Part 26 (2/2)
Esau's house was on Piru Street, not far from his car lot. It was a rare brick home, with a fireplace and patch of lawn not even big enough to sun on.
Fearless knocked on the door and we heard a young child squealing from inside. A few moments went by. It was almost fully night by then. The last shreds of daylight were far off on the western horizon, a jarring combination of ember-orange and deep blue.
The door opened and Esau stood there, still in his coveralls. The child chirped out a glad note from somewhere in the house.
”Yes?”
”Mr. Perry,” I said. ”Sorry to bother you at night, sir. But we have a problem that we thought you might want to know about.”
He knew something was up. He knew that he was involved too. That's why he didn't slam the door on us or at least ask me more about what I meant. Instead of a challenge he stood aside for us to enter.
He led us into a kitchen that was painted and furnished all in yellow, under a yellow light. There was a large young Mexican woman sitting on a small chair playing with a little brown boy who resembled Henry from the comic strips.
”Hey, Son,” Fearless said.
The boy looked up at my friend with a sense of confusion and wonder and said, ”Hi.”
”Take him up to his bed, Trini,” Esau said to the woman.
”Okay, baby,” she replied, speaking volumes about their relations.h.i.+p with two small words.
The boy protested verbally but he let Trini pick him up and carry him out of a back doorway. As they left, Son held out his arms toward Esau. The older man's arms moved toward the boy, saying good-bye and reaching too.
”How's BB?” Esau asked after Trini and Son were gone.
”He might be dead if Fearless here wasn't faster than Jesse Owens at a n.a.z.i barbecue.”
”That white man hurt him?”
”Oh yeah,” I said. ”He installed a sun visor over his eyes.”
”Shut up, Paris,” Fearless said.
”No. No. I wanna know why a father would send a man like that out to kill his own son.”
Esau went to the kitchen counter and poured himself a shot from a quart bottle there. He downed the drink and poured another.
”He took Son.”
”What?”
”He come out here and took Son.”
”Kidnapped him?” Fearless asked.
”Yes sir. Took him right off the front lawn when Trini's back was turned. Called me up and said that he wanted to know where BB was.”
”And you turned him over,” I said in a voice that I didn't mean to be so d.a.m.ning.
”Yes I did. Really he did it to himself. He got himself into all this trouble.”
”What trouble?” I asked. ”You mean that pendant?”
”Pendant?”
”Yeah. Emerald job that Winifred's father bought for her.”
”That piece'a green gla.s.s?” Esau said. ”No. That's a trinket compared to what BB and his friend did.”
”You mean Kit?”
”Yeah. That's who I mean.”
”You got a phone, Mr. Perry?” Fearless asked.
”Right through this door,” Esau said. ”Right on the right.”
Fearless walked out and I continued my interrogation.
”Do you know where we can find Kit?”
”No,” Esau said. ”I don't wanna have nuthin' to do wit' that man. Him and BB likely to bring that whole family to misery.”
”How's that?”
Esau gauged me for a moment. I have no idea what he saw but he said, ”Son used to stay with his auntie.”
”Winifred?” I asked, and then I remembered the toy gyroscope in her drawing room.
”Yeah. She got him from his mother when she was havin' problems with her husband, but when Leora wanted him back Winifred said that he'd be better off there with her. She wanted to bring him up herself.”
”Could she get away with that?”
”She did,” Esau said. ”That is, until BB got that Kit Mitch.e.l.l to go up in there pretendin' he worked with fancy gardens and s.h.i.+t. He took the boy and give him to his mother, but then he told some rich white man that he could tell Winifred that he kidnapped the boy and that she either had to play ball wit' him or Son would die.”
I liked the shape of the scheme. There was no real crime, at least not that could be proven. The boy was with his mother and safe, the threat would have been vague enough that a prosecutor might not even be able to prove extortion.
”That was the Wexler kids did that?”
”Yes sir.”
”You know they're dead, right?”
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