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them.
    “I’m saying she’s directly responsible for him straying from the Lord’s path. If Daniel had followed in God’s footsteps the way he was raised to, he’d be alive today. But my sister tempted him with material goods, Detective. She tempted him with gods that like women and liquor. And that’s not all. She prays to those gods and she made my son bow to them too, and this is what comes of it, my son stretched out in a funeral parlor, barely twenty-six.”
    Frank nodded. Danny’s mother hadn’t been holding anything back, so Frank asked bluntly, “What kind of work did Daniel do for your sister?”
    “I don’t know anything about that,” she said, her face rigid with pain. Frank guided her into the easy chair. She perched next to her at the foot of the bed and launched into her good-cop routine.
    “I can’t imagine your grief, Mrs. Duncan. But I am sorry for it. I’ve been working in this neighborhood for eighteen years and I’ve seen the damage your sister’s done. She’s untouchable, Mrs. Duncan. Maybe it’s those gods she prays to, I don’t know. Whatever it is, we’ve never been able to stop her. She keeps dealing her drugs and kids keep dying. Good kids. Kids like Danny who started off right, and had dreams and aspirations until they met up with your sister. I want to stop her, and I know you do too. It’s too late to save your son, Mrs. Duncan, but maybe we can stop other mothers from going through what you’re going through.”
    Tears slid down Mrs. Duncan’s cheeks as she tried explaining, “My son was a good boy, Detective. He never meant anybody no harm. I raised him right, I swear I did. But he just fell in with that sister of mine. I warned him about running with her. But he wouldn’t listen. I don’t know what he was up to with her, but I know it wasn’t good. I haven’t talked to Crystal in seven years. My other sister’s always talking to her. But I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. Not with her running with the devil like she does. Maybe Jessie could help you. I just don’t know.”
    She daubed at her face with a wadded tissue, whispering, “Excuse me,” then bolted from the garage.
    Frank sighed, checking under the mattress and bed frame, under the rug and on top of the armoire, around the tools and potting soil in the garage side. Nothing. Retracing her steps to the kitchen, she stepped through the back door, bending an ear to the living room.
    Lewis was saying, “Let me ask you something here, off the record. Between you and me, you see, I know and you know what your aunt does for a living. So it seems strange to me that this boy would be off getting involved with some Nicaraguans he don’t even know. I mean if he wants to get into that line of business, it would seem to me he’d be working with his auntie, you know what I’m saying? Why your brother be working with strangers, you know?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Girl, please,” Lewis chuckled good-naturedly. “I didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday, n’mean? I ain’t no outsider don’t know chitlin’ from chicken. Everybody know about your auntie. I been hearing Mother this and Mother that since I was this high, n’mean?”
    Frank couldn’t see Lewis holding her hand above the floor.
    “You can tell me, girl. What was goin’ on between Danny and your auntie?”
    There was a pause. The stiff plastic creaked, and Lewis uttered something quietly.
    Finally Kim admitted, “He hustled for her for years. He started spotting corners, then running them. But lately Danny was real unhappy with Aunt Crystal. He said that he took all the risk but didn’t get none of the reward. He said he was tired of being treated like a little nappy-headed nigger.”
    There was a smile in Kim’s voice as she added, “He’d carry on something about how Aunt Crystal didn’t treat him any better than a slave. He used to call her the White Master, and there was some truth to that. Aunt Crystal