When I got to 408, I stood quietly by the door for a minute and listened. Penn Plaza’s builders hadn’t opted for the upgrade to solid oak, so I was able to hear the conversation inside the apartment, especially since the voices were getting louder.
“Are you crazy?”
That was Asaan, and then I heard Razor.
“No, I ain’t crazy! I’m tryin’ to show you that we can do things here, if you just listen to me.”
“Listen to you? Un-uh, I don’t think so. You show up at my apartment with a bunch of stolen watches, tell me to find a buyer, and I’m supposed to, what, just walk outside for a minute and come back here with a fistful of dollars? Man, that’s not what I’m about anymore.”
“Well, shit, man, it’s what you oughta be about.” Then, in a more ominous tone, Razor added, “And it damn well better be, too.”
“What the fuck’s that mean?” said Asaan, and his voice had taken on a much harder tone now, too.
“It means I’m in charge now, and you gonna do what I say.”
“And exactly what is it that makes you think I’m gonna take orders from you?”
“For starters, this,” said Razor.
There was a brief pause, and then Asaan said, “Waddaya gonna do, Razor, shoot me with your little toy gun right here in my apartment?”
I decided it was time for my dramatic entrance. I pulled my gun out of its holster, stepped back a couple of feet, raised my right leg, and kicked hard at Asaan’s door, right next to the lock, which broke easily. As the door swung open, I stepped inside and leveled my .38 at Razor, who was pointing a .22-caliber pistol at Asaan. As guns go, it wasn’t much, but given the right circumstances, it would get the job done.
“Razor, you can drop it or I can drop you,” I said. “You got three seconds to decide.”
Always go with corny TV dialogue when dealing with teenagers.
Razor hesitated, then dropped his gun on the floor. I motioned to Asaan to pick it up, which he did. He was wearing a pair of black sweatpants and a white T-shirt with the sleeves cut off to accommodate his huge biceps.
I put my gun back in its holster and stepped over to Razor, swinging him around and pushing him up against the wall, where I quickly frisked him.
“Okay,” I said to Asaan. “He’s clean. Keep an eye on him while I call the cops.”
“Yeah, Mr. Detective Man, you do that,” Razor said. “And while you at it, tell’em I know who killed T-Man.”
And he was looking right at Asaan when he said it.
Chapter 51
I believe the expression is pregnant silence, and that’s what hung heavily in that room for the next five seconds, until finally I said, “Somebody talk to me.”
“He killed T-Man!” said Razor. “I was there at that house and . . . and I seen him kill T-Man!”
I looked at Asaan, but he didn’t say anything, and I couldn’t get any kind of a read from his expression yet. Mostly, he just looked confused.
I’d put Razor’s hands behind his back, and I was holding his wrists in my right hand.
“I’m listening,” I told him.
“T-Man, he called me that night, told me Rodney was supposed to meet him at that house on Beatty Street. But Rodney wasn’t there, so T-Man tole me to get over there and wait outside for Rodney. But Rodney didn’t show, so I went in the house and I . . . I seen Mr. Spoon and T-Man in the kitchen. Mr. Spoon, he pointed his gun at T-Man on the other side of the room and he shot him and then ran out the house. I could see T-Man was dead, so I took off, too.”
I looked at Asaan again. He still had that confused look on his face.
“That isn’t what happened,” he said.
“You a liar!” shouted Razor.
I gave his wrists a squeeze and leaned in close to him and said, “Shh, the grown-ups are talking now. Be quiet.”
He started to speak again, but I tightened my grip and he stopped. He appeared to be in considerable pain. I was okay with it.
“I was there,” said Asaan, “but it didn’t go down the way this little shithead says it did.”
“Then tell me how it did go down,” I said.
With a look of resignation on his face, Asaan said, “The day that T-Man confronted you outside your place, I called him, told him we had to talk. He said okay, but it had to be at some house on Beatty Street. He gave me the number, said he’d be there at ten o’clock. I said okay, and that night I parked in the alley behind the house and went in the back door.”
He stopped and shrugged his shoulders.
“I didn’t think it was a set-up, but you never know. Anyway, T-Man was there alone, in the front of the house. He asked me what I wanted, and I told him I’d heard about the incident outside your house that morning. I told him that shit had to stop, and that the Links and the Gates had to stop fighting each other.”
Asaan stopped again and shook his head.
“That just set him off. He started yellin’ about how the Links would never make peace with the Gates. I finally told him he needed to get his head straight. I said I was leaving, and I’d talk to him when he’d calmed down. I walked away, but he followed me, and when we got to the kitchen, he told
