As Garner drove to the city, Kelson’s voice came back, and he could breathe without feeling like he was tearing holes in his throat. They rode in a green four-door Ram 1500 pickup, the man in the black T-shirt sitting next to Kelson in the backseat.
‘That’s a cool move,’ Kelson said. ‘You ever accidentally kill someone with it?’
‘Don’t bother,’ Garner said.
‘Ironic, huh?’ Kelson said. ‘Me talking too much, him talking too little.’
‘I wish you’d follow his example,’ Garner said.
‘Wish away.’ He directed Garner south into the city and told him about Payday and Painter’s Lane. He pointed him through the streets toward Rodman’s Bronzeville apartment building and had him park by the Ebenezer Baptist Church. ‘In this neighborhood, you might want Squirt to stay in the truck if you like your wheels and stereo.’
‘We’ll take the risk,’ Garner said.
They climbed the stairs and knocked on Rodman’s door. When Cindi answered, she eyed Kelson, then Garner, then the man in the T-shirt. ‘DeMarcus went out,’ she said. She wore a brown blouse, a long brown skirt, and sandals.
‘We’ll come back later,’ Kelson said.
But Garner pushed past him into the front room. The man in the T-shirt shoved Kelson inside and closed the door.
‘Sorry,’ Kelson said.
Cindi gave him a cold look but said, ‘No worries.’
Garner had his pistol out. He went from room to room, making sure they were alone. When he came back he pointed the gun at the couch and told Kelson and Cindi to sit down.
Cindi said, ‘Coffee?’
‘What?’ Garner looked at her hard for the first time.
‘Do you want coffee?’ she said. ‘DeMarcus went out for a couple hours. Sometimes he doesn’t come back when he says he will. Sometimes not for days.’
Garner gazed at the portraits of Malcolm X, Cindi, and Martin Luther King, Jr, over the couch, and he smiled. ‘Aren’t you the princess? Cute too. I’ll bet DeMarcus has a lot of fun with you. What a shame if that all ended.’
‘Does that mean you don’t want coffee?’ she said.
The smile fell. ‘It means I want you to call DeMarcus and tell him to get back here because some men are threatening to do very bad things to you.’
Kelson said, ‘If you try anything, DeMarcus and I will destroy you.’
But Cindi surprised him. ‘This gentleman knows what he wants. Let’s give it to him.’
Garner looked suspicious but said, ‘You’re the passive one in the couple, aren’t you – the Martin Luther King? And your boy DeMarcus, he’s the fighter – the Malcolm? You like a man who takes charge?’
‘I like a strong man,’ Cindi said.
‘I’ll bet you do,’ he said. ‘Call DeMarcus.’ He wiggled the gun at Kelson. ‘And you sit down.’
Kelson sat on the couch, and Cindi called Rodman. As the line rang, she watched Garner and said, ‘He isn’t picking up.’
Garner held his hand for her phone. ‘Give it to me.’
But she kept it and left a message. ‘Hey, baby, there’s a couple of men here. They say they need to see you right away. Or bad things will happen. That’s what they seem to think.’ She hung up and offered Garner the phone. He waved it away and gestured at Kelson. ‘Sit down with him.’
‘You sure you don’t want coffee?’
‘Just sit.’
‘Anything at all, baby,’ she said, like she meant it.
Garner eyed her. ‘And stop that shit.’
An hour later, the man in the black T-shirt still looked as cool as when they walked in, but Garner was sweating.
‘Call again,’ he told Cindi.
She dialed, waited, and left another message, asking Rodman to call back.
A half hour after that, Garner demanded her phone. He dialed the last number Cindi had called and left a third message. ‘Listen, you asshole, I’m here with your girl. You really, really want to be here too, because what’s a girl going to do when a man leaves his home?’
Another hour passed. The man in the black T-shirt went to Garner and whispered.
Garner nodded and said to Cindi, ‘Coffee. And food.’
‘Anything, baby,’ she said.
‘Keep fucking with me and I’ll fuck with you for real,’ he said.
She went into the kitchen, and for a while the man in the black T-shirt stood in the doorway and watched her cook. Then he went to Garner and whispered again.
‘Guess so,’ Garner said, and looked at Kelson. ‘He thinks we don’t need you anymore. You’re extra baggage. What do you think of that?’
‘I think you scare the hell out of me,’ Kelson said. ‘But I also think until DeMarcus comes back, I’m all you’ve got – and maybe DeMarcus isn’t coming back for a long time.’
Garner nodded and said to the man, ‘He right?’
The man seemed to think. As he did, his right eyelid hung lower than his left. He went to the couch and sat next to Kelson.
Kelson said, ‘Why do I figure he could kill me before I even saw him move?’
Garner said, ‘Because you’re smarter than you look?’
Five minutes later, Cindi brought two plates of scrambled eggs and toast from the kitchen. She gave one to the man on the couch and set the other on a table for Garner. She went back into the kitchen and returned with two cups of coffee.
When the men started to eat, Kelson said, ‘How about me?’
Garner laughed at him. ‘She’s a good little house bitch. She knows who’s boss.’
Kelson rose from the couch – but the man in the black T-shirt rose with him, and Garner swept his pistol into his hand.
Cindi told Kelson, ‘It’s all right.’ Soothing.
Garner said to him, ‘Listen to the girl – everything’s cool. You want it to stay that way, don’t you?’
Cindi asked Garner, ‘You mind if I make some food for him and me?’
Garner smiled. ‘I like you, sweetheart. You go ahead – and if you spit in his eggs, I won’t tell.’
‘Yes, sir,’ she said, and disappeared into the kitchen.
Kelson and the man in the black T-shirt sat on the couch again. Garner sat at the table and ate, threatening to shoot Kelson if he didn’t shut up. The second time he threatened him, a lump of scrambled egg fell from his mouth on to the table. He looked at it, perplexed, picked it up, and put it in his mouth again.
Then the man in the black T-shirt went to sleep. His fork dropped from his hand. His plate tilted on his lap.
Garner didn’t seem to notice. He was concentrating on steering his own fork to his lips.
‘Huh,’ Kelson said. He poked the man next to him in the ribs. The man grunted – the most sound Kelson had heard him make.
Garner picked up his toast, brought it halfway to his face, then seemed to find it too heavy. His arm lowered to the table, the toast still in his fingers, and he left it there. He half stared at his pistol on the table. He tried to speak. The words seemed too heavy. He reached for the pistol, missed, and the momentum tipped him off the chair. The impact when he hit the floor woke him, and he pushed to his hands and knees. Then he sagged, and his body sank facedown.
Cindi came from the kitchen with two more plates of eggs and toast. She stopped when she saw Garner and the other man. ‘Demerol,’ she told Kelson. ‘I used the max dosage for when we want them to sleep at Rush Medical. End-of-life care.’
She set the plates on the table across from where Garner had sat and studied the unconscious men. ‘No,’ she told Garner, ‘it’s not all right.’ She kicked him in the ribs. ‘It’s wrong.’ She kicked him again.
Ten minutes later, when Rodman burst through the apartment door, fire in his eyes, Kelson and Cindi were eating eggs and toast, and Garner and the other man, their arms and legs bound with electrical cords, were sleeping on the floor by the couch.