by Saundra
Before I could think this through, Monica strolled into my room and plopped down on the bed in front of me. I could tell that she had been crying. Hood had told her before me about Big Nick.
“Are you okay?” I asked, but I knew she was not.
“I have to leave Detroit,” were the unexpected words that rolled off her tongue. I almost didn’t know how to respond.
“Why? This is your home. You have never lived anywhere else.”
I’m not sure if that was a good defense, but I had no idea of what else to say. But I would not say go.
“I know, Mya, but it’s time for a change. I can no longer stay in this city. I feel like it’s haunted, too much death. I just can’t do it anymore. I want to just take Imani and go.” Her mind sounded so made up.
“But you can’t go. What about me? You and Imani are the only blood family I have. I can’t lose you.”
“I know.”
We both started to cry and hug each other. At this point in our lives, we were almost helpless. There were so many unexpected twist and turns, and the road just seemed to be getting longer.
“What do you think will become of us?” Monica asked. “We have lost everything, our puzzle is so full of holes.” Her description could not have been clearer. “First Li’l Bo and now Mom and Dad. I don’t know, but I’m suffocating.” Monica let out a cry from her soul. I held on to her for dear life. I loved my sister so much.
“Let me think for a couple days. I will come up with something, but we have to be in this thing together, we can’t separate at a time like this. Me, you, and Imani must always stay together.”
“Okay,” Monica agreed, and I felt relief.
“Where’s Imani?”
“She went out with Hood’s mom. She said she was taking her to Chuck E. Cheese so that I could rest.”
“Well, how about you go take a nap and I’ll order up some takeout for dinner.” Nodding her head in agreement, Monica got up and went to her room.
I slid on some gym shoes and headed downstairs to talk with Hood. I found him in the den watching television and having a beer.
“Hey, babe,” he spoke as he sat up on the couch.
“I see you relaxing.” I sat down next to him.
“Yeah, thought I’d watch the game and have a beer.”
“Well, I hate to bother you, but I came down to tell you that I need you to take me over to the condo. I want to pick up some things from there.”
Hood looked at me like maybe he heard me wrong. “Uh, no, babe. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Hood, it’s been almost two weeks. I will be okay. Don’t worry.”
He hesitated but finally he agreed.
There was still some yellow tape on the door but the detective had called a couple of days before and said it was no longer a crime scene. Inside, I made my way down the hallway past the spot where I remembered Ma’s body lying and then inside the door of their bedroom where Dad had lain. Their closet was my main target.
I wanted to retrieve a box that belonged to my father that Ma would never let me look inside of. I was feeling inside the closet on the top shelf, but I could not feel anything. After a few minutes of searching with no luck, I had Hood come and look for it. Before he located it, I was beginning to think that maybe the cops had found it, because I knew they had done an extensive search. After grabbing a few other things that I wanted to have, immediately I left. Everything else was going to be boxed up by Rochelle and Trina, who both volunteered to do so.
Chapter 40
I had gotten up early this morning. Rochelle had called to check on me and to gossip before heading into the salon. She said that she would be out to see me in two days on her off day. She wanted to talk about canceling the trip to New York but I told her no. My mind was made up, the show must go on.
We were still trying to get back into the normal swing of things, which was so hard to do. I had not been back to the salon yet. I just was not ready. But Monica said she needed to keep busy, so she decided to go back to school. Today was her first day back, so I got up and had breakfast with her before she left. Once she was gone, I decided to head back up to my room.
I told Monica during breakfast about me going by the condo the night before. I told her that I had picked up a few things, including Dad’s box. Now the box was sitting on my dresser and it seemed to be staring at me. I almost felt like it was watching me back. It was rusty gold with black circle specks all around it. The circle specks seemed like eyes to me. I shrugged my shoulders to brush it off. After a few more minutes of just looking at it, I walked over and picked it up. I had to pry it open because I didn’t have the key. After getting it open, I found a journal, which I thought to be strange. Men normally didn’t have journals, but as I began to read, I confirmed that it indeed belonged to my father.
On the second page, Dad had written about a guy named Harold Montgomery and some threats that Harold had made. The handwriting was messy and hard to read, but from what I could tell, Harold’s kids may have put a hit on him. Because the handwriting was unclear, I couldn’t really get the full story. I hoped that there would be more on another page.
As I flipped through a few more pages, something fell out. There was a date written on the back of it in black pen. This particular date stood out to me because that was the same date that I had found my parents dead. I flipped it over and realized that it was a picture. I had to do a double-take when I looked at it because I knew who the people in the picture were. It was confirmed when I looked at the bottom of it, where the names were listed as Quad, Rich, and Montgomery.
Now my mind was racing. What the hell was going on? Why were Quad and Rich in a picture in Dad’s journal? Something was not right. I ran out of my room and raced down the stairs to where Hood was once again watching television. Since all this had happened he had refused to leave my side. I stood in front of him breathing hard from running down the stairs and I dropped the picture in his lap.
“Quad and Rich are brother and sister.” That much I had figured out for sure.
Hood sat up and grabbed the picture from his lap. “What?” he asked, looking at it with his eyes bucked.
I started pacing the room, my hands going to my forehead. I wanted to figure out what was going on but my mind was jumbled. “I mean I don’t know what makes sense anymore, babe. I was upstairs reading the journal—”
“What journal?” Hood now looked confused.
“There was a journal inside that box you got out of the closet.”
“Oh . . .”
“I was reading the journal and Dad was talking about some dude named Harold Montgomery and threats from his past. It’s not clear, but he also said something about Harold’s kids having a hit on him. It’s really strange—but then that fucking picture falls out and look at the names on it.”
Hood looked at the picture again. “What the fuck!”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking. Something is going on. Oh, and I found out from Rochelle this morning that Rich and Kalil are cousins. Babe, it’s some weird shit going on.” The more I thought about it, the more suspicious I got.
“Are you sure that’s what Rochelle said?” Hood asked.
“Babe, Rochelle told me that she saw Kalil and Rich together the other day. She said that Rich asked her about Monica and she told him to fuck off. But then yesterday she was doing this chick’s hair that knew that Rochelle dated Kalil and Monica dated Rich. The girl asked her if she knew that Kalil and Rich were cousins.” I rested my case. “Something ain’t right.”
“Damn right, we gone get to the bottom of this shit. That’s a fact.”
Hood pulled out his cell phone. He started making a few calls while I sat down on the couch as my mind wandered.
“Look, I want you to hang tight. I need to make some runs to figure some shit out. I will call you when I get straight. Don’t leave this house. Period,” he stressed because he knew how I could be. “Promise me you won’t leave, Mya.”
; “I promise.”
All I wanted was a drink and I needed it now. I headed to the kitchen and pulled out my merlot. I popped open the bottle and watched as it landed in my glass. The first swallow calmed me to my toes. It felt so good that I thought about drinking straight from the bottle.
Chapter 41
Time was creeping by slow as hell. I literally thought that I could hear the ticking of my Guess watch. Sitting on the couch in the den, I turned the television to The Waltons, one of my favorite golden oldies shows, but I didn’t hear one word of what was being said. Normally the show would have my undivided attention. Sometimes I wished their lives were mine. I was sure that I would be much better off. Instead, I was sitting on the couch with my mind wandering all over the place, but the merlot I was consuming was helping me to stay calm.
“Hey, auntie.” Imani ran to me and gave me a hug and I really needed it. She and Monica had just made it in for the evening. I was getting so used to their routine that I almost didn’t want them to ever move out. I knew it would be hard for me when the time came.
“Hey, sweetheart. Did you have fun at daycare?” I kissed her on the cheek before she could break free. She was a busybody.
“Yes, I played all day.” She smiled and pulled on one of the long braids that I had put in her hair a couple days before. I enjoyed braiding her hair because it kept my mind busy. It also brought back memories of when I used to braid Monica’s hair. It was therapeutic.
“She should be tired, I know I am,” Monica said, still holding her backpack on her shoulder. She looked tired, but school kept her from sitting around thinking about Ma and Dad. “You look relaxed.”
“I don’t know about all that. Just sittin’ having a drink to ease my mind.”
“Have you been sittin’ on this couch all day?” Monica asked with concern. She tried to encourage me to go back to work. Get back to my normal routine, was the way she put it.
“Actually, no, I have been upstairs and in the kitchen,” I joked.
“Yeah, you look busy,” she said sarcastically. “Well, I’m going to feed Imani and put her in the bed.”
“No, Mommy, I don’t want to eat.” Imani was rolling around on her Hello Kitty beanbag as she pleaded. She was not an eater; she only liked junk food or Apple Jacks cereal.
“Come on now, Imani, you have to eat something. I tell you what, if you eat a little I will give you some vanilla ice cream for dessert,” Monica bribed.
“Okay,” Imani agreed once again. Monica had outsmarted her.
“Once I get Imani off to bed, I’ll be back down to watch television with you and have some of that merlot. I need some to help me relax, too.”
“Cool, I have another bottle in the kitchen. This one is about empty. I was going in.”
While Monica took care of Imani, I contemplated whether I should tell her what was going on or not. Right now, Rich was a touchy conversation for her because she still had feelings for him. But I decided that I had no choice. After she shot Luscious, Monica made me promise to never keep something important from her again. And to be honest, I thought it would be for the best. Maybe she would see that letting him go completely was the only thing to do.
“Wheww! I finally got her to go to sleep.”
Monica bounced on the sofa. She sounded exhausted, but I guess going to school all day and raising a toddler could do that, so I understood completely.
“I swear all your niece wants to do is watch SpongeBob! We are going to have to take her somewhere to meet him.”
I smiled because I agreed. “Yeah, we can make that happen even if we have to rent him for her birthday or something,” I said as I started pouring Monica a glass of merlot.
“Let’s make that a plan, then,” Monica agreed as she reached for the glass and took a big swig. As it ran down her throat, a look of relaxation filled her face. “Now that is exactly what I needed.”
“That is the same way I felt when I took my first swallow about four hours ago . . . Now I’m in there.” I laughed.
Monica kicked her feet up on the sofa.
“So I wanted to talk to you about something. I know we still grieving and this just may add to it, I mean really I don’t even know if it means anything yet, but I wanted to talk to you about it anyway.”
The relaxation on Monica’s face was now out of the window. I had officially ruined that for her. I felt bad about it but my choices were truly limited.
“Just say it.” Monica didn’t want to me to beat around the bush because any information we received was always a mess.
“Do you remember Quad, that chick I got into it with at the club that night? Well, I found out today that—”
“I remember,” she interrupted.
“Okay. Well, I found out today that Quad and Rich are brother and sister.”
“Huh?” Monica was confused and surprised. “How? I mean—” She stopped talking and threw up her hands.
“Look, this is all strange to me, too. But last night when I went to the condo I went for a reason. A while back Ma and I ran across this box that belonged to Dad. I wanted to look in it but Ma told me not to because it was Dad’s personal stuff. Now I can’t explain why, but last night it was on my mind to go get that particular box. So I went over with Hood, I found it, and I brought it back. Today I opened it and found a journal. Of course, I started reading it, and I found where Dad talked about some guy named Harold Montgomery. Apparently, they had some type of beef back in the day. Dad talks about threats and the man’s kids and all that, but it is unclear.”
“What does this have to do with Rich?”
“While I was looking the journal, a picture of Quad and Rich fell out of it. What is Rich’s last name?” I asked her.
“Montgomery” rolled off her tongue in slow motion, or at least that was the way I heard it.
I closed my eyes for a brief second. “On the bottom portion of the picture the names read Quad and Rich Montgomery.”
Monica eyes bucked out in shock. “I can’t believe it.” She sat her glass down. “So what is going on, Mya?”
“Monica, I wish I knew, but right now I don’t know. But something ain’t right. And guess what else? On the back of the picture was the date I found Ma and Dad at the condo.”
Monica’s eyes filled with water, and tears threatened to fall.
“Has Rich ever mentioned anything about Quad to you? She is always at the club.”
Monica shook her head left to right. She tried to speak but the words didn’t come out, so she cleared her throat. “No he never mentioned her, and all the times I saw her at the club he never said anything to her, or least I never saw it. And as for his family, he never talked about them. He did tell me once that his mom had died when he was a kid, but he never mentioned his father. Oh, one time he did say that he had an older brother who lives in D.C., but they never talked on the phone or nothing in front of me.”
“Hmmph,” was my reply. That dude was hiding something, I could just feel it.
“But, Mya, now that I think about it, Quad and Rich do kind of look alike.”
“You know, I was thinking the same thing when I saw the picture. That’s how I knew they had to be brother and sister.”
“Damn.” Monica picked up her glass again.
“Oh, and another thing: I found out this morning from Rochelle that Rich and Kalil are cousins.”
Monica looked at me long and hard, shook her head, and downed the rest of her merlot. “This is some bullshit,” she said as she looked at her empty glass. “Do you think they had something to do with Ma and Dad’s death?”
That was a hard question for me to even have to listen to, so I know the words burned coming out of her mouth.
“I don’t know.”
A tear slid down my left cheek. Just knowing they were gone brought bile to my throat but I breathed in deep and it went back down. The front door opened and closed as the alarm chirped, letting us know that Hood had entered the house. I kept it on twenty-four
seven now. I also kept the cameras that we had outside of our home on. I didn’t trust shit now, everyone and everything was suspect.
“Babe, I need you to go with me,” he directed me. “Hey, Monica?” he spoke.
“What’s up, Hood?”
He could tell by the look on her face that she knew. “I guess Mya told you what is going on.”
“Yeah,” Monica said softly. I knew she could cry at any moment.
“Well, look, everything is going to be okay. I want you and Imani to stay inside; don’t go nowhere. I got alarms on every inch of this house. Cameras, too, so you are safe here. And you know where all the heat is.”
Monica didn’t utter one word. It was clear that she still needed to take all of this in. I guess it would be fair to say we all did. I quickly got ready and headed out with Hood.
During the ride, he never said one word. Something told me this was not good, but he had his prey. We drove to an abandoned house located outside of town. The house was located behind a wooded tree area, but it was separated from the trees. It was like a house sitting behind a lonely island. The house was not big, I could tell from the outside. I had never seen this place before but I recognized the all-black Dodge Challenger with dark tint and black rims that was parked out front. It belonged to C-Lo.
Hood got out and came around to my side to help get me out. He told me to watch my step because the ground was messed up. When he opened the front door, my heart sank. I’m not sure why, but the look of the place made me feel like I needed air. I turned toward the door and drank in as much fresh air as I possibly could. I turned back around and took in a full view of the room. Surprisingly, the hardwood floors looked as though they had been refurbished. It appeared as though the house only had one room, the one we were standing in. The room was not furnished and the walls were bare. There was an old stove in one corner that looked like it was from the 1930s and a rusty old Victorian tub that was welded to the floor in the other. One look at the tub and I realized that it was full of bloody water.
I finally turned my gaze to the middle of the room, where there were twenty-two-inch car tires stacked five tires tall. The stacks were lined up in a row of three, and tied to them were Quad, Rich, and Kalil. Just the people I needed to talk to. And by closely looking at the three of them, it became apparent to me that the blood in the tub belonged to Kalil. He was fucked up and his face was beaten almost beyond recognition.
