Corrupt City

by Tra Verdejo

  “Listen, on some real shit, my bad. I was hyped, caught up in the moment because, you know, things went well. You are right. We lost someone who put his life on the line for us.”

  “Wait,” Diamond said, interrupting Lucky. “He put his life on the line for us without knowing he did.”

  “You’re right. These muthafuckas really want me dead. Hey, listen, girl, you know a mark is a mark. We knew, whoever we picked, we were gambling their life away. I see you felt for the mark.”

  “No, no, Daddy, I didn’t,” she said, frightened.

  “It’s okay. You felt for the mark in some shape or form, and you didn’t want to see him dead. We all go through that. All I’m saying is, don’t get caught up. Emotions in this game are a no-no. You could lose yourself in guilt and never find your sanity again. Let’s just relax for the rest of the day. Call up the Chinese spot and order us some food. I got a few bootlegs we could watch tonight, before we get it on.”

  “So you’re not mad at me?”

  “Not at all, baby.”

  Lucky gave her a hug and kissed her on the forehead. “I’ll be downstairs until the food gets here.” And down to the basement he went. He wanted to check the surveillance cameras around his neighborhood.

  Lucky had installed ten cameras in a three-block radius. To sneak into his house, you needed a few 007 agents. It was safe to say he was one paranoid individual. On the day he became a cop, paranoia became second nature.

  Lucky was also able to pick up and hear any conversation within eight hundred feet of his house. He wanted to make sure no one followed him home. After returning from every trip, he would always spend at least thirty minutes reviewing footage and looking for anything suspicious. He had ten different camera views, all on a fifty-inch monitor. He would lean back on his chair and watch the streets like a nighthawk, hoping to see his partners or any idiot who wanted to die.

  Lucky’s former partners were all back at Tuna’s spot, scratching their heads at the events that took place before them. They were mad and they kept throwing the blame around at each other. They’d thought for certain they had Lucky, especially when they picked up the cell phone conversation, but they didn’t know he was actually setting them up.

  “This fuckin’ filthy nigger is getting on my last fuckin’ nerves,” Loose said.

  “I agree. We need to find him, and I mean yesterday,” the captain added.

  The Watcherz stopped their search for the little girl and refocused their attention on Lucky. Meanwhile, Speedy wanted to know exactly what Lucky had given the Colemans.

  “Cap, we need to break into the Colemans’,” Speedy said. “I know he left something at their house.”

  “Calm down. There’s no need to worry. Whatever evidence they present in court, we will make disappear. I’m not worried at all.”

  “But we don’t know what he gave them,” Speedy shot back.

  The captain stood quiet for a few seconds and realized Speedy was making sense, but he was too stubborn to admit Speedy was right. He quickly switched the conversation.

  “What we need is a bigger team and a trap to bring the rat out of his hole.”

  “But who can we trust in the force?” Loose asked.

  Speedy looked confused as well.

  “We are going to have to reach outside of the force on this one. We need maybe two to three more bodies. Us three, we can’t cover the whole city. With all the heat this case is catching, no one in the force would dare do anything stupid. We need to think, and come up with names.”

  “So now we are employing street criminals to join our movement? Are we giving them guns, too? I don’t like this idea, Captain,” Speedy said.

  “That’s why I’m the captain and you are not. Don’t start questioning my tactics now. We have no choice but to reach out. We are not going to ask any asshole in the streets with a criminal record to help us. We are reaching out to professionals, maybe out-of-state help.”

  Loose and Speedy were starting to see the direction of the plan. They all sat on a black plush sofa and went into thinking mode.

  While they were thinking, The Watcherz were having a difficult time on their end of the job. They were so frustrated, it got to the point where they started slapping each other. The two brothers were weird like that.

  Speedy had to run between them to calm the situation. After about five minutes of struggling to get them to calm down, he ended up slapping both of them. Speedy wasn’t known for having a temper, but Lucky had him stressed out.

  The captain got up. “What the fuck is wrong with you, Speedy? Go home and come back tomorrow when your mind is right. You are not the only one going through it. We can’t let this nigger win. This trial is bigger than us. We can’t let this boy win.”

  “My bad, Cap. I will see you in the morning. Loose, see ya.”

  Loose walked Speedy downstairs, laughing his ass off the whole way. He thought it was funny that Speedy had slapped the brothers.

  As they went downstairs, Tuna asked The Watcherz what happened.

  “When Lucky went in the house, he went straight to the laundry room, and we couldn’t pick up the conversation, so we don’t have any visual or sounds,” Hack said.

  That was bad news for the captain. He was hoping they’d at least picked up some type of sound. Tuna was now stressed himself, and he needed a relief. He got on the phone and called up his usual spot.

  “Thank you for calling The Candy Shop.”

  “Hey, Dimples. What’s up? This is Tuna.”

  “Hey, baby. How are you doing?”

  “I had better days.”

  “Well, you called the right place. The Candy Shop carries all flavors. You want the usual, baby?”

  “Surprise me tonight. Remember, I don’t like caramel or chocolate flavor.”

  “Don’t worry. I know how you like them. Give me about an hour.”

  Tuna hung up the phone and noticed Loose wasn’t back yet, which seemed weird. He quickly reached for his Glock and clicked off the safety. He walked toward the front door of the apartment, which was cracked, but saw no sign of his friend. Tuna’s heart was pounding as he slowly walked up to the door. He managed to open the door with his foot while both hands were holding the gun.

  When he reached the front door, he looked around and still didn’t see Loose. He started walking down the steps, not knowing what to expect. He was shitting his pants. What if Lucky got to both Loose Cannon and Speedy, and now he was in the building trying to get him?

  Tuna was able to make it all the way down to the first floor without any signs of Loose Cannon. As he approached the front door of the building, he could see the shadow of someone leaning their back against the front door. Tuna couldn’t make who it was, but as he got close, he was able to hear Loose Cannon’s voice.

  “What? You want more? C’mon, you think you tough. Bring it.”

  Once Tuna heard that, he ran and opened the door as fast as he could and pointed the gun at whoever was fucking with Loose. Tuna scared his friend, catching him off guard, and Loose jumped on Tuna. In the struggle Tuna’s black 9 mm Glock went off, and they both fell on the ground. Tuna didn’t know if he shot his best friend or not.

  Tuna quickly jumped up and started checking him for gunshot wounds. He couldn’t find any and didn’t see any blood. He then looked up to see who he was arguing with. It turned out, he was play-fighting with a ten-year-old boy.

  After thoroughly searching Loose, they both looked at each other thinking it was impossible for that bullet to have missed him. Loose got up and told the kid to run home before the cops came.

  “Damn, Loose! God didn’t want you tonight. You are blessed, my brother.”

  “Cap, why in the hell did you jump out like that?”

  “I don’t know. You took too long to come up, so I came down. I crept up on the door, and that’s when I heard you say, ‘You want more?’ so I didn’t want to take any chance.”

  “Lucky got us all fucked up in the head. What
if the kid got shot? Let’s go upstairs and relax. You need to call The Candy Shop.”

  “I’m already two steps ahead of you. They should be here in like forty minutes. Go upstairs. I’m waiting for the uniforms to show up.”

  “No, Cap, come on. Don’t wait. We don’t need the attention.”

  “You right. Fuck that! Let’s go get ready for the girls. I told Dimples to surprise us with a new flavor.”

  “You told her no chocolate or caramel, right?”

  “They already know.”

  They went upstairs, took showers, and got dressed like they were going out to one of the hottest clubs in the city. The captain walked to the back, toward the safe house room. Ten minutes later, he came out with about eight grams of cocaine, a few pills of ecstasy, and seven thousand dollars, mostly singles and five-dollar bills, for the girls.

  Back at The Candy Shop, girls knew they were big tippers and they would fight over who was going over to their spot. One time, four girls walked out with about five thousand dollars each.

  These above-the-law cops were living like kingpins, spending thousands on a daily basis, and killing with no mercy. And instead of playing it low-key until the trial was over, they were still committing crimes and partying like rock stars.

  While the corrupt cops were partying, Lucky and Diamond were sleeping. They had watched a few movies and fucked each other’s brains out.

  The Colemans were still up and confused about what took place. They were supposed to meet Lucky, but instead met a stranger, who passed them a CD. When they opened the CD case, there was no disk, just a note ordering them to eat at a certain restaurant. They were hoping Lucky was going to show up. After a few hours, they decided to leave the restaurant and head home.

  When they arrived home, Perry Sr. needed to get something out the trunk of his car. That’s when he noticed a big black duffel bag. He called his wife over. “Laura, did you put this black bag in the trunk?”

  She walked over and looked at it, “No.”

  When they opened the bag, they couldn’t believe their eyes. It was filled with money. They didn’t know how much, but they quickly closed it and agreed to keep it a secret between them. They went inside the house and acted like they never saw the money.

  Kim wasted no time approaching and handing them a four-page letter. She wrote everything Lucky said word for word. Everything, except what he left in the basement. The Colemans took turns reading the letter right in the living room. Now they knew who left them the money in the car, but they weren’t surprised.

  Kim was looking around the living room, searching for the camera. She couldn’t stand being watched. She knew they were watching them read the letter.

  The Watcherz desperately tried to zoom in on the letter, but they couldn’t get a good angle. They even tried reading the Colemans’ lips, but were unsuccessful as well. They knew Kim wrote about her meeting with Lucky.

  After the Colemans finished reading the letter, Kim burned it with a smile, knowing whoever was watching would be upset by her actions. Once again, she was right. The Watcherz were pissed.

  The Colemans were getting ready for another long night. No one could sleep, not after going through the type of day they’d gone through. Laura and her husband were in the same bed together, but their thoughts were miles apart. They both had two things on their mind, their money and their faith. Perry Sr. was relying on his belief in God to get him through this, while on the other hand, Laura wanted those pigs killed.

  “Honey,” she said in a cracking, low voice.

  “Yes, sweetheart.”

  “How in the hell did we get into this? First, we lost our baby. Now we’re losing our privacy. I have so much hatred for those police officers.”

  “I really wish I had an answer for you, sweetheart. I been asking God why this has happened to our family myself, but I’m still looking for the answer. I don’t understand how my son, who was unarmed, was gunned down like an animal,” a choked-up Perry Sr. said.

  “Honey, I’ve been asking God the same questions myself. I’m starting to question my beliefs. We are a good family. This is not supposed to be happening to us,” she said as she sat up on the bed.

  “I’m questioning my faith as well. I’m trying to stay strong, but it’s hard. I wasn’t there to protect him, but I will fight his death till the end,” he said, also sitting up.

  “I can’t live like this anymore, Perry, knowing they are watching us. I can’t sleep, use the bathroom, or change my clothes. I’ve had enough.” Laura jumped out of bed.

  “It’s almost one o’clock in the morning, Laura. Why are you picking up the phone? Who are you calling?”

  “I’m calling up the minister and our civil lawyer. They told me to call whenever I needed them, and that’s what I’m doing.”

  Laura threw on her robe and walked down to the kitchen for a cup of coffee while she dialed the minister’s number. After the fifth ring, he finally answered the phone.

  “Who is this?” Minister Al Muhammad said in a angry, sleepy voice.

  “I’m sorry to bother you. This is Laura, Laura Coleman.”

  “Laura, my goodness! What time is it? What’s wrong? I’m listening.”

  “We need help. I think we are being watched. No, we are one hundred percent sure we are being watched. Our house is bugged.”

  “What? Excuse me, come again?” Minister Muhammad quickly got on his feet. “Listen, Laura, I will send a few FOIs by your house.”

  “That would be great, but I’m more concerned about our house being bugged.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m sending someone who specializes in surveillance technology. He will find anything. It will take him less than an hour to sweep your house for bugs. I will be on my way after I make all these phone calls. We need to act now because, if your house is bugged and we wait, they will find a way to clean their mess.”

  “Okay, I understand.”

  “Don’t let anyone in your home. I don’t care who it is. I will get there as fast as I can. FOI will be there guarding the premises until I arrive. Remember, don’t let anyone in until I get there, not even my security.”

  When Laura hung up the phone, she was nervous. She didn’t know what she’d started. She just sat in silence with her head down.

  Perry Sr. walked in the kitchen and hugged his wife. “Are you okay, sweetheart?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. The minister is on his way, and he’s bringing us a bunch of security.”

  Perry Sr. started laughing. “That’s why I married you. You are a determined woman. I love you, baby.”

  As the Colemans continued talking in their kitchen, waiting for the minister, The Watcherz had called Tuna on his cell a few times, but he was not picking up. They’d also tried calling Loose Cannon, but his phone was turned off and going straight to voice mail.

  Hack walked down to the fourth floor and knocked on the door repeatedly. He even banged on the door, but still no answer. All he heard was the loud music playing in the background. He went back upstairs and told his brother. They didn’t know what to do.

  They decided to call Speedy, but he was no help. He was still upset and didn’t want to hear about Lucky or the Colemans. He just hung up the phone on those two retarded geeks.

  They continued watching the house, not knowing what to do.

  When the minister arrived, he brought a few friends with him. They swept the house and cars and found five cameras in all with built-in speakers.

  The Watcherz lost both audio and video. They were fucked. All the monitors went pitch-black.

  The Colemans were shaken to see so many cameras. By this time, Kim and Li’l Perry were also up and shocked to see all the commotion.

  The minister walked over to consult the family. “Laura, I’m glad you called me. I have with me one of my top lieutenants. He’s an ex-Navy SEAL. He quickly identified those surveillance gadgets were not property of the NYPD. They look more federal, or bought in the black market.”

  �
��We already know who’s responsible,” she shot back.

  “You do. Who then?” a puzzled Muhammad asked.

  “Those dirty cops who killed my son. They were keeping an eye and ear on us, fearing that the other cop who turned on them was helping our case.”

  “And you are one hundred percent sure about this?”

  “You don’t even want to know what we’ve been through in the last twenty-four hours. Donald ‘Lucky’ Gibson himself told us. He was the one who tipped us about the cameras.”

  “What else did he say?”

  “He told us there was going to be a hung jury.”

  The minister was in a state of shock. Not surprise, but shock. He couldn’t believe the government was about to let those cops get away with murder. He preached every day about a better day to come, but this mess he was facing was setting those days back by a few years.

  “Okay, look, I’m going to make a few phone calls. I have some powerful friends in the force who could verify if this stakeout is legit. I’m also calling up members of my board. We are going to organize a rally in memory of Perry. We are going to march down by One Police Plaza. We need to show White America we will no longer take it. We will get a lot of media attention, which we need to fight the case from moving to another county. That can not happen.”

  “That sounds good, a parade for my child. He would love that,” Laura said.

  “Now, we need to talk about your safety. Are you guys willing to relocate until the trial is over?”

  “Nope, that’s not an option!” Perry Sr. fired.

  “This is our home. We are not letting these dirty cops run us away from our home,” Laura added.

  “I completely understand. In that case, I’m leaving four members from my personal security team. The lieutenant is also a personal friend of mine. Brother Noble, he will stay as well. But, before we move forward, let’s get one thing clear. I need to know everything. No matter how small or big, I need to know everything. Anyone else have anything they would like to add?”