Melancholy Baby

25

Leonard was very black, with good cheekbones. He had on a pinstripe suit and a white shirt with a pin collar and a white silk tie. His head was shaved. He wore a moustache and goatee, and he smelled of very good cologne.

I had already explained Leonard to Sarah. She looked sort of titillated when I introduced them. Rosie came over and smelled his ankle. Leonard looked down at Rosie with no expression at all. Then he went over to the breakfast table and sat.

“Coffee?” he said.

“Fresh pot,” I said. “Sarah will pour you some.”

He nodded. Sarah got the coffee. I crouched down to kiss Rosie goodbye. Then I stood and got my bag, and checked. Car keys? Gun? Cell phone? Oakleys?

“Nobody in or out,” I said to Leonard. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

“What if you’re not,” Sarah said.

“Leonard will stay with you until I am.”

“But, I mean, what if something happens?” she said.

I scribbled Phil Randall and a phone number on the blackboard.

“My father,” I said. “He used to be a cop. He’ll know what to do.”

Leonard was drinking coffee out of one of my big, white diner-style mugs. He held the mug softly in both hands.

“Do you have a gun?” Sarah said to him.

Looking at her over the rim of the mug, Leonard nodded.

“Don’t answer my phone,” I said.

I smiled at Rosie and said, “Bye-bye,” and went out the front door and down the steps to my car.