Invincible: A Novel (19 page)

The younger Calvin brother said, “We would have, but our window of time before the police came was too short. Besides, you ordered no more killing of innocent people. No more women or children. You said it was bad for the business. But if you let us go back to our old ways we can handle this thing much faster.”

“Well, women and kids are a no-go for now. Things are getting too hot! If any women or kids die now, we won’t be able to get money until a lot of people are locked up and we don’t need our money to slow down. So we gonna play it cool until this Jake character comes back. How long can he last out there?”

———

Jake was wondering the same thing. He decided against getting a room. He would stay on the streets tonight and think out how he was going to get to his enemies. He knew he had to get to Phil in order to find out about the rest of their gang.

Jake ditched M.B.’s rental car and went and bought an all black ’98 Crown Vic the next morning. That would be his home
for a few weeks. He threw the dealer four gees to rock with his plates for a month. The car cost him six thousand so the dealer was really coming up. Jake figured his first move could be his last so he had to have his plan down to a tee. Frazier would be the easy one to get, so Jake staked out the jail in his Crown Vic.

It took Frazier two days to come out but it was just in time. Jake was tired of sitting in the car. He was tired of shitting and eating in the doughnut shop down the block and he needed a shower.

Frazier drove a black Tahoe, looked like a 2007. Jake had to laugh to himself when he stopped in the same doughnut shop Jake had been shitting and eating in for the past forty-eight hours. Frazier got a few things and, to Jake’s surprise, he got in the car and drove less than five blocks before pulling into a driveway. Jake didn’t waste any time. He pulled into the driveway with him. Frazier wasn’t paying attention and when he did look up it was too late. Jake was out the car with his gun out.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Jake?” Frazier asked.

“What the fuck does it look like I’m doing, Frazier? I’m standing in your driveway with a gun and you know goddamn well what I’m doing here! I’m here to do what you attempted to do to me.”

“Listen, Jake, you don’t want to do that. It ain’t worth it!” Jake walked Frazier to the porch.

“Shut the fuck up and open the door, Frazier! I got some things to ask you. Answer right and you might live to see tomorrow.”

Frazier opened the door and sat down at the kitchen table cool as cucumber. “So, what is it you want to know, Jake?”

“Where’s Murphy and the Calvin brothers? I’m pretty sure
you know I killed my uncle so you should know I’ll have no problem putting your brains all over your table and floor if you don’t answer me!”

“Yeah, I know what you’re capable of, Jake. What’s your point?”

“Frazier, was that you who wrote those letters?”

“Yeah, it was me and yeah, I was doing it for Albert Murphy, and it was business. I actually like you, Jake! I was just doing my job as far as the letters were concerned. That shit that happened to you with Franklin Butler, I had nothing to do with.”

“Let me ask you something else, Frazier. Was that you I was on the phone with at my child’s mother’s house?”

“No, I wasn’t on the phone with you and no I wasn’t there at all.” Frazier was lying. “Listen to me, Jake, you might have got to Mitch and myself but you don’t have a chance with Murphy and the Calvin brothers!”

“Why not, Frazier? Who the fuck are they?” Before he could answer, Jake said, “You know what? I’m tired of fucking around with you, Frazier. I’m going to make you pay for playing a part in this.”

Jake heard the front door open and turned his head for a second. Frazier used the distraction to draw a gun from his waistline and point back at Jake.

“Baby, you home?” a female voice called out. Jake knew that voice and when Brenda the nurse walked into the kitchen, the last thing she expected to see was Jake and her boyfriend holding guns at each other. She hadn’t seen or heard anything about him since the hospital. In a panicked voice she asked, “What’s going on? Why are you here, Mr. Billings?”

“Not to hurt you, miss. I’m here for answers.”

“What kind of answers require you both pointing guns in my kitchen?”

“Ask him.”

Frazier finally spoke up. “Listen to me, Jake, I don’t know where Albert, the Calvin brothers, or Phil live. I don’t know how to find them unless they call me and wanna meet up. The info you came over here to get, I ain’t got it. So what you wanna do?”

Brenda asked Jake and Frazier, “Can y’all please put the guns down?”

“I don’t think I can do that, Brenda. Your boyfriend and his crew want me dead. I kinda have no choice but to be in your kitchen with a gun drawn! What a small fucking world! One of you tried to get me killed and the other tried to help me live. Ain’t that some shit you only see in the movies?”

“Brenda, get outta the kitchen,” Frazier told her, never letting his eyes off Jake.

“Yeah, Brenda, get the fuck outta here,” Jake joined in.

“I’m not going nowhere! Y’all want to shoot? Shoot with me right here, then.” She walked directly into their line of fire. “This is my home and there will be no shooting in it! Frazier, you are my man and stay here time to time so I’m asking you to respect me. Mr. Billings, I tried my best to help you, clean you, and talk to you when you was in that coma. So I’m asking you to respect my home. Put your gun down and leave please!”

Jake didn’t say a word. He kept his gun on Frazier and backed out the door. He would respect the lady’s wishes. As he was driving, weighing his odds of making it, Jake wasn’t pleased with himself. He should have been able to finish Frazier despite that nurse. That opportunity might not present itself
again. Frazier would definitely be on point. He thought about laying Brenda down, too, but that would have been plain old foul. He was a better man than that, but for how long? He had thoughts to lay low for a while, being he had fumbled twice. Once with Phil and his attacker and now with Frazier. As he drove around thinking about his next move, Jake saw sirens flash in his rearview mirror. There was no way he could outrun them in the vehicle he was in, and he didn’t want to shoot it out with them right then and there. Jake pulled over, put his gun in his waist, and rolled the window down. He saw only one officer in his rearview mirror.

“Good evening, sir. License and registration, please.”

“What’s the problem officer?”

“Your taillight is out, sir. License and registration, please.”

Jake had no choice but to shoot the officer.
Fuck it
, he thought. Maybe he had one other option.

“Officer, my papers are in my bag. Do you mind if I get them?”

“Go ahead but be slow, please, sir.”

“Okay, here we go. Here’s my license and here’s my registration.” Jake put twenty thousand dollars on the dashboard, then another twenty thousand. “And there’s my insurance.”

As the bright-eyed officer quickly took the money, he told Jake, “Your papers look straight to me, sir! I would get that taillight fixed, though.”

“Thanks officer! I’ll make sure I take care of that ASAP.” Jake said to himself, “I can’t afford for no shit like that to happen again. Freedom is priceless and I ain’t acting like it is.” Jake found a quiet dark block with no activity and parked the Crown Vic. He was tired and needed to figure out what to do
next. He was going to sneak into his condo and see what Kim had laying around. He thought it was funny how when a hood nigga die they (society) act like that shit don’t even matter.

After finding nothing of importance in the condo, Jake decided to go back to the airport motel so he could get some good rest and a hot meal without having to worry about police. When he got to the joint, he expected to see the funny-talking old man he could barely understand, but the place was empty. Jake still had his room key in his bag and he still had money on the room so he was straight. He went into his room, which they had cleaned up pretty good, turned on the television, and laid down. He put on the local news, but heard no mention of the two killings nor anything about him being a wanted man.

Jake fell asleep and woke up to a knock on the door. It wasn’t the funny-talking clerk he expected, but Jake assumed this lady was his wife.

“Hey sweetie! I’m sorry to wake you but I need to know if that black Crown Victoria in the parking lot is yours because if not, I have to get it towed out of here.”

“Yes, ma’am, that’s mine.”

“You didn’t have a car on the day you checked in?”

“No, ma’am, I didn’t,” Jake answered.

“Oh, okay. That old fool ain’t losing it then. When you check in you supposed to say what you driving and he supposed to write the plate, make, and model of the car so we know it belongs to a customer, but my husband always forgets. He’s a damn fool! He need to put his teeth in his mouth. Bad enough he bit the tip of his tongue off, now no one can understand a damn thing that man is saying!! You hungry, son?”

“Yeah,” Jake said chuckling to himself. He thought the little lady was a trip and she looked exactly like Santa Claus’s wife.

“Well come to the kitchen. I’m about to make some breakfast.”

Jake went into the kitchen and saw the same people he saw on the day he checked in. Three black old-timers and two middle-aged Spanish women. He sat down and ate toast and oatmeal and drank orange juice. He couldn’t help but wonder why Kim or Mitch didn’t kill him when they had the chance. There were a lot of loops in both of their stories.

———

As Jake was eating breakfast, Phil and Frank were at one of Phil’s lavish pads.

“I can’t fucking believe Mitch and one of the guys I hired to rob Jake’s store is dead! This fucking guy is something else! This is why I have you with me, Frank. Because Murphy and his sons are slippin’! Do you know I provided them with her address, and it wasn’t easy to get. I had to press the top three real estate agents I knew and spend a fortune before one of them gave me what I needed. So Jake should have been killed right along with his bitch! They had ’em the other night. They were right there, but Albert is going soft with his new policy!”

“What is his new policy, if you don’t mind me asking, Phil?”

“Hell no, I don’t mind you asking, Frank! His new policy is: no women or kids anymore. That will draw too much heat on us, which I agree with, but for this one case, for the life of me I can’t understand why they would want to spare a cunt like that! That’s why I don’t trust them and I have to get them before they
get me. All of these guys are the same. They use you and then try to get you a pair of cement shoes. I got a trick for these cocksuckers, though!”

“Listen, Phil, I don’t know Mr. Murphy or the Calvin brothers but I’m gonna take your word on what kind of guys they are. I do know the type of shit this guy Jake is pulling is crazy and we have to be extra careful. He feels he has nothing to lose and that’s gonna make him extremely hard to deal with. We don’t know anything about where he is staying, who he’s with, or if he has any friends with him. We have to take all of these things into consideration.”

“That’s why you’re the man, Frank! You’re tough and you’re smart! You know I wouldn’t know what to do without you,” Phil sang out.

Frank ignored the compliment. “What’s the deal with the CO? I don’t hear you talk about Frazier much. You good with him?”

“Yeah, Frank, I’m cool with him! Frazier ain’t stupid. I have a feeling he’ll be calling to have a meeting alone with me one day.”

———

Frazier was having issues of his own. Instead of breakfast, he was getting the third degree.

“Why was Jake Billings in my kitchen pointing a gun at you, talking about you wanting him dead? What is going on?” Brenda asked. “What are you doing?”

“The guy lost it, Brenda! How should I know what’s going on in his head? Maybe because I was the CO on duty when he got stabbed. Some loony runs in here with a gun on me and you
asking me what’s going on? I’m outta here! Brenda, I really like you. We’ve been dating for about a year and shit been cool, but in the last two months you’ve been a little too clingy. I ain’t into no one giving me the third degree. Fuck that! So if you wanna talk we can talk, but the third degree with the funny tone ain’t gonna work!”

“Well, you can leave then, because you should understand I got the right to be upset when there are guns out in my house, Frazier!”

“You right and I’m sorry, Brenda! That shit just had me on edge. I ain’t got no answers, though. I think he’s just bugging because I was the man on duty when he got put in a coma. It is kinda weird that I was his CO and you was his nurse. It’s a small world after all!”

“I gotta work doubles today and tomorrow at the hospital so I’m gonna stay over there, Fraze. I don’t want to stay in this house right now anyway after that incident!”

“I hear you, Brenda. We can move somewhere together now. That was more than a good enough reason to get a place together.”

Frazier was serious. Not only because of Jake, but he couldn’t trust the remaining members in the 300 Crew.

“I’m gonna get a room somewhere tonight myself,” Frazier said. “I ain’t gotta go back to work for at least three more days. I’ma shoot some pool into the wee hours of the night, down a couple of cold ones, find me a good bag of weed, and call it a night. You have a good place I could go?”

“As a matter of fact I do. Me and a few nurses stayed at this cute mom-and-pop motel by the airport a few times. It ain’t fancy or nothing like that, but they have some of the best steak
and eggs, the rooms are clean and cheap, and the people are nice. There was this crazy old man at the front desk and we could hardly understand a word he said. His wife says he bit the tip of his tongue off and never wears his dentures, but they are the sweetest people in the world! If you decide to go, let me know. I’d rather come stay over there with you and it’s not that far from the hospital.”

“Sounds good to me, Brenda! I’ll wait for you, drop you off at work, and you can tell me where the place is. I will get the room and whenever you finish your shift you can give me a call and I’ll shoot back to get you.”