“You two are gonna kill me with the ho gear,” said Renitta. “Ain’t no reason to be walking around like that all day.”
“You need to get you some,” said Ivanna. “Maybe you could get a man.”
“Be respectful, now,” said Robert. “And she’s right. Ain’t proper to show men too much. We got enough trouble controlling ourselves.” Robert took his juice and drank.
“Thank you, Mr. Cavanaugh,” said Renitta and Danny detected just a little choke in her voice at having to say it. “Speaking of proper, I was wondering if there’s a wedding in our future. You know, before the baby starts college.”
Ivory and Ivanna both reacted startled. One of them muttered “Uh oh” and they hustled out of the room.
“I was wondering about that,” said Robert. “Might as well do it, kids.”
“We are not getting married,” said Vinny.
Robert and Renitta both started to talk at the same time. Erik got up and went to the fridge and got the drink he had first refused.
“I don’t think this is a discussion,” said Danny. “Me and Vinny haven’t talked about it lately but we will. But we don’t need nobody else’s opinion about our future. We’re cool with it for now.”
“What the hell does that mean?” asked Renitta.
“Means, none of our damned business,” said Robert. “Okay, but remember, we’re Catholic. We gotta baptize that baby. At lease he won’t go to hell like his parents.”
“Y’all both going to hell!” yelled Juan from the living room. He was a deacon at his church and was on record as being against cohabitation.
Vinny laughed but Danny and Renitta had locked gazes. Danny saw anger in the woman’s eyes.
“The cops need to talk, Renitta,” said Danny. “Can you excuse us?’ It was as nice as he wanted to be to her.
Renitta looked at Vinny. Danny resented this, but it was their way. He made normal demands. Renitta looked to her sister to see if she should resist.
“Don’t look at me, Renitta,” said Vinny. “You heard the man.”
Renitta got up with as much dignity as she could. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll just be going back to work then.”
“Okay, take care, Renitta,” said Robert, and he genuinely meant it. He had no idea what had just happened. The tension had gone over is head. More than likely, he didn’t give a damn anyway, Danny thought.
Vinny left after Renitta but came right back. Danny assumed Vinny consoled her as much as she could.
“She’s okay,” said Vinny. “So, what are we talking about?”
“The department is going to let me stay off work for a few days,” said Danny lowering his voice. “I’m going to find out who sent Prosick here to kill us.”
“You sure that’s what happened?” asked Robert.
“I am,” said Danny.
“I’ve learned never to doubt him,” said Erik.
“I don’t buy revenge,” said Vinny.
“Prosick was out and he probably went back to his old habits,” said Danny. “Someone who knows my arrest record hired him to do it. If it was done properly, we won’t find any connection to anyone in law enforcement.”
“I don’t get that,” said Erik. “I’m ashamed to say I’m not versed in contract killing.”
“From the old days,” said Robert. “There were cops who were known to work off the books doing things that were not strictly legal. Everybody knew these bent cops and you knew to stay clear of their asses.”
“So, say if someone high up wanted to get rid of a problem,” Danny continued. “He let it be known in a general way to his people. From there, it would all be innuendo and head nods and shit but eventually, someone, from a union, a motor pool or construction company would find the bent cop. Tell a story, then leave a fat envelope on the floor.”
“And the man ordering the hit would never know who it was,” said Robert.
“God, I hate this city,” said Vinny.
“Won’t find it different in Chicago, Cleveland or anywhere else,” said Robert.
“So where does that leave us?” asked Erik.
“They started it,” said Danny. “If they tried once, they’ll do it again and we can’t live looking over our shoulders forever. We have to end it.”
Nothing was said after this. The police had many codes and silence was one of the oldest. They had all just signed on to protect their friends from all enemies.
Danny felt a surge of energy inside as he plotted his next move. Now it was back, the strong desire to go into the neighborhood and hunt.
26
RASHINDAH’S LAST DANCE
Danny walked into the bathroom in the apartment once rented by Rashindah Watson. Shera was hardly the most trustworthy person he’d met, but it had to be his first stop on his mission to solve the murder. Also, there were still pieces missing. He could not go on until he filled in the blanks.
The landlord had willingly let Danny in to inspect the place while the tenants were out. He remembered Danny and gave him no trouble. He just had to clear it with the tenants first.
The apartment was clean and held no odor of smoke or fire, only fresh paint and new carpets. Danny was mildly impressed by this. The landlord had obviously wanted to get the incident behind him as quickly as possible.
The arson department still didn’t know who had started the fire. They found no accelerant and assumed if it was set, the arsonist just used a lighter on the sofa or the cheap curtains. Danny’s money was on Prosick.
Danny was still quietly shaken from the assault at his place. He’d been in the game a long time and the incident should have passed but it was different and he knew why. It was the baby. He now had something to live for and it had never occurred to him that it would make him more vulnerable to potential enemies.
If Prosick had succeeded, then all of three of them would be gone, erased from the planet in one moment.
Whoever sent Prosick probably knew by now that he had failed and they would be running, covering their tracks. This is why he had to move.
Erik had some trusted cops watching the dealer named Jangle. So far, Jangle was doing what he always did, riding around, watching his crew and generally being a scumbag. The only thing he had done which was mildly unusual was he’d tried to fix a crack in his truck’s windshield with a strip of yellow tape.
The fire in Rashindah’s former place had not harmed the bathroom. If there was a stash, it would still be there, he thought.
Danny grasped the sides of the bathroom medicine cabinet firmly. He caught sight of himself in the mirror and lingered a moment. He did feel different now that he was going to be a father. Danny looked into his reflection’s eyes and saw glimpses of his mother Lucy, young and full of energy. Then he saw his father, then himself. What would his son’s eyes look like?
Danny pulled hard and the medicine cabinet slid away from the hole in which it was fitted. Some plaster spilled out into the washbasin as it did.
He put the cabinet in the basin then looked into the hole. Inside, there was a stack of bills wrapped neatly with rubber bands. Next to it, was a small jewelry box and sitting on top was a mini camera. It was still inside it’s packaging. Danny took it out and saw that it had been opened and reclosed with tape.
Danny took the items, then put the medicine cabinet back in and cleaned up the dust.
On his way out, he thanked the landlord and told him that he had what he needed. Danny drove away, then quickly parked in lot at a nearby McDonalds.
He looked inside the jewelry box first and saw it contained three pair of diamond studs, one that had to be over three carats each. There were also several bracelets, rings and one thick gold necklace with a gold “R” attached to it.
Danny counted the money and there was about five thousand and change there. Enough to make a fast getaway, he thought. Also, in the middle of the cash, were four American Express debit cards worth a thousand each.
While he thought about what to do with the items, D
anny took out the mini camera. The box said it was a digital camera, video camera and mp3 player all in one. It was a little bigger than an iPod and had a small display screen.
Danny turned it on and the menu showed that it contained one video, no music and 5 pictures.
He searched for his earphones and found them in the center console. He plugged them into the camera and hit the button turning on the video.
Rashindah Watson appeared on the video screen. She was even prettier than Danny had imagined.
On the tiny screen, Rashindah held the camera box as she spoke.
“Hey, Quinten. I’m gonna ask you to help me with something in a few days and this is in case something goes wrong later. But it won’t. I got this shit all figured out. I’ve had a new friend for a while now. The Mayor. I know you don’t like him but we’ve been kickin’ it for a few months now. No freaky shit just regular sex. Well, maybe a little freaky. He’s cool but I know he’s gonna get tired of me in a minute. Anyway, I been meeting him in other people’s houses and out of town but he snuck me into his house one night when his wife was gone. Not the Mayor’s place, his real house, though I been there, too once. We did it and later he had some people come over. I got up and snuck out of the bedroom, so I could hear. I heard him talking with some men. They talked about how all these governors are creating laws to take over cities and shit. The Mayor was all against it, until one of the men said it would only be temporary, just long enough to takeover stuff owned by the city. I heard one of them say something about Bell Isle and other places. Rich folk, always giving it to us up the ass, huh? How the fuck you gonna sell a damned city? Anyway, the Mayor agreed to let them do it only he wanted to know what land they was gonna grab. I guess he wanted in on the score, you know. They said something about having a plan and left.”
Danny’s mind raced. Patterson was selling out Detroit for profit. He could sell the info to any number of people who could buy prized city assets in the name of privatization. Detroit’s crown jewels put on the selling block like pieces of meat. And by the time the city and its lawyers backed off the state, the deed would be done.
“So after they left, I pretended to be asleep. The Mayor came back and he had some papers with him. I saw him stick them in a desk. We got busy again and then I had to go but not before I got a look at them papers while his ass was in the bathroom. All I had was my phone, so I took pictures of them as fast as I could. I put the pictures on a disk and erased them from my phone. I only wanted there to be one copy. I hid the disk at Sweet Ass’s place. He got these old stone column things in the backyard. It’s under the shortest one. I’m gonna ask the Mayor for money, enough to get out of this dead ass city. But I need you to do it, to be a voice so he won’t think it’s me. Once he pays, we get the disk, give it to them and we go like hell and never look back. It’s gonna be scary but if we work it right, we can do it. I’ma cut you in for half. This shit should be worth a couple of hundred grand at least. And if something happens to me, but it won’t, then this is for you. Take it and blackmail their asses or give it to the news, whatever you want. Well, that’s it, baby boy. Hopefully we’ll watch this video together and laugh before I destroy it.”
The video went black. Danny was stunned. Rashindah had gotten in way over her head. Somehow, the Mayor found out or maybe it was the men who had come over to talk to him. So now Danny knew the why. He still didn’t know who.
Danny had almost forgotten. He checked the five pictures. They were just self-taken shots of her in a mirror in what looked to be her bathroom.
He thought about all of this as he drove away. The state had rattled its sabre many times about taking over Detroit and the city’s school board had been taken over. The talk of anything bigger had cooled off in the past few months but that didn’t mean a deal wasn’t brewing.
Quinten was dead and so the location of that disk was a mystery. Rashindah probably had many boyfriends but he didn’t know who any of them were and he certainly didn’t know which one had a sweet ass.
Danny still had Rashindah Watson’s phone records. They’d looked up all the calls made to her and many of them went to undisclosed numbers. The few she called were harmless. This made sense. It was safer for Rashindah to call clients so they could remain anonymous.
Danny could try to track the blocked numbers, get the makers of any burners and the carriers and see where they were bought and go from there but it would take time and he didn’t have a lot of that.
Damned technology, Danny thought. It made connecting easier but it also allowed people to hide. He longed for the days when people had to be in a building to use a phone. It tied them to a place. But that day was gone and the people who made it were going too.
“Old school,” Danny said aloud. Suddenly, he turned the car around and headed toward uptown.
27
YELLOW TAPE
Jangle had the yellow strip on his car for a day now and he’d heard nothing from iDT. He might have thought the man was out of business, but all over town, the product was still being delivered.
He couldn’t believe the Mayor had been arrested and dragged into court. Jangle liked Mayor Patterson. He was a real brother, not some stiff suit-wearer, like the President. Obama had a badass name and a fine wife but his game was weak, he thought. He let them white dudes push him around in D.C. Patterson had told a man to kiss his ass on live TV once. Jangle remembered how funny that shit was. Patterson was a real nigga.
Jangle had watched the Mayor’s hearing on TV in a restaurant. Patterson went to jail defiantly while people cheered. Jangle thought that if he were ever Mayor, he’d be just like Patterson, hangin’ with Jay-Z and telling people to kiss his natural, pimply, black ass.
Jangle’s text alert went off. He pulled over then read the text. It was from iDT. It came as usual from an “unknown” number and gave another to send a message to.
“’Bout goddamned time,” said Jangle.
Jangle sent him the message from Salah. Then he drove off, headed home.
Suddenly, Jangle noticed that a blue sedan he’d seen earlier seemed to be behind him again. He pulled into a party store parking lot and waited to see what the car would do. It passed by and turned a corner.
Jangle quickly pulled out of the parking lot and headed back in the opposite direction. He jumped on the freeway and headed uptown, away from his destination. He looked back and saw no trace of the car.
He was being paranoid, he thought. Cops didn’t follow dealers; they just busted your ass. For a second, he thought it was that crazy ass Bob or LaMaris’s ugly ass. Those two had to go, he thought. What they were doing would ruin the peace that existed for a long time now on the east side. He should ask iDT to tag their asses, he thought. It would make the streets safer.
Jangle drove into Southfield and cruised around for a while. He hit Nine Mile and went into Ferndale.
His text alert went off but it was not iDT. It came from another unknown number. He read the text while driving this time.
“Muthafu— ” he cursed as he read it. It was from Trini.
Jangle turned the truck around and drove back east. Bob and LaMaris’s new business was already starting trouble with his. Their people were moving into the wrong areas with their business. He reached for his cell and then remembered Bob never used phones. The man didn’t have a number.
Jangle was soon on I-75 and took the Seven Mile exit. He had no idea of the bad history it held for his departed girlfriend.
He rolled further east, then down a street and sure enough, he found unfamiliar faces where they should not have been.
Jangle did not carry a gun and he rarely rolled with muscle these days. He surveyed the two young men from half way up the block. They wore the typical baggy clothes but didn’t look like the type to be armed. If they worked for Bob, then they wouldn’t be. Bob didn’t allow street dealers to carry weapons.
Jangle drove closer to the pair. He got out of his car and walked over to the young men. The two y
oung boys were about eighteen or so. One of them he recognized.
“Kenjie?” said Jangle to one of the kids.
“Yo,” said Kenjie. “Sup, Jangle?”
“The fuck you doin’ out here?” asked Jangle “You know this is my street. And how come your thievin’ ass ain’t in jail anyway?”
“Got lucky,” said Kenjie.
“Whatever. Y’all need to move out right now. I’ma find Bob and settle this.”
“Can’t do that,” said Kenji moving away a little.
“What?” Jangle said. “Boy, get your narrow ass off my street or—“
Jangle felt a presence behind him. Suddenly, he felt the cold spike in his belly warning him of danger. In the instant, he realized his men were not on the street at all. They had been chased off the block or had never shown. He should have never gotten out of his ride without some kind of back up. And Kenjie was stalling, waiting for something. He should have realized that, too.
But it was too late. His last word was stopped by what sounded like an explosion in his head. He saw a flash of light and his legs turned into liquid. He fell and hit the ground hard.
Jangle groaned as his blurry vision made out a form above him. He felt someone push his body, reaching into his pockets.
“I got it,” said a woman’s voice.
“T-Trini?” said Jangle in a low voice.
“Shoulda helped me, boss,” said Trini.
Then something covered his vision, cutting off his air and taking him back into darkness.
28
OLD SCHOOL
Joyce Watson was a happy woman. Her no good, whorish niece was dead but the insurance policy had paid her well. She knew it was bad to be gleeful but it was God’s Will and who was she to argue with that? Besides, she thought, she paid to have the girl buried.
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