Stranger in Paradise

24.

The woman was on the couch with a half-drunk can of beer on the coffee table in front of her. Her head was tilted back against the top of the couch. Her mouth had fallen open. She was snoring gently. Crow sat across the room. If someone opened the door, Crow would be out of sight behind it. At 11:07 the daughter arrived.

“Ma,” she said, and saw her mother slumped on the couch. “Oh, swell,” she said. “Have another beer, Ma.”

She closed the door and saw Crow.

“Shit!” she said.

Crow smiled at her.

“Should I come back later?” the daughter said. “Or did you fuck her already.”

“No need to come back later,” Crow said.

The woman on the couch came awake with a startle.

“Alice?”

“I think Daddy’s found us,” Alice said. “Esteban told me a guy…”

She stopped and looked at Crow.

“You’re the guy.”

“That visited Esteban?”

“Yes.”

“I am,” Crow said.

“You shot Puerco,” Alice said.

“Only once,” Crow said.

“Shot?” the mother said.

“Shut up, Ma,” Alice said. “He works for Daddy.”

Mrs. Franklin frowned, trying to focus.

“He said he wasn’t gonna hurt us,” she said.

“Whaddya gonna do?” Alice said.

“Your old man asked me to kill your mother and bring you back to him.”

“Kill her,” Alice said.

“Yeah.”

“And bring me back?” Alice said.

“Yeah.”

“You gonna do either one?”

Crow shook his head.

“So whaddya gonna do?”

“I don’t know,” Crow said. “You got any suggestions?”

“Whyn’t you go kill Daddy,” she said.

Crow nodded.

“And what would you do then?” he said.

“What I’m gonna do anyway. Move in with Esteban.”

“Not on your life,” her mother said. “I didn’t raise you to slut for no spick gangbanger.”

“You didn’t raise me at all, you fucking drunk,” Alice said. “I go where I want. I want to slut it up with Esteban, you got no say.”

“Don’t you talk to me that way,” her mother said, and struggled to get off the couch.

“You calling me a slut,” Alice said. “There’s a laugh.”

“I rescued you from your father, and you talk to me like this?”

“At least I’m not a fat slut,” Alice said. “I’m outta here.”

She turned and found Crow standing in front of the door.

“Get the fuck out of my way,” she said.

Crow slapped her hard across the face and sent her halfway across the room. She fell back onto the couch beside her mother and began to cry with her face buried in her hands.

“Esteban is going to kill you,” she said. “He’s going to kill you for Puerco, and now, when I tell him, he’ll kill you for me, too.”

Crow took his cell phone out and punched in a number.

After a moment he said, “Chief Stone? Wilson Cromartie. We got a situation down here on Sewall Street.”