by Kiki Swinson
“I’m ready to do that now, but your grandmother isn’t.” My mama continued placing the blame on my grandmother. I sat there at that table with her for at least thirty minutes, trying to convince her that life is too short so we need to cut all the nonsense out and start loving on each other. It bothered me that she and my grandmother weren’t on the best of terms. I loved them both, so this mess had to stop.
34
THE DAY OF THE HEIST
I lost another night of sleep. I thought I’d be able to get at least six hours, but I was fooling myself. With the robbery that was going to go down tonight, I couldn’t think about anything else. Moments after I got dressed, Agent Sims and his partner showed up at my front door. “Are you ready?” he asked while we stood in a huddle at my front door.
“As I’ll ever be,” I told him.
But then something happened that threw me off track when Agent Sims and his partner started sniffing the air around us. “Do you smell that?” he said.
“What smell?” I spoke first while a nauseating feeling came over me. I knew what he was talking about. I knew he smelled that formula April used to clean up Terrell’s blood. I just stood there and acted like I didn’t know what they were talking about.
“You haven’t killed anyone in here in the last couple of days, huh?” Agent Sims asked me in a joking manner.
Agent Montclair burst into laughter. “That’s funny!”
I laughed too. If only he knew the truth.
“Look, I would love to stand here all day and joke around with you guys, but I’ve got to get to work. So, say what you gotta say so I can get out of here,” I told them. The real reason I wanted them out of here was because if they’d stayed around any longer, they’d probably figure out that twenty-four hours ago, I actually did have a dead body lying on the floor right where we were standing. I thank God that they were more consumed with the case dealing with Sanjay and Amir, because if they weren’t they’d be handing me a search warrant rather than a camera and wiretaps. Agent Sims and I went over a few more things and then he left. Boy, was I glad to see them go.
I left my apartment about thirty minutes after the agents left. The past couple of days I’d suited up with the wire and the camera before I left my apartment, but I couldn’t do it today. I had to stop by my grandmother’s house to talk to Jillian about last-minute preps, so having the wire and camera in place would’ve been the stupidest thing that I could do. Got to be careful not to let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.
When I reached my grandmother’s house, Jillian was front and center. She was dressed and ready to go. “Talked to Tedo today?” I asked her after I walked into the house. I made sure we talked in a whisper, because my grandmother had some good ears.
“Yeah, I talked to him about an hour ago. He’s ready whenever we are,” Jillian assured me.
“Good, because I want this thing to run smoothly. You know the DEA agents are going to be parked down street from the pharmacy, so you gonna walk in the store like you’re a customer.”
“I know that already.”
“I just want to make sure everyone is on the same page,” I told her.
“Don’t worry, everything is gonna be all right.”
“All right. I’m holding you to that,” I said, and then I made my way back out of the house.
* * *
Amir was standing in his usual spot in front of the computer monitor.
“Has today’s shipment come in yet?” I asked him as soon as he looked up from the computer.
“No. They are late.”
I looked down at my watch and noticed that it was eleven o’clock in the morning. Normally the UPS driver would be here around nine o’clock, so to see that he was running behind schedule made me feel uneasy. “Do I have a lot of orders to fill today?” I asked him.
“We have a few,” he replied. His tone was really calm. He did not act like he had a chip on his shoulder or anything. I was thinking Ahmad put the fear in his heart to the point that he didn’t want to waste any negative energy on me. For the first time since Sanjay had been gone, I felt a little easier.
One hour into my work, I realized that I had forgotten to put the wiretap devices on my body, so I grabbed my handbag and raced to the ladies’ room. But when I got there I realized that I didn’t have enough tape to put the wires back in place so they wouldn’t be visible through my shirt. “Fuck! I don’t have enough tape. What am I gonna do?” I said and then I sighed heavily. “Fuck it! I’m just gonna have to wear the camera and that’s it,” I continued.
When I walked back out of the ladies’ room I noticed that the UPS driver had finally come to deliver the orders Amir put in a few days ago. He and I spoke to each other while I headed out the front door. I walked outside so that the agents could see me and know that I was okay, despite the fact that they couldn’t hear me through the wire. After I stretched out my arms, demonstrating that I was tired but okay, I turned around and walked right back into the pharmacy. The moment I stepped over the threshold, the UPS driver was walking toward me. I stood there and held the front door open for him so he could leave. “Have a nice day,” he told me.
“You do the same.” I replied.
Immediately after I walked behind the counter where Amir was standing, I said, “Want me to unpack the boxes and put everything in the supply closet?”
“No. Leave them by the wall. I will get them later,” he told me, not looking up at me once.
I swear, Ahmad really had this guy shook. He didn’t even want to look at me anymore when he was talking to me. I was loving this because he was a fucking coward and he had no respect for anyone. I was glad to finally see that I was getting some. Couldn’t say how long it would last, but at this point, who cares. I was there to do a job and that’s it.
I think in the last thirty minutes I looked at my wristwatch over a dozen times. I was plagued with anxiety and fear of the unknown. I was an emotional wreck. And I couldn’t get a grip on myself. I just wished today would hurry up and be over so I could go on about my life. This shit right here was for bitches that like drama in their lives. Not me.
For the next several hours, only a few customers here and there came in to get their prescriptions filled. So there was an awkward silence that filled the room every time it was just Amir and I standing there. It was obvious that he had a lot of shit on his mind because I had a lot on mine as well.
Thinking about Terrell’s accidental death for one. One part of me felt like I was going to be all right. But then the other part of me became scared shitless when I thought about the possibility that the cops were going to find out that I killed him. I see it on TV all the time. Murders become cold cases, and then ten to fifteen years later some new detective comes along and solves the case. I could be one of those people. I couldn’t spend the rest of my life in prison, especially for something that I didn’t mean to do. He violated me and he got dealt with. End of story.
Now as far as my mother is concerned, she’s going to self-medicate on alcohol for the rest of her life. She doesn’t believe that she has a problem, so there’s nothing I can say to make her feel any different. All I can do for her is just love her unconditionally. That’s it. And if she finally figures out that she does have a problem, I’ll be there for her as well.
My cousin Jillian, on the other hand, has a lot of demons. She’s a sweetheart, but she’s a lost soul. I think allowing my grandmother to baby her gives my grandmother purpose. And in return, Jillian babies her loser boyfriend, Edmund. It’s like a domino effect. Because I’m sure Jillian feels like she’s on this earth to take care of and nurture a lame boyfriend. For the life of me, I can’t understand the enabling characteristics that my grandmother and my cousin share. I’ve never been the type to enable a person, like my mother for instance. I don’t hold her hand or downplay any of her problems. I like to deal with things head-on. Now, I didn’t do that in my relationship with Terrell, which is why I kept taking him back.
I know that if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time and would be further along in life. Tomorrow was going to be the start of a new day for me. And I wouldn’t let anyone stop me.
* * *
Lunchtime rolled around and Amir made me aware of it. It almost sounded like he wanted to kick me out of the pharmacy. “It’s time for you to go to lunch,” he said. This time the motherfucker looked at me head-on. All the other times, he kept his head hung low. I guess he grew some balls.
“I’m not going out today. I brought my lunch with me.” I lied because I knew what he was doing. He was about to take those prescription drugs out of here and he didn’t want me nowhere around while he did it.
“I don’t care if you brought your lunch with you. Take it outside and eat it in your car,” he protested.
“I don’t eat in my car.”
“Go next door to Starbucks. Eat it in there,” he instructed me. He wasn’t playing no games.
“Sanjay never made me leave outta here during my lunchtime. He let me have lunch wherever I wanted it.”
“But he’s not here anymore. I am your boss. So you have to listen to me. And I say leave,” he demanded.
“Why do you have to be so rude? All of the anger is not necessary,” I told him while I began to log myself out of the system for my lunch break.
“I am not rude. And I am not angry. You just have to listen to me. That’s all.”
“Yeah, whatever,” I said, and grabbed my purse from my cubby.
Instead of going out the front door, I made a detour and went to the ladies’ room. I needed to prolong my exit to see what was going on, because Amir was being tightlipped about it. After I locked the bathroom door, I pulled out my cell phone and called Jillian. “Hey where are you?” I whispered.
“I’m still in the house.”
“You need to get down here. Because something isn’t right.”
“What do you mean?”
“First off, the deliveries came late. And then when my lunchtime rolls around, Amir wants me to leave the store. He literally told me to get out of the store while I am on my lunch break. So I know something is about to happen.”
“All right, I’m gonna call Tedo now, and then we’ll be on our way up there.”
“All right. Hurry up,” I said, and then I ended the call.
I stayed in the bathroom for another five minutes and pretended that I had to use it just in case Amir found out I was in there. I thought that at any moment he was gonna come knock on the door and tell me I needed to get out. That’s when I would’ve hit him with the I got diarrhea excuse. Didn’t know if it would work, but I was gonna use it.
I looked down at my wristwatch and noticed that a total of eleven minutes had passed. I heard nothing outside the door, so I stood there quietly, counting down the time that my cousin Jillian would call me and let me know that they were outside.
Another five minutes passed, so I had been in the bathroom for total of sixteen minutes, and nothing had happened. No voices or nothing came from the other side of the door. But when I was about to call Jillian back, that’s when I heard a couple of voices. When I went to crack open the door I heard the voices more clearly and realized that they were a husband-and-wife couple that normally got their prescriptions filled in our pharmacy. So I closed the door and called Jillian. “Hey, where are you?” I asked her.
“I’m parked like a half a mile away from the pharmacy.”
“Why are you parked so far away?”
“Because I don’t want your people to see me.”
She meant the DEA. She remembered that we couldn’t tip off Tedo that I was working on both sides. “Okay, well stay there until I tell you different,” I instructed her.
“Okay,” she replied.
Instead of hanging around the bathroom for the rest of my lunch break, I tiptoed out of the bathroom all the way to the front door, so Amir wouldn’t see me. I knew he would look up at the front door if I were to push it open, due to the fact that it had a chime bell on it, so I pushed it open like I was coming back in from the outside. Amir looked up at me. “Your lunch break isn’t over,” he said to me.
“Yes, I know. I have to use the bathroom,” I lied and walked back in the direction of the ladies’ room.
“Wait a minute, help Mr. and Mrs. Todd with their prescription,” he instructed me.
“Sure. But do you want me to clock back in while I’m doing that?”
“Just go ahead and clock back in, because I’ve decided to close early.”
“Really? What time?”
“At three.”
“But that’s thirty-five minutes away.”
“Yes, I know. When you came back from your lunch break I was going to send you home for the rest of the day,” he said sarcastically.
“Why didn’t you tell me this before?” I pressed the issue because he was fucking up my plans.
“Listen, just do your job and fill their prescription and go home after that.”
“Sure. No problem,” I snapped back. The elderly couple waiting for their prescription to be filled looked at Amir like his mind was going bad. I mean, who talks to a woman the way he does? I ignored him this time around because I had bigger fish to fry and he was going to be one of them.
While I was processing the couple’s prescription order, I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and texted Jillian, letting her know what was going on. She texted me back a couple of seconds later, letting me know that she was en route. “I’m gonna walk over to Starbucks and get me a cup of coffee,” I heard Mrs. Todd say to her husband.
“Okay. Well I’ll be over there when I’m done here,” he told her.
“All right,” she said and exited the pharmacy.
After I handed our last customer his prescription, I escorted him to the sliding glass doors and watched him exit the building. While the doors were closing, I was caught off guard when three Middle Eastern men that I had never seen before appeared out of nowhere and walked into the pharmacy like they owned the place. They pushed their way by me like I wasn’t standing there. “I’m sorry, but we’re closed,” I told them, puzzled by why Ahmad wasn’t walking in with these guys. Not knowing what to do, I watched them as they headed to the back of the pharmacy where Amir was packaging up two large orders of Vicodin and Percocet that he planned to get rid of after we closed tonight.
I wanted to yell to the back of the pharmacy to forewarn him that the men were headed in his direction, but I was distracted when my cell phone started vibrating in my pants pocket. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and noticed that it was Jillian calling me. I quickly accepted the call and turned my body to face the front door. “Hello,” I answered quietly.
“Is everything still good?” she asked me.
But before I could answer her, I saw the reflection in the glass door of someone standing behind me. Startled at the sudden appearance, I turned around. “Oh my God! You just scared the shit out of me,” I said, muffling my cell phone against my chest.
“Who are you talking to?” the Middle Eastern–looking guy asked me.
“My cousin,” I told him.
“Tell your cousin that you’re gonna have to call her back,” he instructed me.
I was confused as to why he wanted me to end my phone call. I wanted to fight him on it, but I didn’t. Instead, I placed my cell phone back up to my ear and told Jillian that I would have to call her back.
“But wait,” I heard her reply right before I pressed the End button.
“Give it to me,” he demanded as he held out his left hand.
“Is there something wrong?” I questioned him. Asking me for my cell phone was a weird request.
“Just hand it to me,” he demanded and snatched it from my hand. “Did you lock the door?”
“Wait, what are you doing?” I heard Amir yell from his station in the back of the pharmacy. And then I heard a slew of medicine bottles and boxes fall to the floor. I turned my attention to the bac
k of the pharmacy. But I couldn’t see anything. Amir’s workstation was out of view from where I was standing.
Not knowing what was going on in the back of the pharmacy spooked me. “Look, I don’t know what’s going on back there and I really don’t care,” I started off. I needed this guy to know that I wanted no parts of him nor those other men in the back. As far as I knew, our plans to rob the pharmacy had been botched. Ahmad wasn’t here nor his partner. “So, if you’ll let me get my purse from the back, I will leave immediately after.”
“You aren’t going anywhere,” he told me in an eerie tone, and then he grabbed me by the collar of my sweater. Acting off mere instinct, I tried to yank my sweater back from him as I took a couple steps backwards, simultaneously jolting my body hard enough for this guy to release the grip he had on me. Immediately after he lost his grip, I turned my back toward him so I could make a run for it. But as the door slid open, I was stopped in my tracks by yet another human being. “I’m not too late, am I?” Tedo asked.
Tedo pulled out his pistol, locked and loaded, with a silencer at the end of it, and pointed it directly at the Middle Eastern guy’s head and fired. The guy instantly hit the floor behind me. I didn’t look back to see him, but I heard the thud and knew it all too well. Terrell’s lifeless body fell the same way after I stabbed him to death.
“Where is Jillian?” I asked him.
“She’s in the car. It’s parked behind the store,” he answered me. “Who else is in there?”
“There’s two other guys in there. But you need to go to the back because that’s where they’re taking the boxes of pills to.”
“Are there any more customers in there?” His questions continued.
“No.”
“A’ight, well I’m gonna push those dudes out the back door so I can make sure we get everything,” he said.
