by Glenn, Roy
"Yeah."
"What’s up with you? Like you mad at me bout something. That shit between me and Black is over with. I got nothing but respect for him," Chilly said as the waitress arrived. "What you drinkin’, Nick?"
"Johnnie Black, straight."
"Johnnie Black, straight up and bring me a Crown on the rocks. You know I was the one who made peace with Black?"
"So I heard; why don’t you tell me about it."
Chilly looked at me for a while. "That’s right, you were gone when all that went down, so I guess you don’t know. After Black killed Jimmy Knowles and Charlie Rock, Vincent Martin kept it goin’ for a long time. I kept tellin’ Vince dumb ass that all that war shit was bad for business, but he wasn’t hearin’ me. Him and Charlie was like brothers, so Vince was takin’ the shit way too personal."
"So you gave him up to Black?" I said coldly.
"Shit no! I ain’t that type of mutha fucka. But after a while it didn’t matter anyway. One night Black caught Vince and his whole set laid back. They was all at Vince’s house chillin’, Black busted up in there and killed them all."
The waitress returned with our drinks, served them, and departed quickly. She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at me. I winked in response.
"Black, Bobby and Freeze walked in blastin’. Like they was playin’ a video game and shit." Chilly began making shooting motions with his hands. "Boom, boom, boom. I hear nobody even got off a shot. Must a been eight, ten mutha fuckas in there. They killed everybody quick, except one guy. He said he was layin’ on the floor shakin’ with his gun in his hand. Said Black walked up to him and sat on the floor next to him."
Bet you wanna know why you’re still alive.
"But the boy is so petrified that he can’t even talk; he just shakes he head. He said all Black said was, ‘Tell Chilly to come see me’." Chilly motioned for the waitress. He finished his drink. "Bring us around round," he told her and handed her a twenty dollar bill. "That for you, baby." We both watched her as she walked away. "I might just have to fuck her tonight. Anyway, me and Black always been cool. We wasn’t never close like y’all or nothin’ like that. But Black gave me my respect. And you know how he carried his. I ain’t ashamed to say that the only reason I ain’t dead is because Mike Black didn’t want to kill me. He did right by me."
Damn right, Black let you live to make all that money. "There ain’t too many like Black."
"That’s what I’m sayin’. These young bucks like that bitch made nigga there." He pointed at Rocky. "Ain’t loyal to shit but money."
"It’s a new day. With new players."
The waitress served us another round of drinks. Chilly raised his glass. "To the old days."
"I’ll drink to that." All that talk about honor and loyalty was starting to wear on me for personal reasons.
"Let’s cut the bullshit. I know why you’re here. Same reason I’m here. Jake. I know Gee hired you to find him."
"Rocky tell you that?"
"Naa. But that’s exactly what I’m sayin’. He got no idea who you are or where you come from. That bitch ain’t have no business tellin’ me that you was a private eye. Him and Gee go back some years. He should be loyal to her over me. But as soon as you came through the door, he comes runnin’ to me like a little bitch and told me everything. But you see, Nick, I already knew all about that."
"Did you?’
"Shit yeah! What, you think I just let Gee run wild, doin’ whatever she wants? Hell no! I keeps her on a long chain. I knew she wrote you a check for ten thousand dollars. So I did some checkin’, that’s when I found out you was a private investigator. I figured she hired you to look for Jake. I got me a little honey at the bank. She keeps tabs on Gee’s account for me. Gee will fuck up some money if you let her. But that’s my fault. She was a young girl when I met her. She didn’t know shit. I should have taught her the value of money, instead of just throwin’ it at her. But that’s my problem."
"It’s probably too late now."
"You got that right. You have any luck findin’ Jake?"
"Not a clue," I lied. I started to lay it all out for him. Cut the bullshit. But I thought better of it. "I figure he’s some place hidin’ out, what I don’t know, is why. What was he into Chilly? Was he doin’ something for you? The way I get it, you were the last person to see him before he dropped out of sight." I was pushing my luck and I knew it. But I had that I don’t give a fuck attitude in full effect.
"You take chances, Nick. But I know what kind of nigga you are, so fuck it. I respect a mutha fucka that gets right to it."
"I’m glad to hear that. So what was he doin’ for you?"
Chilly laughed. "He wasn’t doin’ nothin’ for me. I just wanted to talk to him about some shit I been hearin’, that’s all. I want you to find Jake. And I want you to let Gee know where he is. After you tell Gee, then I want you to tell me."
"Why, so you can kill him." It was a statement, not a question.
"No, I’m not going to kill him. You have my word on that. I just want to talk to him. He was into something, I just want to know what."
He reached in his pocket.
I put my hand on my gun.
He dropped a stack of money on the table in front of me. "That’s five thousand dollars there. Take it."
I complied.
"I’ll give you five more when you tell me where he is. And there’s something else I want you to do for me."
"What’s that?"
"In the last three weeks, Gee’s been takin’ a lota money out her account. Cash money, twenty thousand dollars. You tell me where that money went, and that twenty is yours."
I thought about making a quick twenty grand right there and tell him about how Ben Josephs was blackmailing his wife. But what honor I had left, and my loyalty to his wife stopped me. "I’ll look into it."
"You know me, Nick. I’m a man of my word and I pay."
"Thanks for the drink." I got up and walked out, with the five grand in my pocket. I got in my car thinking how things had just taken a weird turn. At this point, I was sure that Jake had just taken off. So I drove by Cuisine to see if maybe Freeze had anything for me.
Cuisine was crowded and I couldn’t find a place to park. So I drove around finally finding a spot about two blocks away. I had walked about a half a block when I heard somebody say, "Got a light, man?"
I turned around and was met immediately by a fist in my face. There were three of them, one grabbed me from behind and held me while the other two hit me repeatedly. I recognized one of them from Rocky’s joint. I fell to the ground and they started kicking me. Once that was over he said, "Chilly sends his regards."
They left me lying there and walked away laughing. I struggled to my feet and breathed deeply. I would have to repay their kindness. I started walking the rest of the way to Cuisine. I made it as far as the lobby before I passed out.
When I came to, I was lying on a couch, a woman was tending my wounds, and Freeze was standing over me. "What happened to you?"
"Some of Rocky’s boyz tried to warn me off and blame it on Chilly," I said, and stood up slowly.
"How you know it wasn’t Chilly?"
"’Cause Chilly just —," I got up and reached in my pocket. I still had the money. "Chilly gave me five thousand dollars to find Jake."
"I thought you was workin’ for Gee?"
"I am. He still wants me to tell her where he is, as long as I tell him too." My head was still spinning, so I sat back down.
‘‘I told you not to fuck with this, now look at you." Freeze laughed. He walked over to the desk, put the phone on speaker and dialed a number. "Fucked around and got your ass kicked."
"I think my ass was the only thing they didn’t kick."
Freeze just shook his head. "This is Freeze, let me speak to Rock."
"This, Rock. What’s up, Freeze? I ain’t —"
"Shut the fuck up nigga and understand what I’m tellin’ you. You sent your boyz after Nick Simmons to
night."
"I didn’t have nothing to do with that, Freeze. I —"
"Shut the fuck up, bitch! Nick Simmons is family to me. You feel me, Rock? So I’m tellin’ you now, if that shit happens again, fuck peace. I’ll kill you and your whole set. Got that!" Freeze hung up the phone and started laughing. I laughed too, but it hurt.
Freeze took me out to Perry’s house so he could check me out and give me something for the pain. It was damn good seeing Perry again after all these years. Like everybody else, Perry treated me as if I never missed a day.
"I brought somebody by to see you, Perry." Freeze said.
"Yeah, who’s that?" Freeze stepped aside. "Nick! Damn its good to see you. Y’all come on in. Hold up, neither one of y’all shot or bleeding?"
"No, man. We just came to visit." Freeze said as we went inside Perry’s house.
"Okay, ’cause I still remember the last time you two came to my house this late."
"So do I. How could I forget," I said to Perry. I looked at the smile on Freeze’s face and I could tell he hadn’t forgotten either.
"Couldn’t forget what, Nick?" Wanda asked. "Y’all were just full of stuff I didn’t know about. I’m starting to feel like an outsider."
"Don’t feel like that, Wanda. We never even told Black. But you know Black, he found out anyway."
"Found out what, Nick?"
"Back in the day, me and Freeze did a little freelancing."
"What kind of freelancing, Nick?"
Even though we still sorta worked for André, who was one of the biggest drug dealers around those days, Black absolutely forbid any of us to have any direct involvement with drugs. Black made his money highjacking trucks, robbing warehouses and payrolls. We all made crazy money, but me and Freeze wanted to, needed to, make some money on our own.
"So what we gonna do, Nick? We can’t roll, so how we gonna get paid?" Freeze asked.
We kicked around a bunch of stuff, but everything we thought of, either wasn’t worth the risk or wasn’t enough paper to make it worth the effort. It all came back around to the fact that fast, easy money was spelled D-R-U-G-S. Then it came to me. "Look, who’s making the money?"
"Dope boyz," Freeze replied.
"Right, so why can’t we get that money?"
"’Cause Black will kill us if we started rollin’, that’s why. And don’t you say that he’ll never find out. That mutha fucka is psychic about that shit. You ain’t forget what we did to Banks when Black found out he was dealin’?
"No, I ain’t forgot. But who said anything about us dealin’?"
"You did."
"No, I didn’t. I said why can’t we get that money. There’s a difference. You interested?"
"I’m listening."
"Dope boyz rollin’ around everyday with stupid cash on them. I’m talkin’ about rollin’ up on them, and robbin’ them niggas while they laid back."
"You talkin’ about rollin’ up on a bunch of heavily armed mutha fuckas while they do business? That ain’t no plan, that’s suicide."
"You ain’t scared are you, Freeze?"
"Hell no!"
"I didn’t think so. But I ain’t talkin’ about hittin’ them while they doin’ business, that would be suicide. I’m talkin’ about catchin’ them comin’ out their cars. They get out the car. Bam, we hit them quick and bam we out."
"That could work. I mean we know who they are. I don’t like most of them niggas anyway. And as long as we don’t take their dope, Black won’t have shit to say."
So it was set.
Me and Freeze became stick up kids. We’d hit two or three a night some times. And the money was good, three, four, five grand a pop for a minutes work. Most times we never had to fire a shot. But after awhile, word got around and things started to dry up. The money was less and the security was more. But we were addicted to that cash. So the plan changed. We started robbin’ them while they were selling quantity. Things were going good; it was easier than we thought. Except this one time. We over heard a guy, used to call himself Forty-eight, who had a real high, squeaky kinda voice, talkin’ about he had some white guys on the hook and he was gonna retire on the money he was gonna make.
"You mean we gonna take." Freeze said to me, making fun of the way Forty-eight talked.
We sat and watched as the players went into a motel room on Boston Road. Once the deal was in progress, we busted in.
"Nobody move! Nobody gets hurt!" Freeze shouted.
I looked at the guy carrying the briefcase with the money. Forty-eight and his boy raised their hands and backed away from the dope. But the two white guys with the money started beefin’.
"If you know what’s good for you, you’ll walk out that door quietly." And then he made a play for his gun.
Freeze wheeled around. "Shut up, white bread!" He hit him in the mouth with the pump. "You’re speaking out of turn."
I covered with the semi while Freeze grabbed the case and we backed out of the room. It wasn’t long after we got out of the room before somebody started blastin’. I fired back while Freeze headed for the car. The firefight continued until we were in the car and away.
We both looked at each other and started laughin’. "That was gettin’ kinda hectic." Freeze said as he drove away. "Must be a lotta money in that case for them to have backup outside."
"I think this is the biggest score we ever had," I said, as I opened the case. "Maybe we can retire." Making fun of the way Forty-eight talked.
We were both laughing so hard that neither of us noticed the black Ford that pulled up along side of us. Until they started blastin’. With the first shot, they busted out the back window on the passenger side. "Where the fuck did they come from!"
"I don’t know!" Freeze yelled as he floored it. He sped away down Boston Road with the Ford on our tail.
"Get us out of here, Freeze!"
"What you think I’m doin’; writin’ a love song?" Freeze turned sharply against traffic, but they stayed right with us. He turned on 222nd and then back onto Boston Road. "You see them?" Freeze demanded to know.
"No, I think you lost them."
"Damn right, I did! I told you I’d lose them!" That was when the back window got shot out.
"Shit!"
Freeze turned on Eastchester Road and kept going until he hit Laconia Ave. "I thought we lost them?"
"You did. These are different guys."
"What do you mean, different guys?"
"That it’s not the same guys. It’s a different car. Blue Chevy, coming up on your right." I began firing through the now opened back window. Trying to get them off us. But they kept coming. "Turn here! Try to lose them in the projects!"
Freeze turned on 229th street and drove through Edenwald Projects. "Damn! These guys are good." But he couldn’t shake them. We came out of the projects and back onto Laconia, up 219th and onto Bronxwood Ave.
"Who the fuck are they?" I asked.
"I don’t know. How the fuck should I know?"
"You just lose them." A car pulled out in front of us and we crashed into a parked car. I grabbed the case and we got out blastin’. "This way!"
"I ain’t goin’ down there, there’s dogs down there!"
"Shoot them! Lets go!" I yelled as I started running down the alley.
"Look out!" Freeze yelled. I turned quickly, in time to see that two more guys were shooting at us. I caught one in the shoulder. "Ahhh! Shit!" If I hadn’t turned when Freeze yelled it would have hit me in the chest.
"You hit?"
"Yeah, in the shoulder! I’m all right, keep goin’!"
I could hear the dogs barking in front of us and the guys firing behind us. I started firing in both directions. The barking stopped and the dogs ran in the opposite direction. But the guys kept coming. Freeze ran toward the building and shot the lock off. We ran through the building and out the front door. A car came down the street. Freeze stood in the middle of the street with his gun drawn.
The car stopped in front of him.<
br />
"Get out!"
Both doors swung open and the people ran away from the car.
The guys came out the door and opened fire on us again. This time it was Freeze who got hit. He went down.
"Freeze!" I yelled and ran toward him, shooting that semi-auto wildly in their direction.
They took cover.
I kept shootin’.
I pulled Freeze up and pushed him in the car, got in and drove away. I looked over at Freeze. "Where you hit?"
"In the gut! Shit that hurts. They got me in the leg too."
"Who the fuck are they?"
"How many times you gonna ask me that shit? I told you I don’t know."
"They still on us?"
Freeze struggled to turn around; he was bleeding pretty bad. "I don’t see anybody."
I drove around for awhile to make sure we’d really lost them, who ever they were, this time. Then drove as fast as I could to Perry’s house. Freeze had passed out at some point, so I had to carry him. He was in pretty bad shape. Perry said if it had been any longer he’d be dead. He took care of our wounds and I made him promise not to tell Black, but he found out anyway.
"You saved his life, and he saved yours."
"That’s just one more reason why we’re so tight."
"You ever find out who those guys were?" Wanda asked.
"Yeah. They were cops. They had a sting set up on Forty-eight. We just picked the wrong guy to rob that time."
* * *
Chapter Seventeen
Monday July 20: 4:42 PM
I slept late the next day. It was well into the afternoon before I finally rolled out of bed. It was almost five and I was still feeling a little groggy from the pain pills I had gotten from Perry. I thought about going back to bed, but I picked up the phone and checked my messages.
Felicia had called and left me this message;
"The least you could have done was call me and let me know that you made it back safely. Anyways, I didn’t call to fuss. I just wanted to say that I miss being with you. Bye, bye, honey."
I was really starting to like Felicia Hardy and I missed being with her too. I started to call her back, but then I remembered the last time I started feeling this way about a woman. I hung up the phone and called Mrs. Childers instead. It had been more than a week since the last time I saw or talked to her.