Specks of Dust: A Novel by Will Duncan

Specks of Dust: A Novel by Will Duncan

Author:Will Duncan [Duncan, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-14T16:00:00+00:00


Mrs. Leibowitz did not answer the phone call from the Georgia police station. As soon as Umaru heard the beep, he lost everything he was preparing to say.

“Uh, um, hello. Mrs. Leibowitz, this is Umaru. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I do not know what to do. They said I have one phone call, and I only know you, so I called you. I—they arrested me, and even me, I do not know what to do. My face hurts, and I do not know what to do. I am sorry to bother you. I’m sorry.”

“Umaru?” a tired voice asked.

“Mrs. Leibowitz! Please help me!” There was an echo on the phone line, and the words “help me” came back through the speaker. Umaru was taken aback by his own voice, how foreign it sounded.

“Where are you, Umaru?”

Umaru looked up at Officer Whitener. “Where am I?”

Whitener motioned for the phone. Umaru handed it to him, and he and Mrs. Leibowitz began to talk, with a lot of “yes, ma’am’s” and “no, ma’am’s” dotting the conversation. There were some things that they were “taking care of” and “making sure of” and how “nothing is set until the judge comes in tomorrow morning.” After several long minutes, he handed the phone back to Umaru.

“Mrs. Leibowitz, what is happening to me?”

“Don’t worry, Umaru. We’ll take care of it. Here’s what I want you to do, okay? Listen to the cops, but don’t say anything, okay? Don’t admit to anything. Don’t answer any more of their questions. They might threaten you, but don’t answer their questions. We’ll make sure you get a lawyer, and we’ll get this whole thing sorted out. Be patient. Do you understand?”

“I think so.”

“What do you do if they ask you a question?”

“Do not answer it.”

“Good. Okay, Umaru, I’m going to go, but don’t worry, okay? We’re working on it. You’re not alone.”

“Okay,” Umaru said. “Thank you.”

She hung up. Umaru slowly set the phone down. Whitener motioned to the other cop to escort him back.

When Umaru was returned to the cell, they took Marcus to make his phone call. Umaru remained standing.

“Your call actually took a little while,” Julian said after the door shut. “Did someone answer?”

“Yes,” Umaru said.

“Damn, I wouldn’t have expected that.”

Umaru hadn’t expected it either, though he had reason to. If she knew Umaru was calling, she would answer, and her sleep was already quite scattered. He remembered hearing her pacing the hallways of her condo in the predawn hours, the shuffling of slippers against the tiled floors, the sound of the faucet running water through its cold pipes. She didn’t know how little he slept, that he heard the crackling of a pill bottle and felt the readjustment of the thermostat.

........

Even when he first met Mrs. Leibowitz, during his job interview in the lobby of the synagogue, the worn creases around her mouth and the two flaps of skin dangling from her neck signaled to Umaru that she was constantly in action. She was holding a stack of papers



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