Devil in a Blue Dress er-1 Page 17
"I was hired by DeWitt Albright, through a friend of ours, Joppy Shag. Mr. Albright hired Joppy to locate Frank and Howard Green. And later on Joppy got him to hire me."
"Frank and Howard, eh? Brothers?"
"I've been told that they were distant cousins, but I couldn't swear to that," I said. "Mr. Albright wanted me to find Frank for Mr. Carter here. But he didn't tell me why he wanted them, just that it was business."
"It was for the money I told you about, Larry," Carter said. "You know."
Mr. Wrightsmith smiled and said to me, "Did you find them?"
"Joppy had already got to Howard Green, that's when he found out about the money."
"And what exactly was it that he found out, Mr. Rawlins?"
"Howard worked for a rich man, Matthew Teran. And Mr. Teran was mad because Mr. Carter here messed him up on running for mayor," I smiled. "I guess he was looking to be your boss."
Mr. Wrightsmith smiled too.
"Anyway," I continued, "he wanted Howard and Frank to kill Mr. Carter and make it look like a robbery. But when they got in the house and found that thirty thousand dollars they got so excited that they just ran without even doin' the job."
"What thirty thousand dollars?" Mason asked.
"Later," Wrightsmith said. "Did Joppy kill Howard Green?"
"That's what I think now. You see, I didn't get in it until they were looking for Frank. You see, DeWitt was checking out Mr. Teran because Mr. Carter suspected him. Then DeWitt got interested in the Greens when he checked out Howard and came up with Frank's name. He wanted somebody to look for Frank in the illegal bars down around Watts."
"Why were they looking for Frank?"
"DeWitt wanted him because he was lookin' for Mr. Carter's money, and Joppy wanted him for that thirty thousand dollars, for himself."
The sun was coming in on Mr. Wrightsmith's green blotter. I was sweating as if it was coming in on me.
"How did you find all this out, Easy?" Miller asked.
"From Albright. He got suspicious when Howard turned up dead and then he was certain when Coretta James was killed."
"Why's that?" Wrightsmith said. Every man in the room was staring at me. I had never been on trial but I felt I was up against the jury right then.
"Because they were looking for Coretta too. You see, she spent a lot of time around the Greens."
"Why didn't you get suspicious, Easy?" Miller asked. "Why didn't you tell us about this when we brought you in?"
"I didn't know none'a this when you talked to me. Albright and Joppy had me looking for Frank Green. Howard Green was already dead and what did I know about Coretta?"
"Go on, Mr. Rawlins," Mr. Wrightsmith said.
"I couldn't find Frank. No one knew where he was. But I heard a story about him though. People were sayin' that he was mad over the death of his cousin and that he was out for revenge. I think he went out after Teran. He didn't know nuthin' 'bout Joppy"
"So you think that Frank Green killed Matthew Teran?" Miller couldn't hide his disgust. "And Joppy got to Frank Green and DeWitt Albright?"
"All I know is what I just said," I said as innocently as I could.
"What about Richard McGee? He stab himself?" Miller was out of his chair.
"I don't know 'bout him," I said.
They asked me questions for a couple of hours more. The story stayed the same though. Joppy did most of the killing. He did it out of greed. I went to Mr. Carter when I heard about DeWitt's death and he decided to come to the police.
When I finished Wrightsmith said, "Thank you very much, Mr. Rawlins. Now if you'll just excuse us."
Mason and Miller, Jerome Duffy—Carter's lawyer, and I all had to go.
Duffy shook my hand and smiled at me. "See you at the inquest, Mr. Rawlins."
"What's that mean?"
"Just a formality, sir. When a serious crime is committed they want to ask a few questions before closing the books."
It didn't sound any worse than a parking ticket if you listened to him.
He got in the elevator to leave and Mason and Miller went with him.
I took the stairs. I thought I might even walk all the way home. I had two years' salary buried in the back yard and I was free. No one was after me; not a worry in my life. Some hard things had happened but life was hard back then and you just had to take the bad along with the worse if you wanted to survive.
Miller came up to me as I descended the granite stair of City Hall.
"Hi, Ezekiel."
"Officer."
"You got a mighty powerful friend up there."
"I don't know what you mean," I said, but I did know.
"You think Carter gonna come save your ass when we arrest you every other day for jaywalking, spitting, and creating a general nuisance? Think he's gonna answer your calls?"
"Why I have to worry about that?"
"You have to worry, Ezekiel"—Miller pushed his thin face right up to mine; he smelled of bourbon, wintermint, and sweat—"because I have to worry."
"What do you have to worry about?"
"I got a prosecutor, Ezekiel. He's got a fingerprint that don't belong to anybody we know."
"Maybe it's Joppy's. Maybe when you find him you'll have it."
"Maybe. But Joppy's a boxer. Why'd he stop boxing to use a knife?"
I didn't know what to say.
"Give it to me, son. Give it to me and I'll let you off. I'll forget about the coincidence of you being involved in all this and having drinks with Coretta the night before she died. Mess with me and I'll see that you spend the rest of your life in jail."
"You could try Junior Fornay against that print."
"Who?"
"Bouncer at John's. He might fit it."
It might be that the last moment of my adult life, spent free, was in that walk down the City Hall stairwell. I still remember the stained-glass windows and the soft light.
31
"I guess things turned out okay, huh, Easy?"
"What?" I turned away from watering my dahlias. Odell was nursing a can of ale.
"Dupree's okay and the police got the killers."
"Yeah."
"But, you know, something bothers me."
"What's that, Odell?"
"Well, it's been three months, Easy, an' you ain't had a job or looked for one far as I can see."
The San Bernardino range is the most beautiful in the fall. The high winds get rid of all the smog and the skies take your breath away.
"I been workin'."
"You got a night job?"
"Sometimes."
"What you mean, sometimes?"
"I work for myself now, Odell. And I got two jobs."
"Yeah?"
"I bought me a house, on auction for unpaid taxes, and I been rentin' it and—"
"Where you get that kinda money?"
"Severance from Champion. And you know them taxes wasn't all that much."
"What's your other job?"
"I do it when I need a few dollars. Private investigations."
"Git away from here!"
"No lie."
"Who you work for?"
"People I know and people they know."
"Like who?"
"Mary White is one of em."
"What you do for her?"
"Ronald run off on her two months back. I tailed him up to Seattle and gave her the address. Her family brought him back down."
"What else?"
"I found Ricardo's sister in Galveston and told her what Rosetta was doin' with'im. She gave me a few bucks when she come up and set him free."
"Damn!" That was the only time I ever heard Odell curse. "That sounds like some dangerous business, man."
"I guess. But you know a man could end up dead just crossin' the street. Least this way I say I earned it."
Later on that evening Odell and I were having a dinner I threw together. We were sitting out front because it was still hot in L.A. "Odell?"
"Yeah, Easy."
<
br /> "If you know a man is wrong, I mean, if you know he did somethin' bad but you don't turn him in to the law because he's your friend, do you think that's right?"
"All you got is your friends, Easy."
"But then what if you know somebody else who did something wrong but not so bad as the first man, but you turn this other guy in?"
"I guess you figure that that other guy got ahold of some bad luck."
We laughed for a long time.
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