Bad Boy Brawly Brown (31 page)

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The notepad was empty except for a memo scrawled on one of the 25

center pages.

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Saturday A.M. 6:15, 6:45.

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The time meant nothing, but the day reminded me of some-28

thing Conrad had said while he was being beaten. The money 29

looked nice. It had its own special mathematics. It might have been 30 S

money that Strong was holding for the Urban Revolutionary Party 31 R

and other revolutionary organizations. But it might also have been a
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nest egg for Mr. and Mrs. Tourbut — provided by the man who had 1

been paying his rent.

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I wondered if Tina knew that the money was under her bottom 3

when Henry was touching her neck.

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I rolled the cash into two big wads and shoved them into my 5

windbreaker pockets. I took the tickets and the note, too. Then I got 6

into my emerald-colored car and headed for a place that most black 7

people weren’t aware of in 1964.

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33
/ ON MY WAY
to Laurel Canyon I considered the money that was now under the carpet in my trunk.

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It was probably from the white men who also paid Strong’s rent in 4

cash. It smelled like a police payoff to me. I mean, it might have 5

been money that Strong intended to give Xavier to fund his brave 6

new world — but I doubted it.

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I had already refused money from the police, but this was differ-8

ent. They hadn’t given me this money. They’d lost it betting on a rat.

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I decided that I’d wait and see if any of Stone’s heirs could be found.

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If they couldn’t, then I’d have Feather’s college tuition in a foil-lined 11

paint can at the back of my garage.

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M
OFASS AND JEWELLE
lived on an unpaved path that cut away from a tributary off the main canyon road. The little artery
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probably had a name, but I never knew it. Jewelle liked to keep a low 1

profile because even though she was hardly out of childhood, she 2

had made dangerous enemies. There were members of her own fam-3

ily who hated her for freeing her elder boyfriend, Mofass, from their 4

control.

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Jewelle had taken Mofass’s fairly meager real estate investments 6

and turned them into something resembling an empire. Through Mo-7

fass’s real estate company she controlled and managed property all over 8

Watts, including two small six-family dwellings that I owned. There 9

was a group of white businessmen, the Fairlane Syndicate, who worked 10

with Jewelle because she had a knack for finding just the right deal 11

and knew how to exert leverage to make that deal come through.

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She was no more than twenty but she had proved to me that the 13

color line was a minor impediment in America if you knew how to 14

deal with the credit line. I had played with the idea of trying to be-15

come a real estate mogul. But once I saw Jewelle in action, I knew 16

that I was not equipped to compete.

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M
OFASS ANSWERED
the door.

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“Mr. Rawlins,” he said in that deep gravelly voice. Then he 21

coughed for half a minute, bent over almost in half with his perpet-22

ual housecoat hanging open, revealing a big brown belly and faded 23

blue boxer shorts. When he regained his composure he ushered me 24

into the living room, across the vast tiled floor to a small table they 25

had against a window that ran the full length of the wall. Seated at 26

that table, we had a bird’s-eye view of the Los Angeles basin.

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“How’s it goin’, William?” I asked my onetime apartment man-28

ager.

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“Every twelve weeks the doctor tell me that the emphysema’s S 30

gonna get me in three months,” Mofass replied. His voice sounded R 31

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like the old baritone, only with a towel shoved down his throat.

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“Then, when the time’s up JJ brang me back down to him and he 3

looks at me and says, ‘You got twelve weeks.’ JJ say, do I wanna go to 4

a different doctor but I tell her, hell no. I could live another thirty 5

years with a doctor like this one here.”

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I laughed and Mofass choked. I hadn’t seen him outside of that 7

house or in real clothes in over a year. He was like one of those tough 8

old alligators that could dive to the bottom of a river and not surface 9

for weeks. You think,
He must have gone by now,
but still you take the 10

long way down to the bridge rather than set foot in the water.

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“Mr. Rawlins,” a girl’s voice called.

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Jewelle still dressed in one-piece, square-cut dresses. This one 13

was light brown, about her color, and loose. She had pigtails with 14

red ribbons at the end. But I also noticed that she had been wearing 15

lipstick within the last few hours. Her lips seemed fuller and there 16

was something in her eyes that denied her childlike appearance.

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“Jewelle,” I said. I stood up and kissed her cheek.

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“Watch it now,” Mofass growled. “That’s my baby there.”

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“It was just on the cheek, Uncle Willy,” she said with a giggle.

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“Can I get you somethin’ to drink?”

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I didn’t need anything. Neither did Mofass.

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We all sat down around the small table and looked out over the 23

smog-choked city.

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“So what you need, Mr. Rawlins?” Mofass asked.

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Jewelle did everything. She cooked and cleaned, made sure that 26

the maintenance was kept up on the house and car. She ran the busi-27

ness and kept the bank accounts. All Mofass did was sleep and eat 28

and bask in the warmth of that young girl’s blind love.

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That was the way things really were with them. But in Mofass’s 30 S

mind things were different. In his mind he was the chief of the tepee, 31 R

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Jewelle did his bidding, and without him she’d have been lost. She 1

never contradicted his account. Jewelle fell in love with Mofass 2

when she was fifteen and he would be her god for the rest of her life.

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“I needed to know some things about those tract homes you’re 4

building down with John,” I said.

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“What for?” he asked with all the solemnity of a judge.

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“Well.” I hesitated for effect. “You see John’s girlfriend, Alva, has 7

got a son, Brawly Brown, who’s in trouble. He was workin’ for John 8

down there but stormed off in a huff — some kinda tiff with his 9

mother, you know.”

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“Kids today don’t have no kinda idea how hard life is,” Mofass 11

said. “I see ’em on the TV shimmyin’ and shakin’ and losin’ they 12

minds. They need to get a job and stay on it.”

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“We had some trouble at one of the sites, Mr. Rawlins,” Jewelle 14

said. “But it was a couple’a blocks over from John’s lots.”

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“Are you interruptin’ me, JJ?” Mofass scolded.

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“Sorry,” she said.

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“That’s what I’m here for,” I said to Mofass. “I was wondering if 18

the trouble down the street could have had anything to do with 19

Brawly.”

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“I see,” Mofass, the king of the blind, said. “That’s something to 21

think about. You know, um, I oversee the whole operations, not 22

every little detail. I’m tryin’ to train JJ here so that one day she can 23

run the whole kabob. But she still just in trainin’.”

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“Do you think she would know anything?” I asked the paper 25

lion.

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“Can you help Mr. Rawlins, JJ?” he asked.

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“I think I can,” she said with real deference in her voice. And 28

then to me, “Robert Condan and his cousin Renee the ones buildin’

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over where the trouble was. They got a record store down on Adams.

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They had a shootin’ two days ago at about four or five in the morn-2

ing. The police came over and shut us down for the day. But it wasn’t 3

nuthin’. You know, just some thieves or drug addicts usin’ the place 4

as a hideout for the night.”

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“But the man killed wasn’t a thief,” I said. “He was a political or-6

ganizer.”

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“I know that’s what they say in the paper, but the captain I talked 8

to told me different.”

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“What captain was that?” I asked.

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“How many police captains you know, Mr. Rawlins?” Jewelle 11

said with a challenging grin.

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“More than I would like to admit,” I said. “For instance, I’d bet 13

that the cop you talked to was Captain Lorne.”

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“Wow,” she said. “Yeah. It was him. Tall with silver hair?”

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“I’ve never seen him,” I said. “But his name came up on the 16

sunny side of the storm.”

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“Uh-huh,” she said, not really understanding. “That’s all I know.”

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There was a loud snort right then. We both turned to see that 19

Mofass had fallen asleep. His head had slumped down to his chest 20

and he was drooling slightly. JJ jumped up and ran from the room.

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Mofass snored three more times and she was back with a blanket and 22

a towel to wipe his face. Touching him lightly on the sides of his 23

head, she got him to lie back in the chair. She covered him up to his 24

chin, smiled, and kissed his forehead.

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I knew many people who thought that a love affair between a 26

child like her and a man almost sixty was a disgrace. I would have 27

agreed if I hadn’t known them. But as gruff and overbearing as 28

Mofass was, I knew that he loved that girl with all his heart. And 29

JJ needed a man to go through the motions of being the one in 30 S

charge.

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“What about the police that patrol the area?” I asked when she 1

was through with her ministrations.

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“You mean the cruiser cops?”

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“Uh-huh.”

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“They’re there mainly for the Manelli family.”

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“Who’s that?”

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“It’s the big contractor. They got seventeen different building 7

sites around Compton. They buildin’ sixty-two blocks over the next 8

three years, over six hundred employees.”

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“And they got the police workin’ for them?”

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“Yeah,” JJ said. “The Manellis think that people been stealin’

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from ’em. So they got the police questioning everybody not on their 12

payroll.”

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“I know that,” I said. “They braced me a few days ago.”

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“I’m sorry to hear that. You know, they usually leave us alone.”

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“Why’s that?”

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“A couple’a times when Manelli had to push some overtime to 17

finish their model homes, John and his team lent a hand. John did it 18

’cause his own budget was tight and he might’a had to lay off Mer-19

cury and Chapman. So instead, he let Manelli pay their salary for a 20

couple’a weeks.”

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“John always knew how to make ends meet,” I said. And then, 22

“Well, I better be goin’.”

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When I stood up, Mofass opened his eyes. I got the feeling that 24

he’d been pretending to be asleep.

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“You got what you need, Mr. Rawlins?” he asked.

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“You better believe it, William. That JJ’s gonna be a terror 27

one day.”

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“One day,” he said. “You can let yourself out. You know I get 29

tired in the afternoons.”

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JJ walked me to the door.

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“Is there gonna be any problem out at the sites, Mr. Rawlins?”

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she asked when I reached out to shake her hand.

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“I don’t think so, honey. But if there is, I will call you, okay?”