Devil in a Blue Dress

Mason and Miller, Jerome Duffy—Carter's lawyer, and I all had to go.

Duffy shook my hand and smiled at me. 'See you at the inquest, Mr. Rawlins.'

'What's that mean?'

'Just a formality, sir. When a serious crime is committed they want to ask a few questions before closing the books.'

It didn't sound any worse than a parking ticket if you listened to him.

He got in the elevator to leave and Mason and Miller went with him.

I took the stairs. I thought I might even walk all the way home. I had two years' salary buried in the back yard and I was free. No one was after me; not a worry in my life. Some hard things had happened but life was hard back then and you just had to take the bad along with the worse if you wanted to survive.

Miller came up to me as I descended the granite stair of City Hall.

'Hi, Ezekiel.'

'Officer.'

'You got a mighty powerful friend up there.'

'I don't know what you mean,' I said, but I did know.

'You think Carter gonna come save your ass when we arrest you every other day for jaywalking, spitting, and creating a general nuisance? Think he's gonna answer your calls?'

'Why I have to worry about that?'

'You have to worry, Ezekiel'—Miller pushed his thin face right up to mine; he smelled of bourbon, wintermint, and sweat—'because I have to worry.'

'What do you have to worry about?'

'I got a prosecutor, Ezekiel. He's got a fingerprint that don't belong to anybody we know.'

'Maybe it's Joppy's. Maybe when you find him you'll have it.'

'Maybe. But Joppy's a boxer. Why'd he stop boxing to use a knife?'

I didn't know what to say.

'Give it to me, son. Give it to me and I'll let you off. I'll forget about the coincidence of you being involved in all this and having drinks with Coretta the night before she died. Mess with me and I'll see that you spend the rest of your life in jail.'

'You could try Junior Fornay against that print.'

'Who?'

'Bouncer at John's. He might fit it.'

It might be that the last moment of my adult life, spent free, was in that walk down the City Hall stairwell. I still remember the stained-glass windows and the soft light.

31

'I guess things turned out okay, huh, Easy?'

'What?' I turned away from watering my dahlias. Odell was nursing a can of ale.

'Dupree's okay and the police got the killers.'

'Yeah.'

'But, you know, something bothers me.'

'What's that, Odell?'

'Well, it's been three months, Easy, an' you ain't had a job or looked for one far as I can see.'

The San Bernardino range is the most beautiful in the fall. The high winds get rid of all the smog and the skies take your breath away.

'I been workin'.'

'You got a night job?'

'Sometimes.'

'What you mean, sometimes?'

'I work for myself now, Odell. And I got two jobs.'

'Yeah?'

'I bought me a house, on auction for unpaid taxes, and I been rentin' it and—'

'Where you get that kinda money?'