“Now,” she continued, “the best thing we could do for them right now is hire a good lawyer, right?” Ceasar nodded. “Do you still have the money that Clyde gave you?”
Again Ceasar nodded. “Yes, I left it in my safe deposit box I have at my job.”
“Okay,” said Keyshia, “that’s a hundred and thirty thousand right there. Now all we got to do is find them a good lawyer, and I think that’s where you have to come in, Ceasar.”
They talked strategy for nearly two hours.
“I just wish I was there when Clyde walked in the bank.” Ceasar said. “Maybe none of this would have happened.”
“Ceasar,” Keyshia asked, “you wasn’t inside the bank when Clyde walked in?”
“No, I called in to work an hour late. Martha wanted me to stop by that morning. She said it was an emergency, but when I got there, nobody answered the door.”
Keyshia told him that Martha was home when Clyde talked to her that morning and that Clyde told her he was going to see Ceasar at his job that morning.
Ceasar shrugged it off and quickly changed the subject. He looked at his watch and said, “Ooh, it’s getting late. What I’m going to do is go to the bank and get the money so we can find them a lawyer. I want you to give me a call in the morning.” He handed her his card. “That way, we could meet up and go and find one together.”
Keyshia smiled and nodded, but she still felt uneasy. He gave her a light hug and kiss and assured her things would be okay.
Keyshia tossed and turned all night. Unable to sleep, she stayed up and stared at the walls. Everything was just moving too fast for her to comprehend, and she didn’t know whom she could trust. She tried not to think the worst and hoped that the truth would come out, but she couldn’t help thinking how everything had gone down.
At last it was six-thirty in the morning and Keyshia couldn’t wait any longer. She decided to call Ceasar.
“Hello,” responded the voice on the other end.
“Ceasar, this is Keyshia.”
“Keyshia, I got some bad news.” Keyshia immediately grew tense. “I got fired yesterday because they found out that both my brothers were part of the robbery and they think that I’m somehow a part of it. I’m under investigation by the police.”
He paused for a moment before he continued. “Keyshia, they froze my funds and sealed my safe deposit box with the money.”
Keyshia flipped. “What!” she yelled. “No, Ceasar, don’t say that, don’t say that!” She began pacing the floor.
“I’m sorry, Keyshia.”
“Ceasar, please tell me this is a fucking joke?”
“Keyshia, these are my brothers’ lives we talking about. I wouldn’t joke like that.”
“Ceasar, if you got something to do with this shit—”
He interrupted her, “Keyshia, I know how much you love Clyde, and you’re not thinking right, but watch before you say something you might regret. These are my brothers, my fucking blood, and you think I had something to do with this shit?”
Keyshia would not back down. “Remember what I said, Ceasar—if I find out you had something to do with this shit, I’m coming after you, that’s my word, I’m coming after you!” She heard a click on the other end of the line and threw her cell phone at the wall, smashing it to pieces. Suddenly she felt sick and fell on the bed. She folded herself into a ball and cried and cried until she fell asleep.
She was alone again!
Keyshia waited downtown at Manhattan court for sixteen hours until they finally called Clyde’s name, along with Sonny and Wolf, to be arraigned. Ceasar was there also, but he sat on the other side of the court several rows behind her. Keyshia sat up when the three men walked into the courtroom. Clyde looked tired and disheveled but otherwise okay.
Clyde turned around periodically, nodding to Keyshia that everything would be all right, but it pained her to see him handcuffed and helpless as he stood before the judge.
Keyshia hadn’t a clue about the legal jargon the lawyers were exchanging, nor did she care. The only thing she hoped for was that Clyde would be released, because she knew that there was surely a mix-up. But her world came tumbling down when the judge announced bail of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars each. She couldn’t comprehend what was happening as the court officer began to escort Clyde and the two other men right back where they had entered.
“No!” she said, standing up. “Clyde, no!”
Clyde stopped in his tracks, turned back toward Keyshia, and yelled, “It’ll be all right, baby!” over and over as they led him out the courtroom door.
A week later, Keyshia made her first visit to Clyde at Rikers Island. She was so excited to see him that she didn’t sleep for two days leading up to the visit. Ever since the arrest, she had barely eaten and was a nervous wreck. She called ahead to ensure she had the proper identification and paperwork. She even found out what inmates could and could not have on visits and the maximum amount of money she could leave in his commissary account. She wore her best outfit the day of the visit and had to use extra makeup to hide the worry marks under her eyes to give Clyde the impression that she was holding up.
Clyde, along with Sonny and Wolf, was housed at the Beacon, a maximum-security prison on Rikers Island. Keyshia found some small comfort in the fact that he was housed with his brother and would at least be safer. While being processed, she overheard a young woman telling the officer that she was there to see Sonny Barker. Keyshia introduced herself, and the woman said her name was Cheryl. Cheryl had a bright smile and seemed very mature and educated, so Keyshia wondered how she and Sonny had gotten together. But Keyshia knew good girls always like bad boys, and Sonny was as bad as they came. Their common grief made the entire experience a lot easier on Keyshia because Cheryl had been through this process with Sonny before, so she knew what to expect and filled Keyshia in on everything.
Finally, they were permitted through the last phase of the process and entered a room with numbered tables, which were assigned to each inmate and his visitor.
“Barker, S, table six.” Cheryl smiled at Keyshia, walked over to table six, and sat down.
“Barker, C, table twelve,” barked the corrections officer, pointing. Keyshia followed his finger and made it to the table and sat down. Not much later, the mechanical door opened and men in gray jumpsuits and flip-flops entered the room.
Clyde was the first one to enter, and he immediately spotted Keyshia. Keyshia could hardly contain herself and shot to her feet. They embraced as if they hadn’t seen each other in years.
Keyshia didn’t want the feeling to end as she closed her eyes and imagined they were back on the outside instead of behind steel gates. When they finally forced themselves apart, Keyshia looked in horror at Clyde’s swollen and bruised face.
“Clyde, who did that to you, baby?” she cried, covering her mouth. One of Clyde’s eyes was black and purple and closed shut. His lower lip was so swollen that it hung limp and was caked with blood.
“Fucking police!” he answered. “Right after that courtroom drama, they beat the shit out of me, Sonny, and Wolf.” Clyde nodded. “But them punk motherfuckas had to do it with us handcuffed!”
“Did you see a doctor? Did you tell somebody?”
Clyde shrugged and said, “Naw, I’m all right, don’t worry about it.” He tried to smile. “You looking good, baby, I miss the shit out of you.”
Keyshia blushed. “I miss you, too, baby. I can’t even sleep.” She put her head down and started crying, something she’d said she wouldn’t do, but all bets were off.
“I know, baby, but don’t do this to me now. I won’t be able to take seeing you like this.”
Keyshia tried to suck it up and apologized. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Clyde.”
He helped her rub her tears away. “You ain’t got nothing to be sorry about. It’s just that I’m powerless in this bitch, and it ain’t nothing I can do right now but think ill shit, you understand?” Keyshia nodded and took a d
eep breath.
Clyde looked around and lowered his voice. “You know I ain’t had nothing to do with that shit, right?” Keyshia nodded and said she knew. “Sonny and Wolf planned that shit, and it just happened that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only way I got caught up in the mix was because Sonny had slept on the security guard and I caught him pulling a gun from his ankle holster and stopped him from shooting Sonny.” Clyde kept looking around for unwanted ears as he continued, “All we got to do is hire a good lawyer to separate me from all this fuck shit and I think I’m good.” He looked around again and asked, “Did you hear about Black Sam and his people?” Keyshia looked around nervously and nodded.
“You know what went down?” he asked again. She nodded. He moved closer to her and said, “So that means that we ain’t got to pay him.” He gave Keyshia a crazed smile and continued, “We could now use that money on a lawyer for me and Sonny!” He nodded as if all his problems were solved. Keyshia put her head down, not wanting to destroy his hopes. Clyde immediately saw that something was wrong. “What is it, baby, what’s wrong?”
Keyshia lifted her head and faced him. “Ceasar said that the feds confiscated the money.”
Clyde shook his head as if he had heard her wrong. “What?” “The police found out that he was your and Sonny’s brother and the bank launched an investigation on him, too, and fired him.”
Clyde closed his eyes as all hope seemingly disappeared. He put his hand on his head and began to rock back and forth, unable to believe what he’d just heard. When he lifted his head, Keyshia saw his tears and felt even worse for him. She didn’t want to tell him about the argument she and Ceasar had got into or what she thought. She felt that he already had enough on his plate and any hint of betrayal would definitely push him over the edge.
“Didn’t Sonny tell the police that you ain’t have nothing to do with it?” Keyshia asked.
“Sonny and Wolf told them I wasn’t part of it from the first time they arrested us, and they said they would sign statements saying so, but these motherfuckas ain’t trying to hear that shit,” Clyde answered, defeated. “I’m fucked!”
“Clyde,” Keyshia said, “we’ll work something out.”
He snapped, “Work what out, Keyshia? We ain’t got no money. What kind of lawyer I’m gonna have now?”
Keyshia was shocked. She’d never seen Clyde lose his cool like this before. He must have known something she didn’t. “Clyde, is there something you’re not telling me?”
Clyde closed his eyes and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Keysh, this place just got me stressed out. I’m not built for this shit. It’s like the walls is closing in on me, yo.”
Keyshia stared into his eyes and saw something worse than fear there—she saw death!
“Clyde,” she said in desperation, “you not telling me everything.”
Clyde knew he couldn’t lie to her and told her flat out, “They offered us ten years to cop out.”
Keyshia gasped, losing the air in her chest. Clyde continued, “Our lawyer said that we could get hit with a minimum of twenty-five years if we blow trial. The lawyer said he guarantees that we would be convicted since they caught us dead stinking in the act. Sonny and Wolf said they gonna take the deal.” Keyshia was speechless. Clyde looked around again and edged closer and said with more seriousness than she’d ever heard before, “I ain’t doing ten years, Keyshia. I’d rather die first!” His one good eye was aflame as he stared deep into Keyshia’s eyes.
“I ain’t gonna be having these motherfuckas touching me and telling me what to do, ’cause I’m gonna wind up killing one of these punk-ass cops or they gonna kill me. I refuse to live on my knees. I’ll die before I do that!”
Keyshia searched his face and knew that he meant it. She pulled herself together and took a deep breath and shook her head. “I’m with you, Clyde. I’m with you and ready to die with you!” she vowed.
Clyde nodded and sat back with a smile. A smile came over her face as well, and they just stared at each other, relieved of all the pressure they’d felt earlier.
Chapter 32
_______________
Keyshia went to see Clyde nearly every visiting day in the two months that he was incarcerated. During most of their visits, they planned and strategized everything for the coming trial. Clyde decided to fight it out in court, and hopefully the truth would come out. But if not, they were willing to let the chips fall where they may and go out in a blaze. Even though Keyshia saw him three times a week on visits, that didn’t stop her from writing every day. Clyde warned her not to write anything incriminating in the letters because his mail appeared to have been tampered with and read, so he taught her how to write in a code that only they would understand. This wound up being more effective than they could have ever imagined later on. Clyde began to grow suspicious of the relationship between her and Ceasar because neither spoke to the other, nor would either tell Clyde why. He decided to let his questions go because he had too much on his plate as it was.
Keyshia was running low on funds, and her biggest expenses were transportation to see Clyde and rent. Everything else she could manage, such as food, because she ate little. She didn’t want to tell Clyde, but she had no choice; she was going broke. When she finally told him, she was surprised how quickly he solved the problem. He told Sonny, and the next thing she knew, his girlfriend, Cheryl, was at her door with groceries and enough money to pay the rent for six months and then some. Keyshia thanked her, and Cheryl assured her that it was Sonny’s money and to call her when her money got low.
One morning Keyshia woke up sick and nauseated and ran to the bathroom to throw up. She paid no mind to it initially, but the symptoms became more consistent and problematic. She recalled having the same feeling at one point in her life, but she didn’t want to believe it was possible. She bought one of those home pregnancy tests, and to her horror and surprise—it came back positive. She was dazed. She didn’t know what to do and had to be sure, so she went to the health station, and sure enough, she was three months pregnant.
Keyshia was now torn by the news and couldn’t believe her growing misfortune. She was alone and cried till she had nothing left. She didn’t know how she was going to break the news to Clyde and came to the decision that she would keep everything to herself and let nothing come between her and her man’s fate.
• • •
Keyshia arrived on Rikers Island to visit Clyde but was informed by one of the administrating officers that he was no longer allowed visits. The news caught her off guard, and she asked to see the person in charge. After waiting nearly an hour, a captain came out and spoke to her.
“Ms. Simmons?” the captain asked.
Keyshia nodded and said, “Yes, I’m Ms. Simmons, and I’m here for Clyde Barker.” He put on his glasses and checked his chart, mumbling to himself as he searched for his name, “Barker, Clyde, Barker, Clyde . . . okay, Clyde Barker, yes, ma’am.” He took off his glasses and said, “Yes, Ms. Simmons, Mr. Barker had to be placed in segregation. It appears that Mr. Barker attacked an officer, and when an inmate exhibits violent behavior, he is placed in segregation and all privileges such as visitation are taken away.”
Keyshia was heartbroken. “When will his visitation privileges be restored?”
“Well, to be quite honest with you, this has been Mr. Barker’s second infraction of committing a violent act on an officer. His privileges are removed indefinitely.” The officer seemed sympathetic. Keyshia was numb as she stared at the floor, not knowing what to do next. The officer asked, “Ms. Simmons, are you okay?”
Keyshia snapped out of her momentary shock and said, “Yes, but do you think I can visit his brother Sonny Barker? He’s in the same house.”
The officer nodded. “Yes, come with me.” The captain escorted Keyshia to the visiting room and even went into Sonny’s wing and escorted him back.
When Sonny entered the room and saw Keyshia, he put his head down and walked over to her s
lowly. Keyshia stood and looked him in the eyes without saying a word. Sonny said, “Hey, sis.”
A tear fell from Keyshia’s eyes, and he quickly embraced her. They sat down, and Sonny explained everything that had gone down with his brother inside the walls.
“Clyde just ain’t built for this shit. I mean, me and my man Wolf been doing li’l skid bids all our life, we could eat them ten years, but Clyde, he seems like he can’t do none. I mean, he ain’t a punk or nothing, he just, I don’t know what it is.” Sonny kept shaking his head. “It’s like he just changing, like he’s losing his mind,” Sonny tried to explain. “It’s like, it’s like he just turned cold, like he lost the will to live or something. First he wouldn’t talk to the police, then he just stopped talking to everybody—including me.” Sonny gazed at the walls as he continued, “Then he really started bugging, and that’s why they put him in deep seg. He started refusing to do anything the police said, then out of the blue, he beat this officer down just because he asked to see his ID card, yo.” Sonny shook his head. “Clyde just attacked him like he was crazy, and when the other duty officer came to help him . . .” He looked at Keyshia before he said, “He bit a piece of his fucking ear off, yo!” Keyshia put her head down.
He shook his head and tears began to fall from his eyes. He looked at Keyshia and said, “I never wanted to get Clyde stuck like this. It’s all my fault, ’cause I was fucking greedy.” His eyes pleaded with Keyshia. “I would gladly take his years for him, Keyshia, you got to believe me. I would never want to see my baby brother like this. I’m dying inside because of it, you hear me, dying! I never should have tried to rob that bank, that ain’t my fucking style, I don’t know what I was thinking.” Sonny clenched his jaw. “I should have never listened to her fucking greedy ass in the first place!”
Keyshia frowned and thought back to what Clyde had said about Martha right before they got to the bank that morning when he called her greedy. “Who are you talking about, Sonny?”
Keyshia and Clyde Page 20