by Kyle West
Starr quickly cuts in and says to Keith, "Change in plans, you ride with me bitch. C'mon." Starr takes an 8-inch knife out from his waistband sheath and walks Keith over to his car. Two unmarked police cars speed into the parking lot with lights flashing and lots of fanfare, stopping right in front of Breauxmart. Starr quickly puts his knife hand behind his right thigh and un-hands Keith, so as not to look conspicuous. The police jump out of their vehicles and rush into the supermarket with guns drawn. The three former commandos are nervous and a little shaken with the thought that the authorities have caught up to them.
Rome eerily quiet, looks at an also speechless McKenna and says, "It's time we got out of New Orleans man. I ain't feeling good here. I swear I feel like we are being watched." Rome adds, "Remember the Philippines? Two years ago?!"
After a few quiet seconds, McKenna looks to Starr on the other side of his car and immediately pulls out his pistol. McKenna doesn't point his pistol at anyone, he says, "C'mon, let's get the hell outta here." Starr opens the passenger side door on his car and forces Keith inside. He makes his way around to the driver's side of his car and gets in.
McKenna starts up his SUV and yells for Starr to follow him. Keeping an eye on the police activity in the supermarket, McKenna and Starr drive casually out of the Breauxmart supermarket parking lot.
12:36 am
McKenna pulls into the Westin Hotel valet parking area right in front of the hotel entrance. Starr follows, and they park their vehicles at the end of a line of cars in the valet area. Everyone gets out of the vehicles, and they stand next to McKenna's truck to talk. They stand about one hundred feet from the hotel front door; where there’s congregation of tourists getting ready to start their night of partying and drinking. McKenna nods his head at Keith, then asks Starr, "Did you talk with him (Keith)?" Starr shakes his head no. McKenna grabs Keith by the arm and pulls him a few steps away from Starr, Rome and Vivian.
McKenna softly says to Keith, "Dude, we gonna go back to all of Vivian’s spots starting first thing in the morning. Her house, her job, the gym, everywhere she's been recently. You gonna go with her wherever she needs to go. That's the only reason your still alive. Got it?”
Keith responds, "No problems with me. Whatever you guys need."
McKenna continues, "Vivian will receive Jesse's share of the money when we find it. If she decides to give you any that's her business and it will come out of her share. Your payment from us…we let you live. This way everybody has an incentive to find this money by tomorrow. Early tomorrow. Keith, don't fuck this up for Vivian. She doesn't need any more funerals to go to. Tonight we're all gonna stay here together. All of us! We gonna start out about six in the morning. Just follow orders and you'll get through this."
"I'm totally with you. Matter of fact, we should map out a few who, what and why's, so we can maybe pinpoint exactly where we need to hit first."
McKenna interrupts, “Shut the fuck up. I just told you, you follow orders.
Starr notices drunken activity, commotion and energy outside in front of the hotel and motions to McKenna to get his attention.
McKenna acknowledges Starr and then says to Keith, "Are we gonna have any problems?" Keith shakes his head, no.
McKenna continues, "Good, show us up." He pushes Keith towards Starr, Rome and Vivian. Keith leads the way to the hotel front door. As the five of them walk past the cars parked along the valet parking area, they don’t notice the black Lincoln Town car, with a mysterious man is sitting in the driver's seat, watching them enter the hotel entrance. It is Insp. Clark.
Chapter 12
12:50 am
Keith and Vivian walk through the Westin New Orleans Hotel lobby under the watchful eye of McKenna, Starr and Rome. The lobby is bustling with tourists ready to head over to the French Quarters for late night partying. The entourage walks to the hotel elevators. The hotel personnel at the front desk notice an uneasiness about Keith and Vivian, and their company for the night, and watch them closely.
Keith has his arm around Vivian, and the three former M.I.C.O. military soldiers try to look as casual as they possibly can. They all get into the elevator. Before the door closes, Rome looks around the spacious mirrored elevator. "Damn, Greg. You should've put us up in here man. This place is hot."
As they ride up the elevator, Keith leans over and mumbles to Rome, "Twenty-four hour room service, movie theatre in here too."
Outside the hotel Insp. Clark is still in his car, he takes out his cell phone and makes a call.
Everyone arrives at the door to Keith and Vivian’s hotel room. As Keith opens the door, no one steps inside the dark hotel room. Keith looks at the three guys and asks, "Uh, you guys wanna check the room out? You aren't afraid of the dark, are you?" McKenna sneers at Keith, then grabs him from behind the neck, pushing Keith into the room. Suddenly the hotel room phone rings. Keith is momentarily startled by the ringing and turns towards the phone.
Starr and Rome cautiously enter the room. They see the flipped over coffee table and pull out their pistols. McKenna, still outside in the hall, puts his hand out to keep Vivian from entering the room.
McKenna says, "Don't touch that fucking phone!"
Keith stops in his tracks. McKenna tells Starr and Rome to check the room to make sure they are alone.
Keith tells the fellas that he flipped over the coffee table earlier in the night. Starr tells Rome, "Keep the lights off."
McKenna turns to Vivian and tells her, "Go answer the phone. Hurry." Vivian rushes into the dark room, making her way to the ringing phone.
The voice on the phone says, "Mrs. Baylor, I'm right outside the hotel. I have two federal agents posted in the hotel. Yes or no, are you ok?"…It’s Insp. Clark.
Vivian simply responds, "Yes."
Insp. Clark asks, "Can you tell me what floor you are on?"
Vivian takes the phone from her ear and tells McKenna, "It's my sister. Can I talk to her? She just wants to make sure I'm okay." McKenna motions that she can talk on the phone.
Vivian puts the phone back to her ear and talks to Insp. Clark, "I'm fine. I know I was supposed to call you at five. I just got real busy today. I'm sorry."
Insp. Clark continues, “Fifth floor?"
Vivian responds short, "Yeah. I just need some rest."
Insp. Clark says, "If things get rough, just yell. They'll hear you from the hall. Just hang in there Mrs. Baylor."
Keith looks over at Vivian and checks, "Everything alright, Vivian?"
She doesn't respond, then tells Clark, "Okay Marie, I gotta go now. I'll make sure I call tomorrow at five. Bye."
Vivian hangs up the phone. McKenna motions to Rome to turn on a nearby lamp.
Starr turns on the lights in the room. Keith turns the coffee table back over, back in front of the sofa. Vivian turns to Keith and tells him, "That was Marie just checking up on me.” Keith nods.
Starr and Rome join the others in the living room area and inform McKenna that no one is in the room. Keith says to McKenna, "See, everything is cool. Relax." McKenna ignores Keith, turning to Vivian and telling her to have a seat on the sofa.
McKenna looks around the hotel room, “Nice spot here. Real nice."
Rome never questioned any of his superiors as a military man. He and Barone were the lowest ranked of the original six commandos. But Rome doesn't feel comfortable about staying in the hotel room with Keith and Vivian. He tells McKenna just so. "Greg, I ain't feeling right about this place man. We don't know the layout, we don't know if there's a room full of feds next door. Nothin'. Shouldn’t we just take them over to our spot? I just don't feel good about this."
"Nah, that’s dead. Cops leaving messages for me over there about Ross. We just gotta hang here for a couple of hours. Shouldn't have any problems here."
Starr comments, "Honestly, I'm not 100% cool either. But like you said…it's only
a few hours."
McKenna responds, "Yea, at six we gonna send Keith and Vivian to the hospital t
o get a copy of Jesse's death certificate."
Keith cuts in, "Look, why don't we do this…?"
McKenna steps in Keith's face and snaps, "Dude, do not speak!" McKenna pushes Keith a few steps back and continues, "I thought we wasn’t gonna have any problems here Keith?!”
Keith apologizes, then continues, "I'm just saying, between all of us here, we searched damn near half of New Orleans for this money already. If we sit here and figure out where we haven't been, we can save a whole lot of time in the morning. Yea, good idea with getting the death certificate. Me and Vivian will do that first thing."
Rome shakes his head and laughs to himself as he turns to McKenna, "Can I throw him out this damn window right now? Please!" Rome continues, "Hospitals don't close. Why can't we just roll and do that right now? I don’t just wanna be sittin' up here like a ‘Joe’, waiting to get pounced on. Shit, can we at least switch rooms or something man?"
McKenna takes a moment to think about it and asks Starr, "Marlon, what do you think?"
Keith cuts in and says, "We already looked all through the house. Went to the bank, lawyer's office, gym, checked out Jesse's locker and all of that. So we don't have to worry about hittin' those places tomorrow." Keith purposely does not mention the post office to protect Vivian from having to explain to them about the mailbox registered in her name.
Vivian is sitting on the tan leather sofa in the living room area, listening to everything, saying nothing.
McKenna doesn't respond. He walks over to Starr and whispers, "So should we move out of here?"
Starr whispers back, "It’s only a few hours but yes, we really shouldn't all stay up in one place, together. Like Rome said, we can probably just get another room, or shit…sleep in your truck."
McKenna doesn't respond as he walks back towards the center of the living room area. McKenna off the top of his head, casually asks out loud, "What airline was Jesse booked on?" No one answers.
Vivian speaks up, "Jesse's tickets are in his bag over there.”
Starr tells Rome, "Grab that bag man." Rome retrieves Jesse's travel bag from the dining table a few feet behind him. Rome puts the travel bag on the coffee table, in front of the sofa and sifts through the bag and finds Jesse's plane ticket. Rome looks the ticket over as a frustrated McKenna asks Rome, "What else is in the bag? Dump it on the table Jerome. C'mon."
Starr looks at Jesse's belongings on the coffee table, "This is all he had with him? Is there another bag somewhere?" Keith tells him no. Vivian tells McKenna that the police turned the bag over to her yesterday. Starr notices and comments, "Where are his clothes? Dude had no shoes? Drawers, socks, shirts? Nothing like that in here?" Inside Jesse's travel bag are various toiletries, toothbrush, deodorant, a bottle of cologne, magazines, a few flash drives, CD’s, a pack of batteries, and a bag of gummy jelly beans.
Starr in doubt of what is present, “This is all bullshit! What is this?!" He then turns to McKenna and adds, "There's gotta be another bag somewhere. Gotta be." Starr snaps at Keith, "Where is it?! Where is Jesse's other bag?"
Keith nervously responds, "There is no other bag! I haven't seen that bag before last night. I don't know anything about no other bag man!"
Starr notices a bottle of cologne that has fallen off the coffee table onto the floor. The top of the bottle has come off, and stuffed in the bottle top…Starr and Rome notice folded slips of paper. Starr pulls out the slips of paper to inspect them. He tells McKenna that they are receipts and claim checks. Keith is visibly disappointed that he didn't find the receipts earlier. He is upset and uneasy and cannot stand still.
Rome comments, "This gotta be it Greg. Somewhere on those pieces of paper will tell us where that money is. I fucking know it!"
Keith interjects, "Those receipts are probably for some Popeye's Chicken, and some books from the airport book store. Let me see those."
Starr angrily responds to Keith's downplaying the discovery of the receipts, “Dude, why are you talking? Just shut the fuck up!"
McKenna responds, "Marlon, forget him. Focus! C'mon!" McKenna continues, "Here, take a few of these receipts…call the phone numbers on them and see what stores Jesse was shopping in. Maybe somebody remembers him with another bag or saw him stash a bag somewhere. Start with that, see what you get."
A frustrated Rome, quickly turns and picks up the hotel room phone on the end table.
Starr snaps, "Are you out of your damn mind? Use your cell."
Rome quickly catches his mistake and apologizes, "Damn Greg, I left my cell in your truck. It’s almost one in the morning man. None of these stores gonna be open now anyway."
McKenna throws the keys to his truck to Rome, "The spots in the airport are open. Call 'em and check it out. Wait for me downstairs in the lobby. We gonna grab another room." Rome grabs the bag gummy bears from the coffee table, then leaves the room.
McKenna speaks to Keith, "I have to trust you buddy. We're gonna check some of these things out. You and Vivian stay right here…don’t cross me ok buddy.”
Keith spiritedly responds, "No. We’ll be right here.”
Starr says, “Greg we are asking for trouble leaving this dude here by himself. He’ll have us set up and pinched by the time we get the front door. No”
McKenna turns to look at Vivian and Keith, who are both sitting on the couch now.
Keith whispers to Vivian, "Just stay calm Vivian. Don't look at them." Keith continues whispering to Vivian, "I can't believe we missed those goddamn receipts. You see the way Jesse had them stashed? That was it, Vivian. That's what we been looking for…I know it."
Starr quickly walks over to Keith and Vivian on the couch, violently grabbing Vivian by her arm, pulling her to her feet. McKenna tells Keith that they're taking Vivian with them. Vivian is crying and pleading to stay with Keith. Keith grabs and pulls on Vivian so to keep Starr from taking her out of the room.
McKenna shoves Keith back onto the couch, "Dude, don't get off that couch. Stay right there! We're gonna hold on to her tonight. You just be ready at 5:45."
Keith pleads to McKenna, "Leave her with me man. We ain't going nowhere!
Starr says to McKenna, "Greg, she's a mess. I'd have to knock her out just to get her ass downstairs. You go, I'll hang out up here with them until you and Rome get back."
Keith speaks to McKenna, "That's perfect! My man here can stay with us!" McKenna asks Starr, "You feel up to it? You rested?”
"I'm up. I got snacks, I see a deck of cards over there. Got the TV, I'm good. I'm gonna watch a few Sports Centers ‘til it’s time to roll out. Go on, I’m good."
Starr turns to Vivian and adds, "I'm gonna play some poker with Vivian here. Who's the card player, you or your brother?" Vivian answers, "Brother-in-law. I don't play poker I guess they're his cards."
McKenna suspiciously looks at Keith and questions, "Brother-in-law? You're Jesse's brother? You told us you were her brother!"
"No, I didn't. I said brother-in-law. Brother, brother-in-law, what's the damn difference?! I'm family!"
McKenna glares at Keith for a second, not sure if he is lying or not, and doesn't respond. McKenna turns to Starr…tells him that he is leaving, and will be back at the room at 5:30.
As McKenna is leaving, Keith asks, "Hey, we still good, right? Do me and Vivian get an equal cut or do we have to split a share?" McKenna smiles and turns to Starr. He smirks as he turns to open the door. "Keith, don't worry. Everybody here is gonna get something. Including you, my friend." McKenna's answer rightfully makes Keith uncomfortable.
He then asks, "Oh yeah, my car. I'm gonna need my car in the morning, guys. Did you bring it back?" McKenna digs in his pants pocket and pulls out the keys to Keith's rental car, "Here you go." Starr chuckles and says to Keith, "Your car was a little low on fluids. It’s cool now, though." McKenna doesn't tell Keith that he dumped his car in the Manchac swamp. McKenna lightly laughs to himself and says, "Don't worry about your car, you're riding with us tomorrow." McKenna then nods to Starr and leaves
the room.
3:23 am
McKenna and Rome are at Rick’s, a strip club, sports bar on Bourbon Street. They had no luck tracking down Jesse’s purchases from his receipts. They are now sitting at a table, having drinks and eating jalapeno poppers. Rome is commenting about the exotic dancers dancing on stage, while McKenna is thinking out loud about tomorrow's plans.
Rome says, "My man. Just chill. We got like three hours to relax now man." As
Rome looks around at the naked women, he continues, "Only thing we need to be thinking about right now is how to get some ass before we blow this town!
McKenna looks at Rome, "I just want to get my fuckin' money and get outta here man."
Rome puts his hand on McKenna's hand, trying to be funny, "Here sweetie, let me get you another drink!" He then motions to the waitress.
"Ah, fuck you. Don't do me any favors. Remember, you're spending my money you cheap bastard."
Rome then questions McKenna, "So when we find this money, gas up the ride and hit the road, what are we gonna do with Keith and his sister? You know we gotta smoke 'em. Can’t leave anybody to talk. We need to just…Bam!"
McKenna snaps, "What the fuck Jerome?! You wanna whack everybody now, what's up? Anything you wanna tell me?!"
Rome responds, "Something you wanna know?!"
McKenna doesn't respond for a moment…. “Look Jerome, five way split. Ross's wife is getting his cut! To keep Jesse's wife and her brother quiet, they get Jesse’s split to share.
That's sixty mil each, that's enough to start over somewhere far away from here and stay there for a long time. Nothing to gain by knocking anybody else off ok! You’re getting one-fifth! No reason or incentive to bury two more people. Got it!"
