Chapter 2 #4
Names.
Dates.
Phone numbers.
Meetings.
A lot of meetings.
Too many.
Rico stepped beside me.
"What is it?"
"I don't know yet."
But halfway down the page, I saw a name.
One that made me stop.
Tone.
I looked up.
Tone was standing right in front of me.
Completely unaware.
I looked back down.
Then up again.
Maybe I was reading it wrong.
Maybe it meant something else.
Maybe it wasn't the same Tone.
But deep down, I knew damn well it was.
Tone noticed.
"What?"
I closed the notebook.
"Nothing."
The problem was, Tone knew me too well.
He stared at me.
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"Bullshit."
Keisha looked between us.
Confused.
Rico noticed too.
Of course he did.
I slipped the notebook under my arm and grabbed the envelope.
One photograph slid out.
I looked at it.
Then looked again.
Karl.
Andre.
And another man standing between them.
The picture couldn't have been more than a few days old.
Tone stepped closer.
"What?"
I handed him the picture.
He looked at it.
Then handed it to Rico.
Rico stared at it longer than either of us.
That got my attention.
"You know him?" I asked.
Rico didn't answer right away.
He kept looking at the picture.
Then he looked at me.
"Yeah."
"Who is he?"
Rico slid the picture back across the table.
"That's Detective Lewis's brother."
Keisha frowned.
"The cop?"
"The cop."
Tone sat back.
"Get the fuck outta here."
"I'm serious," Rico said.
I took the picture back.
Looked at it again.
Then at Rico.
"You sure?"
"Positive."
Karl.
Andre.
Lewis's brother.
The warehouse.
The missing cameras.
None of this shit was making sense.
Yet.
I opened the notebook again.
Started flipping pages.
Names.
Dates.
Phone numbers.
Meeting locations.
Some pages had entire paragraphs.
Others only had one line.
Karl's handwriting covered every page.
Then something caught my eye.
A date.
Three weeks ago.
Underneath it:
Don't trust Tone.
I stopped reading.
Tone looked up.
"What?"
I turned the page.
Then another.
Then another.
Maybe I read it wrong.
Maybe it meant something else.
Maybe it wasn't the same Tone.
But Karl wasn't here to explain it.
And until I knew what he meant, I wasn't accusing anybody of shit.
"What is it?" Rico asked.
I closed the notebook.
A little too fast.
"What did you see?" Tone asked.
"Nothing."
Tone laughed.
"Man, stop lying."
"I'm not lying."
"Damian."
I ignored him.
Kept flipping pages.
Then something else jumped out.
Another name.
One I hadn't seen in years.
One I never expected Karl to write down.
My father's name.
I stopped.
Tammy noticed immediately.
"What?"
I stared at the page.
Then read the line underneath.
Once.
Then again.
Karl's death wasn't looking like a warehouse problem anymore.
It was starting to look personal.
My father's name sat there in Karl's handwriting.
Just seeing it pissed me off.
The man had been dead for years.
And somehow he still found ways to irritate me.
"What?" Tammy asked again.
I closed the notebook.
"Nothing."
She looked at me.
"That doesn't work on me."
"I know."
"Then stop doing it."
I smiled.
Couldn't help it.
Not with her.
Not even then.
"Take the notebook," I told Rico.
He nodded.
"The flash drive too."
"What about the safe?" Tone asked.
I looked around the basement.
At the concrete.
At the hole.
At the empty metal box.
Then at Keisha.
"Nobody says shit about this."
Keisha nodded immediately.
Tone looked offended.
"What?"
"I'm serious."
"I'm not saying anything."
"Good."
I handed the notebook and flash drive to Rico.
Then looked at Keisha.
"You staying here tonight?"
"My mama is coming over."
"Good."
"I'll be fine."
Tammy touched her hand.
"No, you won't."
Keisha looked at her.
Tammy squeezed her fingers.
"But you don't have to be fine tonight."
Keisha started crying again.
I looked away.
Not because I didn't care.
Because I did.
Too much.
I walked over and kissed the top of Ava's head.
She was asleep on the couch now.
Curled up with one of Karl's hoodies.
Shit.
Nobody talked until we got outside.
The front door closed behind us.
Tone shoved his hands into his pockets.
"You going to tell me what was in the notebook?"
"No."
He laughed.
"See. That's disrespectful."
"Life's hard."
"Man."
Rico laughed.
The first real laugh I had heard all day.
Then his phone buzzed.
He looked down.
The laugh disappeared.
"What?" I asked.
Rico looked at me.
Then back at the screen.
Then at me again.
"They found Andre."
Nobody said anything.
We had been looking for Andre all damn day.
"Where?"
"Harbor."
"Alive?"
Rico didn't answer.
Didn't need to.
Shit.
Tone looked down.
"Goddamn."
We got back in the truck.
The harbor wasn't far.
The whole ride I kept thinking about that notebook.
My father's name.
Tone's name.
Karl writing:
Don't trust Tone.
I looked over at Tone.
He was scrolling through his phone.
Minding his business.
Acting normal.
The same Tone I had known for years.
The same Tone Karl would have taken a bullet for.
It didn't make sense.
None of it.
When we pulled into the harbor, normal disappeared again.
Yellow tape.
Police lights.
People standing around.
The second I stepped out of the truck, I saw Lewis.
He looked exhausted.
He also looked pissed.
"King."
"Lewis."
He nodded toward the water.
"Your guy?"
I followed his eyes.
Then I saw Andre.
Shit.
He was sitting against a fence.
Hands zip-tied.
Head hanging forward.
Blood covering the front of his shirt.
Like somebody wanted him found.
Not hidden.
Found.
Tone cursed.
Rico stayed quiet.
I walked closer.
Lewis stepped in front of me.
"Don't."
"Is he dead?"
Lewis nodded.
"Been dead a few hours."
A few hours.
That meant Andre was probably dead before we found his truck.
Before the texts.
Before the pictures.
Before half the shit we had been chasing.
Something was hanging around Andre's neck.
A chain.
Nothing fancy.
Just a cheap silver chain.
But hanging from it was a small gold crown.
The same crown that was on Karl's keys.
The same crown everybody in our circle knew.
The King crown.
Somebody put it there.
On purpose.
Lewis saw me looking.
"What?"
I nodded toward the chain.
"That wasn't his."
"You sure?"
"Positive."
"What's it mean?"
I kept looking at Andre.
At the chain.
At the blood.
At the message.
The problem was, I still didn't know who the hell it was from.
Rico's phone rang.
He looked down.
"It's the house."
"My house?"
"Yeah."
I took the phone from him.
"Talk."
It was one of my security guys.
"Boss, we got a black SUV outside the property."
I looked at Rico.
Then at Tone.
"What kind?"
"Tinted. No plates visible from this angle."
"Where's Tammy?"
"Inside."
"Kira?"
"Inside."
"Keep them there."
"Yes, sir."
"And if that SUV moves?"
"We follow?"
"No."
I looked at Andre.
Then at the crown around his neck.
"If it moves, you call me first."
The call ended.
My phone buzzed right after.
Unknown number.
Again.
I answered.
"Talk."
The same man laughed into the phone.
"You're behind."
I looked at Andre.
"Maybe."
"You found the safe."
Only a handful of people knew about that.
A handful.
"Good for you," I said.
"You always were arrogant."
That caught my attention.
That wasn't somebody guessing.
That sounded like somebody who knew me.
Personally.
"You know what Karl's biggest mistake was?" the man asked.
I didn't answer.
He didn't care.
"He trusted the wrong people."
The call ended.
Just like that.
I stared at the screen.
Thinking.
Then I looked at Rico.
At Tone.
At Lewis.
At Andre.
At all the pieces that still didn't fit.
Who the hell knew about that safe?
My phone buzzed again.
This time it was a text.
Unknown number.
One sentence.
Ask Keisha about the funeral.
I stared at the screen.
Tone frowned.
"What now?"
I handed him the phone.
He read it.
Then looked at me.
"The funeral?"
"Apparently."
Rico shook his head.
"This shit is getting weird."
It already was.
Twenty minutes later, we were back at Keisha's house.
The crowd had gotten bigger.
Cars everywhere.
People standing outside talking.
Smoking.
Crying.
Doing all the things people do when somebody dies too soon.
The second I walked in, Keisha looked up.
"What now?"
Straight to it.
No hello.
No how are you.
Just what now.
Fair.
Very fair.
"We need to talk."
She laughed.
One of those tired laughs.
"You and me both."
I sat down across from her.
The kitchen was finally quiet.
Most people were in the living room.
Ava was upstairs.
For now.
"What's going on with the funeral?"
Confusion crossed her face.
"What?"
"The funeral."
"What about it?"
"Anybody unusual reach out?"
"No."
"Anybody offer to help?"
"No."
"Anybody ask questions?"
She paused.
Then said, "Actually."
That got my attention.
"Actually what?"
"There was a woman."
Rico looked at me.
I looked at him.
Then back at Keisha.
"What woman?"
"I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"I mean I never met her."
"When?"
"This afternoon."
"Here?"
She nodded.
"She said she knew Karl."
"What did she want?"
Keisha shook her head.
"Nothing."
Nobody believed that.
Not me.
Not Rico.
Not Tone.
Nobody.
"What did she look like?"
Keisha thought for a second.
"Pretty."
Tone rolled his eyes.
"Helpful."
"I'm serious."
"Everybody is pretty when nobody knows their name."
Keisha ignored him.
"Dark hair."
"How old?"
"Maybe fifty."
That stopped me.
Not because of her age.
Because something clicked.
A memory.
A face.
A conversation from years ago.
Gone as fast as it came.
But it was there.
Rico noticed.
"What?"
I looked at him.
Then at Keisha.
Then back at him.
"I think I know who she's talking about."
"Who?" Keisha asked.
"My mother's best friend."
Rico looked at me.
"Your mother's friend?"
"I think."
Tone frowned.
"You think?"
"It's been years."
"What's her name?" Rico asked.
"Elaine."