“Sure, Paris. Is that all?”
“I had a great time last night,” I said.
She hummed her agreement and then said, “One day you’ll come to understand what a wonderful man you are, Paris Minton.”
•
•
•
119
Walter Mosley
I c a l l e d t w o b a r s and three restaurants that Fearless frequented, with no luck. I left messages for him, but no one had any idea when he’d show up.
I could have called Mona. Maybe I should have called her. If you woke her in her bed from a deep sleep and asked her where Fearless might be, she would probably know. That man was on her mind twenty-four hours a day.
But I hesitated. One day I might really need Mona’s help and if I called all the time she could begin to resent me. It’s always a delicate thing dealing with your friends’ girlfriends.
So instead I dialed a Ludlow number. He answered on the first ring.
“Yeh?”
“Bobby?”
“You know it is, Paris. What you want?”
Bobby Frank was known as the Two Dollar Man. He’d perform any errand for the discreet payment of two George Washington notes.
If someone wanted to get word to his mother that he was in jail and needed bail, Bobby would take the message to her door for two bills. If you wanted your mother and your cousin to know, then that was four — unless the cousin and the mother lived under the same roof.
Bobby lived in a studio apartment with a portable Zenith TV, a mini-refrigerator filled with cheap beer, a perpetual carton of Kools, and a big black telephone. He kept a ledger sheet that had three live columns: name, estimated cost, and paid.
Cost was always a multiple of two, and you had to have an
“I need Fearless to meet me down at Ha Tsu’s ASAP,”
I said.
120
FEAR OF THE DARK
“You ain’t paid me for that thing I did last month, man.”
“I ain’t seen ya.”
“Well, you coulda come by,” Bobby said.
“Yeah. You right, man. I’ll tell ya what, you tell Fearless when you see ’im to give ya the four dollars. Tell him that I said to settle my bill.” This accomplished two ends. It meant that Bobby would definitely get paid, and it let him know that Fearless wanted the information Bobby had. Either detail was enough to get him up and out.
“I was gonna call him,” Bobby complained. He liked to complain.
“Milo’s only three blocks from you, B,” I said. “And anyway, Fearless ain’t there.”
The Two Dollar Man sighed on his end of the line.
“I hear Milo got trouble wit’ Albert Rive,” the Two Dollar Man said. This was often the case with Bobby. He stayed at home to get his business calls, but being at home most of the time made him lonely. On top of the two dollars, I had to pay a little interest in conversation.
“It’s Al got trouble,” I said. “He got Whisper and Fearless on him. He be lucky to make it to jail.”
“I hear you got trouble too, Paris.”
I wondered how he could have known about Three Hearts and her evil eye.
“What kinda trouble?” I asked.
“Mad Anthony says he gonna kill your cousin and he got some choice words about you too.”
“Where you hear that?”
“Around. People be sayin’ that Useless better keep his butt indoors.”
“You know where Useless is right now?” I asked.
121
Walter Mosley
“I’ll tell you what I told Tony’s cousin.”
“What’s that?”
