Death Notes

me, honey. Buddha Teagues is an ass and don’t you forget it. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’
    ‘Are you saying there’s no policy?’
    ‘I’m not saying that at all. But I didn’t get it, Match did.’
    ‘I asked you to be straight with me, Sharon.’
    ‘I am straight, honey. I just don’t appreciate you jumping on every single rumor you hear. This is no way to work for somebody.’
    I plucked the bad check out of her pudgy fist.
    ‘Neither is this. If you don’t mind, I’ll hold on to this until you give me the cash tomorrow.’
    I stepped away from the door to let her pass. She threw it open and clattered out into the crowd.
    I stood for a moment in the relative quiet of the empty bathroom, wishing Match had had better judgment picking his wife, his friends, his band, and his enemies.
    I pulled a cup out of the dispenser on the wall, filled it at the sink, and drank.
    My back was to the door when it whooshed open in a rush of sound - crowd noise and music - and smoke. I turned and there was Rochelle Posner, looking as surprised as I felt.
    ‘Hummmph!’ she said, and slid her boot backward to wedge her heel against the door. Nobody else could come in. People were going to think I’d set up an office in here.
    ‘Rochelle,’ I said, and nodded.
    Her expression seemed just a shade less hostile than it had earlier, but I wasn’t sure. Turned out I was wrong.
    ‘Ain’t you something?’ she huffed.
    With angry people it’s usually best to be friendly and calm and civilized. I pulled out a business card, crossed the room and offered it to her.
    ‘You might not feel like talking now, but if you change your mind, here’s my card. You can call me day or night.’
    She eyed the card, but didn’t take it.
    ‘You got questions?’
    It sounded like a dare.
    ‘A few.’ I returned the card to my pocket. ‘Have you got answers?’
    ‘Those police wasted enough of my time.’
    ‘Maybe you haven’t heard my questions before.’ Her curiosity hadn’t got the best of her but she was still there and still engaged, so I carried on. ‘Did anybody in the band ever have any disagreements with Match?’
    She crossed her long bare arms over her chest and scowled.
    ‘You don’t know nothin’, girl, do you? Match was all class, understand? He was good, always askin’ to hear what you had.
    Always.Anybody, anytime. Not just us. Any young blood jazz fool could come in and Match’d say, just like they was somethin’ special, “Let’s hear what you got!” That was his rep, girl. Good to the bone.’
    I thought of the twenty thousand he’d borrowed from Malone just before starting up the band.
    ‘Did he ever buy any songs?’
    ‘Buy? Did you say buy ? I’d pay him. It’s an honor to have Match play your stuff, girl. He announces to the audience he’s doin’ one of yours and everybody hears your name. Then he rips into your song and brings the house down with it. You hot shit, all ’cause you got to be somethin’ special for Match to do your stuff.’
    ‘I didn’t hear him say he was playing anybody’s songs Saturday night.’
    ‘Thing about Match, he let you down easy. Left you respect so you didn’t feel so bad if he didn’t take up your stuff.’
    She closed her mouth and eyed me up and down.
    ‘What you think you gonna find, girl, asking these things?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ I answered honestly.
    That’s the problem with questions: you don’t always get answers and sometimes, if you do get them, they’re not the ones you want.
    Somebody knocked on the door. Rochelle hesitated, slid her foot to the floor and let in a couple of been-around-the-block brunettes in black tights and leather jackets. They both stared at me, then at Rochelle, then made a beeline for the stalls. Rochelle kept her hand on the door knob. She’d had enough. But I hadn’t.
    ‘One last question,’ I said.
    She touched her turban and huffed loudly to let me know she was doing me a big favor just by being there.
    ‘Who was in charge of the band if Match wasn’t there? Was it Dickie?’
    ‘Dickie?’ she repeated incredulously, then threw her head back and laughed. ‘Go back to your planet, girl, ’cause you ain’t doin’ nobody no good on this one.’
    She shot me one last derisive glare before steaming out the door.
    I waited a few minutes just to give her enough room to get clear of me and followed the brunettes when they left. As it turned out, I should have gone out with Rochelle. Not