'No, sir. Buck weren't their daddy, and he never liked ' em much. Guess they reminded him of my other husband. But they're fine kids, Mr. Brown. Fine kids.'
'Where's their real daddy?'
The woman shrugged, a movement that spoke volumes about trailer parks and bruises.
'Said he was going to Louisiana, try and get work on the oil rigs. But that's nearly seven years ago. Now, he's just gone. We weren't husband and wife official, nohow.'
Tanny Brown was about to ask another question when he heard a bellow of rage from outside. Sudden voices were raised and he heard policemen shouting to each other. The woman on the couch gasped, shrinking down to the floor. 'That's his brother. I know it. He'll kill me, Lord, I know.'
'No, he won't,' Brown said quietly. He handed the woman back the portraits of her children. She clutched the leather photo album tightly. Then he motioned for the uniformed officer to stand by the door as he returned outside.
From the doorway, he saw two other uniforms trying to restrain a large, enraged man who struggled hard against their hold. The crime-scene technicians had scattered. The man roared, tugging and jerking, pulling the officers toward the body.
'Buck, Buck! Jesus, Buck, I can't believe it! Jesus, lemme go! Lemme go! I'll kill the bitch, kill her!'
He surged forward dragging the officers. Two more policemen jumped in his path to try and slow his progress. One cop fell to the ground, cursing. The crowd of people started to catcall and yell, their voices adding to the man's fury.
'I'll kill the bitch, dammit!'
He screamed with red-streaked rage. His contorted face was caught in the flashing strobe lights of the police cruisers, illuminating his anger. He kicked at one of the policemen struggling to hold him, his foot landing on the officer's shin. The man yelped and fell aside, grabbing at his leg.
Tanny Brown stepped from the trailer's front stoop and walked toward the dead man's brother. He put himself directly in the man's vision.
'Shut up!' he shouted.
The wild man stared at him, hesitating momentarily in his push forward. Then he lurched again. I'll kill the bitch,' he screamed.
'That your brother?' Brown shouted.
The man twisted in the grasp of the policemen. 'She killed Buck, now I mean to do her. Bitch! You're dead!' he cried, directing his yell past Brown.
'Is that your brother?' Brown asked again, slightly quieter.
'You're dead, bitch! Dead!' the man snarled. 'Who's asking? Who're you, nigger?'
The racial epithet stung him, but he didn't move. He considered stepping up and feeding the man his fist, but then decided against it. The man had to be stupid to call him a name, but probably wasn't so stupid he wouldn't file a complaint. A brief vision of a stack of paperwork jumped into his sight like a mirage.
One of the officers trying to hold the man back freed his nightstick. Brown shook his head and stepped up so that his face was only a few inches away from the dead man's brother.
'I'm police Lieutenant Theodore Brown, asshole, and I'm gonna get pissed in one more second, and you don't want to have me on your case, asshole.'
The man hesitated. 'She killed him, the bitch.'
'You already said that.'
'What you gonna do about it?'
Tanny Brown ignored the question. 'That your gun?' he asked.
'Yeah, mine. He got it from me earlier.'
'Your gun? Your brother?'
'Yeah. You gonna arrest the bitch, or am I gonna have to kill her?'
The man's struggles had slowed, but his voice had gathered an angry, challenging edge.
'You knew he was gonna come over here?'
He told everyone at the bar.'
'What was the gun for?'
'He was just gonna scare her a little, like he did the other night.'
Brown turned and saw the uniformed officer standing in the light thrown from the trailer door, and the woman cowering behind the policeman. He turned back to the enraged man, who was standing still now, waiting, his arms still clasped by two officers.
The police lieutenant walked over to the dead man's body and looked down at it. Under his voice, he whispered, 'Can you hear me? You ain't worth the trouble.' Then he looked back at the brother.
'You gonna do something, or what?' the man demanded.
Tanny Brown smiled. 'Sure,' he said.
He turned to one of the crime-scene technicians. 'Tom, go get Missus Collins' shotgun.' The man went over to a cruiser and returned with the gun. Brown took the shotgun and jacked the pump action a single time, chambering a fresh round.
He looked over at the dead man's brother and smiled again. 'Give the shotgun back to Missus Collins,' he said loudly. He stared over at the man. 'Fred?' he called out in a loud voice. 'Officer Davis, you write Missus Collins up one of those tickets for dumping refuse without a permit. Pay a fifty-buck fine. And you call sanitation and tell them to come pick up this trash.' He pointed at the body at his feet.
'Hey,' said the man.
'That's right. Give her a ticket for shooting this piece of crap and dumping him out here.'
'Hey,' the man said again.
'Tell Missus Collins she dumps any more trash bodies in her front yard, it's gonna cost her fifty bucks every time.'
He aimed his index finger at the dead man's brother. 'Like this one here. Tell her she's got my permission to blow this sorry asshole's head off. But it's gonna cost her another fifty.'
'You can't do that,' the man said. His arms had dropped to his sides.
'You don't think so?' Brown said. He walked back to the man and shouted in his face. 'You don't think so?'
'Hey, Tanny!' cried one of the uniformed officers. I got fifty I can lend her.'
There was a burst of laughter from some of the other policemen.
'Sure,' came another voice. 'Hell, we can take up a collection. Cover her until she blows away all the assholes.'
'Put me in for ten, said one policeman, rubbing his shin.
'Hey,' said the man.
'Hey, what?' Tanny Brown demanded.
'You can't.'
'Watch what I can do,' the lieutenant said quietly. 'Arrest this man.'
'Hey!' the man said again as one of the officers slapped handcuffs around his wrists.
'Criminal trespass. Obstruction. Battery on a police officer. Harassment. And let's see, how about conspiracy to commit murder? That's for giving his damn dumb drunk brother a gun.'