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.Not when Mr.Fletcher 115CALL AND ANSWERbelieved the Broussards owed him answers.Charlie stepped in front of Henri and Jeanne.“Bernie.”“Charlie.” Mr.Fletcher’s gaze slid to Henri.“Bernie, what’s going on?”“I need to talk to Henri.”“Well, you can talk to me.What’s on your mind?”“A man called and told me to quit looking for Sophie.He was drunk.”“Like you, right now?”“No, they were tipsy and having fun.I could hear Sophie laughing.This man didn’t say his name, but he sounded black.What do you say, Henri? Is that your guitar-playing friend?”It’s Mr.Belmont, Henri thought.“Why you think Henri knows Sophie’s friends?” Charlie’s eyes narrowed.“Try asking someone at random.Whole town knows about Henri and Sophie.”“I don’t like what you imply.”Henri broke out in a sweat.“Sir, I wish I could help you.”“Your friends at Haley’s?” Mr.Fletcher said.“You think they know this man?”Jeanne broke in.“My son, he don’t step foot in that juke-joint.”Mr.Fletcher ignored her and jutted his chin toward Charlie.“I tell you what else.Some of Rufus Jackson’s neighbors talked to me.They’re all on a party line.They heard my wife call him up several nights this summer.”“He refused to talk to her,” Henri said.“They tell you he always hung up?”“Yeah, I thought you knew about it.You going to talk or should I find Rufus?”116CALL AND ANSWER“What are you going to do?” Charlie asked.“Give Rufus a beating? Drag Tommy Lee across Louisiana, tracking Sophie down? Or maybe you go to Haley’s and tear up the first black man you see?”“Some ass-kicking might be in order,” Mr.Fletcher said.“You so drunk you’ll probably kill somebody.”“What if I do?”“You go up for murder, Bernie, and I’ll testify you expressed intent to kill.”“Dad,” Tommy Lee said, “maybe we should listen to Mr.Broussard.”“Look here, Charlie, I’m the one with the law degree.”“Then you ought to know that you headed for the chair up at Angola.”Fear flashed across Tommy Lee’s face.“Daddy!”“Then who’ll look after your boy?” Charlie asked.“Tommy Lee’s grown.” Mr.Fletcher blinked, glassy-eyed.“He’s headed for college.”“You take Tommy Lee home.” Charlie’s voice took on a desperate note.“Please.”Mr.Fletcher looked impatient to leave.He nodded to Jeanne.“Ma’am.”The Fletchers headed back to the Cadillac where the two men awaited.That made three white men, four if Tommy Lee counted, getting drunk and mean, and headed for the black side of town.“I’m calling the cops,” Charlie said.“They can’t arrest anybody if nothing’s happened yet,” Jeanne said.Charlie cut across the park, intercepting one of the town cops, who was eating an ice-cream cone near the bandstand.Henri and 117CALL AND ANSWERJeanne watched as Charlie waved his hands with each emphatic statement.Meanwhile, the cop stood, lapping ice cream as it melted down his fat fingers.“They won’t do anything,” Henri said.He swung east to face the bayou, and some kids, playing tag, veered around him.Now he trembled like a struck cymbal as his thoughts scattered.He held so much accumulated power that it felt about to tear him apart.Gabriel would have sensed it by now.He would be waiting at the bayou, listening for Henri’s instructions to be spoken upon the heavy air.“Henri?” Jeanne stepped toward him.He fell to his knees, sinking his fingers into the grass.The wind roared up out of nowhere.It snatched at picnic baskets and helium balloons, and flattened one of the vendors’ tents.It swept over Henri, moving west to east.In a panic, he imagined Mr.Fletcher headed for the Jackson land with murder in his heart, just as those white men had killed Mr.Jackson’s father back in 1926.He spoke into the rippling grass, and the earth and wind received his words.“Stop him,” he said.The wind died, taking all the accumulated power from him in a shivering rush.Henri stood, trembling, wondering if he’d fall to the ground and sleep as he had done after healing Mr.Jackson [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]