Shetani's Sister (13 page)

Pee Wee leaned in close to Petra. “But we ho's are in danger of bein' played for bigger fools than we are.”

Petra recoiled. “If you're unhappy, talk to Daddy about it. I don't like to talk to unhappy people.”

The whites of Pee Wee's eyes flared like phosphorus. “Hey, Miss White Queen, don't lay that shit on this ghetto bitch. Sure, you're the bottom woman. I heard you been to college, that you was born in a pad like a castle. So what? Petra, you ain't more than me or any other ho. All of us is just slaves, buyin' so-called choice dick and protection. We get punished when we break Shetani's rules. What the fuck happens when he…”

“Shut up!” Petra said as she jerked herself to her feet. She glared down at Pee Wee as she went on. “I'm not going to listen to any more. You cracked about coming from a ghetto. Baby, you came from a relative paradise with a loving mother. I escaped from a ghetto of plastic people with bankbook hearts. My mother, may she rest in everlasting misery, was a savage in sable. She loved my younger sister. She hated me because I look like my father. She called me filthy names when I failed to be perfect. So don't crack ghetto to me.”

Petra turned away and moved toward the house. Pee Wee followed.

“Petra, you riskin' your ass every night, and you oughta know that Shetani is chumpin' off with Tuta.”

Petra halted at the back door. “Read my lips. I don't want you to tell me anything about him,” she spat out.

Pee Wee put her palm against the screen door. “I ain't tellin'. I'm showin',” she said as she whipped out the picture and shoved it under Petra's eyes.

Pee Wee noticed Petra's hand tremble slightly as she stared at the picture in the glare of an overhead light. Pee Wee half whispered, “Last Saturday night, just before you took the girls to work, I heard him make a date with Tuta. He told Tuta he would take her to Memory Lane at eleven. He told her he'd make her money right for you at check-in time.”

Petra turned and stuck the picture into Pee Wee's robe pocket before she opened the screen door and entered the house. Pee Wee followed.

“Pee Wee, I can't say thanks, so I'm not saying anything.”

Pee Wee said, “I'm sorry he got weak for her and broke a player's rule.” Pee Wee split off from her in the kitchen and moved toward the staircase. She turned back into the kitchen. Petra was taking a carton of milk from the refrigerator.

“I'm kinda hopin' you won't pull Shetani's coat about me and the picture,” Pee Wee said softly.

Petra turned to face her with elevated eyebrows. “Why did you show it and give me that rundown of what you overheard?”

Pee Wee replied strongly, “ 'Cause he don't deserve no star ho's like us.”

Petra smiled. “You could be right…Let's keep the picture our secret.”

Pee Wee shook Petra's free hand. “Thanks, girl. I like you even though you are the bottom.” They laughed together. Pee Wee left the kitchen and hurried to her room. She packed Tuta's belongings into two suitcases. Then she lay across her bed and catnapped until almost dawn. Then she called motels and hotels near Hollywood. She finally reserved a motel room in Silver Lake, a mecca for gay couples.

She kissed Tuta awake. “Shetani is gonna try to trace you, baby. I think takin' a cab is not cool. Ain't you got some regular trick's number you can call?”

Tuta knuckled sleep from her eyes. “Yeah, I got a couple I'll call after I pee,” she said as she swung out of bed for the bathroom.

She returned to get, on her first call, the trick's solemn promise to pick her up at an address down the road within twenty minutes.

Shortly, dawn arrived. Before they left the room with the bags, Pee Wee shoved a packet of money and skag into Tuta's bra.

“Pay a week's rent, and this medicine will keep you well until I see you,” Pee Wee said.

They went through the quiet house to the front door.

“Wee, somebody in the house, or maybe Froggy, might see you helping me. I can make it with the bags,” Tuta said as they kissed.

Pee Wee opened the door. She blinked back tears as she watched Tuta go down the long driveway to a tall steel gate. She watched her glance at an adjoining cubicle, where Froggy slept, before she swung open the gate.

Pee Wee stood in the doorway, ready to help her with the bags, until she disappeared from view.

At that moment, Eli, seated on the throne in the guest bungalow, glanced out toward the roadway. His drowsy double-take revealed a deserted roadway. Had he really seen a flash of Tuta with suitcases? he wondered as he tissued himself and rose to his feet.

He glanced into snoring Cazo's room and smiled to see him asleep with his head between his sleeping girlfriend's thighs.

He went into his bedroom and lay down beside his girlfriend. A moment later, he jumped up and threw on a robe. He rushed to the roadway. He sprinted down it in the direction that Tuta had gone. He peered into several cars in driveways, and into stands of shrubbery, on his way back to the bungalow.

He sat on the side of the bed, looking at the telephone. He decided he couldn't awaken Shetani and risk his wrath with a false alarm.

He went into Cazo's room and took keys to the mansion off the dresser top. He used the back-door key to enter the house. He went up the staircase and down the hallway to Tuta's room. The floorboards creaked beneath his weight when he put his ear to the door.

Inside, Pee Wee faked sleep. Eli eased the door open and stared at Tuta's empty bed. He looked in the closet and saw that Tuta's bright-blue bags were gone. He went to check out the bathroom.

He hurried to Shetani's door. He knocked three times before Shetani eyed him through the peephole and removed the door chain to face him.

“You forget how to dial a phone? What's wrong?” Shetani said sharply as he glared at the giant.

“Cap, Tuta's done hit the wind,” Eli exclaimed.

Shetani's mouth gaped open. “Why? I mean, when?”

Eli jiggled his platter palms in the air. “A few minutes ago Cap. I, uh…was half asleep when I thought I saw her splittin'. It was too late when I come to myself.”

Shetani bulled him out of the way and ran to the side of Pee Wee's bed. He stared down at her, with his mouth aquiver, for a moment. Then he bent over to whisper harshly into her ear: “You lousy cunt-eatin' bitch! Open your eyes and tell me where my ho went.”

Pee Wee remained in fake slumber. He took a lighter from his pajama pocket and flicked it on. He moved the flame close to her cheek. She stirred and moved her head. He whispered into her ear, “Bitch, I'm gonna set your hair on fire if you don't open your eyes and tell me where my ho went.”

Pee Wee's eyes popped open. “Master, I swear I don't know.”

He rammed his face close to her. “Roommate, why didn't you stop her or tip me off?”

Pee Wee moved away to prop herself up against pillows. “Hey, Master, I ain't your bottom. I ain't responsible for no ho's ass 'cept my own.”

He gritted his teeth and made a fist. She screamed and half covered her face with her hands. He grunted for velocity and slammed his fist into her face. A huge diamond ring slashed a bloody rill across her cheek.

Half stunned, she finger-patted the wound. He snatched her purse off her nightstand and dumped the contents onto the foot of her bed. She gazed at her bloody fingertips as he examined a notebook.

Eli watched her shocked face deform into hideous rage. He moved to her bedside.

She reached beneath the pillows. He sprang on her and seized her gun wrist as she blurred out her automatic and aimed it at Shetani's head.

Shetani dropped to the carpet at the pop of the round that entered the ceiling. Petra rushed into the room. Pee Wee was trapped beneath Eli's bulk. Shetani pushed him away and locked his hands around Pee Wee's throat.

“Where's Tuta?” he shrieked as he tightened his grip.

“Stop! You're killing her,” Petra wailed as she tried to pull Shetani away.

Pee Wee went limp. Eli pried Shetani's hands away.

“Cap, you don't really want to kill the ho,” Eli said as he half lifted Shetani into a leather chair.

Shetani stared balefully at Pee Wee as she came to. “Lock that treacherous ho up, and warm up the van. We're gonna find Tuta,” Shetani said, and got to his feet.

“You mean you're actually gonna try to find a runaway ho?” Petra cracked with sarcastic awe.

He slapped her hard against the side of her face. “Don't crack on me, ho. I'll lock your ass up, too,” he shouted.

Petra slunk from the room, rubbing her jaw.

After Eli locked up Pee Wee, he awakened Cazo. In pajamas and robes, they sat in the idling van, waiting for Shetani.

“Say, Cazo, Cap is been uncool since Petra hijacked Maxine—uh, Tuta—from that punk…a stone-to-the-bone mack like him ain't fell in love, huh?”

Cazo chewed his bottom lip. “Naw, Eli. I think Cap is in worse trouble than that. He don't read nothin' but them stack of books about dead people comin' back to life. He loves his dead baby sis so much, I think he's done conned himself that Maxine is really Tuta. Remember, he changed Maxine's name soon as he saw her.”

Eli shook his head. “Yeah. I guess you got him figured right…Sure is a shame for a mack like Cap to have a problem like that upstairs. I wonder what…”

The approach of Shetani cut him off. “Let's ride,” Shetani said as he took a seat between the twins. Eli pulled the van away down to the flatlands.

“Cap, how, where we gonna start lookin'?” Eli said softly.

“I'm gonna check cab companies and cabbies. I'm willing to lay out a grand to find out where Tuta went. Maybe she didn't leave by cab. I'll lay a grand apiece on you to snatch her whenever you spot her and bring her home to me.”

That night, before taking the stable to the street, Petra took skag and a tray of food to Pee Wee.

“Did he find Tuta?” she said as she stooped to take the tray that Petra shoved under the cell door.

“No. He tried until late afternoon,” Petra said.

Pee Wee turned away to place the tray on her steel-slab bed. She noticed the glassine bag containing a bit of skag and a syringe.

“Thanks a lot, Petra,” Pee Wee said as she gripped the cell-door bars.

“You're welcome. This penitentiary practices humane treatment of convicts.”

Pee Wee eye-swept the huge barren cell. “Hey, deputy warden, this is twice as bad as the worst joint I've been in.” They laughed mirthlessly.

Petra said, “In a few minutes, the twins will bring all of your stuff, including bedding and a TV.” She paused to laugh sarcastically. “Daddy didn't tell me he wanted you to suffer down here.”

Pee Wee grunted. “How long do you think I'm in for?”

Petra shrugged. “If you know where Tuta is, tell. He said you can get out when Tuta is back in the house.”

Pee Wee sighed. “I don't know where she is.” She riveted her eyes on Petra's face. “He send that medicine?”

Petra replied, “No. It's my private stock. You must be needing.” She handed Pee Wee a book of matches from her robe pocket.

“I'm all right for now. I snorted a taste that I had in my bosom.”

Petra smiled. “I did my bit down here in darkness. I'll leave you this candle. See you later.” Petra turned and went toward the stairs.

“Thanks again, girl,” Pee Wee said. She went to sit on the steel bed. She put the tray on her lap and started to eat.

Around 9:00 p.m., in South Central L.A., Leon finally located Rucker at home. He told him that the street vine said that Shetani had lost Tuta and had searched the streets for her all day.

Leon hung up and dressed for the street. His mother came out of the kitchen and followed him to the front door. Her seamed face was mock angry. She stepped in front of him and said sternly, “Jiver, you promised me you wouldn't go out every night when you moved back home. Stay home and keep your mama company.”

Leon bear-hugged her. “Mama, let's play cards tomorrow night. I promised Rainbow I'd take him to North Hollywood.” He kissed her cheek. She opened the door.

“I'm gonna lock up your clothes if you don't stay home tomorrow night,” she said as he went down the walk.

He got into his Caddie, parked in front of the house. He glanced at a rooming house across the street and blew the horn twice.

A moment later, Rainbow came out of the house and got into the Caddie. Forty minutes later, they got out on a market parking lot to hustle slum.

Five minutes later, they were rousted off the lot by a market security man. Leon drove toward West Hollywood. Bone-tired Rainbow catnapped on the Caddie's rear seat.

“Hey, bro, what's happenin'?” Rainbow mumbled when Leon suddenly stopped the car.

“Ain't this a bitch?” Leon exclaimed as he stared at Crane and Petra leaving a motel room.

They walked toward Crane's undercover black Dodge. Petra turned back toward the room to retrieve her makeup kit.

Rainbow lifted his head and glanced at the scene from his prone position. “Damn, bro, it ain't big news when that ho catches a trick.”

Leon said, “Bow, that dude with her is Crane, one of Sergeant Rucker's ho-squad cops.”

Rainbow coiled into a ball. “Well, she must of caught him and got a pass for some gash.”

Leon eased the Caddie away. Crane snared him in the corner of an eye. His face was grim as he slid into the Dodge. He pulled out of the lot without Petra. He tailed Leon with a block between them in medium traffic.

Leon was excited as he drove toward West Hollywood. He knew what Rucker was trying to find out, why the Shetani stable was immune to bust. He'd call the station. He'd leave Rucker the phone number of a bar where he hung out in the early a.m.

He parked the Caddie on the street beside a darkened gas station. “I'm gonna call my mama,” he said as he left the car.