Chapter 2 #5
Keisha immediately pointed.
"That's it."
"You sure?"
"I'm positive."
"What did she want?"
Keisha stared at the table.
Thinking.
"She asked about you."
That stopped me.
Not Karl.
Not the funeral.
Me.
"What did she ask?"
"If you had been around."
"What else?"
"If you knew Karl had been looking for her."
Nobody spoke.
Because that wasn't possible.
At least I didn't think it was.
"Karl was looking for her?"
Keisha nodded.
"That's what she said."
"When?"
"I don't know."
"Did Karl ever mention her?"
"No."
"Not once?"
"No."
That didn't make sense.
Because if Karl was looking for somebody connected to my family, he would have told me.
At least I thought he would have.
Then again, Karl also left letters.
Hidden safes.
And notebooks.
So maybe I didn't know as much as I thought.
Tammy came into the kitchen holding her phone.
She looked at me first.
Then Rico.
Then Tone.
"The black SUV is outside our house."
Nobody spoke.
Not because we were confused.
Because we weren't.
We had all seen enough.
"Security called me too," she said.
I stood.
"You should have told me first."
She looked at me like I had lost my mind.
"Damian, I just did."
Tone laughed.
Even Rico smiled a little.
I looked at both of them.
"Shut up."
Tammy stepped closer.
"They're not after me."
I looked at her.
"What?"
"They're not after me," she said again. "They're trying to move you."
I didn't answer.
Because she was right.
"They know if they put pressure on me, you stop thinking straight."
Tone pointed at her.
"She ain't wrong."
I ignored him.
Tammy kept going.
"Karl knew something. Whatever it is, they think you either have it or can get it."
Rico looked at me.
Then at Tammy.
Then back at me.
She was right again.
That pissed me off and impressed me at the same time.
Before anybody could say anything else, the front door opened.
Hard.
Not a knock.
Not a ring.
Opened.
Everybody in the house looked up.
A man walked in.
Mid-sixties.
Gray beard.
Tall.
He didn't look scared.
Didn't look nervous.
Didn't look like he cared there were twenty people staring at him.
Most people don't just walk into a grieving family's house.
The man looked around.
Then his eyes landed on me.
Not Keisha.
Not Rico.
Me.
"There you are."
I stood up.
The man nodded.
Almost like he was confirming something.
Then he reached into his jacket.
Half the room froze.
Three people stood up.
Tone included.
The old man didn't react.
Didn't flinch.
Didn't care.
He pulled out a folded piece of paper.
Then held it up.
"Karl wanted you to have this."
Nobody moved.
I looked at the paper.
Then at him.
"Who are you?"
The man smiled.
"My name isn't important."
That answer annoyed me immediately.
"Try again."
The smile disappeared.
The old man looked around the room.
Then back at me.
"You Damian King?"
"I am."
He nodded.
Then handed me the paper.
The second I touched it, he let go.
Like he couldn't wait to get rid of it.
"Where did you get this?"
"Karl."
"When?"
"Three days ago."
Shit.
Three days.
Before the warehouse.
Before Andre.
Before everything.
I unfolded the paper.
One sentence.
That was it.
Written in Karl's handwriting.
The woman isn't who you think she is. Ask Rico about Savannah.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody moved.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
And looked at Rico.
Rico wasn't looking at me.
He was staring at the note.
Like he had seen a ghost.
"Rico."
Everybody was looking at him now.
Keisha.
Tone.
Tammy.
Me.
Rico kept staring at the note.
Then finally, he looked up.
"Where did you get this?"
That wasn't an answer.
And we all knew it.
I held up the paper.
"Karl."
Rico looked away.
That got my attention.
Because Rico never looked away.
Not from me.
Not from anybody.
"What the hell is Savannah?"
Rico rubbed his face.
Thinking.
Trying to decide something.
Then he looked at me.
"This isn't the place."
Tone laughed immediately.
"The hell it ain't."
Rico ignored him.
"This isn't the place."
I kept staring at him.
The problem was, he sounded serious.
Not guilty.
Not scared.
Serious.
Like he was remembering something he wished he had forgotten.
The old man who delivered the note was already gone.
Nobody even saw him leave.
Tammy's phone buzzed.
She looked down.
Then at me.
"Security again."
"Answer it," I said.
She did.
"Talk."
That one word coming out of her mouth made Tone look at me and smile.
I ignored him.
Tammy listened.
Then her eyes came to mine.
"The SUV is still there."
She listened again.
Then said, "How many?"
Everybody stopped moving.
She looked at me.
"Two men inside."
I walked toward her.
She kept listening.
Then her face changed.
"What?"
I stood right in front of her now.
"What happened?"
Tammy lowered the phone.
"They just got out."
I looked at Rico.
Then at Tone.
Then at Karl's note still sitting in my hand.
Savannah.
Elaine.
Karl.
The caller.
The black SUV.
Everything was crashing together.
All at once.
And suddenly, I didn't care about the notebook.
I didn't care about Savannah.
I didn't care about any of it.
Because somebody was outside my house.
Watching my woman.
And that was a problem I planned on solving tonight.