The Empress File

on respectable women, or any kind of woman, for that matter, if you got even an ounce of breeding—”
    “This is bullshit,” Hill said, twisting up to look at Bell. “Ask him about Atkins!”
    Marvel looked at me and shook her head. “I saw the man only one other time, when Miz Dessusdelit and the others quit. I thought he was a friend—I only saw him from behind. I thought he was Lou Shaffer from the school—and I squeezed his arm, but when he turned around… I was embarrassed.”
    Bell looked from one of us to the other, not quite believing.
    Then I said, “Fuck it—excuse me, ma’am. But I’m getting out of here. You’re all crazy people. I’m taking the car back to Miz Wells’s brother, and I’m getting in my boat, and I’m getting out of here.”
    Bell sighed. “I don’t know,” he said. He lookedat Ballem and Hill. “Come on, you two. If you’re going to do it, let’s do it.”
    Marvel and I left first, not looking at each other, and turned in opposite directions once we were in the hall. I walked straight down to the phone and said, “They’re all here: Ballem, Hill, St. Thomas, and Rebeck.”
    “Go?”
    “Go.”
    I UNDERSTOOD from Bell’s comment as Marvel and I left the council offices that Hill and Ballem were ready to quit. I almost left after talking to LuEllen but decided at the last minute to stick around for the finale. When I went back to the city council room, people were packed in the hallway.
    “What happened?” I asked.
    “I don’t know. Duane’s saying something about his quitting,” said a yellow-toothed courthouse regular standing in the doorway. Hill stopped talking, and Bell said something I couldn’t understand, and Ballem started talking. Two minutes later it was done, and the two men walked out through the side door, leaving Bell at the council table, along with Brooking Davis and Reverend Dodge.
    Davis was talking to Bell, and the yellow-toothed man turned and said in a panicky voice, “That Davis is asking about electing new members.Son of a bitch, there’s two coloreds against Lucius.”
    There was some further exchange at the council table, and the gavel rapped, and Bell, Davis, and Dodge got up and walked out. “Lucius called a recess,” Yellow-tooth said. “By golly, this could be bad.”
    Whatever was happening, I couldn’t change it. Time to go. I was out the door, crossing the street to the parking lot, when I heard somebody coming after me. Hill, I thought, and I pivoted. It was Marvel.
    “Gotta talk,” she said in a harsh whisper.
    “Jesus Christ, Marvel, if anybody sees us, the whole thing comes unglued.…”
    “I can’t help it,” she whispered. I pointed to the other side of the car as I unlocked the door and said, “Lay down on the backseat.”
    When she was in, I started the car and rolled out of the lot, turned away from the courthouse, and started around the block.
    “What?” I asked.
    “A problem we didn’t see.” Her voice was disembodied, floating over the backseat. “Bell caught on, of course, as soon as Davis suggested nominations for new members.”
    “What can he do about it? He’s outvoted, two to one.”
    “He can do two things that we didn’t think of.He can refuse to go back to the meeting. Without a quorum there’s no vote,” she said.
    “Shit.” I gnawed at a thumbnail. “He can’t stay out forever, though.”
    “And he can quit. That would do it. The governor would have to appoint replacements again, and there’d be three more white boys. And Bell’s talking about doing just that.”
    “Goddamn it. Who’s he talking to? Everybody? Or just Davis.”
    “Just me and Davis. I think he’s still trying to figure out what we’re doing. And he really doesn’t want to quit; that’d be the end for his precious bridge.”
    I took a couple of more blocks, worrying it. There was only one out. “You gotta deal with him,” I said. “You. Or Davis. Somebody. You’ve gotta find a way to cut a deal with Bell.”
    “How?” she asked. “He doesn’t even want to live here. He wants to live across the river, in a whole ’nother state. He’s here only because he thinks it’ll help him get that fuckin’ bridge.”
    “Then get the bridge for him,” I said.
    “I can’t. Everybody’s tried. And they’ve tried about everything they could think of.”
    “Well, I’ll tell you what, Marvel,” I said. “If he walks out of that City Hall without going back to the meeting, the white