Bad Boy Brawley Brown

'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?'

'Severance from Champion. And you know them taxes wasn't all that much.'

'What's your other job?'

'I do it when I need a few dollars. Private investigations.'

'Git away from here!'

'No lie.'

'Who you work for?'

'People I know and people they know.'

'Like who?'

'Mary White is one of em.'

'What you do for her?'

'Ronald run off on her two months back. I tailed him up to Seattle and gave her the address. Her family brought him back down.'

'What else?'

'I found Ricardo's sister in Galveston and told her what Rosetta was doin' with'im. She gave me a few bucks when she come up and set him free.'

'Damn!' That was the only time I ever heard Odell curse. 'That sounds like some dangerous business, man.'

'I guess. But you know a man could end up dead just crossin' the street. Least this way I say I earned it.'

Later on that evening Odell and I were having a dinner I threw together. We were sitting out front because it was still hot in L.A. 'Odell?'

'Yeah, Easy.'

'If you know a man is wrong, I mean, if you know he did somethin' bad but you don't turn him in to the law because he's your friend, do you think that's right?'

'All you got is your friends, Easy.'

'But then what if you know somebody else who did something wrong but not so bad as the first man, but you turn this other guy in?'