22. Omar
Omar
Devon laid it out on the table at APEX like a case file. Printouts, spreadsheets, transaction logs, corporate filings. He'd been pulling threads for two days straight and what he'd found was bigger than either of us had expected.
Before we got into it he gave me a quick update on the Kyran situation. "Nobody's been near Rashid's studio or apartment since your visit to that barbershop. Yates and Mills both went quiet. Kyran hasn't been seen on our blocks."
"Good. Keep the coverage on Rashid for another week."
"Already planned." Devon pushed the Kyran file aside and opened the one he'd been waiting to show me. "Now. TK isn't a separate operation. He's Supreme's proxy."
He walked me through it. The shell company structure connecting Supreme's real estate holdings to TK's street-level distribution was deep, layered across four entities with shared signatories and interlocking bank accounts.
The money flowed from Supreme's legitimate businesses down through Greyline Holdings and two sister companies into TK's supply chain.
TK ran the product, collected the cash, funneled it back up through the shells where it got cleaned and redistributed into Supreme's property portfolio.
"They've been running this way for at least three years," Devon continued, spreading a timeline across the table.
"Probably longer. Supreme keeps his hands clean because TK handles the exposure.
TK takes the heat, takes the risk, takes the street casualties.
Supreme collects the money and buys buildings. "
"And when TK pushes into our territory?"
"Supreme lets it happen because it weakens us without his fingerprints on it. TK does the damage, Supreme stays above it, and if we ever go after TK, we're only cutting one head off a body that grows another."
The paperwork was right there in front of me.
Everything we'd been fighting on the street level for the past two years, every territory incursion, every runner showing up on our corners, every confrontation with TK's people.
All of it was Supreme. The man Kadeem had been sitting across from at meetings, negotiating with, sharing territory agreements with.
The man whose hand I'd watched Asha stand behind while he talked about mutual interests.
"You sure about this?" I asked.
"The money doesn't lie." Devon tapped the spreadsheet. "Darnell Webb's name is on every account. He's the bridge. TK's money man and Supreme's property manager. Same person running both sides."
"What about the registration timing?"
Devon pulled a separate folder from the bottom of the stack. "That's where it gets complicated." He opened it. "Greyline Holdings was incorporated around the same time Pops disappeared. But the original incorporation documents list a different signatory. Not Darnell Webb."
"Who?"
"A name I don't recognize. Leonard Pryce.
I ran him through everything I got. No criminal record, no business associations, nothing in any of our databases.
But here's the thing." Devon put two documents side by side.
"Leonard Pryce signed the Greyline incorporation in January, two years back.
Pops went missing in March. And by April, the signatory changed from Leonard Pryce to Darnell Webb.
Somebody took over that company weeks after Pops disappeared. "
The room was quiet. Devon looked at me, waiting.
"Who's Leonard Pryce?" I asked.
"That's what I'm trying to find out. The name could be real.
Could be an alias. Could be somebody who's dead.
But whoever he was, he set up the infrastructure that Supreme and TK are using right now, and he did it right before Pops went missing.
" Devon pulled one more sheet. "And Omar.
I cross-referenced the name against the Hampton Royal hotel records from that week.
Leonard Pryce booked a conference room at that hotel three days before Pops disappeared. "
My chest tightened. The Hampton Royal was where Deonte had heard Pops arguing with someone in the back office. The same hotel, the same week.
"So whoever set up Greyline was at the same hotel as Pops right before he was taken," I said.
"That's what the records say."
I took the folder from him. The incorporation document was clean, professional. Leonard Pryce, registered agent. Delaware address that was probably a PO box. No phone number, no additional contact.
"Keep digging," I said. "Everything you can find on Pryce. And keep this between us for now."
"Not even Kadeem?"
"Kadeem gets the TK-Supreme connection. That's enough for the meeting. The Pryce angle stays with us until we know what we're looking at."
Devon nodded. He understood.
I drove to Kadeem's with the TK-Supreme file and left the Pryce documents locked in my glove box. Kadeem was in the kitchen with Stone. Shanay had made them coffee. She poured me one without asking and left us alone.
I laid it out. TK as Supreme's proxy. The shell companies, the shared signatories, the money flow. Three years of street war explained in twenty minutes of paperwork.
Kadeem went through the documents slowly. Stone sat beside him, reading over his shoulder, his glasses on. When I finished talking they were both quiet.
Stone spoke first. "This changes the calculus significantly.
" He took off his glasses and set them on the table.
"If Supreme is running TK, then every territory agreement we've negotiated with him is theater.
He's been funding the attacks on our operations while sitting across from us at the table. "
"Which means we can't confront him with this," Kadeem said. "Not yet."
"Agreed." Stone leaned forward. "We need to build the full picture first. Rushing now means missing the depth of the operation.
If we move on Supreme before we understand the entire structure, we'll cut the head off but the body keeps moving under TK.
We need to know every account, every property, every associate.
Then we go to the Associates with the complete case. "
It was good advice. Stone was right: moving too fast would leave TK operational even if Supreme went down. We needed the whole picture.
"How long?" Kadeem asked Devon's timeline.
"Devon says two weeks to map the full financial structure. Maybe less if he can get into the banking records."
"Then we wait." Kadeem gathered the papers. "Stone, I want you to cross-reference everything Devon finds against our own records. See if anything overlaps with our operations, our contacts, our territory."
"Of course." Stone's voice was warm, professional. "I'll start tonight."
There was a moment where Stone picked up one of the shell company documents and turned it over. "You know," he said, almost as an afterthought, "this Greyline entity. The registration date is interesting. Same window as when Pops went missing." He looked at me. "Did Devon flag that?"
"He mentioned it."
"Worth following up." Stone set the document down. "Probably nothing, but you never know. These infrastructure networks have a way of recycling names and dates. Still, worth a look."
He said it casually. Thorough. Professional. Kadeem nodded and moved on to logistics.
I let it pass. Stone had just mentioned the same date Devon had flagged. He'd brought it up himself, unprompted, and suggested it was probably nothing. Just old infrastructure being recycled.
I filed it.
Kadeem and I wrapped up the logistics. Stone offered to stay and start the cross-reference work tonight but Kadeem told him to go home, rest, start fresh tomorrow.
Stone put his hand on Kadeem's shoulder on the way out, said something about how proud he was of how Kadeem handled things.
Kadeem thanked him. It was genuine on both sides.
I walked out after Stone. He was standing by his car, keys in hand.
"Heavy day," he said.
"Yeah."
"Your father's name keeps coming up in these documents, Omar. I know that's not easy."
"It's just data," I said. "Devon follows the evidence. We see where it goes."
Stone nodded. "If you need to talk about it. About any of it. You know where I am."
"Appreciate that."
He got in his car and drove off. I stood in the driveway for a minute, then got in mine.
On the drive home I thought about Asha. She was sitting inside Supreme's operation every day, living with the man who'd been funding attacks on my family's territory for three years.
Eating his food, sleeping in his bed, performing for him while he ran a shadow operation that connected to my father's disappearance through a shell company signed by a man named Leonard Pryce.
She was sitting on top of everything we needed. Account numbers, names, routines, schedules. Three years of proximity to Supreme's inner workings.
She didn't know any of this yet. She didn't know that the man she was trapped with wasn't just dangerous to her. He was connected to everything we'd been fighting, everything we'd been losing, and maybe to the reason my father never came home.
My hands tightened on the wheel.
I was going to get her out. But first I needed to understand what she was sitting on.
And I needed to find out who Leonard Pryce was.