In a Cold Sweat (21 page)

“Okay, seventeen guys; waiting for you to come after him.”

“So let me get this straight; Four baby ballers, that I’ve never heard of, are so scared that I’m gonna kill them that they get together to protect themselves against me, but I don’t know them?” By that time, I couldn’t hold back the laughter anymore. “But now two of them are dead, which says a lot for their security and they think it’s me that killed them. So now, one of them is so scared of me that he is sittin’ behind a little army waitin’ on me to show up. Is that what you're tellin’ me?”

By then Kirk was laughing too.

“I’m sorry, but would you mind tellin’ me what my motive is for doing this?”

“See, I told you he was going to ask you that,” Kirk said and dropped his head to continue getting his laugh on.

“I’m not out there figthin’ over corners with these kids,” I said before Richards could say anything. “They play it a little too hard for me. They have no honor or loyalty; shootin’ each other over bullshit. Why would I even be involved with these guys?”

It didn’t take long before Richards cracked a smile. “I was kinda hopin’ that you could tell us,” he finally said. “Since they think it’s all about you, I just thought I’d ask.”

“It is not about me, believe that.” But now things were starting to make sense. Now I know it was these assholes that sent somebody to kill me.

“I’m sorry we took up your time,” Kirk said and turned toward the car.

“Before you go, Kirk. Have you heard anything new you want to share about my wife’s murder?”

“I’m sorry to say that there isn’t any new information, but believe me, we’re still on it,” Kirk said.

“And you still don’t think you can tell me what you do know about Cassandra’s murder?”

“We’ve been through this before, Black. That would come under the heading of police business.”

“Yeah, you told me.” I looked at Kirk and then turned to Richards. “Would you excuse us for a minute, detective Richards?”

Richards extended his hand graciously and I walked away with Kirk. What I was about to do was risky. Some might even say it was arrogant, but it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been accused of that. I stopped and faced the detective.

“Does the name DeFrancisco mean anything to you?”

The
oh
shit
look on Kirk’s face answered all the questions I had. This mutha fucka killed my baby.

“We’ve met,” was all Kirk would commit to. It wasn’t like I expected him to spill his guts and tell me everything he knew, like they do on TV.

“See I’ve always believed that you’ve known who had killed Cassandra for a long time, but there was some reason you couldn’t do anything about it. Now I understand some of why that may have been. Here’s the problem, Kirk. I know DeFrancisco had her killed and you know what I’m gonna do about it.”

“I do.”

“The question between you and I is, when I do what I’m gonna do, what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m gonna do my job, Black. I’m gonna follow the evidence where ever it leads. If I didn’t do my job, you wouldn’t respect me,” Kirk explained, and I understood and could respect that. “Just like if you didn’t do your job, I wouldn’t respect you.” Kirk took a step closer to me. “Just make sure you do your best work,” he said and left me standing there. “Come on, Pat.”

“What was that about?” I heard Richards ask.

“Friend of his got some parking tickets, you know the rest,” Kirk said and got in the car.

Black stood outside the house and watched the detectives drive away. He had just taken a risk by telling Kirk that he knew DeFrancisco was the one that had Shy killed, but it was necessary. And it wasn’t all that risky anyway. Black understood that DeFrancisco being found dead in his cell wouldn’t be a big deal. The real issue, the one Black didn’t mention, was Vinnelli. He was an active DEA agent.
 
His murder would have every law enforcement officer in the country coming after them, and as Bobby said, that’s something Black wanted to avoid at all costs.

Black knew that once Kirk heard that Vinnelli was dead, no matter the circumstances, he’d suspect that Black was at least involved, if he didn’t do the job personally. At that point, Kirk would do his job, but Black felt like he had an understanding with Kirk. He would follow the evidence. “Just make sure you do your best work,” was what Kirk told him. Black took that to mean that there couldn’t be any evidence of his involvement in Vinnelli’s death.

Black went back in the house where Bobby was waiting with Pam. “Come on, we need to ride,” Black said to Bobby and walked back out.

Bobby stood up and followed him out.

Pam came out behind him. “What goin’ on, Mike?”

“Nothin’ for you to be worried about,” Black said and got in the car.

Bobby kissed his wife on the cheek. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. By the way, we’re not goin’ to Hong Kong,” he said and got in the car.

“We got more problems,” Black said before Bobby could shut his door. “Let me see your phone.” Bobby handed Black the phone without discussion.

He dialed Freeze’s number and he answered quickly. “What’s up?”

“I need to see you, Nick and Wanda. I’m at Bobby’s. We’re on our way to the city.”

“Where you wanna meet?”

“Cynt's,” Black replied and Bobby started laughing. Black gave Bobby the finger and ended the call.

“What they want?” Bobby asked.

“You ever hear of some baby ballers go by the names Cash Money and K Murder?”

“Nope.”

“They’re dead.”

“So?”

“They wanted to know if I killed them.”

“Did you?”

“I never even heard of these kids. But them two, and two others that used to work for Birdie, formed a group they call The Commission to protect themselves against me.”

Bobby started laughing. “You’re kidding.”

“I’m serious, Bobby. It was probably them who sent that mutha fucka to kill me.”

“You're probably right. Now what we gonna do about it?”

“Shit—you know we gonna pay them a visit.”

“Say good-bye,” Bobby laughed as he drove into the city.

When he and Black walked into Cynt's, Nick, Freeze and Wanda were waiting for them. As Black approached the table that they were seated at, he looked around the room for Mystique, but didn’t see her anywhere.

When the trio saw Black and Bobby coming, they stood up. Freeze walked up to Black. “You wanna talk in Cynt's office?”

“No. I need the noise.”

“Cool,” Freeze said and smiled because he knew Black wanted to talk about killing somebody. He looked at Black as he shook Nick’s hand and hugged Wanda. He saw the fire in Black’s eyes. The kind of fire he hadn’t seen since he buried Shy.

Black sat down and got right to it. “Any of you heard anything ’bout some niggas call themselves The Commission?” Black asked over the music.

“No,” Freeze said flatly and Nick and Wanda both shook their heads. Nick glanced at Wanda, who was going out of her way not to look in his direction.

“What about Cash Money or K Murder?”

“Yeah,” Freeze said. “I heard Cash and a couple of his boyz got killed.”

“The other nigga got killed a couple of days ago.”

“What about them, Mike?” Wanda asked, knowing if Black was asking about two dead drug dealers, it couldn’t be good.

“Kirk and Richards just asked me if I was involved. Before you get excited, it ended with us all having a big laugh about it.”

“Where did you see Kirk?” Wanda needed to know.

“At Bobby’s house.”

“You're tellin’ me that two New York City detectives drove all the way out to Bobby’s house to ask you about two murders and it’s no big deal?” Wanda asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“Thank you, Wanda.” Black turned his attention back to Freeze. “Richards says they were part of this Commission and they both worked for Birdie. Anybody else you can think of that might be a part of this crew?”

“Stark would definitely be on that team, probably runnin’ it,” Freeze said.

“Do I even know this nigga?”

“I don’t think so,” Freeze said.

“What you got to do with them?” Nick asked.

Black took his time and explained The Commission and its purpose. When he was though, everybody was laughing. “That’s probably who tried to get you in the bathroom, Freeze,” Nick said.

“What? What happened in the bathroom?” Bobby asked. “Somebody
try
to get a piece of that ass?” he said, still laughing.

“The other night
me
and Freeze were out tryin’ to find out who came after you and three guys followed him in the bathroom.”

“To kill me,” Freeze said quickly.

“What happened?” Black asked, no longer laughing.

“I got two of them, Freeze got the other,” Nick told him.

“When were y’all gonna tell me about this?”

“You said you didn’t wanna hear day to day shit like that,” Freeze answered.

“You're right. I did. But I don’t you think somebody tryin’ to kill y’all while you're out tryin’ to find out who tried to kill me is more than day to day shit?” Black glared at Wanda. “You know about this?”

Wanda looked at Freeze and then at Nick. “This is the first I’m hearing about this too,” Wanda said, still staring at Nick and wondering why he didn’t tell her before turning back to Black. “Nobody tells me anything anymore,” she spit out angrily. “How’d you leave it?”

Freeze laughed a little. “We left them dead in the bathroom.”

“Anybody see you leaving?” Wanda asked.

“Anybody who was looking,” Freeze said. “But my people say the cops ain’t up on us.”

Black thought for a minute. “So somebody hit Cash, they think it’s me and send somebody to get me. I kill him and they send three guys after you.”

“They probably think we killed this other mutha fucka to retaliate,” Nick said.

“That means that they’re gonna be comin’ at us again,” Freeze said. “What do you wanna do, Black?”

Black looked at Freeze. “I wanna find and kill whoever it was that murdered Cassandra. None of this other bullshit matters to me right now. You command this family now. You handle this shit, but I wanna know what's goin’ on; understand?”

“Yes, sir,” Freeze replied. He understood that it meant that he shouldn’t do anything without talking to Black first.

“You and Bobby still goin’ to Hong Kong?” Nick asked.

“No.”

Wanda stood up and looked at Freeze. “Unless you need me for anything else, I’m going home.”

“I do want you to check on Kirk; see if they really got anything they think connects Black to this. Like you said, they didn’t just ride all the way to Bobby’s house for nothing.”