Free Bad Boy Brawly Brown by Walter Mosley Page B

in case 10
    Brawly needed me.”
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    “And why didn’t you go to the cops? If you didn’t do it, then 12
    there’s no reason to be scared.”
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    “You ever been questioned by the cops?” Isolda asked me.
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    For the first time our eyes really met. It was no man-and-woman 15
    gaze, but a real understanding.
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    I had been “questioned” a hundred times and more. And every 17
    time my life and liberty had been on the line. It hadn’t mattered that 18
    I was innocent or that they had no proof of my guilt. There was no 19
    Emancipation Proclamation posted on the jailhouse bulletin board.
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    No Bill of Rights, either.
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    The sleeve of Isolda’s dress was still hanging off her shoulder. My 22
    fingertips got itchy with the closeness of her flesh.
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    “Do you think Brawly could overpower a man Aldridge’s size?” I 24
    asked.
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    “How you know about his size?”
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    “Alva told me,” I said, hoping he was a fat man when she had 27
    known him.
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    “Brawly look like a kid,” she said. “He might be a kid in his mind.
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    But he’s strong, scary strong. At a high school picnic once, when S 30
    Brawly was livin’ with me, some kids bet him that he couldn’t pull a R 31
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    big stone out the ground. That rock was big. Big. Brawly yanked it up 2
    like it was made’a cardboard instead’a granite. You know he was with 3
    a couple’a heavyset footballers. I could see the fear in them boys’
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    eyes.”
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    “Did Brawly make that bruise on you?”
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    “I don’t remember. It was a whole mess. Them pushin’ and 7
    shovin’ all over the place. But even if he did do it, it was only ’cause 8
    I got in the way.”
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    “Where is he now?”
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    “I don’t know.”
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    “He have any friends you know about?”
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    “Why are you askin’ me all these questions? Are you some kinda 13
    policeman or sumpin’?”
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    “Just a friend’a John and Alva’s, like I said. They asked me to look 15
    for Brawly, and that’s what I’m doin’.”
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    “Well, I ain’t seen ’im since he left outta my house two weeks 17
    ago.”
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    “Did he say where he was goin’?”
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    “He said he was gonna kill Aldridge if he didn’t watch out.”
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    “You didn’t tell me if he had any friends.”
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    “There was this one white girl. BobbiAnne Terrell was her name, 22
    I think. They went to high school together.”
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    “Up in Riverside?”
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    “Uh-huh.”
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    “Would you know her number?”
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    “No. Maybe it’s in the book.”
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    Somewhere during our conversation a coldness set in between 28
    me and Isolda. Maybe it was because I represented Alva. Or maybe 29
    she saw no use in me.
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    “Why’d you call Alva, Issy?”
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    “To tell her about Aldridge and Brawly. And to find out if she 1
    knew where he was.”
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    “Why’d you want to know that?”
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    “I was like a mother to that boy, Mr. Rawlins. And that’s some-4
    thin’ that don’t just wear off.”
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    11 / I GOT TO JOHN’S lots somewhere about noon.
    There were other houses under construction on
    3
    that block but nobody was out there on Sunday, nobody but John’s 4
    crew.
    5
    Mercury and Chapman were sitting on the skeleton of a front-6
    porch-to-be, drinking from small paper cups.
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    “Wanna snort, Mr. Rawlins?” Mercury asked as I approached.
    8
    “What’s John gonna say if he see you out here throwin’ back 9
    liquor on the job?” I asked.
    10
    Since I’d recommended them, I felt somewhat responsible for 11
    their actions.
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    “John’s a bartender, ain’t he?” Chapman whined. “An’ anyway, 13
    he left for home a hour