"I heard people moving around up here," Vinnie said.
"Where's Ty-Bop?" I said.
"Out front."
"And you're inside."
"Senior man," Vinnie said.
I nodded at Bonnie.
"Now," I said to Vinnie, "might be the time for extra alertness."
"Sure," Vinnie said and went back downstairs.
"Would you like a drink?" I said to Bonnie.
"Like whisky?"
I nodded.
"Yeah," she said. "Gimme some Chivas on the rocks."
I looked at Hawk. He grinned.
"Yassah, Boss," he said and shuffled off toward the kitchen where Susan kept her booze.
I got a straight chair and straddled it in front of Bonnie.
"Whaddya want with me, anyway?" Bonnie said. "You got any idea who I am. You got any idea what kinda trouble you got yourself into?"
"Yes," I said.
Hawk came back and handed Bonnie her drink. Holding the thick lowball glass in both hands, she took in a lot of it.
She didn't seem to mind that it wasn't Chivas Regal. Hawk looked at her for a moment and went back to the kitchen.
"So why don't you say something?" Bonnie said.
"Do you prefer Bonnie or Bunny?" I said.
She stared at me for a moment. "You came to my house," she said. "It was you that came, and Ziggy and the guys chased you off."
"I left in a dignified manner," I said. "Bonnie or Bunny?"
"Bonnie."
Hawk came back in with a bucket of ice and a nearly full bottle of Dewar's Scotch. He put both on the coffee table near her.
"Please," she said, "let me go. My father will give you a lot of money and, honest to God, I won't tell anybody."
Susan came in. We all waited while Pearl loped wildly around the room and jumped up on Susan, even when Susan asked her not to. Finally, she got calm enough for anyone to speak.
"Here she is," Susan said, looking at Bonnie.
"Here she is," I said.
"Am I now an accessory to kidnapping."
"I would guess, yes," I said.
Bonnie drank some more Scotch. Susan's arrival heartened her a little. The sisterhood is strong.
"Who are you?" she said.
"I'm Susan."
"What kind of place is this?"
Susan smiled. "This is my home," she said.
"Why'd they bring me here?"
"I would guess several reasons," Susan said. "People would probably not think to look for you here. If they did, there are several men here with guns. And I think there was the thought that I might be helpful in talking with you."
Bonnie's glass was empty. She added more Scotch.
Susan looked at me. "That about right?"
"On the money," I said.
"Talking to me?"
"Yes," I said.
"That's all you want?"
"I need to know some things," I said.
She drank some Scotch. Susan had sounded reasonable. Now I sounded reasonable. Hawk had brought her whisky. The whisky made her feel better.
"Like what?" she said.
"What happened to Abner Fancy?"
I could see her throat tighten. She stared at me without speaking.
"Shaka," I said.
Her voice had a squeezed sound when she spoke.
"My fa. who?"
"Your father?" I said.
She shook her head.
"Your father killed him, or had it done," I said.
"No."
"Bonnie," Susan said. "Did your father kill Abner because of you?"
Bonnie shook her head and drank some Scotch.
"Because you had a liaison with a black man?"
Bonnie kept shaking her head, her head down, looking at the floor.
"Because you produced a mulatto child?"
Bonnie's head came up and her eyes widened.
"Whom you gave away?" Susan said. "To Emily Gordon?"
"You and your mother have been paying Barry Gordon cover-up money for years," I said.
"It was support," she said. "For Daryl."
I nodded. Susan sat in an armchair across from Bonnie. I sat in front of her. Hawk leaned against the wall behind Susan, his arms folded across his chest, his eyes steady on Bonnie, his face without expression. Bonnie was still an okay-looking woman. She had spent too much time in the sun, and it had coarsened her skin. And she had spent too much time being Sonny's daughter and Ziggy's wife, and it had coarsened her soul. But I could see why Leon had considered her a hot little bitch.
"Who killed her?" I said.
"Who.?"
"Who killed Emily?"
"I don't know."
"You do," I said. "You were in the bank when it happened."
"I. " she drank some more Scotch. "I'm not going to talk about this."
"How about the white guy?"
"White guy?"
"In the bank?"
"Rob," she said. "He did it."
"Uh-huh? Where's Rob now?"
"I don't know."
"Shaka killed him," I said. "So that Rob wouldn't talk."
She drank some Scotch and nodded enthusiastically. "Yes," she said. "That's what happened."
"Shaka shot Rob," I said, "to keep Rob from confessing to the murder?"
She nodded again. She wasn't very bright, and the booze wasn't making her brighter. I shook my head.
"You killed her," I said.
"No," she said.
"Shaka was her lover. Rob was there on behalf of peace and love and an end to imperialist aggression. You used to be Shaka's honey and he knocked you up, then he dumped you for Emily. You shot her to get Shaka back."
Bonnie dropped her head again and began to cry.
"I can understand how that would feel," Susan said to her. "You loved him, bore him a child. Did you give the child away because he'd leave you if you didn't?"
Bonnie nodded without looking up, still crying.
"And then he took up with the woman who had the child."
Bonnie nodded again.
"Was he suddenly interested in the child?"
Nod. Susan smiled sadly.
"How awful," Susan said. "You gave away your child to be with Shaka, and the child became something that took him away from you."
Bonnie cried loudly now.
"For crissake," I said. "Lovers, children. You people passed each other around like Fritos."
"It was a different time," Susan said gently.
Bonnie raised her teary face and looked at Susan. "It was," she said. "It was different. And I loved him so much, and that little Jew bitch took him away from me and she used my own kid to do it."
"And you had no other choice," Susan said. "You had a gun and it was your chance."
"I loved him too much to let her have him."
"I understand," Susan said.
"She was gone, and the kid got sent back to Barry and it was me and Shaka again."
"And Daddy killed him," I said.
She dropped her drink on the floor. The noise made Pearl jump and slink in behind Susan's chair. Susan put her hand back automatically and patted Pearl. Bonnie put her face in both hands and doubled over and began to rock back and forth, gasping for breath between the huge sobs that made her whole body shake.
"And gave you to Ziggy," I said.
She couldn't speak, but she nodded. We all sat. No one said anything.
Finally I said, "We'll send you home. When you are able to, call your father, and let me speak to him."
61
I was on the front porch of Susan's apartment when Sonny Karnofsky got out of the backseat of a black Mercedes sedan with tinted windows. Behind him was the Cadillac Escalade, also black and tinted. Menacing. Sonny stood alone next to his car and looked at me. On the porch behind me, Vinnie sat on the railing. Ty-Bop and Junior lounged in elaborate boredom next to him. Junior had a shotgun.
I walked down the steps to the sidewalk, and Sonny crossed the yard toward me. He looked old and tired in the bright sunlight.
"Where is she?" he said.
"Inside."
"Bring her out," he said.
"No. You come in."
Sonny was silent. I waited.
"Let me see her," Sonny said.
I nodded and waved my hand above my head. Susan's front door opened and Hawk stood in the doorway with Bonnie. Sonny looked at her silently for what seemed a long time. It was a hot day, I realized. There was a persistent locust hum high up above us. The trees were still and full of substance in the windless heat.