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“Doc… Holliday?”
Doc grinned. “It gets me some funny looks sometimes. But it’s memorable! You, uh, a friend of Miss Alma’s?”
“Yes. I think.”
“Which one is it?”
“I think,” Jericho said. “Excuse me.”
Jericho fell in beside Ling. “Need anything?”
“Yes. Not to be wanted for murder. And to figure out how to stop the King of Crows,” Ling said.
“I mean more along the lines of getting on the bus.”
“I can manage,” Ling said.
Alma jogged along right behind them, full of good cheer, a slash of red lipstick livening up her mouth and making her smile even brighter. At her neck was a pretty pink silk scarf tied into a lopsided bow. “Doc! These are my dear friends, Mr. Freddy Smith and Miss Mary Chang. They’re… cousins. They’re headed west to visit a sick aunt. I told them they could ride with us, seeing as we’re going that way.”
Doc folded his arms at his chest and motioned Alma to the side with a jerk of his head. “Miss LaVoy,” he said evenly. “You know I’m not running no taxi service. Who are these people you’re putting on my tour bus? And one of ’em is a man!”
“Yes, I can tell. I had anatomy in school.”
“Alma.”
“I told you, Doc, they’re friends of mine. Friends in need.”
“Do I look like a charity? Who said I got two empty seats?”
“If you don’t want Leah to know about Martha, and Martha to know about Shirley, I suggest you bring them along,” Alma said, fluffing and straightening the bow at her neck as if that were her only real concern.
“Now, that’s just doing a fella dirty,” Doc complained.
“Now, see here, the big fella’s strong. He can unload all the instruments and haul ’em back up again. And he can be our muscle on the road. Or help us get food or whatnot when we can’t find colored accommodations,” Alma said.
“And the lady?”
Alma winked. “Honey, she’s with me.”
Doc’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh. That’s how it is?”
“Yep. That’s how it is.”
As Ling boarded the Ford AA bus, she was stunned to discover that the Harlem Haymakers were women. “Mary Chang, Freddy Smith, may I introduce Harlem’s finest all-girl orchestra!” Alma proclaimed. “Everybody, these are my friends Mary and Freddy.”
The girls, some of whom looked to be as young as Ling, said their hellos. Seeing Ling’s crutches, a big-boned girl with reddish hair got up to offer Ling her seat up front. Ling thanked her and moved to the back, where she wouldn’t have to talk to strangers. She didn’t like small talk and wasn’t good at it, and she had no intention of starting to learn now. When Jericho got on, he felt the women’s eyes on him, scrutinizing.
“Hmph,” one girl in a blue cloche said and raised her eyebrows to the girl sitting next to her. A girl in a fur-trimmed shawl-collar coat fluttered her lashes at Alma. “You bringing along your sweet man, Alma?”
“Mr. Smith is here to help us with the equipment on this trip, and to be our muscle,” Alma said, head held high, a
s if she dared any girl to dispute her story.
“I got some equipment he could help with,” one of the women whispered to her friend, and they burst into cackles.
“Laaadiess, please,” Alma trilled.
A girl checking her lipstick in a compact mirror laughed. “Don’t play auntie, Alma!”
