Robert Crais - Free Fall

Cool T nodded.

I cleared my throat. “Oh, boys.”

They both looked at me. Pike looked at me, too.

“Sorry. That didn’t come out right.”

Pike shook his head and turned away. You can’t take me anywhere. I said, “If Joe and I go in through the front, it won’t take a rocket scientist for those guys to figure out who we are. We can let Cool T out here like we’re dropping him off, then we’ll park on the next street over and come in through the backyard.” I looked at Cool T. “Will she let you in?”

“I get in.”

Pike stopped at the drive and Cool T got out, and then Pike kept going. One of the guys on the low wall pointed at Cool T and Cool T pointed back, and then we turned the corner. Pike turned right, then right again, and we counted houses until we were in front of a tiny saltbox that would butt against the back of Alma Reeves’s place. Joe said, “Here,” and pulled to the curb.

Ray said, “Let me get out first and go up to the house. Folks inside see a couple of white men sneaking up the drive, they’ll call the police for sure.”

Ray got out and walked up the drive to the front door and knocked. After a little bit, Ray shook his head and motioned us forward. Nobody home.

We went up the drive and through a neatly kept backyard and over a low chain-link fence and onto Alma Reeves’s property. Cool T was standing in the back door, waiting for us and holding by her left forearm a young woman who couldn’t have been more than seventeen. She looked scared.

We trotted past two rows of nicely set tomato plants and across their yard and up three cement steps and into a small yellowed kitchen with a picture of Jesus on the wall. A heavy woman with gray hair was leaning against the doorjamb between the kitchen and the dining room, saying, “Y’all stop that and get out of here. Y’all get out of here, now.”

Cool T pulled the door closed after us. He locked it. The heavy woman’s voice got higher, and she said, “Cool T! Cool, what you doin’, boy? I’m talking to you, Myron.”

Ray Depente said, “It’s all right, Mama. Nothing bad is gonna happen here.”

Cool T jerked Alma Reeves’s arm. “ ’Less it has to.”

I said, “Cool.”

“Goddamn it. She the reason James Edward dead.” He shook her arm again. “Fuckin’ bitch, set me up like I’m some kinda chump, lie to me like that so a brother gets killed.” Cool T raised his hand and Alma fell back against the refrigerator with a whimper and Pike stepped in and caught Cool T’s arm.

“No.”

The heavy woman said, “Alma, what is he talking about? Alma, you talk to me!” Nobody was looking at the heavy woman.

Cool T glared at Pike, but then he let go of the girl and stepped back. When he let go, she stumbled back and fell. Cool T was so angry that he was trembling. He was so angry that his eyes were rimmed red again, and filled with tears, but the tears weren’t because she had lied to him. “Goddamn it, this outrageous shit has been goin’ on too long down here, brother on brother. This shit got to stop.”

Alma Reeves was shouting. “He made me, Cool. He said you was asking and he told me what to say. I didn’t know he was gonna kill anyone. I swear to Jesus I didn’t know.”

Alma Reeves was sitting on the floor, looking up at us, and I wondered how frightening it must be for these two women to have four men push into their home and act in this manner. I squatted down by her. “How did Akeem know that Cool was working with us?”

She jerked away from me. “I can’t be talkin’ about all this. Don’t you understand anything? I be talkin’ about this and it gets back, I’m dead for sure.”

The heavy woman was pulling at her hair. “What do you mean, dead? Alma, what have you gotten yourself messed with?”

Alma looked at her mother. Then she closed her eyes.

I said, “Ray, why don’t you take Mrs. Reeves into the living room.”

Ray took the heavy woman away. She begged us not to do anything to her baby. She said it over and over as Ray pulled her away, and hearing it made me feel small and foul and ashamed of myself. I said, “Look at me, Alma.”

She didn’t move.

I said, “Akeem doesn’t know that we’re here. No one but the people in this room knows that we’re here, and no one else is going to know. Do you understand that?”

She opened her eyes.

“No one saw us come in, and no one will see us go out. We are going to move against Akeem. If you help us, no one will know. If you don’t help us, I’ll make sure Akeem believes that you turned on him. Do you see?” Small and foul and mean.

She said, “Oh, you muthuhfuckuh.”

I nodded.

Alma Reeves said, “I got what you call a little dependency problem.”

Cool T said, “She went along with Akeem for the rock. She a crack ’ho.”

She flared at him. “I ain’t no ’ho. Don’t you call me that.”

I said, “Cool.”

He said, “She say she want to quit, so I got her in a program, but she didn’t stay. That’s why she diddle around with trash like the Eight-Deuce. ’Ho’ing for the rock.”

Alma Reeves was the kind of unhealthy thin that doesn’t come from dieting. Who needs protein and vitamin B when you can suck on a crack bong? Ray came back in the room. I said, “What did Akeem tell you to say to Cool T?”

“That the cops was gonna lean on a brother be sellin’ rock at the park. He say I was supposed to tell Cool, then call him and tell him right away.”

“Alma, this is important. Did Akeem say anything about a girl named Jennifer Sheridan?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“It’s very important, Alma. He’s already killed James Edward, and I think he wants to kill her.”

“I don’t know. I’m not over there that much. I don’t know.”

Pike said, “Where does Akeem live?”

“He in a place just off Main over here.” She made a little hand wave toward the east. “Used to be a rock house.” She told us where it was and what it looked like.

Ray said, “Shit. That means it’s built like a fort. There’ll be reinforced walls and steel on the doors and windows.”

Cool T laughed. “What you fools thinkin’ about doin’, stormin’ the ’hood like at Normandy?” He laughed louder.

I said, “Reconnoiter. We go, we watch, we learn whatever we can learn, and we maybe try to pick up Akeem when he’s alone. If someone comes, we follow them. Whatever we can do.”

Cool T said, “What about Alma?”

We looked at her. “I didn’t know Akeem was gonna kill that boy. I swear I didn’t. Why I wanna tell Akeem now I told you?”

Cool T said, “Crack. Crack ’ho do anything for the rock.”

Alma screamed, “I can’t help it Don’t you call me that.”

Cool T went to the little dinette and pulled out a chair. “Maybe I’ll just set a spell.” He gave me sleepy eyes, eyes that were tired maybe from seeing too many brothers killed by other brothers. James Edward Washington eyes. “Make sure she don’t call up old Akeem.”

Ray said, “Thanks, Cool.”

I looked back at Alma, and then I found a notepad and a Bic pen on one of the counters. I wrote down a name and a phone number. “You want to get into a program and try to get off this stuff?”

She stared at me.

I dropped the pad into her lap. “There’s a woman I know named Carol Hillegas. She runs a halfway house in Hollywood. If you want to get into a program, give her a call.” I looked at Cool T. “If she wants to go, call Carol and take her over there. It won’t cost anything.”

Alma Reeves stared down at the pad.

Cool T got up from his chair, came over, and took the notepad out of her lap. “Crack ‘ho ain’t gonna do nothin’ to help herself. Maybe I’ll give a call for her.”