clever or dim, whether you a telephone operator or somebody scrubs floors on her hands and knees the way my mama done when I was coming along in Mississippi, I know in my heart and in my soul that there is not a single one of you out there tonight—black or white—who is not appalled by what happened to that man while he was in custody and entitled to protection!'
The cheers were deafening.
Bess MacDougal listened and watched, waiting for her back-to-studio cue.
'So tonight, I am making this promise to you. Starting at eight tomorrow morning, when the shifts change, there will be people marching outside every police precinct in this city! And thousands of us will be marching outside
The Catacombs downtown, to raise our voices in protest, and to demand an investigation that will lead to the arrest of the two detectives responsible for this brutal act against a helpless black man in custody! We will not desist until we know the truth! We will not desist until there is justice! Truth and justice! That's all there is, and all we need to know!'
The girl with the earphones pointed to Bess again.
'You've been listening to the Reverend Gabriel Foster,' she said, 'here at the First Baptist Church in Diamondback. This is Bess MacDougal. Back to you, Terri and Frank.'
There was the sound of laughter, black and white, the sound of the rain lashing the windows, the noisy swagger of the television crew wrapping up. Bess MacDougal told Foster what a lovely, heartfelt speech that was, and shook his hand, and went to join her crew. Lorraine walked over to where a reporter from Ebony was asking Foster if he would mind posing for a photo outside in the rain . . .
'Under an umbrella, of course,' she said, smiling up at him. 'What I had in mind for the caption was something like 'Let it come down!''
'Second murderer,' Foster said at once. 'Macbeth.'
'Referring, of course, to the blue wall of silence,' the reporter said.
'I realize. Give me ten minutes. I'll meet you downstairs.'
Lorraine extended her hand to him.
'That was wonderful,' she said,
Foster took her hand between both his.
'Thank you, Lorraine,' he said.
Until that moment she hadn't even realized he knew her name. She felt a sudden rush of blood to her face, the telltale curse of being a redhead with a fair complexion. Blushing to her toes, she dropped his hand and backed away. Walter Hopwell called her name, 'Lorraine? Some
coffee?' One of the television crew called to Bess that
, the^y had a breaking, story downtown, and a\ the TV
p people rushed out, leaving only the mere newspaper and
magazine reporters, and Foster's people, black and white,
and the rain, and the long night ahead.
She was waiting on the corner in the rain, a flimsy umbrella over her head, half the spokes broken, the rain coming down as if it would never stop, when all of a sudden a dark blue automobile pulled up to the curb and the window on her side rolled down.
'Lorraine!' a man's voice called.
'Who's that?' she said, bending to look into the car.
'Me,' he said. 'Do you need a lift?'
She walked over to the car, peered in more closely.
'Oh. Hi,' she said.
'Get in,' he said. 'I'll drive you home.'
'The bus'll be here any minute.'
'It's no trouble.'
'Only if it's on your way.'
'Get in before you drown,' he said, and leaned across the seat to throw open the door. She slid onto the seat, closed the umbrella, swung her legs inside, and then pulled the door shut behind her.
'Boy oh boy,' she said.
'Where to?'
'Talbot and Twenty-eighth.'
'At your service,' he said, and put the car in gear, and pulled it away from the curb. The windshield wipers snicked at the rain. The heater insinuated warm air onto her feet and her face. The car felt as warm and as safe as a cocoon.
'How long were you waiting out there?' he asked.
'Ten minutes, at least.'
'This time of night, you never know when a bus is coming.'
The digital clock on the dashboard read :.
'I wouldn't mind,' she said. 'But this weather!'
'Snow, rain,' he said, 'what's coming next? And it isn't even winter yet.'
'Oh, I know' she said.
'How'd you like tonight?'
'It was wonderful.'
'I could see you were enjoying yourself.'
'I love working for him, don't you?'
'I surely do.'
'Did you ever see him do a TV taping before?'
'Once or twice. He's an incredible person.'
'I know, oh, I know.'
They fell silent, anticipating the precinct protests tomorrow morning, awed by the fact that they both worked for this marvelous human being who was doing so much for race relations in this city. Lorraine had been assigned to a precinct all the way out in Majesta. She wasn't even sure she knew where it was.
'I hope it won't be raining,' she said. 'Tomorrow.'
'Or snowing,' he said. 'Snow would be even worse.'
'Where will you be?'
'The Fifth. Down in The Quarter. Near Ramsey U.'
'My building's just up ahead,' she said. 'On the right.'
'Okay.'
He eased the car to the curb, looked at the dashboard clock. It read :.
'Damn,' he said. 'I'm going to miss it.'
'I'm sorry?'
'The news. It goes on at eleven. I'm sure he'll be the lead story.'
'Oh,' she said. 'Yes. Oh, that's too bad.'
'Well, there'll be other stories.'
'Why don't you . . . well. . . would you like to come up? Watch it with me?'
'It's late,' he said. 'Tomorrow's a big day.'
'If we don't hurry, we'll both miss it,' she said.
He parked and locked the car, and they dashed through the rain to her building, her spindly umbrella virtually useless now, the rain relentless. Once inside the small apartment, she went immediately to the television set and turned it on, and then asked him if he wanted a beer or anything.
'Help yourself, they're in the fridge,' she said, and pointed toward the tiny kitchen, and then went into the bathroom across the hall. He took two bottles of beer from the refrigerator, found a bottle opener in the top drawer of the kitchen counter, and uncapped both bottles. He found two glasses in the cabinet over the sink, and poured beer into each of them. Glancing toward the closed bathroom door, he took a pair of blister-packed white tablets from his jacket pocket, and popped both of them into one of the glasses.
He was sitting on the couch in the living room when she joined him a moment later. The news was just
