“Where’d he go?”
“Up.”
“In the house?”
“Yeah.”
“Them men still up there?”
I expected to hear gunshots at that moment. Never in my life had I been more sure of a premonition. It came to me all of a sudden. The kidnappers were all asleep. They had slept through us breaking in but now they heard Fearless.
I stood up but went no further. Any moment the gunfire would begin. They might get the drop on Fearless, but then again he was the army assassin. But even if he killed them, the gunfire would bring the cops and we’d all be arrested and convicted for a dozen crimes.
235
Walter Mosley
“Paris,” Three Hearts called.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. I’m sure she didn’t hear me through that heavy door.
A woman sighed.
I jumped three feet.
It was Fearless on the top stair.
The heart attack tensed inside me, wondering if this was the moment to end my days.
Then Fearless was standing there in front of me. He had a big crowbar in his hand.
“Hold on, Paris,” he told me. “Hold on, man.”
He put a hand on my shoulder, and I grabbed his forearm the way Sterling had grabbed my thigh. I put my head against his shoulder and shivered.
“Paris,” Three Hearts called.
“It’s okay, Hearts,” Fearless answered. “I got me a crowbar.”
I let go and took a deep breath. The dread had gone from me, and I was ready to do what we had to.
“Gimme your gun,” I said to Fearless. “I’ll stand guard while you work on that lock.”
I t t o o k f i v e m i n u t e s for Fearless to pry that door loose. It was a very good cell. Down in a basement and in the back of a walled mansion; even if the women had screamed, no one would have heard them. And there was no way they could have broken down that door.
Three Hearts and Angel hugged the both of us. They didn’t cry or lose their composure. After a minute of greeting, they both said that they needed a bathroom.
236
FEAR OF THE DARK
Fearless led them upstairs and turned on the lights in the house.
“What if somebody in the front house sees us?” I asked while the women went about their toilet.
“Ain’t nobody up there,” he said.
“How you know that?”
“I just do,” he replied.
I had been so traumatized that even this lame assurance didn’t bother me. It was as if I had died and now nothing else could happen.
“When they come out, we got to go,” I said.
“Okay, man. You know I got to call Milo anyway. I’m a day late for him as it is.”
237
“ Th e y wa s l ay i n ’ for Ulysses when we got there,” Three Hearts Grant said from the 37 backseat. “There was four of’em.”
We were in the canyon, coming from the valley back to L.A.
Angel sat close to my auntie, holding her hand. The women were completely bonded now.
“There was blood on the floor,” I said, wondering about the union between the mother and the lover of a fool.
“When they made to grab us, I shot the fat one,” Three Hearts said. “But then the bald one, the one with the scar across his face, took my gun an’ slapped me down. Angel tried to stop him, but he was too big and mean.”
There was the knot. Angel’s trying to save Three Hearts had assured their undying union.
“He died in the car,” my aunt said almost casually.
“The fat one?” I asked.
“Yeah. He told ’em he was okay, but I hit sumpin’ in his belly. It’s like he got sadder an’ tireder until he was gone.”
I turned around to see what my aunt looked like when she uttered these words. She had a sneer on her lips, as if she had just tasted something bitter. There was no remorse or discomfort, just a distasteful task that was only one-third done.
