her mind.”
In my peripheral vision I could see Saul throw his hands up in the air.
“I can’t take you to him,” Maya said with finality.
I stood up from my fine Chinese chair saying, “And I can’t raise the dead.”
I made ready to leave, knowing that I was being a fool. I needed that money and I knew how powerful white men could act. But still I couldn’t help myself. Hell, there was an armored car waiting for me in the state of Texas.
Thinking about the robbery, everything that could go wrong came back to me. So, standing there before my chair, I was torn between walking out and apologizing.
“Hold up there,” a man’s voice commanded.
I turned to see that a panel in the wall behind the lacquered desk had become a doorway.
A man emerged from the darkness, a very short man.
“I am Robert E. Lee,” the little man said.
4 6
8
He wasn’t over five feet tall. He might not have made the full sixty inches. He wore navy blue pants and a black coat cut in the fashion of a nineteenth-century general’s jacket.
He had short black hair and wispy sideburns, a completely round head, and the large dark eyes of a baby who had wisdom past its years.
He marched up to the chair behind the desk and sat with an air that could only be described as pompous.
It was obvious that he had been watching us since we entered the office. I suspected that he had probably been monitoring our conversation from the moment we entered the house. But the little general wasn’t embarrassed by this exposure. He touched something on his desk and the portal behind him slid shut.
“It’s like the house of the future at Disneyland,” I said.
4 7
W a lt e r M o s l e y
“I’ve never been,” he said with an insincere smile plastered to his lips.
“You should go sometime. Might give you some tips.”
“You’ve met me, Mr. Rawlins,” Robert E. Lee said. “We’ve had mindless banter. Is that enough for your mother?”
An instant rage rose up in my heart. I had never loved anyone in life as much as I did my mother — at least not until the birth of my blood daughter and then when Jesus and Feather found their way into my home. The idea that this arrogant little man would refer to my mother in that tone made me want to slap him. But I held myself in check. After all, I had mentioned my mother’s admonition and Feather needed my best effort if she was going to live.
“So why am I here?” I asked.
“You’d need a practicing existentialist to answer a question like that,” he said. “All I can do is explain the job at hand. Mr.
Lynx . . .”
“Yes sir,” Saul said. “May I say that it’s an honor to meet you.”
“Thank you. Do you vouch for Mr. Rawlins?”
“He’s among the best, sir. And he is the best in certain parts of town, especially if that town is Los Angeles.”
“You realize that you will be held accountable for his actions?”
Lee referred to me as if I weren’t there. A moment before, that would have angered me, but now I was amused. His effort was petty. I turned to Maya Adamant and winked.
“I’d trust Ezekiel Rawlins with my life,” Saul replied. There was deep certainty in his voice.
“I’m my own man, Mr. Lee,” I said. “If you want to work with me, then fine. If not I have things to do in L.A.”
“Or in Montreux,” he added, proving my suspicions about the eavesdropping devices throughout the house.
4 8
C i n n a m o n K i s s
“The job,” I prodded.
Lee pressed his lips outward and then pulled them in. He looked at me with those infant orbs and came to a decision.
“I have been retained by a wealthy man living outside Danville to discover the whereabouts of a business associate who went missing five days ago. This associate has absconded with a briefcase that contains certain documents that must be returned as soon as possible. If I can locate this man and return the contents of that briefcase before midnight of next Friday I will receive a handsome fee and you, if you are instrumental in the acquisition of that property, will receive ten thousand dollars on top of the monies you’ve already been paid.”
“Who’s the client?” I asked.
“His name is unimportant,” Lee replied.
I knew from the way he lifted his chin that my potential employer meant to show me who was boss. This was
