C H A P T E R • 53
When I went back to the front of the bar, I told my posse, “I want Ginny out of there. Will you help me?”
“We ain’t Charlie’s Angels,” Adrianne said.
“There will be an explosion and I’m thinking I’ll get her out during the confusion. She and I can drop down to the alley behind Vy’s.”
Adrianne said. “That’s some comic book shit.”
“I know. But it’s the only thing I can think of right now. And it will work. I’m going in, but I need a distraction. Her partners who are waiting to get their drug money out the bank will be there. I don’t have time for an elaborate carefully laid out plan.”
“Then they’ll try to kill you, and what? They do?”
“That’s not the plan. Here’s my keys. Right after you hear the noise, we’ll be in the alley. Take Ginny to my house. It will be the safest place for her.”
“Hell yes, you need a distraction,” Adrianne said. She stood up. “I’ll help you. But I’m not thinking about going in there. And neither should you.”
Al stood up beside her. “You need our help. Call us your fans. Call me one of the Angels. We’ll wait in front, in the shadows. If you need anything, make a sign at a front window.”
“The sign will mean to call Captain Bailey. Okay? Don’t come running in there after me. Promise me.”
Al made a noise that had no humor in it. “Something else you should know if you’re putting yourself in the middle of this. Heavy told me Viola is the one who paid him to aim that cab at Cecelia.”
I felt it drop. Cha Ching.
“He said she told him she had something for him to do she couldn’t trust anyone else to do for her. And he couldn’t tell it. He would want to because a boy brags. But a man holds his business close. Heavy said he told her he would show her how much man he is if she had a night or a weekend to give him.” He shook his head. “I’m going to miss that crazy brother.”
“Damn. I wasn’t even looking to solve the first murder. Money laundering was the trail I was following after I saw those bills from the bank at Ceel’s and then all those small bills at Al’s and at Gary’s.”
“I’m surprised it took you so long. You never did like Viola,” Al said.
∗ ∗ ∗
When I got outside, I looked both ways, all ways, as I crossed the street to Viola’s.
Standing at the street door with its wrought iron gate, I was thinking that the situation reminded me of Al’s the few nights before, except this time, as far as I knew, the folks inside were still alive.
I figured out which one of the extra set on Daddy’s key ring was to his girlfriend-wife’s house. When I got inside, I could hear her in the kitchen in the back singing. Loud. While the sound of a truck lumbering up St. Nicholas Avenue covered the old house protesting, I walked up the stairs.
I stopped one flight up to wait for some more noise and looked in at Viola’s suite of rooms. Her bedroom was painted a sumptuous deep blue-gray and the Chinese deco carpet added mad color. Something red was hanging on the back of the door in dry cleaner’s plastic.
Once I got the accompaniment of another truck clanking and the welcome bass from some car speakers, I moved up the stairs to the top floor where Virginia was sitting on her canopy bed reading.
“Auntie Pearl? I have some cool Band-aids. Does your face hurt?”
I put my finger to my lips to keep her volume down. “Hi baby. It doesn’t hurt any more. Are you okay? Are you afraid?”
“I’m not a baby and I’m not afraid.”
“I’m going to take you over to my house because I don’t want the company your Auntie Viola’s getting ready to get to see us. You can wait there. Will you come with me?”
“Is Auntie Vy coming?”
“Yes. But you’re going first. We’ll hear an explosion in the alley in about 45 minutes. We’ll leave together. But if I have to leave before you, I want you to run downstairs and out the window on the parlor floor. You know the routine. I’ve heard about your adventures.”
“Yes. I know how to get out.”
I leaned over and kissed her on her head.
“Why do you run away?”
“I don’t run away. I just visit my friends. Auntie Vy is not home at night.”
“How do you climb out the window?”
She pulled a rope ladder from under her bed.
“I use this when I have to get back in. I drop down from the window on the parlor floor. It’s unlocked. The fire escape makes too much noise.”
“Why’d you throw away the red sneakers? I saw them sitting on the garbage cans outside.”
“I didn’t. Look. Here they are.”
I found out Viola had company when the volume of the music dropped and I could hear her talking. And it occurred to me it was not likely to be the kind of company that would be happy to see me.
I looked at the time. I had 35 minutes before I would get the cover of noise and confusion I was hoping for.
I could hear the conversation from the ground floor and then a new tune, loud, on the box.
“I’m going now,” I told Virginia. “Will you come?”
“It’s a good thing Uncle Marcus already took his suitcase. He asked me to watch it for him.”
Pause. “What suitcase?”
“He left one in the closet but he took it when he was babysitting me before Auntie Vy got back.”
She looked very serious and her eyes were big when she came to me for a hug.
I could hear the activity below us in the distance. I waited for the accompaniment of a truck rattling up St. Nicholas Avenue, more traffic, and then a siren to cover the sound of our footsteps moving down the stairs and the protests the old house made. I followed Virginia’s lead and we made our way across the room along the wall at the edge of the floor, and we tipped over to the back window.
We stopped when the noise stopped. When another siren filled the space on the avenue, Ginny hooked the rope ladder over the sill. She climbed out a few rungs and then she dropped down into the alley. I climbed down most of the way and I dropped down and landed in the alley behind her.
I saw a man standing in the shadow and grabbed Ginny and turned to run.
“Whoa. Where are you going?”
It was Adrianne in a baseball cap.
“I thought you were a man. You have my keys. Take Virginia to my house.”
“Why don’t you come with us?” Adrianne asked.
It sounded like just what I needed to do. But I said, “No. Whatever is going down needs to go down here. I don’t want them at my house. Just see about Ginny for me.”
“You take good care, girl,” she said.
We got to the alley opening and I watched Adrianne and Virginia catch a black car. I told the driver my address and stood for a minute and waved.