Harlem Girl Lost (32 page)

“He was the absolute joy of my life. Anyway …” Her face hardened. “Late one night we smelled something burning. We got up and opened the door, and there was a big fire in the kitchen by the kids’ room. Robert, your grandfather, raced through the fire to save the kids, suffering severe burns as he went through. I remember praying to God that he would find them. Suddenly, your grandfather came racing through the blaze covered in a thick blanket. When I got to him, the blanket had begun to melt from the intense heat. He opened up the blanket, handed me your mother, and then attempted to go back and find Jesse, but by then …” She sighed. “The entire room was engulfed in flames.”

Silver watched the woman's eyes grow cold and hard.

“I begged him to go back and save my son, but then the firemen kicked open the front door and pulled us out just as the ceiling began to collapse.” She shook her head. “My son died that night in the fire. And I believe a piece of me died with him, because from that day on I just changed. I turned
bitter and angry at the entire world.” She looked at Silver. “There's a saying: ‘A mother raises her daughters, but she loves her sons.’ “

Chills swirled down Silver's back, but she remained silent.

“I wondered to myself a million times, what if Robert had pulled Jesse out first? And to be totally honest with you …” She lifted her gaze and looked her granddaughter straight in the eyes. “I wish he had.”

Silver said nothing, shocked.

“As the years passed, the older your mother got, the more she began to look like her brother. Pretty soon my sadness turned into anger, and anger into resentment against your mother. I hated seeing her, because every time I looked at her, I was reminded of him, my dead son! When she got pregnant with you, that gave me an excuse to put her out, so I no longer had to look at her.” She paused as she reflected. “But soon after, your grandfather died of what seemed a broken heart, and left me with nobody. I blamed your mother once again for taking someone away from me.” She stared out the window. “When your mother died and you came to live with me … I guess the same anger I had toward Jessica, I began to hold toward you.” She shook her head. “I know I was wrong, but Lord knows I tried … I tried many times to love you, but I couldn't!” She grabbed Silver's hand. “That day when you left, and you told me you would love me until I learned to love myself … that really did something to me, to my heart.”

Her grandmother's eyes welled with tears, something that Silver had never seen before. Weeping loudly, the woman looked upward.

“I'm sorry, Jessica. I'm so, so sorry for what I did to you and
Silver. Oh, Lord, what did I do? What did I do? What did I doooo?”

She seemed inconsolable. Silver hugged her.

“How can Jessica ever forgive me for what I did to her? I treated her so badly.”

Patting her back, Silver wondered if this was the first time she had cried since her son's death. Silver tried to console her. “Grandma, Mother forgave you a long time ago, and if she were here right now, she would tell you that.” Wiping tears from her eyes, Silver continued. “Even though she is gone, she still lives inside of us. So does Uncle Jesse.” Silver smiled. “Every time that I've ever needed Mother most, she would appear and we would talk.”

Her grandmother slowly lifted her head. “Do you think we can talk to them together?”

Silver nodded. “Of course.” They clasped hands and began to pray.

THE DROP

A
fter leaving the nursing home, Silver drove back to the city and arrived at Missy's apartment late that night. As soon as she entered the apartment, she knew something was direly wrong. She looked down and saw a trail of white powder on the floor. The room was in disarray.

Silver went to the hall closet and opened it—nothing. She went to her bedroom, but everything was as she had left it. Silver checked everywhere but did not find Missy. She then stepped into the kitchen and saw baking soda, pots, and bottles crusted with what appeared to be cocaine residue. On the counter by the sink, an opened kilo of cocaine spilled onto the counter. Silver checked the rest of the shipment and was satisfied that only one package had been tampered with. But Missy had cooked up enough crack to supply a small-time dealer for a year.

She called Diego and the others to push the plan schedule up because she didn't know what would happen if they ran into Missy. After she called everyone, Silver went to her room, retrieved a card from her drawer, and stepped to the phone. After the forth ring, a male voice answered.

“Fortieth Precinct, Sergeant Letizio speaking.”

“Yes,” Silver said. “I'd like to speak to Detective Squassoni, in Homicide.”

Silver, Birdie, and Diego
waited in a silver Lexus parked on the corner of 163rd Street and Broadway. Silver had called Hollis five hours earlier to tell him where to meet them and to be on time. Hollis told Silver that King Papone would be with him. Chubbs had told Silver that this would happen, because Papone would want to see for himself the people he would be doing business with, so without hesitation she told Hollis that they would only be dealing with him. He agreed. Chubbs and Beasley had had Hollis under surveillance for over a week, watching his movements and habits. From what they gathered about Hollis, he was a major trick, and he fucked a different girl every night at the same place, an apartment above his club. He always met them inside the club and then took them home to sleep with them. He didn't drink or get high and was always on point. But they found out something else about Hollis that no one knew. Hollis went to church every Sunday up in the Bronx. Beasley followed him inside, and sure enough, Hollis was inside on his knees, praying and praising God like the other folks.

Chubbs and Beasley trailed Hollis in Beasley's van and called him on their cell phone when they got within five blocks.

“Play ball!” Chubbs said, closing the phone. Beasley pulled up directly in front of them and parked. Hollis opened the door, got out, and walked over to the Lexus.

Birdie eyed Hollis as Silver got out of the driver's seat and went over to open the door for Diego. Diego shook Hollis’ hand and glanced at Papone staring at him from the car. Frowning with disgust, Diego said to Hollis, “Let's take a walk.”

As they walked past the car, Papone stared intently at them. One by one, the locals walked up to Diego and started kissing his hand and making the sign of the cross. It was obvious that Hollis was shocked and realized that perhaps he had underestimated the man.

As they did a walk talk, Birdie was compelled to stop the people from crowding as Diego waved and smiled at them all.

“Why do you fuck with a cockroach like Papone?” Diego said as they walked. “I don't like that
putta!
What do you think of him,
amigo?”

“Who, Papone?” Hollis asked. He sucked his teeth and chumped him off. “Fuck that fat fuckin’ spic. I'm just using Pa-pone's ass to get where I got to go. As soon as I get my shit right, I'm gonna take his ass out, too!”

Diego smiled. “Good, good answer. Be ready to deal tomorrow. I'll call you to tell you where.”

With that, Birdie stood in front of Hollis, blocking him from going any further.

Hollis looked up at Birdie. “A'ight, man, I get the picture,” he grumbled, and walked off.

It was close
to four in the morning when Beasley and Chubbs slowly exited the van. They walked up to the club's front door
and stuck key after key into the lock until they finally had a match. They got in so quickly that no one even noticed. Well, almost no one. Stickbroom Johnny watched them a moment and then went about his business.

With the last phase
of the operation completed, Silver called Hollis and told him to bring the money and meet them at Pier 79 on the Hudson at exactly six o'clock that evening. Pa-pone, not trusting Hollis’ crew, had told Hollis that he planned to use his own men to do the pickup and would be waiting nearby and watching his every move.

At exactly six, Hollis, Papone, and four of his men pulled up and parked at an angle where they could see everyone who entered the pier. They waited about ten minutes before Beasley, who had arrived by boat, walked up to their car, startling them all. Hollis rolled down the window.

“Ya take de money to de boat,” Beasley said.

Hollis popped the trunk and exited the vehicle, while Beasley hopped in the rear of the Jeep. Hollis took a huge duffel bag full of cash out of the trunk and nodded to Papone. Walking unsteadily, he approached the narrow pier. Silver noticed that he looked particularly gray. She smiled. They had done their research well. Chance said Hollis had come to this country from Haiti on a death boat. He had arrived in Miami harbor haunted by the grisly images of many people dying during his journey. Because the boat had been undersized and carried a minimal amount of food, chaos and anarchy had mounted until the journey had become survival of the fittest.
Old men and women that the younger men deemed unfit to take up the much-needed space were thrown overboard. Hol-lis had seen a swarm of frenzied sharks eat them alive. Since he was only nine years old, some had attempted to throw him overboard as well, but he cut the throat of the first man who put his hands on him. Seeing his tenacious spirit for life, the group of ruffians let him be, but refused to give him food or water, so he survived on his own by eating maggots and seaweed and drinking rainwater.

Now Diego and Birdie waited on the boat. Diego told Hol-lis to place the money down in front of him. He did. Birdie, gun in hand, quickly hopped out of the speedboat and bent to retrieve it while Hollis cautiously eyed Birdie. Birdie picked up the bag, eyes not leaving him for a second, then backed up and hopped in the boat.

“So what about the shit?” Hollis said.

Diego started up the motor and yelled over the roar of the engine. “The guy in your car will take you over to the next pier. There will be a truck full of furniture; inside is the product. My man will stay there with you until you count it up.”

Diego sped off before he could ask another question.

Beasley waited for Hollis to get into the car. He knew that on top of a nearby bridge, Silver, Chubbs, and his four brothers were watching Hollis complete the transaction. When Hollis got into the car, he choked from the hydro that Beasley puffed. “Yo, dred, can you put that out?” For an answer, Beasley took a slow drag of the blunt and blew smoke in his face. Hollis glared at him. “Where we going, man?”

Beasley smiled. “Drive, mon.”

Beasley led them into another pier about a half mile down the highway and pointed to a white cargo truck parked at the end. Four Spanish guys stepped out of their car and cautiously scanned the entire area. They nodded to Papone, who emerged from his vehicle and glanced around. Hollis climbed out of the Jeep, walked to the rear of the truck, and tried to lift the latch, but it was locked. He turned to look at Beasley, who smiled and swung a set of keys before tossing them to Hollis, who then opened the lock. Hollis examined the furniture for a moment and then pulled out his knife and began to cut the back of a chair open. He reached in, pulled out two bundles wrapped in gray tape, and flashed a smile at Papone. Papone gestured for his men to get into the cargo truck, where the three of them slit open furniture and began counting the kilos. Others tested each and every bag.

When they were finally finished, they nodded to a nonchalant Beasley. “Is ere ting irrie?” he asked them. They nodded, and Beasley walked toward the highway with a Jamaican swagger.

After Beasley was out of sight, Papone gave Hollis a pat on the back.
“Amigo
, everything you said was true. We should make millions off this shipment.” Hollis smiled, not so much over the money at stake, but because he felt he had finally entered the ranks as a drug kingpin. Though Hollis was notoriously famous as a killer, he wasn't respected—he was feared. There was a difference. Only drug lords seemed to have it all— money, power, and respect. Hollis had always wanted his name to be as renowned as ghetto legends such as Nicky, Fritz, Fat Cat, and Alpo.

Papone said that he would take it from there, that he would call Hollis tomorrow to give him a million-dollar advance. Hollis's dick hardened from the euphoria. It was time for him to celebrate his induction into the big time, so he headed uptown to his favorite spot. He smiled as he thought that only the nastiest of nasty freaks would do tonight.

SHOWDOWN

T
he sun was just beginning to set when the cargo truck pulled into traffic behind Papone's car. They had driven less than a mile before they ran into slow-moving traffic pouring into an underpass. As they proceeded through the pitch-black underpass, traffic came to a complete stop. Behind the cargo truck, Chubbs and his two brothers patiently waited for the men in the truck to pass out from carbon monoxide poisoning. They had rigged a tube from the exhaust system to the underside of the instrument panel in the cab and removed the window cranks. The colorless, odorless gas was making its way into their bloodstream, and after about ten minutes, the two men would not even know what had hit them as they drifted off to a sleepy death.

The traffic jam had been prearranged, and everything proceeded smoothly. After exactly fifteen minutes, Chubbs crept to the cab of the truck, pulled the two limp bodies out, and tossed them to the side of the tunnel, covering them with a blanket. Chubbs’ brother Lloyd jumped into the driver's seat of the truck, smashed open the window, and called ahead for the all-clear. Lamont hopped in beside him. At the first exit, Lloyd
swiftly turned off. Papone's car kept going, not noticing the unscheduled detour until, moments later, the car came to a sudden halt. Unmindful of oncoming traffic, the driver of the car peeled around and sped in pursuit of the cargo truck. Chubbs smiled.

Hollis was already
at the club, the Uptown Garage, throwing big money at the bartender, telling him, “Champagne for everybody.” Girls from all over began surrounding Hollis as he pulled out fifties and hundreds and threw them around. Hollis had his choice of women tonight and was looking at all the desperate faces trying to get his attention.