The World in Reverse (7 page)

Nicola pulled her closer. “Something cr
azy?” He ran his hands down her back and grabbed her buttocks. Biting his lip, he picked her up off the ground and forced her to wrap her legs around him. “Something crazy like...take you on the floor right here?” He slapped her backside and growled. It was amazing how quickly she could turn him on. “You know how horny I get when you wear that Steeler’s t-shirt with no bra on under it. His deft fingers grazed over her pebbled nipples as he bit his lip.

She laughed and tried to keep him from pul
ling up her shirt. “Nicky! You better not! The kids...
what about the kids
?” She laughed infectiously. “I keep telling you that you can’t do that kind of stuff in front of the little babies!”

He pinned Ivy against the wall and held her in his arms. Burying his head on her chest, he inhaled her perfume and sighed. “Shit. I forgot about
all
those damned kids.” He rubbed his hands against her jeans and felt an erection growing.

“Look at what you’re doing to me,” he said, trying to make her feel guilty.

“Oh, you poor baby.” She ran her hands through his curly locks and kissed him quickly. The feeling was mutual but would have to be hampered for now. “Kids! Come down! Dinner’s ready!” she screamed in his ear.

“Ouch, my ear,” he said, deafened by her long-range, outdoor mommy voice.

Sliding down from his embrace, she patted him on the back and giggled. “We’ll pick this conversation up later, chief.”

“That’s right,” he said watching her walk away. “Put daddy’s shit on the back burner.”

“Daddy’s stuff is always X-rated, “she said, turning back to look at him. She flashed her bedroom eyes.

“And that’s fair, how?” he asked, pushing down on his crotch to adjust his growing ma
nhood.

She laughed.

Nicola rolled his eyes. “Yeah, keep laughing. I’ll pull you into the broom closet and get you pregnant,” he shouted after her. “It’ll take me like four minutes, five tops.” Throwing up his hands at her, he went back to his spaghetti.

Ivy bit her lip and paused. She watched him while he worked on his food. Her voice was lower now. “You’ve already gotten me pre
gnant,” she said, walking back into the kitchen. The kids ran past her to the dinner table.

Nicola turned his head. “Come again”. His eyes bucked.

Ivy pushed the smaller boys up to the table and looked over at him. “I was looking for the right time to tell you.”

Her smile told him that she was happy with herself.

Nicola couldn’t blink. He stared at her in disbelief. PREGNANT.

Walking over to the cabinet in the corner where their medicines were housed, she pulled out a small gift box and brought it over to him. “You weren’t the only one keeping a secret. I wanted to wait until our anniversary to tell you but with everything going on, I felt it best just to put it out there.”

Nicola opened the box to find an EPT test. His long fingers grasped the white handle of the test as he stared. It was positive. He swallowed hard and looked down at his wife. “How long…how far along are you?” He was truly lost for words.

“Seven weeks,” she said with a small smile. Leaning into him, she smirked. “This is the part where you jump for joy or
commit suicide
.”

“Commit suicide? Why?” Nicola reached down and picked her up in her arms. Swinging her around, he screamed out. “That’s why you’ve been so crazy! You’re knocked up again! Damn, I hope it’s a girl, baby.”

Ivy laughed and then caught herself. “Wait. What do you mean
I’ve been acting crazy
?”

Nicola set her down and kissed her forehead. “I mean rabid ass, strait-jacket crazy.” He kissed her again.

“I want a girl, too,” she said quickly. “And this is our last one. I want my tubes tied.” She pointed at him like this was all his fault.

“Why?” Nicola asked sarcastically.

“Because my vagina can’t take one more of your Agosto seeds,” she laughed. “And I think we have enough now. We won’t be able to fit them all at the table soon.”

Nicola looked over at his sons. “A table full of Agosto’s,” he joked. “Damn, baby. I’m so happy. I mean…” he was lost for words. “This is amazing. You know, we said we wanted a big family when we got married and now look. We’re at number five in six years.”

“It’s cult like,” Ivy said under her breath.

“Who knows already? I know that you told someone. You can’t hold water. Man…we have to celebrate,” he said, rubbing through her hair affectionately.

“I figured that you should be the first to know,” she said, walking over to the children. “I haven’t told anyone yet.”

“Not even Trina?” Nicola asked of her best friend and sister-in-law.

“No one,” Ivy said, shaking her head. “Not a soul. And I talked to Trina just today. She called and we spent about an hour on the phone talking about the kids, Emerald and Brooks.”

He really wished that his dead friend was here to celebrate with them, but he quickly pushed the painful thought out of his head. “I’m breaking out a bottle of the good shit, and after dinner I’m going to give you a big girl massage with that thing I bought you for your annive
rsary and then we’re going to….”

“Daddy, you cursed,” Adam said with a frown.

Nicola winked at his son. “What did I say?” he asked sarcastically.

“You said
shit
,” Michael answered as clear as a bell while he dug in his nose.

“Michael Agosto!” Ivy admonished, narro
wing her eyes on her son. “You do not use that language in this house. I don’t care what your father says.”

“Aww, let the boy say
shit
. It should be his favorite word from the look of his underwear. He uses his draws like tissue paper,” Nicola said, going back to the stove to fix their plates.

“You are not helping,” Ivy said, trying to repress a laugh.

Just then the doorbell rang. The echo of it clanged through the house like the sound of broken glass.

Ivy turned around and looked towards the doorway.

“I’ll get it,” Nicola said, putting down the plate.

“Who could that be at this hour?” she asked, looking at her watch. It was nearly nine.

“Don’t know. That’s why I’ll get it,” Nicola said, walking out of the kitchen.

As Nicola peered out of the front door peep, he cursed. “Fuck,” he said, opening the door.

Johnson smiled. “Hello to you, too, beautiful. Can I come inside?” He leaned against the door opening.

Nicola stepped back and opened the door wider. “Sure.” Closing the door behind them, he pulled his department cell phone from his pant’s pocket and frowned. “I didn’t get a call. Is there another body?” His chest constricted.

“You could say that,” Johnson said, looking around the large house. “Damn, is your wife rich or something?”

“No, we both work for a living,” Nicola said, trying to get his attention. “So why are you here and how did you find me?”

“I got your info from Cory at the office,” Johnson said, shaking his head. He looked back at Nicola. “Somebody somewhere has to be rich in order for you to afford this, man. We don’t get paid nearly enough to…”

“Johnson, please just fucking concentrate,” Nicola said, snapping his fingers. “Why are you here, man? Is this a social visit? You having problems?”

“Homicide just found Twist’s body inside of a car, blown to shit downtown. I wanted to get down there to check it out before it was completely processed.”

“Twist is dead,” Nicola repeated, rolling his eyes. He let out a sigh. “Fuck!” Wiping his face, he grabbed his boots from the corner and sat down on the bench to put them on. “This is not coming at a good time. I’m supposed to be cooking dinner for my babies; my wife…”

Ivy came around the corner, looking curiously at the man who stood in her doorway. She wiped her fingers on the kitchen towel clutched in her hand and spied Nicola putting on his shoes.

“Baby, what’s going on?” she asked. “Where are you going?” Her frown was unmi
stakable.

Nicola stood up and walked over to her. “Baby, I’m sorry. I gotta go.”

“You just got home,” she growled. “And what about the news I just gave you?”

He held her slender shoulders in his hands. “I know. It’s fucked up. I know, but I promise not to be too long. I’ve gotta go. I think I just lost my only lead in this case.”

Ivy rolled her eyes.

Johnson looked over at them with shock and awe in his eyes. Agosto had a black wife…a fine black wife. Who would have ever thought it? He always pegged him as being married to a small, blonde woman
- a Becky, an Amy, a Cathy but not a sister.

Ivy looked over at Johnson for an explan
ation of who he was and why he was in her house.

“Detective Johnson, ma’am,” he said, stic
king out his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Ivy Agosto, Nicola’s wife,” Ivy said, se
eing the surprise in his eyes. She was used to it after six years of marriage to a white man in the city where Dr. King was assassinated. Some things just never went over well.

“Sorry, baby,” Nicola said, motioning to Johnson. “This is my new partner.” He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.

“Nice to meet you,” Ivy said, trailing her intense gaze back to Nicola. “Don’t be all night, Nicky. You and I have unfinished business.” Her voice was flat now, knowing that she could demand all she wanted, but more than likely it wouldn’t happen.

“I won’t.” Nicola kissed her on her for
ehead. “I promise.” He blinked as he said it. How could he tell her anything but that even though he knew it might not be true? He would try his best. That was the truth.

“Nice to meet you, Mrs…” Johnson paused.

“You’re his war partner. You can just call me Ivy,” she said with a half-smile. “Watch his back out there okay?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Johnson said, saluting her.

7

Nicola followed Johnson’s unmarked squad car in his truck with the lights flashing as they barreled through the city streets to downtown Memphis off of Madison Avenue directly across from the Madison Hotel, where a parking garage had been quartered off by the police.

Onlookers from the hotel, the law school d
irectly across the main thoroughfare and the gym gathered around speculating and pointing, while anxious news crews tried to get a glimpse of the action for a live shot.

Pulling up out front of the crime scene, Johnson and Nicola quickly jumped out, waved their badges and went under the tape.

“What time did they find him?” Nicola asked as they walked past detectives standing around talking.

“I got the call fifteen minutes before I came to your place. So, not too long before that,” Johnson answered, nodding towards a detective he knew. “Where’s the body?” he asked the guy.

“Second floor,” the detective said, pointing up. “Can’t miss it.”

On the second floor of the garage in the nearly vacant lot, flashing lights from crime scene cameras danced around the concrete structure as a woman in a black top and jeans took more pictures.

Nicola and Johnson walked up to the Range Rover, covered with bullet holes and broken glass and stopped.

“Why do these motherfuckers always drive
Land Rovers?” Johnson asked quizzically.

“They are normally good urban warfare v
ehicles. They can maneuver in just about any terrain," Nicola answered.

“So can a Hummer,” Johnson said, taking his eyes off the dead man to look at the woman as she bent over to take photos of the blood dripping from the interior of the truck to the ground.

“Well, he got fucked off regardless, didn’t he?” Nicola said, rolling his eyes.

“You think,” Johnson said, tilting his head and looking inside of the window at the dead body. “Looks like buck shot,” he said, looking at Nicola.

“12-gauge pump more than likely,” Nicola said, putting his hand on his hip. He exhaled a sigh. “Cane’s favorite. The bastard was right under our nose.”

“So you believe he killed him over our case?”

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” Nicola said with a frown.”

“Hey, don’t fuck with my crime scene, ge
ntlemen,” Detective Aubrey Graham said, walking up to the men. Graham was a mid-forties, black heavy-set woman with dark skin, black glasses, a thing against wearing make-up and a mean streak. Barely five feet tall, she had a reputation for being a hard ass on the streets but everyone loved her on the force. She nodded at Johnson and then stuck her hand out to shake Agosto’s hand. “So, do you think that this guy had something to do with the Baby Boy murders? Cuz I was told you guys weren’t working shit else until you solved it.”

“He may have had some useful information that could have helped us,” Agosto said, careful not to give too much away. “Why’d you call Johnson on this?”

Johnson looked over at Nicola and scratched the back of his neck.
Where was the trust?

Detective Graham smiled at Johnson. “He asked me to give him a call on any murders until he cracked the case.” She turned looking at Twist. “So you think he had something to do with it?” She asked again, just in case Nicola didn’t hear her the first time.

“No,” Nicola answered finally. “I just think that he could have helped.”

“Any possible idea of who might have killed him?” she asked, yawning. “I scratch your back. You scratch mine.”

Nicola rested his hands on the back of his head and yawned also. “Cane. His partner. He’s got a rap sheet a mile long. You might want to start by dusting the truck for his prints. I’m sure you’ll find them, and I’m sure that he’ll say that they lived together and shared the damned thing.”

“When you say partner?” she looked over at Nicola suggestively.

“I mean
business
partner,” Nicola said, shaking his head.

“Hey, it’s a new world. You have to be very specific these days,” she said with a chuckle.

Nicola stepped closer to the scene. “Did you find anything in his truck? Any data devices or anything?” He looked back at her.

“Not yet, but I’ll let you know once we haul it in to check it out,” Graham said, seeing that one of her detectives needed her elsewhere. “I’ll get back with you boys later.”

Nicola moved closer to the truck and looked inside without contaminating the scene.

Twist’s eyes were still open. His dead gaze was set on the wall across from him. Evidently, someone had stepped in front of the car and gotten his attention. But the shot that had ended his life, came from the driver side window. Blood splatter indicated it and the large hole on the side of his head and body. His right hand was still clenching the gun but the poor bastard never got a shot off.

While Nicola was looking inside, Johnson gave Graham the skinny on The Fly Boys and their operations before they gracefully bowed out.

“You want to go down to the coroner’s o
ffice with the body?” Johnson asked.

“Nah,” Nicola said, looking at his watch.
Damn it was getting late.
“Just tell Amy to call me if she finds anything that might be useful.”

“Will do,” Johnson said, fishing his keys out of his pocket. “So…you wanna tell me how you got to be rich?”

“I’m not rich,” Nicola said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Well, how’d you get the house?” Johnson probed.

Nicola spun around aggravated at Johnson and the hour.

Johnson put up his hands defensively. “Hey, I’m a detective. You can’t expect me not to be naturally curious. If you’re on the take, then just…”

Nicola wouldn’t even let him finish that statement. “My family has money. I have money. My wife makes a good life for herself, over six digits. We’re blessed. Now end of discussion about my finances. I haven’t been on the take, and I’m not ever going to be on the fucking take. I’d rather die first.” He raised his brow. “Anything else, detective. You wanna know if I’m a boxers or brief kind of guy?”

“Yeah as a matter of fact, I do have one more question. Does your wife have a si
ster…with money?” Johnson asked with a smile.

“Get the fuck out of here,” Nicola said, shaking his head. “No, she doesn’t, but she does have a very beautiful brother if you’re in to that sort of thing.”

Johnson laughed. “Yeah, well, I’m sure that you’ve heard this a thousand times before, but you have a beautiful house, a beautiful wife and a seemingly beautiful life. That’s hard to come by this day and age. I know dudes on the force who have been married like four times by forty.”

“I’m not fucking forty,” Nicola protested.

“You’re missing the point.”

“Look, don’t think I don’t know that I’ve got it made at home. Okay, I had to basically jump through a fire-blazing hoop with gasoline on my balls to get my wife,” Nicola said, poin
ting at Johnson as he made his point. “That’s why I try my best to protect my family. I’ve got two sets of twin boys who think the world of me. I’m there fucking Superman. That’s why my home life has to be completely separate from my work. I don’t like to mix ’em. So, showing up at the house is a no-no unless it’s a social call. Call me on my cell. Let me come to you. I don’t like to get the wife worried, and trust me. She is a worry wart. She’ll be texting me all damn day.”

“I’ll remember that in the future,” Johnson huffed. He quickly shifted gears again. “Well, I never thought you’d be married to a black woman,” Johnson said out of the blue. “That shit blew my mind. When she came walking around the corner in your house, I was like…damn! You just don’t seem like the type.”

“And what’s
the type
?” Agosto asked defensively. He had been told the same thing a hundred times and it always rubbed him the wrong way.

Johnson shrugged again, turning up his lips as he did. “I don’t know…open minded.”

Agosto laughed. “Yeah, well since you’re into getting personal, just what the fuck are you?”

Johnson wiped his mouth off and looked up in the air. “What do I look like?”

“You look like fucking…Vin Diesel,” Agosto joked. “A broke-ass, wanna be, cock strong Vin Diesel stunt double.”

“Fuck you. I’m not broke. But you hit the nail on the head. Italian and Black all the way baby. Which means my dick is twice as long as yours. And considering the pedigree, don’t be surprised if your kids don’t end up looking like me when they grow up, a bunch of Vin Diesel look alikes. ”

“
Shiiittt.
My kids will never be that ugly,” Agosto said. He let out a sigh. Without intention his mind had drifted back to Ivy and her news. He was going to be a father…
again
. The idea excited him and overwhelmed him, but the timing was way off. Plus, he knew that she was at home stewing over him having to leave again and disrupt their night. He wasn’t sure how he was going to make things up to her, but he knew that he was going to somehow.

“I know how this sounds before I even say it, so I’m just going to go on and put the di
sclaimer out there that this case means as much to me as it does to you,” Nicola said, turning towards Johnson.

“I think it means more to you based up on that scene at the Naples house.”

“Ivy’s pregnant. She just broke the news to me tonight and we didn’t even have a full conversation before you rang the doorbell. I really need to get back to her before long. You know how women are. Me leaving can’t be the lasting memory in her head about my final kid.”

“Final?”

“So she says.”

“Hell, with four already, I don’t blame her. But yeah, okay. Let’s get a move on. Congrats by the way. You’re a daddy again. I’ll have to buy you a drink sometime. You still can get out, right? You’re not on one of those off-hour lockdowns where you can’t leave the house unless it’s work related.”

Nicola shook his head. “No. Ivy’s normally really cool about anything I want to do. It’s just the situation. A drink sounds cool.”

Johnson nodded. “So where are we going? Back to Twist’s place?”

“For what? You really think Cane’s gonna tell us anything now? Fuck that. I doubt they’ll have surveillance tapes of the murder. They would have been smart not to leave any evidence over here. This was set-up, planned. Plus, all we have is a theory about the buckshot. We can’t just show up there at his place now. The best thing we can do is track his phone, see if we can get a number and try to find out if anyone will come forward.”

“You don’t really think that the Molly dealer is going to come forward now, do you? That would be suicide and for what? He doesn’t get anything out of it. His boss is dead, just in case you haven’t noticed,” Johnson said pointing back at Twist. “Best thing is to kick this dude’s door in and drag him downtown.”

“Without a warrant?” Nicola laughed. “I’ve dealt with Cane, okay. He called his lawyer before he capped this dude. Not a judge in the city will give us a warrant based upon the evidence we have and not a lawyer in the city wouldn’t take the case if we fucked this up.”

“Well, we are running out of options. We have to do something. Okay. My idea is obv
iously out. So what now?” Johnson asked, scratching the five o’clock shadow staring to form on his face. “We’ve got no video here, but there must be surveillance somewhere in the area that we can use to narrow down who was in this place during the time of the murder.”

“Let’s go across to the Madison Hotel. I know the manager there. He’s cool people. Maybe he’ll let us view the camera footage from that vantage point and get an idea of who came in and out of here right before and right after the murder without a fucking subpoena.”

“Good idea,” Johnson said, winking at Nicola. “You might just be useful yet.”

***

Nicola and Johnson only had a small window to snoop unofficially. It wouldn’t be long before Graham and her homicide detectives actually assigned to the case made their way across the street for the same reason. In preparation, Nicola had asked the manager to keep their inquiry confidential. The manager had agreed reluctantly, but owed Nicola a favor from a few years back.

Quickly, they ran through the tape and found that four cars had come through in the last hour. Twist’s Rover was the second car in, followed by two additional vehicles.

“The Mercedes Benz that came in before Twist had a man and woman inside. They came across the street to the hotel,” Johnson said, logging the information down in his notebook.

“Yeah, they’re not who we’re
here for,” Nicola said, sucking at his teeth. “The two cars that came in after Twist… they both had tinted windows. A Dodge Ram and a Ford Mustang. Ten minutes apart. Can we zoom in on a tag?”

The security manager zoomed in on the back of the car. “We lose a little clarity on the Ram, but it’s a Tennessee tag.”

Johnson wrote down the number. “I’ll have it called in.”

“And the Mustang?” Nicola asked, leaning closer to the monitor.

The manager ran the tape forward and then stopped as the Mustang pulled into the garage. “It’s an Arkansas tag.”

Johnson wrote down that tag number as well.