Chapter 21
Bleek
So much can change in such a short amount of time.
MJ had finally gotten the cast taken off from his broken arm, but I knew my son, and I could tell that he was still healing.
I knew that his spirit was broken. Even as I watched him get back to bouncing a basketball.
He did it cautiously. Nothing about my child was cautious, but now he stepped carefully.
I sat at my desk in MBs in the industrial district with a mountain of paperwork on my desk.
All documents on all sales for the last quarter, as well as a supply list that I had to finalize.
Taking Tahari under my wing and showing him the administrative side of the auto business was rewarding.
I gave him about two auto shops to start with, and so far, he has been good at it.
He obtained information easily and was a quick learner.
He would be done with his automotive courses soon, and once he was done with that, then I would teach him a thing or two in the shop under the hood of a car.
I was still getting used to Maliah dating, but I was becoming more approving of her being with Tahari once I was able to know him better.
It took me two hours to complete everything.
When I was finished, I stood from my chair and then did a light stretch.
I had to get my ass home because I had a wife wanting a baby waiting for me at home.
I locked up the building and then headed to my car.
While I was fumbling with my keys, a familiar voice caught my attention.
“Well, youngin’, how you been?”
I looked up and saw Mr. Earl standing in front of me. He owned the auto paint shop right next door.
“Mr. Earl…” I said with a smile as I walked over in his direction to pound up with him, “I’ve been good, where the hell have you been, old head?”
He was draped in some overalls with a plaid shirt underneath. That was his go-to attire. When I first opened this shop, we clicked instantly. He let out a raspy chuckle, the kind that came from years of breathing in paint fumes and laughing through life anyway.
“Man, I’ve been down in Savannah with my daughter. I had to go see my grandbabies. They get to thinking I don’t exist if I stay gone too long,” he said while shaking his head like he couldn’t quite believe how fast time was moving.
“Yeah, them grandkids will humble you quick,” I smirked.
I was far from being a granddad, and Maliah and MJ better damn sure make sure that the road to that for me was very far away.
“They will,” he agreed, then his eyes sharpened just a little as he looked past me toward my shop. “But talk to me, anything been going on while I’ve been gone?”
I exhaled through my nose, already knowing where this conversation was about to go. I’m sure he had heard of the robbery. Mr. Earl’s old ass always got the scoop on everything. It didn’t matter if he was around to witness it or not.
“Yeah, actually.”
“Oh yeah?” His brow lifted.
“My shop got hit,” I said plainly. “They took parts like transmissions, alternators. Shit, anything they could flip quickly.”
Mr. Earl sucked his teeth.
“Mmm. See, that’s that sloppy work. Folks getting bold.”
“Or desperate,” I muttered.
“Yup,” he nodded, agreeing with me, “a thief will steal a damn microwave out of the break room.”
I couldn’t even argue that. I laughed inwardly because at the first robbery those muthafuckers even took the damn coffee maker in the back break room.
“You catch anything on your cameras?”
I let out a short laugh, shaking my head as I looked down at my keys.
“Man, what cameras?”
There was a pause, and then Mr. Earl barked out laughing like I had just told the funniest joke he had heard all year.
“Boy, if you don’t get it together,” he said while pointing at me. “You young, got all this money tied up in these businesses, and ain’t got no cameras?”
I shrugged while half-smirking.
“Ain’t never needed ‘em.”
“Well, clearly you do now,” he shot back without missing a beat.
I huffed a quiet laugh, but he wasn’t wrong. I had to be on point with all of the spots. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward his shop.
“Come on. Let’s go check mine. I got cameras all around this damn place. If they came through here, I might’ve caught something.”
That wiped the humor clean off my face.
“For real?” I asked while stepping toward him.
“For real,” he nodded. “I don’t play about my shit, Malik. I had my son install a whole bunch of gidgets and gadgets. I got cameras and sensors. Hell, I probably got more security than the damn police station.”
I followed him toward his shop. My mind had already started to race because if Mr. Earl had caught anything, this was a lead.
Mr. Earl’s office smelled like paint thinner and old coffee. His shop had the kind of scent that settled into the walls and never really left. I stood just behind him as he lowered himself into his chair.
“What day was it?” he asked with his fingers hovering over the keyboard.
“May 17th,” I answered.
“Aight,” he muttered as he typed it in. “Let’s see what my cameras picked up.”
The monitors lit up in front of us and split into six different views from around his building.
He hit play and pushed the speed up, and just like that, time started moving too fast to catch anything at first glance.
Cars passed in streaks, shadows stretched and disappeared, and the sky shifted from daylight to darkness in seconds.
Stray cats were caught on camera fighting in the alley over garbage. His cameras picked up everything.
I leaned forward slightly, watching each screen carefully, letting my eyes adjust to the pace of it. For a while, it was nothing out of the ordinary. Then night fell, and the time stamp was almost two in the morning, and something shifted.
“Hold on,” I said with my attention locked onto the camera facing the alley.
Even with the footage moving fast, I caught it. There was a black old-school Chevy Impala that rolled into the alley and then cut its lights. Something about it pulled at me immediately. My mind went straight to Tahari without me even trying to stop it. I didn’t speak on it, though, I just watched.
The driver’s side door opened, and a man stepped out with a ski mask covering his face. His movements were sharp and deliberate. Before I could fully process that this might be my daughter’s boyfriend, another car pulled in behind it. It was a black Toyota Camry.
“Damn,” Mr. Earl said under his breath.
A second man got out, masked the same way, moving with just as much purpose. There was no hesitation between them. They made their way straight to my shop. I felt my jaw tighten as I watched them force their way inside and disappear. The footage kept rolling until I spoke again.
“Slow it down right there,” I said with a raised brow as I watched the screen closely.
The door to my shop flew open. One of the men rushed out first, moving fast like something had gone left inside.
The second one came right behind him, and both of them stopped in the alley.
Their body language said enough before anything else did.
Whatever happened in my shop didn’t go the way they planned.
They started arguing, and I mean aggressively.
Their hands were flying as they got into each other’s space.
It escalated fast. If I had blinked, I would have missed when things had gotten physical. Mr. Earl leaned forward in his chair.
“Now what the hell…”
I didn’t answer him. I was too busy watching. The fight got messy quickly, and both of them were swinging, grabbing, and trying to overpower each other. Then, in the middle of it, they stumbled, crashing into the side of the Impala hard enough to rock the car slightly. And that’s when it hit me.
My mind flashed back to a conversation with Tahari that I had not too long ago.
I had been showing him one of the shops, walking him through everything, and somehow, we got on the topic of cars.
He mentioned that he had just gotten some bodywork done on his.
There had been a dent on the side. A big one.
My eyes narrowed as I stared at the screen, watching the exact spot they had just slammed into.
Even in the grainy footage, I could see the imperfection in the paneling.
It wasn’t smooth like it should’ve been.
A slow, heavy feeling settled in my chest. On the screen, one of the men finally broke off from the fight.
He stumbled back before turning and walking off toward the Impala.
He got in and sped off down the alley like he was trying to put distance between himself and whatever just happened.
The other man stayed behind for a second, catching his breath before heading toward the Camry. I leaned in slightly.
“Can you zoom in on that?”
Mr. Earl tried adjusting the frame, but it didn’t give us much more.
“The plate is covered,” he said while shaking his head.
I sighed as I leaned back slowly. My eyes were still fixed on the screen as my mind started putting pieces together. There was so much going through my mind. I wondered if this nigga used Maliah as a way in. A way to get to me. I felt sick to my stomach at all the different possibilities.
I kept my eyes on the screen for a moment longer, even after the footage had already told me everything I needed to know. There wasn’t anything left to question, nothing left to search for in those frames. I exhaled slowly before straightening up.
“I appreciate this, Mr. Earl.”
He nodded while leaning back in his chair like it was nothing to him.
“Anytime, youngin’. That’s what neighbors are for.”
I gave him a look of respect before turning and heading for the door. When I made it outside, I paused for a brief moment, letting everything settle into place, because once I left that lot, I already knew I wouldn’t be looking at this situation the same way again.
Then I made my way to my car and pulled off.
The drive home gave me too much time to think, and every second of it was spent replaying what I had just seen.
Months had already passed since the first robbery, and at some point, along the way, I told Sha to leave it alone.
There were no leads at the time and nothing solid enough to chase.
I wasn’t about to have him wasting energy running in circles behind something that we couldn’t get to the bottom of.
At the time, that decision made sense. This lead literally fell into my lap. I felt like I was cracking a cold case.
My hand rested steadily on the wheel as my thoughts slowed down.
They were becoming more deliberate with every mile.
The footage didn’t just give me pieces. It gave me direction, and everything about it pointed me back to the same place, whether I wanted it to or not.
This little nigga had to be playing all of us.
What I felt wasn’t anger, at least not in the way most people would expect.
It was something a lot more controlled than that, something that required patience instead of reaction.
Moving too fast would only create problems I didn’t need, especially with my daughter already tied to the middle of this situation in ways she didn’t even understand.
By the time I pulled into my driveway, my mind was made up.
I wasn’t going to confront anything half-prepared.
Situations like this had to be handled with intention, not emotion.
I had pulled him under the wing, and that was the best advantage I had at the moment.
Tahari wasn’t going anywhere. And neither was I.
I would address the situation in my own time… with just me and him in the room.