Right as Rain

'Hey, Eugene,' said Qui

Franklin stepped back from the doorway as Qui

Franklin's feet were gone beneath him. He began to fall, and as he fell through the dimming light the gun streaked toward him, and this time he barely felt the blow. At the end, he saw his partner's face, ugly and angry and afraid, and Franklin loved him then. Falling into a soft bed of night, Franklin felt only relief.

Qui

Franklin sat on the couch, his head tilted back, holding a damp towel tight to his temple. The towel was pink where the blood of a deep gash had seeped through. Qui

'How'd you turn, Gene?'

'How?' repeated Franklin.

'Delgado drew you in.'

'Yeah. Used to see him down at Erika's all the time. In there every night, drinkin', talkin' mad shit, then goin' home alone. Delgado, he was like me. Neither one of us had many friends or was gettin' any play. So we got to talkin,' Adonis and me. I knew he was all bad; everyone knew. But I talked to him anyway.'

'What'd you talk about?'

'This and that, you know. Went from one thing to the other, until it came to this other thing. Delgado was tellin' me how a man with some money in his pocket didn't have to worry about finding women, they'd find him. How you could kick it with anyone out there if the woman had the idea you were holdin' bank. I knew his mouth was overloadin' his asshole, man, but with the alcohol ru

'How'd it go to the next level?'

'He started talkin' about Cherokee Coleman's operation, down off Florida. How Cherokee wasn't never go

'It wasn't no big deal, he said. A load came in twice a month to Coleman's, and twice a month Delgado cruised the perimeter of the area during drop-off day and made sure there wasn't anything goin' on out there in the way of interference, local or federal law. Never even got out of his car. He said it wasn't any more complicated than that.'

'Why tell you? Why did he need to cut you in?'

"Cause he couldn't always be there. And because they had a problem that Delgado couldn't or didn't want to handle on his own. Course, I didn't know what that problem was when I got in.'

'Chris Wilson.'

Franklin's eyes moved to the floor. 'That's right. His sister had got hooked up with Ricky Kane. He followed Kane's trail the same way y'all did, and it took him to Coleman's. On one of those trips, Kane went into the office with Sondra Wilson, and when he came out, he was alone. Sondra was Coleman's woman, just like that, and it pushed Wilson way over the edge.'

'You were in at this point?'

'Right about then, yeah. It was easy, just like Delgado said; wasn't nothin' but drivin' around the block a couple of times, twice a month. I didn't see anything all that wrong with it at the time.'

'Bullshit'

'Just trying to explain it to you, how it was.'

'Bullshit,' said Qui

'Wilson was surveilling now in his street clothes, by the Junkyard and on the corners. I guess that's when he got those pictures of me. He knew he couldn't go up against Coleman's army himself, and he didn't know who to trust anymore inside the department. But by now he was all fucked up over his sister, and he was gettin' out of control. He threatened Delgado outside of Erika's one night. He threatened me.'

'You and Delgado went to Coleman.'

'Delgado did. They decided to get rid of Chris Wilson. For Delgado, it was easy. By then I'd found out he'd killed before for Coleman. It didn't matter what I knew at that point; I was damn near one of them. They wanted me all the way in, locked in for real.'

'They wanted you to kill Wilson.'

'That's right.' Franklin dropped the towel at his feet. A drop of blood burst from his cut and trickled down his cheek.

'They had Kane call Wilson out?'

Franklin nodded. 'Kane told Wilson he'd gotten his sister back. To meet him on D Street at a certain time. They knew Wilson would lose it when he got there and found Kane alone. I drove us up on the scene. You know what happened next.'

'You tell me, Eugene. You tell me what happened next.'

'I never shot a man. Never even shot at one, Terry. I had my gun out and I had it pointed at him, but-'

'Why didn't you shoot him, Eugene?'

'Because you shot him first.'

Qui

'No, I didn't know. But I knew you were more capable of it than I was. And I knew

'What?'

'I knew you. I knew what you'd see when you saw Chris Wilson holding a gun on Ricky Kane.'

Qui

'You won't do it, Terry. There's a part of me that wishes you would. But you won't.'

'You're right,' said Qui

'I'm sorry, man.'

'Fuck you, Eugene. Fuck your apologies, too. Write it down.'

Franklin wrote a full confession out on the yellow pad, signed and dated the bottom of the last page, and dropped the pen when he was done.

'I'd like to talk to my father before this makes the news,' said Franklin. 'When are you going to turn this in?'

'After we get the girl home.'

'She's not in D.C.'

'I know it,' said Qui

Franklin dabbed at the cut on his temple. The bleeding had stopped, and he lowered the towel. 'I'm going to be there with Delgado tomorrow night.'

'Why?'

'We're dropping off money and bringing back a load of drugs.'

'Thought you never had to do anything but drive around the block.'

'We met with Coleman earlier,' said Franklin. 'Those rednecks you followed, the Boones: the short one's named Ray, and his father's name is Earl. They killed a couple of Colombian mules, out at that property. Coleman wants us to kill the Boones, to make himself right with the Colombians.'

'What about the girl?'

'They didn't mention the girl, maybe because they knew I wouldn't like what they had to say. Delgado used to hit it himself, and he still has her on his mind. He starts killin', though, I don't see him stopping until everyone's put to sleep.'

'And you'll do what?'

'I can't shoot anybody, Terry. I already told you-'

'This is going down tomorrow night?'

'I'm meeting Delgado at eight… That would put us out there near nine o'clock. They're going to pick us up somewhere else, then drive us back to the place.'