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"Which black man?"
"The biggest one I ever seen around here."
"I'll be down in a minute."
I went out on the gallery. Bootsie still sat in the swing, pushing it back and forth with one foot.
"I need to go down to the dock for a few minutes," I said.
"Right."
"Boots, you've got to cut me some slack."
"You don't see it."
"What?"
"You hate the LaRoses and what they stand for. That's the power they have over you."
"I'm a police officer. They're corrupt."
"You say they are. Nobody else does." She went inside. The swing twisted emptily on its chains under the bug light.
I walked down the slope through the trees to the dock. The string of lights was turned on over the dock, and you could see bream night feeding off the insects that fell into the water. Batist was cleaning out the coffee urn inside the bait shop.
"Tell me about the black guy," I said.
Batist looked up from his work and studied my face. His head was titled, one eyebrow arched.
"What you mad about?" he asked.
"Nothing."
"I can see that, all right. . . That movie fella rented a boat and took pictures up and down the bayou. That's when I first seen this black man up the road in a pickup truck, watching the bayou out the window. Later he come on in and axed if a movie's getting made here.
"I say that's what it looks like. He axed me if it's a movie about this white man broke out of Angola, the one killed that black civil rights man in Baton Rouge a long time ago. When I tole him I don't know, he said he's got a story he can give this movie fella, if he gets any money for it, he's gonna give me some, but he's got to find out where the movie man's staying at first.
"I said, 'What you want here?'
"He had on this straw hat, with a colored band around it. He took it off and the side of his head was shaved down to the scalp. He goes, 'I'm so strong I got muscles in my shit, old man. I'd watch what I say.' All the time smiling with gold all over his teet'.
"I go, 'I'm fixing to clean up. You want to buy somet'ing?'
"Dave, this man's arms was big as my thigh. His shoulders touched both sides of that do' when he come in. He goes, 'You sure that movie fella ain't tole you where he stay at?'
"I go, 'It ain't my bidness. Ain't nobody else's here, either.'
"He kept looking at me, grinning, messing with the salt shaker on top of the counter, like he was fixing to do somet'ing.
"So I said, 'Nigger, don't prove your mama raised a fool.'
"He laughed and picked up a ham sandwich and crumpled up a five-dollar bill and t'rew it on the counter and walked out. Just like that. Man didn't no more care if I insulted him than a mosquito was flying round his head."
"Call me if you see him again. Don't mess with him."
"Who he is, Dave?"
"He sounds like a guy named Mookie Zerrang. He's a killer, Batist."
