Cartier Cartel

by Nisa Santiago

  As the girls walked down the building's staircase, one of Cartier's neighbors stopped them. "What y'all selling?" the heavyset brown female asked.

  "Ummm, we taking this stuff to Bedstuy," Cartier replied.

  "I thought you girls stopped boosting," the woman stated.

  "We did, but this is some leftover shit we had lingering around."

  "Well, why go all the way over to Bedstuy, when you could get a sell right here? Come inside my apartment, I got a few dollars."

  Theyboth hesitated. "We cool," Cartier said. "We already have the money for this stuff, so we gotta go. But if we go back out, we'll stop by."

  Cartier and Monya took a cab to East New York and dumped the bags in an alleyway dumpster in the Cypress projects. The cold night air put an eerie feeling inside the pit of Cartier's stomach. She knew it was a new day, a new beginning. She just hoped they survived it.

  When they returned to the block, they had the crowd standing at the entranceway of the alley, the same alley they had been in several hours prior. The police had the alleyway and the sidewalk taped off with crime scene tape. The yellow tape was a solemn reminder of what had transpired. Neither one of them realized it, but their eyes were stretched open wide like saucers.

  Cartier and Monya inched closer to the crowd. From where they stood, they could see Donnie lying stiffly on the ground with a white sheet on top of him. Cartier looked at Monya when she saw the forensics team snapping pictures and the meat wagon waiting to haul him away.

  Shanine and Lil Momma were among the spectators. The girls all looked at each other. Lil Momma gave Cartier a knowing nod as if to say, I know what happened here.

  Cartier was paranoid. Many thoughts raced through her head. Will Lil Momma and Shanine be a problem in the future? Will the forensics team find something that leads back to me and Monya? Did anyone see Monya run into the alley, or see her enter the alley, or see both of us leave the alley? It was the age of technology and she knew someone could have recorded the fight between her and Donnie on a camcorder, or Monya ultimately stabbing Donnie to death. Cartier was so deep into her thought, she was completely caught off guard when someone yanked her out of the crowd.

  "Let's walk," Jason demanded as a startled look displayed across Cartier's face.

  "Chill!" she retorted and wiggled free. "I'm coming:

  They both walked down the block and he motioned for Cartier to get inside of his Pathfinder.

  "What the fuck happened to Donnie?" Jason demanded to know.

  "You tell me"

  Jason wasn't down for any bullshit. He loved Cartier, but even love had its limits. "Cartier, don't play stupid with me, dammit," Jason calmly stated. "You ask me to get the nigga over here and when I come through, someone's done smashed him off? Who the fuck you get to take him out and why the fuck you got me involved in this bullshit?"

  "I'm telling you I ain't have shit to do with this," she lied. "Come on, you know me better than that. I would never put you in the middle of no bullshit. And besides, what niggas I got that will body somebody for me? The only nigga I know that would be down for me is you, and you didn't do it"

  Jason thought for a minute. He was a reasonable man and figured that Cartier wouldn't play him dirty. But no matter how you slice it, he was probably one of the last, if not the last call on Donnie's cell. The last thing Jason wanted or needed was po-po rolling up on him talking about let's talk. That thought alone made his stomach chum.

  "Yo, where you coming from anyway?" he asked casually. "Did you even meet Donnie?"

  "We were supposed to meet Donnie, then things got fucked up. Monya and I had it out with Shanine and Lil Momma-"

  "I thought they were y'all homegirls" Jason interrupted. "What y'all beefin' about?"

  "They both got issues with me, talking about I'm bossy and shit like that"

  "Oh, that girly shit. They just jealous of you, ma. Don't let that shit get to you."

  Cartier shrugged her shoulders. "It's all good though 'cause I'ma show them that they fucked up not being in the Cartel. They can't get any money without me."

  "That's right. That's how you do it. Show those bitches who's boss," Jason couldn't help himself. Cartier could do no wrong in his eyes. He just wished she could see that he was the man for him. As they sat there, they watched the meat wagon pull away with Donnie's body. They both sat in silence for different reasons.

  "You don't want to go get something to eat?"Jason asked.

  "Nah, I'm good. I gotta go and check on my moms. You know she's pregnant and by now, I'm sure her nosey ass done heard what happened. I'll have to go and fill her in."

  Cartier was glad to escape the minor interrogation inside Jason's ride. She walked briskly to Monya and gave her a look. As they both walked toward Cartier's apartment, she whispered, "Yo, you know we can't tell anyone what happened, right?"

  "You don't have to tell me that ... I'm the one who killed him. Do you think I'm stupid?"

  "Of course not, just act normal and we should be fine. Didn't anybody see nothing so I'm sure we straight," Cartier tried reassuring Monya. In actuality, she was also trying to reassure herself. "Monya, I'm trying to be strong and I don't know how you're holding up, but I can't get my hands to stop shaking."

  Cartier pulled her hands from deep inside her ski jacket. They were cold and clammy, and trembling from nerves.

  For the first time in their lives, Monya saw something she had never seen in her friend's face-fear.

  "Cartier, get a hold of yourself," Monya said. "By this time next week, we'll be fine. OK? I promise. I love you."

  "I love you, too."

  That night, Cartier went home and gave her mother the biggest hug she could muster.

  t took one week before Barn was well enough to receive visitors. All four girls decided to visit Barn as a cohesive group. Although they still weren't speaking, they deemed it important to behave in front of Bam. They all agreed she had been through enough.

  As the girls walked in, the two detectives they had met before were walking out. They nodded their heads to the Cartel, who refused to return the acknowledgment.

  Barn was still fucked up. Her right eye was scarred permanently and was only half opened. She had several missing teeth, bald spots on her head, and as soon as she opened her mouth, Cartier knew she had brain damage.

  "H-h-h-hi f-f-f-friends," she stuttered and smiled a toothless grin. She looked terrible, squeamish to the sight. Cartier and Lil Momma, although no longer friends, exchanged fearful glances. "S-s-s-so happy t-t-t-to s-s-s-see."

  Barn was embarrassed. She couldn't finish her sentence and felt ashamed.

  Her friends knew what she was trying to say. One by one they embraced their friend.

  Lil Momma led with the questions. "Did you tell the police who did this to you?"

  Barn nodded her head in the affirmative, but said nothing.

  Barn's answer raked Lil Momma's nerve. "Well? Who did it," she asked Barn in a less than friendly tone. Everyone glared at Lil Momma, who decided to soften her tone. "We're worried about you, Barn, that's all."

  Barn shook her head again and finally replied, "H-h-h-he d-d-d-dead."

  "Donnie? Was it Donnie who did this to you?" Lil Momma was relentless in her line of questioning. And it didn't sit well with Cartier.

  Once again, Bam nodded her head in the affirmative.

  Cartier and Monya exchanged glances. Both wondered how long it would take before the detectives realized Donnie's death was a revenge killing. This information made them antsy; so much so, they decided to cut their visit short.

  Outside, Cartier said, "I think we should give Lil Momma and Shanine their cut of the money and make up."

  "Nah, we'd be stupid to do that," Monya replied. "What for? They wanted out ... hell, they knew the rules."

  "I'm telling you I got a bad feeling about Lil Momma," Cartier retorted. "She keeps staring at us as if she knows we had something to do with Donnie's murder."

  "You're being
paranoid," Monya responded. "How the fuck could she know? Don't let that bitch play you. You gotta be strong"

  The roles had been turned. Monya was the strong, determined one since she'd killed Donnie. Cartier wasn't sure if she was coming or going.

  "She knows because she knows us," Cartier reasoned. "She grew up around us all her life and she knows I wasn't gonna let Donnie get away with beating on Bam, especially after the guilt trip she put on me."

  "You're going mental," Monya countered. "Besides, why you taking credit for shit I did? You talking like you murdered him, when it was me who handled my business!"

  Monya's outburst startled Cartier. She couldn't believe they were in the middle of the street arguing about who was going to take blame for a murder. Since that day, Cartier didn't recognize this new Monya. This Monya didn't have any remorse for taking a life. This wasn't the scary Monya she'd known since birth.

  "What the fuck are you talking about?" Cartier asked with attitude. "No one's taking credit for your shit. I'm just saying that Lil Momma ain't stupid. In fact, she's one of the smartest members in my crew!"

  Cartier knew this would cut Monya's pride down to size. She got the expected result.

  "And what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Monya asked as she stepped toward Cartier in a confrontational manner. "You saying I'm stupid?" Donnie's murder had given Monya the confidence she lacked all her years.

  Cartier recognized where Monya's strength was coming from. But she was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She could beat Monya to a pulp, but that was something she didn't want to do. The Cartel had fallen apart and she couldn't afford to lose Monya as well.

  Cartier exhaled and took a step back. She needed to breathe and put space between them. "That's not what I'm saying," Cartier began. "All I'm trying to say is that we gotta watch Lil Momma. She's out for revenge, because she wants her eight large and I'm telling you that each day she doesn't get it is going to put our whole operation at risk. I don't even feel comfortable hugging the block, because she might call 5-0 on us. You feel me?"

  Monya tossed her eyes in the air, and said, "I wish that bitch would call po-po on me. She better chill if she knows what's good for her!"

  Cartier wanted so badly to tell Monya that Lil Momma would break her bony ass into several pieces, but she knew there was no point. Monya was riding high off her accidental murder.

  ebbles was a sight to the two detectives' weary eyes. Her brightly dyed red hair, against her pale, almost pasty white skin, brought immediate attention to the grieving woman. Although she was half-white and half Puerto Rican, she carried herself and spoke as if she were black. Her mother was white, born and raised in a trailer park off Eight Mile, in the heart of the Detroit ghetto. Her father was Puerto Rican and was only passing through long enough to get her mother knocked up. Life in Detroit was too slow for the pregnant girl, so she followed another boyfriend to the hoods of Flatbush, Brooklyn, where Pebbles would be born and raised.

  When Pebbles was twelve years old, she began dying her naturally brunette hair, red. By the time she turned fourteen, her boyfriend at the time stopped calling her by her God-given name, Belen, and began calling her Pebbles, after Fred and Wilma Flintstones's daughter. The name stuck ever since.

  The strikingly beautiful girl with the dirty mouth wanted justice for her slain man.

  "Those bitches gotta pay or so help me God, when I drop my fucking seed I'ma kill all of them."

  "Ms. Gomez, take a seat," the lead detective began. "Calm down ... before you hurt your baby. We're here to see that justice gets served, but you gotta help us out and tell us what you know."

  "I'm too fucking heated to calm down!" Pebbles exclaimed. "Those bumass boosting bitches took my world away from me. I got two kids by Donnie. Now what the fuck I'm gonna do? His fucking mother done came through and looted all his shit before he was even buried in the ground. I came home from work and all our shit was gone and she talking about that was her son's shit? She done found the stash and everything! She gonna get hers too!"

  "Ms. Gomez-" the detective tried intervening.

  "Call me Pebbles."

  "Pebbles, why don't you start from the beginning?" the detective said.

  "When I'm done can I press charges on his moms for stealing our shit?"

  Both detectives looked to one another and decided to appease their only witness. "Sure ... sure ... anything you want," the second detective chimed in. "Now start from the beginning."

  "OK, check it. Donnie calls me and tells me that he's about to check this bitch named Bam for selling product on his block..." Pebbles paused. "Am I gonna get into trouble?"

  Then she answered her own question. "What could I get into trouble for? I don't sell drugs. So anyway, Donnie was heated. When he got home that night he told me he thought he'd killed Bam, because he left her ass knocked out cold on her block and didn't nobody do shit. You see they all feared my baby daddy. Now, I told him that I would handle those bitches after I dropped my baby, but he wouldn't have it. He beat her down himself and now he's dead"

  Pebbles looked to the detectives to put the pieces together.

  "That's it?" the second detective asked.

  Pebbles exhaled. She felt as if she was dealing with the Keystone Cops. "Bam was a part of the Cartier Cartel. There are five members, Cartier, the ringleader; Monya, the lieutenant; and Bam, Shanine, and Lil Momma-the flunkies. They formed this all-girl organization and began slinging dope on my man's block. They had been beefing for weeks. Donnie said that alpha bitch, Cartier, was stepping to him like she was a dude. And the night he got killed, he got a call from this kid named Jason, who's fucking Cartier."

  "How do you know that?" the lead detective asked.

  "Because I got all his numbers from Donnie's cell phone bill and called the last number. It was Jason."

  Suddenly, a smile appeared on both detectives faces. "Tell us everything you know about Jason. Last name, address, telephone number, anything you can think of."

  "What about the Cartel?" Pebbles asked.

  "We think we got our killer, and it's Jason"

  ess than two weeks later after Donnie's murder, the police thought they had put the pieces of the puzzle together. Pebbles had steered them in the right direction. It was only a matter of days before they started building a case against Jason and received a search warrant for his crib.

  Jason didn't sweat it. He knew the police wouldn't find anything. He made it a point to keep his crib clean, not even a burner. When they hauled him down to the precinct on suspicion of murder charges, he wasn't worried. He knew in his gut he'd get pulled into the mix. But he was confident shit wouldn't stick.

  On the night in question he was around mad niggas at a dice game, so he knew it would be hard for them to pin shit on him.

  Word traveled fast in the hood. Cartier had just walked into her building when she heard the news. Her heart plummeted as she remembered Jason's words. He told her this was going to happen. That she dragged him into this situation. She just hoped Jason didn't tell the police she had had him call Donnie to meet her. Since they already knew Donnie had assaulted Barn, they would come looking for her and her crew. Cartier ran up her stairs, two at a time. She was shaking, severely, too much to pull out her door keys. She began banging on the door.

  "Ma! Open up!" Cartier demanded.

  Trina waddled to the door at a snail's pace. She was already two days overdue and if the baby didn't naturally come soon, then her doctor said he was going to have to take the baby. When she flung open the door, she was frantic. She thought Cartier was hurt.

  "Are you all right?" she asked.

  "I'm fine," Cartier replied and dashed into her room. She went to the shoebox that held their stash: money, drugs, and Donnie's jewelry. Her first instinct was to flush it down the toilet as they do in the movies. As she was contemplating her next move, she didn't realize Trina was standing there looking over her shoulder.

  "Where the fuck you get all that money
from?" Trina asked. "I mean, I know y'all out there tossing it up, but never did I imagine you were holding it down like this."

  Cartier was a nervous wreck. She didn't know what to say. Large tears began to fall down her dark chocolate skin. She knew she was in deep trouble and didn't have anywhere to turn.

  "Mommy, I don't know what to do," she blurted out as tears streamed down her cheeks. "I'm in big trouble. I really think I've seriously fucked up."

  "Fucked up how? What's going on?"

  The loud banging on the front door was unmistakable. "Police! Open up before we kick in the door!"

  Trina didn't hesitate. She took the contents of the shoebox and shoved it the front of her spandex pants, positioned the contents by her crotch and closed her housecoat. Her huge stomach hid everything nicely.

  "Hold on! No need to break my fucking door," Trina said as she swung open the door. As the police trampled in, Trina was nearly tossed to the ground. "What's this all about?"

  Two cops in blue, one black and one Hispanic, walked directly to Cartier. "Cartier Timmons," the Hispanic cop said, "we have a warrant for your arrest!"

  "What? For what?" Trina asked.

  "On suspicion of first degree murder!" the black cop stated.

  "Ma!" Cartier cried out. "Help me!"

  Forcefully, Carter was handcuffed by the Hispanic cop, while his partner thrust a search warrant into Trina's face.

  "We also have a warrant to search your apartment," the black cop said with a smirk on his face.

  "You can search all you like, but I'm going with my daughter to the precinct!"

  The police allowed Trina to put on an overcoat. A ride in a separate squad car was provided to her. Trina prayed to God that Cartier didn't have any other drugs or money hidden in her room. As she walked outside, she saw two squad cars down the block, in front of Janet's apartment building. Trina realized whatever trouble Cartier was in, Monya was involved as well. But murder? Who? There had to be a huge mistake.