Lousiana Hotshot

kitten— cutest little thing you ever saw.”
    “He gets to pet it?”
    “Yeah, sure. Hold it and everything.”
    “Ohhhhh. Lucky!” Talba could hear the longing in her voice and thought that Cassandra was someone who seldom got what she wanted. She realized that, in spite of herself, the girl was taking to Eddie— that somehow or other he’d gotten around her. And that Aziza had been completely wrong: Talba would get nowhere with her. So far, she was anything but an asset.
    For some reason, Eddie was kicking at her, gently. She had no experience with kids, no knowledge of them, and absolutely no idea what to do now. All she knew was, she was pissed off at the kid, Eddie, and herself, in that order. “Aren’t we getting a little off the subject?” she said, and felt ashamed when she heard the testiness in her voice. She was being childish, and she knew it.
    And yet, Eddie stopped kicking her. Even spoke kindly, sounding a little abashed that he wasn’t acting properly. “Yeah, I guess we are. Listen, Cassandra, I know it’s hard for you, but we’ve been hired to find the guy who— uh— you know—” He actually started to blush.
    “The asshole,” Talba said, suddenly seeing her role and warming to it: she was the bad cop.
    “He is
not
an asshole,” Cassandra flashed. “He’s just somebody I met.”
    Eddie said, “My grandson’s a— you know— a young male. People could say things. I know how you feel, baby.”
    Drunk with power, Talba said, “How’d you happen to meet him, Cassandra?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know.”
    Aziza spoke sharply. “Cassandra!”
    Cassandra telegraphed her a couple of hate-rays, and spoke to Eddie: “We were just at somebody’s house and somebody knew him, so we called him to come over.”
    “Whose house, baby?”
    Before the girl could speak, Aziza Scott said, “Shaneel’s. Shaneel Johnson, the girl who goes to Fortier.” Darryl’s school.
    “And how do you know Shaneel?”
    She was quiet for a while, but Eddie waited her out. “Choir,” she said at last.
    “Was Shaneel the one who knew him?”
    “I don’t remember.”
    “Well, who else was there?” Talba gave her voice an edge.
    “I don’t
remember.”
    Eddie said, “Was he somebody’s brother or boyfriend? I mean, why’d you call him?”
    She looked down, obviously hating the question, but not wanting to be rude to Eddie. “He knows cool people. He said he could introduce us.”
    “To cool people?”
    “I guess so.”
    “So did he bring them over?”
    “No.”
    Aziza Scott apparently could stand it no more, the way they were tweezing information, hair by hair. “He took them over to his house.”
    Eddie looked at the girls from over his eye pouches. “That so, baby?”
    Cassandra nodded.
    “How many girls?”
    She shrugged.
    “And were the cool people over there?”
    Slowly, she shook her head.
    “You must have been together quite a while, right?” He waited for her to nod. “Ya mama says you don’t know his name.”
    “I do know his name. His name’s Toes.”
    Talba said, half-kidding, “Oh, no. Now Eddie’s gonna think all black people have weird names.”
    “Toes what, baby?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Eddie considered. “Well, honey, you’re a beautiful girl, you know that? Why would a beautiful girl like you…”
    “He said he could really love me!” The words came at them like a punch in the mouth. She screamed them, eyes flashing fury at all three of them.
    “But he did tell you you’re beautiful, didn’t he?” Eddie spoke infinitely gently. “Because you are, honey, you are. Don’t ya ever sell yaself short again.” He touched her gently on the shoulder, in a way that managed somehow not to be patronizing.
    He got up to leave, and Talba took her cue from him, standing as well.
    On the way out, he said to Aziza: “Did he hit on Shaneel? Or anyone else who was there?”
    “Cassandra says not. And you saw what the diary said— about how flattered she was to be singled out.”
    “Ms. Scott,” Talba said. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
    Scott’s face broke out in smiles; she all but wriggled. “Why, yes, I do. Why do you ask?”
    “I think your daughter needs you worse than he does right now.” She figured since she was already pegged as the bad cop, she could say anything she wanted.
    They were silent for the first part of the drive home, and Talba was grateful for it. He wasn’t saying a word about either her ineptitude or bad manners.