Pick Your Poison

12

Helen Hamilton’s hot little Beamer steamed through Galveston at an urgent clip. As I followed, I wondered if Daddy and Mom were forced to pay a “processing fee” when they adopted us. And worse, had they dealt with someone as mercenary as Hamilton seemed to be?

And why, if Hamilton had a client coming, as she claimed, did she leave her office? Had the mere mention of Feldman sent Hamilton speeding through town? Because she was speeding, weaving between cars on Broadway and passing on the right. I kept my distance, but the main street is long and wide, and I had no trouble keeping her in sight.

She made a right turn, and at first I thought she might be taking a shortcut to Seawall Boulevard. I made the same turn just before the light changed, knowing I had to be careful now. We were in a residential area with little traffic, and she might spot me. I let her have a two-block lead. We drove into a rundown neighborhood, and a minute later she made a left, lurching to a halt in front of a small yellow house.

I drove on past the intersection and parked by a sagging beige two-story on the corner. I adjusted my side mirror and saw Hamilton walking briskly up the walkway to the yellow house.

I waited, considering whether I should continue to follow her once she came out. I guess I thought she’d simply lead me to Feldman, but this was certainly no retirement community.

Then, five minutes into my self-appointed stakeout, I learned another little detecting lesson. I’d never make a good cop. I was stir-crazy. What was going on over there?

Knowing I shouldn’t, knowing I’d be sorry, knowing I’m about as patient as a two-year-old in front of a birthday cake, I slid from behind the wheel into the humid morning air. Maybe the drapes were open and I could see what she was doing. Or maybe I could listen at an open window.

I started for the corner, noting that even the lawns looked defeated. Clumps of Saint Augustine grass choked the life out of the gentle Bermuda, where there was any Bermuda, and not merely blemishes of dusty ground.

“You selling something?” called a voice from behind me.

My heart skipped. Some surveillance expert I was. I hadn’t noticed anyone within a block of here. I squinted back at the house I’d parked in front of, but through the screen door all I could see was a shadowy face and the whites of his eyes.

“Not selling,” I said. “Hope you don’t mind if I park here, but I want to surprise a friend, and if she recognizes my car, it would ruin everything.”

He opened the door about six inches. He was a tall kid, maybe sixteen or seventeen. “If your car’s gone when you get back,” he said, “don’t go telling the police I had anything to do with it.”

A small child appeared at the teen’s knees, peeking out at me with giant brown eyes. He couldn’t have been more than five. “Yeah, white lady, don’t go telling the po-lice.”

“Get back in the house, man,” the teenager said. “Didn’t Momma tell you about talking trash like that?”

The little boy answered this by running out onto the porch, skipping in circles, and chanting, “William can’t get me. William can’t get me.”

William did get him, however, with a rapid swoop of one long, gangly arm. To the delight of the child, he was lifted to a horizontal position on William’s hip, well above the slatted, uneven porch.

I smiled, then started off again, saying, “No one will have the time to steal my car. Besides, Camrys are hard to break into.” I had no idea if this was true, but it sounded convincing. Their front door clattered shut as I walked away.

Sweat already soaked the back of my T-shirt and dampened the waist of my khaki shorts by the time I reached the yard surrounding the yellow house. It had to be a hundred degrees though not even ten A.M. yet.

That was when my impatience caught up with me. Helen Hamilton was coming out of the house she’d entered only a short while ago. I scurried to a nearby mimosa and stood behind the tree, but mimosas aren’t exactly live oaks and I’m not exactly Kate Moss. I definitely had a camouflage-deficit problem.

When Hamilton descended the porch steps and I saw what she was carrying, my hand flew to my mouth. A baby. A baby in a car seat. Guess the “client” couldn’t quite come to her. And then I wondered why she hadn’t told the truth. Adoptions and babies go together, so—

“Hey! White lady!” said the little kid from the beige house. His words seemed to echo through the waves of heat zigzagging off the blacktop.

Damn! Hamilton might hear him and spot me.

I grabbed the kid by his tiny shoulders and moved him in front of me, ducking so his chest was between me and her. I put my finger to my lips. “Shhh, I’m playing hide-and-seek.”

His dark eyes grew wide with the pleasure of conspiracy.

I peeked over his shoulder. She was putting the baby in the car and did glance our way, but quickly refocused on the infant, whose tiny wail drifted across the lawn. Her high heels clicking on the pavement, Hamilton then walked around to the driver’s side and opened the door.

The boy said, “Lady, you gotta listen!”

I covered his mouth with my hand and whispered, “Don’t give me away. It’s her turn to hide, and maybe I can see where she’s going.” I continued watching Hamilton, ready to head for my car and follow when I thought it was safe.

The boy twisted free, took my face in his small, square hands, and pulled my head so we were eye-to-eye. “But, lady,” he said, those soft, wide eyes close to my nose, “James Franklin is stealing your car.”

A second passed before I grasped what he’d told me; then I started running like Satan’s breath was on my neck.

I didn’t know if Hamilton saw me bounding across the grass. I didn’t know if she saw the kid right alongside me, taking three strides to my one. I wouldn’t be finding out where she was taking that baby, and about then I didn’t care.

I felt momentary relief when I saw that my car wasn’t gone, and was about to deliver a lecture about lying little brats when I noticed the open driver’s-side door.

A pair of what had to be size-fourteen athletic shoes rested on the curb. Shoes with feet in them. And legs attached. The remainder of this person’s body was wedged under the dash of my car.

“Hey! You!” I shouted, hurrying toward the Camry.

Obviously James Franklin’s give-a-damner was broken. He kept right on with his hot-wiring activities.

“Get the hell out of my car!” I shouted, giving the nearest size-fourteen a good kick.

“Yeah. Get the hell out of her car,” came the small voice beside me. I noticed the kid had his hands on his hips just like me.

My kick got James Franklin’s attention—unless he was afraid of a five-year-old with an attitude. When his ugly mug appeared, his eyes bloodshot and looking in every direction at once, I should have known “Get the hell out of my car” would have about as much impact as a dart hitting an elephant.

Sure, he got out, but he was swinging my saddlebag of a purse, the one I’d left on the front seat.

I have reasonably sound reflexes. I ducked.

A mistake. My purse met the little guy on the downside, right on the head, sending him sprawling onto the sidewalk.

“Will-iam!” the kid screeched.

But apparently William had already heard the commotion, because while I knelt next to the screaming child, William tore after the retreating James Franklin, calling the thief a nasty name, which included references to a maternal parent. The car thief-turned- purse snatcher was running like a bullet with feet, my bag clutched to his chest.

I turned my attention to the whimpering boy, unsure how to handle him. “What’s your name, kid?”

He didn’t seem to be bleeding anywhere. But his nose was running, his face was streaked with tears, and his lower lip trembled.

“Sho... mar... i,” he said, the syllables separated by sobs.

“I’m sorry, Shomari, I shouldn’t have ducked.” And then, since I didn’t know what else to do, I hugged him.

His thin but strong arms came up and around my neck and I picked him up. Snot and tears joined the sweat on my shoulder as I carried him over to the much cooler porch and sat down.

A minute later William returned. Perspiration dotted his shaved head and ran in rivers down his neck, joining the widening stains on his T-shirt front.

“Why you come around here making trouble, lady?” he said, tossing my purse toward me.

Even though I was already flushed and sunburned, I felt my face grow even hotter. “I don’t know how to thank you. I don’t have much cash, but I could—”

“You think you can throw your money at us and make this okay? Shomari could have been hurt bad.” He looked at the boy. “You all right, man?”

Shomari nodded, eyes down, fingers in his mouth.

Now I felt like I had taken the hit with the purse.

“So,” William continued, “why don’t you take your purse and your money and your crazy red hair and—”

“Now, wait a minute. I may be a self-serving white bitch, but my hair is not red; it’s auburn.”

His eyes widened, and by gosh if this intense black giant didn’t have a sense of humor. “Lady, you look like you combed that mess with my mama’s skillet.”

I laughed and so did William.

Then Shomari said, “Since you’re not mad no more, William, can she give me some money now?”

I quickly said, “I have gum—will that do?”

Shomari nodded eagerly.

I found two sticks in my purse and gave them to him.

While Shomari unwrapped them, William said, “I need water. Looks like you could use some, too.”

He went into the house and returned with two glasses. “It’s not cold. Momma says you shouldn’t have ice water when you’re overheated. Says it can shock you or something.”

“Wet is all I care about. Thanks.”

Shomari poked my arm and looked up at William. “She was playing hide-and-seek with the white lady who came and took Tannae’s baby.”

“So she gave the boy up.” William shook his head, appearing disgusted.

“I followed the woman over here,” I said. “The one who took the baby. I really parked here because I’m sort of investigating her.”

“Tannae’s brain could use some investigating, too,” said William. “She sold that baby. That’s not what she’ll say, but she sold him, all the same. Got herself a color TV and a private doctor so’s she wouldn’t have to wait down at the women’s clinic. Told everyone at school it was adoption, but everyone knows she sold him. Moma said she’d go straight to hell if she went through with it.”

“This girl goes to your school?” I asked, then finished my water.

“Dropped out when she started to show.”

“Ever hear her mention a man named Feldman?”

“I never heard her say nothing except Gerard Smith knocked her up and wouldn’t give her no money, so she had to go for this adoption thing.”

Shomari had the half-chewed gum in his hands and was trying to make a cat’s cradle with it.

William grunted in irritation. He lifted Shomari by the elbow and stood him up. “Let’s get that stuff off your fingers, man.”

“Sorry again,” I said. “And thanks for getting my purse back.”

He paused by the screen door. “Wasn’t me. Stupid James Franklin ran smack into some big black dude I never seen around here. Guy took back your bag and tossed it to me. Last I saw, he and James were, uh... talking.”

“Still, thanks anyway.” I left then, and as I went down the three rickety steps, I heard Shomari say, “Know something, William? She stinks as bad as you do.”

On the way to the Camry I lifted an arm and risked a whiff. Geez. He was right.