Every Little Step: My Story (22 page)

Whitney’s death came just two months after my father succumbed to cancer; I was in a tailspin. The news not only changed my life but shook the entire world to its core. The princess was gone. I was numb, in disbelief. It seemed so cruel, to take such a beautiful soul away from us. Whitney and I were not on the best terms at this point in our relationship, because I felt she was trying to keep my daughter away from me and poison her mind against me, but I still cared for her deeply. I never could have foreseen this happening. I was in shock.

Whitney had been found unconscious in suite 434 at the Beverly Hilton hotel, her body submerged in the bathtub. Paramedics tried to revive her, but she was pronounced dead at 3:55
P.M
. Local police claimed there were “no obvious signs of criminal intent.” (The Los Angeles County coro
ner reported a month later that the cause of her death was drowning and the “effects of atherosclerotic heart disease and cocaine use.”)

Because it was coming so close behind the deaths of my parents, Whitney’s death sent me into another head-spinning spiral. I felt like I was trapped in a particularly vicious place in hell. But through my intense grief, my first thought was that I needed to reach out to my daughter. She was only eighteen—how in the world would she be able to deal with the death of her mother without me there to hold her and assure her that the Earth would keep rotating? I prayed that she would be strong enough to fight her way through the dark places that I knew would threaten to subsume her. I had just lost my own mother; I understood very clearly exactly what she would be feeling. I knew that, more than anybody, I was the one who could help her make it through. I just needed some time with her. I tried to talk to Krissi, but she was so out of it when she answered the phone that I was even more disturbed. I desperately needed to make sure my daughter was all right. I knew that Tommy was in Los Angeles, so I called him and told him to get to the hotel as soon as possible and scoop up his niece.

A FEW WORDS FROM TOMMY BROWN

After Bobby and Whitney divorced, it was really difficult for Krissi. She was hurt and she didn’t really understand what
had happened. In addition, Whitney and her family were putting wedges between Krissi and Bobby’s family, telling her everything that happened was his fault. So I can imagine she started to believe that he was the cause of her unhappiness. With any divorce, a kid is invariably going to wind up on one side or the other. Since Whitney had custody, that meant she was with Krissi day-to-day and had the opportunity to plant these negative seeds about Bobby. The Houstons and their personnel did everything they could to make sure Krissi never reestablished a bond with her father, even at the expense of that child. I thought it was so tragic because they had been so close when Bobby was still with Whitney.

I had a chance to talk about it with Krissi after her parents separated and I could see the hurt she was feeling. Like any child, I think she might have held out hope that her parents might get back together. But when Bobby got with Alicia and they had a child, it dawned on her that her parents were never getting back together. Then things really changed. Every time I had a cell phone number for Krissi and got a chance to talk to her, the number would be different the next time I tried to reach her. This happened at least four times.

When Bobby called me after hearing that Whitney had died, he told me to get to the hotel right away. So I got in the car with my nephew, Bobby’s son Landon, and my son Tommy Jr., and flew over to the Beverly Hills Hotel. That’s where I knew Whitney liked to stay when she was in town. But when I got there I saw no police cars, no media hoopla,
no excitement. It couldn’t be the right place. But I got out of the car and started looking around, trying to figure out what was going on. That’s when somebody told me she had died at the Beverly Hilton. Then we raced down Sunset Boulevard to the Hilton, which was only about five minutes away. As soon as I turned the corner onto Wilshire, I saw the media mob and knew this was where we needed to be. The police let me through, but they wouldn’t let Landon and my son up with me.

When I got to the hallway upstairs, I saw mayhem, people everywhere. I finally located Krissi outside of one of the rooms packed with people. It was a suite near the room where Whitney’s body was still lying. I saw Krissi falling out in that hallway, wailing loudly as she leaned against the wall. I saw Pat and Gary Houston, Whitney’s sister-in-law and brother, but they weren’t paying Krissi any mind. They were too busy grabbing Whitney’s belongings out of the room. At that moment they seemed oblivious to Krissi’s anguish, this little girl who had just lost the most important person in her life.

I got Krissi into a room and tried to console her. Bobby told me that he would be in LA as soon as possible, but he said I couldn’t let her out of my sight. I cleared everyone out of the room, including Ray J and a bunch of other celebrities, so Krissi wouldn’t be surrounded by chaos. A few of them, like the singer Monica, were very sweet and helpful, truly concerned about Krissi. This was right before the Grammys, so music celebrities were everywhere.

Krissi kept telling me, “I gotta get my brother.”

I was thinking she was talking about her brother Landon, since we were in LA, where Landon lives. So I thought I needed to figure out how to get Landon up to the room.

“I don’t know where Landon is, but I will reach him,” I said.

“I’m not talking about Landon,” Krissi said.

“Well, what brother are you talking about?”

“My brother Nick,” she said.

At this point I was really alarmed. She didn’t have a brother named Nick, so I thought she was hallucinating.

“Baby, you don’t have a brother named Nick,” I said. “You all right?”

Maybe I should take her temperature or something?

“Nick stays with us,” she said.

This was the first time I ever heard his name. Apparently he had been there for a couple of years at this point, but I had no clue that a young man was staying there with them and I was pretty sure Bobby didn’t either because he would have told me. I was blown away by this news. But a part of me was still thinking that she had taken something and was in the throes of some kind of drug-induced hallucination. She was drifting off, like she was in a haze. I called Bobby and handed her the phone, thinking that maybe her father’s voice would pull her out of it. But she was barely lucid when he was trying to talk to her. She was still focused on seeing Nick.

“Okay, we’ll find out where Nick is,” I told her.

I had kicked everybody out of the room, so I wasn’t sure if this Nick character was one of the people who had just left.
But I started asking around and didn’t find anybody named Nick on the floor.

After a little while Nick showed up.

“Uncle, I just want to talk to him,” she said.

“Okay, baby, I’ll give you five minutes,” I said.

I was really uncomfortable because I didn’t know this kid. I told her I would be right outside in the living room area of the suite. Krissi came out of the suite with Nick, who quickly slipped away. She was acting extremely lackadaisical; I was immediately alarmed.

“Krissi!” I said. But she wasn’t responding.

“Baby, come on, you gotta respond!”

She was still not responding to me, despite the volume of my voice. I saw her eyes roll back into her head and nearly lost it. I decided to call 911.

“I need you now!” I yelled into my phone.

I don’t tend to push the button too soon, but it was clear to me that she needed some medical assistance. I don’t know if this guy gave her something, but I later found an empty Xanax bottle in the room. There was also a bottle of wine.

When we got to the hospital, I explained to the doctors why we were there. They started checking her out. I was expecting somebody from the Houston family to show up, but instead I was greeted by this white guy who turned out to be Whitney’s rehab treatment counselor. His name was Warren Boyd and apparently he’s the treatment counselor to the stars. The doctor told me Krissi had been evaluated and seemed to be
fine. Krissi was telling me she wanted to go back to the hotel, but that was the last place I wanted to take her. I had to keep her safe until Bobby arrived; I didn’t think that chaotic hotel was the right place to do that. But then I thought about the fact that she had just lost her mother in that hotel, so maybe I should let her stay there as long as she wanted.

As soon we got back to the hotel I regretted the decision. There were a bunch of music industry celebs, including Ray J, in the suite popping bottles and drinking like they were turned up at the party—all while Whitney’s body was still nearby, with that area of the hallway cut off by police tape. It looked crazy to me. I wanted Krissi to get some sleep, so I cleared the room out once again. I told them that they were serving no purpose upstairs—they needed to go downstairs and continue their party. I had Krissi lie down on the bed.

“Even if you don’t go to sleep, just relax,” I told her.

I called Warren Boyd back and told him that I needed to get her out of the hotel. He said he would come and bring her to one of his facilities in Huntington Beach.

While I was in the hall waiting for him, I saw Whitney’s longtime agent, Nicole David.

“What’s going on here? This is crazy,” I said. “No one is attending to her.”

Nicole shook her head. “I know, I know. It’s unbelievable.”

“I’m getting her out of here,” I said.

“That’s what you need to do, get her somewhere away from here,” Nicole responded.

As I headed back to Krissi’s room to check on her, I saw Nick leave the room.
When did he go in there?

When I walked back in the room, Krissi was even more lethargic than before. I panicked again.

“Krissi! What did you take?” But there was no response from her. So I called 911 yet again. I told them, “Get here now!”

I shook Krissi again, trying to wake her up.

“Krissi, don’t play no games with me,” I said.

But she never really came around. So when the emergency technicians arrived, they put her back on the cart and we took the ambulance back to the hospital. She was barely conscious the whole time. At the hospital, I was prepared to sign whatever forms I needed to in order to have her stay there and be observed. The doctors determined that she hadn’t overdosed. Warren arrived, along with several members of Whitney’s security detail. They convinced me that Krissi would be safe if we brought her to Huntington Beach, the place where Whitney and Krissi had been staying. I called my niece LaPrincia, Krissi’s big sister, who happened to be in LA, and told her to meet us there.

When we got to Huntington Beach, I felt confident that Krissi was in good hands because she was with her big sister. LaPrincia would take good care of her. In addition to LaPrincia, my niece Mimi was also there. She’s the daughter of my late sister, Bethy, and she was also very close to Krissi. Warren put me up in a room nearby in the same facility. I talked to Bobby and updated him on the situation before he got on
the plane to fly to LA. I had a hard time sleeping that night because my brain was still in overdrive from all the craziness. I couldn’t believe Whitney was gone. But our priority now was to make sure her daughter made it through.

The next morning Bobby and Alicia picked me up and I showed them where Krissi, LaPrincia and Mimi were staying. We walked into the suite and saw LaPrincia crying. We asked her where her sister was and she told us Krissi was “gone.” She was hysterical now, saying Krissi had been taken away. Apparently when LaPrincia thought her sister was in the shower, somebody had entered the room where Krissi was staying, which had a door leading outside, and whisked her away.

There was pandemonium as we realized what had happened. Clearly it was the work of the Houstons, probably assisted by Warren Boyd, the rehab guy. Bobby was incredibly outraged. When I went into Krissi’s bathroom, I saw that the rug leading to the bathroom was soaking wet. I wondered what the hell had happened there. When I found out, I was seriously shaken. Nicole David told me that the night before Whitney was found dead in the bathtub, Krissi had almost drowned in the bathtub. She had been submerged under the water and had to be pulled out. And then the next day her mother died the same way? And then ultimately the same thing happened to Krissi again? I was told that Whitney and Krissi had had some type of fight the night before and that Krissi was mad at her mother.

It’s all too much for me to comprehend. How could this all be a massive coincidence?

Bobby turned his anger on me, saying he had told me to not let her out of my sight and now she had been taken away. I felt like it was unfair to blame me, but I also understood why my brother was angry. I was so upset, I had to get away from there, my mind still reeling from the sadness of the whole scene.