Walter Mosley - Devil in a Blue Dress

The voice said, “Don’t cry or beg, Easy. Don’t give this nigger the satisfaction.”

“Evenin’, Frank,” somebody said in a friendly tone. It wasn’t me. I could tell that it was real because Frank froze. He was still staring at me but his attention was at his back.

“Who’s that?” he croaked.

“Been a long time, Frank. Must be ten years.”

“That you, Mouse?”

“You got a good mem’ry, Frank. I always like a man got a good memory, cause nine times outta eleven he’s a smart man could ’preciate a tough problem. ’Cause you know I got a problem here, Frank.”

“What’s that?”

Right then the phone rang, and I’ll be damned if Mouse didn’t answer it!

“Yeah?” he said. “Yeah, yeah, Easy’s here but he kinda busy right now. Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Could he call you right back? No? Okay. Yeah. Yeah, try back in ’bout a hour, he be free by then.”

I heard him put the phone back on the hook. I couldn’t see past Frank Green’s chest.

“Where was I… oh yeah, I was gonna tell ya my problem.

You see, Frank, I got this here long-barreled forty-one-caliber pistol pointed at the back’a yo’ head. But I cain’t shoot it ’cause I’m afraid that if you fall you gonna cut my partner’s throat. Thas some problem, huh?”

Frank just stared at me.

“So what you think I should do, Frank? I know you just itchin’ t’cut on poor Easy but I don’t think you gonna live t’smile ’bout it, brother.”

“Ain’t none’a yo’ business, Mouse.”

“I tell you what, Frank. You put down that knife right there on the couch an’ I let you live. You don’t an’ you dead. I ain’t gonna count or no bullshit like that now. Just one minute and I’m’a shoot.”

Frank slowly took the knife from my throat and placed it on the couch, where it could be seen from behind.

“Okay now, stand away and sit over in this here chair.”

Frank did as he was told and there was Mouse, beautiful as he could be. His smile glittered. Some of the teeth were rimmed with gold and some were capped. One tooth had a gold rim with a blue jewel in it. He wore a plaid zoot suit with Broadway suspenders down the front of his shirt. He had spats on over his patent leather shoes and the biggest pistol I had ever seen held loosely in his left hand.

Frank was staring at that pistol, too.

Knifehand was a bad man but there wasn’t a man in his right mind who knew Mouse who didn’t give him respect.

“ ’S’appenin’, Easy?”

“Mouse,” I said. Blood covered the front of my shirt; my hands were shaking.

“Want me t’ kill ’im, Ease?”

“Hey!” Frank yelled. “We hadda deal!”

“Easy my oldest partner, man. I shoot yo’ ugly face off and ain’t nuthin’ you gonna say t’stop me.”

“We don’t need t’kill’im. All I need is a couple of answers.” I realized that I didn’t need Frank if I had Mouse on my side.

“Then get t’askin’, man,” Mouse grinned.

“Where’s Daphne Monet?” I asked Green. He just stared at me, his eyes sharp as his knife.

“You heard’im, Frank,” Mouse said. “Where is she?”

Frank’s eyes weren’t so sharp when he looked at Mouse but he stayed quiet anyway.

“This ain’t no game, Frank.” Mouse let the pistol hang down until the muzzle was pointing at the floor. He walked up to Frank; so close that Knifehand could have grabbed him. But Frank stayed still. He knew that Mouse was just playing with him.

“Tell us what we wanna know, Frankie, or I’m’a shoot ya.”

Frank’s jaw set and his left eye half closed. I could see that Daphne meant enough to him that he was ready to die to keep her safe.

Mouse raised the pistol so that it was pointing to the soft place under Frank’s jaw.

“Let ’im go,” I said.

“But you said you had a five-hundred-dollar deal.” Mouse was hungry to hurt Frank, I could hear it in his tone.

“Let ’im go, man. I don’t want him killed in my house.” I thought maybe Mouse would sympathize with keeping blood off the furniture.

“Gimme your keys then. I take him for a drive.” Mouse smiled an evil grin. “He’ll tell me what I wanna know.”

Without warning Mouse pistol-whipped Frank three times; every blow made a sickening thud. Frank fell to his knees with the dark blood coming down over his dark clothes.

When Frank fell to the floor I jumped between him and Mouse.

“Let ’im go!” I cried.

“Get outta my way, Easy!” There was bloodlust in Mouse’s voice.

I grabbed for his arm. “Let him be, Raymond!”

Before anything else could happen I felt Frank pushing me from behind. I was propelled onto Mouse and we fell to the floor. I hugged Mouse to break my fall but also to keep him from shooting Frank. By the time the wiry little man got out from under me Frank had bolted out the door.

“Dammit, Easy!” He turned with the pistol loosely aimed at me. “Don’t you never grab me when I got a gun in my hand! You crazy?”

Mouse ran to the window but Frank was gone.

I hung back for a moment while Mouse calmed down.

After a minute or two he turned away from the window and looked down at his jacket, “Look at the blood you got on my coat, Easy! Why you wanna go and do that?

“I need Frank Green alive. You kill him and one of my sources dries up.”

“What? What that got to do with this mess?” Mouse took off his jacket and draped it over his arm. “That the bathroom?” he asked, pointing to the door.

“Yeah,” I said.

He hung the pistol in his belt and carried the stained jacket to the toilet. I heard the water running.

When Mouse returned I was staring out the front window, through the slatted blinds.

“He ain’t gonna be back t’night, Easy. Tough man like Frank seen too much death to want it on him.”

“What you doin’ here, Mouse?”

“Din’t you call Etta?”

“Yeah?”

Mouse was looking at me, shaking his head and smiling.

“Easy, you changed.”

“How’s that?”

“You use’ t’be kinda scared of everything. Take them little nigger jobs like gardenin’ and cleanin’ up. Now you got this nice house and you fuckin’ some white man’s girl.”

“I ain’t touched her, man.”

“Not yet.”

“Not ever!”

“Com’on Easy, this is the Mouse you talkin’ to. A woman look twice at you an’ you cain’t say no. I should know.”

I had messed around with Etta behind Mouse’s back when they were just engaged. He found out about it but he didn’t care. Mouse never worried about what his women did. But if I’d touched his money he’d have killed me straightaway.

“So what you doin’ here?” I asked to change the subject.

“First thing I want to figure is how I can get that money you told Frank about.”

“No, Mouse. That has nuthin’ t’do with you.”

“You gotta man comin’ here wanna kill you, Easy. Yo’ eye look like hamburger. Man, I could see why you called me, you could use some help.”

“No, Raymond, I did call ya, but that was when I was low. I mean I’m glad you saved me, man, but your kinda help ain’t nuthin’ I could use.”

“Com’on Easy, you let me in on it an’ we both come outta this wit’ sumpin’.”

He had said almost exactly the same words to me eight years before. When everything was over I had two dead men on my soul.

“No, Raymond.”

Mouse stared at me for a minute. He had light gray eyes; eyes that seemed to see through everything.

“I said no, Mouse.”

“Tell me ’bout it, Easy.” He leaned back into his chair. “Ain’t no other way, brother.”

“What you mean?”

“Nigger cain’t pull his way out the swamp wit’out no help, Easy. You wanna hole on t’this house and git some money and have you some white girls callin’ on the phone? Alright. That’s alright. But, Easy, you gotta have somebody at yo’ back, man. That’s just a lie them white men give ’bout makin’ it on they own. They always got they backs covered.”