"They're so small, aren't they? I can't believe we were ever that little, but we were."
Reheema looked over. "You gonna be like this all damn day?"
"Like what?"
"You know, all happy and white."
Vicki laughed. "What?"
"You gotta get over this."
"Why? I can't help it." Vicki flashed on an instant replay from last night, erotic enough to keep her dreamy for hours. She'd had one hour's sleep and three orgasms, a superb ratio. "I love the man."
"Too soon for that."
"Are you kidding? It's been a year. One year of foreplay." Vicki had told Reheema about Mariella and Dan, which, for some reason, hadn't completely allayed her concerns. But Vicki was too happy, or too tired, to hear any objection. "He's a great guy. He's just great."
"Hard to get excited about a U.S. Attorney."
Assistant. "Not that hard."
"So." Reheema paused, with a sly smile. "How hard?"
"Hard enough, and that's all I'll say about that." They both laughed and returned their attention to the house.
"I don't think he'll be comin' out anytime soon," Reheema said. "Drug dealers don't start the day early, but I didn't wanna miss him."
"Sure. Makes sense." But Vicki was thinking about love, especially as applied to Reheema. "I was surprised that you weren't seeing anybody."
"Nobody special."
"Why not? I mean, you're beautiful, you're smart, and your body is phenomenal."
"Calm down."
Vicki smiled. "You look like a model, even in that dumb hat."
"Means a lot, coming from a girl who wears fireman boots."
They laughed again. They were more relaxed together today, if only a fraction. "So? Vicki asked, after a minute.
"What?"
"Give."
"There used to be a man, now there isn't." Reheema looked over, her emotions opaque behind her sunglasses, though she was smiling. "And that's all I'll say about that."
Vicki turned as a school bus appeared and rolled to a stop at the corner, belching sooty smoke. The doors slapped open, and the kids piled on willy-nilly, collecting last-minute kisses and hugs. The bus pulled away from the waving mothers, and Vicki noticed the front door opening at the house. "Check it, Ree."
Reheema raised the binoculars to her sunglasses. "My mother used to call me Ree."
Oops. Vicki took a photo as a pretty young black woman left the house, tugging along an adorable little boy, who looked about four. That they were mother and son was undeniable; they had the same tall, thin build, same large, almost black eyes, and same short hair, cut natural. They even wore matching red Sixers jackets, the sight of which chased Vicki's love flashback away, replacing it with an awful memory of the night Morty had been killed. She took another picture, glad that the camera covered her face.
"Now we get to see which car is theirs." Reheema raised the binoculars. "I say the Lexus. What do you say?"
Morty. Vicki had lost her appetite for their guess-the-car game. She watched as the young mother stopped to light a cigarette, a purple mat tucked under her arm, then greeted the other mothers now scattering from the corner. Then she said good-bye and walked with the child to a gold Explorer, chirped the door unlocked, and they got inside.
"Losin' my touch." Reheema clucked. "Hell no, what's that under her arm? The purple roll? Tell me that's not a yoga mat!"
"It is." Vicki took a photo of the license plate as the gold Explorer pulled out of the space. "I don't think we should follow her. I think she's taking the kid to preschool and I don't wanna miss our man."
"She's got herself a yoga mat? A yoga mat? She gonna smoke that cigarette in the damn yoga class?"
Vicki lowered the camera, and Reheema peered at her over the top of her sunglasses.
"You okay, Tinker Bell?"
No. "Are we getting closer to whoever killed my partner?"
"We're doing what we can do."
"Tell me we can get them."
"I can't do that. I can only tell you that we'll try."
Vicki blinked. "Fair enough."
Two hours later, a white Neon finally pulled around the corner, coming toward them, and both women saw it at the same instant.
"Driver's here!" Reheema said, sitting suddenly upright, and Vicki grabbed the camera, aimed it at the Neon's windshield, and shot quickly. It reflected the cloudy sky, but maybe they could get something off it on the computer. The women watched, tense, and a minute or two later, the front door to the house opened and a tall man emerged, with a black Adidas bag.
"It's him!" Vicki almost shouted, recognizing Browning's face through the telephoto. It was the same man as in the photo! "Reheema, do you recognize him?"
"No, never saw the man before."
"Rats!" Vicki fired five great shots of Browning's face, in close-up, as he hustled to the Neon, his Adidas bag swinging, then opened the passenger-side door and jumped inside.
"Get down!" Reheema said quickly, and they both ducked so their heads didn't show as the Neon drove past.
"Thought you said that was dumb," Vicki said, excited, and Reheema popped up and switched on the ignition.
"It's dumb when you do it, not when I do it." Reheema maneuvered the Sunbird quickly out of the space.
"Go!" Vicki said, needlessly, because they were already driving down the block, taking a right at the corner. "We gotta stay with him. We can't lose him."
"We won't lose him," Reheema said, bearing down. "I never lost a man I wanted to keep."
Later, after having followed the white Neon through noontime rush hour into the city, past buses and cop cars and snow plows and salt trucks, then finally out to South Philly, Vicki and Reheema sat parked at the drug dealer's first stop. A Toys "R" Us.
"I can't believe this!' Vicki said, edging up in her seat. Five minutes ago, Browning and his pal had left the Neon, grabbed one of the shopping carts, and wheeled it into the store. "What kind of drug dealer goes shopping? At Toys ‘R' Us?"
"Prices are good." Reheema laughed. "Maybe he needs a board game."
"He's supposed to be a drug dealer!" Vicki fairly shouted, then caught herself before she cursed. She had been raised better than to use profanity. But not better than to have three orgasms. Her frustration boiled over. "Could this man's day be more boring?"
Reheema was laughing. "I don't know, the wife's at yoga class and he's at Toys ‘R' Us, doin' the shoppin'. You ask me, that boy needs a marriage counselor. He's whipped."
"This would be funny if it weren't such a waste of time." Vicki sat watching the entrance. The Toys "R" Us anchored the huge strip mall, which drew customers from everywhere in the city. The parking lot, two city blocks long, was crowded with cars and minivans looking for spaces. Women and kids walked this way and that with strollers and shopping carts. Vicki sighed. "How will we ever learn something about Browning? His supplier, or even his connection to you?"
Reheema stopped laughing. "What do you think is the connection to me?"
"If you don't recognize Browning, I don't know. Unless he knows you and you don't know him."
"Only one way to find out." Reheema slipped off her sunglasses. "I'm goin' shoppin'."
"What do you mean?" Vicki felt panicky. This wasn't in the Master Plan or the New Master Plan. "What are you gonna do?"
"Walk by the man, see if he knows me, see if he says anything to me." Reheema opened the door, and a cold blast of air blew inside the car. "You're not the only one gettin' impatient here."
"I don't know." Vicki couldn't process it fast enough. "He might be dangerous."
"In a toy store?" Reheema climbed out of the driver's seat and shut the door.
"Wait, be careful," Vicki called after her, opening her passenger-side window, but Reheema was already striding away from the Sunbird, making a beeline for the Toys "R" Us entrance. She made a tall, dark silhouette with the knit cap, pea coat, and jeans, and in the clunky Timberlands looked almost like a man from the back, but for the sexy swing of her walk. She waded through the moms and kids, grabbed a shopping cart, and wheeled it inside the store. Vicki reached for the camera, to watch her better through the telephoto lens.