What’d I do now?” I asked.

“It’s the phone calls.”

“What calls?”

“The women.”

“Oh shit,” I said. “Here we go. Women got a whiff that Fearless is over here?”

“They’re calling for you too, Paris,” Loretta said, as if I knew it all along. “And you know how Milo feels about using his office for personal affairs.”

“Women? What women? Ain’t no women callin’ on me.”

“Charlotte Bingham,” Loretta said.

“Who?”

“She said you knew her from the Charles Diner.”

“The Charles…” I stopped when I remembered the young woman with the scar. “Oh. Uh, did she leave a number?”

Loretta handed me a small orange slip of paper with the waitress’s information.

“And what about this Gella Greenspan calling for Fearless?” the secretary asked.

“Who? Oh.”

“You don’t have to pretend, Paris.”

“I’m not pretendin’, Loretta. I can’t remember all these names. Gella is the woman whose aunt got killed.”

“Oh.” An urgency entered the woman’s tone. “She said that it was important to get in touch with Fearless, but I thought…”

“I’m sure it’s okay. Just gimme that number too.”

I went to Milo’s desk and dialed Gella Greenspan’s number.

“Hello,” a timid voice said upon answering the phone.

“Gella?”

“Mr. Jones?”

“No, it’s Paris. Paris Minton — the one who was with Fearless.”

“Oh. Is he with you now?”

“No. No, he went out to visit your uncle. He was worried after what happened to Fanny and decided to make sure Sol is safe.”

“Oh. Yes. Yes, I guess that’s more important.”

“More important than what?” I figured that the distraught young woman wanted to see what came after the first two kisses. I hoped to head her off before we got sidetracked into some kind of domestic mess. A kiss could be like a loaded gun, Fearless’s words came back to me.

“It’s Morris.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“He’s gone.”

“Gone where?”

“I don’t know. The police came to ask questions about Fanny and the black man who stabbed Sol, and Morris yelled at them that they had to find him and put him in jail. I never saw him so upset.”

“We’re all upset. Damn, I haven’t been this worried since the bogeyman used to live under my bed.”