by Matt Rass
“The fuck?” Ray asked.
Joe the Junkie put his hand on Alex’s shoulder to steady himself at the sight of Ray near the door.
“This is Joe Locke,” Lance explained. “He’s Alex’s father.”
“We can’t afford for this guy to jeopardize our investigation,” Christmas said to Lance.
“Oh bullshit,” Lance said. “As soon as you sent that warrant request, you know some judge gave the congressman the heads-up on it. This case hasn’t gone anywhere up until now, and it’s not going anywhere any time soon. He’s our last chance to stir shit up, right Ray?” Lance said. “Let’s listen to what he has before we say anything else.”
Christmas threw his hands up and whirled around and sank into a desk chair.
“Does he have the iPhone?” Joe asked.
“How did you get it,” Ray asked, holding up the phone for all to see.
Joe looked at his son, and Alex nodded for him to come clean.
“This is the phone you were telling us about?” Christmas asked.
“Yes,” Joe said. “I found it in the parking lot.”
“Did you know it was Sam’s?” Ray asked.
“Yeah, I saw him ditch it when he came out of the side door to the bar.”
“You were in your room?”
“No, I was walking in the back when I saw the boys drive up.”
“Who was there?”
“Mikey and his friends, and Carl Barron, too.”
“The former sheriff?”
Joe nodded.
“How’d they know to come after you to get it?” Lance said.
“They asked me if I found it in the parking lot.”
“Why would they ask you?” Christmas said.
“They asked everyone. Mikey came to me and said he lost his phone in the parking lot and described that one, with the Lions’ case. Said he’d give a hundred bucks to whoever found it, but of course I knew it was bullshit. It was your brother, Sam’s.”
“Who did you tell you had it?” Lance said.
“I asked Alex if he knew this kid, Sam, and when he said he did, I told him I had his phone and that Mikey was asking about it. I said it’s prolly worth more to them than a hundred bucks, and asked if he could find out its true value.”
Everyone looked at Alex. “I asked Frank’s lawyer, Brad, about it. He handles all my uncle’s business, so I assumed it either had to do with Frank or Tony.”
“But you didn’t know what was on the phone?” Christmas asked. “It must’ve been locked?”
“But we suspected we knew what was on it.” Alex said. “Sam is—was—in contact with a lot of girls and some young gay guys. We still don’t know what’s on it. Pictures? Video?”
Everyone turned now to look at Ray. “Audio,” he said. “Frank Silver raping Desiree Chalmers. That was the female I took out of your room the other night,” Ray said to Joe.
Alex addressed Ray. “I guess you know about Sam organizing the girls for the private parties?”
“People were tryin’ to make me believe Sam took off with a big payout,” Ray said.
“I was the one who stole the money from my uncle,” Alex said. “And it’s my fault Sam took the fall for the money.”
Both feds looked at Alex dumbfounded. This was news to them. Ray looked as if he was reaching a rolling boil.
“But I had nothing to do with killing him,” Alex continued. “I thought I could replace the money before they even knew it was gone. I had no idea they would pin it on Sam. As a matter-of-fact, it was Sam who told me that’s what I should do...”
“Blame him for stealing the money?”
“No. He told me where they were keeping the money. He never even had it.”
“Lemme get this straight,” Lance said. “There’s the iPhone with the audio, and then there’s the stolen—what was it?”
“Seventy-five thousand dollars,” Alex said.
“Two separate things? One has nothing to do with the other?”
Everyone looked at everyone else.
“I’ve known from the beginning that Sam wouldn’t steal no one’s money, no matter what,” Ray said.
“Why did you steal the money,” Lance asked.
“I owe money to some bookies in Chicago,” Alex said. “I was just trying to buy some more time. You don’t understand, they were gonna send mobbed-up guys to kill me.”
“Why did everyone else think Sam stole the money?” Christmas asked.
“Because it was Tony’s son Mike who had the money. They weren’t gonna blame him.”
“Who killed Sam?” Ray asked.
Alex’s father Joe stepped in front of his son. “We don’t know who killed him, but if Carl Barron was there, it was him. That man has a long history of getting rid of people.”
Ray addressed Alex: “Did you know they were gonna kill him?”
“No, I didn’t even know they suspected him until after he was missing.”
Ray looked over at Christmas. “What are your plans for this guy? He cooperates with bringing down his uncle and you let him walk?”
“We’ve given him a listening device and we’re gonna send him into his uncle’s,” Christmas said.
“To say what?”
“To admit to using straw donors. We get him on conspiracy to commit fraud and—” Christmas began to recite.
“Fuck that, this is murder,” Ray said.
“Let’s listen to the audio first,” Lance suggested.
“Good idea,” Ray said. He unlocked Sam’s iPhone and pressed Play on the audio file.
ANDRE’S PAD
Andre emerged from his pad looking as if he’d been hit by a car and dragged for a block. He limped down the walkway toward Mike and Dwight, who were standing at the front of Mike’s GMC SUV.
“Where the fuck you go yesterday?” Mike asked.
Andre turned his one good eye up at Mike and sneered. “Are you serious? Your old man and your friends tried to stick a goddamn hockey stick up my ass.”
“Who?”
“I dunno. White boys. You all look the same to me.”
“Never mind that. We gotta find this Detroit cop.”
“Pssh. Good luck with that. I’m done with all y’all.”
“No, no, no,” Mike said. “This goes together with gettin’ rid of the DJ. If you still want his action, then you gotta step up and help with the mess.”
“What action? You burned down the club and scared off half the pussy in town.”
“That was an accident.”
“Accident my ass.”
“It was a fuckin’ meth pipe or some shit,” Mike said. “And whattabout me? We gotta do this last thing before we can move on to the next.”
“What next? I shouldn’ta gone in with you fools in the first place.”
Mike pulled a gun and shakily held it in Andre’s face.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Dwight said. “C’mon, Mikey. You’re goin’ too far. Put the gun away, man.”
“I ain’t goin’ too far,” Mike said. “Matter of fact, I ain’t gone far enough.” He waved the gun at Andre. “Now this asshole is gonna get in my car, then we’re gonna find this fuckin’ cop, or we bury you next.”
“Buried like Sam, ya mean?” Andre said.
“Just like Sam.”
“You motherfucker,” Dwight said. “That was the plan all along, wasn’t it? And I followed you like a dumbass.”
“Don’t fucking move, Dwight,” Mike warned.
Dwight angled away from Mike’s side. “You said I was there to make sure Sam went along peacefully, but you used me, man. You knew he wouldn’t answer no one’s call but mine.”
“He played you, man,” Andre said.
“Shut up!” Mike yelled.
“You motherfuckers were planning on killing Sam the whole time, weren’t you?”
“Yes they was,” Andre said. “They said your boy had proof on his phone of some bitch gettin’ raped.”
“Shut up,” Mike said, sh
ifting the gun between Dwight and Andre. “Get in the front of the car, both of you. Dwight, you drive, or I swear to God I’ll blast you both where you stand.”
“I ain’t afraid of you, man,” Dwight said.
“Take him, Dwight,” Andre said.
“I ain’t got nothing to lose no more. I’ll shoot you both and claim stand-your-ground. Now get in the fuckin’ car.”
“You’re gonna pay for this,” Dwight said.
“Yadda-yadda-yadda, whatever, shut up. Get in the car or get shot.”
“You ain’t gonna be able to shoot both of us,” Andre said.
Mike stepped quickly back, opened the rear passenger door, and threw his keys at Dwight. “Both of you get in on this side. Dwight first.”
Dwight picked up the keys and walked up to the barrel of Mike’s gun. “This is gonna be a long ass day of you lookin’ over your shoulder.”
“Don’t worry,” Mike said. “I’ll make sure you’re in front of me the whole time.”
Dwight stepped into the SUV and climbed behind the steering wheel.
“This is no way to treat your partners,” Andre said before joining Dwight in the front of the vehicle.
“Where we going?” Dwight asked.
“To the St. Andrews trailer park,” Mike said.
BACK TO THE FBI MOTEL
“Lemme get this straight,” Ray said. “You want me to ignore my brother’s killers, so you can go after a crooked congressman on…what? Conspiracy to commit fraud?”
“Your audio is obviously—”
“Give me the wire,” Ray said, “and I’ll get a confession out of him.”
“The likelihood of Frank Silver being implicated in your brother’s murder—however plausible—is unlikely in a court of law,” Christmas said.
“He’s right,” Lance said. “If, like Joe says, this Carl Barron has been doing the congressman’s dirty work all this time, he is prolly our best bet to flip on Frank—”
“I’m tired of all this talk,” Ray said. “I only care about who snatched Sam and who pulled the trigger.” Ray pointed at Alex and addressed Special Agent Christmas. “These motherfuckers is playin’ y’all. If he set Sam up to take the fall for stealing the money, and Sam was killed for it, then I want him charged for it.”
Alex shook his head. “I swear to God I had no idea he was in danger. He was my friend.”
“If you didn’t know they were gonna blame the only black man in on it, then you’re an idiot. And if you did know, then you’re a dead man.”
“Ray,” Lance ventured. “There’s a better-than-likely chance that Sam was murdered because of what’s on that phone, and not because of the stolen money. What you have there is audio of a member of congress committing rape. If you give it to me, I’ll make sure it gets into the right hands at the FBI.”
Ray looked at his brother’s iPhone. He didn’t know where Sam lived, he didn’t know where his stuff was. It was the only thing he actually had left of Sam. “If you give me one of them listening devices, I’ll give you Sam’s phone.”
Lance looked at Christmas and the Special Agent reached into his briefcase. “Try and not do anything illegal,” Christmas said. “This is Federal property.”
Ray said, “Thanks,” as his personal phone began to ring in his pocket. He dug it out and answered it. It was Mandy. “Ray, Emma’s gone. She’s run away!” she said.
“Hold on,” he said. “I’m on my way.”
TRAILER REDUX
Ray climbed achingly out of his taxi and headed for the front door of the trailer.
Mandy stood at the top of the stairs, disappointed that the sound of the approaching car didn’t contain Emma, but relieved somewhat that it was Ray.
“What happened?” Ray asked.
“I found her in her bedroom with piles of money,” Mandy said, leading Ray into the trailer. “She had like, three hundred dollars.”
“And you fought about that?”
“She thinks I don’t give her any freedom.”
“So she ran away?”
“Yes.”
“You have arguments in the past?”
“Yes, but nothing like this. How does a teenager even get that kind of money?”
“Not by doin’ anything good,” Ray said.
“That’s what I said. And lookit this. I have a tracking app on her phone.” On her phone, Mandy showed Ray the blue dot representing Emma. “She’s been at this address for half an hour.”
“Can you zoom out?” Ray asked. “I think I know that address.”
Mandy tapped a button in the app. The view on the phone changed from the basic map to a detailed aerial view of a cluster of white mansions with big yards and swimming pools on a cul-de-sac.
“That’s Frank Silver’s house,” Ray said.
“Why would she be there? You don’t think he gave her the money, do you?”
“Can you share her tracking info with my phone?”
Mandy sent Emma’s location to Ray’s phone. “You should get a message with the link soon,” she said. She looked up at Ray while they waited for his phone to ping. “What if I told you she was yours?” she said.
“I’d say you were lying.”
“I know,” she sniffed. “I wish she was, though. I told myself after I called you that I was gonna make you believe she was yours. That you would go out there, and no matter what, bring her home to me.”
“She doesn’t have to be mine for me to do that.”
“I’ve loved you too much, Ray. It ruined me.”
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you like that.”
“’Cos I didn’t know what happened. I blamed myself.”
“It was selfish of me to only be thinking about myself. Do you know who her father is?”
“Fuckin’ John Thomas. I was only with him for like, three months, when I found out I was three months pregnant.”
“With my best friend? Really?”
“Oh, yeah, he would come around here all the time after you left. He convinced me he was what I needed. But soon as he found out I was pregnant, he was gone like summer. So, I thought, if no one was gonna love me, then I was gonna love this baby with everything I had. It’s been real hard, Ray. You don’t know how hard.”
Ray’s phone pinged with the incoming link to Emma’s tracker.
“There it is,” she said.
They both paused as they heard the crunch of gravel from outside. Mandy looked down at her tracking app, but the blue dot still showed at the Silver home.
Ray peeked through the window and saw Dwight behind the wheel of Mike’s GMC SUV and Andre in the passenger seat.
“Stay inside,” Ray said to Mandy.
Ray stepped out of the trailer and stood atop the stairs. As he started his descent down the steps, Ray was half surprised to see Mike step out of the back of the GMC. “Dwight? What’re you doin’ with these fools?” Ray asked.
“Why don’t you come with us so we can talk about it?” Dwight asked.
Ray then saw the gun in Mike’s hand. The other two didn’t appear to be armed. He stopped midway down the stairs. “Is that what you said to get Sam to come to the parking lot?”
“Get in the car, Ray,” Mike said, bringing up his gun.
“Fuck you.”
“Gimme the gun,” Andre said. “I’ll shoot him.”
Ray saw his Caddy before the other three turned to see it drive up the gravel road.
“Well, if you ain’t gonna shoot me,” Ray said, “I say we finish this the old-fashioned way.”
Mike laughed. “You gonna take on all three of us at the same time?”
“No,” Andre said. “Here comes his backup.”
DC exited the Caddy, blind to Mike’s gun, and waved at Ray as if he couldn’t see her. Mike ran over to her and held her in front of himself, pressing the gun against the side of her head.
“Get in the car,” Mike said.
“Or what, you’ll shoot her?” Ray waved his hand, dismissi
ng Mike’s threat. “Take a look around at all the open windows. You prolly have half a dozen people watching you right now. And truth is, I really don’t give a shit about her.”
“What?” DC said. “He gives a shit about me. Ray?”
“Why did you lie to me and say you didn’t know Sam?” Ray asked.
She stammered, “’Cos, I-I, I wished I never did know him, okay?”
“I listened to your message on the phone you stole. You called him and asked him for help.”
“And he never gave it,” DC said. “But I gave you his phone.”
“Shoot the bitch,” Andre said.
DC bucked in Mike’s grip, trying to shake him loose. “Sam’s the reason I came to this shitass town in the first place,” DC yelled. “And I ain’t got nothin’ but trouble since.” She knocked her head back against Mike and he spun her around and backhanded her in the mouth, knocking her down.
“Enough.” Ray said as he watched Dwight sneaking around to the back of the SUV.
“I can’t believe you hit me in my mouth,” DC said.
“Come get this whore,” Mike said to Andre.
“I ain’t no whore no more,” DC said, kicking her feet out toward her former pimp.
Andre tried to avoid her frantic kicks, but he still limped from the day before. Mike’s attention was on the ridiculous display in front of him as Dwight came up from behind and twisted his arm behind his back. Just then Mandy’s little guy, Shane, opened the front door, distracting both Dwayne and Ray.
“Go back inside Shane,” Ray said, shooing the boy back as Mike freed his arm from Dwight and lifted his .45 caliber hand cannon and double-palmed the grip, raising the barrel to Ray.
Ray’s heart stopped. He sprung and lunged up the trailer’s iron stairs toward the door, his fingertips extended as if he was reaching for a Hail Mary pass.
Dwight screamed—“That’s my boy!”—and got a hand on Mike’s shoulder, trying to wrench Mike back as the gun blasted in his hands.
Ray pushed the door closed, knocking Shane in the face and making the boy topple over as the bullet tore through the lock above his head.