Kevin instructed everyone to sit on the couch, and they obeyed.
He wasn’t proud of the way he had handled the situation, but he knew it was what he needed to do in order to get to the bottom of everything.
“I really didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I don’t want nobody else to get hurt,” he said, looking specifically at their mother. “But Wendell playing games and I need to find out what going on.”
They all looked angry, except for Karen. She looked as though she was in a lot of pain.
Kevin reminded himself that the strategy was to show no sympathy.
“Hmm,” their mother sighed and shook her head. “So that is what this is about? You standing in my living room and pointing a gun at we because you think Wendell playing games?”
“Okay, sorry,” Kevin said. “I don’t think. I know he playing games.”
She was looking at him with disgust.
“Kevin?” She shook her head. “As a young man you really don’t have no shame. You and Wendell is best friends for so much years. Allyuh use to laugh and make all kind of jokes right here in this house, and this is how you treating we? Look at Karen face! What she ever do to you?”
He looked at Karen and his conscience slowly began to resurface. He knew their mother was speaking the truth and he also knew he had no right to be carrying on the way he was. Regardless of those emotions, he comforted himself by believing it was his only choice.
After she said what she had to, he had no intentions of staying a minute longer than necessary.
“Karen…?”
She looked up at him. She wasn’t crying, just holding her head and grimacing in pain.
“I need you to call Wendell and put the call on speaker. The faster you do that the better for everybody. You think you could do that?” he said and took the house phone to her without waiting for her to reply.
She hesitated and when he was about to repeat himself she took the phone from him and started dialing the number.
Wendell didn’t answer on the first attempt and Kevin told her to try again.
This time he answered within the fourth ring.
“Hello.”
She looked at Kevin and was handing the phone to him, but he signaled her to go along with the conversation before giving the phone to him.
“Yeah Wendell, what going on with you?”
There was a lot of breeze blowing into the phone and it gradually eased up and then he started talking again. “Yeah, everything alright. How come you still home? You not going class today?”
“Yeah. I leaving home in a little while.”
“Oh, okay. Well I just have to make a spin and collect something before I come home, so I would see you when you get back home later, okay?”
“Alright, cool.”
“What you wanted?”
She seemed confused by his question. She looked up at Kevin again. He was listening to the conversation while working out his approach. He was contemplating whether to confront him immediately or allow him to give his explanation.
“Kay?” Wendell called, sensing that something was wrong. She was still looking up at Kevin for further instructions.
“Kay?” Wendell called out to her in a more concerned voice.
Kevin took the phone and took it off speaker and walked away.
“Hey buddy, what going on?” Kevin said, trying to keep his cool. He was now a few steps away from where they were sitting.
“Who is this? Kevin?”
Kevin slowly nodded. Still angry and confused. “Yes… yeah, is me.”
“Oh, okay. What going on?”
“Well, I trying to find out that same thing. How about, you tell me?”
There wasn’t any hesitation coming from Wendell’s end. “Well, I now went and check Steve and I on my way back up the road. I just have one more stop to make before coming home.”
Kevin’s eyes went to Wendell’s family when he heard him mention coming home. He knew that wasn’t going to be a good idea.
“Anyhow.” Wendell’s tone of voice changed from calm to hyper. “What going on with you and this news thing? I try calling you whole day yesterday and I wasn’t getting you. I even pass and the place was in darkness.”
While Wendell spoke, Kevin worked out his defence. One thing Wendell was good at was bullshitting people and as much as his story sound convincing, Kevin knew that the truth would be revealed once he was under pressure.
Kevin tightened his grip on the phone without realizing. He was becoming angry and frustrated of all the misinterpretations. During that time, he never took his eyes off of Wendell’s family and he kept the gun pointing at them as a means of intimidation.
He took some slow breaths to remain calm. Wendell was quietly waiting for an answer and it was at that moment that Kevin decided that he’d go with the calm approach.
“I wasn’t home yesterday. But that is not the point. I tried calling you so much times on this same number that you claim you lost.”
“Don’t even start that.” Wendell was becoming angry. “Don’t try to make me feel guilty about none of this. Just like how you going through yuh stress, I going through things too.”
Kevin laughed at his selfish comparison. “What you going through?”
“Me, Steve and Sean lost a good friend too. Not only you.”
“And that give you the right to act the way you acting?”
“How I acting?”
“You ignoring all my calls?”
“I ignoring all…? Hold on. Yeah, you could park right here.” Kevin heard him say to someone in a low voice and then he heard when the car door closed. He listened carefully but the place was as quiet as before.
“I not ignoring nobody.” Wendell was back on the phone. “I know how far we come from and what we went through so I would never do something like that. I didn’t see any miss calls and that is the truth, and whenever I see you I will prove it.” He was carrying on with no trace of stopping. “I tried calling you whole day yesterday and I even pass by yuh place. When you reach home you would see the miss calls. It wasn’t my fault that you wasn’t home. So stop blaming me.”
Kevin had no idea how to respond. He walked to the dining table and pulled out the chair. The hand with the gun was stretched out on the table keeping his aim and his other hand was on his head in a thinking posture.
“You know what still bothering me? I thought you tell me you lost yuh phone in the scuffle?”
“Yes, that is where I lost it. I didn’t lie about that. I have a new phone and I went and replaced the sim card yesterday morning.”
Kevin didn’t know what else to ask. Wendell’s story was believable. Kevin studied Wendell’s family and realized that he might’ve been overacting and had even broken another rule in the process. They had once vowed to protect each other’s family as they would protect their own. An apology would not be acceptable for what he had done to Wendell’s sister.
They were quiet for a long while until Wendell asked if he was still there.
“Yeah, I right here,” Kevin answered with tears running down his face. The guilt and frustration were too much to cope with.
“Bro, you wouldn’t even believe half of the things I went through. I don’t know what else to do or where to go from here. Right about now, I just feeling so lost. I could hardly think straight.”
“Hmm, I really sorry to hear that. I wouldn’t pretend, because I can’t even start to imagine what you going through. But, just tell me what you want me to do, and I would do it.”
Kevin was quiet. He was ashamed of what he had done, and he was afraid of what he was about to face out there.
“You want to wait and I would come and meet you there or something?”
“Nah, no… no.” He shook his head. That was an easy decision. He looked at the bruises on Karen’s face which was at the moment being attended to by her mother. He knew Wendell all too well, and if it was one thing. Wendell would definitely freak out when he saw
his sister’s face. And to make matters worse, he’d definitely go crazy when he finds out that she was attacked by one of his friends.
He would have to meet Wendell at another location and he must not find out what happened at his house. It would be a difficult and risky task. But, it was worth the try.
“You would have to meet me somewhere else. Most likely by ah abandon house or something. The police know we is friends and they would come here to look for me quicker than you think.”
“Okay, that is true. You have anywhere in mind?”
Kevin started thinking.
“What about that old building on John Street?” Kevin said, in a low voice, so that Wendell’s family wouldn’t hear their arrangements.
“Which one? The one where all them homeless people does be? Or the one that burn down the other day?”
The one with the homeless persons was the closer of the two and Kevin would have to stay off of the road as best as he could, so he saw it as the better choice.
“Yeah, the one with the homeless people.”
“Okay, and what time you want me to meet you there?”
He looked at the time on a clock on the living room wall. It was almost four o’clock. Time wasn’t the problem though. He was thinking about the risk involved in leaving the house and the risk of staying there a minute longer. There wasn’t much of a difference.
“Five o’clock good enough for you?” Kevin said.
There was a pause on Wendell’s end.
“I might have to meet up with you a little later than that. I come to organize something for Steve and I don’t know how long I would be here.”
Kevin was curious. “Something like what?”
“Nah, he just ask me to collect something from somebody here and keep it for him.”
Wendell was speaking in an unfamiliar code. Kevin was studying why Steve would ask Wendell to do anything for him after what he said, and if that was the case, why was it so important and confidential? Kevin’s new objective was to make the arrangements and leave, so he left the question for when they met later on.
“Well we would meet up around six, six-thirty instead, okay?”
“Yeah, that will be plenty better.” Wendell said.
“Okay. Well, six-thirty then.”
“Alright, let me see how fast I could organize here and come and meet you.”
“Okay, no problem.” Kevin hung up and began anticipating his next move.
Karen’s mother had finished cleaning up her face and they were all consoling each other on the couch, waiting to hear what else Kevin had in mind.
Kevin had to find a way to leave the house with the assurance that neither one of them would call Wendell and inform him of what had taken place.
He was staring at them and they were looking right back at him. He got up with his chair and took a seat in front of them like a teacher supervising his detention class.
“Okay, here what going on,” Kevin started saying. “I have a little problem and I hope we could help each other out.”
They were all paying attention. He waited a while and then took a deep breath before continuing.
“I make arrangements to meet Wendell this evening because this whole thing with me being on the news is a big setup. I see something that I not supposed to see. And, to make matters worse, the police is the ones behind it.”
He was trying his best to reason with them. Though he wasn’t sure if they were understanding or if they just wanted him to leave. He began explaining with more details.
“I have video evidence of the police controlling a drug house where people making cocaine. They even kill a few people in that video. I don’t have the video on me now, but it in a safe place and I know that they not going to give up until they get it or until I dead… or both.”
Their mother looked as though she was coming to terms what he was saying.
“I never mean for any of this to happen, and I real sorry. But I was scared and I didn’t have nowhere else to go.”
“Just tell me what you want Kevin?” Their mother interrupted in a lower voice than his. There was a hint of demand in her voice.
Kevin was surprised. He looked at her with a serious face and realized that she was willing to say or agree to anything in order for him to leave. He took a while before speaking.
“I don’t want Wendell to find out what happened here today. I need him to help me figure out how I getting through this.”
She shook her head and sweep her hand through the air, disregarding anything else he wanted to say.
“Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes, okay. I understand and I would give you my word that he wouldn’t find out about this. Just don’t go and do anything stupid.”
Kevin stood up. He kept his eyes on her and it was the first time she didn’t look him in his face. He didn’t believe a single word she said, and he wasn’t going to take that risk. He had a better idea.
“I want Karen to drop me somewhere,” he said.
Karen was startled. She started crying and pulled her mother closer to her. Her mother’s expression made it obvious that she wasn’t going to allow it to happen. She whispered something into Karen’s ear and it calmed her down a little.
“You could take my car,” her mother finally said. “Look the key on the cupboard over by the fridge.” She pointed to it, but Kevin didn’t move or look away. He despised the way Karen was acting towards him. He kept the gun pointing at them and ordered everyone to get up and go into their mother’s room which was next to Wendell’s bedroom in the back. They’d done so quietly.
As they sat on the bed Kevin had gone into the closet, taking out a few clothes and instructed Karen to tie her mother and brother’s hands and feet. Karen and her brother started crying and pleading for mercy.
“Listen,” he said calmly but neither one of them obeyed. They were being more dramatic than the situation called for and he was becoming annoyed.
“Listen!” Kevin said in a loud voice and they were both quiet and looking in his direction. Their hands were still clasped together in their silent plea for mercy.
“I going to drive myself. Just do what I say and let me get out from here.”
Karen studied his face and then complied. When she was finished, Kevin tied her up and covered their mouths in such a way that it would be difficult and somewhat painful if they attempted to scream or speak. Their mother was then left in her room and they were both dragged to their individual rooms and he locked each door.
To him it was a cruel act, but he knew it was the only assurance he’d have of keeping them quiet. Hopefully they would be found sometime during the night after he met with Wendell.
Kevin went into the kitchen where he took the keys for the car. He then locked up the house and left.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The abandoned house that they had spoken of was only ten minutes drive from Wendell’s house, but Kevin thought it would be wiser to park at another location and walk across when it was closer to the time they had arranged to meet.
He had thought about going home and retrieving the memory card, but decided not to.
At five o’clock he became impatient and left the car at the car park of a grocery store and walked over to the house.
The house was a two-storey building with broken windows and open doors. The lawn had not been maintained over the years and the grass was as high as five feet in some parts of the yard. Kevin had heard that the owners had migrated almost six years ago, and homeless persons were the only ones who’d occupied the house. But they would mostly use it as a safe zone when they were ready to get high and for sleeping.
Kevin squeezed through the front gate, having to push against the tall grass that was blocking it, and made his way along the overgrown footpath and went into the house. The place was dark; he heard a rustling and cooing from the pigeons that lived in the ceiling. The rooms stank with bird shit.
From the look of the place it was
obvious that most of the activities took place in the room he was standing in. There Cardboard boxes lay on the floor like beds and ragged clothes were used as the bedspread.
Breathing as shallowly as possible, Kevin quickly made his way upstairs to a room in the back. When he got there, he opened the windows and breathed in the fresh air. To his left, the sun was sinking on the horizon in an orange glow.
Kevin thought that this might very well be the last sunset he would ever see.
He kept himself hidden behind the window until the sun sank, and the place became dark.
The quietness in the room was becoming overwhelming and it made Kevin think of the different ways things could turn out and the fear of being imprisoned overcome him once more. He dreaded the thought of being away from Shantel, forcing her to raise their child on her own.
It was 6:55 p.m. and there still wasn’t any sign of Wendell. A short time after Kevin heard the front door open. He listened carefully but nothing else was heard beside the noise coming from the birds. He walked to the door hoping that he’d be in a better position to see who had entered the house or what was taking place. From where he was standing he could hear someone coming up the stairs and then he saw their shadow. The place was too dark to see if it was Wendell.
Kevin took a step back and picked up an iron pipe that was lying on the ground. He held it in a firm grip prepared to use it if he had to. He would only use the firearm if things got out of hand since the gunshot would draw unnecessary attention.
He waited for the shadow.
“Kevin…?”
He heard Wendell calling his name in a low voice and saw him walking pass the room.
“Kev…”
Kevin pulled opened the door before Wendell could finish saying his name and signaled him to come into the room. As soon as he entered the room, he’d gone to the window and started coughing and breathing heavily. Kevin shook his head. Wendell always had a way to make a problem seem a lot bigger than it was.
“How the hell you making out in here?” Wendell asked without turning and looking at him. Kevin didn’t answer. He waited and when Wendell had gotten enough fresh air and turned to him, Kevin looked at the time on his watch. Wendell noticed.
Another Last Chance Page 10
