by R Weir
“Everyone is doing well. All are supportive and assisting the best they can. Mom has been driving me everywhere I need to go. She’s been babying me more than I like, but I understand. Sometimes I don’t mind it.”
“She is being a mother,” I said. “And your dad?”
“What can I say, he is Dad. He is checking up, seeing how I’m doing, talking to me about sports or politics and even his work. Hell, he even asked me about Constance a couple of times. He is there for me.”
“He always will be,” I added. “He is a hard man but he cares about you, wants the best for you. Whatever you decide on any matter, he’ll be there. He may not always agree or like it, but he’ll fight for you. I know and I’ve seen it.”
It was getting a little harder for me to talk. I hadn’t run much the last couple of months, other than on a treadmill, so I was not in prime running shape. I was holding my own, but would have to back off some soon. We went another five minutes without talking and I had to slow down.
“Can we walk for a while?” I asked, coming to a halt. “I don’t want to push you too hard.”
Ray had pulled ahead, stopped and came back to me. I was bent over trying to pull in oxygen. Stretching out helped some but I was no match for him running. His breathing was labored some, but controlled.
“Time to turn around and walk back,” he said, making it sound like his plan all along.
“Thanks for being easy on me,” I stated. “It will be easier to talk this way.”
“Sure. It’s cool you coming over to check on me and all. I’m guessing there is a point to all this chit-chat.”
I straightened up and was walking better now. I had to stay loose in the cold air. I pulled out a water bottle I had buckled to me and took a long drink.
“Have you heard from anyone at The Hustle since we made the deal?”
Ray stared off into the distance and didn’t seem to want to answer.
“If you have, we need to know,” I added. “Our leverage needs to be exerted against them. If they reneged, we need to act. It could put you, your family and even Raven in danger.”
Ray remained silent, his hands on his hips.
“I’m here to help. Don’t shut me out. It didn’t work for you in the past.”
“I know, Jarvis. I was hoping it would go away if I ignored it. They keep coming at me more and more, putting the pressure on. I don’t know what to do.”
“How are they communicating?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.
“Text messages. She sends pictures of herself and other girls.”
“Who is it?”
“A girl named Leather.”
“How long?”
“About a week now. Yesterday they sent me four.”
“Can I see them?”
He pulled out his phone, unlocked and handed it to me. I found all of them under the number Raven had given me. Pictures ranged from single shots of Leather in her bondage outfit, to varying degrees of undress of her and two other girls, to complete nudity of them performing various acts on each other. Every picture had a graphic description of what they were doing or what they were going to do. Like Raven said, there was mention of Ray’s mother and sister, which got me angry.
“We have to do something, Ray,” I said. “We need to let your father and mother know. All of you are in danger again. So we must hash it out and come at them directly. Do you understand?”
He nodded his head.
“I feel so stupid I got myself into this,” Ray said. “Now everyone I love is involved. I wish it would all go away.”
“It will be alright,” I answered. “Youthful indiscretions will come back to haunt you. We all make them and live with them. We still can fix this. We have weapons we can use.”
I patted him on the shoulder, trying to reassure him. I don’t know why I thought it would help, but it’s what my father used to do when I was in trouble and he was cleaning up my youthful indiscretions.
“I thought we had them, but still they keep coming back at you,” I stated. “I wish I knew why they won’t leave you alone. There is something we are missing.”
Ray looked up to the sky and let out a deep breath.
“What is it, Ray?”
“I’m so sorry,” Ray said. “I left something out I should have told you. When they first took me there, they spotted me the fee for the club. There was a condition, though, which foolishly I agreed to.”
“Go on.”
“I would bring in a few fellow male athletes and friends to The Hustle. They would get a free week’s trial to see all it had to offer. I brought a couple of wide receivers with me and one got lured into one of the den rooms by one of the ladies after a little too much to drink. He was religious and a virgin. I felt guilty about bringing him, and pulled him out of there forcefully before he went too far. Mack and Grady were mad at me, but I promised to bring other players in.”
“Did you?”
“No, I never did, finally coming to my senses and knowing what I was doing was wrong. I wasn’t thinking straight, my mind all a jumble. I wanted to be important again. Of course I came to understand I was only a means to an end for them to recruit others and ruin their lives.”
So it became clear even with the videos we had, they weren’t going to let him go. More drastic measures would be needed.
“Let’s do a slow jog back and see what we can come up with,” I said. “Get Mom and Dad to pay for lunch.”
With an easy pace we headed back to his house, my thought process struggling to figure out what the hell to do. Nearing the house I saw a car idling; I’d seen it when I parked and it was still there, down the street from his house. An expensive black Cadillac with dark, tinted windows, preventing me from seeing who was inside. I could see the license plate and made a mental note. Still jogging, the car pulled away and came towards us. I wasn’t armed but I moved myself between it and Ray instinctively. The window went down and I could see Grady’s face and a gun in his hand. I pushed Ray to the ground, with me on top, but heard no gunfire only the laughter coming from the car, driving away slowly. It was meant to scare, not to shoot or kill.
“What the hell, Jarvis!” shouted Ray.
I got off of him and grabbed his hand to help him up. We were both covered in day-old snow and mud.
“Sorry, it was Mack and Grady,” I said. “Grady was aiming a gun at us as they drove by.”
“Shit!” said Ray. “Were they trying to kill me? Did they miss?”
“No, they didn’t fire. They were attempting to scare you—a warning.”
I was looking over in all directions to make sure they weren’t coming back. I didn’t expect they were, but I didn’t want to chance it.
“Well, it worked. What are we going to do?”
“I have no idea,” I replied.
Maybe this should be the new slogan on my business card.
Chapter 37
Bill and I were sitting in his black Malibu in Greeley waiting, a box of donuts and several bottles of juice sitting between us to help pass the time. He seemed a little nervous, but it was to be expected. I was, too.
“So do you think this will work?” he asked.
“Don’t know but it’s the best we came up with,” I answered. “All I know for sure is the problem is not going away.”
“You can trust this Sparks person?”
“I don’t know if trust is the right word, but his intel should be good. He came up with a few tidbits about Melott I didn’t know.”
Bill nodded, his eyes alert to the street in front of us, while holding his half-devoured donut.
“The biggest thing is the silent partner. Apparently Melott is not the main chief like we thought. There is an unknown person running the business, well, at least co-running. It seems to be a closely guarded secret. Something we need to keep in mind when dealing with any of them.”
I had mowed through two donuts myself and was on a third. The perfect crime-fighting food. I had been lucky
they hadn’t connected to my midsection through the years. The right metabolism for donut eating.
“We know they are greedy, attempting to build more revenue,” I continued. “So we need to find a bigger fish, a wealthier client for them to replace Ray. It is where our plan begins, the fear of the sex tapes being leaked apparently wasn’t threat enough to keep them at bay.”
“Seems risky,” said Bill.
“It is. There are a lot of parts needing to go right for it to work. Step one will tell us if the next step has a shot. If not, we’ll need a new remedy.”
“Go up and shoot them all?” stated Bill.
“Let’s leave the OK Corral scenario for when we have no other choice.”
We were on the lookout for Mack and Grady. We had Ray send a text to Leather saying he was willing to meet her to discuss her offers. With an address in hand we were there two hours ahead of schedule and waiting, giving us time to converse. Well, at least I would do most of the conversing.
“So Ray appears to be doing much better,” I asked.
“Yes, he is.”
“Getting all the care he needs. He looks good and seems to be making good progress.”
Bill nodded.
“How is Rachael handling all of this?”
“Fine.”
“Is she healing OK from the attack?”
“Yes.”
“Not traumatized from it?”
“A little trouble sleeping at first, but pills help.”
“Keep talking with her. Don’t let her hold back how she feels.”
Barely a nod.
“Sounds like she and Ray have been spending a lot of time together. Getting closer.”
Bill mouthed yes.
“So do you have a limit on how many words you can speak in a day,” I asked. “A moratorium on verbiage? Because I feel like I’m sitting here with a mannequin, though a mildly animated one.”
“I’m not a small-talk kind of guy, Jarvis,” he answered. “You’ve been around me enough to know.”
“Well, we’ve got lots of time to kill. So unless you’ve got some rocking stakeout music to play, talking is all I’ve got to work with. Believe it or not, I’m interested in you and your family. I do feel like we are friends to some degree.”
Bill checked off into the distance, eyeing the road ahead, watching any car driving down the neighborhood street. He found another donut and took a bite.
“I do appreciate all you’ve done for Ray, for all of us. I am grateful.”
“It’s part of the job.”
“I’m certain you don’t go to this extent for all your clients.”
“Normally only the pretty female ones, but this time I’m making an exception. In the right light and a little makeup I might consider jumping you.”
Bill cracked a smile, which was seismic for him, but barely noticeable on others. It was the most I could expect, even with my top-notch witticisms.
“Speaking of pretty females, I really do like Raven,” I stated. “I think she and Ray make a marvelous couple.”
Bill turned and bore into me with his eyes. If I wasn’t so brave, I might have wet my pants and jumped out of the car, running away.
“Come on Bill, she is wonderful. What is it you don’t like about her?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it her attire, her appearance and dress?”
He didn’t answer.
“Is it because she is white?”
Again no reply, his stare had turned back onto the road ahead.
“All of the above?”
“I don’t know what it is. I can’t see her with him. They don’t match up in my eyes.”
“Well, you should get used to it. She loves him and I think he loves her. Maybe it won’t work, but if it fails I hope it isn’t because of you. Raven is pretty, smarter than both of us combined, and the best thing for him right now. Remember, she got him to admit his problem. She also told us about Leather contacting him again. Without her, I don’t know where he’d be right now.”
I heard a long sigh from him.
“I do understand we wouldn’t be anywhere without her. Something about her bugs me. I want to get past it, but I can’t. Not completely and not yet. Rachael is on me about it, too. He’s never dated a white girl before, and certainly not one of her style. I don’t want to be prejudiced about her, but I am. I’m trying to be tolerant. Right now, it’s the best I can do.”
“Do you want him to be happy?”
“Of course.”
“Have you talked with him about it? Told him how you feel.”
“He is older now—old enough to make his own decisions. He doesn’t want to hear what I have to think.”
“Baloney, and you know it. It is important to him. Maybe he won’t agree, but still he’ll listen if you do it the correct way. He loves you; I can see clearly he does. Though I hope he learns to express himself better than his father does.”
Bill nodded his head while drinking his juice.
“I love him too—want the best for him.”
“When was the last time you told him this?”
Bill again glanced off in the distance. From his reaction, it had been some time.
“He may not be a kid anymore but he still needs to hear it. I’m sure Rachael says it all the time. It’s tough for men to say it to another man. Telling your son shouldn’t be hard to do. I know my old man said it plenty of times and I didn’t always understand why, but I miss it now he’s gone.”
“The last time was when he was about ten,” stated Bill. “No doubt, too damn long. I’ll get around to it.”
“Fair enough. Don’t let more time slip away.”
We exhausted our discussion quota and Bill turned on the stereo to a station that played old R&B. The music was enjoyable enough that time passed quickly and soon the black Cadillac of Mack and Grady pulled up outside. Bill and I looked at each other, took a deep breath and put the next step into play. I grabbed my cell phone and made a call. Trey answered on the second ring.
“Jarvis,” he said. “Are we a go?”
“Yes, they are here. Black Cadillac with plates I gave you.”
“We will roll and be there shortly.”
I hung up and we waited. It didn’t take more than five minutes before two police cars came in silently together, blocking the Cadillac, getting out and asking the two men to step out of the car, both officers their guns at the ready. The doors opened and Mack and Grady stepped out, hands in the air, each lying on the ground as they were told. Weapons were confiscated, they were handcuffed, escorted to one of the vehicles and locked in the backseat. One car pulled away with them, while the other waited, which was Trey. He walked over to us and handed me the two cell phones taken from them. He hung out until the tow truck arrived fifteen minutes later to haul their car away. We were left alone for our next step.
“Good thing we put a BOLO out on them for their fake drive-by,” I stated to Bill, “They’ll lose them in the system for a day. Should keep them out of our way for now.”
Parking in front of the house, we reached the front door and leaned on the doorbell. We weren’t certain what we’d get, but we were about to find out. The door opened a crack and we pushed our way in, our guns handy.
“What the fuck!” said the lady at the door. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Bill told her to hush and forced her to the sofa. I did a room-to-room to see what I found. It was only a ranch home, with living area, kitchen and three bedrooms. Much of the furnishings were familiar. I located one other woman who was still in her pajamas, lying in bed. I told her to go to the living area and to be quiet. I searched and discovered no one else; the basement was unfinished with only a simple laundry room. When I returned upstairs Bill was eyeballing the two ladies.
“We in the right place?” Bill asked.
“Yep. Both of them I recognized from The Hustle. Some of the furnishings are from Ariela’s place. One of the bedrooms has a computer
setup and I spotted a camera in the other. Also some sex paraphernalia. This is their new house of fun.”
“Not sure what you’re talking about,” said the first girl, who was white with curly blonde hair, pleasant figure showing through her Wyoming Cowboys sweater and sweats.
“Ladies, let’s not beat around the bush,” I stated. “We know what this place is and we know you had a visitor coming today. Someone you knew or have been with before. You need to tell us what we want to know or the father of said son here is likely not to treat you so well. He is in no mood to screw around. You can help us get what we want.”
The second lady looked at the first, with fear on her face. She was wearing flannel pink PJ’s, barely containing her robust chest. She had brown hair cut short and parted down the middle. Both women appeared to be college-aged, in their early twenties. The curly-haired one mouthed for the other to be quiet.
“Not smart,” stated Bill. He leaned down giving his patented evil stare, grabbing her curly hair and whispered in her ear something which frightened her.
“Ladies, let me tell you something,” I said. “No one is coming to save you. Mack and Grady are now in police custody. We are not leaving without what we want. We can start by your names and go from there.”
“I’m Serena and this is Elaine,” said the brown haired one. “We don’t know what you want. We were supposed to let someone in when he arrived and keep him occupied. When Mack and Grady showed up they were going to take him away.”
“So you work at The Hustle?” I asked.
“Yeah. We are both dancers.”
“Do you entertain clients here?”
They glanced at each other. Elaine glanced back at Bill.
“Yes,” they said at the same time.
“Elaine, you were in some pictures sent to Ray, posing with Leather. We want you to get in touch with her.”
“Why?”
“We need to talk with her—come to an understanding.”
“She’ll be mad at us. So will Mack and Grady.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong. We have guns and you were forced, in fear for your lives. We want you to call or text her and say Ray is here but Mack and Grady never showed up. He wants her here to perform for him, like she promised.”