I wasn’t surprised that Jackson had studied accounting. Since he was both brilliant and a thief, it stood to reason that he’d study stealing from the inside out.
“After I was so helpful,” Jackson continued, “I asked her if I could get a partial paycheck tomorrow because my rent was due and the landlord needed at least a li’l taste. She told me that maybe she could process it for Monday because they had heard that tomorrow’s payday was going to have to be put off until Monday. She asked me not to tell nobody ’cause it was a secret. She was upset because she knew the men needed the money, especially since they had to balance everything on a once-a-month nut. I asked her why the delay, but she didn’t know. I got an idea, though.”
“What?”
“Well, Easy,” he said, “I don’t know what you into, but if the payroll is switched secretly at the last minute, then it’s got to be something big. You know them construction workers like to riot if they don’t get tomorrow’s cash. I think it’s a setup and I think you know why.”
“Thank you, Jackson,” I said. “I’ll bring your money by in a couple’a days.”
“What you into, Easy?” he asked. “You gonna start hittin’ payrolls?”
“Jackson, how could you be so smart and so stupid at the same time?”
I drove past the gang’s hideout later that evening, but it looked empty. I went in through the back porch. Everything but the food containers had been cleared out — even the girly magazines were gone.
But Isolda was at home. She was still in her bathrobe, but her hair was done and she had put on her makeup. I was carrying a small satchel that was open so I could get to my pistol quickly.
“Mr. Rawlins?” she said, looking down at the brown leather bag. “What is it?”
“Can I come in?”
Her pouting lips curled back into a smile, but I felt nothing. Young men respond to women purely by animal instinct. But in maturity our minds are sometimes able to short-circuit those impulses.
We went to her window. Even though the sun was down, there was a bright light shining in from a street sign. She poured me an iced tea, which I put down on the jury-rigged, sheet-covered table.
“I’m surprised you came by again,” she said.
“Why?” I asked. I was surveying the corners of the room. There didn’t seem to be any place where a grown man could hide.
“You were so angry — you know, about me and Brawly.”
“Yeah,” I said, “Brawly. That’s why I’m here.”
“What about him?”
“Where is he?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” she said, revealing from her choice of words that she was a daughter of the South.
“Oh yeah, baby,” I said. “You know damn well where he is, or at least you know who knows. So let’s not fuck around.”
“Mr. Rawlins,” she protested.
“I said, don’t fuck with me, Issy. This is not the time to be coy. This is the time to talk turkey.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m sayin’ that you are the one that holds it all together.”
“Holds what together?”
“You’re the one who knows everybody. Brawly,” I said, holding up one finger, “Mercury—”
“I told you I only met him in passing.”
“— Henry Strong,” I said, putting up the third digit. “And you been with Aldridge on and off for years.”
“Aldridge, yes,” she said. “But I don’t have anything to do with the other men.”
“No,” I said. “You were with Henry Strong. You met him through Brawly and you let him stay over a night or two. But he didn’t know that Brawly told you everything. He didn’t know that Brawly told you that he was planning a robbery just like his old man.”
“You’re crazy,” Isolda said, and then she moved to stand.
“I already knocked out one woman today,” I said. “And I liked her.”
Hearing that, Isolda settled back down.
“Like I said,” I continued, “Brawly told you what he was doin’ and I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that you found out that Henry was a spy. He was going to run with you on the day before the robbery.”
“That’s crazy talk,” Isolda said. She wouldn’t even look in my direction.
“Your bikini says different.”
She turned to me, the question in her eyes.
“I saw the pictures,” I said. “You in a tan bikini on a bed that I didn’t come across for a few days. It didn’t strike me at first, but then I was in another bedroom and I remembered.”
“What the hell are you saying?”
“Strong took pictures of you in his bedroom,” I said. “I bet you were modeling for him, practicing for how it was gonna be down in the islands.”
“Who told you that?” Issy’s neck twitched.
“The same little bird who told me about Aldridge being Brawly’s uncle’s partner in that robbery.”
“What do you mean that Hank was a spy?” she asked. “You didn’t know?” I asked. And then, “Of course you didn’t. If you did, they’d’ve called off the robbery by now.”
“What are you talking about?” Isolda said. By then they were just words. She knew she was caught. Now she was just looking for the way out.
“He fell for you and all,” I said. “He was plannin’ to run with you, to get away forever down on the beach. But he didn’t tell you that he was a rat. No. Proud man like old Hank wouldn’t do that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Rawlins.”
“No. But you got the idea. I can see that in your eyes,” I said. “Strong told you that you were leaving on the boat the day before the job. For all he knew, you didn’t know about the plans he’d made with Brawly and Conrad. He didn’t have to tell you that he was a stool pigeon the whole time. He didn’t have to tell you that he set up members of the First Men to hit a payroll, get caught in the act, and so discredit the whole organization.”
My little speech made Isolda restless. I might not have been one hundred percent correct, but I had too much for her to dismiss me. She clasped her hands and turned her head from side to side. Then suddenly she hit a serious calm.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I got the outline,” I said. “What I need from you is to fill it in with names and addresses.”
“And what do I get out of it?”
“First of all, I don’t call up Hank’s police masters and tell them that you’re in on the plan. Second, I don’t call John and tell him that you tried to frame Brawly for killing his father.”
“I’m not afraid of that,” she lied. “I’m innocent.”
“No,” I said. “You haven’t been innocent since you were a school-girl. What you think is that you can run away. But that’s wrong. If you don’t tell me what I wanna know, I’ma hit you upside your head, tie you up like a hog, and drive you down to police headquarters in the trunk’a my car.”
I wasn’t lying and Isolda knew it. I didn’t want to have to get so violent, but then again, this was the only chance I had to find out what was going on.
I must have impressed Isolda because she said, “And if you hear what you want, you gonna leave me be?”
“Let’s hear what you got to say,” I said.
Watching her was the most astonishing thing. The beauty just drained right out of her face. It was like a facade, a mask. Suddenly she was hard and angry — close to downright ugly.
“You were right about me an’ Hank,” she said. “The minute I saw him I knew that he was the man for me. He had that voice and knew how to dress. You know most’a the Negroes ’round here are country boys with holes in their jeans and shit on their shoes. They like it like that.”