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“Leona got what you want, honey. But I got to have a li’l more money than what you give me. That ain’t hardly enough to cover Jimmy Sty’s end of things. Girl got to have some money for rent. Got to pay for the liquor you drunk, the dope you smoked, too, darlin’. Don’t make me go down the road and get another date. You a cute t’ing . . .”
She traced her hands down his chest and touched his sex. His chin lifted and his face seemed to sharpen, to blade with color and the heated energies he could barely control. He opened his eyes, like a man waking from a dream.
His voice was a rusty clot, a mixture of desire and guilt and need. “There’s more money in my britches,” he said.
The woman reached over to remove his wallet from his back pocket. When she did, I saw Marvin’s naked back and the pockmarks on it that ran all the way down to his beltline.
I opened the screen door and stepped into the kitchen.
“Sorry to bother you, Leona, but Marvin has an appointment at the sheriff’s department,” I said.
At first her face jerked with surprise. Then she grinned and straightened her shoulders and pushed back her hair.
“Dave Robicheaux come to see me? I love you, darlin’, and would run off wit?
?? you in a minute, but I’m all tied up right now,” she said.
“I realize that, Leona. But how about returning the money you were holding for Marvin so we can be on our way?” I said.
“He want me to have it. Tole me so wit’ his hand on his heart,” she said, rubbing the top of Marvin’s head.
Helen came through the front of the house, whirled Leona against the table, and kicked her feet apart. She pulled a sheaf of bills from Leona’s pocket. “You take anything else from him?” she said.
“No, ma’am,” Leona said.
“Where’d you get the rock?” Helen said, holding up a two-inch plastic vial with a tiny cork in the top.
“Don’t know where that come from,” Leona said.
“Is that your baby in the other room?” Helen said.
“Yes, ma’am. He’s eighteen months now,” Leona said.
“Then go take care of him. I catch you turning tricks again, I’m going to roust Jimmy Sty and tell him you dimed him,” Helen said.
“Can I have the rock back?” Leona said.
“Get out of here,” Helen said. She picked up Marvin’s shirt and draped it on his shoulders and put his hat on his head.
“Let’s go, cowboy,” she said, and pushed him ahead of her toward the front door.
It had started to rain. The trees were blowing on the bayou, and the air was cool and smelled like dust and fish spawning.
Marvin began putting on his shirt, drawing it over the network of scars on his back.
“Who did that to you, partner?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied. “Sometimes I almost remember. Then I go inside in my head and don’t come out for a long time. It’s like I ain’t s’pposed to remember some things.”
Helen looked at me. I picked up Marvin’s suitcase and placed it in the trunk of the cruiser, then shut the hatch and opened the back door for him.
“Why’d you get drunk?” I asked.
“No reason. I got beat up in the Iberville Project. I looked all over for Miss Zerelda, but she was gone. I dint know where she went,” he replied.
“Think you can stay out of this part of town for a while?” I asked.
“I ain’t gonna drink no more. No, sir, you got my word on that,” he said. He shook his head profoundly.
