10

WHICH IS EXACTLY what Early would have done if he’d been able to get a decent night’s sleep.

But unh-uh.

Because what’s the first thing he sees when he gets home to his Lake Hamilton condo a little after midnight—Jack had said to go on home, things were copasetic in the casino, he was going to bed himself—but his second cousin Lateesha sitting on his doorstep. In a thousand years he wouldn’t have thought that’d be the ending to his evening.

Early said, “What are you doing way out here, girl? Aunt Odessie knows you out in the middle of the night, she’s gonna beat you with a strap.”

Which Lateesha didn’t think was a very good beginning, so she told him quick an abbreviated version of her stealing the car and its crashing backwards into that stupid old pine tree.

“Stole!” Early said, the gold star in his teeth flashing in his porch light. “I can’t believe it! Girl on the honor roll like you, soloist at the Rising Star—”

“Screw the honor roll.”

That was when Early jumped back like she’d slapped him, that kind of talk.

“And don’t give me that look. It’s all that Little Miss Too-Good stuff that got me into this mess in the first place. I am sick to death of everybody expecting me to be an angel all the time. Screw that!”

Early got this mean look and said, “I can’t stand it when women use bad language. I’m going to take you in the house and wash your mouth out with soap.” Lateesha thought that was an awfully wimpy thing for a stone killer to say. But, on the other hand, even stone killers were just folks.

But when she said something about the car being a Sunliner, Early changed his tune quick. He got all fired up and hollered, “What are you waiting for, girl, let’s go!” They jumped in Early’s old red Caddy, the kind with the big tail fins, and 10, 15 minutes later, it not being all that far between Lake Hamilton and Lake Ouachita, they were out in the woods pulled in behind that Sunliner.

Early had taken one look, said, “Oooohweee! Cherry baby like this’ll be worth twenty thou down in Miami. South Beach, those movie star, modeling folks got lots more money than sense, love this kind of vintage flash. Retractable hardtop, Lordy mercy, they’ll be falling all over themselves handing me the scratch.”

Lateesha didn’t know what he was talking about, but she did know she was watching a man who had more than a passing familiarity with the concept of hot-wiring. Early didn’t need any lamp cord with metal clips on it either. In 60 seconds, he’d reached over with one hand and slammed down the sprung trunk without even looking in it, grabbed a funny-looking screwdriver out of the gym bag he’d grabbed out of the Caddy, jumped in, and had that sucker up and running.

“Just follow me,” he’d hollered at Lateesha, and she did. Fifteen-and-a-half years old, she’d taken the classroom part of drivers’ ed, but not the practicum, though like most kids, she’d been driving since she was old enough to see through the wheel. And this Caddy, it moved like a dream. They cruised back toward town on Albert Pike, then Early signaled right, and she followed the Sunliner’s taillights right into the back driveway of the deserted mansion on Orange the kids called the Ghost House.

It was a down-at-the-heels Victorian four stories tall, if you counted the cupola on the top, the Tower Room, where all the murders took place, murders the kids made up as they went along. The Ghost House had once belonged to a white railroad magnate; now this part of town was black and a bit down on its luck.

Lateesha couldn’t imagine what Early was doing, but he pulled the Sunliner right up to a big yawning garage made of sheetmetal in the Ghost House’s backyard. The doors were open, and Lateesha could see it was filled with cars, pieces of cars, and a backhoe.

“Come on, girl,” said Early, getting out of the Sunliner and waving at her, but Lateesha wasn’t setting foot out of that Caddy. The ghosts were one thing, but the dogs that had set up to yowling were another. Lateesha had already had enough dealings in her young lifetime with great big dogs with hungry slobbering jaws, thank you very much.

Then Early tooted the horn and out of the house came the tallest man Lateesha had ever seen in real life, forget the basketball players on TV. He must have been at least seven feet, scrunching down through the doorway. If he hadn’t been black, Lateesha knew she’d have screamed for sure, thinking he was Frankenstein. Or Lurch. Definitely one of those creepy critters—and BIG. He yelled, “Shut up, dogs!” And they did.

“You did good, girl.” That was Early patting her on the head. Now the big man reached for her hand, she was sure he was going to munch it for a midnight snack, but he had the gentlest touch, it was absolutely amazing, and Early said, “Lateesha, you know Fontaine, don’t you, your cousin June’s husband?”

Well, the truth was, she didn’t even know Early all that well, her growing up in New Orleans, his traveling all over the country following the racing before he and Mr. You Know Who moved to town. Now June, she’d met her, she worked in the baths over at the Palace Hotel. But Lateesha was sure she didn’t know Fontaine. It wasn’t like she’d forget him, was it?

“Glad to meet you, missy,” said Fontaine. He had this deep Roto-Rooter of a voice, just like you’d expect.

Then Early and Fontaine stepped off to the side and talked together like men do, Fontaine peering down, Early, barely five foot four, looking like he was about to get a crick in his neck.

Fontaine nodded his head like he did business in the middle of the night all the time, saying, “Nope, parts, they wouldn’t bring you nothing. But, sure, it’s hot, you gone have to paint it, you want to drive it all that way to Florida. I know, it’s a shame, but I’ll do it for you turquoise and white, that’d be jake.” Then a couple more Uh-huhs and You got its. Whatever it takes. Why I’d appreciate it. Nuh-unh, that’s more than fair. The next thing Lateesha knew, they’d left the Sunliner, she and Early were both back in that Caddy headed for Aunt Odessie’s, and Early was saying, “Honey, don’t you worry your pretty little head. Early’s gonna take care of everything.”

Well, that might be true. But even if she was only 15 and a half years old, Lateesha knew that this thing had suddenly zigzagged off from being her show to being Early’s. Furthermore, somebody was making more than a buck out of it, and it sure as hell wasn’t her. Which—even if Early was a stone killer and even if he had pulled her wagon out of the ditch, so to speak—didn’t sit well with Miss Lateesha Rollins at all.