by W. S. Greer
I didn’t know what to say that would help him to feel better, so I didn’t say anything. I just watched as he pulled out his cell phone and began scrolling through his contacts. I noticed him stop on Deshaun’s name and tap it with his finger. He placed the phone up to his ear and waited, but nothing ever happened. The only thing he heard was the sound of Deshaun’s voicemail kicking in. As he listened to his uncle’s voice, I could see the disappointment in his body language as he slouched down in the leather seat, waiting for the beep.
“Unc, it’s Kelvin Junior. You asked me to meet you, and I’m here at the spot. Where the hell are you? Call me back the second you get this message. You’ve got me worried, man. Call me back ASAP.”
Kelvin put the phone down and started rubbing his temples with his fingers. He looked exhausted and defeated at the same time. I racked my brain trying to think of what to say to him, but there really were no words. I couldn’t help him right now because I was just as confused as he was. It seemed like we were being bombarded with stress and worry from every direction, and it all just left us confused. Tony and the limo, my dream, the cop at Mariana’s, Senior, and now Deshaun. It was all entirely too much for a four day span, and I could feel it flowing through both of us—we were fed up and had had enough. Regardless, however, it was obvious that this was not the end of something—it was just the beginning.
Another twenty minutes went by with no text or phone call from Deshaun. Kelvin had texted him five times and called him three more times, never getting any sort of response. It was now two o’clock, and Kelvin seemed desperate. It didn’t matter if Deshaun ever showed up at this point, Kelvin just wanted to know that he was safe. He just wanted some sort of a response. So, he picked up his cell again, pressed his finger on a name, and brought the phone up to his ear.
“Uncle Mikey, it’s Kelvin,” he said. “Listen, I’ve been trying to get ahold of Uncle Deshaun for a while now, have you heard from him lately.”
I could hear the sound of Mikey’s voice, but I couldn’t make out exactly what he was saying, so I stared at Kelvin, gauging how the conversation was going based on his changing facial expressions. From the looks of it, this wasn’t going well… of course not.
“How the hell has she not seen him since last night? He texted me this morning,” Kelvin blared. After a second of listening, he spoke again. “Yes, he texted me this morning and told me to meet him. He said he needed to meet with me now, like he was in a hurry. This shit is getting fucking ridiculous. What the hell, Unc?” Kelvin paused again. “Fuck. Okay. I’m on my way.”
He placed the phone down and laid his head back against the headrest. I could see the tears starting to develop in his eyes as he squeezed them shut, trying to regain control of his emotions.
“Please talk to me, Kelvin,” I pleaded. “What’s going on? What happened?”
Kelvin opened his eyes, but he didn’t look at me. “Deshaun’s fiancé, Keisha, says that he never came home after the meeting at the Royal Flush last night. She hasn’t seen him all day, and she’s been calling all the Carter establishments trying to find him. She’s been texting him and calling him, and he hasn’t been responding. He texted me twice, but not her. That doesn’t make any sense. No one knows where he is. He’s missing… and I was the last person to hear from him.”
Silence.
The ten minute drive to Royal Flush was eerily silent the entire ride. When we pulled up to the front of the casino, the white lights flashed down on us, while people outside were loud and rambunctious, but inside the car was silent.
We walked through the immaculate lobby, surrounded by noisy, excited people, but we never said a word. Even as the elevator took us up to the conference room where we both knew the tension would be extremely high because of the way things went the last time we were here, we still never spoke. There was nothing but silence.
Kelvin’s face held a combination of anger, anxiety, and sadness all at once, and all I felt was the pain of knowing there was nothing I could do to make him feel better. All I could do was walk beside him in my own cloud of worry and confusion, and I felt my heart pounding in my chest as we pushed open the massive doors to the conference room.
There they all stood around the table—every member of the Carter Family except Deshaun. Senior and Mikey looked like they were wearing matching suits, decked out in all black with red pinstripes. Clarence was rocking a plain navy blue suit, while Ant was wearing a white button-up with black slacks. Tommy was sporting a gray button up, and the dark freckles on his face seemed to stand out more today. All of them eyed us with contempt as we sauntered in. Kelvin stopped right in front of the table and glared at his father, while I made my way over to the bar and sat on one of the wooden stools. I knew better than to be too close to the Carter Family when tensions were high. I guess I was learning.
The Kelvins stared at each other, waiting to see which one of them would speak first. I knew Kelvin wasn’t going to budge, but I also had the feeling that Senior wasn’t going to give in either, which is why I was glad that Mikey broke the ice.
“Alright, now that we’re all here, we need to put our heads together and find out what the hell happened with Deshaun,” Mikey said confidently. “Keisha says she hasn’t heard from him since he left to come here last night. That’s a long fucking time for him not to go back home. That also means that Junior was the last person to hear from him. So, let’s start there. What exactly did Deshaun say when he texted you this morning, Junior?”
Every person in the room turned and looked at Kelvin, who was now pulling out one of the leather chairs and taking a seat. He let out a loud sigh as he leaned back and rested his head on the comfortable cushion.
“The first text I got from him this morning said that he thought that someone was following him. I texted him back and asked him where he was, and what he was doing that made him think someone might be following him. When he responded, he said he wanted to meet with me now, as if something was wrong or something had happened. He told me to meet him at Fantasies as fast as I could. So, I jumped up, got dressed and fucking flew over there, but he never showed up. That’s it.”
Most of the brothers looked at each other with confusion, but Senior eyeballed Kelvin with obvious skepticism.
“He didn’t say what he wanted to talk to you about?” Senior questioned aggressively.
I involuntarily held my breath, waiting for Kelvin’s answer. I knew that Deshaun was planning on telling Kelvin something serious about his father—something that he wasn’t supposed to tell him. I also knew that Senior obviously wasn’t supposed to know about it. So, I waited tensely for Kelvin to answer, my eyes darting back and forth between him and his father.
“No,” Kelvin responded, glaring at his father with hostility in his eyes. “He didn’t say what it was about.”
“What about last night? He didn’t say anything to you last night when he walked you out?” Senior seemed to be asking rhetorically.
Kelvin took a moment to think of an answer, still scowling. “He just said that he needed to talk to me. Didn’t say what it was about.”
“He told you he needed to talk to you, but then didn’t tell you what about? Why wouldn’t he tell you?” Senior pried.
“Well I’m not a fucking psychic. I don’t know why he wouldn’t tell me. I can’t read minds. He just said he needed to talk to me. That’s it.”
“Why did he want you to meet him at Fantasies?”
“How the fuck should I know, Dad? He told me to meet him, so I sped over there. That’s it. What’s up with all this prosecution shit? I told you what he said when he texted me, and it really doesn’t give us much to work with here. We need to go out and look for him,” Kelvin barked, trying to deflect attention away from the topic of his uncle’s desired conversation.
All the men in The Family looked at each other in confusion. It was such a mystery that Deshaun would just vanish into thin air, yet he had the presence of mind to contact Kelvin this morning,
but only after having chosen not to contact his own fiancé.
I sat on my little stool in complete silence, but I knew that nobody in this room would have a clue what was going on. So what was the next move?
Senior glanced around the room at his brothers and son, then he looked over at me like he’d forgotten that I was there. He stared at me longer than I would’ve liked, and I felt uncomfortable. I even tried to look away to see if he’d stop, but when I looked back over at him he was still staring at me. Finally, he broke eye contact and cleared his throat.
“Alright, this is what we’re gonna do,” he said, looking at Kelvin. “First, you and Lily need to go back to the Red Chip and stay there. Second, everybody else needs to go out and start looking for Deshaun. Check his house again, check every club or casino that you think he might like to visit. Check everywhere. We’re not coming back here until we find our brother.”
Kelvin held out his hand to get everyone’s attention. “What are you talking about? There’s no way in hell I’m going home to just sit around. Deshaun’s my uncle. I’m helping.”
“I don’t have time for this shit, Junior,” Senior snapped. “I don’t want to argue with you over this shit. Just do as I say, and go home. We’ll call you when we find him. And we will find him.”
“With all due respect, Dad, fuck that! Uncle Deshaun wouldn’t just sit at home if I was missing. He’d be out there with you, looking for me. I know we’ve got a lot of shit going on, and you’re trying to keep me safe, or whatever, but this is about family. I’m helping.”
The look on Senior’s face told me that he was ready to have another father/son battle, but he held it back this time. He let out a loud exhale and then shook his head.
“So fucking hardheaded,” he mumbled. “Fine, everybody head out and search everywhere you possibly can. No one comes back here until we find him.”
As The Family started towards the door, Kelvin walked over to me and held out his hand. I smiled first, then I took it and hopped down off the stool, and we began walking towards the elevators.
Once we made it back into the car, Kelvin finally spoke to me for the first time since he found out his uncle was missing.
“This is fucking crazy. How’s this happening when he just texted me this morning? Just doesn’t make any sense.”
“I know,” I said, relieved to finally hear my own voice. “This is insane.”
Kelvin pulled out his cell phone and tapped it, then pulled the phone up to his ear again. After a few seconds, he spoke.
“Uncle Deshaun, it’s Kelvin, again. Listen, shit’s really getting serious over here with The Family, man. If you’re okay, I really need you to call me as soon as you get this message. My dad’s got the whole family looking for you right now. Keisha’s worried sick. You gotta let me know that everything’s alright, because a lot of people are scared. I hope I hear from you soon.” He hung up and placed the phone back in the cup holder.
We drove around for what seemed like forever, and actually ended up being three hours. No one in The Family had heard from Deshaun at all, including his fiancé. The Family had checked everywhere that they could think and hadn’t even found a trace of him. It really was as if he’d vanished into thin air.
Kelvin finally pulled the car into a gas station. He shut off the engine, but he didn’t get out, he just stared out the windshield at absolutely nothing. I looked over at him and could see the confusion pouring out of him.
What were they supposed to do now? Keep searching? Report Deshaun missing to the police? It was just a hunch, but I kind of had the feeling that the Carters didn’t exactly believe in reporting anything to the police.
As Kelvin sat next to me completely zoned out, I placed my hand on top of his and rubbed it gently. It was the first sign of affection either of us had shown since this morning, and I realized how much I missed it. At the touch of my hand, Kelvin looked over at me and smiled. It wasn’t his usual brilliant, electric smile, however. It was a damaged smile that showed how much pain he was in. Nonetheless, he reached over and placed his free hand on top of mine.
“I’m so sorry this is happening, Baby,” I said softly. “I wish there was more I could do to help.”
“You’re doing everything that I need you to be doing. You’re here. That’s all I really need is for you to be next to me. I just need you with me and I’ll be okay.”
Kelvin leaned over and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips before opening his door and stepping out to pump the gas. Just as he closed the door behind him, his cell phone started ringing. The name on the screen read Uncle Mikey. Kelvin snatched the door back open, thrusting himself into the seat and picking up the phone in the same motion.
“Hello? What’s up, Uncle Mikey?” he said, placing the phone on speaker so that I could hear.
“Hey,” Mikey replied loudly. “Senior just got a call from one of the girls at Fantasies. She said that he needed to get over there right now. Everybody’s heading that way.”
Before Mikey could even get out the rest of what he wanted to say, Kelvin had already started the car and darted out of the gas station, into the busy street. I heard a car blow its horn as we whisked in front of them, cutting them off and causing them to slam on the brakes as we passed. Kelvin didn’t even seem to notice as he floored the Camaro without any regard to traffic or speed limits.
Less than five minutes later, Kelvin stomped on the brakes and the car came to a screeching halt in front of Fantasies.
“We were just here. Why would we need to come back here?” Kelvin asked himself aloud as we both rushed to get out of the car.
I closed the door behind me and heard the locks engage as Kelvin led me into Fantasies strip club. The bouncer at the door gave me a quick glare, but when he noticed Kelvin behind me, he eased up and let us pass without being searched.
The club was very dark inside, with dull red lights mounted high in the ceiling, and brighter maroon lights outlining the bar. It was busier than I thought it’d be for a week day. There was a thick white woman on the pole-less stage, twerking her ass to Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, and quite a few other topless women sitting on men’s laps inside tiny booths with no curtains. To my surprise, Kelvin didn’t as much as glance at any of the women. He simply took me by the hand and led me straight to the back of the club.
Kelvin pushed aside a curtain and we stepped into a wide room that was full of stacked boxes. It was like a maze and Kelvin led the way as if he’d done it a million times, until finally reaching a metal door. As Kelvin reached for the rickety metal knob, I could of sworn I heard someone crying.
The door squeaked as Kelvin pushed it open, nearly hitting a heavy black woman with long braids running down her back. She turned around to look at us and I could see she was the one I’d heard crying a second ago. Her makeup was streaked from tears, and when she saw Kelvin, she brought her hand up to her mouth as her tears turned into a steady stream down her face.
“Robin, what’s wrong?” Kelvin said to the woman, placing his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t respond. Instead, she reached between Kelvin and me, pulled the door open and stepped inside, bumping my shoulder as she went.
As the door closed, I could now see that we were standing in an alley, apparently at the back entrance of the club. The passageway was long and dark with dumpsters lining both sides, and there was at least twenty people standing in a crowd. They were all looking in the same direction with their backs towards us.
We inched our way forward together, weaving our way through the crowd. I held onto his hand, but Kelvin slowly led the way. As we walked around people, I couldn’t help but notice the expressions on their faces. Some of them were obviously confused and searching for information, but others seemed horrified and devastated. I felt my heart speeding up as we got closer to the front of the group and the faces all started to look the same. They were filled with despair.
Just as we reached the last row of the crowd, I felt Kelvin let go of my hand as he
stepped to the front. I tried to reach out for him, but something had obviously grabbed his attention and he kept walking without me. I pushed passed the last line of unknown bystanders and saw Clarence and Tommy staring at Kelvin as he slowly walked past them. His steps seemed more and more sluggish as he walked, but I couldn’t see past him so I didn’t know what for.
As I leaned over to try to get a look around him, Tommy walked over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders.
“I think you should just stay here, Lily,” he said in his husky tone. “You don’t want to see that.”
“See what? Did they find Deshaun?” I replied, but he didn’t answer.
Just then, I heard a loud scream. My heart felt like it jumped out of my chest as I looked around Tommy and saw Kelvin trying to push his way past Mikey, who was struggling to hold him back. As I stared at the two of them, I zoned in on Mikey’s face and realized that he was crying. Then, I realized that the scream I’d heard had come from Kelvin, who’d now dropped down to his knees, and was bawling into his uncle’s shoulder as he kneeled next to him.
“What the…” I tried to push past Tommy but he refused to budge, using his weight as a barrier to hold me back. “Let me go, Tommy. What the fuck is going on?” I screamed, staring at Mikey and Kelvin as they cried in front of everyone.
My eyes finally made their way up, and I realized that I could now see what I couldn’t see before, when Kelvin’s body was blocking my view. I looked past him and Mikey and saw Senior standing next to one of the dumpsters with one hand on his hip, and the other covering his eyes. I looked down, and on the ground next to the dumpster was a body covered in blood. I didn’t have to see his face to know that it was Deshaun. He’d obviously been shot… much more than once… and he was dead.
I covered my mouth with my hand as the tears streamed down my face uncontrollably. Kelvin was still sobbing into his uncle’s shoulder as the people behind me began to realize what exactly was happening. The sobs became louder and the hysteria started to kick in.
