“I hate to ask this, Gene, we go back a long way, but I gotta. What’s your interest here?”
“Let’s get out of the street,” Sanchez said and I had to agree. When we were back on the sidewalk, Sanchez stopped and faced me. “I know you’re thinking, just like I am, that the only way for this to be going on is for somebody blue to be taking green. This is my house, my guys; I need to get on top of it.”
“This is the part I don’t like. You’re not here to cover this up, are you?”
“I know you gotta ask, but a cop’s family getting his pension is one thing, covering for dirty cops is something else.”
“Good enough for me. Let’s go,” I said and went into the building.
“Right behind-partner.”
When we talked to Reyes and he gave us the names and rap sheets of the other three bodies. Robert King and Bernard “Blade” Bradshaw both had long records for possession and firearms violations, but the one that bothered me was the woman that was found in the vacant apartment. Her name was Shantia Lewis. All we had on her was a shoplifting charge and that was eight years old. We got her last known address from the DMV and headed over there.
What we found when we got there was police tape. “See if you can find out what happened here,” I said to Sanchez and got out of the car. I went under the tape and walked toward the house. As I got closer, I could see the chalk outline and the bloodstain on the pavement.
When I got back in the car, Sanchez had the rundown. “Her name was LeSean Wooden. Her and Lewis were roommates. Witnesses say that after they heard the shots, they saw three people lead Lewis away at gunpoint, and drive off in an old Chevy Nova.”
“She got a record?”
“Bad checks,” Sanchez said.
“So what do we have? We got two women: one gets dropped here and the other is taken by three people to the drug house, and they kill her there. A few hours later, three people, and I’m thinking that we’re talking about the same three people, get dropped at the drug house.”
“They take Lewis there; question her. She does or doesn’t tell them what they want to know and they kill her. Their people come after them, and in retaliation, they kill Damson, King, and Bradshaw.”
“I’m willing to go along with the first part: Damson and her people kill Wooden and kidnap and kill Lewis, but there’s more to it. What was this about? And who are our shooters?”
“We don’t have a lot to go on.”
I started the car and drove off. “Maybe I’m trying to read too much into this.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean this could be the same as every other day, dope dealers fighting for turf, bullshit.”
“If what the old man says is true, that’s been a good spot for them for years.”
“I need to know who was supplying Damson, and who would want to take over that spot,” I said and headed for the station to dig a little deeper.
What I found was more dead-ends. Chris Beck was murdered on the yard two weeks after he got to prison. Bryce Tyler disappeared from witness protection over a year ago. The only person I found that I could talk to was Nina Thomas, Copeland’s old girlfriend. It was a long shot, but maybe she could give me something to go on; ’cause right now, I had nothing.
Chapter Seven
Rain Robinson
The first place I went was to a little bar up on the avenue, where Jay Easy and his crew used to hang out. The last time I was there, I walked out with that nigga on my arm so I could kill him. He had sent people to rob my dope spots and kill my dealers. “I thought we had something. I was ready to do life for you. I gets out and come lookin’ for my woman, and you play me off for this nigga,” Jay Easy said to me that night.
“So you decide to start robbin’ me?”
“I still got all the dope and the money. After I’d shut you down I was gonna step to you and give it all back.”
“Bullshit! After all this shit, you was just gonna hand it all back to me?”
“Yeah. I wanted to show you that you needed me in your life. Not this nigga! He can’t do the shit for you that I can.” He just didn’t know. Nick had done more for me and to me in a week, than he did the whole time I knew him.
I parked outside the spot and I knew that if his crew was there, they wouldn’t be glad to see me. I checked my weapon and went in, thinkin’ that maybe I should have called Nick and asked him to ride with me on this. But he would be mad ’cause I wasn’t in bed restin’ like he’d told me to, and I didn’t feel like hearin’ his mouth.
I stepped inside and looked around. I saw his boy Fred Mac, and two other niggas I’d never seen before, sittin’ at a table in the back. I walked back there and they stopped talkin’ when they saw me comin’. I opened my coat and made sure they saw my gun when I stopped at the table. “What you doin’ in here, Rain?” Fred Mac asked.
“I’m lookin’ for Jay’s brother, Kevin. You seen him?”
“It’s been a minute since I seen Kevin. Let’s see, oh yeah, it was at Jay’s funeral, after you shot him.”
“I ain’t got no beef wit’ you, Mac. Me and you always been cool. So unless you sayin’ you was in that shit wit’ him, I want to keep it that way. You know what Jay was doin’ to me and why it went the way it did.”
“Yeah, okay, right-we cool and all that, and the shit Jay did was foul, but did you have to shoot him in the face?” Fred Mac asked and the guys with him laughed a little. “That’s what’s blowin’ Kevin and them. That closed casket funeral shit.”
“Whatever. You tell Kevin I got one for him, too, when I find his ass. You tell him that if he got a problem with me, he needs to grow some balls and bring that shit to my face. Not go after my brother,” I said and walked off.
I hung around for a while and talked to some more people before I left. Nobody had seen Kevin Easely or would tell me where he lived. I left the spot and was headed for the car, when I felt somebody walkin’ up behind me.
“Rain.”
I turned around quickly and pointed my gun. That shit hurt like hell. “Step out in the light where I can see you.”
When they stepped up I saw it was Dee. A crackhead that hung around the bar doin’ whatever he had to do to get money for another bump. “Don’t shoot me, Rain,” he said and walked toward me with his hands up. Even though I didn’t think I had anything to worry about, I kept my gun pointed at him, just in case he was desperate and wanted to try something foolish.
“What you want, Dee?”
“I didn’t mean to get in your business, but I heard what you was askin’ about in there.”
“And.”
“And I know somebody that might know what happened to your brother.”
“Who?”
“He’s name is Whitlow. He just got out of Rikers and he was down with Kevin before he went in.”
“I already know what happened.”
“Yeah, but he might know who did it,” Dee said.
“Where is he?” I asked and put my gun to his head.
Dee flinched and covered his head. “What you gonna give me?”
Ain’t this a bitch? Dee was scared to death, but he still gonna try and get some money. “I’m gonna give you a bullet in the brain if you don’t tell me.”
“He was down there by the train station about an hour ago.”
“Come on,” I said and grabbed Dee by the collar. “Show me.”
I kept my gun in his back and we walked down the street toward the train station. “That’s him,” Dee said and
