Get It Girls (25 page)

Lynn appeared nervous and asked, “So, what is this all about? I mean, you think something is wrong? Vonda just told me to show up and that we’re all to meet up. She wouldn’t tell me anything else. ”

“Calm down, Lynn. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It could be nothing.”

“You think so?” Lynn said.

“Maybe, but let’s wait for Vonda to tell us what’s up.”

Lynn nodded and looked at her watch. A few minutes later, Vonda and Tiny walked in together and Jessica waved to them to let them know where they sat. Lynn scooted over in the booth and Vonda sat next to her. Tiny did the same and sat right next to Jessica. Tiny began coughing loudly and looked very sickly. She looked as if she shouldn’t even be there but in a hospital, Jessica thought. As they all settled in, everyone looked from one face to another until Vonda finally asked, “So, what’s up, Jess?”

“What’s up?” Jessica responded back.

There was a momentary pause until Lynn asked in frustration, “Come on, Vonda. You were the one who called us here. Tell us what’s up.”

Vonda frowned. “No, I didn’t. Jessica told me to meet here.”

Jessica shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I received this note from you telling me I should meet you here.” She pulled out the letter to prove her point.

Vonda frowned as she read the letter and chuckled. “I didn’t write that!” Vonda pulled out a letter of her own and said, “This is the letter you left under my door telling me to contact Tiny and Lynn and meet you here.”

Jessica snatched the letter and read it quickly and saw her name at the bottom. “Vonda, I didn’t write this either.”

They were all stunned.

“If y’all didn’t write the letters who the fuck did?” Lynn said quickly, growing more agitated by the second.

Just then, a bike messenger wearing black spandex pants and a helmet came in through the front door and paused. He opened the bag he had over his shoulder and pulled out a package. “Is there a Jessica Jones in here?” he yelled as he looked around the restaurant.

The four girls turned to face him, and Jessica reluctantly waved her arm. “That’s me, right here.”

He walked his bike over to where the four girls sat and pulled out a clipboard. “Can you sign here?”

Jessica looked at the clipboard and asked, “What is this about?”

He rolled his eyes and said sarcastically, “It’s a clipboard. You sign it, and I give you a package.”

Jessica disregarded his smart comment and said, “I know what it is. What I want to know is, who sent it?”

“I just deliver packages, ma’am, that’s all. You gonna sign for your package, or what?”

Jessica looked at Vonda, who nodded, and Jessica signed for the package. He handed it to her and left. The four girls looked at the package in Jessica’s hand in silence, unsure what to do next. Jessica took a breath and ripped open the thick yellow envelope. They watched nervously as Jessica pulled the contents out of the envelope. It was filled with newspaper clippings and articles pertaining to recent murders throughout Harlem. As they sorted through each article they recognized the murder scenes they had participated in, including the bodies on 142nd Street, 144th Street and the bodies on 116th Street. None of them could believe their eyes as they sifted through mounds of clippings from various newspapers.

“What the fuck?” Vonda cursed.

“Oh, shit!” said Lynn as she put her hands over her eyes, not wanting to believe what she was seeing.

“Hold up,” said Jessica. “Here’s a note.”

Everyone looked at Jessica with anticipation as she began to read the typed letter.

I pray that by now that I have your undivided attention. Believe me when I say that this is very real and very serious, and I hope you see that your life depends on it. I know everything that you did—EVERYTHING, including the killings that you done to an old friend of yours from prison, the now deceased Eartha Lee Jenkins, better known as Dear Mama and her sidekick Precious, that you all slaughtered like a pig. I have in my possession direct evidence linking you to at least eight other murders, which will almost guarantee you the death penalty. However, I do have compassion in my heart to give you four an option out of this life-changing event with something on the side that can prove very lucrative for all parties involved with no further repercussions. If you are interested, go back to Jessica's house and wait for another package that will arrive at 8PM this evening, and you will receive further instructions thereafter. You are being watched at all times, and if I see any of you deviate from each other or try to leave town, the other three will be arrested for all the murders I've mentioned.

When Jessica finished reading the letter, the girls seemed too overwhelmed to even speak.

“So, what do y’all think?” Jessica finally asked.

“What we think? What we think?” Lynn repeated in exasperation. “We going back to jail! That’s what I think!”

Vonda exhaled deeply. “I don’t know, this motherfucker seems to know everything about us, down to the shit we did in prison.”

Tiny looked at each of them and snarled. “Somebody been running their mouth, that’s what the fuck is happening.”

They began staring at each other as if they were waiting for someone to tell them it was just a joke, but it never happened.

“Let’s just wait and see if we get a package and take it from there,” Jessica offered.

Lynn began to grow hysterical, “Fuck that! I don’t know about y’all, but I ain’t waiting around to find out what happens. I’m gonna get the fuck outta here before anything goes down.”

“No, Lynn,” Vonda snapped. “You heard what this motherfucker said; if one of us leave the rest of us get arrested. I ain’t taking that chance. Let’s just go to Jessica’s house and wait for the package and find out what he wants us to do. He might want some money or shit and is only trying to extort us.”

Tiny casually purposed, “What make you think it’s a he?”

Again, they looked at each other for an answer. Vonda repeated that they should just go to Jessica’s house again.

Jessica looked at her watch and announced, “We still got an hour, so let’s leave now so we can be there when the package arrives. They all nodded and exited the booth and headed to Jessica’s house.

The package arrived exactly when the mysterious person said that it would via another messenger. They followed Jessica to her room and eagerly waited for her to open the box. The first thing Jessica pulled out was another folder with several 8x10 black and white photos of a single Hispanic male. Jessica continued and removed another letter and read it.

If you are reading this letter, you successfully completed the second phase on your way to freedom. The man you're looking at name is Carlos Sosa. He is one of the biggest drug distributors in New York City. He is the mastermind from Columbia that introduced the first wave of cocoa leaf paste, a highly addictive form of cocaine which would become known as crack to the ghettos of New York City and Los Angeles.

Your mission is very simple: kill him and anyone else associated with him and shut down his headquarters.

The building is a one-stop drug haven that produces and manufactures all the drugs in-house, and the tenants in the building are virtual hostages. It is infamously known within the neighborhood as The Castle of Greyskull and is located on 129th Street between Lenox and 5th Avenue.

Just like in the television show Mission Impossible, if you decide to take the job, you will be rewarded handsomely upwards of a half million dollars from the cash that Mr. Sosa keeps in the building on any given Sunday that is to be picked up on Monday.

If you do this, all records and evidence will be destroyed and you will live your life and spend the money as you see fit. Inside is a schematic of the entire building down to the smallest detail. The number of armed lookouts, the location of staircases and exits, and the best time to enter and exit.

You have 72 hours to come up with a plan before Monday and make a collective decision to complete your mission. I will monitor your every move, and if one of the rules is deviated from, all of you will spend a lifetime regretting it. This will be your last contact.

P.S. Get the job done by any means necessary. You can also recruit outside help, such as your Vietnam buddies. Ha, ha. Yes, I know about them also.

None of the girls could conjure any words to say at that moment. The only sound that could be heard was Tiny’s dry and rough cough. Jessica felt dizzy as she tossed the letter on the bed and put her head to her knees and began crying as she thought about her unborn baby. Lynn followed suit and began to cry also. All Vonda could do was watch them all in silence, knowing there was nothing she could say to make them feel better.

“Something about this shit ain’t right. It ain’t right,” Tiny said. “If you ask me, it sounds like somebody we know is setting us up for a fall.”

“What are you saying, Tiny?” snapped Lynn

“I’m saying that it’s got to be somebody that knows a lot about us. It could even be one of us for that matter.”

Vonda frowned. “How the fuck could it be one of us, Tiny, and all our lives are at stake?”

“Well, how the fuck would somebody know about Dear Mama and Precious then?” Tiny posed a good question. “Unless one of y’all told somebody?” Tiny coughed and looked from face to face suspiciously.

“I probably told a couple of my brothers in passing conversation, but I never explained no specifics,” Vonda admitted.

Lynn raised her head and admitted also, “I probably told one or two of my girlfriends in prison about it, but, hell, who in there didn’t know we offed them bitches?”

“She got a point, because everybody knew about it and they could have easily seen me on the news or in the paper and put two and two together,” explained Jessica.

“That’s bullshit!” snapped Tiny, “I’m not buying that shit because they know too much.”

“She’s right,” said Vonda. “It could be anybody, so all we can do is concentrate on what we going to do about this shit or we all going to be locked back up.” Vonda shook her head and continued. “Like Lynn said, I ain’t going back to jail.”

Tiny smirked and shook her head sadly. “Either y’all in denial or this shit got you all stuck on stupid!”

The girls tossed Tiny a venomous gaze. “Who but us would know about Mama, Precious, Cookie, Bosco, and all those Vietnam motherfuckers? What’s the chance an outsider would know all that?”

The girls simply put their heads down because they knew she was right. For the first time, distrust came across each girl’s mind as they looked at each other warily.

Jessica finally raised her head. “So what are we going to do?”

Nobody said a word until Tiny coughed harshly and said, “Yo, read that part about the money again.”

Jessica picked up the letter and cleared her eyes and reread it.

“If you decide to take the job, you will be rewarded handsomely upwards of a half million dollars from the cash that Mr. Sosa keeps in the building on any given Sunday right before it is to be picked up on Monday.”

Tiny nodded and said, “Now, that’s what’s up. I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on that type of loot even if one of y’all is using me.”

“Fuck that shit, Tiny. We talking about our lives here,” cried Lynn. “And stop saying it’s one of us, because no one here would do that shit to each other.”

“Yeah, whatever Lynn,” Tiny said vaguely. “If we got a way to get that type of money, why not?”

Jessica looked at Tiny as if she were insane and screamed, “Tiny, we can get ourselves killed!”

Tiny stood up quickly and yelled, “What the fuck you think we were doing when we got in the mix for you with Bosco, Jessica?” Tiny challenged. “It was ok for us to put our life on the line for you, right?”

Jessica knew Tiny was blinded by greed, but knew she had a point.

Vonda added, “But, this is different, Tiny. Bosco was unorganized, he was—”

Enraged, Tiny cut Vonda off before she could finish. “Bosco was what, Vonda? Unorganized? He was so unorganized the he was about to cut your fucking head off if I wasn’t there to pop his ass and save your life! Remember?”

Vonda didn’t have a response.

“If somebody telling us where the money is, why don’t we take it? Shit, I say they doing us a favor.”

Vonda, Jessica and Lynn only stared at Tiny, realizing she was too far gone to reason with her.

Tiny felt the heat from their stares and asked them all, “What, y’all looking at me like I’m crazy, like I don’t know what y’all thinking about me. ‘Oh, Tiny got the virus and she don’t care because she going to die anyway.’ Well, guess what? You damn skippy, I don’t give a fuck no more. If I’m gonna die I might as well try to get all the shit I can before I do. Doctors told me that I can die from this shit in ten days or ten years. Do any of y’all know how it feels to know you can die at any moment and it’s nothing nobody can do about it?” Tiny stared at them as she awaited and answer, but she received none. “So either I’m gonna get rich or I’m gonna die trying and live every day as if it was my last. So you better find a reason to want to survive, because I did already.”

The girls understood her pain and just sat around the room in silence until Jessica offered, “What we got to do is vote on it like we always did.”

Vonda shrugged her shoulders and agreed with Jessica.

“Don’t you think we should think things over first?” Lynn asked nervously. “Shouldn’t we wait to see what happens first?”

Tiny was at wit’s end. “Lynn, did you not hear what the fucking letter said? He or she or whoever it is got us over a barrel. We fucked either way. Either we are going to get this money and have a little chance, or we can go back to jail and have no chance at all.”

At that moment all the girls knew they had little choice.

A full five minutes passed without a word being said when Vonda said, “So, whoever in it to do the damn thing, raise your hand.”

Tiny was the first to raise her hand. “Fuck that shit, yo. I don’t give a fuck. I’m in.”

Vonda was next and raised her hand.

Lynn looked around and knew she didn’t have a choice and raised her hand also.

All eyes shifted toward Jessica.