David Handler - The Blood Red Indian Summer

“And how about Monique?” Des asked Chantal.

“She’s up in her room watching the TV.”

“Ask her to join us, please.”

“The girl’s simple. She don’t know nothing.”

“Please ask her anyway.”

Chantal craned her head around and yelled, “ Monique?…”

“ What?…” Monique hollered back.

“ Get your ass in here, girl!”

It took her a while but Monique came scuffing in. At the sight of all of them there, her dull-eyed gaze went down to the floor. “I do something wrong, Chantal?” she asked, standing there knock-kneed in her T-shirt and cutoffs.

“You got nothing to worry about. Just sit right here next to me. These folks want to talk to us, that’s all.”

Toni returned now with Calvin, who was clutching a fresh can of Bud.

He popped it open and took a thirsty gulp. “What’s all of this fuss?”

“Have you been watching the news?” Yolie asked him.

“Naw, I was playing around on my laptop.”

“Watching that filthy online porn of yours again,” Chantal said reproachfully. “It’s sick, you ask me.”

“Who’s asking you?” he shot back, bristling. “You’re just jealous because there ain’t no man alive wants to look at you that way no more.”

“Please shut up,” Jamella begged them wearily. “Both of you.”

“Don’t tell me to shut up in my own son’s home,” Chantal huffed. “Tell him to shut up-insulting me to my face that way.”

Lightning flashed outside the glass walls, followed by a tremendous clap of thunder. The household lights flickered but stayed on.

Toni said, “He was watching online porn, Loo. I could see it on his screen through the window.”

Calvin shrugged his shoulders. “So what? That’s no crime, is it?”

“No, it is not,” Yolie said to him. “But murder is.”

His eyes widened. “Who’s talking about murder?”

“Stewart Plotka and Andrea Halperin are dead, Mr. Jameson,” the Deacon informed him. “Someone just shot them in the parking lot of White Sand Beach.”

“Dang…” Calvin exhaled slowly, glancing over at Rondell and Clarence. They sat there in tense silence, staring down at their hands. “Hey, where’s Tyrone at?”

“He’s out getting me some ice cream,” Jamella answered in a small voice. “He’s been gone for over an hour.”

“Don’t take but five minutes to get to that ice cream parlor you like.”

“I know that, Popsy.”

Calvin frowned. “I’m not liking the sound of this at all…”

“Don’t you be thinking what you’re thinking,” Chantal said to him. “My boy wouldn’t kill nobody.”

Des’s cell phone rang on her belt. She answered it and listened to the voice on the other end, then rang off and said, “That was Oly. Tyrone’s home. He just passed through the gate.”

“Well, praise the Lord for that,” Chantal said.

Des heard the slam of a car door outside, then the front door to the house open and close.

“I’m back, girl!” Tyrone called out from the entry hall. “Got your pistachio for you! Yo, what’s up with those police cars parked out in our?…” He trailed off as he arrived in the living room and saw all of them. Stood frozen there in a tank top and spandex shorts, his giant tattooed muscles bulging, rain drops glistening on his shaved head. In one hand he held a bag from Clancy Muldoon’s ice cream parlor, in the other his car keys.

“Good evening, Tyrone,” Des said to him quietly.

“Evening, Trooper Mitry,” he responded guardedly. “Who’s the suit?”

“The suit happens to be my father, Deputy Superintendent Mitry. He and I were having dinner together when I got the call.”

“What call? You got some news for us about Kinitra?”

“They’re not here about Kinitra,” Rondell informed his brother somberly.

“Well, then what’s going on? Somebody tell me, will you?”

Jamella swallowed, her eyes puddling with tears. “Baby, where have you been all of this time?”

“I told y’all I’d be gone for a while. Was starting to feel like a caged tiger. Needed to take a drive and clear my head. You heard me say so. You and Cee both. Right, Cee?”

“True that,” Clarence acknowledged. “I heard you.”

“Where did you drive to, Tyrone?” Des asked.

“What difference does that make?”

“Please answer the question,” Yolie said to him.

“Up into the hills by that Devil’s Hopyard waterfall. Man, it is peaceful up there. I could listen to that waterfall all night long.”

“Did anyone see you there?” Yolie asked.

“ See me? How would I know? I was just kicking it. Minding my own business-until it started to pour down rain. So I came back to town, got my girl’s pistachio and here I am.”

“I called you a million times on your cell,” Rondell said. “Why didn’t you pick up?”

“Didn’t feel like it.” Tyrone’s voice had a definite edge now. “And I’m all done answering questions. Somebody tell me what’s going on right this goddamned minute.”

“Stewart Plotka and his lawyer got themselves shot in the parking lot of White Sand Beach while you were out,” Yolie informed him.

Tyrone seemed genuinely shocked. He breathed in and out for a long moment before he said, “Are they… dead?”

Yolie nodded her head.

“Wait, wait…” Tyrone looked around at everyone. “Y’all think I shot them?”

“Did you?” Yolie asked him.

“No, ma’am. Wasn’t me. You got to believe me.”

“I don’t got to do anything-except get to the truth. Tell me, do you own a handgun?”

He looked at Des and said, “You know I do. I told you I keep a Glock 19 for our protection.”

“Where do you keep it?” Yolie asked him.

“In our bedroom. It’s in my nightstand.”

“Let’s go get it, okay?”

“Not a problem.”

“Hold on a second,” Rondell cautioned him. “Perhaps we had ought to contact your lawyer before we proceed any further.”

“I don’t need no lawyer, little man. I didn’t do anything.”

Yolie went with Tyrone to fetch his gun. Not one word was said while they were out of the room. Everyone just waited in taut silence as the rain whipped against the glass walls.

When they returned Yolie was empty-handed.

And Tyrone had a stricken expression on his face. “My Glock’s gone .”

“When did you last see it?” Des asked him.

“This morning, I guess. When I was fetching my shades out of the drawer.”

“Do you generally keep the weapon loaded?”

“Hell, yeah. Don’t do you no good if it’s empty.”

“Did you have any visitors today?” Toni asked him.

He shook his shaved head at her. “Just y’all.”

“So whoever lifted it, assuming someone did lift it…”

“You calling me a liar?”

“Either lives here or snuck onto the premises,” Toni concluded.

“I fixed that hole in our fence,” Clarence spoke up defensively. “Wired a board over it.”

Des mulled this over, her mind working it, working it. “Are there any other guns in the house?” she asked, her gaze boring in on Clarence.

“What are you looking at me for?” he demanded.

“This is a homicide investigation, son,” the Deacon said in a calm, measured voice. “Best get it all out now.”

“Okay, yeah, I’ve got a Glock of my own,” Clarence admitted grudgingly. “Only, it’s not exactly registered or what have you.”

“Where did you get it?” Yolie asked him.

“A friend loaned it to me.”

Toni let out a snort. “A friend?”

“Go and get it, Clarence.” Yolie nodded at Toni to tag along as he went loping out of the room.

When they returned Toni was wearing a pair of white latex evidence gloves and holding a Glock 19 with a pencil she’d poked into its barrel.