by Roy Glenn
“I don’t know nuthin’, I swear!”
“I haven’t asked you any questions yet.” Nick pulled Manny up off the ground and dragged him back to the car where Freeze was waiting.
“What's up, Manny?” Freeze asked as Nick pushed Manny into the car. “Where was you going in such a hurry?”
“I swear, Freeze, I don’t know nuthin’,” Manny said quickly.
Nick looked around and noticed that some people were coming out of the bar and coming toward them, and they didn’t look happy. “Hey,” Nick said to Freeze and pointed toward them.
Freeze nodded and opened the back door to his Navigator. “Get in,” he said and pushed Manny inside. He tossed the keys to Nick. “Let’s ride.”
Once they were away from the bar, Freeze slapped Manny upside his head. “If you don’t know nothing, why you run when you saw me?”
“Because Black said he would kill me the next time he saw me.”
Freeze slapped Manny again. “Do I look like Black to you?” he asked, and slapped Manny twice in the head.
“No!” Manny said and covered his head.
“I do see his point, Freeze,” Nick said and laughed.
“Shut up, Nick.”
“Black might have sent you to kill me. How could I know?” Manny continued to cover his head.
“That’s all I was trying to say,” Nick threw in.
“Somebody tried to kill Black; you know anything about that?”
“Is he dead?”
“I said tried, dumb-ass,” Freeze shouted and punched Manny in the stomach.
“He never was very smart.” Nick shook his head.
“Shut up, Nick!” Freeze shouted, fighting back laughter. He turned his attention back to Manny. “What you know about that?”
“I swear,” Manny said and made a cross over his heart. “This is the first I’m hearing about it.”
“Stop the car, Nick,” Freeze said, and Nick complied. “If you hear anything, I better hear from you. Got that?”
“Si, si, I call you,” Manny said.
“Good. Now get out,” Freeze commanded.
“But my car is back there, Freeze.” Manny pointed back towards the bar.
Freeze raised his hand like he was about to hit Manny again. Manny opened the door and got out running.
“What now?” Nick asked.
“Let’s go by Incognito,” Freeze answered.
“Incognito? You looking for somebody in particular?”
“Yeah. Little trick ho named Shonda works out of there sometimes. Maybe she knows something.”
“You got it.”
Nick began moving in the direction of the club, but he didn’t notice that he was being followed by three men in a black Infinity.
When Nick and Freeze arrived at Incognito, they went inside and ordered drinks. They looked around for Shonda, but she didn’t seem to be there that night.
“I’ma go take a leak. I’ll be back,” Freeze said.
“Hurry up.”
“I know you in a hurry to get back to Wanda, but chill out,” Freeze said and walked off.
As Freeze headed toward the bathroom, Nick looked as Freeze walked by the three men that had been following them in the Infinity. When he had passed them, they fell in behind Freeze and followed him into the bathroom.
“What’s wrong with that picture?” Nick put down his drink and fell in behind them.
Freeze went into one of the stalls, just as the three men entered the bathroom. Nick was outside pushing his way through the crowd, trying to get to Freeze.
Once they were in the men's room, the three men drew their weapons and waited for Freeze to come out of the stall. Freeze flushed the toilet and was about to come out of the stall. He opened the door and saw three guns pointed at him. Before anybody could do anything, Nick burst through the door with both guns drawn.
Nick fired and shot two of the men several times in the back of their heads. Freeze pulled his gun quickly and got the third man with two shots.
Freeze lowered his weapon and Nick stood over the bodies. “You recognize them?”
“Never seen ’em before. You?”
Nick shook his head and put away his weapons. “Let’s get outta here.”
When Nick and Freeze came out of the bathroom, they made their way out of the club and back to the Navigator.
Nick tossed Freeze back his keys. “You sure you didn’t piss anybody off?”
“I piss off mutha fuckas every fuckin’ day,” Freeze said and drove away.
Chapter Seventeen
Mike Black
When I arrived in baggage claim at JFK, the first person I saw was Bobby. When I noticed that Wanda was standing next to him, I got worried. If she was there, something was wrong, and whatever it was, it couldn’t wait.
“What’s up, Bob?” I said and shook his hand.
“How was the trip?” he asked.
“Good. Got to spend a lot of time with M. Jamaica took me around to all of his spots. Things are running smooth down there. Good trip.”
I didn’t even want to look in Wanda’s direction, because I really didn’t want to hear what she had to say, but I knew I had to.
“Hello, Wanda.”
“I was wondering if you were going to acknowledge my presence,” Wanda said and put her hands on her hips.
“That’s because if you're here, something must be wrong and I’m in too good of a mood for you to drag it down.”
Even though I told her that it would be a while before she saw me again, I’d been thinking about going by and fuckin’ Mystique before me and Bobby went to Hong Kong, and that was what had me in a good mood.
Funny how good pussy does that.
On the plane, I thought about Jacara and how I ran off the island. That wasn’t cool. I could have gone by the Sheridan and said goodbye to her. But fuck it, what’s done is done. I wandered over to the carousel to wait for my bags.
“Oh, so I’m a drag now?” Wanda said and looked insulted.
Bobby and I looked at each other and started laughing. “Part of your job is to tell us shit we don’t want to hear,” Bobby said.
“It’s what you do,” I added and grabbed my bags.
Wanda’s angry looked slowly curled into a smile. “You two better be glad I love you,” Wanda said and turned away.
Wanda started walking away from me and I looked at her hips swinging out the door. “You gaining weight, Wanda?”
“Why, do I look fat?” she asked as she looked herself up and down.
“Not fat,” I said and tried to think of a delicate way to put it, but there wasn’t one. “Just fat in the ass.”
“Somebody must be hitting that ass right,” Bobby said and laughed.
Wanda spun around and looked at Bobby like he had just called her mama a two-dollar ho, rather than something she’d heard him say hundreds of times.
“What you talking about, Bobby?” she said and got in his face.
“Nothing, Wanda. You know I’m just fuckin’ with you. Everybody knows that you’re the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary. Take some deep breaths,” Bobby said and walked around her.
At first, I didn’t think much of it, but as we got to the car, I wasn’t so sure. Maybe somebody was hitting that ass right and I had to think for a minute about how I felt about that. Wanda had been my other woman for a long time. Other woman that I wasn’t fuckin’, that is.
Me and Wanda had our time when we were kids, but we both agreed that we were better off as friends. Since then I’ve fucked more women than I could remember and I had been married, so why was I feeling jealous about somebody fuckin’ Wanda?
Because she’s always been my other woman, that’s why! And I don’t like sharing. I’ll just kill the mutha fucka, whoever he is, and that will put a stop to that madness. But that ass definitely was getting fat.
“So do you want to hear what I have to say or not, Mike?” Wanda said to bring me out of the fog I had just drifted into.
“No, Mike. I haven’t talked to Freeze about it, because it’s about Shy.”
Okay, she had my attention. “What about her?”
“Oh, so now, because it’s about Shy, you wanna hear what I gotta say?”
“Just tell me Wanda,” I said and got in the back seat.
“Move over,” Wanda ordered and slid in the back seat next to me.
“Now I’m the fuckin’ chauffeur?” Bobby complained.
“Just drive, Bobby. You know this is important,” Wanda said in her stern voice, and that shut Bobby up for the moment.
“What about Cassandra?”
“I got a call late last night from Glynnis.”
“Presley?”
“Yes. She said that it was important that she talk to you.”
“She say what it was about?”
“Only that it was about Shy. Whatever it’s about, Glynnis sounded scared, Mike.”
“Get her on the phone,” I said and wondered what Glynnis could possibly know about Cassandra. I can’t even say for sure that Glynnis ever met her.
I watched as Wanda dug around in her big-ass purse for her cell. “Here,” Bobby said. “Use mine.” He tried to hand the phone to Wanda.
“Now what makes you think I know her number? I don’t know anybody’s number anymore.”
Once Wanda found her phone and got past Glynnis’ personal assistant, which I thought was odd for a Sunday morning, Glynnis finally came to the phone. “It’s Wanda, Glynnis. I have Mike with me. He wants to talk to you.”
Whatever Glynnis was saying, Wanda wasn’t ready to hear, and that doesn’t happen often. She was always on top of everything, always in control. It’s one of the things I admired most about her. I thought for a minute about how I enjoyed listening to Wanda order her staff around. I like strong women. Women like Cassandra and Wanda.
And if that’s true, why do I gravitate towards women like Mystique and Jacara?
“Okay, Glynnis. I understand completely,” Wanda said and began nodding her head as Glynnis talked. It was what Glynnis was best at; talking. That’s why I liked Glynnis. If it had anything to do with politics and power, she was all over it. She wasn’t a bad looking woman, just not my type.
Wanda pressed end on her phone and looked at me. “Glynnis doesn’t want to talk on the phone. She said she wants to meet you in an hour at a place called Soul Fixin’s. It’s on 34th.”
“You heard the lady, driver,” I said to Bobby.
“Fuck you,” was his response, but he headed for the Midtown Tunnel and we were there waiting at the restaurant when Glynnis walked up. After she ordered a cup of coffee, she and I walked down 34th, with Bobby and Wanda following behind.
“I’m sorry to be going through all this with you, and I really don’t want to be involved. But I have to tell you this, I just don’t want anything to happen to me,” she said, and her hand shook a little as she sipped her coffee.
“Nothing gonna happen to you, Glynnis. I promise you that. I would never let anything happen to you. Just tell me what you gotta tell me. It will be all right.”
“I was at a party last night and I overheard a conversation between Martin Marshall and his man, Scotty. I heard Martin say, if Mike Black ever finds out I had any involvement in his wife’s murder, he’ll kill us all.”
Chapter Eighteen
Mike Black
Martin Marshall was a State Senator that I had done business with a few times. But he was such a greedy fuck that I had to cut him loose years ago. Since we had no business ties, I couldn’t imagine how he would be involved in Cassandra’s murder, but I would find out. We dropped Wanda off at her house and me and Bobby went to see Marshall at his house.
On the way there I thought about Martin and his connection to Diego Estabon. I knew that the two of them were in business together, but I didn’t know how deep it was. I knew that they were involved in the death of a reporter named Tavia Hawkins and I gave the information to Kirk. I figured that would be punishment enough, but Martin Marshall wouldn’t go down that easy. Martin got immunity from prosecution for testifying against some congressman in Brooklyn over a real estate development deal and walked away clean.
None of this was making any sense to me. How could Diego be involved in Cassandra’s murder? When it first happened, Diego was one of the first people I thought of. But I quickly eliminated him because of the way things were going. The same logic still applied. If Diego or even his father, Gomez, wanted to kill Cassandra and kill me in jail, they wouldn’t have hired Bart or his boy Swan when there are plenty of homeboys, both in and out of jail that they could have tapped to do the job.
It just didn’t make sense.
I decided then that I wasn’t going to Hong Kong, at least for the time being. There was enough going on right here that seemed more promising than running around Hong Kong chasing the wild goose. I didn’t think that Martin was responsible for, or too deeply involved, in Cassandra’s murder; he was too much of a punk, but you never know. I was hopeful that whatever he knew would lead me to the people responsible. Maybe then, Cassandra could rest peacefully, and maybe then, I could move on with my life.
“We’re not going to Hong Kong,” I finally informed Bobby.
“I didn’t think so. You think Marty knows anything?”
“Maybe,” I said simply. I wanted to kill somebody, and I didn’t think Martin Marshall was the one, so I couldn’t get too excited. I reached in my pocket and pulled out a dollar. “Let me use your phone.”
“Very funny,” Bobby said and practically threw his cell at me. “I was wondering how long it would take.”
“Take for what?” I asked as I punched in the number.
“How long after you decided not to go to Hong Kong would it take for you to call Mystique.”
“Who said I was calling her?”
“Nobody.” Bobby smiled. “Go ahead, press talk.”
“Huh?”
“When you want to make a call you gotta press the talk button.”
“I know that.”
“I know you know. Shit, as much as you're on it you should pay the bill.”
“I gave you a dollar.”
“And I told you that wasn’t the point. The point is even though you claim to not like them, and that you don’t like being that accessible, you have no problem using somebody else’s cell phone. You might as well break down, join the new millennium and get your own. And in case you haven’t noticed, you still haven’t pressed talk.”
“Okay, so I’m calling Mystique. What's wrong with that?” I asked, and then waited for the verbal onslaught that would be Bobby’s response.
“Nothing at all. All I’m saying is that like it or not, you're a single man now. You supposed to be fuckin’ Mystique’s brains out. Her and a whole bunch more. That’s all I’m saying,” Bobby said and kept driving, but it didn’t stop there. “You came back from the land of half-naked hoes, but did you at least meet one?”
“There was one.”
“Did you fuck her or were you hiding behind Michelle?”
“No, I wasn’t hiding behind Michelle. Jamaica introduced me to her and no I didn’t fuck her.”
“Why not?” Bobby asked louder than he needed to.
I wasn’t about to tell him that she practically set it out for me, but I ran off the island. “I didn’t have time. I wanted to get back here so we could leave for Hong Kong,” I lied, but it was one that he couldn’t dispute.
“So who is she? And don’t tell me that it was that fine ass mutha fucka that does the show that he’s always talking about. If that’s who it is, I don’t even want to hear about it.”
“Okay.” I finally pressed talk.
�
��Is it her?”
I didn’t answer.
“Why didn’t you fuck her?”
“I told you, I didn’t have time,” I said as Mystique answered. “It’s Black, how you doing?”
“Better now,” Mystique said, and I could hear her smile. “I didn’t think that I would hear from you so soon.”
“Did I catch you at a bad time?”
“No. I wasn’t doing anything,” she said quickly. “So, what’s Hong Kong like?”
“I haven’t left yet.”
“Oh, really? I thought you said you were going there from the Bahamas?”
“Yeah, but something came up.”
“So, where are you?”
“I’m in New York. I just got back this afternoon.”
“Well, like I said, I’m not doing anything other than laying here naked, getting wet thinking about you inside me.”
“Hold that thought. I got to go see somebody now and you know how one thing always leads to another, so it’s gonna be a while, but I’m coming for you.”
“It’ll be dripping wet by that time,” Mystique said to me and I could see her laying there.
“You know that’s how I like it.”
“If I’m not here, you know where to find me,” Mystique said, and he knew she meant she’d be at Cynt's. She was all about making that money.
“Remind me that we need to talk about that.”
“What? Me working at Cynt's?”
“Yeah.”
I was fuckin’ her and everybody knows I’m fuckin’ her. And since I intended to keep on fuckin’ her, that meant she didn’t need to be working in the club. I would have to find her something else to do, something legit.
“Okay,” Mystique said.
“We’ll talk soon.”
“Very soon I hope.”
I ended the call and handed the phone back to Bobby.
“Now that’s what I’m talking about. Hit her, drop her off and let the next nigga get her,” he cheered.
“I’m glad you're happy.”
“Now tell me about the woman Jamaica is always raving about. Is she as fine as he says?” Bobby asked as he parked in front of Martin Marshall’s house.
