Cry Havoc

just the same.'

Frank headed to the door, then stopped to ask, 'One last thing. Danny stayed with your other aunt sometimes. What's her name and address?'

Kim told her, shakier now than when the cops had come in. Frank wrote the information in her notepad.

'I know this is a hard time for you and our questions don't make it any easier. We appreciate your help. I hope we won't have to bother you again.'

Lewis waited until the car doors were shut, before asking, 'What's the hurry? I wasn't done talking with her yet.'

'Yeah, you were.' Frank smirked.

'What you mean by that?'

'Drive,' Frank ordered. 'We're gonna go talk to Mother Love. I'm going to show you how this is done.”

“What you talking about?”

“Watch and learn,' was all Frank would say. Lewis smacked the wheel, but she didn't say anything else.

7

'What you doin' up already, Mama?'

Lavinia had slipped into her mother-in-law's room, as she did every morning, prepared to wake her with parted curtains and a breakfast tray. She was surprised to see Mama Love pinning her hair in front of the mirror.

She laughed at Lavinia, 'They a law say I can't get up early?'

'No, ma'am. You hardly ever do, is all.'

She slid the tray onto a table by the altar, noticing the freshly congealing blood.

'We got company coming,' Mama Love said around a pin in her mouth.

'Yeah? Who?'

'You'll see in a while. When they come, let me know.'

Lavinia pulled a chair out and Mama Love took it regally. Lavinia sat in the one next to her.

'Did you sleep good?' she asked.

The Mother nodded, watching Lavinia pour her a cup of milky coffee. She held it with both hands, breathing the steam.

'I finally saw it last night, just as I was getting into bed.'

'Saw what, Mama?'

'What's been troubling me the past few days.'

Lavinia didn't announce her relief. Mama Love was always quarrelsome, but of late her temper had been quicker than a pistol shot. She knew that happened sometimes before she had a big spell, and knew as well to stay out of her way. Marcus though, he never paid it no mind. Just walked like a fool into a hive of wasps. He and Mama'd go at it then Marcus would come and find fault with Lavinia.

'What is it?'

Mama Love ate a bite of cornbread with fried egg and washed it down with a gulp of coffee before answering.

'It's something, darlin'. Something big. I can't quite name it yet. But I think I'm going to find out soon. This morning, I feel. That's why I'm up and dressed. I'm ready for it. Ain't gonna let it catch me hiding under the covers.'

'Is it something good?'

Patting her smooth cheek, Mama Love answered, 'If I have my way, it will be. If I have my way.'

Lavinia smiled, reassured it was something good because her mother-in-law always had her way. Shyly, she asked, 'Remember what we talked about?'

Mama Love frowned, 'What's that?'

'The bath? Today's the day.'

'Well, of course, child.' She hugged Lavinia, asking, 'You've been wearing your hand?'

Lavinia nodded, producing a small cloth doll from her waistband. Inside it were stuffed seven pinches each of jasmine, basil and myrrh, and seven black-eyed peas, pomegranate and poppy seeds. For seven days she and Marcus had abstained, and for seven days she had let a mixture of sea water and molasses, sit with seven pennies and seven sea shells in a watermelon surrounded by seven blue candles. Today she was ready to bathe in the mixture.

'You got the yellow sheets?'

Lavinia nodded.

'I hung mistletoe, parsley, and yarrow over the bed just like you told me to. Tied up with a yellow string.'

'Good girl.'

'And seven yellow candles like you said.'

'And Marcus is ready?'

'He always ready,' Lavinia giggled. Her mother-in-law looked stern and Lavinia quickly added, 'He's been wearing his hand. He's ready.'

'Best be. Else he'll have to be waiting again until the next new moon. And you know what to do with the candle wax?'

'I'ma make it quick into the shape of a baby and bring it to you.'

'That's right. We'll be waiting next door.'

Lavinia's heart galloped. She was pretty sure Marcus would kill both of them if he found out, but she had to ensure her place in the family. She had to make a baby. She'd seen that even before she married Marcus, but still couldn't get pregnant. At her mother-in-law's insistence, she'd collected her husband's seed one morning in the guise of making a pregnancy potion. She'd given the semen to Mama Love who had a doctor waiting for it. It was no good, he'd said. Marcus's sperm were lazy. Lavinia didn't know Lucian had been tested at the same time.

When Mama Love came to her with the plan, Lavinia hadn't wasted time thinking. Mama Love was desperate for heirs and Lavinia knew she would get them at any cost. She knew if she didn't agree to the plan she could be easily replaced. But she'd tasted the sweet life now and wasn't willing to forfeit it.

Lavinia squeezed her mother-in-law's hand. She was scared, but excited too, eager to receive the seed from her husband's twin brother.

8

The detectives stood in an alley facing a vast brick building. In its hundred years the building had been through many incarnations, starting as a granary in the late 1800's, then becoming a sprawling dance hall during Prohibition. It fed a nation during the First and Second World Wars, serving as a slaughterhouse until the railroad industry declined. The structure withstood a fire in the early-50's only to fall into disuse. Winos and derelicts took it over until an aspiring South Central entrepreneur bought the gutted building and rebuilt it, renting the myriad rooms for warehouse and office space.

Eyeing the iron-grated windows and barred steel doors, Frank realized Richard Love was the man who'd restored the building. Looking where Frank did, Lewis asked, 'Shouldn't we have backup?'

Frank shook her head.

'Just want to talk to her about her poor nephew.'

'I don't know,' Lewis muttered. 'This doesn't seem well advised.'

'You sound like the Mother. You into fortune-telling now, too?'

A metal grate slid open in the massive door and Frank lifted her ID to it.

'I want to talk to Crystal Love-Jones about her nephew, Daniel Duncan.'

The grate slammed shut. Frank knew the Mother was inside. She called less than five minutes ago, pretending to be one of the Mother's clients, and hanging up when she came on the line.

Eyeballing the rust and burn marks, Frank said, 'Bet that's the original door from the Twenties. This used to be a speakeasy. Had all sorts of people playing here. Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker ... all those guys would jam here.'

'How you know that?' the younger cop asked, suspicious that Frank knew the 'hood better than she did.