“Where did you meet this friend’a Ulysses’?” I asked then.
“At a house down around Fairfax. I don’t think it was his house. At least he wasn’t livin’ there.”
“When did you first meet this white guy?”
“How the hell should I ’member that?” he said belligerently.
“Try hard,” Fearless advised.
“I dunno. Three mont’s. Sumpin’ like that.”
83
Walter Mosley
Anthony winced then and put a hand against his jaw.
“So you met him a long time before he had you beat on Drummund,” I speculated.
“Yeah,” Anthony said. “Yeah. String-whatevah had me put a scare into a dude named Katz too. That was aftah I first met
’im. He paid me a hunnert dollars for that.”
“Did you say anything to these people when you beat them?” I asked.
“I cain’t talk like that in front of a lady,” Anthony demurred.
I could have reminded him of the language he had used in front of Three Hearts in the alley earlier that day, but I felt sorry for him.
“What I meant was did Stringly have any message that he wanted you to give them?” I asked.
“Yeah, uh-huh. He told me to say that they went down this road on they own an’ they wasn’t goin’ back. He said to tell ’em that if they paid, the pain would go away.”
“What did you do to them?” I asked. I don’t know why. It wasn’t relevant to what we were looking for, but Anthony fas-cinated me when he was no longer a threat.
“Broke some fingers an’ knocked out a couple’a teeth.”
“For a hundred dollars.”
“I’d kick yo’ skinny ass for nuthin’,” he replied, unable to keep the sneer off his lopsided face.
Fearless placed a hand on Anthony’s forearm. It was a light touch, but Anthony flinched.
A sharp pain made Anthony bring both hands gingerly to his jaw.
“Anything else you want?” he cried.
“What was Ulysses into with this Stringly dude?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
84
FEAR OF THE DARK
“Come on, man,” I said, selecting my words delicately.
“Everybody knows that U-man liked to talk. He wouldn’t just bring you somewhere and not say somethin’ ’bout what he was up to.”
“He said that him an’ Stringly was tight,” Anthony said, straining at the memory. “He said that they had a scam goin’
gonna make ’em rich. That’s it.”
“He didn’t say nuthin’ ’bout what they was doin’?” I asked.
“Naw. Just that, just that white people was thieves too, it’s just that they never got caught ’cause they stole big.”
“That doesn’t prove a thing,” Three Hearts said with deadly conviction.
“That all, Paris?” Fearless asked me.
I nodded.
Fearless put a hand on Anthony’s shoulder.
“You bettah get to the hospital, Tony,” he said. “That jaw you got there is broke pretty bad.”
Mad Anthony stood away from the booth and staggered toward the door.
85
“ Wh a t wa s a l l t h a t s t u f f about U-man and what Ulysses like t’talk?” Three 14 Hearts asked me when the big man was gone.
I knew she would take umbrage at any hint of an accusation toward her son.
“I was just tryin’ to get him to remember, Auntie,” I said.
“You know sometimes you just have to say the first thing come in your head when you talkin’ to a rough man like that.”
“But why did you say what you said?”
I swear I saw her left eye flashing.
“Hearts,” Fearless said in an impossibly reasonable voice.
