12

“In tune with working stiffs‘!” McCain grumbled under his breath as he started the car. “What an asshole!”

Dorothy held aloft a manila envelope. It held Julius Van Beest’s most recent X-ray taken for Boston Ferris. “He got us what we wanted.”

“Y’know, if you’re a snob, be honest and act like one.” He turned the heater up full blast. “Then we’d all know what we were dealing with.”

“This is Boston. You should be used to it by now,” Dorothy said. “First it was the Brahmins. Now it’s the universities. We serve and protect in the land of pretentious eggheads.”

McCain’s cell rang. He fished it from his pocket and flipped open the lid. “McCain… That’s wonderful, Mrs. Mathers, just great. I’d like to- Yes… Yes… Yes… I understand, Mrs. Mathers, but she’s a material witness- Yes… Yes, I see. Can we maybe come down and just talk to you for a few minutes? I promise you, we’ll be discreet- Hello?” He blew out air. “She hung up on me.”

“Who did?”

“Rayella Mathers. Her daughter, Spring, is alive and well and at an undisclosed location, quote unquote, calming down her nerves.”

“Scared.”

“Who wouldn’t be scared of that thug?”

“Now, what thug are we talking about?” Dorothy kidded.

McCain smiled and thought a moment. “I need you to come with me to the Mathers house. You gotta convince the missus to let us know where Spring is.”

“You want me to talk to her as one black woman to another.”

“As one strong, brave black mother to another. How about we drop Julius’s X-ray at the morgue and catch up with the doc later. We need to get to Spring before Pappy does.”

Dorothy said, “He couldn’t be that stup- Never mind. Let’s go.”

It didn’t take too much prodding from Dorothy to convince Rayella Mathers to give them her daughter’s “secret” whereabouts. Distant cousin’s apartment in Rox-bury, another shared-house situation.

But it took a great deal of prodding from Dorothy to convince Rayella not to warn her daughter that the police were coming. They didn’t want the girl to bolt.

As soon as they got to the place, the detectives worked on their strategy. They were pretty damn sure that Spring wasn’t going to open the door on her own, and neither one of them had the paperwork to order her to do so. After some discussion, they decided on Dorothy doing her best imitation of Rayella while standing just out of peephole range.

Spring Mathers opened the door, saw strangers, and shrank back in terror. She almost succeeded in slamming the door in their faces, but McCain was too quick with his shoulder. “Just a few minutes, Spring.” He pushed his way inside and showed her his gold shield. “I swear we’re here to make your life easier.”

“Then get yo‘ funky ass the hell outta here! Get out! Get out!”

She was loud, but Dorothy was louder. “If we found you, girl, you think it’s gonna be all that hard for Pappy to do the same? Now, you just calm yourself down and thank Jesus that we got here before he did!”

The words clicked in Spring’s frightened brain. She took two steps backward, then folded her arms across her chest. No wonder Julius had his sights set on her. She was a knockout: creamy mocha skin, round wide eyes, luscious thick red lips, perfect cheekbones. Slim but busty with a perfect high-water booty. Even in Dorothy’s thin days, she’d never had a figure like that.

“What do you want?” This time Spring’s voice was a hoarse whisper.

“We want to put Pappy Delveccio behind bars. Isn’t that what you want as well?”

“I didn’t see no shots.” Tears streamed down the girl’s smooth cheeks. “That’s the truth, lady. I didn’t see no shots, and I didn’t see no one shoot.” She was crying now. “Why can’t you leave me alone?”

“‘Cause we don’t want the animal who shot Julius to walk,” McCain said.

“Who you think he’s gonna come after if he don’t get put away?” Dorothy asked her.

“Not if I don’t say nothin‘!” Spring retorted. “And there’s nothin’ to say ‘cause I didn’t see nothing. I just heard it. Pop, pop, pop, you know. That’s it. I was too scared to look around and see who was shooting.”

McCain took out his notebook. “Where were you sitting?”

“Next to Julius. He was like makin‘ his move, talking nothin’ but sugar. I knew what was comin‘.” She shrugged. “It was fine with me.”

“You’re doing good, Spring,” Dorothy said. “Now, where was Julius sitting?”

Spring regarded her with disdain. “At the table.”

“Where at the table?”

“What do you mean?”

McCain said, “The tables were positioned by the railing, right?”

Spring nodded.

Dorothy said, “Was he looking over the railing, or did he have his back to the railing?”

Spring squinted as she attempted to retrieve the image from her memory bank. “He was sitting… looking over the railing… looking at the door so he could check out who was coming in. Then he said… he said, ”Uh-oh, Pappy’s back.“ He stood up. That’s when I heard the popping. Everyone started screamin‘.”

She put her hands over her face. “I hit the ground, bundled myself up in a little ball, and started prayin‘ to Jesus.” She dropped her hands and shook her head. “When it was over, Julius was lying across the table, blood coming outta him.” She stared at Dorothy. “I never saw Pappy and I never saw him take out no gun.”

Dorothy tried to slow it down. “Spring, when you got up, you remember seeing Julius across the table. Was he on his stomach or on his back?”

“I think he was on his stomach. He fell with a big thump. I heard that. I remember thinking that he was gonna break the table and crush me to death.”

“So he fell pretty hard,” Dorothy said.

“Yeah,” Spring said. “He fell hard. But I didn’t see no one shoot him.”

McCain said, “If you didn’t see Pappy shoot, you didn’t see him shoot. All you have to do, Spring, is tell us what you heard Julius say, then tell us what you saw.”

“I ain’t gonna say anything. I’m scared shitless of that animal.”

“We can protect you-”

“That’s bullshit! Police don’t protect no one, specially not a black woman.” Spring looked at Dorothy. “And you being here ain’t gonna change any of that.”

“We’ll subpoena you, Spring,” McCain said.

“First you gotta find me. The next time I won’t make it so easy.”

“We should arrest her,” McCain said.

“On what grounds?” Dorothy took out her cell phone.

“Material witness to a murder, and she’s a flight risk. Also, screaming at the cops.”

“She didn’t witness anything substantive,” Dorothy said. “Once we got Pappy under lock and key, she’ll calm down. Can you start the car and turn on the heat? I’m freezing. God, this must be the coldest December on record.”

“That’s what you say every year.”

“Just start the car, please.”

McCain complied, turning the heat to the max as Dorothy checked her phone messages. Within seconds the car smelled like scorched wool. “Anything important?”

“Captain O’Toole wants to talk to us.”

“That ain’t good.”

“Probably not.”

“He didn’t say why?”

“Just his secretary telling you and me to come in at two.”

“I don’t like this.”

“Shhh… ” Dorothy concentrated as she listened to her voice mail. She pressed the disconnect button and flipped down the lid on her phone. “Dr. Change called. The X-ray didn’t show any aneurysm.”

“You’re kidding!”

“No, I’m not.”

“So that’s good, right?” McCain said.

“Despite that, he’s sure an aneurysm killed Julius.”

“How can that be?”

“Could be like Change said. A bone blocked it on the X-ray.”

“Or Julius died of a gunshot wound Change overlooked.”

“Keep that to yourself when we meet with him, Micky.” Dorothy checked her watch: 1:15. “We can’t make it to the ME office and back before two. I’ll tell Change we’ll be there by three-thirty, maybe four o’clock.”