George Pelecanos - The Night Gardener

'Isaiah's not sick, is he?'

'He's fine.'

'My mother lied to get me arrested, then.'

'She lied to help you, Darcia. She did right for you and your son.'

'How's it gonna be right between me and my baby when I'm in lock-up?'

Darcia hit her smoke and stabbed it dead in the ashtray. She rubbed at her eyes.

'About Jamal.'

Darcia made a small wave of her hand.

'Take your time,' said Rhonda.

'We done, far as I'm concerned.'

'Not yet. I'd like to get up out of here my own self, but we still got some things we need to discuss. Unfortunately, I caught this homicide…'

'You can't hold me on no marijuana charge.'

'Gonna take a little while to process the paperwork.'

'This some bullshit. You know it is.'

Rhonda let Darcia have her anger and watched as it passed.

'You all right? You ain't sick or nothin like that, are you? You comin down off a high?'

Darcia shook her head.

'That's good,' said Rhonda. 'Listen, you want a soda, somethin?'

'I'll take a Diet Coke, you got it.'

'Gonna have to be a Pepsi,' said Rhonda. 'That work for you?'

Darcia nodded. Rhonda stood, looked at her watch, then looked into the camera lens and said, 'Eleven thirty-five a.m.'

Rhonda walked from the room, waited for the door to lock behind her, and got a Diet Pepsi from the vending machine. She carried it to the video room, where Ramone and Antonelli sat watching Bo Green and Dominique Lyons on screen number 1.

'Where my whip at?' said Lyons.

'Prob'ly on the way to the impound lot,' said Green.

'Better not be one scratch on it,' said Lyons, 'or y'all gonna have a lawsuit on your hands.'

'That is a nice Lexus,' said Green. 'What is that, the four hundred?'

'Four thirty,' said Lyons.

'Were you driving that the other night?'

'What night you talkin about?'

'The night Jamal White was murdered,' said Green.

'Who?'

'Jamal White.'

'I ain't familiar with that name.'

'You had a confrontation with him at the Twilight the night of his death. We have a witness.'

'Lawyer,' said Dominique Lyons.

Green folded his hands across his huge torso, sat back in his chair, and stared straight ahead.

'Bo looks kinda sad, doesn't he?' said Antonelli.

'That's frustration,' said Ramone.

'You see a young man who's keeping his mouth shut,' said Rhonda. 'I see one who's talkin his ass off.'

'For real?'

'Let me get back in there and do my thing.'

'You need an assistant?' said Antonelli. 'I know how to loosen a young woman's tongue. All it takes is the Plug charm.'

'And plenty of alcohol,' said Ramone.

'I got this,' said Rhonda. She left the room.

Ramone turned down the sound on screen I because there was nothing to listen to of value. They waited for Rhonda to get back in box number 2. She had a seat and pushed the can of soda across the table to Darcia. Rhonda let Darcia pop the tab on the can and take a long pull. She lit Darcia's next cigarette.

'I got four sons,' said Rhonda, pulling back the match.

Darcia smoked her cigarette.

'Four sons,' said Rhonda, 'and no man. I'm not complainin. The boys had two different fathers, but neither one of them was what you'd call a family man. I showed the first one the door, and when the second one couldn't be true I told him to go out the same way. I don't get a penny from either of them to this day and I wouldn't take it if it was offered to me. I ain't saying my boys wouldn't have been better off with a good man around the house, but we didn't have that option. It was hard, I'm not gonna lie. It's been a struggle and it'll continue to be, but we're doing all right. We're gonna be fine.

'You look at me, Darcia, and I know what you see. Middle-aged woman with a little bit of belly on her and clothes from JCPenney. Bags under my eyes and flat shoes. I haven't been to a nice restaurant in five years and I can't tell you when I last went to a real party. Wasn't too long ago I looked something like you. I had it, too. In the eighties they used to send me undercover into clubs where the big drug boys were throwin down. I'm talking about the R Street Crew, Mr Edmond, all of 'em, 'cause the brass knew young men with money would want to talk to me. I walk down the street today, I'm lucky to get a second look. That's how fast it goes away, darling. And then what you got?'

'I'll tell you. You got the people you love and who love you back. I look at my sons and I don't regret a minute of the time I spent with them. I don't even mind the way I look in the mirror, 'cause I know it don't mean all that much in the end. My purpose wasn't this job or the paycheck or anything you can buy. It was raising my family. Knowing they ain't never gonna leave me in their hearts. You understand what I'm sayin?'

'Go ahead, Rhonda,' said Ramone, watching the monitor.

'You got an opportunity to step off this road you're on,' said Rhonda. 'Get yourself cleaned up and start raising your baby right, your own self. Like your good mother and father did for you. Back up off of those type of men you been with and start new. We can help. We got this witness security program where we put you in an apartment, away from where you been. We'll set you up.'

'I don't know anything,' said Darcia. The ash had lengthened on her cigarette. She had stopped smoking it and she had yet to tap it off.

'How you gonna protect that man? He's in another interrogation room right now, schemin you.'

'No he isn't.'

'Shoot. You think you're his bottom baby? Fancy man tells that to Shaylene and every other young girl he fuckin and robbin. Don't you know that? And now he's in there sayin that it was you had the idea to kill Jamal.'

'That's not true.'

'True or no, that's how he's gonna testify. He might have pulled the trigger, but he'll get the lesser charge if the premeditation was comin from you.'

'I didn't want to hurt Jamal. Why would I?'

'I don't know. You tell me.'

'Jamal was good.'

'Tell me, Darcia. You can. You're no killer. You got the same good in your eyes I saw in your mother's. The law gonna charge you with accessory to a murder, and you're gonna do real time behind it, and for what? You didn't hurt nobody. You couldn't. I know this.'

A tear broke free from Darcia's right eye and rolled down her cheek.

'Talk to me,' said Rhonda. 'I can't help you unless you do. I know you're tired of where you're at. Isn't that right?'

Darcia nodded.

'Tell it,' said Rhonda.

Darcia crushed her cigarette out in the ashtray. She watched the smoke curl up off the foil.

'Jamal brought me a rose that night,' said Darcia. 'That's all he did wrong.'

'And what happened then?'

'I was talking to him at the bar, and Dominique saw him give it to me. It wasn't like Dominique was jealous or nothin like that. But he knew that Jamal and me…'

'Jamal wasn't a customer. He was your boyfriend.'

'I wouldn't let Jamal give me money. That's what set Dominique off. I ain't even think of Jamal like that. He was nice.'

'Did Jamal and Dominique have words in the Twilight?'

'Dominique was tryin to punk him. Jamal stood his ground, which only made things worse. Then Jamal tipped on out. I knew the bus lines he rode and the way he walked home. Dominique made me tell him, and he made me come along. I was scared not to. I didn't think Dominique was gonna hurt him bad. I thought he might try and rough him some, but nothing like what he did. In the back of my mind I thought I could stop him if I was there.'

'Did Dominique Lyons shoot Jamal White?'

'He rolled up on him at Third and Madison, on the park side. Dominique got out of his Lex and shot Jamal three times.'

'Darcia, this is a very important question. I know the doorman pats everyone down for weapons when you go in that place. So it's unlikely that Dominique was strapped inside the Twilight. Did he have a gun in his car?'