After All (32 page)

“
You better quit that job
tomorrow, T'aneka. Go stay with your auntie in North Carolina. Get
far away from here, baby.” Dominic held both her hands. Seeing the
two men glance at them, he lowered his voice even more. “Let's get
out of here. We'll go to my place.”

T'aneka grabbed his arm restraining
him. “I don't want to leave Baton Rouge, Dom. Besides, what if they
take it out on my family?”

Dominic pulled her to her feet.”
T'aneka, let's not argue about it now. We'd better leave
now.”

Dominic made an effort not to look at
the two men as they passed them on the way out. He walked behind
T'aneka to the glass double doors leading to parking
lot.

“
Hurry up, babe.” Dominic
hustled her towards his car.

“
But what about my
car?”

“
We'll get it
later.”

“
Say man,” a gruff voice
just over their shoulders barked. “You got a light?”

“
No.” Dominic did not look
back but put his key in the car door.

“
Say man, hold up a minute.
You know how to get to Terrace Street from over here?” The second
man spoke. He grinned revealing several gold teeth.

“
No, sorry.” Dominic fumbled
with the lock.

“
What's your hurry? Help a
brother out, man.” The first man hunched his shoulders.

“
Yeah.” The second man
spread his hands wide. “Hey pretty woman. What's up with you?”He
stood to their left while his partner stood on their right leering
at T'aneka.

T'aneka said nothing. Dominic finally
got the door open but one of the men pushed it shut
again.

“
Say look, we wanna ask you
somethin'. We tryin' to talk and y'all actin' uppity. That ain't
right.”

“
Naw, that ain't right,” the
second man echoed.

“
Get out of my way.” Dominic
faced them. He stood with is feet apart. His arms hung down loosely
with clenched fists.

“
Who you talkin' to, man?
Huh?” The first man shoved Dominic against the car. “You want some
of this?”He held up a fist.

The second man jerked T'aneka hard.
“Come here. I got somethin' for you.”

“
Let go of me!” T'aneka
aimed a kick at his knee but missed. She screamed in terror to see
Dominic fending off the blows of the other man. “Dom! Oh
no!”

When she started towards him she was
thrown down to the pavement. She went limp when her head hit the
concrete of the parking lot. The man left her lying unconscious to
join his partner.

“
We gonna help you and your
bitch learn to stay outta business that don't concern you. You hear
me, punk?” The first man pounded Dominic's head against the hood of
the car while the second man held him.

“
Yeah, and we got a treat
for the pretty woman. Too bad she won't be awake to enjoy it,” the
second man said in a vicious voice.

Chapter 13

Red, green, and gold leaves rustled in
the wind. Typical for late January in south Louisiana, a chill
breeze made heavy coats and hats a necessity in spite of the bright
sunshine. Men in heavy work boots and wool jackets moved around the
construction site full of purpose. Most of the outside work was
completed making it less of hardship on such a cold day. Anthony
and Cedric were bundled up for warmth in heavy coats as they toured
the site.

“
Looks good. We're right on
schedule, Cedric.” Anthony examined the room they stood in. He
turned full circle to take everything.

“
Yeah, though I had to knock
some heads a couple of times.” Cedric stood looking around with his
gloved hands on his hips.

“
You have to expect that,
you know? But we got a good group of men.” Anthony walked over to
run his hand along a wall of sheet rock.

“
Yeah, they do pretty well I
have to say,” Cedric said. “Except for that new guy, Troy Quarles.
One more screw up, and he's outta here.”

“
Why?” Anthony's dark
eyebrows drew together.

“
He's lazy. Plus, a couple
of times he's gone to pick up supplies and disappeared for over
four hours. He's always got some lame excuse for messing up. Matter
of fact, he didn't even show up for work today.” Cedric gave a
grunt of disgust.

“
Well all right then. If
he's not doing his job, get rid of him,” Anthony said in a gruff
voice. He turned away.

“
Sure, I mean he's more
trouble than he's worth,” Cedric continued.

“
Go on say it.” Anthony
whirled around to face him.

Cedric looked at him sharply, a puzzled
frown on his face. “Say what?”

“
I told you so. You weren't
too thrilled about hiring him. I convinced you because Uncle Ike is
on the board of that program. You might as well jump right in with
the rest of the Ike Batiste critics,” Anthony said in a caustic
tone.

“
I'm only telling you about
a problem employee like I've done before, Anthony,” Cedric said
calmly. “I wasn't even thinking of Ike.”

Anthony's chest rose as he took a deep
breath. He exhaled slowly and closed his eyes for a few seconds.
“I'm sorry, man. You're right. I didn't mean anything...” He walked
to another part of the building to inspect window
facings.

Cedric watched him for several minutes
before speaking again.”How you doin'? I haven't been seeing much of
you lately except at the sites.”

“
Fine.” Anthony pointed to a
maze of red wires sticking from a hole. “Have Kendricks double
check this wiring for me.”

“
Sure thing.”Cedric cleared
his throat. “You been goin' out much?”

“
No. I forgot to tell you
that the border paper came in yesterday. It's going to look great
with this paint.”Anthony compared the labels on several cans with a
color chart in his portfolio.

“
Yeah. Me and Shantae went
to Diggy-Do's last Saturday. They had their first big Mardi Gras
party. I was surprised you didn't show up, much as you love his
Mardi Gras parties.” Cedric spoke casually as he appeared to
scrutinize exposed beams. “Didn't see Michelle either.”

“
Humm.” Anthony continued
checking the paint.

“
Man, we had a ball. Shame
y'all missed it.” Cedric strolled around looking at nothing in
particular.

“
Let me save you the trouble
of stumbling towards the obvious question; no, I haven't seen or
talked to Michelle and it's unlikely that I will.” Anthony closed
his portfolio with a sharp snap.

“
What are you talking about?
I wasn't going to ask anything. I was just saying--” Cedric was the
picture of innocence.

“
Don't even try it, Cedric.”
Anthony fixed him with a hard stare.

“
I uh, I mean... What I'm
saying is-- Okay, so maybe I might of kinda been leading up to it.”
Cedric gave up his attempt at denial.

“
This is why we couldn't get
away with anything when we were kids. All an adult had to do was
say look as you and you'd spill your guts.” Anthony wore a slight
smile.

“
I never could lie. But
don't try to change the subject. You and Michelle haven't even
tried to get back together?” Cedric walked over to him.

“
It's over.” Anthony's lips
turned down erasing all signs of humor.

Cedric put a hand on Anthony's
shoulder. “Finding that special woman is maybe a once in lifetime
thing. Be very sure before you let it go so easy.”

“
Easy? You think it was
easy?”Anthony's voice was coarse as though the words themselves
hurt.

He thought of all those lonely nights
spent in agony, going over their dilemma, trying to convince
himself that maybe through some miracle they could be together. But
Michelle's biting accusations against his uncle were too hard to
take. Not once did she try to see him in a different
light.

“
I know it's tough,” Cedric
said.

“
Michelle is out of my
life.” Anthony leaned against the window staring outside. The chill
that went through him did not come from the weather.

Cedric took a deep breath. “I'm really
sorry, Anthony.”He approached Anthony and put a supportive arm
around his shoulder.

“
Hey, I'm going to be okay.”
Anthony lifted his head. He wore a resolute expression. “Now let's
go to the library site. There are a couple of things I want to
check on before we give the word it's complete.”

Anthony and Cedric went over details
with the thoroughness that made them a successful and sought after
team. They settled for nothing less than having it done right. As
they came out of the nearly completed library building, they turned
to admire the large circular cut glass window set above the wide
entrance.

“
Beautiful. We did a
fantastic job if I do say so myself.”Cedric nodded with
satisfaction.

“
Better believe it. Partner,
we're on our way. With this one under our belt we can go after the
big projects. This is proof we can handle it.”Anthony clapped his
friend on the back.

“
Excuse me, Mr.
Hilliard?”

They glanced around to find two
uniformed police officers standing behind them.

“
Yes, that's me.”Anthony
faced them.

“
I'm Detective Majors and
this is Detective Oubre.” Officer Majors nodded towards his
partner. “We'd like to ask you some questions. Could you come with
us down to the station? You could follow us in your vehicle, sir.”
The muscular Black policeman spoke while his partner gazed around
at the building and landscaping.

“
Questions about what?”
Anthony glanced at Cedric then back at Majors.

“
It seems there are some..
problems with one of your employees. Probably won't take long.”
Officer Majors regarded them with calm stoicism.

“
What kind of problems? I
hired most of these men,” Cedric replied in a guarded
voice.

“
Really? Then we need a
statement from both of you.” Majors looked from Anthony to
Cedric.

“
Why can't we talk here if
it won't take long?” Cedric raised an eyebrow.

“
We'll explain it all
downtown.” Detective Majors half turned as if ready to leave then
paused when he saw neither man moved.

“
Now hold on--” Cedric
protested hotly.

Anthony placed a hand on his friend's
chest. “Stay cool, Cedric,” he said in a quiet voice. Then in a
conversational tone, “Fine, officer. We'll be right behind
you.”

Anthony and Cedric talked about every
man in the three work crews during the fifteen minute ride to the
police station. They searched for a clue that might explain what
kind of trouble could be so serious to involve the police. They
arrived at police headquarters just as baffled.

“
This way
gentlemen.”

Detective Majors ushered them through
the squad room, a maze of desks with uniform and plain clothes
officer milling around, into a small Spartan interview room.
Detective Oubre disappeared for several moments. He returned with a
tall, lean man dressed in a crisp white shirt, charcoal gray suit,
and dark green tie.

“
I'm Chief Detective Robin
of the Homicide Division.” He spoke curtly. “Mr. Eames, Detective
Oubre will take your statement.” He pointed to Oubre standing in
the still open door.

“
This way, sir.” Detective
Oubre gave a sharp nod of his head. The close trimmed crown of
black hair gave him the look a drill sergeant directing an errant
recruit to the barracks.

“
Why?” Cedric began looking
around at them.

“
Procedure, sir. It will
save time if we get your statements simultaneously,” Detective
Robin said.

Cedric followed Detective Oubre with
one last worried glance at Anthony.

Detective Robin opened a slim folder
with several sheets of paper in it. “Now, Mr. Hilliard. Do you know
a Troy Quarles?”

“
Yes, he works for me. But
you already know that.” Anthony looked at the papers trying to read
them upside down.

“
How long has he worked for
you?”

“
About five months I
think.”

“
Any trouble with
him?”

“
Minor things like goofing
off. What's going on?” Anthony looked around at Detective Majors,
who stood against the wall with his hands folded in front of
him.

“
Were you aware of his
criminal record?” Detective Robin continued without acknowledging
his question.

“
Yes. But he'd served his
time and came with a good recommendation from his probation
officer. So I gave him a shot.”

“
As part of an on-going
investigation, one of our undercover officers has reported that Mr.
Quarles resumed his illegal activities. Specifically, involvement
in the drug trade. Were you aware of that?” Detective Robin leaned
both elbows on the file and stared at Anthony hard.

“
Of course not. If I had
known--”