mortgage in hand. Then he went somewhere down South and disappeared.
Milo was out fifteen thousand dollars when Rive jumped bail. And though he hated to do it, he had to foreclose on Mrs.
Alberta Rive’s home. She lived there with her daughter, granddaughter, and four great-grandchildren. Milo was about to put them all out in the street.
Somehow a message came to Milo that he had better lay off Mrs. Rive or Albert would make a surprise stop at his doorstep.
Milo was a thinking man, but he was also almost as brave as my friend Fearless. He had hired Mr. Jones to be his bodyguard until the Rive property was liquidated and hoped that Albert would make a move so he would get caught and Alberta could remain in her home.
25
Walter Mosley
Toward this end, Milo had hired the only official black private detective in Watts, a man known as Whisper Natly.
Whisper was a man with no distinguishing characteristics.
You never saw him even when he was right there in front of you. He wore a short-brimmed brown hat that was a shade darker than his skin. He had a gray hatband but no feather.
His shoes were dark, maybe brown, and his clothes were neither new nor old, natty nor disheveled. He spoke in a low voice, not a whisper, and no one I knew had ever seen where he lived.
Whisper was the kind of man who could get information out of a deaf-mute. He moved quietly, always paid his bills, and never bad-mouthed anyone.
If Albert Rive was anywhere near Watts, Whisper was sure to sniff him out.
“Get your hat, man,” Fearless said to Milo. “We gonna take a ride with Paris.”
My friend rose from his leaning position effortlessly, like some being more graceful than a human. When he squared his shoulders, I spied Loretta appreciating him.
“I’m the one payin’ you, Fearless,” Milo reminded him. He stayed in his chair.
“If I was wit’ Paris here doin’ sumpin’ for him,” Fearless said, “an’ you come to me an’ say your house was on fire, I’d tell Paris to get his hat. Now, if you want me to leave you a gun, I’ll be happy to do it.”
Fearless wasn’t the smartest man I ever met. I sometimes wondered if he could do long division. But whatever he said was usually the last word in any argument. That’s because Fearless thought with a pure heart.
Milo got up.
26
FEAR OF THE DARK
“Come on, Loretta,” he said. “Get your bag and go on home.”
“But what if someone needs bail?” she asked.
“Have the answering service call you at home. I don’t wanna leave you here with that killer runnin’ free out there.”
“Wait a second,” she said, jumping up from her knees.
She’d done a good job cleaning and bandaging my foot. She went behind Milo’s desk and came out with a beat-up pair of light brown slippers.
“Put these on,” she told me, tossing the house shoes to the floor.
I glanced at Milo, but he just shrugged resignedly. He knew better than to argue with Miss Kuroko.
Wh e n w e g o t t o t h e s t r e e t , I told Loretta that I’d walk her to her car. She was driving a tan Volkswagen Bug. At the door she reached out and touched my upper lip.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Mustache.”
“It looks good.”
We stood there for a moment longer than was necessary.
“Call me,” she said.
I breathed in and forgot about expiration. Loretta gave a little laugh. It was as if I had never heard her laugh. It was wonderful.
27
We t o o k M i l o ’ s dark red ’52 Cadillac. He drove while Fearless sat shotgun. I reclined in the 5 backseat, thinking about my bookstore and that angry white man.
I wasn’t scared, because I was with Fearless and Fearless always inspired calm in me. In his company I had my greatest acuity due to the peaceful security of his aura.
I wasn’t scared, but I was worried that maybe Tiny had burned down my store.
I was thinking about Loretta behind me and Jessa up ahead, wondering why it was that I could never make it work with women, why there was only a short time for love before something went wrong.
“What’s the matter with you, Paris?” Milo asked, as we turned onto Central.
“What you talkin’ ’bout, Miles?”
“You. Why a smart man like you spend half his life in trouble?”
