Death of a Washington Madame by Warren Adler Page B

coercion, Fi," Gail muttered.
    "Did he, Martine?"
    "Tell them you murdering bastard," Roy screamed.
    "Man come in a car," the boy said as if he had
forgotten that Roy had been cuffed.
    Fiona looked at Gail who turned away in anger.
    "This is wrong," she whispered under her breath.
    "Just pulled up and said here's five hundred dollars.
Go kill that old lady?" Fiona asked, incredulous.
    "He come by an' asts me if I wanna make five hundert
dollahs."
    "And you said what do I have to do to get that
money?"
    The boy nodded.
    "He say: You know that ole lady lives in the big house
down there."
    "Did he say her name?"
    "Ole lady lives in that big house all he said."
    "And you know who he meant?"
    "Yeah. Ev'ybody knows who she be."
    "When was this when the man came? Night. Day. You
remember what day it was?" Fiona asked.
    The boy shrugged.
    "Night," he said.
    "What day. You remember what day?"
    The boy looked up listlessly and shook his head.
    "Keep this up, he'll soon be denying everything,"
Roy said.
    The boy cut a frightened glance at Roy.
    "You can see he's been terrorized," Gail said.
"You really have to discount what he tell us."
    "What else Martine?" Roy shouted. He turned
toward Gail and pursed his lips in anger. "You people..."
    "Well we now know where this is coming from?"
Gail smirked.
    "Can you believe this, Gloria?" Roy sneered.
"People like her are leading us straight to hell."
    "Roy please," Fiona admonished, turning again to
the boy.
    "Did he say when ... when you were supposed to....
"?
    "Tell them Martine," Roy pressed.
    Fiona, in a burst of anger, turned to face him.
    "Can't you just shut your goddamned mouth, Roy?"
    "I don't feel comfortable with this, Fi," Gail
interjected.
    "We've got it on tape anyway," Roy said flushing.
    Fiona turned again to the boy, who seemed confused by what
was happening around him. Fiona shot both Gail and Roy another look of rebuke.
    "Now tell me what the man said Martine?" Fiona
asked, her teeth clenched with impatience and anger.
    "I tole you. He give me fi' hundert dollahs and then
he say do that ole lady tomorrow night or he..."
    "He said tomorrow night?"
    "Or he...."
    The boy lowered his head, his voice barely audible.
    "Did he give you a time?"
    "Bout then," the boy said.
    "What time was it?"
    "He looked at his watch and say ten."
    "Pretty specific," Fiona said.
    The boy shrugged.
    "Or he what?" Fiona prodded. "...if you
didn't do it when he said."
    "Or he come and do me."
    "And what did you say to that Martine?"
    "I say: Cool."
    "You wanted that five hundred dollars. Right
Martine?" Roy said with a sinister chuckle.
    "Anyone can see he's not responsible." Gail said.
    Fiona ignored her remark, looked at the boy and shook her
head.
    "That it? Just like that?" Fiona asked, puzzled.
    "The bastard's proud of it," Roy mumbled.
    "He's scared out of his mind," Gail interjected.
    "He has no mind," Roy shot back.
    "This man..." Fiona said. "You said you'd do
it then he gave you the five hundred dollars on the spot?"
    The boy nodded.
    "Told me to go on and do her tomorrow night at about
ten o'clock." Fiona repeated the assertion as if to underline it.
    The boy nodded again. He did not look up.
    "Or he would do you?"
    "And he obeyed," Roy interjected. "Did even
more than he was supposed to. Didn't you, you little turd?"
    "Were you afraid that he would come back and, as you
say, do you?"
    Only then did the boy raise his head, his expression
defiant. Fiona detected not the slightest sign of contrition or regret.
    "I weren't," he said with unmistakable boyish
pride. "Cause I knew I wuz gonna do it. You say you do somethin'. You do
it. I weren't gonna lose no respeck."
    It struck Fiona suddenly that the boy had absolutely no
sense of the enormity of the crime. She exchanged glances with Gail, who looked
back at her with obvious outrage and shook her head. There was a kind of
resignation in the gesture as if she were surrendering under protest. Fiona
felt a disturbing sense of racial divide.