by K'wan
“Lilith isn’t just some boss; she’s the mother of Satan!” Luther insisted. “Regardless of what happens to me today, it won’t stop her plans. She’s going to crack open the gates of hell and usher in the end of days.”
“Unless I put a bullet in her head,” Animal countered.
Luther laughed. “Man, where are you from, Mars? How are you gonna stop what’s already in motion? At this point, there’s nothing any of us can do except ride the wave and hope we don’t crash on the rocks. You wanna find out what Lilith is up to? Do it your fucking self,” he sprang from the bed and threw himself out the window.
Animal peered through the broken glass at what was left of Luther. He lay on the ground, three stories below, with his body twisted at an awkward angle. Blood pooled beneath his half-crushed skull and his memories leaked out into the concrete. Staring down at Luther he found himself feeling somewhere between shocked and disgusted. He was so afraid of Tiger Lily that he would rather have taken his own life than cross her. The fact that his adversary was able to instill that type of fear in a man gave Animal a new respect for her. Tiger Lily was something he hadn’t been up against in a long time, a real gangster.
He had come to Original Sin looking for answers, but instead ended up with even more questions and blood on his hands, which seemed to be the story of his life. Luther killing himself before Animal could extract any useful information only further complicated an already complex problem, but there wasn’t too much he could do about it at that point except move on and hope he could pick up another useful lead from Sonja’s flash drive.
As Animal was about to leave when he remembered the messenger bag and its contents. He knelt down and began gathering the papers up, thumbing through them to see what Luther carried that was so important that it earned him a get- out-of-jail-free card. The first thing he came across was a sheet of notebook paper with numbers and letters scribbled on them. It reminded Animal of the periodic table of elements his high school science teacher had pinned to the wall of his class. He set that aside and continued shuffling through the contents of the bag. He came across several bank statements and some other legal documents baring the name L. Angelino, who was listed as a minority shareholder in NYAK. Animal then understood why Luther found his accusations of NYAK laundering money for the cartel laughable. You didn’t need to hire someone to wash your cash when you owned a stake in the laundromat. Angelino was Lilith’s maiden name. He recalled Sonja mentioning it in one of their conversations. By getting Luther out of jail, Lilith was protecting her interests. Now the connections all made sense.
A smile crossed Animal’s face. As it turned out, popping in on Luther hadn’t been a total loss after all. Tying Lilith to NYAK might be just what he needed to leverage against her. If word were to get out about their connection, it would raise all kinds of uncomfortable questions that she, nor NYAK, were prepared to answer. She would likely do anything in her power to keep the secret from getting out; even return his children.
He sifted through the rest of the papers to see what else he could find. Most of it was junk, with little value to him or his cause, but he did find something that gave him pause. It was a shipping manifest for a boat called La Viuda Roja. He recognized the name from his time in Old San Juan. It had been painted on the side of one of the cargo ships that came in and out of the harbor, which the cartel controlled. Poppito had christened it with the nickname the soldiers had given his daughter Sonja, La Viuda Roja, The Red Widow. According to the manifest, the ship was supposed to be carrying rum and canned fish from Puerto Rico to New York, but Animal was no fool. He had a hunch that if he tracked down that ship the only thing he’d find on it was cocaine. He had just discovered how the cartel was getting their drugs in and out of the city. If he could intercept their shipment, it would be a crippling blow to the cartel. Of course, it was a long shot, but he had been beating the odds all his life.
“Looks like Christmas has come early this year,” Animal said, packing the documents back into the messenger bag to take with him. He couldn’t wait to cross-reference the information with what Sonja had on the flash drive. For the first time since it had all started, he could actually see a light at the end of the dark ass tunnel.
Animal surveyed the bloody room, taking stock of the mess and the dead body that now occupied and it filled him with something he hadn’t felt in a long time, hunger. It was like those first pangs when you woke up in the morning and your body told you it was time to have breakfast. The emptiness had returned, the same emptiness he had spent so many years using death and violence trying to fill. Sitting on the sidelines for so long had dulled his taste for blood, but the small sampling that night had brought the thirst back. He wanted more and he would have it.
On his way out, he spotted the pipe Momo had been smoking on the floor near the bed. He knelt and picked it up to examine it. When he put it to his nose and sniffed, he recoiled at the foul smell. It was packed with small blue crystals, which looked like rock candy, but rock candy didn’t turn hundred and forty-pound strippers into raging bulls. Whatever the drug was, it was like nothing he’d ever encountered in his years on the streets. He thought back on Luther’s last words about Tiger Lily opening the gates of hell and wondered if the contents of the pipe were the key.
With the messenger bag slung across his back, Animal slipped into the hall and made his way back towards the steps. Things were as still as they were when he’d come so he gathered all the noise downstairs had muffled the sounds of breaking glass when Luther jumped from the third floor window. No matter. It wouldn’t be long before they found the body, which meant he only had a precious few moments to escape Original Sin with the information he’d collected and his life. When he reached the stairs, he noticed several brutish looking men in black t-shirts making their way up. Leading them was the barmaid who had chatted him up when he was downstairs.
“That’s the guy I was telling you about right there!” She pointed her finger accusingly at Animal.
“Is there a problem?” Animal asked as if he didn’t already know what was going on.
The lead bouncer stepped forward. “Yeah, this is a member’s only club. I’m going to need to see your credentials or have to ask you to leave.”
“No problem. I was on my way out anyhow,” Animal said, stepping past him. He was almost clear when a half dressed stripper, who looked frightened out of her mind, appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
“There’s a dead body in the parking lot!” the stripper shrieked.
His precious few moments were up.
A strong hand clasped Animal’s shoulder from behind. He spun, drawing his gun with his free hand and pumped two slugs into the gut of the man who had grabbed him. Without missing a beat, he put a bullet in the forehead of the barmaid. She wasn’t a threat, but it was what she got for snitching on him. One member of the security team tried to play hero and leapt into Animal’s path. The young killer never broke his stride when he put a bullet between his eyes. His bulky body rolled down the stairs, knocking people over like bowling pins and clearing a path for Animal.
The sounds of gunshots threw the entire club into chaos, with everyone scrambling to get out of the way of the wild haired gunman. Animal zigzagged across the floor, dodging enemy gunfire. Seeing the exit in front of him, he willed his legs to pump faster. He had almost reached the door when several men popped out of nowhere and cut him off. Animal was sure he could take a few of them out, but he didn’t have enough bullets left to go to war with the entire security team. He was trapped.
A thick stripper who had been trying to escape the gunfire wandered into Animal’s path and it gave him an idea. He grabbed the girl and hoisted her onto his shoulder. She was heavy as hell, but adrenaline and fear gave him the strength to run with her across the room to the large picture window. He fired off the remaining bullets in his clip, weakening the glass before using the stripper as a battering ram and dove through the window to freedom. By the time, the securi
ty team made it over, all that was left to mark Animal’s passing was some broken glass and a dazed stripper.
*
Animal half ran, half limped through an alley, fleeing the crime scene. He had banged himself up pretty bad when he jumped out the window, but a few cuts and bruises beat a bullet to the head any day. It wasn’t until he was five blocks away that he finally stopped to catch his breath.
He checked the time on his watch and realized that it was almost midnight. He hadn’t even realized that he had been gone so long. By then Ashanti and the others had no doubt realized that he was gone and were surely combing the streets looking for him, but he wasn’t quite ready to be found yet. There were still a few things he needed to do before he headed back to share his discovery with his comrades.
Part of him felt bad about his abrupt departure. After all, they had laid on the line for him, disappearing without a word was inconsiderate on his part, but he was all out of words and overflowing with rage. The vision he’d had earlier had put him on the path and he now understood what he needed to do. The only reason Animal hadn’t jumped on the first thing smoking to Old San Juan and blown Lilith’s head off was because he didn’t want to put his children in unnecessary jeopardy. Animal knew enough about the ways of the Brotherhood to know that his kids weren’t in any immediate danger for two reasons; one was it went against the oldest codes of that order to harm a child and two they were also holding one of Lilith’s sons, George. For as much shit as she talked about George being a soldier, she was still his mother. As a parent himself, Animal understood the unfading love of a parent for their child, but he also understood a parent’s wrath if their children were put in harm’s way. As long as George was kept alive, so would his children, but he still needed a solid plan to get them back.
The others wanted to negotiate with Lilith, and Animal wasn’t opposed to, but he knew that when dealing with a tyrant like Lilith you needed additional leverage to get them to play fair, which is why he had set out on his little solo mission of destruction. There was no way in hell he was going into the serpent’s lair, he had to draw her out and that’s exactly what he intended to do with what he had found in the messenger bag. Tiger Lily was sure to be livid when she found out Animal uncovered her secret, but she would certainly shit a brick when she found out what he had in store for her drug shipment. That would be the final slap in the face to spur her to action, but in order to put it in play; he still needed to find the Red Widow.
Luther had gone to his grave with the location of the freighter, and none of what he found in the messenger bag gave him so much as clue either. This was something he would need help with, and he knew just who to turn to. The only problem was that after the way they had parted the last time, he wasn’t sure if his unexpected arrival would be received with open arms or a loaded gun.
CHAPTER 8
Twenty minutes after Animal’s great escape, Original Sin found itself thrown into chaos. There were police cruisers and ambulances lining both sides of the block, and a wall of yellow tape had been erected to keep the onlookers from contaminating the crime scene. The once quiet block had been turned into a circus, and rightfully so. It wasn’t every day that one of the biggest houses of prostitution and gambling in the city got busted. Some of the girls and a few of the higher profile clients had managed to slip out at the first signs of trouble, but the ones who weren’t found themselves having to answer some very uncomfortable questions.
A brown Buick pulled to such an abrupt stop at the curb that one of the uniformed officers had to jump onto the curb to keep from being run over. As if they had been synchronized to do so, both the driver and the passenger doors came open at the same time. From behind the wheel, slid a tall, handsome, Hispanic man. Dressed in tailored suit that was the color of a cloudy summer day, he looked more like a fashion model than a law enforcement agent. With him, looks could be deceiving, but with his partner, not so much.
The second man who climbed from the car was Black…of a caramel complexion to be exact. He too wore a suit, but his was a dull shade of brown and fit him like he’d gotten it off the rack. He had a hard face, and wore his hair in a tapered afro that was at least ten years past its curfew. Unlike his partner, who could blend in pretty much anywhere, his whole aura screamed cop.
They were Detectives Alvarez and Brown, known amongst the criminal element on the streets as The Minority Report. They were notorious hard asses who abused their authority every chance they got and weren’t above stepping outside the law to make a case stick.
“Detectives, Brown, Alvarez,” one of the uniformed officers greeted them.
“What do we have?” Brown asked in his gruff voice. The man seemed to be angry twenty-four hours a day.
“Well it seems to be some type of illegal gambling house.
Busted a few whores working the joint too. As near as…”
“I know what Original Sin is, numb nuts,” Brown cut him off. “I mean what happened?”
“Oh,” the uniformed officer turned red from embarrassment. “Ah, according to witness reports some guy came in and shot the place up. We’ve got several dead inside and at least a dozen wounded, in addition to a body in the parking lot. This place is a mess,” he filled the detectives in.
“Employees or patrons?” Alvarez asked.
“For the most part, the casualties were all employees of this place but there was one who wasn’t,” the cop referred to his note pad. “A man by the name of Luther Graham.”
The name tugged at Detective Brown’s memory. “Where do I know that name from?”
“We found his wallet in his back pocket,” the officer held up a clear plastic bag containing a black leather wallet. “He’s a manager at a messenger service based in lower Manhattan.”
“That’s why his name sounded so familiar,” Brown snapped his fingers as his memory kicked in. “His name has been buzzing downtown lately. Apparently, Mr. Graham has been arrested several times in the last few months, but we can’t seem to get anything to stick to him. From what I hear he’s a petty crook, so it raises the question as to how he ended up in a whore house full of long money gangsters.”
“I think the better question is why would someone want to kill him?” Alvarez countered.
“Ah, actually he wasn’t killed by the shooter. From what the medical examiner on scene says, Mr. Graham’s wound was self-inflicted. He jumped out the window,” the uniformed officer revealed.
“And the plot thickens,” Detective Alvarez said absently. “Do we have the person responsible for shooting all those people or did the locals get to him first?” Alvarez asked, knowing how Original Sin dealt with troublemakers. He’d never admit it in a court of law, but he was a card-carrying member of the establishment.
“Neither. The shooter escaped before security could apprehend him,” the uniformed officer said, much to Detective Alvarez’s surprise. One thing he knew about Original Sin was that violators might’ve been able to get in, but they never got out.
“How did he manage that?” Alvarez asked.
“Through there,” the uniformed pointed to the busted first floor window.
Detective Brown looked from the window back to the uniformed officer. “You mean to tell me that somebody came into this joint, scared Graham into killing himself, took out half the security team and then jumped through the window to get away?” he asked in a disbelieving tone.
“I know it sounds crazy, Detective Brown, but all the witness accounts match up,” the officer explained.
“That’ll be all, thanks Officer,” Detective Alvarez dismissed him.
“You hear this muthafucka? Flying men carrying guns!” Detective Brown snorted in disbelief.
“Stranger things have happened, Brown,” Alvarez reminded him. In their time together, they had worked on cases that ranged from unusual to completely unexplainable, so he always kept an open mind no matter how farfetched the story sounded. “The officer has laid some interesting things on the table, but
we need to speak with an eyewitness to fill in the blanks.”
As if in answer to his prayers, several uniformed officers came out of the building, leading a group of men and women in handcuffs. Detective Brown happened to recognize one of them, a husky man wearing thick glasses. “How about a four eyed witness?” Brown asked his partner and walked over. A quick chat with one of the officers revealed the charges they had him on; possession of an illegal firearm and marijuana. They charges weren’t too heavy, but with his track record they were heavy enough for the detectives to bargain with. “We’ll take this one off your hands,” he pulled the man with the glasses from the line of prisoners. The two detectives walked him off to the side, where Brown shoved him against a wall. “My main man, Boogie Blind,” he slapped Boogie on the back harder than he needed to.
“Good evening Detectives,” Boogie flashed them a sarcastic grin.
“From the looks of it, this hasn’t been a good evening for any of us, especially you,” Detective Brown said. “They caught you with a pistol and chronic,” he shook his head in disappointment. “You’re slipping, Boogie.” Brown and Alvarez had had more than a few run-ins with Boogie over the years. He was a member of a small band of outlaws who dabbled in a bit of everything, but specialized in murder.
“They planted that gun on me and the weed was for my glaucoma,” Boogie protested.
“That’s bullshit and you know it!” Alvarez shot back. “Just face the fact that you finally got caught with your hand in the cookie jar. This is gonna go bad for you, Boogie.”
Boogie sucked his teeth. “Fuck outta here. You can save those scare tactics for some novice nigga who ain’t never been in the cage. This shit is a bullshit case and my lawyer is gonna eat it!”
“That’s probably true,” Brown agreed. “That old Jew you boys keep on retainer is more than likely going to find a way to get you out of this with little to no jail time at all, but it’s going to put you in the radar and bring some unwanted attention to your little crew. How do you think Christian is going to take it when he finds out the reason his organization is being looked into is because your fat ass got greedy and went against his rule about moonlighting?”