Chapter 2 #2
Rico looked at me.
I looked at Malik.
Tammy kept talking.
"And before you ask, yes, I know his schedule because he runs his mouth too much."
I smiled.
There she go.
Rico pulled out his phone.
"I'll check it."
"Do that," I said.
Tammy looked at me.
"See? Useful."
"You're always useful."
"Remember that."
"I do."
Her face softened.
Just a little.
Then she looked toward the sheet again.
Karl.
The whole reason we were standing there.
"I'm going to Keisha," she said.
"I'll send Rico."
"No. You need Rico here."
"She shouldn't hear this alone."
"She won't. She'll hear it from me."
That hit.
Because Tammy wasn't asking to comfort Keisha after the fact.
She was saying she would be the one to tell her.
That was love.
That was family.
That was heavy as hell.
"You sure?" I asked.
"No," she said. "But I'm going."
I nodded.
"Call me when you get there."
"I will."
"And Tammy."
"What?"
"If something looks off, call me before you move."
She looked like she wanted to argue.
Then she nodded.
"Okay."
That was how I knew she understood.
Tammy only listened the first time when she knew the situation was bad.
She touched my chest.
Right over my heart.
Not long.
Just enough.
Then she walked out.
I watched until she disappeared through the warehouse doors.
Rico came back to my side.
"She good?" he asked.
"She's Tammy."
"That's not an answer."
"It is if you know Tammy."
Rico smiled a little.
Fair enough.
I looked back toward the body.
Karl was still under that sheet.
Still gone.
Still waiting on me to figure out who had done this.
The soft part of my morning was over.
The part where Tammy smiled at me in bed.
The part where she touched my face.
The part where I got to be just a man.
That part was gone.
Now everybody wanted Damian King.
Fine.
That was who they were about to get.
"Get everybody to the office," I told Rico.
"Everybody?"
"Everybody."
If Karl was dead, everybody was showing up.
No exceptions.
No excuses.
By the time I got to King Enterprises, the main conference room was already filling up.
Tone was there.
Miguel.
Jalen.
A few others who knew better than to be late when I called.
Nobody was talking much.
Good.
This wasn't the day for side conversations.
Tone stood when I walked in.
"What happened?"
"Karl's dead."
Miguel cursed.
Jalen sat back in his chair.
Tone stared at me.
"What?"
"Karl's dead," I said again.
Nobody said shit after that.
Karl wasn't just one of us.
Karl was family.
I sat at the head of the table.
Rico stood against the wall.
Watching.
Listening.
Doing what Rico did.
I looked around the room.
One face at a time.
People tell on themselves without knowing.
How fast they look away.
How long they hold eye contact.
Who talks first.
Who doesn't talk at all.
I had survived this long because I paid attention.
"Talk," I said.
Nobody moved.
Nobody spoke.
"One of y'all has something to say."
Tone rubbed his hand across his beard.
"You think this was random?"
"No."
Miguel leaned forward.
"Why?"
"The cameras are gone."
"So?"
I looked at him.
"So cameras don't get up and walk away."
Miguel sat back.
Jalen looked at Rico.
Rico looked at nobody.
"Somebody knew Karl was there," I said.
Miguel pushed his chair back.
"Then let's find out who."
"Sit down."
He looked at me.
I looked at him.
He sat down.
Tone leaned forward.
"You saying one of us set Karl up?"
"I'm saying somebody is talking."
Everybody knew the difference.
Set up sounded personal.
Talking could be anybody.
An employee.
A driver.
A cousin.
A woman.
One loose mouth could get somebody killed.
And Karl was dead.
Rico pushed off the wall.
"You got any names?"
"Not yet."
"Then what are we doing?"
"Finding one."
My phone buzzed.
It was a text from Tammy.
I opened it.
Andre's boots. Don't let him out of your sight.
I smiled.
Tone saw it.
Of course he did.
"Boy, Tammy got your ass."
Miguel laughed.
"Soon as she texts, you forget we're in the room."
"Shut up," I said.
They laughed.
Even Rico laughed.
For a second, the room felt normal.
Then I looked at the empty chair.
Karl's chair.
Nobody was sitting in it.
Nobody would ever sit in it again.
The laughter died on its own.
I stood up.
The room stood with me.
Every time.
Didn't matter if I told them to or not.
"Here's what's going to happen."
Everybody got quiet.
"We find out who did this."
I looked around the table.
One face at a time.
"And when we do, I'm handling it myself."
Miguel nodded.
Tone nodded.
Rico didn't react.
He already knew.
Andre wasn't in the room.
That was the first problem.
The second problem was Rico's phone ringing before I could ask where he was.
Rico looked at the screen.
Then at me.
His face changed.
He answered.
"Talk."
He listened for a few seconds.
"You sure?"
I stood still.
Rico didn't ask that unless it mattered.
He listened again.
"Don't touch anything."
The call ended.
I looked at him.
"What?"
"They found Andre's truck."
"Where?"
"Abandoned near the river."
"Is Andre in it?"
"No."
"But?"
"There's blood."
The day got worse.
"How much?" I asked.
"Enough."
That wasn't what I asked.
But I knew Rico.
If he wasn't giving details yet, it was because he didn't have them.
Or because he didn't like them.
"Who found it?"
"Patrol unit."
I grabbed my keys.
"Let's go."
Rico followed me out.
Tone stood too.
I looked at him.
"What?"
"You think I'm staying here?"
"I didn't ask."
"And I didn't ask if you needed me."
I stared at him.
Tone stared back.
"Move," I said.
He smiled.
"That's what I thought."
Twenty minutes later, we pulled onto an industrial road near the river.
Police lights flashed ahead.
Three squad cars.
A tow truck.
Yellow tape.
Rico parked.
The second I stepped out, Detective Lewis started walking toward me.
Tall.
Bald.
Always looked annoyed.
Even when he wasn't.
"King."
"Lewis."
He nodded toward the truck.
"That yours?"
"No."
"But you know who it belongs to."
"Yeah."
Lewis looked at me.
I looked at him.
Neither one of us liked each other much.
But we respected each other.
That was enough.
"There is no body in it, but there is blood on the driver's seat, wheel, and floorboard."
"How much?"
"Enough that this is not a minor injury," Lewis said.
Rico's face changed.
Lewis motioned toward the truck.
"Go look."
I walked over.
The driver's door hung open.
Blood on the seat.
Blood on the steering wheel.
Blood on the floorboard.
Shit.
A lot more blood than I expected.
Rico stepped beside me.
Tone came up on my other side.
Nobody spoke.
Then something caught my eye.
A phone.
Lying on the passenger seat.
Cracked screen.
I knew that phone.
Andre's.
Lewis noticed me looking.
"You know it?"
"Yeah."
"Unlock it."
"I don't know his password."
"Try."
I reached through the open door and picked up the phone.
The screen lit up immediately.
No password.
No lock.
Nothing.
I opened the messages.
The most recent text sat right at the top.
Unread.
Sent twenty-three minutes ago.
No contact name.
Just a number.
I opened it.
One picture.
Tammy.
Outside her office.
Taken days ago.
Maybe weeks.
Underneath it was a message.
She should've been first.
Nobody said anything.
Rico leaned closer.
Tone cursed.
Lewis looked at me.
I locked the screen.
This wasn't about Karl anymore.
And it damn sure wasn't about Andre.
It was Tammy.
Rico looked at me.
"What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking whoever sent this got real comfortable."
Lewis folded his arms.
"You got a woman?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"The kind I'm asking."
"Yeah."
Lewis nodded toward the truck.
"Then I'd be worried."
Rico looked at him.
"So would I."
That got my attention.
Because Rico didn't say shit like that unless he meant it.
A patrol officer walked up carrying a clear evidence bag.
"Detective."
Lewis turned.
"What?"
The officer handed him a set of keys.
"Found these about twenty feet away."
Lewis looked at them.
Then handed them to me.
The second I saw the keychain, I knew.
"Damn."
Rico looked over.
"What?"
I flipped the keys around.
A small gold crown hung from the ring.
Karl.
Those were Karl's keys.
Not Andre's.
Karl's.
"Why the hell would Karl's keys be here?" Tone asked.
Exactly.
Karl died at the warehouse.
Andre disappeared.
Now Karl's keys were sitting next to Andre's truck.
Nothing about that made sense.
My phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
I opened it.
No picture this time.
Just words.
Tick tock, Damian.
That was it.
Nothing else.
No explanation.
No demand.
No threat.
Just four damn words.
I stared at the screen.
Then I laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because whoever was behind this thought they knew me.
Thought they could scare me.
Thought they could rush me.
Rico looked over.
"What?"
I showed him the phone.
He read it.
Then looked at me.
"What do you want to do?"
"Find Andre."
"That's the plan."
"No."
I shook my head.
"Find him before they do."
Rico stared at me for a second.
Then he understood.
If Andre was still alive, he wasn't running.
He was hiding.
And if he was hiding, there was a reason.
The problem was, I had a feeling we were running out of time.
My phone rang before we made it back to the SUV.
It was Keisha.
I answered immediately.
"Keisha."
She was crying so hard I could barely understand her.
"Slow down."
Another sob came through the phone.
Then she said, "I can't do this."
I closed my eyes.
Shit.
"Keisha."
"I can't do this."
"Yes, you can."
"No."
Her voice broke.
"No, I can't."
Nobody around me said a word.
Karl was gone.
And now his wife was trying to figure out how to live without him.
"Where are the girls?" I asked.
"With my mama."
"Where's Tammy?"
"She's here."
Good.
At least that was something.
"I need him," Keisha cried.
"I know."
"You don't."
I let her have that.
Because she was right.
I didn't.
Not really.
"I keep waiting for him to walk through the door."
That one hit.
Hard.
"I keep thinking he's going to call."
I looked down at the pavement.
Everybody in this life had thought that about somebody before.
Somebody they lost.
Somebody they buried.
Somebody they never got back.
"Keisha."
"What?"
"I'm coming over."
"No."
"Yeah."
"No."
I smiled.
Karl used to do the same thing.
Argue with me like he was going to win.
"Keisha."