Of Blood and Sorrow Read Online Free PDF Page A

feelings to myself.
    “And the reason you called me has something to do with your son?” I said.
    “He has a baby daughter, and his ex-wife took the baby from him. I want you to get that baby and bring her to me and my wife so as we—my son, my wife, and me—can raise her. His ex-wife is a tramp.”
    “Does this…tramp have a name?”
    “Lilah Love.”
    Oh Lord! Baby Dal born on April 1 to Lilah Love
Barnes.
    I took a breath and said, “Mr. Barnes, I’d like to make you aware of something. I, uh, met Ms. Love a number of years ago in Jamaica and did some work for her down there. Ms. Love stopped in my office early this morning and asked my help in finding a lost child. Her baby’s name was Baby Dal. Is this the child we’re discussing?”
    His eyes got narrow, and his voice got loud. “Lost? What you mean lost? Kidnapped? Is that what she said? I thought
she
had her. You mean to say that dumb little bitch let somebody steal that child?”
    “I only know what I was told, which is that Baby Dal is missing,” I said neutrally.
    “And that’s another thing. Baby Dal! First thing Nellie and me are going to do is change that damn name. That’s number one. Then I’ll make sure that slut gets what’s coming to her.”
    “Are you sure you’re legally entitled to the child, Mr. Barnes? Despite what some might consider her…limitations, Ms. Love is the child’s natural mother, and the law considers a mother’s rights sacrosanct in matters such as this.”
    “Sacrosanct! Bullshit! She let the damn kid get stole, didn’t she? What kind of sacrosanct is that? I don’t give a shit about the law. There are ways around the law, and I know how to find them. The child is my blood; she belongs to me. As far as I’m concerned, neither one of the natural parents can raise her properly. The woman’s a whore and the boy’s a nut. Does she know who took her?”
    I shrugged noncommittally. No sense in showing all my cards.
    “How long were your son and Ms. Love involved?” Lilah had conveniently left that out.
    “She trapped him into marriage with the oldest trick in the book. He was looking for something ‘to believe in,’ as he put it. She spotted him in his fancy uniform and knew just where he was headed. Sent him a photo of the baby and a Dear John letter a month after he got stationed in Fallujah. Probably figured the shock of it would get him killed, probably figured she’d get his insurance money.”
    “So why didn’t he divorce her?”
    He shook his head. “Didn’t want to give up the baby. He was in bad shape when he came back. His mother said he needed something to keep him alive. His mother needed something, too, that would make life good for her again, and that baby was it.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “My wife has been…ill for a number of years.”
    “I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, noticing the pain in his eyes.
    “I’ll do whatever I have to do to make things better for her. No matter what it costs.”
    I nodded, understanding what he meant.
    “Lilah Love came around here six weeks ago talking about how she would let my son and his mama keep the baby for a ‘certain price.’ Thought she was slick. Dumb bitch doesn’t know who she’s dealing with. I learned what to do with trash like her on my daddy’s knee, and I learned that good. She comes from trash, and that’s where she’ll end up. In the trash. And now you say that somebody done took her little meal ticket and gone? Ain’t that some shit! So I take it you’re working for Lilah Love?”
    “No, I turned her down,” I said quickly.
    “So you’re available to work for me?” He didn’t miss a beat.
    No, sir, I’m not,
said that voice inside me, the one that I should listen to but seldom do.
    “Yes, sir, I am,” I said without hesitation.
    How could I lose? I figured. Lilah had told me where the baby was, with her “lame-ass, no-count, baby sister Thelma Lee,” and had even written down where the girl was staying.