I pulled her away, reached back for the switch on the wall.
“No, please, leave it off.”
I stopped just as my hand found it. “Then why are we here like this?”
When she hesitated, I knew it was going to be the truth. “The cops, they kicked in my door, threw me to da ground, and found my stash, what little there was. They said dey wouldn’t take me to jail if I cooperated and told them what I saw outside my window. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t go in on another possession. I’m on probation already. I’m lookin’ at five years. I saw that asshole Wicks come up. So I told the cop I wanted to talk to Wicks and then I told Wicks I’d only talk to you. You gotta help me, Bruno, I can’t do another day in the joint.”
“That’s not going to happen. I promise.”
“Thanks, Bruno.” She clung a little tighter. “You think you could spot me a twenty?”
“You know better than that. I’ll buy you some food, but I won’t give you money for any rock.”
“I know. I had to try. I thought maybe, after all these years, you know, after you went inside, maybe you’d’ve changed.”
Robby knocked on the door. “You two about finished with the reunion and with your little slap and tickle?” He chuckled, a lewd one I would jump him about later, maybe knock a few of his teeth down his throat. “Back off, Robby.”
I moved Chocolate farther from the door so he couldn’t hear with his ear up against the thin wood. Her back bumped against the sink, my hips bumped against hers in the perfect dark. My mind, all on its own, flashed back to the image from the past, the “African goddess.” I became aroused. She nuzzled closer, “You’re a good man, Bruno Johnson. Thank you for that. Thank you.”
“I’ll tell Robby something to get him off your back. But when you get a chance, you’re going to have to go to ground. Hide out for a while until things cool off.”
“I got no money. And … and from what you saw, no means to make any. No one wants what I’ve turned into.”
I wanted to ask her what she’d been doing to survive and, instead, reached into my pocket. She knew what I was going to do. “You’re a good man. You’re a good man.”
I peeled off five one hundred dollar bills, enough money for a slave to the pipe to kill herself. “I have to trust you.” I put the money in her hand. “I know you’re going to use some of it for rock, but use the rest for food and a place to lay your head. I’m not kidding, Chocolate. I’m trusting you.”
“Sure, Bruno, thank you, thank you.”
“Go someplace where you don’t usually go. Go up north instead of south. Up Atlantic into South Gate, lay low over at the Grover Hotel. You know the place.”
“Really, thanks a lot. I promise I won’t buy any rock. A hundred bucks won’t go far on rock, but it’ll buy food and a place at the Grover.”
In pitch blackness, she thought the bills I’d handed over were five twenties. I held her a little longer, then pulled away. Her body like an oven, I instantly missed the warmth, the comfort. It made me think of Marie. I decided life was too short. FBI or no FBI, I was going to see her.
“Chocolate,” I whispered, “I need a favor.”
“Anything you want.”
Robby knocked on the door, “Come on. We haven’t got all night.”
I moved back over, moved my lips close to her ear. “You know about me going to prison, right?”
She hesitated, nodded. “It wasn’t right. Ask anyone, it jus’ wasn’t right. Anyone would have done what you did. Swear to gawd, Bruno, anyone.”
“Just listen. I’m in a real jam. A bad one. They’re trying to send me back. I need your help.”
She nodded again.
“If you get caught, it’s going to go down real bad for you.”
This time she didn’t speak or nod.
I took out the last five hundred in my pocket.
“No,” she said, “you helped me enough.”
I took her hand and forced the money into it. “Go to Killer King tonight before midnight, find a woman in the emergency room named Marie Santiago and tell her, code red, south side rumba. You got that?”
“Code red, south side rumba.”
“Right. Tell her two o’clock, okay? That’s two o’clock in the morning.”
“Code red, south side rumba, two o’clock in the morning. How am I going to get out of here? They’re watching the motel.”
“I’ll take care of that.”
“You sure? I’m gonna owe ya big this time.”
“Stay in here. Then wait five minutes after we’re gone and go through the fence out back. I’ll make sure all the cops are pulled off. Just make sure to go out the back, through the fence and south to Platt Avenue. You understand?”
“I know the way. You don’t have to tell me.”
I squeezed her shoulder, turned, and went to the door. “Remember, five minutes and then hustle over to Killer King. I’m counting on you.”
“Don’t worry about me.”
I opened the door, then shut it again, asked, “Hey, you know where I can find Jumbo?”
“Ah, Bruno, don’t go messin’ with that trash. He’s the devil. You’re crazy to even think about gettin’ hooked up with him.”
“Chocolate?”
She took a deep breath, “He’s got hisself a big pad over in Downey. Looks like an apartment building right in the middle of a neighborhood. It’s on two or three lots. It’s huge. North of Rosecrans, four or five blocks from the river. You can’t miss it.”
I opened the door again, the light made me squint.
Behind me Chocolate yelped, said, “My God, Bruno, these aren’t twent—” I closed the door. Her words drowned out behind the wood.
“Well?” Robby said, “Was it as good as it used to be?”
I stepped over and gave him a left jab to the jaw then an uppercut to the gut. He was soft, too many years as a supervisor. He went to his knees.