Read Online Fearless Jones by Walter Mosley - Free Book Online Page A

enemies. Morris isn’t bad, he’s just stupid
     about things. He’s always coming around offering to work on the house, to cut the grass. He’s telling me that he wants to
     help whenSol” — she sighed and looked to the ceiling — “when Sol was in prison. He’s always telling me he wants to help, but I tell
     him no. He thinks I’m too old to be bothered with a checkbook or the plumber, but I’m not.”
    “What was that he said just before he stomped off?”
    “I don’t remember,” Fanny said, but she did.
    “Swatted?” I prodded. “Swear?”
    “Svartza,”
she whispered.
    “What’s that mean?”
    “It means black, but not in a nice way,” she admitted.
    “Oh.”
    “I would never be bothered with him, but Gella loves him — because he’s fat.”
    “Huh?”
    “That’s true,” she said, widening her eyes as much as she could. “She loves him because he’s so big and fat she thinks that
     he can protect her.”
    “Protect her from what?”
    “Her family was from Estonia, like us. Only they moved to Germany after the First World War. Her father, Schmoil, Solly’s
     brother’s son, was a rich man and smart.” Fanny pointed at her temple to show me the degree of his intelligence. I realized
     then that she also had had a good share of schnapps. “We left Europe after they moved. Schmoil stayed on and did business.
     He owned three newspapers but sold them when he saw what was coming. He put all of his money into his art collection and moved
     it to Switzerland. Then he moved his wife and
kinder
to Vienna. He thought that they would be safe there.”
    “That don’t sound too safe.”
    “A wife, a grandmother, three uncles, and seven children,” Fanny said, “and only him and Gella survived. They were all betrayed
     by a Jew, but my Solly saved Schmoil and Gella.”
    “He did?” I said. I found it hard to believe that the little old man I’d seen could have saved anybody.
    “When Schmoil and Gella ran, my Sol hired smugglers in Italy to put them in barrels and take them to Africa. Then he bought
     them passports and brought them here.” Fanny had been whispering, and I could see why. Whatever he did, it didn’t sound legal.
    “Wow,” I said. “Damn. That’s a great thing. That why they put him in jail?”
    “No. They said he was a thief,” Fanny said sadly. “I don’t know. He sold his tailor’s shop and went to work for those goy
     accountants.”
    “Who?”
    “Lawson and Widlow. He went to work for them.”
    “If he was a tailor, why’d they need him?”
    “He did his own bookkeeping for years, and he went to work for almost nothing. He stayed late every night finishing everything
     they gave him. He stopped laughing with me, and then one day the police came and take him away.”
    “And then,” I said, seeing my opening, “after he was in jail a while, a woman named Elana Love came to your door.”
    “You know her?” There was surprise and anger in the old woman’s voice.
    “You see, Fanny,” I said, “Fearless an’ me aren’t really gardeners…” I related, more or less, the story of me and Elana Love.
    “And this man, her boyfriend,” Fanny asked when I was through, “he’s the one that hurt Sol?”
    “I don’t think it was him in the cowboy hat, but he was probably the other one. I’d bet on it.”
    “But you will find out because you want the money back for your store,” she said.
    “I’d like my store back,” I agreed. “At least I’d like a new place. But like I said, Leon is three kinds of bad. It might
     not be worth —”
    “I will pay you.” It was the kind of interruption that I didn’t mind.
    “What?”
    “You don’t have money, Mr. Minton. You will need something.” She got everything right, right down to calling me mister. “Now
     that Solly’s in the hospital, I have to do something. My nephew is a fool, and Gella is just a girl. I don’t trust the police.…
     All I have is you and your friend. I heard those men