Beneath The Surface (12 page)

“Carmen is a feature reporter for channel four, and she is evaluating our restaurant for one of her segments.”

Lexi looked and Carmen and remembered seeing her sitting for a long time in the lobby, waiting for a table. She started to break into an apology right away, but she immediately went into her standard VIP speech instead: “We are so glad to have you with us tonight, Ms. Taylor. If there is anything you need, please let me or any member of our staff aware of your issue, and it will be taken care of right away. I’m sure at the end of your evening you’ll have had a great meal, and will have enjoyed an excellent show.”

“How about getting the band onstage right away,” Black whispered to Lexi before she left.
  

As promised, Carmen enjoyed the meal and the floorshow that consisted of a comedian MC, a dance troop, and the house band, featuring Angela Gray. When the band finished their set, Carmen turned Black. “I’m going to see what I can do about getting this place on. Everything was excellent.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself, Carmen,” Black said. “I hope you can get us on. How’s that story you were talkin’ to me about, goin’?”

“You mean you haven’t been watching the news every night to catch my story?”

“I’m sorry to say that I haven’t?”

“It’s okay. I forgive you.”

Carmen told Black what she’d found out, which wasn’t much, and about everybody she’d talked to. “In fact, you’d be doing me a big favor if you’d come ride someplace with me.”

“Where’s that?” Black asked.

“It’s a place called Lace. Tangela House, that’s the dead woman’s name, used to work there; and I want to talk to some people that work there. You never know, I may want to do a story on adult entertainment clubs.”

Black agreed to go with her, and before long, they found themselves seated at a table at Lace. After they ordered drinks, it didn’t take long before they were joined by one of the dancers. After telling her that they didn’t want a table dance, Carmen explained who she was and took out the picture she had of Tangela House. “Do you know this woman?” Carmen asked.

The dancer looked at the picture. “Sure, I know Tish. She dances here. Did something happen to her?”

“She was found dead a few nights ago.”

“Damn, that’s fucked up. I know I haven’t seen her around for a while, but that happens all the time. Dancers come and go so quick around here, you don’t hardly notice when one don’t come back.”

“Were you and her friends?”

“Kind of, I guess. We’d speak; you know how it is.”

“Is there anybody I can talk to that was close to her?” Carmen asked.

“She was real close with Crème and Vallie.”

“Are they around?”

“Haven’t seen them in a minute, either. They got involved with this guy that makes porno flicks.”

“Do you know his name?” Carmen asked.

“I think his name is Finch. But there goes Wild Cherry.
Her
and Tish was friends.” The dancer got up. “I’ll get her for you.”

When Wild Cherry joined them at the table, she cried a little when Carmen told her about the death of her friend. “I didn’t get her name, but that other dancer said that two other dancers also haven’t been around for a while.”

“
You talkin’
’bout Crème and Vallie.”

“Right. She said you were close to them.”

“Crème more than Vallie. Me and Crème used to dance at a club called Ecstasy,” Wild Cherry said; and Black remembered that Jada West used to dance there, and wondered if she knew them.

“Do you know their real names?” Carmen asked.

“Crème’s name is Cecelia Cunningham, and Vallie, her real name is Valerie. I never did know her last name.

“Is there anything you can tell me about Tish that might help me find who she was with the night she was killed?”

“I don’t know if this matters or if she was even with him, but Tish used to run with this guy named TR. They used to run scams together.”

“Do know where I could find him?”

“I don’t know, but maybe Midori might know.”

“Which one is Midori?” Carmen asked.

“I’ll get her,” Wild Cherry said. “Hey, Midori!” she yelled over the music. “These people wanna talk to you!”

Midori stopped what she was doing and came to the table. “What y’all want?”

“This lady is a reporter, and she
wanna
ask you about Tish.”

“Yeah, I saw on the news that she was dead.”

“Do you remember TR?” Wild Cherry asked.

“Yeah, I know that fool.”

“You know where I might find him?” Carmen asked.

“Last I heard he was in hidin’.”

“Hiding from
who
?” Black asked.

“Some guy they supposed to have scammed outta
a lotta
money. His name was Hammdee Yasir; real scary lookin’ Arab mutha fucka. Used to be a client of mine, but he was just too weird for me. But I introduced him to Tish and she liked him.”

“You know anything about the scam they ran on this guy?” Black asked, and Carmen looked at him and smiled. He had been so quiet since they’d gotten to Lace that she almost forgot he was sitting there. For his part, Black enjoyed the view and was enjoying being with Carmen. And he was fascinated watching Carmen work.

“I don’t know nothin’ about the scam her and TR was runnin’; but whatever it was, they said they was gonna make a lotta money,” Midori told Black.

“I only have one more question,” Carmen said. “It’s the same one I’ve been asking all night.”

“What’s that, honey?”

“Do you know where I can find either TR or Yasir?”

“You might find Yasir in Atlantic City. Tish said he likes to gamble there.”

“Thank you, ladies. You’ve both been a big help,” Carmen said.

For the next hour, Carmen talked to just about every dancer on the floor. Then one of the dancers led Carmen into their dressing room, and she talked to more dancers. Carmen felt comfortable in there. The women reminded her of models getting ready for a show— which they were.

Just about all of them told her the same thing: that they hadn’t seen Tish in awhile. “Girls come and go, so nobody makes a big deal about it. But when a girl leaves here one night, sayin’ she’s goin’ to make some money, and the next night she don’t come back, something might be up wit’ that. But these bitches don’t give a fuck ’bout nothin’ but money and dope.”

“Do you know a guy named Finch? I heard that some of the women do some work for him.”

“Make porno’s you mean?” a dancer named Shade asked Carmen. “I know him, but I never had no dealin’s with him. That’s one crazy- ass white boy. I don’t fuck wit’ him.”

“What about Crème and Vallie? They ever do any work for him?”

“That’s who I’m talkin’ ’bout, honey. One night Crème and Vallie is braggin’ that they goin’ to do a scene for Finch, and ain’t nobody seen either one of them bitches since.”

Black and Carmen stepped out of Lace and began walking up 48
^th
Street toward Broadway, looking for a cab with
it’s
light on.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” Carmen asked Black.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean you were so quiet in there, I barely knew you were there.”

“What did you think I was gonna do, get up on a table and try to out dance them women?”

“Well, you used to be quite the dancer, but dance on a table—not your style.”

“You were working, Carmen. I thought I should step back and let you do your thing.”

“I thought you were busy gettin’ your eyes full,” Carmen mused, and quickly eased her hand in his.

“I’ve owned tittie—I mean strip clubs for years, Carmen. I’m around butt-naked women every day. Trust me, this was no big deal.” Black squeezed Carmen’s hand a little tighter and glanced over at her. He marveled at how the years had passed and Carmen still looked the same. Of course, her looks had matured over the last seventeen years, but she was still a very beautiful woman, who turned men’s heads as they passed them on the street. “So where do you wanna go now?”

“I don’t have any plans. What about you; what’s on the legitimate businessman’s agenda for the rest of the evening?”

“I don’t have anything I need to do. Let’s just walk for a while,” Black said and Carmen smiled. She thought back to all of the long walks they used to take all those years ago.

“I’d like that.”

Black looked down at Carmen’s pumps. “You sure you got the right shoes for a walk?”

“Honey, trust me, I can walk a mile in four-inch stilettos. I could run if I had to. I’ll be just fine. But thank you, sir, for asking.” Carmen kissed him on the cheek. “You always were very considerate. It’s one of the things about you I fell in love with.”

Black didn’t say anything. He just looked straight ahead and kept walking. They turned on Broadway and headed south.

“Does it make you uncomfortable when I talk about how much I used to love you?” Carmen asked.
How much I still love you,
Carmen thought, but thought better of saying. She remembered the first time she told him how she felt about him. She didn’t see or hear from him, for almost a week.

“I don’t know. A little I guess,” Black said. “But that doesn’t have anything to do with how I felt about you then, or how I feel about you now.”

“You have feelings for me now?” Carmen asked, and held her breath.

“I’m here, ain’t I? I mean, here we are walking hand in hand down Broadway past Roxy’s Deli.”

Carmen exhaled and smiled. He could have said it a little better, but that was the answer she wanted to hear. “It’s about your wife, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.”

“You really loved her, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, I really did. I’m not ashamed to say, and I probably
shouldn’t be saying this to another woman, but I loved Cassandra with everything I am.”

“You’re right; you shouldn’t say that to a woman you’re holding hands with, taking a romantic walk down Broadway. But I understand. And it’s nice that you think enough of me to share that with me,” Carmen said, trying to be the bigger woman about it. But he could have kept that fact to himself. She was jealous that another woman had the love that she wanted so desperately, seventeen years ago.

“I still can’t believe that you were married and have a daughter,” Carmen said.

“I miss her too.”

“I’m keeping you from your baby.”

“You are,” Black said, and thought about the half lie he told CeCe, who was at his house in Nassau with Michelle.

He told her that an old friend was in town, and that he wanted to spend a little time with him. When CeCe asked who it was, Black told her about Leon, who was an old friend that was in town. But he had seen Leon twice, and hadn’t made any real plans to see him again. Here he was with Carmen, and for that, he felt bad.

Carmen gripped his hand a little tighter. There was a part of her that felt bad too. It wasn’t right for her to keep him from his daughter, and whoever this Cameisha Collins woman was that he was apparently living with. But Carmen had made a decision that this was her second chance, and life doesn’t afford you many of those. She thought about Marcus and the fact that she hadn’t talked to him, or seen him, since the first night she saw Black.
Him
moving to New York was supposed to be their second chance, but here she was taking a romantic walk, hand in hand down Broadway, and Carmen couldn’t imagine anyplace else she’d rather be. When they got to Times Square, Black turned and faced Carmen.