Private Deceptions (4 page)

"Like you said, Wanda, I just have that affect on women."

The more I thought about it, the more I knew that I needed to know who and what I was up against. I knew where to go, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go there. Freeze would know, I knew he would. Freeze always knew everything about everybody. If he didn’t know, he either knew how to find out or it wasn’t worth knowing. It had been ten years since I’d seen Freeze. Ten years since I had tried to close the door on my past. Maybe it was time to re-open that door.

Besides, I was hungry and I hadn’t eaten anything all day. So I drove to Cuisine. I entered the supper club and looked around for Freeze. I was surprised at what a nice place it was. Nothing like the spots we used to run back in the day. Not seeing Freeze anywhere, I allowed the hostess to seat me at a table.

"Is Freeze here?"

"Who?"

I smiled and continued to look over the menu. "Just tell Freeze that Nick Simmons would like to see him."

The hostess walked away.

It wasn’t too long before I looked up and saw Freeze coming toward my table; wearing a suit. "Nick! What’s up?"

"You tell me. You’re the man. In a suit no less."

"Fuck that shit. How the fuck are you, man?" Freeze sat down and motioned for a waitress. Two responded to his motion. "What are you drinkin’, Nick?"

"Johnny Black, straight up."

"Bring me the usual. You hungry, Nick?"

"Yeah, I haven’t eaten all day."

"You see anything on the menu you want? Never mind, I know you’ll eat anything," Freeze said, turning his attention to the waitresses. "Tell the cook to make whatever he’s best at for Nick, and you know what to bring me. You, get the drinks." And with that both women rushed off to carry out his orders.

"Do two waitresses always come when you call? And what’s up with the suit?"

"Hey, this is a legitimate, upscale supper club. I gotta look the part. But nevermind all that, Nick. What’s up with you?"

"I’ve been all right, man."

"Damn, it’s good to see you, Nick. You should come around more often."

"You know what’s up with that."

"That stupid shit between you and Bobby." Freeze shook his head. "You need to let that shit go."

"Has Bobby let it go?"

"Not far as I know. He doesn’t talk about it. He gets all quiet and shit when you bring it up."

"Then it’s still on."

Freeze laughed. "Yeah, I guess it is. But that shouldn’t stop you. You and me been through too much."

Knowing Freeze was right; I let it pass without comment. "How’s Black?"

"Doin’ good. Island life agrees with him."

"When’s the last time you talked to him?"

"Talked to him this morning." Freeze announced as our drinks arrived. "Black calls me every morning. He likes to keep his hand in. You know how Black is. Shit ain’t changed."

"He get up here much?"

"Every once in awhile. He don’t like bein’ away from Shy for too long."

"I can’t believe Black’s strung out like that."

"You ain’t seen Shy."

"She all that?"

"She’s worth the price of admission. You oughta go down there. Ain’t like you ain’t been invited."

"Black don’t wanna see me. I called him a few times when I got back, but we never hooked up. Then he was gone."

"Shit was crazy back then for him and Shy." The waitress returned with our food, Prime Rib. I started eating it like I hadn’t eaten in weeks. "You think Black is still mad at you ’cause you left?"

"Ain’t he?"

"Hell, no. He wasn’t mad at you, not really anyway. He understood why you felt you had to go like that. He knew that shit with you and Bobby was gonna end with one of y’all bein’ dead. What Black couldn’t understand was why you joined the army to fight for the government when your homies was fightin’ a war right here. But he respected your decision. Shit, Black respected you. Said you were the most disciplined man he ever met."

"I was a soldier even then. That’s why he made me work with you. Your ass was wide-open back then. Wanted to blast everybody."

"Damn near did."

"Black thought you needed discipline. And he was right, but look at you now."

"A lot’s changed since you been gone."

"I see this. This is really a step up from The Late Night."

"Damn, The Late Night. I haven’t thought about that place in years. We had some good times —" Freeze paused and looked at me. I guess he remembered the last time I was there that Bobby tried to kill me. "And some bad times." Freeze laughed a little. "Anyway, this ain’t that type of place. The Late Night was just that. A late-night hang out. We are marketing to a different clientele."

"Listen to you."

"Wanda taught me to say shit like that. She’s a trip, but she was right. She’s right about most things. She made us all a ton of money over the years. Anyway, I know you didn’t come here just to talk about old times. What’s poppin’?"

"You know somebody named Alvin Childers?"

"Chilly?"

"Yeah, Chilly."

"I know him and so do you, Nick. You remember he used to deal for André back in the day. He’s the one who made peace with Black, and they set up the dead zone where nobody deals. Bitch nigga had to make peace; ’cause Black was gonna blast that ass next. Now he runs most of the drugs uptown. What’s your interest?"

"Business. His wife is my client."

"Gee. What Gee hire you for?"

"Find her brother."

"Didn’t know Gee had a brother."

"Didn’t think you would, he’s not part of the family business. His name is Jake Rollins, he’s a chemist."

"Never met him, just her sister, Chésará."

"I just left her."

"She’s a bad mutha fucka."

"So I noticed."

"Wild as hell. Into everything."

"I could see that, yeah."

"Pussy was good though."

"You fucked —" Freeze looked at me like I was stupid. "Nevermind. She got anything to do with the family business?"

"No, Gee’s breakin’ her off. You think Chilly had something to do with it?"

"Mrs. Childers does."

"If Chilly did have somethin’ to do with it, your job is easy. All you gotta do is find the body. Chilly likes to make his shit real public. Make a statement, like André used to, you know what I’m sayin’." Freeze laughed. "I know you do, that used to be our thang. Remember?"

I laughed. "Yeah. I remember."

"So let me get this straight. Gee hired you to find her brother. Gee don’t think Chilly’s involved, Gee knows he’s involved. So what does Gee want with you?"

"So I can prove it to the cops."

"Nick. This ain’t nothin’ you want any parts of."

"I see this. I’ll leave it alone."

"You a lyin’ mutha fucka, Nick."

I got up from table. "Thanks for dinner, Freeze."

"Nick."

"Yeah."

"If shit gets wild," Freeze stood up. "I’m with you."

"Thanks, Freeze."

I left there thinking about Black.

Whether he respected me or not, the truth of the matter was that I ran out on him when he needed me most. But I wasn’t about to let Bobby kill me over Camille just to save face with Black. But in spite of all that, Freeze was still for me. It would make my burden just that much heavier.

It started me thinking about the old days, the old crew. Black and Bobby. Jamaica and Freeze. I thought about the first time Black told us he was going to kill André. We knew he was planning something big when he called a meeting at The Late Night. Black never had meetings. In spite of that, we were late. Waitin’ on Freeze, of course.

"Now that we’re all here," Black said, as soon as we came through the door. "I bet you all are wondering why I got you all over here."

"The thought had occurred to me," Bobby said, staring at me. The way he was looking, I knew then that he knew I was fuckin’ Camille.

"I’m gonna kill André," Black declared.

There was complete silence in the room.

We all sat there looking at Black and one another, until Bobby started laughing. Everybody did at first, until we noticed Black wasn’t laughing.

"You serious, Black?" Freeze asked.

"Deadly." Black flashed a rare smile.

"How you gonna do it?" I asked.

"What you gonna do? Just walk into his office and blast him?" Bobby inquired, but his eyes were still on me. Then he slowly turned to Black.

"No. I have a plan," Black said.

"You plannin’ on taking over after he’s dead, Black?" I asked.

"The gambling houses and the women, yes. But I’m gettin’ out of the dope game."

Nobody was really surprised by that. We’d all seen it coming. After Vickie died in his apartment smoking cocaine, Black turned totally against drugs. He even stopped smokin’ weed. And Black loved to smoke weed.

"We’d be givin’ up a lot of money, Mike. I don’t think that’s good for business," Bobby said.

"Maybe. No. You’re right, Bobby, it’s not good for business. We’ll just have to find different ways of making money. But when I walk around here and I see what it’s done to the neighborhood." He looked at Jamaica. "To people. I just can’t be involved in that anymore. Anybody who wants to is free to do whatever he wants once this is over. As long as you don’t do business around here."

Black looked around the room.

"Bobby, you with me? I can’t do this without you."

"You don’t even have to ask me, you know I am," Bobby said.

"Even though it’s not good for business?" Black asked him.

"Business will just have to suffer."

"Anybody else?" Black asked.

No one said a word.

"All right then. My plan is based on the fact that for every action there is a reaction. If certain things happened, I can get people right where I need them to be. Now, there are enough people who hate André to go around. Cops won’t care, and as long as business doesn’t suffer, no one else will care either."

"Just as long as everybody continues to get paid, you’re right. Nobody will care." Bobby added.

"We have to kill Ricky. Him and André started out together. He’ll try to take over. Benny and Dupree were loyal to André, so they gotta die too. And that’s it. Now if André dies, Cazzie will try to move on us. So we have to kill him too. Killin’ Cazzie will be harder, but not impossible."

"Go on," Bobby said.

"All right now, everybody pay attention. Benny and Dupree are the key to it all. They make the rounds every night to collect the money from all the houses. On Friday nights there’s more than a quarter of a million dollars. They start at one o’clock, and by three thirty they’ll be coming out of the last house. That’s where we’ll hit them. Nick, you, and Freeze will be waiting for them. As soon as they get to the car, you and Freeze blast them. Nick, you cover while Freeze gets the money."

"Done," I said. Good soldier, you know.

"Now, Benny and Dupree are dead and the money is gone, what’s gonna happen next?" Black asked.

"Somebody will call Ricky’s punk ass," Freeze said.

"Exactly. Someone in the house will call him to tell him about the robbery. Ricky will be at his after hours spot. Sitting in that office, just like he does every fuckin’ night. As soon as he gets the call about the robbery, he’ll call André and they’ll meet at André’s office. Bobby, when Ricky comes out of the office and starts to make his way through the crowd, you and Jamaica take him then."

"What about Cazzie?" I asked.

"He’s the wildcard in all of this. Problem is, there’s no way I can control his movements the way I did everybody else."

"Black," Jamaica said. "Let me take care of Cazzie. I know how to take him."

Black looked at Jamaica for a long time. He knew Jamaica was off the chain with that heroin. We all did. "Okay, I’ll leave that all to you, Jamaica."

"What about your boy, André?" Freeze asked.

"When he gets to his office, I’ll be there waitin’ for him. Now for this to work, everything has to run on schedule." Black gave me, Bobby, and Jamaica a pager.

"What’re these for?" Bobby asked. "I already got a pager."

"When you complete your assignment you page the next man. Three sevens if everything goes as planned. If anything goes wrong, you page the next man with all nines. When it’s over, we all meet here. Anyone get nines, we abort and meet back here. Any questions?"

It all worked out just like he planned it. Except for Jamaica disappearing, it all went off clean and easy. When he didn’t show up afterwards at The Late Night nobody really gave it much thought. We all just figured he was off somewhere getting high. Like I said, we all knew Jamaica was off the chain with the heroin since Vickie died. He and Vickie were real close. They used to get high and hang out all the time. But, shit, hangin’ out was all Vickie ever wanted to do anyway. I laughed out loud.