by Noire
Leaving the man writhing on the floor, Whitey made another trip into the front area to flip the OPEN sign to CLOSED. Then he locked the door and lifted the unconscious young clerk in his arms and carried her into the back room too.
Once there, he set the girl down then went about emptying his bag and organizing himself for the very important task he was about to perform. He tied the girl’s hands behind her back and stuffed a wad of paper towels into her slack mouth. She started coming to when her obstructed airway made it difficult to breathe, and by that time Whitey felt like a surgeon: prepped and ready to operate.
“Okay, Mr. Lovitz,” Whitey said, addressing the Jewish man by name as he lit the small blow-torch he’d brought with him and directed the burning tip at the now fully-awakened young girl’s eyes.
“Noooo!” the old man cried past his gag in terror, confirming Whitey’s suspicion that he was her father. “No-no-no-no-no-no!” he said, which came out sounding like, “Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!”
Whitey grinned and pulled back a bit. “Are you saying no? You don’t want me to do that? You mean you don’t wanna smell her eyeballs as they boil in their sockets and slide down her face like slimy gray gloop?”
The old man shook his head furiously and Whitey’s grin widened. “Well, if you don’t want me to do that then let’s make a deal. I’m going to ask you a simple question and you’re going to give me a simple answer, okay? The deal is, I’m only going to ask you once and you’re going to tell me the truth. Because if you don’t this ugly bitch’ll be licking poached eyeball juice off her fuckin chin, you got it?”
$$$$$
Less than thirty minutes later the old man’s hands were trembling as he untied his precious daughter and removed the soggy wad of paper towels from her gaping mouth.
“There, there,” he said, as he cradled her pale face in his wrinkled old hands and rocked her back and forth. “It’s okay dear,” he told her as she cried softly in his arms. He felt terrible about the horrible thing that had almost happened to her, and he knew he was deeply responsible for the fright she had endured.
The old man cursed himself. He should have known something like this would happen sooner or later. He had been playing dirty in the jewelry business for many years. In fact, he’d been dabbling in the underground for so long that he didn’t know what it meant to do business above the board.
His wife had been dead for many years, and his sweet, but unattractive daughter would never find a husband. It was just the two of them and they depended on each other. They were all each other had in the world, and he couldn’t imagine life without her.
Which is why the old man didn’t hesitate to give the maniac who had just left his shop exactly what he had coming looking for: Avi’s contact information. Not only had he coughed up the Belgium jewelry trader’s name, he’d spit out his address too.
Because Hymie Lovitz truly loved his ugly daughter. And it was his love for her that had prompted him to make a very important phone call just a few days earlier. A call that would finish the hit job that his partner-in-crime Joel Samuelson had started, yet failed to complete.
Hymie didn’t understand where it had all gone wrong, because the two of them had planned their jewelry heist and murder-fire-hire scheme to perfection. During their last phone conversation all seemed to be going as arranged. Samuelson had warned him that the Queen of Diamonds was heading to his location. He said the Queen was bringing a briefcase to be placed in his safe, and Samuelson had urged him to get out of the shop as fast as he could.
Soon after that, the old man had been alerted by the police that there’d been a shooting at his shop. He had pretended to be shocked and frightened out of his mind.
But his shock had turned totally real when he walked into his store to find not a five million dollar diamond stashed in his safe and the dead body of a beautiful young black woman as he had expected, but rather the dead body of the old security guard who he had hired as an intern.
To make matters worse, the red briefcase containing the diamond was no place to be found, and Joel Samuelson had been discovered brutally murdered in his hotel room that very same night.
The old man had been scared shitless.
After all, it stood to reason that if the elderly intern and Joel Samuelson were both dead, then that meant the Queen of Diamonds was still alive. It also stood to reason that since she was still alive, that meant she had found out about their plan to rub her out and had beaten them to the draw.
And if that was the case, then there was no doubt in the old jeweler’s mind that he was going to be the next target that she lined up in her sights.
So, old man Lovitz had quietly dipped into his healthy stash of cash and made himself a phone call of his own. He’d called a company called the BBU that was rumored to take care of business professionally and discreetly. And any day now his little problem, that beautiful black turd they called the Queen of Diamonds, would be eliminated for good.
The old man looked down at his precious daughter and shook with fear. He couldn’t wait for that nigger bitch Honore Morales to be dead. He had been living on pins and needles waiting for the hit on her to go down, and he had assumed that Joel Samuelson’s stolen diamond was still in the locker where it was supposed to be stashed. That diamond had actually been the last thing on his mind.
Until it had shown up just now in the hands of the maniac who threatened to cook the eyeballs of his precious daughter, that is! The old man gazed around his office and stared at a framed picture of his dearly departed wife.
It was definitely time to get out of the business. He had made quite a sum fabricating stolen diamonds for Samuelson and Avi over the years, but now it was time to cut his losses and get out while he still could. The New York City jewelry business had turned to scum. There was no way he could make a living selling gold chains to gangsters and fitting rappers for seedy grills. He had a brother in Florida who seemed to be doing well there. Maybe it was time to move south.
He thought about the look of pure evil he’d seen in the eyes of the young white man who had just walked out of his store. Yeah, it was definitely time to go. This last hustle with Joel Samuelson would have netted him a nice pot of gold, but what good was a fistful of money if you weren’t alive to spend it?
He patted his daughter’s face again and then got ready to shut his shop down for good. He had spent his entire life in the jewelry business, but after the craziness of the last couple of weeks he doubted if he’d miss it for a minute. Sure, it was true what they said about diamonds being forever. But then again, so was a cold deep grave.
CHAPTER 7
Dearly Departed
It was still pretty early in the morning and the large Queens mega-church was almost full when Chimp Charlie pulled up to the curb and let Honore, Cucci, and Sly McFly outta the whip. There was a bone-white hearse parked out front along with a slew of other cars that belonged to the many mourners who were attending the large funeral service inside.
They were late as hell getting there, and even from the outside they could hear the bootleg preacher in the pulpit shouting and putting on a show. An elderly usher dressed in all-white opened the doors and led the three of them over to the seats that had been reserved for them in the front row next to the family.
Honore was dressed in a sleek black and white polka-dot designer dress that stopped right above her knees. It was classy enough for a funeral but it didn’t do a damn thing to hide her long legs and killer curves. Cucci was slaying a black-and-crème ankle-length pencil skirt with a matching top. With all that ass on her in that tight skirt she looked just like a sexy mermaid. Sly McFly was dressed in a black suit with a white shirt that was starched so crisp and sharp the edges coulda cut you. In fact, every stitch on him was made from the highest quality materials and tailored for his tall, lanky frame.
Sly draped his arm around Honore’s shoulder as they sat in the front pew and pretended to pay attention to the preacher. Playing her role, Honore leane
d her head on him as she gazed sorrowfully toward the open casket that was dead smack in front of her.
As usual, India looked real damn good. She had been a pretty chick when she was alive, and death hadn’t changed that one bit. Bitch was pretty but she was stupid too, Honore thought as a fake tear slipped from her eye.
She could still feel the kick the powerful handgun had made after she shot India in the chest. By all rights she shoulda flew the bitch one to the dome, too. Because it was India’s own damn fault that she was laying up there with all these people snotting and crying over her. All she had to do was have her simple ass where she was supposed to be, and instead of being stretched out all cold and stiff she woulda still been flouncing her sexy ass around town stealing diamonds to be turned into crushed ice.
Honore’s fake tears were really coming down now as she thought about that missing diamond. It was time to view the body and the mourners were marching slowly past the coffin. When it was her turn, Honore paused dramatically before India’s cold corpse. She turned the waterworks up even higher and she was snotting and hiccupping and the whole nine as her knees sagged and she threw herself down on her old friend shrieking and crying.
“Indiaaaa! Girl why you had to gooooo….”
An old lady usher rushed over to fan Honore’s face, but Sly McFly waved her off as him and Cucci lifted Honore to her feet and began slow-walking her down the aisle.
“Indiaaaaa!” Honore screeched as the organ music played louder and louder and the family screamed and wailed. She turned around and stretched her arms out toward her dead friend like she truly wanted to rush back and jump in the casket and join her. “Oh my gawddddd! India!!!”
“It’s okay,” Sly McFly pulled a starched white handkerchief outta his suit pocket and tried to sop up her overflowing tears. “She’s resting in peace, baby,” he comforted her loudly. Then he leaned in close and chuckled in Honore’s ear, “The stupid little bitch is resting in peace.”
$$$$$
There was a light breeze blowing outside when Cucci stomped outta the church and tipped down the front steps and made her exit. Funerals gave her a headache, and right now she was good and aggy. Sly had told her to excuse herself so him and Honore could go talk in the preacher’s office and talk in private, and Cucci was fuming as she glided over to the whip in her mermaid skirt and plopped down in the passenger seat.
Slamming the door as hard as she could, Cucci had her lip poked out for days. Chimp Charlie watched her from the driver’s seat, shaking his head as she fumbled in her bag and pulled out her weed grinder.
“What happened?” Charlie chuckled. “They done kicked you outta the damn funeral, huh? You so mad you can’t even grind your weed up right. You dropping buds and residue all in the fucking car, girl!”
“Shut the fuck up,” Cucci shot back. “How you talking shit when they made yo goofy ass stay out in the car the whole time? I swear to God, Sly and Honore act like I don’t pull my weight, or I ain’t supposed to be in on the shit they scheme up! I risk my freedom and put my life on the line just like they do!” she vented. “Something is gonna have to change big-time around here, and I mean that shit. Either I’m all in, or I’m all out. They got me all the way fucked up!”
“I feel you, baby. I ain’t wanna go inside that fake-ass funeral anyway,” Chimp said, trying to comfort her as he checked his mirrors and watched the street. “Sly pays me to drive and keep his secrets and you know I don’t do no jaw-jackin. Just don’t worry about it, sugar. Everybody’s gonna come around and show their true colors in the end.”
“Dead ass tho,” Cucci said as she finally sparked up her trees. “I ain’t nobody’s flunky and I ain’t stupid neither! I know you heard Honore got kidnapped with her dumb ass. What was the real deal going on with her in that jewelry store that night, Charlie? She ran me some wild story about some stick-up crew snatching her and dragging her out into the woods. You believe that shit?”
“I don’t know for sure but I heard the same thang,” Charlie said, nodding his head. “It might just be true too, because Sly took the car and went and picked her up that night. I know you and them girls was supposed to hold her down though, and y’all fucked that up.” He chuckled and nodded toward the church. “You can go back inside and verify with poor India about that! But I wasn’t driving that night so I don’t know how Honore got into that situation or what the hell was really going on. Only her and Sly know the real scoop on it.”
“And that’s what pisses me off,” Cucci snapped as she blew out a cloud of haze. “I should know every damn thing they know! Instead, I’m all in the dark and they keep giving me the run around like I don’t know they hiding shit from me. I know when I’m being bullshitted, especially by my own cousin.”
“Don’t worry ya’self,” Charlie said as he reached over and ran his rough hand up her leg. “Other than that, w’sup with you?”
The look on his face changed as his eyes dropped down to check out her hips and his big ol’ hand squeezed her thigh. “You ain’t been by to see me in a minute. You holding out on me? When I’ma get some more of that sweet shit you got up under your dress?”
“Get off me nigga,” Cucci snapped as she slapped his hand away. “You can’t be leaving ya paw prints on me and wrinkling up my shit. If Frita knew your old ass was fuckin me she’d cut ya damn dick off. You’ll get some of this when I’m good and ready to give it to you. Until then keep paying them lil thots you be trickin on. You gots to peel off top dollars for this, and it’s only when I say so.”
“You know money ain’t a issue, darling,” Charlie said as he licked his fat crusty lips and damn near drooled on her. “And what Frita don’t know won’t hurt her neither. C’mon. Stop all that mean talk and slide through my place tonight, baby girl. Big Chimp Charlie always gonna treat you right. That dress is huggin them hips real nice you know.”
“Calm down and quit breathing on me,” Cucci said as she rolled her eyes. “And don’t yeast ya’self up. The only thing big on you is that gut and them man boobs that you got sitting on top of it. I ain’t thinking about yo ass Charlie! Ain’t shit free over here! If you wanna get with me then what you need to be doing is keeping your eyes and ears open so I can get up on what’s really good! I’ll give you what you want when you give me what I need. You copy?”
“Loud and clear baby,” Charlie said with a perverted smile. “Loud and fuckin clear.”
$$$$$
While Cucci was outside in the whip negotiating favors with Chimp Charlie, Sly McFly and Honore were sitting down the hall in the preacher’s office, who happened to be one of Sly’s old hustling partners from back in the day.
“You got black shit running down your face,” Sly told Honore as he lit a blunt and kicked back in his manz’s overstuffed chair.
Honore took her makeup compact from her purse and flipped it open. She peered in the mirror and used Sly’s hankie to wipe away the mascara that her phony tears had washed from her eyelashes.
When she was done she looked around the small office that was just too damn junky to belong to a preacher. She could tell he was the bootleg-type because it looked like dude was having a garage sale up in that joint. There were funeral fans, bibles, crates filled with donated books, broken up televisions, triple beam scales, and stacks of old newspaper everywhere.
Honore sat back in her chair as Sly passed her the kush.
“I think I did pretty good shaking them FBI agents off at work you know,” she said, inhaling the weed deeply into her lungs. “They asked me if I would take a lie detector test if they ever needed one and I said hell yeah, bring that shit on. They musta believed me though because they didn’t come back asking no more questions.”
Sly shrugged as his brows dropped low like he was thinking real hard. “That don’t mean shit. They could be laying in the cut and waiting for the right time to strike. But fuck all that. Them gub’ment leeches ain’t our biggest problem right now, Honore. Our biggest problem is them damn investors! Yo
u said Samuelson was gonna pay them off as soon as Avi sold that diamond, right?”
“Yeah,” Honore nodded. “He told them he was gonna hand over all the money by the end of the month.”
Sly frowned. “Well if the doe ain’t in their hands by then they gonna send their goonies out looking for it. They’re gonna want their sweet money back plus their cut off that diamond too. And trust me, with that Jew-boy Samuelson dead and gone, the first person they gonna come gunning for is you.”
“But that shit ain’t even right!” Honore bucked. “I did my fuckin job! I delivered the diamond where it was supposed to be! It ain’t my fault that damn jewelry store got robbed! They gave Joel Samuelson that duffle bag full of sweet money, not me! They put it in his hands. I didn’t get not nare penny of that doe.”
Sly hit her with the crazy face. “Fuck does that matter? The deal was made in both of y’all names! Y’all was supposed to be working as a team, and with one half of the team gone they coming after the other half! We gotta find that diamond and sell it, baby girl,” Sly muttered. “That’s the only way we gonna get this heat up off your neck.”
Honore was silent for a few seconds and then she asked quietly, “What if we blamed that shit on somebody else? What if we made them think it was somebody else who lost the diamond and not me?”
“Somebody like who?”
“Cucci,” Honore said, tossing her cousin’s name out there without missing a beat. “That bitch be asking too many stupid questions for her own good. What if we came up with a real good story and blamed it all on Cucci?”
Sly frowned and nodded. “Yeah, they’d probably kill her. If the story was good enough they’d smoke the shit outta her. But then they’d still kill you too. They want their sweet money and the profits they were supposed to make off that jewel. You were the one rollin with Samuelson. Not Cucci. Besides,” Sly said, thinking of his main squeeze, Frita. “Cucci’s family, baby. Blood family. She’s supposed to be your best friend.”