Drama City

cars.

'Homicide already done visited Deacon,' said Lee. 'They got them gang-task-force people, know all the players. You know how they do.'

'That means they been to see Nigel too.'

'That's a bet.'

'Nigel ain't gonna say a thing to the police. He gonna want to handle this his own way.'

'I expect.'

'Nigel and his want more blood, we gonna give 'em some. We soldiers, right?'

Lee looked across the room at Miller, who stood by the big picture window fronting the street. Miller had been pacing the room like an animal who'd got up on two legs for the first time. He'd been unsettled ever since he'd shown up at the apartment and described the murders in detail. Miller had expected Lee to be pleased. He was perplexed at Lee's reaction.

'Why?' Lee had said upon hearing the news.

'Why I kill 'em?' said Miller. 'Shit, they was gonna go at you, wasn't they?'

'DeEric was just talkin', Rico. He was doin' his job. I been knowin' DeEric since he was a boy. He was bold like that.'

'Too bold, you ask me.'

'And that kid. He wasn't gonna hurt no goddamn one.'

'You right about that. That boy was a straight bitch.'

'You missin' my point. Deacon say the kid was special to Nigel.'

'Nigel gone faggot now, huh?'

'Listen to me,' said Lee, desperation and anger in his voice. 'You ain't hearin' me, Rico. We got a problem here. We got to find a way to work this out.'

'Thought you'd be happy,' said Miller, lowering his head. 'I did this thing for you.'

Lee had left the conversation lying there, like something dead in the room you stepped over on the way to somewhere else. There wasn't any use in going on with this. Miller seemed to have no remorse for what he'd done. For the first time, Lee feared him. He'd heard about this kind of thing, had always thought of it as street bullshit passing for wisdom. But now he saw that it was true: Came a time in every relationship like this, you traded places. The father became the son.

And now the call had come from Deacon, a call Lee had expected and dreaded all morning long.

'What Deacon say to do?' said Miller.

'He wants you to sit tight right here. He don't want you to go nowhere, 'cause if he wants to pull up on you personal, he need to know where you at.'

'He can get me on my cell.'

'That ain't good enough. Since you don't want to tell no one where you stay at, you gonna have to be within physical reach for now.'

'Where you gonna be?'

'I got to get my ass into work,' said Miller.

'What I'm gonna do here all day?'

'Play Xbox, you want to.'

'I don't even like Xbox. I roll with PS2.'

'You gonna have to deal with that, Rico.'

Lee got up out of his chair, gathered his cell and keys, and went to the front door. He looked at Rico Miller, standing there with nothing but some peach fuzz on his face, slouched and gangly, deadlier than most men but really no older than a kid.

'Don't be standin' by that window,' said Lee.

'I ain't stupid.'

'I'm just sayin'. Po-lice could put me together with them bodies somehow, might come calling on me.'

'I wouldn't let no police fuck with you, Melvin.'

'I'm sayin' … Shit, Rico, I'm thinkin' of you right now. Any law shows up here, you leave out the fire escape, through my bedroom window. It'll lead you back to the alley. That ladder drops the way it supposed to. I know, 'cause I tried it out.' Lee put his hand on the doorknob, then thought of something else.

'You ain't bring no gun in here, right?'

'What you think?'

'That's a mandatory right there. I can't be gettin' violated.'

'Guns I used are put away.'

'You need to get rid of 'em. They dig the lead up out of those bodies, I'm talkin' about the pistol lead, they can match it to that gun.'