Commit to Violence (9 page)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

When Nick stepped into his apartment, he switched on the light and was surprised to see Wanda sitting there.

"Hi," Wanda said.

"Hi yourself. What are you doing sitting in the dark?"

"Waiting for you."

Nick walked over and sat down in the chair across from Wanda, and was glad that he’d taken a shower before he left Rain’s apartment. Still he thought it was a good idea to keep his distance just in case Rain’s scent lingered. "Why didn’t you make yourself comfortable?"

"I wanted to talk to you."

"You can’t be comfortable and talk?"

"I could have, but I didn’t want to."

Nick laughed a nervous laugh. "I don’t like how this is going already."

"Where were you all night?"

"I had some thing’s I needed to do."

"Nobody’s seen you all night or last night for that matter."

"You been checkin’ up on me?"

"Don’t try to turn this around, Nick. If it makes you happy to hear it, yes, Nick, yes I have been checking up on you. I want you to tell me where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing?"

"I told you, I had some business I needed to take care of," Nick said louder than he needed to.

To Wanda, it just made him sound and look guiltier than he already did. "What business, Nick? It’s five-thirty in the morning. I know this business. I run the money for this business. I used to run this business!" Wanda said angrily. "So what business kept you busy until five-thirty in the morning?"

"You don’t know everything that’s goin’ on, not any more."

"If its business I should, so why can’t you just tell me what business you had that kept you busy until five-thirty in the morning?"

"Kenny got shot last night. I’ve been tryin’ to find out who killed him."

Wanda’s facial expression softened. "Kenny’s dead?"

"Yes, Wanda, he was ambushed last night."

"Nobody told me about it," Wanda said.

"You know Black wants you to stay out of this part of the business."

"Still, I’ve known Kenny for years. Somebody should have said something to me."

"Now you know," Nick said, thinking that he had gotten out of this one.

"Okay, so you were out lookin’ for Kenny’s killers."

"Yes, Wanda."

"If that’s all it was, why couldn’t you answer your phone, or at least return my calls?"

"I told you I was busy," Nick said frustrated, knowing that Wanda was just getting started.

"Busy doin’ what? If you were just ridin’ around looking for whoever killed Kenny, that doesn’t explain why you couldn’t answer your phone or at least call me back."

Nick looked at Wanda for what seemed like a long time and thought about what to say. He thought about telling her the truth. That Rain had been dealing. That she had been robbed and several of her people had been killed, and they had been out all night looking for the shooters.

Two things prevented that: One, she wouldn’t believe that’s all there was to it. Mainly because it wasn’t, he had just gotten finished fuckin’ the shit outta Rain for the second time that night. Two, even if she did believe that was all there was to it, and he knew she wouldn’t, Wanda would tell Black that Rain was dealing and that was the last thing he needed or wanted.

Nick had given Black his word that he would keep their operation drug free because of the arrangement Black had with Angelo Collette and Stark. Nick thought back to that night and how he and Black ran through hypothetical situations. At the end, they both agreed that each hypothetical always ended the same way—in jail or dead.

"I ain’t goin’ to jail, Nick. We already got enough problems with the DEA without this. Last thing we need right now is them crawling all over us again," Black told Nick that night.

"So what are you gonna tell Angelo?"

"I been thinking about that. How I can give Angee what he wants and without actually doin’ shit."

"How you plan on doin’ that?" Nick asked.

"I’m gonna get him and Stark together and then I’m gonna tell him that I would offer advise and council to Stark as a personal favor to him. But for reasons that I know he understands, I can’t go any further than that."

"You think that will satisfy him?"

"As long as I can get Stark to do business and as long as I can control him. But for that to work, you gotta be my guarantee. You gotta make sure that nothing we do touches that. We can’t have our hands dirty in none of that."

"I’ll stay on top of it," Nick promised.

"I haven’t said anything about this to Wanda. But she was there when Angelo came to Cuisine, so she knows something’s up. She wasn’t happy with the answer I gave her, so she’ll be coming at you. But she doesn’t need to know anything about this."

"Understood."

Nick knew that he couldn’t tell Wanda anything about Rain or why he had to handle it, because it would lead back to the arrangement Black made with Angelo, and that wasn’t what Black wanted. He had a choice to make. Remain silent and run the risk of losing Wanda. Or betray Black’s confidence.

The choice was easy.

"Did whatever you were doing all night involve Rain Robinson?"

"No," Nick lied.

"Don’t lie to me, Nick, please don’t lie to me. Have you been with her all night?"

"No," Nick calmly lied again.

"Then tell me where you’ve been?"

Nick got up and walked toward Wanda.

"You can’t tell me, can you? You can’t tell me because you were with her, weren’t you!" Wanda yelled.

"No!" Nick yelled back.

"Are you fucking her?" Wanda screamed.

"No!"

Wanda took a deep breath. "I don’t believe you. I know you’re fucking that bitch. Why can’t you just be a man and tell me the truth about it."

"Why we gotta go there?" Nick said and shook his head. He never understood why Wanda thought that questioning his manhood would make him confess all of his sins.

"Because I think I deserve that much. We’ve known each other too long for you to think that you have to lie to me like this."

Wanda looked at Nick and waited for him to say something. When it became obvious that he wasn’t, Wanda stood up and started walking toward the door.

"Where are you goin’?"

Wanda turned around. "I’m leaving, Nick, unless you give me a reason to stay."

"Stay."

"Are you fucking her?"

"No," Nick said flatly.

"Whether you are or not, and I have to be honest with you, I think you are, I don’t think we need to see each other on this level anymore. Before we lose our friendship and I lose all respect for you, I should go."

Nick tried to put his arms around her.

"Don’t, Nick. Don’t do that. I can smell her on you," Wanda said and Nick backed away.

Wanda opened the door and turned to face Nick.

"Goodbye, Nick."

"Goodbye, Wanda."

"I really did love you, Nick, even though I never said it before now. I really did love you."

Wanda closed the door.

The sound of morning traffic woke Kirk up that next morning. He stayed at the precinct reviewing files long after Richards went home for the night. When he finally did leave the building, Kirk didn’t go far. He got in his car, reclined the seat and went to sleep.

He looked at his watch. It was just after seven. After walking across the street to get a cup of coffee, Kirk went back in the building looking for Detective McNally. He had known McNally since their days at the academy and this seemed like the perfect time to catch up. Besides, McNally was vice and Kirk wanted information on the recent activities of Mike Black. It wasn’t that he thought Black was involved in his case, but he couldn’t rule him out either, and there was something about the rumor Sanchez mentioned about an alliance between Black, Angelo Collette and Bruce Stark that made him uneasy.

He could understand Collette hooking up with Stark; that would make sense, but what was Black’s involvement? Kirk knew that Black had turned his back on the drug game years ago. But when he
was
involved, the streets ran red with blood. That was a scenario that Kirk had no desire to see again.

Kirk’s fear was that his long-time friendship with Collette might be enough to bring Black in, and if that was the case, these robbery/executions may just be the beginnings of Black trying to force his way back into the market and make a statement.

"Kirk?" McNally questioned, surprised to see him when he stepped up to his desk. "What brings a high- roller like you down here?"

"Just a little information," Kirk replied and sat down.

"Tell me what you need."

"Mike Black."

Knowing Kirk’s obsession with Black, McNally laughed a little. "I’m tempted to say, who?"

"Why would you say it like that, Mac?"

"’Cause the Mike Black you know doesn’t exist anymore."

"That’s what I keep hearing; but what about his operation?"

"Since Freeze got killed things have changed. And Black himself, the guy’s completely hands off."

"So who’s running the show now?"

McNally got up and walked over to his file cabinet. He pulled out a file and thumbed through it. "That’s a good question, Kirk; doesn’t seem like anybody is in charge."

"What about Bobby Ray?"

"Night club called Impressions. Face it, Kirk, these guys made enough money to go legit. So unless you got some new evidence on some old shit," McNally shrugged his shoulders.

"You heard anything about him and Angelo Collette?"

"Him and Collette been friends for years, never has been a business relationship, but you know all this, Kirk."

"Okay, Mac, thanks," Kirk said and left the area, but he wasn’t done yet. He went back to his car and drove off.

Maybe he was going about this from the wrong angle. Or maybe he was just obsessed with pinning something on Black. He often wondered why, after making it his mission to arrest him for any of the countless murders that Kirk was sure he’d committed, when Black was in jail, he did everything in his power to clear him of murder charges in the death of his wife. Had it not been for Kirk, Black would be doing life for the crime.

Maybe the way to approach this was from the Collette side of the triangle. Kirk knew somebody that he could talk to in the organized crime division of the FBI. Kirk called and made an appointment to see him. The information he came away with was more of the same.

"Naturally, I can’t go into any detail about our ongoing operations against Collette, but I can say with a high degree of certainty that there is no business between Mike Black and Collette."

"High degree, huh," Kirk said to the agent, almost sounding disappointed.

"Look, Kirk, the best I can tell you is that every once and a while, Black comes out to Collette’s social club. They get pissy drunk, talk about bullshit and Black leaves."

"What about Collette and Bruce Stark?"

"Never heard of him," was the agent’s answer.

Kirk still wasn’t satisfied. McNally was a desk jockey, and he needed fresh info from the streets. He ran down a cop named Fields, one of McNally’s detectives who was working deep cover.

As soon as Fields saw Kirk he started running, but he didn’t make it too hard for Kirk to catch him, cuff him and drag him back to the car for all to see.

Once they had driven for awhile Kirk unlocked the cuffs. "What brings you to the streets, Kirk?"

"You know me; I just need a little info."

"On Mike Black I take it."

"Am I that predicable?"

"No just consistent. And Mac mentioned that you dropped by this morning askin’ about Black," Fields said. "What can I do for you?"

"I’m investigating a string of drug murders, and Sanchez mentioned something about an alliance between Black, Angelo Collette and Bruce Stark. You heard anything about that?"

"All I can tell you, Kirk, is that Black is so far out of the game that it’s getting boring out here. One thing I’ll say for Freeze, he kept it interesting. Since Freeze got popped, they’ve been moving to go completely legit," Fields said. "Hey, make a left here and I’ll show you what I mean."

Kirk drove down the block and Fields pointed out a storefront window.

"See that place Fast Cash?"

"Yeah, I see their commercials on TV all the time."

"Yeah, well, Black owns them. So tell me, why would he bother with the loan shark business when he can do the shit legally?"

"Okay, you convinced me," Kirk said.

When Richards got to the station, Kirk was sitting on the hood of his car in front of the building. "Isn’t that what you had on yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"Did you go home at all?" Richards asked as he got behind the wheel.

"No."

"Did you at least get some sleep?"

"Yeah."

"I feel better now."

"Good. Can we go now?"

After a day of not making any progress on their case, Kirk and Richards needed something to break their way. Operating under the assumption that PR was a Hispanic male, they concentrated their efforts in those communities. They were becoming increasingly frustrated because nobody seemed to have any idea what they were talkin’ about.

For the next couple of hours the detectives rolled around the city trying to get a lead on the shooters. They got a call that one of the bodies had been identified. When they got back to the station, they were informed that none of the victims had any priors. Rain made sure that most of her people were clean. She made sure none of them had a record of any kind.

The one that had been identified was reported missing by his mother; he was only sixteen years old. The detectives went to talk to the mother hoping that she might be able to identify some of the others he was found with.

When they arrived at the apartment, they were met at the door by a young woman. "Yes."

"I’m Detective Richards—"

"Yeah, I get it. Y’all the po-po. What y’all want?

"We’re looking for Mrs. Betty Evans. Is she here?"

"She here. What y’all want with my mama?"

"We’re investigating your brother Andrew’s murder and we’d like to ask her, both of you actually, some questions," Kirk said. "May we come in?"

"Who’s at the door, Seline?" came a voice from another part of the apartment.

"Po-po, mama."

"I’ll be right out," Mrs. Evans said and she came in the room shortly thereafter and sat down at the table with her daughter. Kirk sat down and Richards stood behind him.

"First of all, ladies, I want to say that I’m sorry for your loss," Kirk began. "I wanted to show you some pictures of the other men he was found with."

"He wasn’t no man! He was just a boy. A good boy," Mrs. Evans cried.

"Yes, ma’am, I understand."

Seline patted her mother on the shoulder to comfort her. "Mama, you just foolin’ yourself. Whether you wanna admit it or not, Drew wasn’t the good little boy you thought he was. Not no more, mama; hadn’t been for a long time. You just didn’t wanna see it."

"Don’t matter. They didn’t have to kill my baby."

"Like I said, I’m sorry, but I was hoping that you could help me find his killers," Kirk said and both women looked at each other. There was something about helping the police that made both of them apprehensive and just a little scared.

Kirk took pictures of all of the victims out of his jacket pocket. He slid them across the table. "Can I get you ladies to look at these pictures and tell me if you recognize any of them?"

Once again, the women looked at each other for awhile before Seline picked up the pictures. She spread them out in front of her and they both looked at them. Mrs. Evans sat back and looked away.

"These two," Seline said and pointed at two of the pictures. "They been here to pick him up a few times."