done is done.'
As much as I hated to admit it, Terrence was probably right. There was loyalty in the outfit, of a sort, but it only went so far. If you had the juice to make room for yourself at the top, the rank and file would fall in line. Everybody loves a winner.
I shook my head. 'Jesus, Terrence. I'm not sure what to do with this. What would you do if you were in my shoes?' I gave him plenty of rope and even wrapped it around his neck for him.
'I'd take my shot, Domino. Didn't no one ever promise you'd ever get one. If you do, you take it.'
I nodded. 'I'm glad you said that, Terrence. You say Rashan's got to go. I say the Haitian's gotta go, too.'
Terrence's eyes got a little wider than they usually were, but the rest of his face remained impassive. He stared at me a long time. If we didn't both have wards up, I'd have thought he was trying to get in my head. Finally he nodded.
'That might work. Like I said, no one wants a war. Maybe if you're a boss you think you can stay alive just by being the last nigger to die. I never signed up to take Papa Danwe's bullet.'
Mob rules-Terrence and I were both working from the same playbook. We couldn't trust each other, not really, but at least we had a common ground to work from. 'So what happens next?'
'I'll try to keep my boys on our side of the line. You do the same. We buy time. Events have been put in motion, Domino. We can't change what we can't change. But we can make sure South Central doesn't blow up, at least for a while.'
By that, I took Terrence to mean more of my guys were going to get squeezed. That might have pissed me off, but I believed him when he said he didn't know why Papa Danwe was doing it. It was pretty clear he hadn't been briefed on the whole plan. If I had to guess, I'd have said he didn't know much more than I did. If he didn't know what was going on, there probably wasn't much he could do about it. But if I got him to stall for me, slow things down where he could, it had been a pretty successful meeting.
'That's a start, but we also need to share information. We either trust each other in this or we don't. As a good-faith gesture, I can tell you that the Russians and the Koreans have lined up with us. If your boys decide to step across the line, they're going to find themselves surrounded.' It was a pretty harmless piece of information to give up. Terrence probably already knew about it. And really, it was more a threat than a good-faith gesture.
Terrence wasn't impressed. 'Papa Danwe told me it would go that way. He didn't seem too worried about it.'
I shrugged. 'I'm just bringing you up to speed, Terrence. Maybe you can do the same for me?'
Terrence looked at me a while, but his expression didn't change. 'What else you want to know?'
'Well, how about Jamal? I know he was hanging out at the Cannibal Club. I know you do, too-though I got to say, I'm not sure how you can tolerate the fucking place. What was your interest in the kid?'
'Ain't never been to the Cannibal Club. Didn't know your dead tagger. Don't know what Papa Danwe wanted with him.'
'I know you were at the club, Terrence. I've got a reliable witness puts you there.'
'Not so reliable, I guess, 'cause I never been there, like I told you.'
I searched his face and body language for signs of deceit, but Terrence might as well have been carved from stone. When a good liar decides to lie to you, there's not a whole lot you can do about it-not without using some juice on him. Still, I knew he was lying and he knew I knew he was lying, so maybe I could figure out from that why he was lying to me anyway. Maybe not. I decided to skip it.
'Okay, you were never at the club, but the vampire was. I know he's in this-I can put him at one of the scenes. Why does Papa Danwe need a fucking vampire?'
One of Terrence's eyes twitched a little. Then he shrugged, lifting his wide shoulders and letting them fall. 'The vampire is in it, but he don't work for Papa Danwe.'
'What does that mean? The vampire is an independent? What's his interest in this?'
Terrence shrugged again. 'Never met the cat, myself.'
'Or maybe you're saying the vampire is working for someone else? Is there another player?'
'Maybe. I think I said Papa Danwe ain't stupid.'
'Who is it, Terrence?' I knew he wouldn't tell me even if he knew, and I got the feeling he didn't.
'It's a dangerous world we living in, Domino. Everyone's got to have friends. You got the Russians and the Koreans. I guess Papa Danwe got someone behind him, too.'
It wasn't any kind of answer. Even with another outfit behind him, the Haitian wouldn't have the juice to take down Rashan. And even if he did, he wouldn't be likely to survive the war and enjoy the fruits of victory. But it certainly made things more complicated-assuming Terrence wasn't making all this up as he went along.
'So if our bosses are out of the picture, like we said, what about Papa Danwe's friends? Will they come along?'
Terrence didn't say anything-he didn't even shrug-and I realized he had no idea who the other player was. I was sure of it, and it was actually very useful information. I knew the handful of small-time outfits that were friendly with Papa Danwe. If one of them was the third party, Terrence would know about it. Since he didn't, it wasn't. If none of the other outfits were backing the Haitian, maybe they'd line up with us. But if it wasn't one of the usual suspects…who did that leave?
'Okay, Terrence. We're not going to be able to control this situation unless we know what the situation is.' Terrence nodded.
'So we try to back this thing up, as much as we can, and we try to figure out what the play is. I don't know about you, but I don't like being a pawn in someone else's game.'
Terrence nodded and raised his glass. 'I'd rather be the motherfucking king. Peace, Domino.'
'Peace,' I said, and touched his glass. I finished my drink in one long swallow and stood up.
'You in a hurry, girl?'
'Yeah,' I said. 'I got a date.'
'I sat down with Terrence Cole.' I was on the cell with Chavez as I drove to Brentwood to meet Adan.
'Did he say anything?'
'He suggested I could make this all go away if I just took down Rashan.'
'Doesn't seem like a good career move, chola.'
'Yeah, that's what I thought. According to Terrence, Papa Danwe doesn't have a problem with the outfit. He'd just like to see new leadership.'
'He say why? I never knew there was bad blood there.'
'He didn't say. Most likely, the Haitian knows he has no shot at this with Rashan in place, might as well try to get me to do his dirty work for him.'
'That makes sense. What'd you say?'
'Quid pro quo. Terrence takes out Papa Danwe, and I take out Rashan. Then we make nice.'
Chavez laughed. 'Good play, D. And?'
'And, probably we both know we're yanking each other's chains. Still, I don't think Terrence wants this war. He says he'll try to cool things out, play for time.'
'That'd be good.'
'Best case scenario, maybe he takes his eye off the ball, starts thinking more about his boss than he is about us.'
'Maybe,' Chavez said. He didn't sound convinced.
'He also hinted that there's another player involved, backing Papa Danwe.'
'Another outfit? Mobley's crew? The Rastas don't have enough juice to mean much, D.'
'Terrence didn't give anything up, but I don't think it's the posses, Chavez.' Francis Mobley ran a small Jamaican outfit, one that was known to be aligned with Papa Danwe. 'I'm pretty sure Terrence doesn't know who his boss is allied with, and that tells me it isn't Mobley.'
'Or any of the other outfits that bend over for the Haitian,' Chavez added. 'If it was, Terrence would know.'
'If I can believe half of what he said, he doesn't really know much. He didn't seem too happy about it. I guess I believe him. He's got more of it than I do, but not a lot more.'
'Fuck him then, boss. What's your next move?'
