Right as Rain

'You lookin' for someone, man?'

'I was,' said Strange, forcing a friendly smile. 'From across the room there, I thought you were this fella I knew, from back in the neighborhood where I came up.'

'Oh, yeah?' Coles's tone was high and theatrical. 'You got to have twenty years on me, though. So how could we have come up together? Huh?'

Strange shook his head. 'We couldn't have, you're right. Now that I'm up close… the thing of it is, I can't see too good in this low light. And don't even get me started about my failing eyes.'

Coles took a sip from the snifter before him and tapped ash off his cigarette. He glanced over his shoulder to the man behind him and said, 'You hear that, Richard?'

A crescent scar semicircled Richard's left eye. 'Man can't see too good in this light.'

'Or maybe he thinks we can't see too good,' said Coles. "Cause we did see you, sittin' over there with your Caucasian partner, lookin' at whatever it is you put back in your pocket, tryin' to make me.'

'Trying to make you as what?' Strange chuckled and spread his hands. 'Brother, I told you, I just mistook you for someone else.'

'Oh, you mistook all right.' Coles smiled, then dragged on his cigarette.

'Whatever you're thinking,' said Strange, his voice steady, 'you are wrong.'

'Tell you what,' said Coles, looking past Strange. 'I'll just go ahead and ask the white boy. Here he comes now.'

Qui

He came out of the hall and along the bar and saw Strange in a dark corner of the room, standing in front of the table where Coles sat. A big man stood behind the table, cracking the knuckles of one hand with the palm of the other. Qui

Qui

'Here go your backup,' said Coles. 'What you think, Richard? This salt-and-pepper team we got here, they cops?'

'Look more like the Orkin army,' said Richard. 'What's with those jackets, huh? Those y'all's uniforms?'

Strange realized for the first time that he and Qui

'I don't think they're cops,' said Coles.

'White boy's too short to be a cop,' offered Richard.

No, I'm not, thought Qui

'Look more like bounty hunters to me,' said Richard. His voice was soft in a dangerous kind of way, and it was difficult to hear him over the wa-wa and bass pumping through the house system.

'Kind of what I was thinking, too, Richard.' Coles looked at Strange. 'That what you are, old man? A bounty hunter?'

'Like I said,' said Strange, keeping his voice on the amiable side. 'I thought you were someone else. I made a mistake.'

'Now, why you want to lie?' said Coles.

"Cause he scared?' said Richard. 'He does look a little scared. And white boy looks like he's about to dirty his drawers. How about it, white boy, that so?'

'How about what?' said Qui

'You go

'What'd you say?' said Qui

'Was I stutterin'?' said Richard, his eyes bright and hard.

'Let's go,' said Strange.

'Don't you know,' said Richard, smiling at Qui

'Not this white man,' said Qui

'Oh, ho-ho,' said Richard, 'now Little Man Tate go

Strange tugged on Qui

'We're leaving now,' said Strange.

'What's a matter?' said Coles, holding his wrists out and together, as if he were waiting for cuffs. 'Ain't you go

'Maybe next time,' said Strange, his tone jocular. 'See you fellas later, hear?'

Coles broke the imaginary chains on his wrists, raised the snifter in a mock toast. He drank and placed the glass back down on the table.

'When your bosses or whoever ask you why you came back empty handed,' said Coles, 'tell 'em you ran into Sherman Coles and his kid brother. Tell him it was us who punked you out.'

Strange nodded, the light draining from his eyes.

'We told you our names, white boy,' said Richard, his gaze on Qui

Strange pulled harder on Qui

This time Qui

At the downstairs bar, Strange signaled the bartender for his unpaid tab and yelled out over the music for the tender to bring back a receipt. Strange turned to Qui

'Stupid, man. What'd I tell you about interfering with my shit?'

'I wasn't thinking,' said Qui

'Oh, I'll take him in. Didn't figure on Sammy Davis Jr. havin' a baby brother looked like Dexter Manley. Go

'Yeah,' said Qui

'Damn right you do,' said Strange, glancing back to see the subject of Qui

Strange saw Qui

'Here you go, man,' said Strange, paying the bartender, taking his receipt.

'Appreciate it,' said the bartender, and Qui

'You ready?' said Strange to Qui

'Gotta take a leak.'

'Another one? You just ran some water through it five minutes ago.'

'The upstairs head was out of order. I'll see you out at the car.'

Strange said, 'Right,' and walked from the bar. Qui

On his way out, Strange told the doorman he'd be right back. He walked quickly to his car and pulled a set of handcuffs and a sap from the trunk, sliding the sap in to the breast pocket of his jacket, then went back into the club. He took the steps up to the second floor two at a time and moved through the table area to the four-top where Sherman Coles still sat.