“No he’s not, Daddy,” Easter said.
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“How many do you have now?”
“Only nine, and I have room for a lot more on the shelves you made me.”
“Go on now and play with them,” her unlikely father said. “I’ll come say good night in an hour.”
Decorum regained, Easter left the room and the men went back to barbarism.
“What’s Cicero got to do with this?” Christmas asked.
“I don’t know.” Saul was wearing a tan suit with a brown T-shirt.
Christmas Black raised his head as if he’d heard something. A moment later there was a knock at the door.
“Stay in your room, E.D.,” Christmas called.
We all went to the door together.
I had my hand on the .38 in my pocket.
Black pulled the door open and there stood Raymond.
“Christmas Day,” Mouse hailed.
“Silent Knight,” our host replied.
They shook hands and gave each other nods filled with mutual respect. I was impressed because Mouse’s esteem was an event more rare than a tropical manifestation of the northern lights.
On our way back to the couches I felt my load lighten. With Raymond and someone he considered an equal on our side I didn’t think that anyone would be too much for us.
I revealed as much of the story as I dared to. I told them about the state of Axel’s house but not about finding his corpse.
For that I relied on their imaginations when they heard about the meeting between Chickpea and Axel. I told them about Maya’s calls and about finding Haffernon in Philomena’s room. I 2 3 6
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told them about the existence of the bonds and the letter, but not that I had them.
“How much the bonds worth?” Raymond wanted to know.
“I don’t know,” I said. “Thousands.”
“You think this Haffernon’s the top man?” Christmas asked.
“Maybe. It’s hard to tell. But if Haffernon was the boss, then who killed him? He is the one hired Lee. I’m sure of that.”
“Lee has at least twenty operatives at his beck and call,” Saul said.
“And if anybody’s behind Haffernon,” I added, “they’ll have a whole army at their disposal.”
“What’s the objective, gentlemen?” Christmas asked.
“Kill ’em all,” Mouse said simply.
Christmas’s lower lip jutted out maybe an eighth of an inch.
His head bobbed about the same distance.
“No.” That was me. “We don’t know which one of them it is.”
“But if we do kill ’em all then the problem be ovah no mattah which one it was.”
Christmas laughed for the first time.
Saul gave a nervous grin.
I said, “There’s still the money, Ray.”
“Money don’t mean much if they put you in the ground, Ease.”
“I can’t go out killing people for no reason,” Saul said.
“There’s a reason,” Christmas replied. “They suckered you in and now your life’s on the line. The cops wouldn’t touch this one and if they did they’d put you in jail. There’s your reason.”
“Yeah,” I said, because once you invited men like Christmas and Mouse into the room Death had to have a seat at the table too. “But not before we find out what’s what.”
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“An’ how you plan to do that, Easy?” Mouse asked.
“We go to the horse’s ass. We go to Robert E. Lee. He’s the one brought us in. He should be able to find out what the problem is.”
“What if he’s the problem?” Christmas asked.
“Then we’ll have to be smart enough to fool him into showing us that fact. The real problem is getting to him. I got the feelin’
that Maya doesn’t want that conversation to come about.”
“That’s easy,” Saul told us. “Call him now, when she’s not at work.”
a f t e r a s m a l l s t r a t e g y discussion Saul dialed the
number. It rang five times, ten. He wanted to hang up but I wouldn’t let him. After at least fifty rings Lee answered his business phone.
“It’s Saul Lynx, Mr. Lee. I’m calling you at this late hour because I have some fears that Maya may not be trustworthy. . . .
The way I feel right now, sir, I wouldn’t want to work for you again. . . . But you have to understand we believe . . . Mr. Rawlins and I believe that Axel Bowers was murdered and that Mr.
Haffernon was too. . . . Yes . . . Easy has talked with Maya a few times since that initial meeting and he told her that he located Miss Cargill and that he’d spoken to Axel. Did she tell you about that? . . . I assume that she hasn’t. . . . Sir, we need to meet . . .
No, not at your house . . . Not in San Francisco. . . . There’s a bar called Mike’s on Slauson in Los Angeles. Easy and I want to meet you there.”
There was a lot of argument about the meeting but Lee finally gave in. The way we figured it, if there was a problem between Maya and Lee he would have some inkling of it beyond our insin-uations. If he doubted her loyalty he’d have to take the meeting.
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As if she could read the vibrations in the air Easter Dawn made tea and brought it to us just when the call was over. Her father didn’t chastise her for leaving her room.
I took the child on my lap and she sat there comfortably, listening to the men.
“I’ll go with you and Raymond back to L.A.,” Saul said.
“No. Go to your family, man. Ray and me can see to this.”
“What about you?” Christmas asked Mouse.
“Naw, man. It ain’t no war. Just one white boy think he bad. If I cain’t take that then I’m past help.”
Easter brought out her dolls after that and we all told her how beautiful they were. She basked in the attention of the four men and Christmas was glad for her. After he put her to bed we all left. Mouse asked Christmas could he leave his red El Dorado there for a few days. He wanted to be able to strategize with me on the ride.
When we approached my flashy Pontiac I felt that I was leaving something, a fellowship that I’d not known before. Maybe it was just sadness at leaving a home when I was homeless.
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37
In the front yard Saul came up to us, shook Mouse by the hand, and then drew me away.
“Easy, I know I got you into this mess,” he said. “Maybe I should come along.”
“No, Saul, no. Neither you or me got the stomach for a man like this killer. Really Mouse would be better on this alone.”
“Well then why don’t you grab Jesus and come up and stay with us at the cabin?”
“Because EttaMae would kill me if I let her husband get shot out there. It already happened one time. I got to cover his back and you got to go to your family.”
Saul gave me his hangdog stare. He was a homely man, there’s no doubt about that. I held out a hand and he grabbed on to it.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Don’t be. I asked you for the job and you came through for 2 4 0
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me. If I’m very lucky I’ll come out of this alive and with the money for Feather’s doctors. If I’m just plain old lucky I’ll just get the money.”
Saul nodded and turned to leave. I touched his arm.
“Why’d you want me to come out here?” I asked him. I thought I knew but I wanted to see what he had to say.
“I did Christmas a favor once. He’s the kind of guy that takes a debt seriously. I wanted you to know him if you got into a bind.
He’ll do whatever it takes to make things right.”
i t w a s l a t e
on the highway ride home. After my accident and two near misses I was paying close attention to the road and the speedometer. Mouse and I smoked with the windows down and the chilly breezes whipping around us.
After quite a while I asked, “So what’s that Christmas Black’s story?”
“What you mean?” Mouse asked. He understood my question; he was just naturally cagey.