'My name's Hawk.'
Ellis was too full of jailhouse self-control to look startled. But he was silent for a moment staring at Hawk. Then he nodded slightly and looked back at me.
'So what you want from me, Spenser?'
'Tell me your story,' I said.
'I got no story, I'm just another nigger framed by the man.'
'Sure,' I said. 'How'd it happen?'
'How you think?'
'I figure they kidnapped you from church,' I said.
'Naw. They come busting in, about eight of them, while I was still in bed. Ten o'clock in the morning. I had a bad hangover. State cops, I think. I never did know for sure. And they haul my ass out to Pemberton. And stick me in a cell in the back by myself. You know, man, my whole life I never been in Pemberton? 'Cept for doing time, I ain't been five miles from Seaver Street.'
'You didn't kill this girl.'
'No. I tole them that and every time I tole them that the one cop doing all the investigating, State cop, I think, big tall guy, blond hair, real pink cheeks, he talk a lot of trash, 'bout how they know how to handle a buck nigger goes around raping their girls.'
Ellis paused a moment thinking about it and shrugged. 'After a while couple of people I never heard of pick me out of a lineup,' he said. 'And then they gimme some preppy bitch probably never been laid, to be my lawyer, and you know she walks me right into the joint.'
'You got a theory?' I said.
'Sure, same old honky shit. Something goes down, find a nigger and clear the case.'
'How'd they pick you?'
'They want to get me off the street anyway.'
'Who they?' Hawk said.
'You ought to know that, bro.'
'Yeah, but they a lot of white folks, Ellis. Which one want to get you off the streets?'
'What's the difference?' Ellis said. 'They ain't going to help you get me out.'
'We're not looking for help,' I said. 'We're looking for information.'
'Well, I already give you all I got,' Ellis said.
I looked at Hawk. Hawk shrugged.
'He got no reason to hold back,' Hawk said.
I nodded, and looked at Alves.
'You got anything else to say?'
'The cop doing all the talking, out in Pemberton, cop name of Olson? Maybe he know something.'
'We'll talk with him,' I said.
Ellis looked at Hawk again.
'I heard about you,' Ellis said.
'Un huh.'
'You willing to work with him?'
Ellis nodded toward me.
'Un huh.'
'You trust him?'
'Un huh.'
Ellis, still sitting rigidly erect in the chair, looked at me like I was a specimen. He shook his head.
'You ain't got no prayer. They gonna land on you like a truck-load of sludge. You gonna get buried. Like me.'
'Probably not,' I said.
'They want it buried-they gonna bury it. Even if you white, you helping a nigger, you ain't white no more.'
I didn't see anywhere to go with that so I let it pass.
'You got no idea how they happened to pick you to take the fall?' I said.
'None.'
'Okay,' I said.
I got up and went to the door. I opened it and nodded at one of the guards. They came in, put the cuffs back on Alves, patted him down, and led him. out. He stood absolutely straight as they did this, and when they took him out
