The Bonfire Of The Vanities Part 38

"And what did he do?"

"The man looked right at me, and then the door on the other side of the car opens, and there's this woman. She gets kind of, you know, halfway out the car, and she's looking back, too. They both looking back at me, and I say, 'Yo! My friend's hurt!' "

"How far from them were you by this time?"

"Not very far. Fifteen or twenty feet."

"Could you see them clearly?"

"I was looking them right in the face."

"What did they do?"

"This woman, she had this look on her face. She look frightened. She say, 'Shuhmun, look out!' She's talking to the guy."

" 'Shuhmun, watch out'? She said, 'Shuhmun'?" Kramer cut a glance at Martin. Martin opened his eyes wide and forced a pocket of air up under his upper lip. Goldberg had his head down, taking notes.

"That's what it sound like to me."

"Shuhmun or Sherman?"

"Sound like Shuhmun."

"Okay, what happened then?"

"The woman, she jump back inside the car. The man, he's back behind the car looking at me. Then the woman, she say, 'Shuhmun, get in!' Only now she's sitting in the driver's seat. And the man, he runs around to the other side, where she been sitting, and he jumps in the car and slams the door."

"So now they've switched seats. And what did you do? How far away from them were you by this time?"

"Almost as close as I am to you."

"Were you angry? Did you yell at them?"

"All's I said was, 'My friend's hurt.' "

"Did you make a fist? Did you make any threatening gesture?"

"All's I wanted was to get Henry some help. I wasn't angry. I was scared, for Henry."

"Okay, then what happened?"

"I ran around to the front of the car."

"Which side?"

"Which side? The right side, where the guy was. I was looking right through the windshield at them. I'm saying, 'Yo! My friend's hurt!' I'm in the front of the car, looking back down the street, and there's Henry. He's right behind the car. He be walking up, kind of in a daze, you know, holding his arm like this." Roland held his left forearm with his right hand and let his left hand dangle, as if it were afflicted. "So that means, this guy, he could see Henry coming the whole time, holding his arm like this. Ain't no way he don't know Henry was hurt. I'm looking at Henry, and the next thing I know, the woman, she guns the motor and she cuts outta there, laying down rubber. She cuts outta there so fast I can see the man's head snap back. He's looking right at me, and his head snaps back, and they outta there like a rocket. Come that close to me." He brought his thumb and forefinger together. "Like to tore me up worse than Henry."

"You get the license number?"

"Naw. But Henry got it. Or I guess he got part of it."

"Did he tell you what it was?"

"Naw. I guess he told his mother. I saw that on television."

"What kind of car was it?"

"It was a Mercedes."

"What color?"

"Black."

"What model?"

"I don't know what model."

"How many doors?"

"Two. It was, like, you know, built low. It was a sporty car."

Kramer looked at Martin again. Once more he had on his big-eyed bingo bingo face. face.

"Would you recognize the man if you saw him again?"

"I'd recognize him." Roland said this with a bitter conviction that had the ring of truth.

"What about the woman?"

"Her, too. Wasn't nothing but a piece a gla.s.s between me and them."

"What did the woman look like? How old was she?"

"I don't know. She was white. I don't know how old she was."

"Well, was she old or young? Was she closer to twenty-five, thirty-five, forty-five, or fifty-five?"

"Twenty-five, most likely."

"Light hair, dark hair, red hair?"

"Dark hair."

"What was she wearing?"

"I think a dress. She was all in blue. I remember because it was a real bright blue, and she had these big shoulders on the dress. I remember that."

"What did the man look like?"

"He was tall. He had on a suit and a necktie."

"What color suit?"

"I don't know. It was a dark suit. That's all I remember."

"How old was he? Would you say he was my age, or was he older? Or younger?"

"A little older."

"And you'd recognize him if you saw him again."

"I'd recognize him."

"Well, Roland, I'm gonna show you some pictures, and I want you to tell me if you recognize anybody in the pictures. Okay?"

"Unh-hunh."

Kramer walked over to his own desk, where Hayden was sitting, and said, "Excuse me a second," and opened a drawer. As he did so, he looked at Hayden for a moment and nodded slightly, as if to say, "It's working out." From the drawer he took the set of pictures Milt Lubell had put together for Weiss. He spread the pictures out on Jimmy Caughey's desk, in front of Roland Auburn.

"You recognize any of these people?"

Roland scanned the pictures, and his forefinger went straight to Sherman McCoy grinning in his tuxedo.

"That's him."

"How do you know it's the same guy?"

"That's him him. I rec recognize him. That's his chin. The man had this big chin."

Kramer looked at Martin and then at Goldberg. Goldberg was smiling ever so slightly.

"You see the woman in the picture, the woman he's standing beside? Is that the woman who was in the car?"

"Naw. The woman in the car was younger, and she had darker hair, and she was more...more foxy."

"Foxy?"

Roland started to smile again but fought it off. "You know, more of a...hot ticket."

Kramer allowed himself a smile and a chuckle. It gave him a chance to let out some of the elation he was already feeling. "A hot ticket, hunh? Okay, a hot ticket. All right. So they leave the scene. What did you do then?"

"Wasn't much I could do. Henry was standing there holding his arm. His wrist was all bent outta shape. So I said, 'Henry, you got to go to the hospital,' and he say he don't want to go to no hospital, he want to go home. So we start walking back up Bruckner Boulevard, back to the project."

"Wait a minute," said Kramer. "Did anybody see all this happen? Was there anybody on the sidewalk?"

"I don't know."

"No cars stopped?"

"Naw. I guess Henry, if he be laying there very long, maybe somebody stop. But n.o.body stopped."

"So now you're walking up Bruckner Boulevard, back toward the project."

"That's right. And Henry, he be moaning and looking like he's fixing to pa.s.s out, and I say, 'Henry, you got to go to the hospital.' So I walk him on back down to Hunts Point Avenue, and we go on across to 161st Street, to the subway stop ov'eh, and I see this taxi, belongs to my man Brill."

"Brill?"

"He's a fellow that has two cabs."

"And he drove you to Lincoln Hospital?"

"This fellow Curly Kale, he drove. He's one a Brill's drivers."

"Curly Kale. Is that his real name or is that a nickname?"

"I don't know. That's what they call him, Curly Kale."

"And he drove the two of you to the hospital."

"That's right."

"What did Henry's condition seem to be on the way to the hospital? That's when he told you he'd hit his head?"

"That's right, but mostly he was talking about his arm. His wrist looked bad bad."

"Was he coherent? Was he in his right mind, the best you could tell?"

"Like I say, he was moaning a lot and saying how his arm hurt. But he knew where he was. He knew what was happening."

"When you reached the hospital, what did you do?"

"Well, we got out, and I walked with Henry to the door, to the emergency room, and he went in there."

"Did you go in with him?"

"No, I got back in the cab with Curly Kale and I left."

"You didn't stay with Henry?"

"I figured I couldn't do no more for him." Roland cut a glance toward Hayden.

"How did Henry get home from the hospital?"

"I don't know."

Kramer paused. "All right, Roland, there's one more thing I want to know. Why haven't you come forth with this information before now? I mean, here you are with your friend, or your neighbor anyhow-he's from the same project-and he's a victim of a hit-and-run accident right in front of your eyes, and the case is on television and all over the newspapers, and we don't hear a peep outta you until now. Whaddaya say to that?"

Roland looked at Hayden, who merely nodded yes, and Roland said, "The cops was looking for me."