Right as Rain

The bell over the door chimed as Syreeta Janes walked into the shop. Syreeta was at the tail end of her forties, on the heavy side, with a nice brown freckled face, high cheekbones, and deep chestnut eyes. Half of her time was spent in the shop, the other half at book conventions or in her home office, working on her Web site, where she bought and sold rare paperbacks. She wore her usual, a vest and shirt arrangement worn out over a flowing long skirt and clogs, with a brightly colored kufi atop dreads. Lewis, in one of his less serious moments, had described her look as 'Harlem by way of Takoma Park.'

'Terry.'

'Syreeta.'

'Taking off?'

'Soon as my ride comes. I might be asking for more time off, too.'

'Long as Lewis covers, I don't mind.' Syreeta put her canvas bag down on the glass counter. 'Don't you need the money, though?'

'My pension's keeping me flush.'

Qui

'That your ride?'

'Yeah.'

'Looks like a cop car.'

'It is.'

'Terry?'

'Huh.'

'Smells funky in here.'

'Moonman. He borrowed a paperback, too. The Stars My Destination, you want to knock it off the inventory.'

'That's a good one.'

'Olympian,' said Qui

'You're go

Qui

16

'After I went through all that trouble,' said Strange, 'now you're go

'I apologize,' said Lattimer. 'I know you went and got the tickets and all that, but Cheri said she doesn't want to go to some dark auditorium and watch two men beat the fuck out of each other all night.'

'That girl of yours must be special, you go

'I didn't know.'

Strange watched Qui

'What's with white boys and fla

'Everybody's got their own thing.'

'He don't look all that violent to me. And he doesn't look like a cop.'

'He is on the short side,' said Strange. 'But, trust me, he can rise up.'

Qui

'Terry. Meet Ron Lattimer, an investigator on my staff.'

'Ron, how you doin'?'

'I'm makin' out.'

Qui

'What you got there, Terry?' said Strange.

'It's for you.'

Qui

'Damn, boy. On the Fantasy label, too. I never thought I'd see one of these again.'

'It just came in today.'

Strange sca

'Derek,' said Lattimer, 'I got things to do this afternoon.'

'Yeah, okay, right.' Strange put the record on the seat beside him.

'Y'all hungry?'

'There's a Vietnamese around the corner,' said Qui

'I'm into that,' said Strange.

Strange engaged the trans and pulled off the curb. He went up to Georgia, turned left at Qui

'That was real nice of you, Terry.'

'I know you're not looking for any friends,' said Qui

Strange, Lattimer, and Qui

'They're doing something over there,' said Qui

'Looks like they're restoring it,' said Lattimer.

'Either that or tearing it down. They're always tearing down things here now.'

'Get rid of all these pawnshops-'

'Yeah, and the nail and braid parlors, and the barbershops, and the cobbler and the key maker, the speed shops and auto parts stores… the kinds of places working people use every day. So the yuppie homeowners can brag that they've got the music-and-book superstore, and the boutique grocery store, and the Starbucks, just like their counterparts across town.'

'I take it,' said Strange, 'you're not all the way into the revitalization of Silver Spring.'

'They're erasing all of my memories,' said Qui

The lone waiter, a genial guy named Daniel who painted houses on the side, served them their soup and fresh lemonade.

Lattimer stared into his bowl and frowned. 'There's none of that bible tripe or tendon or nothin' like that in there, is it?'

'Number fifteen,' said Qui

The soup was a rich mixture of rice noodles, meat, and broth, with bean sprouts, hot green pepper, lime, and fresh mint served on the side. Strange and Qui

'Were you a cop, too?' asked Qui

'Me?' said Lattimer. 'Nah.'

'He didn't like the way the uniforms were cut,' said Strange.

'Go ahead, Derek. I always wanted to do the kind of investigative work I'm doing right now. Never wanted to do anything else. Besides, you don't mind my sayin' so, all the problems they got on the force, I feel lucky I didn't join up.'

'There's a helluva lot more good cops on the force than there are mediocre ones,' said Qui

'That explain all those shootings?' said Strange.

'Firing on unarmed suspects, firing at moving vehicles…' said Lattimer, picking up the ball from Strange.

'Who's go

Lattimer didn't answer, but he held Qui

Strange broke apart his chopsticks and used them to find some eye round in the bottom of his bowl. 'Like I said, that doesn't explain everything.'

'It's complicated,' said Qui

'All right, then,' said Strange. 'You had a couple of brutality complaints in your file, right?' He swallowed meat and noodles and wiped a napkin across his mouth.

'That's right,' said Qui