Destroying Carter

by W. S. Greer

“Great! So, over the past six months, I’ve been doing my own surveillance on you and your family. I didn’t take the risk of wearing a wire, because I didn’t want to get caught with it. I knew you’d kill me if that ever happened, so all I had to go on was what I saw and heard first hand. Surprisingly, you and your crime family are pretty damn smart. Yeah, I’ve gotta hand it to you criminals, you definitely know how to cover your asses. Even after you murdered Derrick, you told Kelvin that nothing happened. I’m assuming you did that because I was driving you and you wanted to be on the safe side. Little did you know that Kelvin Junior’s little panic attack was the thing that set me off. Six months undercover, and it’s the kid who finally triggers me.”

  “He fucking snitched didn’t he? That little arrogant prick. He’s the one who brought you this shit, isn’t he?”

  “Who, Kelvin Junior? Of course not. Is that what you think? You think you got snitched on? You’re way off. I mean, sure, Junior’s emotions set me off and basically started the investigation into the Blue Projects, but ultimately, it was you who got you arrested.”

  “The fuck are you talking about?”

  “Did you really think that you could beat the shit out of someone with your bare hands and not leave any fingerprints? Your prints were all over the victim and on the bullet we pulled from the back of his skull. Oh, and now that we have you in custody, I guess it’s only fair that you know that we’ve also obtained a search warrant for your house. We already found the weapon you used to shoot the victim. As if that wasn’t enough to put your ass away for, like, ever, I also was there the day your two-hundred-forty keys of heroin came in. I know exactly where the bulk of it is, and how you got it here. It’s kind of funny, actually. That night, you almost killed me because my captain called my phone like an idiot. Luckily, I put him in my contacts as Sharon. How’s that for irony? You even asked me if I was a cop. Wow. My heart was pounding, I’ll tell you that. You almost got me, Clarence. Almost. Close, but no cigar. Anyway, you let it go, I went home and told Sharon all about everything I’d seen at the airstrip, and now here we are. I’ve got you on murder one, smuggling drugs into the country, distribution, and the intent to sell. And the beauty of it is that all of it is solid, irrefutable evidence. Every single piece of it. You’re fucked, Clarence, plain and simple. There’s no getting around just how fucked you are. Seriously, you’re fucked, like, royally fucked. Like, more than porn stars. It’s pretty serious. I’d hate to be in your shoes. However, I do know a way that you can sort of reduce how fucked you are. There’s a way that we can mitigate how bad it is.”

  “I guess this is the part where you offer me some sort of a deal. This is where you tell me that I can save my own ass if I snitch on everybody else. Typical.”

  “Not quite. This is the part where I tell you that you can’t do anything to save your own ass. Your ass is grass, as corny as that sounds. So, you can get that part out of your head. However, I can offer you a chance to do something good, for once in your life. I can offer you a chance to bring a lot of bad shit to an end, and a chance to save your nephew, all while making your own pile of shit a little bit smaller.”

  “Save my nephew? How does Junior fit in with all of this?”

  “I’m glad you asked. You see, Clarence, Kelvin Junior was with you when you murdered Derrick. He didn’t call the police, which is obstruction of justice. And, since he didn’t call the police to report the murder, that leads me to believe that he had a hand in it. I know he’s got this whole thing about owning your brother’s hotel and trying to separate himself from your family, but this murder thing is gonna ruin his life. He’s gonna go to jail for a really long time. His life will be over and it hasn’t even started yet.

  “So, I’m giving you the opportunity to tell us everything, so that we know who’s been involved in what. That way, the wrong people don’t go down for nothing. If you help us, Clarence, you can protect Kelvin and still give him a chance to live a respectable life. Not to mention the fact that if you cooperate with us, we can work to get your own sentence reduced. I give you my word, if you work with us, I’ll do absolutely everything that I can to help you during sentencing. I’m not saying that you’re not gonna do some hard time, but there’s ways that we can help to keep it from being so hard. We can keep you from spending the rest of your life in jail, Clarence. You help us, and we can be your tiny light at the end of your very dark tunnel.

  “Or, you can take the gangster high road and not tell us anything. In which case, we’ll use every bit of drug evidence that we have and bring down your whole family anyway, including your Russian connections. We know all about them, too. Including the fact that Ilia and Yosef Baskov shot and killed their own brother in broad daylight six months ago. We’ll bring it all down, including Kelvin Junior. Or, of course, you can lie to us and say that you’re gonna help us, and then tip your brother off that we’re coming. In which case, we’ll still carry out the drug charges, and we’ll work with the judge against you to make sure that you and Kelvin Junior have the harshest sentences available for the drugs and Derrick’s murder. We’ll push for maximum security, twenty-three hour lock down, for the rest of your life—until you die in your one-man cell as an old man, all by yourself. And, while you’re dying, you’ll know that your nephew is in a cell right down the hall from you, except he’s so much younger than you that he’ll still be locked up long after you’ve died off. He’ll be the last of you to die in prison. Out of all of you who’ll get locked up, no one will spend more time behind bars than Kelvin Junior. He’ll have it worse than all of you.

  “So, I’ll leave it up to you. You get to choose how this thing is gonna play out. The choice is all yours. What’s it gonna be, Clarence? How’s the story gonna end?”

  “It’s done. It’s on for tonight,” I say, just after I press the button on my phone to hang up. I turn around and see Lilliana, Lauren, and Trey standing directly behind me. They were obviously listening intently to my conversation with my father.

  “Okay, well, what did he say?” Trey inquires enthusiastically.

  “He wants me to meet him in an hour at the Royal Flush. He expects me to have all the money.”

  “He didn’t question how you sold a hundred-thousand dollars’ worth of heroin in, like, two days?” Lilliana says. She’s been the most cautious of us all since we hashed out this plan.

  “Nah, he didn’t, actually,” I reply. “I guess he just assumes that Trey helped me. Or, maybe he thinks I put some dealers on the street and we made a good profit in a new location. Plus, I’m sure you could make that much in a night from selling in a casino.”

  “He doesn’t give a fuck how you got the money,” Aunt Lauren interrupts sourly. “It doesn’t matter to him how you got it, as long as you’ve got it. He’s a boss. All he cares about is the profit.”

  “Makes sense,” I agree.

  “Okay. What about Clarence?” Trey asks.

  “He doesn’t know where he is,” I say.

  “Huh?”

  “Yeah, I don’t know. He didn’t really elaborate, he just said that he wasn’t there. So, I guess we don’t need to worry about your portion of the plan.”

  “Fuck that,” Trey snips. “He might not be there right now, but he might show up later on. I think it’s smarter if I stay close by. I’ll post up in the lobby or something to make sure he doesn’t show up. If he does, I’ll follow him up and we’ll carry out the plan the way we said we would. I’ll come in after I hear the shots intended for Senior, and catch him by surprise. If he doesn’t show, then it’s better safe than sorry.”

  “Yeah. That’s better. Just to be safe,” Lilliana agrees, nodding her head.

  “Okay. That sounds good,” I say.

  “Alright. Now, don’t forget to knock some shit over and take anything that’s valuable so that it looks like some sort of a robbery. We want to be able to point the finger at the Russians, so it needs to have that gangster feel to it,” Trey says as he puts on the jacket to his suit.
“Leave a little bit of the money behind so that it looks like they took the money bag in a hurry.”

  “I know, I know,” I answer. “I haven’t forgotten the plan. I got it.”

  “Alright, I just wanted to make sure. This is important.”

  “You don’t think I know that?”

  “You can still change your minds, you know,” Aunt Lauren chimes in again. I can see the fear in her eyes as she looks at me. She’s genuinely worried that this plan is going to fail and that my father or Clarence will kill all of us. It’s not her own safety that she’s concerned about though. It’s mine. She’s always been a very loving and caring aunt, and I know that the last thing that she wants is to see me get hurt or killed. Plus, she knows that if something bad does happen and Uncle Mikey finds out, he’ll do everything in his power to kill my father, which puts her entire life in jeopardy. Everything that she’s known will change.

  “I know, Aunt Lauren,” I say with a shy smile to reassure her. “You don’t need to worry about us, okay? Everything’s gonna be okay.”

  “What if it’s not, Kelvin?” Aunt Lauren snaps, still looking at me with despair in her eyes. “What if everything that you’ve planned out goes wrong? What if he doesn’t buy any of this shit and he expects you to be pulling something like this? Keep in mind that he just shot Lily yesterday. He knows how pissed you are about that, and then all of a sudden, you call him up and tell him that you started selling for him and that you’ve already turned over a hundred grand. I’m not even a drug dealer and that sounds like bullshit to me.”

  Trey and Lilliana turn and look at me, wondering what I can say to smooth out this tension. Plus, everything Aunt Lauren just said probably filled them both with more fear than they already had. So, when they look at me, they really want the answers to the questions that she just asked, because they need the reassurance themselves.

  I take a deep breath, and then go sit down next to my aunt.

  “Look, I know you’re scared for me,” I begin calmly. “I have to admit that I’m a little scared, too. I never thought I’d be doing anything like this, especially to my own father, but everything that we love has been ruined by him. Everything. He’s gotten out of control, and I’m the only person that can and will do something about it. So, it doesn’t matter if he suspects something, or if he doesn’t. All that matters is that I end up in that room with him, alone. Nothing else matters, because once we’re in the room, all I have to do is pull the trigger. Even if he figures it out the moment I walk in, it’ll still be too late. Once I’m in that room, it’s over for him. So, all you have to do is wait for us to call you and tell you that it’s done. No worrying allowed. Okay?”

  By the time I’m done talking, Aunt Lauren has tears in her eyes. She looks at me like she really thinks that this could be the last time that she sees me, and then she leans over and gives me a tight hug.

  “You better fucking be careful, Kelvin,” she says, her voice trembling. “You do it, and then you get your ass back here as fast as you can. You hear me?”

  “I hear you, Auntie.” My aunt finally releases me and I stand up to give a hug and kiss to Lilliana, who looks just as worried as Aunt Lauren, but just isn’t saying it.

  “I love you, baby,” I whisper as I lean in to hug her.

  Her hug is just as tight as Aunt Lauren’s was, and I swear I can feel her shaking. “I love you, Kelvin. Be careful, okay? You better bring your ass back to me.”

  As we release each other, I smile and say “I got you.”

  “Alright, Lover Boy, let’s do this,” Trey says as he leads me towards the front door.

  The door closes behind us, and Trey and I walk to his car in the driveway. As I close the passenger door, I look over and see Aunt Lauren and Lilliana standing in the doorway. They look terrified. For a second, I think about calling it off. Maybe the risk is too high. Maybe it’s not worth it, plus I know that it’s morally wrong. Maybe this is a terrible idea that could get me killed. Maybe it all will backfire and I’ll end up in jail next to Uncle Mikey. There’s a bunch of maybes. There’s a bunch of what-ifs, and I think about all of them as Trey presses the gas and we drive away, towards the gate. However, I know what I’m risking, and more importantly, I know how bad things could get if I don’t do this.

  My father shot Lilliana in the shoulder yesterday. No matter how dangerous I know this is, nothing will ever change that fact. He shot her. He did the one thing that I deem unforgivable and worthy of death. He messed with Lilliana. There’s no fixing that. The anger I feel towards him isn’t a normal anger. It’s a deep, dark, aggressive hatred that will not be subdued. It will not be pacified. I don’t give a fuck if my aunt cries until her eyes fall out. Her tears will never make me forget the pain and worry I felt when I heard that gun go off. Nothing will make me forget the agony that coursed through my veins as I watched Lilliana fall down on the floor in front of me. No matter what happens, I’ll never forget how it felt to not care if I died. I felt like my life was over in that moment, because I thought that she was gone. There’s no coming back from that. So, as we pull into the parking garage of the Royal Flush, and Trey and I get out and walk towards the elevators, I think about that. I think about the image of Lilliana on the floor, and I remember how it felt. That’s all the fuel I need to carry out this plan.

  The doors close, and Trey and I are surrounded by silence. We stand on opposite sides of the elevator, neither of us saying a word. I glance up at him, but he’s staring down at the floor. His face holds a scowl and I feel like I can read his mind. He’s the only other person who knows just how angry I am right now. I can tell that he’s thinking about how Uncle Clarence shot his brother in the knee, and how he wants nothing more than to be able to see my uncle killed tonight. He wants revenge more than anything, and I understand more than I’d like to admit.

  The elevator stops on the lobby floor and the doors slide open. Trey finally looks up at me and nods. “Text me when you’re on your way down so I can meet you as soon as the doors open on my floor. Hopefully Clarence shows up.”

  “I guess we’ll see. Talk to you soon,” I reply as he steps out and walks towards the couches that are in the lobby. If Uncle Clarence comes in, he’ll use the valet and come through the lobby entrance like he always does, so Trey will be in perfect position to see him and follow him up.

  The doors close once again, and I’m left alone. There’s no sound except my own thoughts and flashing images of my life. I think about how my life has changed so much since I moved into the city. I’ve lost my brother and one of my uncles to murder, and I’ve lost one to… hell, I don’t even know what you’d call the shit my dad did to Uncle Mikey to get him locked up. I’ve lost so much and felt so much pain because of my dad. As the elevator slows down to stop on the top floor, I focus in on that pain. I latch on to that hurt and use it to give myself the energy I need to get off the elevator and start walking down the hall towards the doors.

  My heart is pounding and I can feel my hands beginning to sweat profusely. I keep wiping them on my pants, but the sweat returns in seconds. The bag of money I’m carrying feels like it weighs about a thousand pounds for some reason, and I have to keep adjusting it on my shoulder as I step. I feel like I look nervous, and I’m worried that he’s going to see right through me the second I open the doors, which I feel like I’m approaching much too quickly. If he figures it out, he’ll put up a fight. I have to end it before it ever comes to that. So, I stop at the doors and close my eyes. I take a deep breath and exhale loud enough that he could probably hear it from inside the room, but it helps, regardless. I’m ready.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. You weren’t kidding,” my father says as I walk in and he notices the black bag slung over my shoulder.

  “Nah, I wasn’t kidding.” I walk over to the conference room table and place the bag on it. I think for second that I should unzip it for him, but then I remember the plan, so I leave it alone.

  “Damn. I have to say, Junior, I
’m impressed. I can admit that I wasn’t sure how you were gonna react to the whole Lily thing. I was a little worried. I knew you’d be pissed, and I hoped that you’d use it to motivate you to do the right thing, and that’s exactly what you did. I feel all proud and shit.”

  I have to swallow hard as I think about Lilliana. I push what I want to say to the side and say what I know I need to say.

  “Yeah, I can admit that it initially did piss me off, Dad. You shot my girlfriend. However, after a lot of thought, I realized that it wouldn’t be that difficult for me to move this dope. I just needed to apply a little bit of effort and thought. So, I figured the Red Chip was a good place to start.”

  “See, that’s what I’m talking about, Son. Of course, use the casino to make a little extra on the side. You already know the kind of people that come into the casino—all kinds of motherfuckers that want to spend money and party. They’ll pay whatever to get their hands on some dope. I knew you’d figure it out.”

  “Yeah, I figured it out.”

  “I fucking love it. Okay, so, let’s go ahead and address the elephant in the room. How’s Lily?”

  I swallow hard again. “She’s okay. You only grazed her, actually. Just had to bandage it up.”

  “Good, good. I hope you know that I wasn’t trying to kill her, and I never wanted it to go that far. I hope you believe that.”

  Another breath. “Yeah.”

  “Cool. So, how much did you say you were bringing in?”

  “Right at one hundred-thousand.”

  “Damn! So, you moved almost a whole pound in less than two days?”

  “I guess so. I wasn’t really paying attention to how much I was selling. I just figured a hundred grand was enough to come do some turnover.”

  “Damn, Son. I like it. I knew it, man. I knew you’d be good at this. Alright, let’s get an exact count.”

  He approaches the table and my nerves kick into overdrive. The butterflies in my stomach feel more like pterodactyls as I watch him reach for the zipper of the bag. I feel like my breathing has gotten so loud that he can hear it, so I try to get it under control as he opens the bag and sees the money for the first time. His eyes light up at first, but then I see them go from wide to squinting.