“After all, the Anacondas still have a street presence, and you wouldn’t want word to get out that you were threatening Merton,” Yeoman added.

“But if it does, I’ll know where to come for help, is that it?” I smiled sweetly.

He gave the satisfied smile of a man who sees that the little woman understands how powerless she is. “If Johnny knows we’re friends, I don’t think it will come to that. But I can’t look out for you for nothing.”

“Then we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that. Of course, Lamont Gadsden was close to Johnny all those years back when they were protecting Dr. King. Johnny won’t be happy if he thinks his own lawyer was keeping him from helping Lamont’s mama look for her missing son.” I got up to leave. “I’m writing Johnny, you understand, writing to ask him to put me on his meeting list. It’ll just be easier if he’s willing to give me legal credentials—I’m still a member of the bar, after all. But I don’t want you to have to do any work that you don’t want to, so don’t you worry, I’ll put it all in writing.”

Yeoman gave me a look that made me glad I was standing near the exit, but he said there was no need to be so very literal-minded, he’d talk to Johnny when he went out to Stateville on Monday.

“In that case, I can send this letter without making changes to it.” I handed Yeoman a copy of the letter I’d written his client. Of course, I didn’t say Johnny was the last known person to see Lamont Gadsden alive. I merely wrote that I was making inquiries on behalf of Ella Gadsden and her sister, Claudia, and, since Johnny knew everyone in West Englewood, I was hoping he could give me some names of more people to talk to.

On my way back to my office I stopped at Fit for Your Hoof. The man who’d been there on my first visit was sweeping the sidewalk again, singing to himself, but when he saw me his eyes widened in fear and he bolted into the shop.

When I followed him in, he was clutching Curtis Rivers’s leather apron. “She gonna hurt me. She gonna take away my manhood.”

“No, she’s not, Kimathi, because I won’t let her.” Curtis folded his newspaper under his arm and led the frightened man into some inner part of the shop behind the repair equipment.

When Rivers came back, he glared at me. “What did you say to Kimathi to frighten him so badly?”

“Nothing.” I was bewildered. “He saw me and ran for cover. What’s he afraid of?”