Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Caplan wasted no time telling the press that I’d been vetted as a witness.
When the story broke the following day, my sister Petra, all the way in Memphis, called me twenty-eight times. Monique called me forty-three times. Sanaa called me fifty-six times. Even Cierra broke her summer-long silence, and called me twice.
My uncle Vance took home the gold medal, calling me a total of one hundred and six times.
I didn’t pick up a single call because I knew what they would say.
Kain, you can’t do this.
But they didn’t understand.
I had to.
I paced aimlessly in the living room of Marlon’s home. My phone vibrated on the coffee table. It was late, a little after four AM. Caplan’s trial against Silas was starting in four hours or so. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep.
Never in a million years, no matter how much I hated Silas, did I ever envision myself testifying against him in court. And these feelings did not arise out of some deep seeded love or loyalty for Silas. Stuff like this was just the kind of thing you’d rather die than do in my world.
On the street, the worst thing anyone could possibly be was a snitch. To get on the stand at anyone’s trial and publicly point fingers—that was the worst kind. I might’ve been signing my own death certificate in signing up for this. But if I didn’t, I knew for a fact I’d be signing hers.
If Lauren had been unable to hear me speak to her all this time, then I was happy she didn’t have to hear her father leverage her life just to win a fucking case.
Another two hours passed, and my stress level rose as the trial drew closer.
I was already dressed to sit on the stand—the same suit I’d worn to Amir’s funeral.
You have to do this. I repeated that fact in my head at least a hundred times.
You have to do this. You have to do this. You have to do this.
My mantra was interrupted by a banging at Marlon’s door. It was six o’clock in the morning so I was sure he slept through it. The banging persisted.
“Youngblood! Youngblood!”
Vance.
He would bang and shout the whole neighborhood awake if I didn’t open that door. I knew he was going to try to talk me out of the decision I’d made. Not for Silas’ sake, but for mine. If I seriously took the stand against Silas, my own father, my reputation out here was as good as trashed.
But Vance didn’t understand.
I had to.
“I know why you’re doing this.” My uncle was breathless, eyes bloodshot like he hadn’t slept. I wondered which of my sisters had given him Marlon’s address. He pushed pass me, and into the house.
“No you don’t,” was all I could say.
“You’re doing it for her!” Okay, maybe he did know. “Because Silas tried to kill her.”
No, because her own father threatened to kill her if I didn’t. I didn’t bother explaining myself. It didn’t even sound believable out loud.
“But Silas didn’t do it!” Vance practically shouted, eyes crazy. “Silas did not try to kill her.”
“Vance, I don’t have time for this…”
“No! LISTEN TO ME!” He grabbed at my shoulders, his touch confrontational and angry. “Your father released an official statement—”
“Yeah, I read it. It was bullshit.”
“No. NO! Listen to me, Kain! Tell me—when have you ever known Silas to publicly deny anything through an attorney? Especially if he did it?”
“I imagine he might do it when there’s actual damning evidence against him,” I guessed, not caring to know the motivation behind my father’s out of character behavior.
“I’m telling you, it wasn’t Silas. I’ve been talkin’ to him since they arrested him for it. He told me himself that he didn’t order that hit.”
“You sure about that shit, Vance? Silas promised me that he would make sure I watched Lauren die. I don’t understand why you tryna fight me on this. He basically made good on his promise.”
I checked the time on my watch. The clock was ticking. Soon I would need to head out for court before morning traffic hit.
“Something about this whole situation ain’t felt right since day one, and I know you feel it. You smart, Youngblood. Don’t let your grief make you stupid. Think!”
Luck.
I’ve never believed in luck. When Lauren was shot, I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was surprised to have only heard one gunshot. Lauren was shot only once by an unseen gunman who fled the scene before he could confirm the kill. How lucky.
“Alright.” I acknowledged that, yes, maybe something hadn’t felt right since day one. “What am I missing?”
“I think you know.”
“Let’s say I don’t.”
Vance shook his head and explained, “I saw the way you shot that man that night you killed those niggas that brought Lauren to the house. You shoot just like your father, you know that? Right between the eyebrows.”
“Where is this going?”
“Did he teach you how to kill people, Kain? Or did you just see him do it enough times for you to teach yourself how it’s done?” I didn’t answer the question, and Vance tried to make his point. “You know your father better than anyone, Kain. And you know where he likes his targets to be shot.”
Vance came in closer, sleep deprived eyes on me analytically as he stepped around where I stood.
“Your girl was shot right here, am I right?” He pressed his finger to my side, digging into my ribcage. “So that’s what? A shot to the lung at worst? So what’s one lung? People got two a’ those. A real hitta would’ve never left the scene for a single shot to the ribs.”
“You think whoever shot Lauren wasn’t tryna kill her,” I guessed.
Vance shook his head. “No, that’s not what I’m saying at all.”
I looked at him questioningly.
“All I’m saying is this—if Silas ordered that hit, she wouldn’t be on life support, she’d be dead. A shot to the ribs is nothing to drive away over. You know that. I know that. And anybody Silas would’ve put to the task would have known that.”
“Lauren doesn’t have enemies like that.”
Vance tilted his head to the side, squinting a little when he replied, “But I’m sure you do.”
I wracked my brain for possible suspects. I could only really think of one other person in my life who might want Lauren dead. “Cierra ain’t about that life.”
“Really, nigga?” Vance was frustrated. “Ain’t no way you grew up with Silas and turned out this na?ve. Of course it wasn’t Cierra! That’s obvious! Did you even watch the surveillance footage from that night? It’s on YouTube.”
“I watched it once.” Only once, and that was it. I didn’t really enjoy reliving the experience. “The only people in the frame are Lauren and I. All you can see is the part where Lauren is shot. No visible gunman.”
“I think you need to watch it again.”
Vance pulled out his phone before I could decline, pulling up the video on screen.
It was a five second clip. In the video, just as I remembered, I turned around to tell Lauren to walk where I could see her, sidestepping so that she could walk ahead. And then she was shot.
Vance played the video again.
And again.
And again.
And again.
“Do you see what I see?” he asked. “Lemme play it again and narrate for you.” He pressed play.
“Here you two are laughing, you turn, step out of the way, she’s hit.
” He pressed play again. “Again, you turn and step out of the way, and she’s immediately hit.
You step out of the way. She’s hit. You step out of the way. She’s hit.”
Vance was actually beginning to make sense. So much sense, that I lost my words.
“So, if you see what I see, then that means you realize that if the gunman was aiming for Lauren, then they had a terrific sense of timing. Crazy that a person with such a sharp eye for timing didn’t use that eye to aim for a kill shot. Unless…”
“They weren’t aiming for her,” I surmised.
Vance clapped once, pointing in my direction.
“I understand that your girl was shot, and that shit fucked with you, so you wasn’t really paying attention to details like that. But for days, I’ve done nothing but think about the details. Who would want you dead, Kain?
I thought about the eyes glaring at me at Amir’s funeral. “Shit… a lot of people.”
Vance shook his head. “You not thinking hard enough. Let me break down these questions. Who would want you dead, accidentally shoot Lauren, and then flee the scene? Why not shoot you both? Who fires only one bullet when a handgun holds at least six?”
Who fires only one bullet when a handgun holds at least six?
I automatically knew the answer to that question.
“Someone who panics.”
“And which one of your enemies would panic after accidentally shooting Lauren, when they meant to shoot you? Because, objectively speaking, if I wanted you dead and I accidentally shot your girl, I would just shoot you next. Two bodies instead of one—oh fuckin’ well.
” Vance stared at me pointedly. “But whoever accidentally shot your girl, had to immediately give up on tryna kill you, because… Well, shit, somebody had to call an ambulance for her.”
Vance watched me carefully as I put together the pieces, finally beginning to see the bigger picture. Without saying anything, I knew what Vance was trying to get me to figure out, and now that I knew…it all made sense.
“After Amir’s funeral, you and Lauren must’ve showed up in about a dozen news stories, being seen together like some Miami version of Romeo and Juliette.
House Montgomery falling in love with House Caplan—the media ate that shit up.
There was a local news segment every night for almost two weeks.
You had to have known that shit was pissing off her father, tarnishing his good image.
Shit, if it were my daughter, I would have tried to kill you, too.
“Except, he accidentally shoots his own daughter, decided to let your father take the blame, and now is using your grief to his benefit. Making the best of a fucked up situation that he made. I told you that Caplan was ruthless, Youngblood. All about his numbers.”
What was initially shock was beginning to subside.
For the first time in a while, my hands began to feel hot.
The way they only got when I felt the burgeoning of an uncontrollable anger.
Thinking about the way Caplan had threatened to cut off Lauren’s life support, when he knew full well he was the reason she was there…
The corners of my vision started to blur into black.
I wasn’t just angry. I wanted to hurt somebody.
“Do you know how Romeo and Juliette ends? I read it in prison. It was actually kinda sad. So as the war between House Montague and House Capulet raged on, because she wanted to be with Romeo, Juliette drinks an elixir that will make everybody think she’s dead, but she’s really only sleeping.
But the bitch forgot to tell Romeo that.
So Romeo is fucked up over the news of her death, rushes to her bedside and swallows a poison—suicide—dying seconds before wakes up.
When Juliette wakes up, she finds him dead.
She takes Romeo’s knife, and stabs herself in the stomach. No happy ending.”
I was only half listening to what Vance was saying now.
The trial was set to start in an hour, and as a witness on the stand, I was going to have to be there.
In my world, testifying in court was something you only did if you had a death wish—suicide.
Even still, court was the one place I knew Caplan would be.
And whether I testified or not, court was where I was going.