Double Jeopardy

25

8:30 A.M.

DOC AND JAMEEL STRUTTED down Walnut Hill Lane, bouncing a basketball, chanting a Hammer rap lyric. They pointedly took no notice of the dull green Chevrolet or the men seated inside. The men in the Chevy, however, noticed them. The driver emerged from the car, crossed the street, and met Doc and Jameel at the foot of the front steps to Travis’s apartment building.

“You boys live here?” The man from the Chevy was younger than they expected, pasty-faced and obviously nervous.

“Maybe,” Doc bluffed. “Who wants to know?”

“I’m lookin’ for a man named Byrne. Travis Byrne. Short, thick, on the heavy side. You know him?”

Jameel’s eyes twinkled. “What if we do? What’s in it for us?”

Grudgingly, the Chevy man shoved his hand into his pocket and extracted two twenties. After reading the boys’ expressions, he dipped back into the pocket and extracted four more. “That’s all I got.”

Jameel snatched the money from him. “Then it’ll have to do.”

“So how about it? You know Byrne?”

“Not me,” Doc said, grinning. “How ’bout you, Jameel?”

“Never heard of him,” he said. “Sorry, chump.”

“Now look here—”

“Was a dude like that here a while back,” Jameel added. “Ain’t seen him for some time, though. Like weeks maybe.”

“Damn. I figured we had the wrong address.”

“Anything else we can do for you?” Doc inquired.

“I guess not.” The Chevy man headed back toward his car, and Doc and Jameel walked up the front steps of the apartment building. In the reflection in a window, Doc saw the man return to his car, wake his companion, and talk agitatedly into a cellular phone. A few seconds later, he started the car and drove away.

Grinning, Doc and Jameel scrambled up the stairs.

The housebreakers returned to the bus stop about an hour later with two garbage bags draped over their shoulders.

“What happened?” Travis asked. “Did you get in?”

“No problemo.” They tossed the garbage bags to Travis.

“You seem disappointed.”

“Easy pickins,” Jameel explained. “Breakin’ into a guy’s apartment with his permission. Ain’t no challenge.”

Travis grinned. “I’m sorry there wasn’t more excitement.”

Doc chimed in. “It got a little hairy when that nervous dude in the Chevy stopped us.”

“What? What did you tell him?”

“Told him you moved away, bro. What else?”

“Was he someone who might be … well, a professional criminal?”

“If he be in the mob, he must’ve been drafted.” Doc laughed. “He was some kind of pansy.”

Travis wondered if he was the same man who was in the courthouse men’s room. It would help if he knew. “Maybe I should’ve gone myself.”

“No way, bro. Even a pansy can be deadly if he’s packin’. And this one was. ’Sides, there was another dude slumped down in the front seat and they were both barkin’ at someone else on a car phone. Sendin’ us was the smartest thing you ever did.”

“I really appreciate this, guys. How can I thank you?”

Jameel looked out the corner of his eyes. “Well … you could help dee-fray our expenses.”

“Right, right.” Travis took his wallet out of the garbage bag and handed them six twenties. “Will that do?”

“Superfine,” Jameel said, snatching the bills. “Been a good long time since we’ve seen that much cash. Right, Doc?”