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shouting at Solly too. They said they wanted the money he stole.”
    “I thought you said he didn’t steal anything?”
    “He told those men that they were the thieves. He told them they were
gonif
and they worked for thieves.”
    “You tell the cops that?” I asked.
    “I was afraid to tell them anything.”
    “So what can I do?”
    “You said they were looking for a bond. I gave a bond to that woman. Sol had given it to me. I asked him if it was stolen,
     and he told me no.”
    “And you believe that even after those men came in here after him?”
    “Solly would never lie to me,” Fanny said with dignity. “He’s in trouble, but he wants to protect me. I want you to help me
     find out what kind of trouble he’s in.”
    “But I could tell you that right now,” I said. “It’s that bond.”
    “No,” she said. “It is more than that.”
    “What?”
    “I don’t know. He told me the bond was nothing but in a way that I knew there was something he wouldn’t say.”
    “You don’t think Leon came here after the money Sol owed him?”
    “He wanted money stolen,” Fanny said stubbornly, “not money owed.”
    “How much money we talkin’ about here?” I said. “I mean, what will you pay me?”
    “I have one hundred dollars. I will give that to you and then, when you tell me what she says, I’ll give a hundred more.”
    “And all you wanna know is why are they coming back after Sol?”
    Fanny nodded.
    “There’s just one thing,” I said.
    “What?”
    “Fearless thinks he can live on air, but we need that money. After what he told Sol, he won’t let you pay us a dime.”
    Fanny nodded again and patted the back of my hand.
    “Leave me your pants and shirt,” she said.
    “Say what?”
    “Leave your clothes out here when you go to bed. I’ll wash them and iron them in the morning and then I’ll put the money in
     your pockets.”
    Fearless came in only a few moments after the deal was sealed.
    “All clean and dry,” he announced. “I stacked ’em in the dryin’ tray though, ’cause I didn’t want to put ’em away wrong.”
    “That’s okay.” Fanny was beaming. “I can do that.”
    I jumped up then. “But it better wait till tomorrow.”
    “Why?” both Fearless and Fanny asked.
    “If we wanna protect Fanny, then we got to find out what they came here for,” I said. “And one thing about crooks, they don’t
     stay in one place too long.”

8
    WE DROPPED FANNY OFF at her niece’s house, which was only three blocks away on Marianna Avenue. It made sense not to leave her at home with Leon
     Douglas on the loose.
    Fanny gave us the keys to her house.
    “We’ll call you in the mornin’, Mrs. Tannenbaum, ’cause you know we’ll probably come in late at night,” Fearless told her
     at the front door. Fearless was a gentleman and would never just leave a woman off at the curb. I wandered up there with him.
    Morris Greenspan answered the door.
    “What do you want?” he asked us.
    “They’re my houseguests, Morris,” Fanny said.
    “You can’t come in my house,” he said, somehow taking Fanny’s explanation as a request.
    “Then we’ll leave you here,” I said to Fanny.
    “No,” Fanny said. “Morris, apologize to my friends.”
    “You don’t even know them, Aunt Fanny. They aren’t family.”
    “We better be goin’, Mrs. Tannenbaum,” Fearless said. He hated seeing any man get humiliated.
    “These men are my guests,” Fanny repeated, looking up at her nephew-in-law.
    The glower on the young man’s face was the same when he was eight, I was sure. Sullen and on the verge of a pout, he might
     have stood there for half an hour before saying hello like a good boy.
    “Mr. Minton. Mr. Jones,” Gella Greenspan said as she appeared at her husband’s side. The homely girl and her bearish, sullen
     husband made an ungainly pair. She took the big baby’s arm. “Would you like to come in for coffee?”
    It wasn’t that Gella was any less afraid of us. She was