Cheaper to Keep Her part 2 (The Saga Continues) (9 page)

“Oh my God!” she said and started pacing around in the kitchen. “This can't be. My heart can't keep taking all of this. First, it was Neeko. And now it’s Bishop and the club.”

“What are we going to do?” I asked her. I wanted to get in her head and get as much information out of her as I possibly could. I figured as long as I played silly, then she’d give up the goods.

“I don't know,” Katrina replied as she continued to pace the kitchen floor. I watched her body movement closely. If Bishop hadn't hipped me to what was going on and how sneaky she had become, then I would be clueless as hell. She could’ve pulled the wool over my eyes and I would not have noticed.

“We got to do something,” I added. “We gotta call the police and tell them that Bishop was one of the people who died in the fire. And that Duke was behind all of it.”

“No. No. No. That wouldn’t be a good idea,” Katrina replied. Her whole facial expression changed. She acted as if just the mention of the name Duke spooked her.

“Well then, what are we going to do? We can’t just sit here and act like it didn't happen,” I protested. I wanted to test her out and see what I needed to do to press her buttons.

“You got to give me a minute to take all of this in. Right now, I can't think straight. I mean, I need to sit down and collect my thoughts.” She took a seat in the chair next to me. I watched her bury her face in her hands. She stayed in that position for about ninety seconds. And when she lifted her head she seemed as if she was in a fucking daze. And for the first time, she looked like she was really sad by this whole ordeal. Tears were literally falling from her eyes. I swear I couldn't detect whether this bitch was faking or not.

I reached over and rubbed her shoulder. I had to pretend that I cared. “It’s going to be all right,” I told her. Truthfully, I didn’t even know if I believed that shit. Hell, I didn’t know what was what at that moment. Was this bitch that good of an actress or was she genuine and really felt bad that first Neeko, and now Bishop was possibly dead.

At that moment, I knew she had come to the end of her rope and she was holding on for dear life. She looked like a woman running from an abusive husband. And I could tell that she wanted to confide in me, but was hesitant because she didn't know if she could trust me or not.

If you want to know the truth, she was the bitch that couldn’t be trusted.

When you run into a person who has problems with trusting others it’s because they’ve been hurt or they’ve fucked up every relationship they had. To be around them is toxic. And they’d suck the fucking life out of you if you let them. Now the problem with this situation was I didn’t know Katrina well enough to decide which type person she was. So I figured the best way to handle her was play this whole thing by ear, which meant to listen more and say less. At least until the real snake showed yourself. Was she a cobra waiting to put me to death? Or a garden snake, harmless as they came? But to put that remedy into effect I knew I had to open the door.

“Look, Katrina, I know that you and I really don’t know each other. But the fact we share a common bond through Neeko should account for something. Now Neeko wasn’t the nicest person in the world and we hardly ever saw eye-to-eye. But when I was hauled off to jail for a crime I didn’t commit, he was the only person that came down there to see me. He was the only person who offered to help me. So if I don’t do anything else, I will do what I can to make Duke pay for his murder since his brother, Bishop, isn't here to do it for him.”

After I expressed my feelings to Katrina she stood in front of me with a blank expression. I couldn’t tell whether she was going to break or not. So I waited.

Finally, after standing there for almost one long minute Katrina wiped away her tears with the back of her hands and then she sat back down in the seat next to me. “Lynise, I know you want to help put Duke in prison for a long time. But when I tell you that this thing is bigger than Duke, believe me.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. I needed some clarity because she was starting to scare me.

Katrina hesitated for a moment and then she said, “I've known Duke for a very long time. In fact, I cheated with him during a brief break up Neeko and I had. No one else knows this but my second child is Duke’s.”

I caught a lump in my throat. “Are you serious?” I asked in mere shock. I never thought in a million years that she would be telling this. My heart started racing sixty-five miles per hour while I waited for her to pour the rest of her heart out to me.

“For years I walked around with all this guilt buried in my heart, and everyday when I had quiet moments with Neeko, I wanted so badly to tell him.” She paused and I knew she was trying to maintain her composure. “But I couldn't get up the nerve to do it. Not only would it have affected him, it would’ve affected my youngest daughter as well. And I didn't want to ruin the bond that those two had.”

Tear after tear started falling from her eyes once again. She couldn’t control them with her hands. “You’ve heard about all that real estate and other investments Duke has right?”

I nodded.

“Well, he didn’t get all of that on his own. He borrowed over ten million dollars from some very wealthy men who happen to be some no-nonsense powerful brothers. And when they gave Duke that money, he agreed to have their money along with interest back in their hands in a certain amount of time. But guess what? It didn't happen. So guess what they did?”

“What?”

“They roughed him up and then they torched Duke’s mother’s house while she was out running errands. But they told him that if he didn’t come up with at least a third of the money they lent him soon, then they were going to make sure that when they torched her new place she would be in it.”

“Get the fuck out of here!” I commented. Hearing all of these details about those two dangerous men made me feel like I was biting on more than I could chew. And that’s when I realized that she was right. Every single thing that was happening around us was definitely much bigger than Duke.

“Lynise, you and me aren’t going to be able to touch Duke,” Katrina said matter-of-factly. “The police can’t even touch him.”

I shook my head. “No, I don’t believe that,” I told her.

“Well, believe it, because it’s true. I mean, how do you think he was able to run an illegal adoption ring without getting busted? The police knew that Duke had that doctor take a lot of those babies without their mothers consent. And they knew that Duke was responsible for those young girls who got murdered a few hours before they gave birth.”

“Listen Lynise, and listen carefully. The policemen around here are like watch dogs for those men. They are paid to look after Duke until they get all their money back. So in other words, Duke is like their property and they aren’t going to let anyone fuck with him. And I do mean no one. Not even Bishop could’ve gotten close to Duke.”

“How did Duke know that Bishop was in town?”

“The day after the police found Neeko’s body, Bishop got word and drove down here in a matter of hours. And as soon as he got here, he went straight to the club and started asking questions. So, when Duke found out he was here, he called me and told me to hand him over or else.”

“Well, if you knew that it was that hot around the club then why didn’t you tell Bishop?” I asked. I figured since she opened up to me about all the skeletons that were hidden in Duke’s closet, then it would be easy for her to explain to me why she led Neeko's brother to believe that he could vindicate his death.

Continuously wiping tears away, Katrina took a deep breath and said, “Bishop and I never saw eye-to-eye from day one. He told Neeko that I was a gold digger and that he shouldn’t trust me. So, after I heard all of that, I started disliking Bishop, too. And besides, I was in control of Neeko’s books, so when Bishop started asking a lot of questions, I got a bit agitated. And I felt like if he knew what was really going on, then he was going to make things a lot worse than they were.”

“Did you really love Neeko?” I don’t know why I asked the question but it seemed appropriate. This was heavy shit . . . and worse, it seemed as if Neeko and Katrina’s relationship was built on a foundation of lies.

Before Katrina answered, she broke down and really balled her eyes out. She made me think that I must’ve struck a nerve and hit a sore spot when I asked her that question. So I immediately stood up from my chair and embraced her. I wanted her to feel as if she could continue to confide in me and I wouldn’t judge her. I rubbed her back in a circular motion. And then I told her that everything would be all right.

“Well, no one knew it but right after Duke got his hands on that ten million dollars, Neeko got into a bit of a money jam at the club, and since his credit wasn't that good, he asked me to go to my bank to see if I could get a personal loan. So I said okay. But after I filled out all the paperwork and gathered up all the documents they needed, those sons of bitches denied me. But I couldn't tell Neeko that because he was depending on me. And without him knowing, I went to Duke and got him to lend me the fifty grand Neeko and I needed to get everything back on track. Now me, of all people, should’ve known he wasn’t giving that type of money up that easy. So after he made me sign a promissory note acknowledging that I would use this house as collateral since my name was on the deed with Neeko’s, he made me sleep with him for old times’ sake. I was sick to my stomach after I left him that night.

“Did Neeko ever found out?”

“Yeah, he found out about five months later when it was time for me to pay up,” she began to explain. “I started taking a few hundred dollars here and there, so Neeko wouldn't notice. But then Duke started hanging out at the club and he’d harass me every chance he got. And when Neeko found out what he was doing, he stepped to Duke and it didn’t end well. Duke told Neeko everything except for the fact that I fucked him and the part about my baby girl not being Neeko’s child.”

“He didn't do anything but convinced Duke to re-do the promissory note and swap the part about our house being the collateral and added the club instead.”

“Oh, so that’s why he used to be up there all the time. He had a legal stake in Magic City.”

“Yep, that’s why.”

Trying to wrap my mind around this major bombshell Katrina dropped in my lap, it dawned on me that she never gave me the details about how she led Neeko to Duke. I knew I wouldn’t be able to rest until she told me the truth. Not only that, I wanted to know if those two brothers who Bishop owed money to had anything to do with the club blowing up? So I asked her.

“No, that wasn't any of their doing,” she replied. “Duke planned the whole thing. And he did it so he could collect his part of the insurance and get rid of Bishop at the same time.”

“Did you know that Duke's new wife just went inside the club right after Bishop did?”

Katrina looked like she was shocked. She pressed her hand against her mouth. “No, I swear I didn’t know that part. He didn't mention anything about her to me. All he said was that we needed to get rid of the club so we could collect the insurance money and that way he could pay back most of the money that he still owes to those brothers.”

“Well, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but that slimy ass nigga sent his wife to her death. And it wouldn’t surprise me if he did it to collect her insurance money as well.”

“Oh my God! Lynise, what are we going to do? He might try to kill us next.”

“I don’t know about you but I don’t plan to sit around and let him get me a second time.”

“And neither do I,” she said with fear dripping with every word. “But he told me that I can't go anywhere until I get my part of the insurance money from the club and sign the check over to him.”