CHAPTER 55

Rakkim and Sarah walked up the apartment steps just as two women came out the front door. They embraced. “You take care of yourself, Jeri Lynn,” said the pregnant blonde.

“If I don’t, who will?” said the short brunette. She waited until the blonde eased down the steps. “You here for Fancy’s wake?”

“Yes, we are,” Sarah said quickly.

“Come on in,” said Jeri Lynn. “There’s mostly just cheese balls and orange soda supreme, and the sherbet is melting.” She tried to smile. “I guess you didn’t come for the food-” Her mouth formed a big O. “That isn’t…? Cameron? Cameron!” She barreled past them, scooped the kid up, and swung him around as if he were a stuffed animal. She waved to Sarah, tears in her eyes. “Come inside, honey, you made my day.”

Sarah and Rakkim followed them into the living room. A couple of other women sat on the couch-a chubby teenager with a baby on her shoulder, and a henna redhead, with a face like a plow horse, looking through a photo album and clucking.

“Girls, this is…Sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” said Jeri Lynn.

“I’m Sarah and this is my friend Rakkim.”

“Little mama’s Ella, and that’s Charlotte,” said Jeri Lynn.

Pleased-to-meet-you all around. The baby let out a deep, rumbling fart and everyone smiled. His mother patted him on the back. “Feel better now?” She stood up, popped a cheese ball into her mouth from the paper plate on the coffee table. “We got to go home and start working on dinner.” She kissed Jeri Lynn. “I am just so sorry.”

The henna redhead closed the album. “I should get going too.” She gave Jeri Lynn’s arm a squeeze. “She was a sweet, sweet girl and we’ll all miss her.”

Jeri Lynn walked them to the door.

The previous night Rakkim and Sarah had driven into Los Angeles and headed straight for Disneyland. It took them a few hours to find someone who could tell them about Fancy’s girlfriend, and even then, they only got a general idea of where the two of them lived. Someplace on the outskirts of New Fallujah, almost to Orange. None of the other rent-wives had ever been invited to visit. It seemed to annoy them. Rakkim wanted to canvass the supermarkets and drugstores with Fancy’s picture, but Sarah had a better idea. She said they should wait until tomorrow, get some rest, and then go back to Long Beach and pick up Cameron. The kid who said he would be waiting for Fancy every day at St. Xavier’s Church. Noon. Sarah said that way they could drive around New Fallujah until Cameron recognized the apartment. Showing up with Cameron would open the gates.

Jeri Lynn came back, waved them toward the couch, a short woman with frizzy hair, smooth skin, and exhausted eyes. “Sit down. I see people standing up in the house and I think they’re bill collectors.” She had a brave smile. “You aren’t bill collectors, are you?”

Sarah and Rakkim sat on the lumpy, corduroy couch. It was still warm from the other two. The living room had a few pieces of cast-off furniture, a small wall screen, and a giveaway hologram of President Kingsley on one wall. A family holo of Fancy, Jeri Lynn, and three kids was on the cabinet, the kids in shorts and matching tops. They looked happy. Dried cereal was ground into the lime shag carpet. Chocolate-Soy’Os. Breakfast of Champions. A wooden salad bowl on the coffee table contained a couple hundred dollars in crumpled bills, along with a few sympathy cards.

Jeri Lynn grabbed Cameron, rubbed his hair. “Damn, I wish Fancy was here to see you.” The hem of her black dress had been altered too many times and was coming loose. She didn’t seem to care. She pushed the tray of cheese balls at them. “Eat something, will you?” She plopped in a chair across from the couch. “How did you folks know Fancy? Do you live in her old neighborhood?”

“We…we were with her when she died,” said Sarah. It was probably a good idea to get it over with, but Rakkim would have approached it more obliquely.

Jeri Lynn looked back and forth between them. “You were the ones asking around for her that night.”

“Yes,” said Sarah.

“Cameron, why don’t you go in the kitchen and fix yourself something to eat?” said Jeri Lynn. “I know you’re hungry.”

“I’d rather take a shower first,” said Cameron. “If it’s okay?”

“Second door on the right. Let me know when you’re done and I’ll get you some clean clothes. You’re about Dylan’s size.” Jeri Lynn waited until he had disappeared into the bathroom. “I appreciate you bringing him here. Fancy…she had a real sweet spot for him. Always talking about bringing him here to live with us.” She arranged her black dress, blew a strand of hair that fell over her face. “What do you want?” she said to Sarah. She had hardly looked at Rakkim since they’d arrived. “You must want something.”

“We’re very sorry for what happened,” said Sarah. “Fancy was-”

“My kids are coming home from school in about an hour. I don’t want you here upsetting them. They’ve already been through enough. Cameron can stay. The kids like Cameron.”

“The men who killed her…they were trying to stop us-”

“I haven’t even been able to bury her.” Jeri Lynn twisted the gold band on her left ring finger. “Her body is in a cooler at the funeral home, waiting for me to come up with the money to bury her properly.” She glanced at the bills in the wooden bowl.

“We would-”

“The local mosque wouldn’t help us. They said Fancy wasn’t a Muslim anymore. I don’t blame them. She prayed at home, but she was too ashamed to go to mosque. Muslims have their rules. Body has to be buried within twenty-four hours. Fine.” She kept twisting her ring. “Catholics are no better. I’m Catholic, but I’m not their kind of Catholic. So they won’t bury her.” She looked at Sarah. “My kids keep asking when they can put flowers on her grave, and I keep telling them soon.” She kept her eyes on the holo portrait of her and Fancy holding hands. “We had a good life before you people showed up looking for her. Not a perfect life…She hated what she did and so did I, but that was her night self. That wasn’t who she really was, that was just a game she played. The rest of the time, we were a family and we were happy. We were happy.”

“We’ll pay for the funeral,” said Sarah. “No strings.”

Jeri Lynn didn’t react.

“Did Fancy own a necklace from when she was a little girl?” said Sarah. “A small, round medallion with Chinese characters on it?”

“What do you want that thing for?” said Jeri Lynn. “It’s not worth nothing, except to Fancy.”

“Could I please see it?” said Sarah.

“It’s not for sale, I don’t care how much money you got. Fancy’s going to be buried in her favorite dress. In her favorite shoes. She’s going to be buried with her hair fixed just right, and her makeup perfect…and with that medallion around her neck.”

“That medallion is part of an investigation,” said Sarah. “That medallion-”

“What are you, cops? The cops are the ones who killed her.”

“Cops didn’t kill her,” said Rakkim.

Jeri Lynn stared at him.

“His name is Darwin,” said Rakkim. “I saw him do it. I tried to help, but-”

“The police shot Rakkim,” said Sarah. “He almost died.”

“Why did this Darwin do it?” Jeri Lynn’s face was flushed.

“That’s what he does,” said Rakkim.

“Could we please see the medallion?” asked Sarah. “Help us, Jeri Lynn.”

“Jeri Lynn!” Cameron stuck his dripping head out of the bathroom door. “Can I have some clothes, please?”

Jeri Lynn got up with a sigh, walked down the hall toward the bathroom.

“We know the medallion is here,” Rakkim said to Sarah. “At a certain point we have to stop asking.”

Sarah placed a small pile of $100 bills in the wooden bowl. “We’re not at that point yet.”

“You’re the one who thinks the medallion is the answer to all our prayers.”