Family Honor

Chapter 11

Tony Marcus was having huevos rancheros at a table in the back of Beans & Rice restaurant, which wasn’t open yet. Junior was with him, and a thin jittery little cokehead named Ty-Bop, who looked like he might be twenty. Junior was the muscle. Ty-Bop was the shooter. Spike sat at the table with Tony, straddling a chair, his forearms resting on the back.

“You called?” I said to Tony.

“Sit down, Sunny Randall,” Tony said.

I sat beside Spike who patted my thigh.

“Got your girl for you,” Tony Marcus said.

“You make me proud, Tony.”

“She’s hooking for Pharaoh Fox.”

“You heard it here first,” Spike said.

I smiled at him.

“Pharaoh know about me?” I asked Tony.

“No.”

“He prepared to give her up?”

“We didn’t discuss it, Sunny.”

Leaning against the wall, Ty-Bop seemed to be listening to music that no one else could hear. He tapped and bounced next to Junior who was motionless.

“Will you speak to him about me?” I said.

“Thought I let you do that,” Tony said, and smiled.

I nodded.

“That will be the hard way,” I said.

“Might be,” Tony said. “Pharaoh like his hookers.”

“Like a father to them,” I said. “Wouldn’t it go easier if you told him to give me the girl?”

“Sure would,” Tony said and smiled at me.

I waited. Tony turned his attention to the huevos rancheros.

“But you won’t,” I said.

“Let you do that,” he said again.

I looked at Spike.

“Tony’s hard to figure,” Spike said. “He’ll help you locate the kid because he wants to stay cool with the Burkes, and maybe because he feels like helping you. Tony’s a whimsical guy.”

“So why stop short?” I said.

Tony continued with his eggs. Spike answered.

“Because it amuses him. He wants to see if you can handle Pharaoh.”

“And why does he want to know that?” I said.

Spike shrugged. “‘Cause he doesn’t know it now.”

“Is that right, Tony?” I said.

Tony smiled at me.

“Sure,” he said.

Ty-Bop boogied to the beat of his own drummer against the exposed brick wall. A couple of waiters set the tables toward the front of the restaurant. Junior watched them blankly.

“Anybody can handle anybody,” I said. “It’s only a matter of how far you’re willing to go.”

“Might be the case,” Tony said.

He was finished eating.

“Can you tell me where I might find the girl?”

Tony stood up.

“Pharaoh turn her out different places,” Marcus said. “You a detective. You’ll find her.”

“Yes,” I said. “I will.”

Tony grinned at me as if he genuinely liked me.

“You go, girl,” he said.

Then he nodded at Junior and Ty-Bop, and they followed him out of the restaurant.

“What the hell was that all about,” I said to Spike.

“What I said,” Spike answered. “He’s never met a female detective. I think he wants to see if you can cut it.”

“Just to amuse himself?”

“Maybe Tony’s not a feminist,” Spike said.

“More’s the shame,” I said.

“I could trail along with you,” Spike said.

“I thought gay guys were supposed to be sissies,” I said.

“Growing up gay is a toughening process,” Spike said.

“You’d stand up to Pharaoh Fox for me?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you, Spike. But I can do this myself.”

“I’m sure you can,” Spike said. “How far you willing to go?”

I grinned at him. “All the way,” I said.

“Heard that about you,” Spike said.