“She’s JR Robinson’s daughter.”
“What were you doing having dinner with her?”
“She’s helping me find who killed Zakiya Phillips.”
“Who?”
“The woman who was killed at Paradise Fish and Chicken. You remember I told you that Black wanted me to look into it.”
“Yeah, but I’m sure he wasn’t expecting you to waste a lot of time on it.”
“Black told me that he didn’t want people thinkin’ that now that Freeze is dead that they could just hit our spots and we don’t do nothing about it.”
“I understand that, but we’ve got plenty of people that could handle that mess.”
“That’s true. But he wants me to establish myself, handle things personally.”
“What does you handling things personally have to do with you having dinner with her?”
“Nothing. How many men do you have lunch and dinner with?”
“That’s business.”
“So is this.”
“How?”
“I told you, she’s helping me find the guys that murdered Zakiya Phillips.”
“What is she, a private detective?” Wanda asked sarcastically. “How is she helping you?”
“My sources say that some of JR’s people were involved in it.”
“And?”
“I went to see JR Talked to him about it and he assured me that he didn’t know anything about it. But since he doesn’t want any bad blood with Black, he told Rain to help me find who did it.”
Wanda folded her arms across her chest and that pouty look came over her face; which meant that at least for the time being, I had successfully held her off. “I still don’t like you having dinner with her.”
“What’s wrong with it? We were hungry, so we ate. And if you want to get technical about it, we didn’t have dinner together. She ate while I talked to Black and then she sat and watched me eat. But you already know that,” I said and made a mental note to keep Rain out of all of our spots. Wanda had eyes everywhere, and I need to know who they are.
I had to ask myself as Wanda got up and got ready to leave, if that meant I planned on Rain being around for awhile?
The answer was yes.
“When am I gonna see you again?” Wanda asked.
“I’ll see you tonight,” I promised as my cell phone rang.
Wanda looked at me.
I looked at her.
The phone rang again.
“Aren’t you gonna answer it?”
I got out of bed and got the phone from my pants pocket. I looked at the display, but didn’t recognize the number.
I looked at Wanda again and her eyes narrowed.
“Hello.”
“You busy?” Rain asked.
“Yes.”
“Tell your woman I said hello,” Rain suggested.
“No.”
“Yeah, well, I know where we can find the two niggas you looking for. But I don’t know how long they gonna be in play, so if you want them we need to get them now.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m at the hotel where you left me, nigga. Come get me and let’s go get these niggas.”
“I’m on my way,” I said and ended the call.
“Who was that?”
“That was Rain.”
“What does she want?”
“She’s got a line on the guys I’m lookin’ for,” I said and headed for the shower. The next sound I heard was Wanda slamming the door.
The first round went to me. But I knew as long as I kept seeing Rain that Wanda would be back at me and this fight would continue.
When I picked up Rain, she told me that the bandits were holed up in some apartments in the south Bronx. “How’d you find out where to find them?”
“’Cause niggas talk.”
“What you mean?”
“I mean last night they were talkin’ about it.”
“To who?”
“Damn, why I gotta give up all that?”
“To who?”
“Like I said, last night at a strip club in Manhattan that a friend of mine dances at; she said this guy was braggin’ to her that he was a robber, and this and that, and that he’s robbed everything from banks to fish and chicken joints for small change. He does it for the rush, not the money. But she says he was flashin’ plenty of money. So she asks him if he ever killed anybody. He said if the money is right. Then he said, sometimes the robbin’ is just to cover the hit.”
“That’s all you got?”
“It’s more than you got.”
“They your people?”
“No, but I know some people that know them.”
“I hate to even have to ask you this, but this ain’t more of your personal shit, is it?”
“I hate you gotta ask me that shit too. I thought we were past that; especially after last night. If I needed you to go down with me on some shit, I would tell you. So no,” Rain said with an attitude. “This is not more of my personal shit.”
“Sorry.”
“Accepted.”
When we got to the building we went inside. On the way up the steps Rain asked, “How you wanna do this?”
“I don’t know, but I want them alive. If these are the guys, and the robbery was just to cover the hit, I want to know who hired them.”
“Then
When we got to their floor we could hear somebody blastin’ their music. As we got closer to the apartment it was obvious that the music was coming from there.
Rain and I stood off to the side of the door with our guns out and I banged on it a few times, but nobody answered. “Kick it in,” Rain suggested.
I tried the doorknob instead.
The door was unlocked.
“That works too,” she commented as I opened the door and went in carefully. The fact that the door was opened and the music was playing didn’t give me a good feeling. “Stay close to me,” I whispered to Rain as we moved through the apartment.
When we got to the bedroom I opened the door slowly, halfway expecting to catch somebody fuckin’.
“Damn,” I said and walked in the room.
Rain came in behind me. “Shit.”
There before us in the bed lay two naked men; one with long dreads. They weren’t fuckin’, they were dead.
