Rude Boy USA (15 page)

People from all over the city came together for Bernie’s funeral. The church pews filled. Mourners included some of Bernie’s distant relatives who had not spoken to him for years. Some of them still held a grudge about the way he’d
handled his grandparents’ store. Chimera’s security was heavily present because John wanted everything to go off without incident. The services made the local papers and evening news. Despite some questionable activities at times, Bernie had a stellar reputation in New York City. At the funeral, Edina and Celia finally came face to face. John was forced to introduce them. Edina had no clue about Celia besides her being a person who worked with John. Celia was uncomfortable, to say the least. She did not want to talk more with Edina than she had to. Both were seemingly too distraught to socialize. John looked like he just wanted to leave the area entirely.

John became the boss of Chimera by default and presumed the leadership role. Bernie had left him in charge of most of the activities in the company, excluding his plans for Atlantic City. John met with Luci Graziani briefly after the burial to discuss what would be next for them. Graziani was still interested in working with them. John wanted to avoid a hostile takeover, a possibility since the other families knew of Bernie’s passing and were ready to seize everything Chimera had built in the past decade. John was determined not to let that happen, as Bernie’s legacy was important to him and everyone who was still there.

Ben began to slide backward. Celia had ended her outside contact with Ben altogether. There would be no more dates. She just did not feel right about the entire situation. The one-time sex with him had fulfilled a physical need, she realized. Ben wanted to see her more often, as a support
crutch and a girlfriend, but she declined. Ben would not admit it, but his feelings were a bit hurt by the distance. Much like John, Ben used his time at work to be close to her. His productivity slowed, and he did not want to take orders from John. He was too busy snorting coke on his off time to deal with his grief about the breakup. It had become so bad that he was now experiencing nosebleeds. Ben did not want Celia to see this, as he knew it would scare her away for good. He needed her because now she was his only ally at Chimera. Celia had become the neutral point in the group as well as the unofficial number four in the company, even if she did not participate in the initiation ceremony. Her role was now more important than ever. Ben was bitter overall, and he thought that he had to make moves soon or else he would fade away from all the work he had put in over the years. He had helped build Chimera, and he felt unappreciated. He began to use his time with Celia as a way to get at John, even mentioning to John that they went out, which made tensions worse between the two. John knew that Ben was no good for Celia but understood that he had no real power to control her. He had no choice but to sit back and hope their relationship would implode.

Jerome sought comfort in his girlfriend. The shock of Bernie’s death prompted him to propose to Mariana on a whim. She accepted. He felt good about his decision to finally settle down. Nightlife was becoming mundane to him, and he needed a higher purpose to justify some of the things he did on a daily basis. The entire death situation had Jerome questioning life. He felt that he should do the things he
had always wanted to do before it was too late. Jerome and Mariana had discussed marriage before, and he felt that now was the time to take the plunge. They planned to walk down the aisle soon, as Mariana did not want to wait too long. Her family wanted her married sooner rather than later, but first Jerome had to get a few things in order at Chimera before he could settle down.

Since Bernie was no longer there, Edina knew that John was not handling things well. Instead of using the combative tone he typically employed when they argued, he now sounded defeated. He was too occupied to hate her. Edina was aware of the father-and-son-like relationship between John and Bernie. John had not spoken to her much since the funeral, and he had increased his drinking. John’s workload increased, and he split his time in too many places. Edina felt that this was a prime opportunity for her to step in, provide the comfort that he needed, and help him. Besides, she and John had been there since the beginning with Bernie; therefore, she and John should be the ones who kept things afloat. Before she could plan, she had to do some investigating. She needed to know the details of his other residence and find out why he wanted to spend so much time there instead of at home with her.

Edina made the trip over to John’s apartment. It was situated in a luxury high-rise. She had called his place earlier in the day to make sure that he would not be home. John
was traveling out of town for the day, which gave her plenty of time to take a cab over, get in, survey the place, and get back. When she arrived at the building, the door attendant stopped her. He did not know who she was. He was usually the night-shift door attendant, but he had agreed to fill in for the day-shift attendant, who was sick. John had only tipped off the day-shift door attendant about the chance of his wife showing up unexpectedly. There were also different people working the concierge desk that day. The replacement staff were not fully aware of John’s security protocols. Many who worked at the tower often saw John bring numerous women back to his place. For privacy reasons, they never divulged details about that to anyone.

Edina asked to speak to management to see if she could gain access to the apartment. She identified herself as John’s wife and said that there should not be any problems. She claimed that he forgot to leave her the keys, and she had to get something important out of the apartment. They knew she was his wife. The woman at the desk was aware of John’s extracurricular activities. She felt sad for his wife. The manager woman agreed to let her in for a time. They led her upstairs and into the apartment.

Edina looked around and was surprised by how clean the place looked. She had expected a pigsty. The decor was decent, but not as good as what she would do. To her, it was enough to be passable. She thought the light fixture on the ceiling was gaudy. It looked like a lunatic had designed it. Black-and-white framed photographs covered the light-gray walls. The sofa was a dark gray with black pillows, and the
carpet had a strange pattern on it. He had a large floor television against the wall. She thought the entire setup was a bit drab and sad. The city views were excellent, as the windows in the living room were nice and large. She saw clear evidence that another woman had been in the apartment at some point, as she found an earring on the kitchen counter. His refrigerator had minimal food in it. Just some opened wine, TV dinners, and what looked like an old carton of eggs. Edina quickly closed it. She looked over and saw the wine rack and record console with his collection on the side. She knew he liked to drink, but she had not been aware of his fondness for music. She felt like she was learning about a brand-new person and not the man she had been with for a decade. She peeked into his bedroom and saw that his balcony was attached from there. She found the bed unmade and saw some clothes lying on the floor and the chair. His dresser held his comb, brush, cufflinks, and deodorant. She could smell the scent of his favorite cologne. She looked in his closet, through his drawers, and under his bed. She saw nothing out of the ordinary, except the numerous unopened packets of condoms, one recently used condom, and women’s underwear that was not hers under the bed. He must not have realized those items were under there. She was disgusted.

Another door in his bedroom led to a small, attached room—his darkroom. She peeked in. The first things she noticed were hanging photographs. A couple of them were drying, and she was careful not to ruin them by turning on the light. The natural sunlight coming from the bedroom
was enough for her to see by. She looked over and noticed the camera she had bought him. It made her happy that he was actually enjoying something she had given him. She looked up to get a glance at the photographs he had taken with the camera. Many of them depicted architecture. She noticed that these were the same photos he had hanging on his walls. She made mental note of his talent. Other photos were of women. She took one down and attempted to look at it carefully. She wanted a clearer view of the picture, so she went back out to the bedroom toward the window to look. It was a photograph of Celia in her bunny suit at the club. She recognized Celia’s face immediately from their meeting at the funeral. She went back into the room to look at the other photographs. One by one, she discovered that each of the photos were of Celia. John had taken some at the club, and others appeared to be at an eatery and at the office. There were two pictures of the four men of Chimera and one of all five of them together. John did not have a single photograph of Edina in his darkroom.

The discovery surprised her. She had been under the impression that John was into blondes like her, despite her being bleached. She had not thought that he would find any colored girls more suitable than her. Edina associated with colored women when she went out on social events, but they were never close to her. Edina became angry. Her competition was at his place of work. No wonder he loved spending time there, she thought. Edina knew more than ever that in order to fix things, she would have to get to the source. It
was time to make her presence known at Chimera. She had nothing else to do besides be a professional socialite.

Jerome headed to Atlantic City to meet with Luci Graziani. After Graziani and John’s discussion at Bernie’s funeral, they had decided to pull their resources together. Jerome met with Graziani on a Sunday at the Little Belmont Club on Kentucky Avenue. Besides talk, they wanted to catch a breakfast show. Jerome had heard about this club because of its rich history. It was frequented by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Cab Calloway, and Frank Sinatra. During their conversation, Graziani suggested that since Chimera was currently short staffed, they should team up with the Jet Mafia family in Philadelphia. Many of the helpers that the four guys in Chimera had hired left when Bernie passed away.

The Jet Mafia was an all-black crime family on the rise in the city. They were known to have a tight grip on the drug trade. Graziani insisted that he was in good standing with Jet and that they were willing to work with Chimera because of the group’s connections in New York City. The Jet family wanted to expand, so this was a partnership of convenience. Graziani would tip them off to crime families and their shell businesses, and the Jets would rob those businesses for a small cut. The Jet Mafia were very violent and had a reputation for extortion, murder of rival dealers, and the dismantling of other criminal businesses.
They were planning a hit on one of the businesses, disguised as an antiques shop, that the Donati family, a top crime family in Philadelphia, owned.

Graziani thought that all of them together would make a strong enough group to rival the other New York and Philadelphia families, as he felt that they were just as deserving of the piece of the Atlantic City pie as the rest of them. Jet had the funds and the firepower; Chimera and Graziani had the connections and brains. The planning was successful, and Jerome returned to New York to update John. They decided to continue to head into the Atlantic City gambling race with Graziani as their anchor.