Soul Circus

“Investigators,” said Qui

“What I do?” said the driver.

Strange’s Caprice looked like a police vehicle, down to the heavy chrome side mirrors. He slanted it in front of the Hyundai, as a cop would do, and kept it ru

“That house you just delivered to,” said Strange. “Tell me who you saw.”

“Some fat dude paid me.”

“Anyone else?”

“Girl was sittin’ in there on the floor, too.”

“Describe her, please.”

The delivery boy did, his hands tight on the wheel.

“The fat man, he have a bunch of locks on that front door?”

“Heard him turn somethin’ and slide a chain, is all.”

“You don’t need to be talkin’ to anyone about this, hear?”

“I won’t.” The delivery boy looked up at Strange. “You lookin’ at that fat boy for somethin’?”

“Nothing to concern yourself with.”

“I ain’t concerned. I hope you get him if he’s wrong, though.” The driver wiped his face. “Wearin’ all that ice, and all he could see to give me was fifty cents.”

“You have a good one,” said Strange. “And thank you for your time.”

AFTER getting out to move some debris blocking the entrance, Strange and Qui

“There it is,” said Qui

“Pizza boy said it was just McKinley and the girl, what he could make out. McKinley’s down on his big-ass haunches now, wolfin’ that pizza, I expect.”

“Be a good time to hit him.”

“I guess we better do that, then, before we change our minds.”

Strange turned onto the street at the head of the alley and parked behind Qui

“It’s not much of a plan,” said Qui

“Ain’t no plan at all,” said Strange. “I’m countin’ on that girl having the stones I think she does. I figure that McKinley’s partner has the boy, and she’s go

“What if it goes wrong?”

“One of us goes down, the other one’s got to get the girl out quick. Take her to her apartment and figure it out then.”

“You know he’s got a gun.” Qui

“I got somethin’ else for him, I get close enough. You remember his gun, too, Terry. Don’t stay back there too long and get your ass shot.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“You got your cell?”

“In my pocket.”

Strange looked at Qui

“When you side with a man, you stay with him,” said Qui

“Oh, shit,” said Strange with a low chuckle. “You are something.”

They shook hands. Qui

Strange got a coil of rope out of his trunk and patted his back pocket. He walked up toward the house.

Chapter 30

HORACE McKinley was in the living room, eating a slice of pizza topped with hamburger and pepperoni, when he heard someone banging on the back door. His heart skipped as he swallowed what was in his mouth. Couldn’t be Mike; he always came in through the front. He dropped the slice into the open cardboard box at his feet. Neighborhood kids, most likely, pullin’ pranks and shit, like they liked to do.

“Don’t you move now,” said McKinley, standing out of his chair, talking to Devra, who was still against the wall, hugging her knees. “I’ll be right back.”

McKinley pulled the automatic from his waistband and racked the slide.

Devra watched him walk into what would be the dining room in a normal house. He went through an arched cutout there, barely fitting through it, and back into a hall. The hall led to the galley kitchen and the back door, she knew. When he got into the hall she heard him curse and then start to run, his heavy steps vibrating the wall at her back. And then she heard him opening the back door and yelling something out, his voice fading now ’cause he was outside.

Devra looked at the front door. Only thing stopping her was a dead-bolt latch and a chain. Thinking, If I am going to see my baby again, now is the time to try.

QUINN stood on the back porch, knocking on the window and its frame, talking to himself, saying, “Come on, fat man, come and get it,” and then smiling right into the man’s sweaty face as he turned sideways to get himself through an opening and appeared in the hall. Qui

Qui

He looked back toward the alley, wondering if he had given Derek enough time.

IT was that white boy, Strange’s partner. Had to be.

McKinley slipped the Sig back inside his drawers. He rolled his shoulders and looked around. A light came on in one of the houses, and a dog, that rott two doors down, was barking fierce. Wasn’t but two shots. No one in this neighborhood was going to call the police ’cause of that. And if they did, wasn’t no police go

McKinley walked across the dirt, stepped up to the porch, and entered the house. He closed the door behind him, mumbling as he locked it. He heard himself wheezing and felt the sweat dripping down his back as he walked through the kitchen into the hall. He went by the arched cutout, not wanting to squeeze through it again, and straight into the living room, where Devra Stokes was standing, one hand kind of playing with the fingers of the other.

“I tell you to get up?” said McKinley, standing before her.

“Heard gunshots, is all.”

“Girl, sit your ass back down.”

He looked over the girl’s shoulder and saw the chain hanging free on the front door. He said, “What the fuck?” just as he felt the presence of someone behind him and turned.

What he saw in that last second was a man with size, and McKinley reached for his gun. He had his hand on the grip when something whipped up toward him fast, a blur of flat black. When the flat black thing hit him under the chin, the pain was cold electric and the room spun crazy. His feet weren’t holding him up, and he was floating, could almost see himself, like a balloon in one of those parades. The spi