Chaser (14 page)

A
t the meeting I had with Detective Daily a couple weeks ago he gave me just the pep talk I needed to regain control in my situation. He let me know pertinent information about a deal Kenny had coming up that could possibly be the transaction to send him away. Apparently, he had other sources informing on Kenny, but they weren’t as close to him as I was, so they got only limited details. They told Detective Daily about the deal, but they couldn’t give him when and where it was supposed to go down. That was where I came in. I was to get those crucial details. And from what I had observed from Kenny that day I believed something was going down that night.

His brother Tim had been over earlier. They had put bags upon bags of packaged cocaine in the trunk of Kenny’s Impala. And I over
heard them talking about meeting up later. Plus, Kenny’s phone had been ringing off the hook that whole day. I was almost certain the deal the detective had told me about was taking place that night. I just had to get the facts.

I was in the bathroom and just finished sending Nasir a text message when Kenny barged in. Startled, I dropped my phone on the marble floor. It was a good thing the battery came out when it fell or else Kenny would have been able to read Nasir’s reply, if he had sent one. He hadn’t been returning my calls or text messages. I assumed he still was not willing to believe what I had told him. It was nerve-wracking, but I wasn’t going to give up on Nasir. I truly had love for him, and I was willing to prove it.

“Shit, you scared me,” I mumbled, picking up the pieces of my phone.

“My bad,” he said. “Hurry up, though, I gotta piss.”

I got up and pulled up my pants. I stepped away from the toilet so that Kenny could use it. I was looking at myself in the mirror as I washed my hands. It was then that I decided to start acting on my plan. I took a deep breath and I said, “Listen, let’s go to dinner.”

“Dinner?” Kenny asked.

“Yeah, the meal that people eat in the evening,” I said, trying to use sarcasm to ease the tension that had been between us for some time.

“I know what dinner is,” he said, still grumpy. “I can’t, though. I’m goin’ to one of my boys’ cookouts.”

“Well, how about I go with you?” I suggested in a sweet, inviting tone, trying to be seductive and keep my nerves relaxed at the same time. I turned Kenny around to face me as he put his penis in his boxers, then pressed up against him.

“What’s all this?” he asked, not resisting my grinding on him.

“It’s my peace offering,” I said, making my way down on my knees.
“We haven’t talked in a while, Kenny. Yet we been havin’ a lot of issues. I think it’s time we clear everything up and try to resolve whatever grudges we got against each other.” I slid his penis back out of his boxers.

“Yeah, well, all that shit is in the past,” Kenny said as he placed one of his hands on the top of my head.

I reluctantly licked the tip of Kenny’s dick. Then I continued, “Yeah, but I wanna clear the air.” I licked it again and said, “The only reason I was in Nasir’s truck that day was because the detectives had been pressurin’ me to get more information on him. They orchestrated me gettin’ fired so that I could chase with Nasir and find out which lawyers and doctors he dealt with,” I lied.

“Yeah?” he asked, seemingly uninterested. “Why you ain’t tell me that shit then?” He surprised me.

I licked his dick again, then gave it a few sucks, too. “I didn’t want you to worry about me bein’ in the truck with Nasir. I didn’t want you to be insecure over nothin’.” I went back to sucking his dick.

Kenny didn’t say anything in response. He just moaned at the action I was giving him. I had managed to psyche myself out for the remainder of Kenny’s blow job, closing my eyes and imagining he was Nasir. I got so caught up in my thoughts that tears came to my eyes. I missed Nasir. I missed the happiness he brought to me. I missed having sex with him, too. I wondered if he’d ever find it in his heart to forgive me.

Once I felt Kenny getting close to climaxing, I slipped his dick out of my mouth. “Stay home with me. Don’t go to the cookout. It’s raining outside anyway,” I said.

“I can’t,” he said. “Now put my dick back in ya mouth.” He guided my head back toward his bulging penis.

I licked it a couple times, but I didn’t want to make him cum. Not until I got what I needed out of him.

“Why not, Kenny? Why can’t you keep it in tonight? We could watch movies and cuddle like we used to. I wanna get back what we had once upon a time.”

Kenny began to frown, frustrated. “Leah, I can’t tonight.”

I licked him again.

“Umm,” he moaned.

“Why not, Kenny? You got plans with ya other girl?”

“Come on, man,” he said, losing patience.

“Then what is it, Kenny?” I pulled away from him.

“I got a meeting tonight,” he said.

“Where at?” I probed.

“Why you askin’ me all these questions?” he said, aggravated.

My heart started to pound as I wondered if I had made it too obvious that I was trying to get information out of him. I was scared, but I couldn’t falter. It was time for me to step it up. I had to go all the way to get more information. This was the break I needed. It was now or never.

“Because I don’t believe you, that’s why, Kenny.” I began to cry. “You been practically living with another girl for the last three weeks!” I made it about my being jealous rather than about my prying for info. I stood up and added, “You’re hardly here! You come, eat, grab some clothes, and leave.”

“What you doin’?” Kenny asked. “Finish what you started and stop trippin’.” He closed the toilet seat and sat down on it. Then he grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him again.

He moved my hair out of my face gently and aligned his dick with my mouth. “I ain’t goin’ do nothin’ on you tonight, man. I ain’t thinkin’ about no pussy. I got a million-dollar deal on the table tonight. Other niggas might be out partyin’ and lookin’ for freaks, but not me. Only place I’m focused on bein’ is at the Belmont Plateau at one o’clock sharp,” he broke. “So you ain’t got shit to worry about. Now, finish makin’ ya man feel good. Help me get relaxed.”

I finished the deed, then allowed Kenny to relieve himself. All the while I was filled with anxiety. I couldn’t wait for him to be gone.

It was close to midnight when Kenny finally left. Immediately I got on the phone and called Detective Daily.

“I have the information you were looking for,” I blurted out.

“Whatchu got?” he asked, excitement in his tone.

“He’s making the transaction tonight. It’s supposed to be a million-dollar deal.”

“When and where?” he asked.

“The Belmont Plateau at one.”

“Okay. I gotta make some calls. I’m on it,” Detective Daily said, rushing his words. “Good job, kiddo.”

When I hung up I was feeling jittery. I couldn’t sit down. I paced the bedroom and bit my nails. I needed someone to talk to. I tried calling Nasir, but I didn’t get an answer. I called him right back one last time and that time I was forwarded to his voice mail.

I sat down on my bed, my head in the palms of my hands.
Damn it,
I thought.
I really fucked up with Nasir.

S
nake eyes!” Brock called out as he let the dice tumble out of his palms.

“Seven, eleven!” I tried to jinx him.

“Damnit,” he said. “I keep comin’ close,” he referred to the two and the one that appeared on the dice.

He picked the dice up and shook them up in his hand again, but before he rolled, a long beep sounded from the scanner. We both paused and listened intently to what was about to be called.

“Medic Nine, One-four-four-two North Felton Street. Domestic dispute. Female complaintiff. One-four-four-two North Felton Street.”

“It’s been a lot of domestic disputes,” Brock said. “Niggas’ girls probably givin’ them hell about goin’ down Miami to South Beach. They get to arguin’ and the shit probably hit the fan,” he theorized.

“Nigga, just shoot the dice and crap out so I can get on them things and show you how money get made.”

Brock shook the dice up again, getting his head back into the game. And just as he was about to roll, he was distracted for the second time. This time it was by my phone ringing. I looked at the screen and pressed ignore.

“Who the hell you duckin’?” Brock asked me. “That’s the third time ya phone rang and you looked at it and ain’t answer.”

“Damn, it’s called the iPhone not the Brock phone, nigga. Roll the dice!”

“Aww, you son of a bitch!” he shouted at the four and the three that showed up on the dice after he rolled them.

I picked up the forty dollars off the dash and added it to the knot that was in my pocket. My phone rang again. Brock snatched it off the middle console.

“Give me this mafucka,” he said. “I’ll answer it.” He looked at the screen.

“Stop playin’, nigga. Gimme my phone.” I didn’t want him to answer Leah’s call. I really wanted her to get the message that I wasn’t fuckin’ with her.

“It’s Kenny. I see why you duckin’ his shady ass.”

“I’m not duckin’ that nigga. That was some chick the other times.”

“So you want me to answer it?”

“Naw. Fuck that nigga, too.”

Brock shrugged his shoulders and put my phone back down. “Fuck ’im.”

Then he rolled the dice and we went on gambling.

A few minutes later the scanner sounded.
Beeeeep. “Medic Nine, Belmont and Montgomery Avenue in the parking area of the Belmont Plateau. Medic Nine, Belmont and Montgomery in the Belmont Plateau parking area. Injuries from an accident.”

Brock stopped the dice and threw them in his pocket. Then he sat up in the truck, put it in drive, and slammed his foot on the gas. We tore out of the gas station parking lot and headed up Fifty-second street toward Parkside Avenue. From there we hit Fairmount park, took it across Belmont Avenue, and pulled into the parking lot at the Plat. It was pitch-black. No streetlights or nothing.

I could see that there was a dark-colored Denali parked. A few spaces away from it was a green Impala. There was a third car in the distance that looked abandoned. But of all the cars out there, none of them looked like it had been in an accident.

Brock drove up alongside the Denali. It was then that we noticed a group of guys in back of the SUV. Some of them had briefcases and others had Sneaker Villa bags. After a closer look I realized that Kenny was among the group. He started walking toward the truck when he seen us park.

“Fuck is goin’ on out here?” I thought aloud.

“Yo,” Kenny said when he got to the truck. “You gotta be the most dedicated chaser I know. A hit is called and you come runnin’ just like I thought.” He smirked.

“You called the hit?” I guessed.

“Yeah, man, you ain’t answer my phone call. I needed you to bring the scanners up here and listen out for the law while I took care of this business,” Kenny had the nerve to say.

“Nigga, is you retarded?” I asked him, really believing that Kenny had a mental problem. There was no other explanation for his up-and-down behavior. He fucked around and been bipolar. How else could you justify a nigga askin’ for help from somebody whose pop he scammed and who the last time he seen him had basically threatened his life. If I had a gun on me I was liable to shoot that nigga where he stood. “You expect me to sit here and be a lookout for you?”

Then Brock chimed in, “If that is the case, that was stupid as hell
of you to call a hit up here. By doin’ that you just called the cops right to you.”

Kenny smiled and said, “I see it took you no time to learn the game. But the cops came and left. I was in the cut watchin’ them. Y’all ain’t hear them call it unfounded on the scanners? Shit, maybe I don’t need y’all niggas up here. Y’all don’t pay close attention to the scanners no way.” He chuckled.

“Watch out,” Brock said to Kenny, opening the truck door.

“Where you goin’?” I asked him.

“Right here,” he said. “I gotta piss like a race horse.”

“Hurry up, ’cause we out. We ain’t sittin’ up this mafucka,” I said, grillin’ Kenny.

Kenny shrugged his shoulders and said, “I called myself burying the hatchet. You woulda got paid well and everything for this one.” Then he walked away from the truck and disappeared back behind the Denali with the rest of the group.

I sat up in the passenger’s seat, leaned over, and yelled out the driver’s window. “Brock, hurry that shit up.” I was ready to go. I didn’t feel comfortable up there with Kenny and those other niggas whom I didn’t know. I felt like a sitting duck.

The sound of the driver’s door opening turned my attention to my left, and in a flash I heard a barrage of gunshots.

POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP! POP!

“BROOOCCCKK!” I shouted as I witnessed my friend’s body jerk back and forth as his torso attracted bullets like metal to magnets.

I went to lean over to pull him in the truck and I felt a strong force hit me in the back of my left shoulder. I put my hand on the spot where I felt the force, and my fingers were instantly drenched in blood.

I thought about climbing over in the driver’s seat and peeling out
of there, but I didn’t want to get hit with another stray. So instead, I ducked down as far as I could.

After a few seconds, I heard the gunfire slow to a stop. Then I heard voices and footsteps right outside my truck.

I slowly sat up in the seat to see who it was and what they were doing.

It was Kenny and his older brother Tim. They were rummaging through the Denali.

“Yo!” Tim called out, pointing to the abandoned car I had noticed when Brock and I first got there. Kenny looked in the direction of the car. “Why the fuck is the horn steady beeping?” Tim asked with frustration.

“His ass got hit, and I bet he’s slumped over on the mafucka,” Kenny summed up. “I know you got a light, right?”

Tim nodded and pulled a lighter from his pants pocket.

Then Kenny instructed, “Get the gasoline out the trunk and set that mafucka on fire. I’ll load the car up, and we out.”

Kenny and Tim quickly and methodically performed their tasks—Kenny transportin’ briefcases and Sneaker Villa bags from the back of the Denali to the trunk of the Impala, and Tim settin’ fire to the car that was in the distance. Meanwhile, I was tryin’ to feel around in my truck for my phone to call the cops.

“You was right. That was a mothafuckin’ cop!” Tim said, holding up a badge and an ID as he jogged up to Kenny, who was now standing right in front of the truck.

Kenny’s face grew perplexed. “Who the fuck was tryna set us up?” He seemed to be thinking aloud.

“Yooo!” I shouted out to get Kenny and his brother’s attention. I didn’t want to, but I needed to get to a hospital and I couldn’t find my phone. So I needed them.

Kenny ran over to the passenger’s side and asked, “Nas, you all right?”

“Yeah, but I’m hit!”

“All right. Just chill. Soon as we leave I’ll call you an ambulance.”

I didn’t believe that nigga. I’d rather drive myself to the hospital. I just needed him to help me put Brock in the truck.

“Naw, you ain’t gotta call nobody. Just help me get my homie in the truck. I’ll drive myself to the hospital.”

“Well, then, you might as well go ’head then. Ya homie is dead.”

“How you know? Just help me get him in the truck.”

“He gone, nigga!”

“All right, even if he is. I ain’t leavin’ him out here. Help me get him in the truck!”

I got out of the truck and walked around to the driver’s side. Brock’s lifeless body was facedown on the pavement. I felt like I had to throw up. I was light-headed.

“I can’t help you get that nigga in the truck. I’ll call y’all an ambulance,” he said. “Gimme ya phone.”

“It’s in the truck somewhere,” I said, leaning against the truck. I was feeling weaker.

Kenny hurried over to the passenger’s side of the truck and searched around for my phone. He found it and dialed 911. He put it up to my ear and I grabbed it, holding it to my ear with my right hand.

“I been shot,” I said in the phone.

Then Kenny mumbled to me, “You came to a call for a tow and got caught in a cross fire. You don’t know shit else.”

He and Tim then quickly ran to the Impala and got in.

The last thing I saw before I closed my eyes was a blazing fire coming from the car that the cop was in and Kenny and Tim speeding off. And the last thing I heard were my scanners.

Beep…“Medic Nine, Medic Nine, Belmont Avenue and Montgomery Drive, multiple gunshots fired. A male complaintiff shot. Medic Nine, Belmont Avenue and Montgomery Drive, at the Belmont Plateau, multiple shots fired. A male complaintiff wounded.”