tell someone.'
Rubin shook his head. 'Whatever you tell Ms. Paget won't be confidential. You could be admitting to a capital crime.'
'Yeah,' Payton answered tersely. 'I got that. The crime I'm gonna die for. I just learnt the word for that: re- dun-dant.'
Without awaiting a response, Payton turned to Terri. 'Happened just like they said—girl choked to death on come. Only thing they got wrong was 'bout Rennell.' Payton paused, his smile tinged with an ironic melancholy. 'He's scared of the dark—afternoon was the only time Rennell could sleep. Poor sucker slept right through that girl dyin'.'
SIXTEEN
TAUT, TERRI STARED ACROSS THE TABLE AT PAYTON PRICE. 'LET me get this right,' she said softly. 'You're telling me that Rennell wasn't involved in Thuy Sen's death.'
Payton smiled. 'I talk too fast for you to hear?'
'Then Flora Lewis couldn't have seen him.'
The sardonic glint lingered in Payton's eyes. 'It's like I say, all white people see alike. But that black cop Monk should have asked hisself how Eddie Fleet knew so much. Almost like Eddie was there.'
Terri sat back. 'Of course,' she said. 'Because he was.'
* * *
They're high on crack, Payton and Eddie, sitting on Grandma's porch. Payton's keeping time in his head to some hip-hop music. When the girl comes by, Payton doesn't notice her. But then he can hardly see.
Eddie's staring at the street. 'Wonder if she'd like to party.'
After a time, Payton tracks his gaze to this slender Asian child passing their house with eyes glued to the sidewalk. The idea makes so little sense Payton says nothing at all. Still keeping time, he shuts his eyes.
'Who she gonna tell, man?' he hears Eddie mumble.
It seems like crack's turning Eddie's sex drive inside out. Before Payton can focus, Eddie's calling out to her. Then the porch starts creaking with Eddie's footsteps like it's Payton's own pulse beating.
* * *
Paul Rubin studied his client, eyes narrow. 'The man Lewis saw with her,' Terri said. 'That was Eddie Fleet.'
Payton looked away. 'Eddie was wearin' a big hooded sweatshirt, like Rennell wore mostly. So that dried up old bitch thinks she saw Rennell goin' after some nine-year-old.' His voice held a quiet bitterness. 'What she know about that poor fool, 'ceptin' what she saw every time she be peekin' at us out the window—somebody big and black and scary enough to do every kind of de-prav-ity.'
Terri felt an anger of her own. 'Someone did,' she said. 'Just not Rennell.'
Her tone doused the edge in Payton's voice. 'Someone did,' he echoed softly.
* * *
At least it's Eddie that forces the kid to her knees.
Her eyes are closed like those of some China doll, but she's makin' these scared little noises and her body's shakin'. 'Come on,' Eddie says, all excited sounding, 'I'll watch her do you first.'
Payton's still in the zone. After a while he unzips his pants and moves toward them. But when Eddie forces her down on him, Payton feels her tears on his skin.
Shuddering, he pulls away.
It's like some fucked-up dream. Payton sees the TV's still on. He pulls up his pants and begins to watch the colored images, like what's going on behind him isn't happening.
'Keep goin', bitch,' Eddie's voice says, and then Payton hears a moaning coming from Eddie's throat, another sound like coughing. On the TV there's a car chase, highway patrol after some bank robber, and then the wail of police sirens starts drowning out Eddie's cries of pleasure.
* * *
Terri felt nauseous, her skin cold.
Payton's voice was dull. ' 'Mother fuck,' I hear Eddie sayin'. He wasn't excited no more.' His shoulders slumped, and he continued with an air of shame. 'Dumping the body went just like Eddie said in court. 'Cept it was just us two. Or us three—guess seeing that dead girl on the floor made her real.'
* * *
They're standing in the dark, stink of tallow up their noses, Fleet with the girl's body in his arms. Across the water, the shadows of the loading cranes are like giant insects in some horror flick.
Payton's come all the way down now, cold wind biting into his face. 'You do it,' he says to Eddie. 'You got all the good out of her.'
Eddie doesn't argue. Standing in the sand, Payton watches him step slowly into waist-deep water, staggering in the current, side to side like fucking King Kong. Payton starts wishing the tide would sweep them both away—Eddie doesn't know how to swim.
Instead he rights himself, then just lets her go. All Payton knows is he'll always remember the girl bobbing in the water, hair swirling as she disappears from sight.
