Hood Ornaments

“You did what?” Malik said grimacing at Dell while they waited at the lunch truck “I dunno if you have a death wish or what, but Sticks said…”

“Look this is Tori we are talkin about, and as far as I am concerned, all Sticks is worried about is himself. Someone has to look out for her. Her parents are gone and I love Trudy to life, but she’s a citizen. She really can’t help Tori.”

Malik just continued to glare at Dell.

“Besides, Sticks will never know if we don’t tell him. I told Tori to stand down until we knew more. It will be okay.”

Malik sighed as he paid for his food, “How did she take it?”

Dell just shook his head, “Like I told her I got a C in algebra. Not much at all. But it was cold there and we were both on payphones.”

The pair were still walking when Malik kind of chuckled, “That girl is a little G.”

“Yeah she has more of her Daddy in her than even she knows.” Malik scowled and Dell quickly decided to shut up. He said too much already.

“Yo, I’m headed back to the crib; you gotta head back to school?”

Dell nodded.

“Yeah how the fuck you get a C in algebra yo. You should be good at numbers.”

Dell sucked his teeth, “Well apparently, I wasn’t cut out for that life. I am more of a writer anyway.”

“Yeah well your life would make a good book. You can’t make this shit up.”

“No doubt.”

They gave each other a pound, and then Dell reluctantly went to Algebra class.

Malik went home to eat and figure out a game plan to get in touch with the last loose end.

When Trudy came home from the market, she noticed a business card stuck in the window of her screen door. Frowning, she snatched it out and tried to wipe a greasy thumbprint off of her window with the cuff of her coat.

“Damn people have no respect for people’s homes anymore.”

She muttered to no one but herself as she held the screen door open with her hip.

Sighing, she set the bags down on the kitchen table and took a closer look at the card. Upon reading the words homicide and detective her mind started racing. But Trudy knew better than to overreact.

Tori was in Chicago, she just saw Dell the other day, and he would have informed her if anyone was harmed. So she just went back to tending to her groceries when she heard pounding at the front door.

That wasn’t a good thing.

Everyone who meant anything to her knew to use the side door.

She walked across the tiny living room, unlocked the four locks on the door and whipped it open. She glared at the detectives. One was tall and lanky; the other was the opposite. They looked like the number ten.

“Ma’am,” number one said while flashing his badge, “We’re…”

Trudy interrupted him as she opened the screen door holding it open so the detectives could come inside, “I know who y’all are and if y’all woulda let me put my groceries away and make some lunch I woulda called you. Ain’t no emergency, I assume?”

Number one, obviously embarrassed, lowered his head, “No ma’am…”

“Well git on in the house it’s cold and I’m hungry. Y’all want some tomato soup?”

The detectives followed Trudy back into the kitchen, and she motioned for them to sit down at the small table.

“No ma’am. We don’t want to trouble you.”

“You already troubled me when you pounded at the front door. I should have known better. That narc car wasn’t foolin no one at the corner. Now what’s this all about?”

The zero took a deep breath, “I’m sure that you heard on the news about the bodies cemented in the basement of the building on the waterfront?”

Trudy went into one of the bags on the table and took out a package of breakfast sausage, “How could I not hear? They interrupted my stories with an alert. They run a constant scrolling news feed at the bottom of my screen with print so tiny, I can’t even read it.”

Number one’s voice became more urgent, “Ms. Watts is it?”

Trudy was taken aback by his tone, “That is my name. But I’m sure y’all knew that already. I’m not understanding what those bodies have to do with me.”

The zero continued in a softer tone, “I don’t know how to tell you this ma’am, but we believe one of the bodies was your son Andre.”

The seriousness of the conversation was broken by Trudy’s loud scream. The zero rubbed her hand; the one put his hand on her shoulder.

To their surprise, her scream turned into cackling laughter. Trudy shrugged the detectives off of her and began to unpack the rest of the bag.

“Y’all bammas are about seventeen years too late. Andre was found in that house fire years ago. Body charred so bad, it took other means to identify him. Why on earth would you think my son was one of them bodies?”

Number ten reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the chain with Andre’s class ring on it and set it on the kitchen table.

“Ms. Watts does this belong to your son?”

Trudy didn’t touch the chain, but she knew it did and she was wondering when it would turn up again.

Poor Tori.

“Detectives, as I said, I am cold and hungry. I have no idea what y’all are speakin bout, but I think it’s cruel that you would reopen all those wounds about my baby. I’m going to need y’all to leave.”

As soon as they left, she went into the cabinet and pulled the cell phone out of the tea cup. Frowning she pressed one button but barely waited for the person on the other line to speak.

“I am not in the mood today. Can you please tell me why homicide was here telling me one of the bodies in the basement of your building was Andre? Well his chain was…No dammit that was just sloppy as…don’t you dare bring her into this. You better had told em…I would ask your ass to come take me to breakfast since Abbott and Costello ruined mine.”

Trudy’s face couldn’t help but twist into a smile followed by a chuckle. Then quickly her tone got serious,

“Wait a minute, do you think the news…you sure? And Dre? You sure. Maybe we should…no no I’m not talkin bout Tori leave her out of it. I’m talkin bout Dre. This is a mess. We have to do somethin before something else happens. Okay, speak to you then.”