'Get your crybaby ass outta there,' Smith screamed, pulling back the slide on his automatic and shoving the gun into Curtis's face. 'This be Louis's play, so it gonna happen.'
'I was never really gonna change labels. He's gotta believe that!'
I saw insanity flash in Smith's eyes and thought Curtis was going to die right there. Then Lou Maluga arrived at the Navigator side door and put a hand on Crocodile Smith's shoulder, pulling him aside.
'Come out, Curtis,' he said softly. Then without warning, Lou reached inside and with one quick powerful jerk, yanked Cutis out of the SUV. He rolled onto the sand at Maluga's feet. Then KZ yanked him upright.
'Stand over there,' Stacy ordered.
The three holes had been dug next to a stand of Joshua trees. We were led over and each of us was forced to stand next to one of the graves. I looked down into a sandy, three-foot-deep hole in the ground and wondered if this was where my precious remains were going to rot for eternity. I'd planned on something a little more formal.
Curtis started begging again; this time he seemed close to tears. 'Louis, I can make this right, brotha. I didn't want any a them old performance payments. I never would a known about any a that if it weren't for Stacy. She told me everything.' Then he turned to the White Sister. 'Why'd you put me up to this then back down on me? I don't get none a this.'
'Shut up!' Louis said. 'You gotta pay what you owe, nigga.'
I was getting ready to add my testimony, tell everything I'd picked up on the VXT, when Louis raised the Desert Eagle and thumbed back the hammer, freezing me in mid-thought.
'You think you can kill me and Curtis and just walk away?' Lionel said softly. 'This ain't like Dante Watts, where nobody gave a shit. This is L. A. Times front page, Lou. This is network, baby. You gonna be watching this every night on CBS till they hook you up and star you in the broadcast.'
Something in that sentence jogged my brain. I needed to come up with something usable fast and it needed to be something I could prove. Lou wouldn't believe what I'd overheard on the pager because I didn't have the tape with me to play as evidence. As I stood looking at the three holes in the ground, something started buzzing around in my thick head. They had set this up to kill Lionel and Curtis. Stacy sent her two Crip grave diggers out here this afternoon, but nobody knew I was going to stumble into the mess.
'Listen up, cuz. I got a play here. This gonna ring solid.' Curtis was pleading again. 'I got two albums worth of songs already cut. I give them all to you, baby. Okay, I give all that wax away. Do ya feel me? I'm tryin' hard t'make this right.'
Louis Maluga was street gristle who couldn't take much more of Curtis. I saw the same murderous look in his eyes that I'd seen in Malibu when we'd faced off in his African print living room. He was ready to throw down. I knew once the shooting started, it wouldn't stop until all three of us were dead. Stacy had way too many stories. I had to knock one down. It was now or never.
'Hey, Louis,' I said. 'When's the big day? You and Sable pick a date yet?'
He looked over at me with a dumb look on his round face. Under the circumstances, it was probably the last thing he thought anybody would ask.
'What?' he said, trying to understand why, seconds from death, I would ask that question.
'You and Sable.' I tried to smile, but my jack-o-lantern grin was stretched thin across dry teeth and felt phony. I pressed on. 'I put a bug in your ride, man. I been listening to you and her snuggle. Good stuff there.'
I turned to Stacy. 'You gonna be the matron of honor? Carry some flowers? Maybe wish the bride well with a nice toast at the reception?'
Stacy looked at me with such a strange, angry frown that I knew I was in fertile territory.
'Shut the hell up,' she growled. 'Whatta you bringin' this up for?'
' 'Course with a wedding on the horizon, that means you and Stacy gotta get a divorce,' I said. 'Couple a things here don't quite add up, Lou. For instance, how're you two gonna divide up your company in divorce court without going broke? California is a community property state. Once you get through paying your long-term capital gains, most of your assets are gonna go to pay for the war in Iraq.'
'There ain't gonna be no divorce and no wedding,' Louis shouted. 'Where'd you get this shit?' He was pressing, leaning too far into it. His body language screamed lie.
'She knows, Lou,' I said. 'She knows you're getting set to dump her. That's why we got one too many graves out here.'
I was flying half-blind, clawing at loose ends hoping to unravel this knot. I could see from their expressions that I'd started something. Stacy fumed while Louis frowned. He was working on it. He had survived in a brutal, deadly street world by trusting his instincts. Stacy glowered at me, still holding the shotgun in her delicate hands, but in her anger, it seemed almost forgotten.
'What're you talking about?' she yelled.
'One hole for Lionel, one for Curtis. But who's this third one for?' I asked.
'It's for you, motherfucker!' she was screaming now.
'I don't think so. You didn't know I was gonna be here. I was a last-minute add.' I pointed to the Crips with shovels. 'These guys were out here digging hours ago.'
'Lou, I'm gonna put this guy down!' Stacy growled and raised the shotgun until it was pointing at my stomach.
'No,' Louis said. 'I want to hear him out. Let him talk.'
It was hard to focus on Lou while Stacy was twenty feet away, pointing a cocked shotgun at me. But I forced myself to turn and face him.
'This third hole is for you, Louis,' I said soberly.
'You're outta your mind!' Stacy screamed.
Her reaction said I wasn't. I figured I was dead anyway, so I just plowed on. I looked at Stacy.
'What's he good for anyway? Lou's a record company disaster. A dinosaur. No acts want to record for him anymore. You built this label, Stacy. You're not gonna watch it go down in a divorce so this guy can marry some silicone Barbie from the Valley. You got this beat down started. You riled up Curtis, leakin' stuff till he got so upset he decided to change labels. That sets up Lou's motive for Curtis's murder. But Lou, it only works for her if you also die in the shoot-out. That way, she inherits 'cause you're still married.' I turned to Crocodile Smith. 'You're the designated shooter, Croc. You've got a motive and you're gonna die with the murder weapon in your hand. You all die and leave the cops to sort it out. God knows there's enough bad blood between you all to justify it.'
'He's lyin', Lou.'
Louis wheeled on her, his face contorted with rage. 'You been leakin' our accounting to Curtis to force all this?'
Suddenly, Crocodile Smith pointed his gun at Lou. But Lou was ready, and spun and fired, blowing him backwards into the sand. Lou and Stacy were now faced off with guns drawn on each other, about to execute a street divorce. It was a moment that lasted no longer than a heartbeat but seemed frozen in time.
Nobody was paying attention to Lionel, who moved slightly to his left, closing the distance between Lou and himself.
Then without warning, Lionel dove at Louis, and knocked him backward into the nearest grave. Lou rolled up into a sitting position, poking his head over the top of the hole. As he did, Stacy fired both barrels at him and blew his head clean off his shoulders.
I turned and started a zigzag run back to the Navigator as weapons started discharging all around me. I heard Stacy slam the double barrel closed.
A reload.
The shotgun fired again and a double-load of heavy buckshot flew by my ear, its wind ruffling my hair. In front of me, the side window of the Navigator turned to crystal as the pattern hit.
I yanked open the door, rolled into the backseat, and grabbed the Beretta AR-70. The case fell open and I pulled the heavy weapon out, jammed in a clip, threw myself to the ground, and rolled under the car. I heard guns firing and people screaming. I jacked a round into the tube and started spraying lead. For an instant Insane Wayne was in my sights, but I remembered the note that he'd passed that saved my life, and I held my fire. He ducked down as more guns barked in the dark. Barrel flashes illuminated everybody's positions. I fired the Beretta until both clips were dry.
Then I heard the 12-gauge bark again and Lionel Wright screamed. Seconds later, I caught sight of Stacy, lit
