“There’s a police record in juvenile court,” I said. “That’s what Miz Trent says anyway. Then the next time I saw him, I was down at the Holiday Inn, and he came after my ass; I still don’t know why. You were there, Mr. Bell. He called my woman friend a

four-letter word you don’t normally use 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 looked at 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.”