Max bowed his thanks.
Mama smiled. "Fair share, yes?" And counted off some of my money, handed it to Max.
He gravely bowed to me as well.
Mama counted off still more money, looking at me. "For Luke, yes? To pay the woman downstairs."
"Lily's taking care of that, Mama."
Her eyes went agate. "Our house, our family, we pay."
Max dropped his eyes from the challenge, handed over his entire stack of money. Mama took some, handed the rest back. Looted my pile again.
Finally, she smiled. Got up and left.
108
Max wasn't going to lose two in a row, renewing his demands to come along to my meeting. I made the sign for Lily. For Storm, Immaculata, Wolfe. It took a long time. I pounded my fists together, conflict. Pulled them apart. Separation. Then I pointed at Max. Tapped my heart. Locked two hands together. We wouldn't be separated, he and I, okay? His time would come.
Finally, he nodded.
I went into the back to call Elroy.
"It's me," I said by way of greeting.
"Hey, Burke! Is Pansy in heat? I mean, Barko ain't been himself, man. Don't want to pull his load, nothing. He needs his woman, buddy. Give my boy a break."
"Look, fool. I called you about something else. Everything's all set, okay? You'll get what's coming to you real late tonight…maybe two in the morning, okay?"
"Yeah, yeah…You gonna bring Pansy?"
"I'm not coming. I'm sending my brother…and don't say his name on the phone."
"Oh, the Chinaman who don't talk? You sending him? I heard he does deliveries…"
Fucking moron.
"Just calm down, all right? He'll be driving my car. And keep those damn dogs out of his way.
"Sure, sure. But when you gonna…?"
I hung up on him.
109
Eleven-thirty. I made a slow circuit of the empty drive-in at the wheel of the Plymouth. Nothing. Max and I lit cigarettes, smoking in silence. He'd reopened the argument on the way out to Queens, and we'd reached a compromise.
I was wearing a dark suit, white shirt, black tie. Unarmed— not even a knife. Max was dressed in his thin-soled black shoes, baggy white pants, a white T-shirt. A better target if that's what they wanted. He's never weaponless.
The immaculate green Rover pulled in a few minutes later. Clarence killed his lights, got out of the car, lounged against a fender, his body not quite making contact with the metal.
I popped the trunk. Max and I got out, walked around to the back. I took the package in my arms. We walked over to Clarence.
"Clarence, this is my brother, Max the Silent."
Max bowed.
Clarence extended his hand, slim and delicate. Max took it in his bone-crusher of a paw, shook.
"Let's put this in your trunk," I said to Clarence.
His eyes were distressed, but he said nothing. Unlocked the trunk, didn't look as we put the bag inside.
"I heard of you," Clarence said to Max.
Max bowed again.
"He really doesn't talk?" Clarence asked me.
"Not with his mouth," I told him.
A black Chevy Caprice rolled into the lot, followed closely by its twin. A tall, slim black man got out of the passenger seat of the lead car, walked toward us. He was dressed exactly as I was except his tie was string-thin. And he had a tiny red ribbon in his lapel.
"Mr. Burke?" he asked.
"That's me."
"You will come with us, please?"
"Yes."
"And your friends, they will come too?"
"Only one friend," I said, nodding at Clarence. "My brother will be leaving."
"Certainly."
Max closed the gap between him and the messenger, gliding without a sound. He stared at the man's face, eyes slitted, memorizing. He bowed slightly. Moved over to the cars, walking around them front to back, taking it in.
"Would you ask your people to get out of their cars?" I asked politely.
"Certainly," he said again. Walked over to the driver's window of one car, then another. They lined up in the darkness, all dressed alike. Max stared deep into the face of each one, bowed his thanks. Squeezed my shoulder, climbed into the Plymouth, and took off.
"Will you come with us now?" the man asked.
"Yes, I'm ready."
"Very well," he said, gesturing toward the lead car.
"Hold up, mahn," Clarence said, his voice barely under control. "I'm not leaving my ride out here for some thief to steal. I'll just drive right behind you, okay?"
The messenger smiled. "Yes, you and your friend can follow me. You have nothing to fear."
"Do you want your…?" I asked.
"No. You must present the offering to Queen Thana yourself, sir."
I shrugged. Went with Clarence to his car.
110
Clarence followed the Caprice's taillights to Ninety-fourth Street, made a left toward the airport.
"The other one's right behind us," he said.
"Makes sense."
"I don't like this, mahn."
"It's okay. They could have wasted us right in the parking lot, they wanted to. They're not going to do anything."
"You sure, mahn?"
"Yeah."
"So why was the monster-man there? The Silent One. I heard scary things about him."
"In case I turn out to be wrong.
"So what's he gonna do then, mahn— be too late for us.
"It's never too late to get even."
111
The Caprice swept east on Ditmars, turned right on Northern Boulevard, back toward the city.
"You have your pistol?" I asked Clarence.
"Always," he said, whipping it loose.
"Leave it in the car, Clarence. And anything else you got."
"You crazier than they are, mahn. I'm not going in no voodoo house without…"
"Yeah, you are. They're going to search you anyway, what's the point? It's too late now— we trust them or we don't."
"I don't, mahn."
"Then stay in the car."
"Look…"
"You look, Clarence. This is my play, my way."
He glared through the windshield. Finally, he slipped the pistol under the front seat. Pulled out a couple of spare clips, his straight razor, the leather-covered sap.
"That's all I got, mahn."
We turned left into a short block. A drug supermarket: dealers sitting in parked cars, working the traffic crawl. Cars with Connecticut plates, Jersey plates. Flames licked from a 55-gallon oil drum, winos warming their hands. A man staggered out of the doorway of an abandoned building— why pay rent when you re running a crack house? If citizens lived on that block, they were indoors.