The Mike Black Saga: In A Cold Sweat

by Glenn, Roy

  “Jackie.”

  “Yes, Travis.”

  “Thanks again.”

  “Get some rest and we’ll talk in the morning.

  Jackie went into the living room and plopped down on the couch. Out of reflex, she picked up the remote and started flipping channels. Not that she was watching or even cared what was on; her mind was on what Travis had just said.

  In her mind, Jackie replayed the conversation over and over again. I’m out. That was my last job. I got enough money saved and my house in Connecticut is paid for. The economy is getting better, I could live good with a job and the money I got saved.

  “Yeah, but what about me?” Jackie asked herself. Unlike Travis, who had a long-term plan for the money they had stolen over the years, Jackie spent all of her money on gambling, clothes and her Porsche Cayman S that she dropped fifty-eight grand on.

  Jackie rolled a blunt and poured herself a tall glass of Henny and thought about what she was going to do next.

  Chapter Four

  Mike Black

  It had been a long time coming. With all that had gone on over the last year, I needed a night out. I hadn’t been out in a while. Unless hangin’ with Bobby counted, it had been some years. I’m talkin’ about out with a woman. Have a good meal someplace nice, take in a show, do a little dancin’ maybe, get some pussy; yeah, I was down for all that.

  So I decided that we’d go to my favorite restaurant, McCormick & Schmick's on 52nd Street and the Avenue of the Americas. She ordered Tilapia with roasted pepper and Cajun cream sauce. I had the Swordfish with sun dried tomato butter. The shit was off the chain.

  After dinner we went to see Les Miserables. When it ran on Broadway the first time, it ran for sixteen years. Now it was back with a new cast, and we were both pretty hyped about seeing it. The story was about this guy in nineteenth century France, who was always pursued by a righteous police inspector. Sorta reminded me of Kirk and the way he’s been trying to lock me up for years.

  After the show, we hit the club and danced until the lights came on. I hadn’t had a night like that in years, so I decided to tell her. “I really had a good time with you tonight,” I said as we got to the car.

  “Is that so? Well then maybe we’ll do this again real soon,” she said as I opened the car door for her.

  “You won’t be able to keep me away from you,” I said with my lips close to hers.

  “We’ll see,” she said, without kissing me and got in the car. I shut the door and came around to the driver’s side thinking that she was right. Tomorrow would come and I’d back to doin’ what I do and not thinkin’ ’bout dinner, the theater and dancin’.

  I started the car, but before I put the car in gear I turned to look at her. “You are so beautiful,” I told her, because she was. I drove off thinking that she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever met, and I’ve met and had some beauties. “I can’t wait to get you home, baby.”

  “I don’t want to go there. Why can’t you just stay here with me?”

  “It’s cool, baby, trust me.”

  “Michael, what’s going to happen when we get there?”

  “I’m gonna ease you out of that sexy black dress.”

  “That’s not what I’m talkin’ about and you know it. What’s going to happen when we get there?”

  I gripped the stirring wheel tighter. “You let me worry about that.”

  “I don’t wanna go.”

  “Why not?”

  “You know what’s gonna happen when we get there.”

  “Nothin’s gonna happen when we get there.”

  “Not right away, but it’s gonna happen.” She put her hand on my face. I love it when she does that. “Bart is gonna be there, baby. And he is gonna kill me.”

  “No he’s not. I got him this time,” I said and kissed her hand.

  “That’s what you said last time, Michael.”

  “I got a plan this time.”

  “You had a plan the last time and he still killed me. Let’s not go home, baby. We could have so much fun if we . . .”

  “I have to do this, baby,” I told Cassandra as we pulled up in front of our house. The television was on in the living room and I could see what looked like Bart's silhouette standing off in the corner. I got out of the car and came around to let her out.

  “Why can’t you stay here with me? Why do you keep doing this, Michael? Why do you keep dragging us back here?”

  I took my beautiful wife in my arms and kissed her; kissed her like it was the first time. “Can’t you see? I gotta keep goin’ in there until they’re all dead.”

  I felt cold all over and I shook it off.

  “Havin’ the dream again?” Bobby asked.

  “Yeah,” I told him and ran my hands over my face. I looked over at Bobby, he was seated in his usual spot, in his recliner, in his basement. I had fallen asleep on the couch and was having the same dream I’ve been dreaming since Cassandra was murdered. I don’t have the dream as often as I used to, but every time I do it changes. But Cassandra was right; he always kills her. It doesn’t matter what I do, he always kills her.

  This all began when I came back from Todos Santos, an island located near the Tropic of Cancer in the southern portion of the Baja Peninsula off the coast of Mexico. I had gone there to kill Diego Estabon. A year before that, Diego had been the mastermind behind the kidnapping of my wife, Cassandra.

  For that he had to die.

  But when I got home I found Cassandra dead. Brutally murdered and the cops arrested me for her murder. I remember seeing her lying there on the floor and immediately dropping to my knees.

  Both of her eyes were blackened, nearly purple; there were blotches of blood on her cheek. Her face was swollen so much I could hardly believe I was looking at my wife. My beautiful baby.

  I remember there was so much blood, and there were bullet wounds in her back. Why would somebody do that to her? Every time I have that fuckin’ dream I swear that I will find and kill everybody who I think was involved.

  I really believe Kirk knows something. He’s a good cop, and if it weren’t for him, I’d probably still be in jail. Kirk may not know who hired the men who killed Cassandra, otherwise, they’d be in jail, but he knows something. I’ve tried talking to him about it; he said it was police business. Like I give fuck about what’s police business. Somebody knows who hired them, and I’ll find them, and I’ll kill them all. “How’d you know I was havin’ the dream?” I asked Bobby.

  “You always wake up in a cold sweat,” Bobby replied. “Go ahead and say it.”

  “Say what?”

  “About how you’re gonna find the people responsible and kill them all.” Bobby said the words to me that I always say.

  “You doubtin’ me?”

  “No, I ain’t doubtin’ you.”

  “Then what are you sayin’?”

  “That you always say that; that’s all I’m sayin’. Shit! Why you gotta get all defensive and shit like a bitch?”

  “So now I’m a bitch, huh?”

  “You know what? Fuck you,” Bobby said and got up. “Fuck you and this self doubtin’ bullshit. You lettin’ that dream shit get to you.”

  “How so?”

  “Okay, you say in the dreams you don’t save Shy, never save her. As hard as you try, no matter what you do, Bart always kills Shy. Dream or not, what do you think all that ‘I can’t’ shit rollin’ around in your mind is doin’ to you?”

  At first, I looked at Bobby like he was a fuckin’ fool. But then I thought about the dream I just had. You had a plan the last time and he still killed me. “In my dreams lately Cassandra’s starting to doubt me. Maybe she represented the part of my sub-conscience that is starting to doubt myself.” I looked at Bobby, he was looking at me like I was a fuckin’ fool. “Did that make any sense?”

  “A little.”

  “I could drive myself crazy tryin’ to figure that out. All I know is that I will find the mutha fucka behind it all, and I am go
nna kill them.”

  Chapter Five

  It was past midnight when Jackie left Travis’s house. She got in her Porsche Cayman S and drove down Bronxwood Avenue on her way to meet Freeze. It had been almost a week since Travis announced that he was done.

  “Damn,” was all Jackie could say every time she thought about it. How could he just up and quit like that? Quit on her?

  Jackie wasn’t selfish. She understood that he had just gotten shot. “If the situation were different,” she said out loud as she drove. “I’d probably be talkin’ that same shit myself. But damn.”

  Jackie had allowed herself to believe that once Travis started feeling better he would change his mind, or at the very least, agree to do one last big job. At least that way she would have a stake to go forward with. But that wasn’t the case. Travis was already up and around and had shown no signs of backing down.

  At this point, Jackie knew that she was on her own and would have to come up with a plan if she was going to survive. She had briefly given some thought to trying to get a job as a chemist. After all, she had graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in chemistry and had worked for a few years at Frontier Pharmaceuticals before she was fired for insubordination after refusing to work on a project for Jake Rollins, her former boss on her own time. But that was years ago, before she became part robber, part gambler.

  “Maybe I’ll put together my own robbin’ crew?”

  That was definitely a possibility, but she didn’t have the planning skills that Travis had. She considered bringing somebody in to plan the job, but quickly abandoned that idea for one simple reason. “If they planned the job, what would they need me for?”

  No, she would have to plan and control the job to run her own crew.

  “If then else, Jackie. It’s just the logical progression of events,” Travis told her once when she asked how he came up with his plans. “If condition is true, the statements following are then executed. If condition is false, each else-if, if there are any, is evaluated in turn. When a true condition is found, the statements following the associated are then are executed. If none of the else-if statements are true, or there are no else-if clauses, the statements following else are executed. Put simply, if this happens, then do this, if that ain’t workin’, what else can you do?”

  “It can’t be that simple,” Jackie had questioned.

  “The key is to anticipate every possible condition and plan for it.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  “Yes you can. I know you can. You play poker, right?”

  “Yeah, but that’s different,” Jackie reasoned.

  “It’s no different. When you’re playin’ poker or any card game for that matter; you gotta always keep the objective in mind, naturally.”

  “Naturally?”

  “You have to look at what you got to work with and anticipate based on that to determine what the other players have. That dictates how you're gonna bet or how you play your cards. Same shit I do when I’m plannin’ a job.”

  “But when I’m playin’, I’m doin’ all that shit on the fly, in the moment.”

  “Okay, it’s different, but it’s the same. You just have to have discipline,” Travis told her that day.

  Jackie knew that was the one thing she had none of; no discipline what so ever. A loyal slave to her passions was what Jackie was. If she saw it and she wanted it, she had to have it. And that included men… and women. And the Porsche she was driving;

  Jackie was out on the island in Huntington driving down Jericho Turnpike when she saw the car on the lot. Jackie took in the Cayman with her eyes and immediately fell in love with its curves. The salesman told her, “The Cayman S is armed with 3.4 liters of total swept volume and a maximum of 295 horsepower at 6250 rpm. Maximum torque is 251 lb.-ft. at 4400 rpm.”

  “What’s the top speed?” Jackie asked excitedly.

  “One hundred and seventy-one miles per hour.”

  “I’ll take it,” Jackie stated, not even questioning the price tag on the vehicle. All she knew was that she wanted it, therefore had to have it; no matter what the price.

  Lately she’d been thinking that the move might have been just a little impulsive, but she loved that car and the idea of selling it was out of the question.

  Now, her plan was simple; talk to Freeze and convince him to let her into the poker game that Mylo ran. Jackie knew that Freeze was a creature of habit. She knew that Freeze would be at the house or on his way there. So when Jackie suggested that she could meet him there, Freeze was agreeable. She had to get in that game. She had fifty thousand dollars, which was fifty thousand less than it took to buy in. Jackie was hopeful that once she explained her situation, Freeze would still let her in the game.

  When Jackie drove past the house she saw that Freeze’s Navigator was parked a little ways down the street. She quickly parked her car and set the alarm. Once she told the doorman that she was there to see Freeze, she was allowed in the house.

  Jackie entered the room where the game was being played and took it all in. She didn’t see Freeze anywhere, and naturally all of the players turned to check her out, dressed as she was in tight blue leather. But quickly, they turned their attention back to their cards. Jackie’s eyes were focused squarely on the pile of chips that sat in the middle of the table and wondered how much money that represented.

  Mylo came out of the office and walked straight towards her. Jackie knew Mylo well enough to speak to him, but they had never really talked. She just never liked the way he looked at her like she was a pork chop sandwich. “What’s up, Mylo?”

  “You Jackie, right?” he asked, looking at her in exactly the manner which she couldn’t stand.

  “Yeah.” She knew if she planned to be in this game, that Mylo was somebody she would have to deal with, so she would have to get used to it. “I’m here to meet Freeze. Is he here?” she asked even though she knew he was there.

  “He’s back here waitin’ for you. Follow me.” Mylo then said quietly, “with your fine ass,” as he led Jackie into the bedroom that served as an office.

  When Mylo opened the door, Freeze was sitting on the couch, talking on the phone. He looked up when he saw Jackie follow Mylo into the room. “I’ll get with you later, Tanya,” he said and pressed end on his cell phone.

  Jackie smiled to herself when she heard Tanya’s name mentioned. She knew her very well. One night, several months ago, Jackie was at Cynt’s, one of the gambling houses that was run by Black’s organization, when Freeze came in with Tanya on his arm. At the time, she was barely holding her own in the game when she looked up and saw Tanya looking at her. Jackie smiled back at Tanya. When Freeze went into another room to talk to Cynt, Jackie cashed out and went to talk to Tanya.

  “Hi, I’m Jackie.”

  “Tanya. How you doing?” she said in a sweet and sexy voice that made Jackie want her even more.

  Jackie took a step closer. “I’m doin’ just fine tonight, honey.”

  “I saw you playing; how did you do?”

  “Not too good tonight, but I held my own.”

  As the conversation continued, Jackie said, “I haven’t seen you here before.”

  “Well, that’s because Freeze doesn’t like me to be around this stuff,” Tanya said.

  Jackie understood all too well why that was. Freeze’s former girl friend, Paulleen, used to be around all time and used to be into everything and everybody. In fact, her former partner, Ronnie Grier, used to mess with her. Travis believed in his heart that it was Freeze that killed Ronnie. He remembered Freeze telling him one time when they were talking about how out of control Ronnie was and how that was bad for business. Freeze said, “Whatever I do is always business. Never personal, even if it seems that way. Remember that. And it will never have anything to do with you and me. Understand?”

  Jackie wasn’t as convinced as Travis was that Freeze killed Ronnie, but she had no intentions of asking. She looked at Tanya and understood why Freeze
kept her on ice and far away from predators like herself. Tanya was a very attractive woman with a body the begged for attention.

  Jackie recalled how her and Tanya had agreed to go see The One at Impressions. They had a good time together and went out a few times before Jackie seduced her.

  Jackie hadn’t told Travis that she was sexing Tanya because she knew what he’d say. “Ronnie was fuckin’ Paulleen and he died for it. What you wanna mess with another one of Freeze’s women for? It’s a death sentence.”

  Now she stood before her lover’s other lover about to ask him to do her a really big favor. “Jackie,” Freeze said and got up from the couch to greet her. “What’s up?”

  “I’m good, Freeze, I’m good.”

  Freeze gave Mylo a look that told him that his presence was not needed. “I’ll be out here if y’all need anything,” he said, and after waiting briefly for a response from Freeze or Jackie, which didn’t come, Mylo left the room and closed the door behind him.

  “How’s Travis?” Freeze said and sat down.

  “He doin’ a lot better. When I left to come here he was up and around.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. Now, what the fuck were you niggas doin’ for Travis to get shot?”

  “We were stealin’ some computer processors and shit went south for us.”

  “How come I didn’t know anything about this?”

  Jackie was puzzled by the question. She knew that Freeze liked to be on top of everything that went on and insisted that Travis brief him before they did anything. But since he was asking the question, she knew that wasn’t the case. “It was a job that Monika turned him on to. He’d been doing some jobs with her.”

  “I know that.”

  “Well,” Jackie said and took a step back. “Monika passed on the job because she thought it was too much of a risk, but Travis felt that he could do it, so we went for it.”

  “Maybe next time somebody tells you some shit like that, y’all should listen,” Freeze told her definitely.