Something about her youth, her solemnity, her faith in Brian Krumas, made me nostalgic for my own youth. I gave her a quick hug and went off to buy Elton’s sandwich.
The next morning I started my dance with Johnny Merton’s lawyer. Nothing in Greg Yeoman’s manner inspired my confidence, but I tried to tread softly around him: he was my ticket to seeing the Anaconda chief. When I met Yeoman at his South Side office, he put on the act of someone who knew the gang world inside out and would run interference for a price.
“I’m not paying for the privilege of talking to Johnny. I only want to know if he’ll talk to me. And given how crappy Stateville is, it will be easier if he’ll let me come in as part of his legal team. That way, we can meet more easily and talk with a pretense of privacy.”
“Yes, Ms. Detective, but that kind of work costs money. If you want to see Johnny in a hurry, it will help you if you and I become friends.”
Ah yes, becoming friends. A Chicago euphemism for bribe.
“After all, the Anacondas still have a street presence, and you wouldn’t want word to get out that you were threatening Merton,” Yeoman added.
“But if it does, I’ll know where to come for help, is that it?” I smiled sweetly.
He gave the satisfied smile of a man who sees that the little woman understands how powerless she is. “If Johnny knows we’re friends, I don’t think it will come to that. But I can’t look out for you for nothing.”
“Then we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that. Of course, Lamont Gadsden was close to Johnny all those years back when they were protecting Dr. King. Johnny won’t be happy if he thinks his own lawyer was keeping him from helping Lamont’s mama look for her missing son.” I got up to leave. “I’m writing Johnny, you understand, writing to ask him to put me on his meeting list. It’ll just be easier if he’s willing to give me legal credentials—I’m still a member of the bar, after all. But I don’t want you to have to do any work that you don’t want to, so don’t you worry, I’ll put it all in writing.”
Yeoman gave me a look that made me glad I was standing near the exit, but he said there was no need to be so very literal-minded, he’d talk to Johnny when he went out to Stateville on Monday.
“In that case, I can send this letter without making changes to it.” I handed Yeoman a copy of the letter I’d written his client. Of course, I didn’t say Johnny was the last known person to see Lamont Gadsden alive. I merely wrote that I was making inquiries on behalf of Ella Gadsden and her sister, Claudia, and, since Johnny knew everyone in West Englewood, I was hoping he could give me some names of more people to talk to.
On my way back to my office I stopped at Fit for Your Hoof. The man who’d been there on my first visit was sweeping the sidewalk again, singing to himself, but when he saw me his eyes widened in fear and he bolted into the shop.
When I followed him in, he was clutching Curtis Rivers’s leather apron. “She gonna hurt me. She gonna take away my manhood.”
“No, she’s not, Kimathi, because I won’t let her.” Curtis folded his newspaper under his arm and led the frightened man into some inner part of the shop behind the repair equipment.
When Rivers came back, he glared at me. “What did you say to Kimathi to frighten him so badly?”
“Nothing.” I was bewildered. “He saw me and ran for cover. What’s he afraid of?”
“If you don’t already know, it’s none of your damned business to find it out. What is it you’re really after, Ms. Detective Warshawski? Who you protecting or hurting or covering up for?”
No one else was in the shop. I sat on one of the stools next to the tiny chess table. “What’s that supposed to mean? I told you what I wanted and why. Who’s suggesting it’s something else?”
“That’s well done, all innocent indignation. I’m impressed.”
I clasped my fingers under my chin, studying him. “You’re protecting this guy who’s hanging around your shop. I don’t know how to persuade you I’m not here to hurt anyone—”
He slapped his paper onto the small space between us. “You can’t.”
“But I’m starting to think you know where Lamont Gadsden went all those years ago. Is it his mother who’s got you so angry? She is a difficult woman, I know. Is there some secret from the old days that I don’t know about?”
“I think I already said more than you needed to hear.” He got up and went behind his counter.
“Rose Hebert saw you enter the Waltz Right Inn right after Lamont went in there with Johnny Merton the night before the big snow. That was the last time anyone knew him to be alive.”
“Now I know you’re lying!” He crashed a fistful of tools onto the counter. “Rose Hebert in the Waltz Right Inn? You overplayed your hand right there, lady.”