by Roy Glenn
“Settle down, gentlemen. I’m sure that despite his personal opinion about the objective, the detective will give us one hundred percent. Besides, I think that his involvement will give this operation a certain objectivity, as I’m sure the detective will be quite vocal if anything we do doesn’t pass the sniff test. And I want this operation run by the book. Are we all clear on this? That means no shortcuts, no slip-ups. I don’t want this asshole to wiggle out of this because we fucked up,” Vinnelli said to everyone before turning his attention back to Kirk.
“Now, to answer your question, detective, no, I can’t share the source of the information. What I can tell you is that a meeting was held at a club in the Bahamas yesterday. That meeting was between a couple of middlemen from a Peruvian drug cartel and DEA agent Roman Patterson. The meeting was held at a club called Black’s Paradise, and it is owned, as the name indicates, by Mike Black.”
“Was Black present at this meeting?” Kirk asked.
“No, but his wife, Cassandra Black, a.k.a. Cassandra Sims, a.k.a. Shy was present at the meeting. At that meeting, agent Patterson was murdered, along with one of the middlemen that Patterson was able to kill before he was murdered. Now, your job here, detective, is to detail for us everything you know about him and his operation. Where he does business and who he does it with. And I wanna know right here, right now, if we can count on you, detective.”
“You got something you’re trying to say to me, Agent Vinnelli?”
“My office, detective.”
Kirk got up and followed Vinnelli to the door. Richards got up too. “Where are you going?”
“He’s my partner. You got something to say, you say it to both of us,” Richards said defiantly.
Vinnelli took a deep breath and opened the door to the briefing room. “By all means, detective. Why don’t you join us?”
Kirk and Richards walked out of the briefing room and Vinnelli followed them out, slamming the door behind him. He led them across the hall to his office and slammed that door as well.
Vinnelli stood face to face with Kirk. “I’m gonna lay it on the line for you, detective. I don’t want you here. I believe your presence here compromises the success of this operation.”
“And why is that, agent Vinnelli?”
“You’ve been investigating this asshole for drug-related murder after drug-related murder for years, and you’ve never made a case, never even arrested him. Why is that, detective?”
Kirk stepped to Vinnelli’s chest. “What are you trying to say?”
“I’m not trying to say anything, detective. I already said what I have to say.”
“Fair enough. Now, let me tell you something. I’m gonna do my job, Agent Vinnelli. And if it turns out that Black is involved in drug trafficking, I wanna be the one to put the cuffs on him.” Kirk started to walk away, but turned around quickly. “And if you ever call me out again, I’ll kick your fuckin’ ass.”
“Fair enough.”
“Glad we understand each other,” Kirk said and walked out of the office, followed closely by Richards and Vinnelli.
The three men returned to the room, and Vinnelli continued his briefing. Then Vinnelli turned the briefing over to Detective Kirkland, who broke down in more detail than anyone on the team was prepared for, everything he knew about Mike Black.
Chapter Seventeen
Melinda Brown woke up early that morning and rolled out of bed. Still naked, she walked to the window and cracked the drapes. She was twenty-eight years old, the youngest of four beautiful girls. Melinda was tall and fine. Her hair was cut short, oval-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, full lips, and her skin was light brown. Each of her sisters had her first child before turning sixteen. Melinda knew that wasn’t the life for her.
Very early in life, Melinda learned to parlay her looks into getting everything she ever wanted, and for a time, she had it all. Melinda was living the good life. She drove a 500 Benz; she still had the car, actually. Melinda lived in a condo with a view of the Long Island Sound for which she paid no rent. She shopped in all the fashionable places that New York had to offer and ate in the best restaurants. She went to Broadway shows and traveled the Caribbean. There was even talk of a trip to Europe. She missed going to fights in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. She even missed almost freezing to death watching those damn Jets games. Most of all, she missed being Mike Black’s woman.
Melinda had been introduced to Black by Freeze at a strip club. Melinda was trying to get a job as a dancer, but she just didn’t have the patience to deal with the clientele. Melinda and Black were going along just fine, until that bitch Shy came along. Then everything changed. Black used to say one of the things he liked most about Melinda was that she was no trouble at all. But that was then.
After Black dropped her for Shy, Melinda was alone. She went back to her condo and packed her things and waited for somebody to tell her that she had to move, but no one ever did, and no bills ever came. She assumed that the condo was paid for and when the bills came, they were just paid automatically by whoever handled that menial task for Black.
Once Melinda got over the initial shock of her new situation, she began to think about what she was going to do next. She had always been a gangster’s girl and had become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. Melinda saw no reason to change that. Why should she?
She quickly gravitated to the first gangster she found. That was Derrick Washington. But it wasn’t the same. At the time, he was Chilly’s top lieutenant. Now, with Chilly dead, D-Train had risen to power. It was his time now. Now he was moving against Freeze.
Melinda looked over at D-Train as he moved around in bed. She didn’t have a lot of respect for Curl, a nickname people called him behind his back. The name was a holdover from the old days, when he wore a very bad Jheri-curl long after it went out of style. D-Train had built his rep on being ruthless, but to Melinda, he was weak and easily controlled. And stupid. My God, that is one stupid nigga. How could she respect a man so stupid that he allowed her to tell him what to do? The answer was simple; she couldn’t. At least he got a big dick, Melinda thought as she looked at him. She shook her head and longed for the days when she had a man. Melinda was still in love with Mike Black.
“You’re up early, baby,” D-Train said from the bed. “You a’ight?”
“I’m fine,” Melinda said as she returned to the bed. She slid between the sheets and reached for his manhood. “What’s wrong with you?” Melinda asked when it didn’t respond immediately to her touch.
“Nothing, baby. I just got a lot on my mind, that’s all.”
“Like what?” Melinda asked as she continued to stroke him.
“Five of my people are dead, baby. All killed by Freeze. I gotta do something.”
“They’re dead ’cause you aren’t listening to me, or your thugs are too stupid to follow instructions,” Melinda told him, still stroking him until he was hard.
“What you talking about? You the one who said to post up in their spots.”
“See, that’s what I’m talking ’bout. You aren’t listening to me.” Melinda straddled his torso and slid her body down on him. “That feels good,” she said and began moving up and down on him slowly. “What I told you to do was send a couple of people into their spots. Check things out, see how things are run, make some friends, build alliances. That’s what I told you to do. Not go in there and try to set up shop.”
D-Train said nothing. He lay on his back and enjoyed what Melinda was making him feel.
“But that’s what they did; ran up in there and started slingin’. The only thing that could happen was for somebody to call Freeze, and what did you expect him to do?”
Again, D-Train didn’t answer. He was in ecstasy, watching her, feeling her. And besides, she was right.
“Exactly what he did, he killed them. That’s what he does, but that’s all he’s good for, killin’. Freeze ain’t that bright, baby, and you can take him out, but you have to take your time. I know how the
y run things. I know how to take him, but you got to do exactly what I say.”
“Okay, okay, brain. What you think I should do?”
“You’re right about one thing: You gotta bust back or Birdie and his people will think that you’re weak.”
D-Train thought for a second. Birdie was his rival for power. If Birdie saw him as weak, he and his people would go off on their own, and that would be bad for business. “I should call Freeze and—”
“No, silly. That’s the last thing you want to do. I know your ego wants to sit down with Freeze, but that is not the way. What you gotta do is make people see Freeze for the stupid, weak mutha fucka that he is.”
“I’m listening,” D-Train said.
“You’re gonna have to change your tactics. Don’t send any more people into their spots. That’s over. They’ll be waiting for you now. What you need to do now is hit them. Take their money. You rob them, let people know that Freeze ain’t …” Melinda paused. She started to say “Freeze ain’t Mike Black,” but she knew better. D-Train hated for Melinda to even mention that name.
Last time I said Mike Black, his dick went soft.
“Let people know that Freeze ain’t the man. That they can be touched. Make Freeze come to you. That puts you in a position of strength.”
“Yeah, I’ll hit one of their spots,” D-Train said and tried to push himself deeper inside Melinda.
“What did I just say?” Melinda asked and moaned her approval. She ground her hips harder into him. “That’s over. They’ll be waiting for you now.”
“Where should we hit?” D-Train asked, breathing heavily.
“Impressions.”
“Bobby’s club? You out your fuckin’ mind. That’s fuckin’ suicide. They got so much security up in that bitch it ain’t even fuckin’ funny. On top of that, they always got at least three, four off-duty cops working outside, usually more. How we gonna get past them?”
“Do I have to think of everything?”
D-Train gave her a look that screamed, YES!
“You have two people, a man and a woman, start an argument in the parking lot away from the cops, but not too far that the cops can’t hear them. The cops will think it’s a domestic dispute, and at least one of them will come over there to see what’s going on. When they see the cops coming, have the woman fire a gun. All the cops will run toward the shot.”
“I see, create a diversion.”
Melinda rolled her eyes. D-Train pumped harder. “Once the cops are away from the front door, send in four men; one to watch the cops from the door, one to cover the hall leading to the club, one covers security while the other one gets the money. It doesn’t matter how much money they get. The fact that you hit Bobby’s spot will be enough to bring Freeze to the table.”
“Yes!” D-Train screamed.
“He’ll be calling you begging for a meeting. And at that meeting, you’ll kill him.”
“Yes!”
Chapter Eighteen
Bobby pulled up in front of Mike’s house and put his car in park. He was tired, hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. Even though it was early in the morning when he dropped Mike off, Bobby didn’t go home. He went by Cat’s apartment and did what they do.
“Had the best sex I ever had,” Bobby said as he got out of the car and went to ring the bell.
From inside the house, Mike could see Bobby coming, and opened the door. “Come on in and sit down,” Mike said then took a closer look at Bobby. “You look like shit.”
Bobby walked straight to the bar and poured himself a drink. “Thank you, Mike. You’re looking very good yourself. But shit would be a step up from the way I feel,” he said as he turned up his drink and poured another one.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Why not? You and Pam up all night?”
“No.” Bobby paused. “I didn’t get home until after nine.”
Mike laughed. “Shit, Bobby, is the pussy all that?”
Bobby just looked at Mike and shook his head. “When I got home, Pam was sitting in her spot, waiting for me. First thing out her mouth was, ‘Where the fuck you been?’ I told her that I was out looking for Shy with you. She looked at me and said, ‘That’s your story. You were with Mike looking for Shy, right? That’s your story.’”
Bobby recounted the story for Mike.
“Yeah, that’s where I been,” Bobby said and started toward the stairs.
Pam got up immediately and followed him up the steps. “You look tired, baby.”
“Yeah, I’ll nod for a couple of hours then I’ll go pick up Mike and we’ll get back to it,” he said and went in their bedroom with Pam on his heels.
“You didn’t get any sleep, huh?”
“No, I told you we been riding all night.”
“Just you and Mike, huh? Riding all night, huh? Just like the old days, huh?”
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
Pam gave Bobby a wide-eyed look. “Oh, you wanna know what the fuck is wrong with me? Is that what you wanna know?”
“Yes, Pam. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“Where were you last night and this morning, Bobby?”
“I told you—”
“And don’t tell me that you were with Mike.”
“Pam, I was with Mike. Shy’s been kidnapped, and we been out all night looking for her.”
“Did you find her?”
“No! I told you I wanna grab a couple of hours sleep and hit the streets again.”
“Bobby,” Pam said. “I’m gonna ask you this one more time, and this time I want the truth. And don’t give me that shit about you being out with Mike all night, because I know you weren’t with him, at least not all night.”
“This is insane, Pam. Why don’t you call Mike and ask him?”
“Why? So he can lie to me too?”
“Fuck this,” Bobby said and started for the door.
Pam moved quickly to block the door before Bobby got to it. “Who is she, Bobby? Who is the woman who called our house?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Pam. What woman?”
“At six-thirty this morning, some woman called here and said I don’t have to worry about where you are, because you were safe there with her.”
“I have no idea who that could have been. I was with Mike.” Bobby lied to his wife, but now he was thinking, Goddamn it, I’ma kill Cat.
“Well, she must have been with Mike too, because she called from your phone!” Pam yelled.
At that point, Bobby looked down at the cell phone on his hip and knew that he couldn’t say he’d lost it. He was caught.
“It was just that simple, Mike. She had me.”
“How’d she get your phone?” Mike asked.
“I was asleep.”
“She took your phone while you were sleeping and called Pam.” Mike laughed. “Do we need to roll by her spot so I can kill her?”
“You know you don’t kill women, Mike.” Bobby laughed right along with him.
“You’re right. I’ll send Freeze over there right now,” Mike said, laughing, and then he got real serious. “No, no, wait a minute. I got a better idea. I’ll send Wanda instead,” Mike said and busted out laughing again. “Hold up. I know Freeze had to know about you and this Cat woman.”
“I told Freeze not to tell you.”
“Why’d you tell him that?” Mike asked, wondering why Freeze had chosen to tell him about it now.
“You didn’t need to know.”
“I guess I didn’t. But don’t you think you need to put a stop to this?”
“This isn’t the first time she called Pam.”
“What?”
“First time she did it; I had just called Pam and told her I would be home in a couple of hours. She asks if she could use my phone, I hand it to her, she says, never mind. But what she does is redial the number and put the phone down. And starts talking to me.”
“Damn, Bobby.”
“Only thing that saved me then was we must have been riding through a dead zone because the call dropped.”
“Now I know you need to put a stop to this … unless you planning to leave Pam.”
“You’re crazy as she is if you think that I’m gonna leave my family,” Bobby said definitely.
“Is she?”
“Is she what?”
“Is she crazy?”
“As hell. And strong as hell.”
“I heard that about crazy people. I heard crazy women got the best pussy. I guess that must be true too, huh, Bobby,” Mike said, still laughing. “How you know how strong she is?”
“I had to fight her off this morning to get out of the house.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No! I told you that I fell asleep, right? So when I woke up, she’s lying next to me, sleeping.”
“This must have been after she called Pam.”
“You gonna let me tell the story, or you wanna ask stupid questions that you already know the answer to?”
“Both.”
“Yeah, this was after she called Pam. Happy now?”
“Very. You gonna finish the story or what?”
“Anyway, I wake up and get dressed, but she wakes up before I can get outta there. She says, Where you think you’re going? I told her that I was going home, and I would get with her later if I had some time. She jumps out of bed naked, talking about I can’t leave, how she’s tired of me fuckin’ her and leaving her. That she loves me, and Pam couldn’t possibly love me like she love me, and all Pam got over her is the kids and shit, so I need to get back in bed and give her some more dick so she can start having my babies. I said, your ass is crazy and started to leave, but she ran to the door and tried to block it. I said, Stop fuckin’ around, Cat. I gotta go. She’s like, No! You gotta fuck me before you go. So I tried to move her out of the way, but she starts wrestling with me. I had to end up picking her up and carrying her out of the way. Then I tried to leave again, but by the time I get out in the hallway, she jumped on my back. So, I shake her off my back, and she falls on the floor hard, but she gets right up and starts wrestling with me again. So, here I am, at eight in the morning, wrestling with a naked woman in the hallway.”