Damn, how the mighty have fallen, he mused.
“Alright yo, y’all lil hoppers done had enough,” Black said, seizing control of the situation. “Y’all put ya clothes on and get on up outta here.”
The show suddenly came to a halt as all the participating parties got dressed or pulled up their clothes and prepared to leave. The boys exited the room first. It took Mimi a little longer to get herself together. When she tried to leave, Black blocked the door with his body, preventing her from exiting.
“Mimi, where you think you goin’,” he asked. “It’s me, Black. It’s been a long time yo.”
“Black?” Mimi repeated, as she stared at his face intensely. Although Mimi was under the influence of heroin, she was under no delusions about who this man was. Black was a very dangerous and powerful man on the streets of Baltimore.
Mimi woke up in at a hotel, the Holiday Inn on Route 40, not knowing how she had gotten there. She had been dead to the world, fast asleep for at least a few hours. In that span she had lost all track of time. Partially clothed, she stared at Black, blinking her eyes, but not saying anything.
Black sat at the desk reading the newspaper, a habit he had picked up in prison, until he noticed movement coming from the bed.
“Mimi, it’s about time you woke up,” he said, folding up the paper. “You sleep too hard, anything could happened to you in ya sleep.”
“Where am I?” she wondered.
“Route 40,” Black replied. “Don’t worry shorty, you in good hands yo. I brought you here to sober up and recover. Them lil niggas was runnin’ a train on you. You don’t remember? I saved ya ass. Who knows what would’ve happened to you up in that house.”
Mimi was too embarrassed to speak. She was ashamed that Black had seen her at her lowest point.
“Don’t worry Mimi, that’s our little secret. I won’t tell a soul,” he confided in her. “My lips are sealed.”
Black knew he had to tear Mimi down before her built her back up. He had to make her feel comfortable around him. He wanted her to drop her guard so he had to be very careful how he questioned her. So quickly he formulated a plan to get her high first, then interrogate her extensively.
“Huh, get yaself off E,” he said, tossing Mimi a few gel caps filled with dope.
Mimi caught the plastic bag in mid air, tore it open and began dumping the contents on the back of her hand, snorting it up. Nearby, Black watched in disgust as she vacuumed the drug into both nostrils, pill after pill.
“Slow down Mimi, that dope ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Black laughed.
Only when Mimi had had enough, when all the pills of dope were gone, did she finally pick up her head and look at Black. He stared at her with pity. By the way she inhaled the dope, she had passed the threshold of a recreational user a long time ago. His eyes stayed on her, watching Mimi’s every move.
It took a few minutes for the effects of the drug to kick in. When it did, Black could see Mimi was high. She began nodding off, her chin coming to rest in her chest. Now it was time for him to move in for the kill.
“What’s up wit’ Netta, yo? Where’s she at?” he began. Mimi remained silent in her drug-fueled stupor.
“Bitch, you hear me talkin’ to you, yo?” Black yelled loud enough to grab her attention.
“Nnnnneeettttaaa......” she said, slurring her speech and moving robotically. “.... Nnnneeetttaaa, in the hospital.”
“How you know, yo,” he wondered.
“My, my mother told me. She went to go see her,” Mimi informed him.
There was no way of determining if Mimi was telling the truth to get back at Netta, or lying to protect her friend. However, it made sense. Which explained why he hadn’t been able to find Netta’s name in the paper. She wasn’t dead.
“I hear you two fell out. Y’all not fuckin’ wit’ each other any more?” Black inquired.
“Fuck that bitch! She ain’t right.....” she began.
Black had Mimi right where he wanted her, talking. All he did was bait her into a conversation and Mimi started spilling the beans. She began telling him everything he needed to know, like which hospital she was in and what floor. She even rambled on about whom Netta was dealing with now, too.
Mimi had given him so much information. The thought that Netta had moved on from him and was with another man, a New Yorker at that, made him hot. She knew how much Black hated New Yorkers.
A lump of emotion suddenly formed in Black’s throat. The idea of Netta cutting him loose to build a life with another man enraged him. He had some news for Netta. If she thought he was going to let her live happily ever after, then she’d better think again.
Black had tried to kill Netta once. And with Mimi’s help, he would attempt it again. For some unjustifiable reason, Black wouldn’t let this thing go.
15
It all started with a phone call. That’s all it took to ignite Netta’s paranoia. The prank caller on the other end of the phone never said a word. They would remain silent for a few seconds before abruptly hanging up. This went on for a few days. Someone was playing on the phone, but Netta had no idea as to whom. These strange events put her on edge, as if the walls were closing in around her. She thought she was a sitting duck and Black was coming to kill her any day now.
Suddenly, the phone rang in her room. Netta stared at the phone
