CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
One step behind, Kirk and Richards arrive at Rock-well’s apartment. When they get there, the uniformed officers had already gotten there and had taken control of the murder scene.
"Looks like we’re a little late for the party," Richards said as he and Kirk entered the apartment.
Kirk looked around the apartment. "Yeah, but this one’s different." He knelt down next to one of Rain’s people. "They’re not tied up this time." He stood up and walked around the room. "Looks like somebody got them before they had a chance to tie them up, and killed the shooters."
"PR?"
"Probably," Kirk said and continued walking around the apartment. He looked at the bullet holes in the wall. "Looks like she was in the back here; they see her and start shooting at her."
"You’re not sayin’ that she took all three of these guys down by herself, are you?" Richards asked.
"I doubt it, but I’m not ruling it out. We’ll know more when the ballistics comes back. That may tell us how many, and if we’re lucky, who was with her."
Kirk went in the kitchen and looked at the body. "Come here, Pat." When Richards got there, Kirk pointed to the wounds. "This one was shot once in the shoulder, once in his hand, once in each leg and the kill shot to the head; like they were trying to make him talk."
"Think he told them what they wanted to know?"
"If he did we can expect more bodies," Kirk said. "Anybody see anything?" he said to one of the uniforms.
"Haven’t started a canvass yet, detective."
"Well get to it. Maybe a miracle will occur and somebody saw something."
While the officers went to canvass the building, the detectives remained at the crime scene. "What do we have, Pat?"
"So far we got four crime scenes. The first three were most likely drug robberies. The victims were all tied up, on their knees and executed. Word is, all the victims work for somebody called PR—who a junkie hooker says is a woman. She tips us to this place.
"We get here and we find six bodies. One of them is probably Rockwell. Three of them were most likely the shooters we’ve been looking for, and one of them may have been tortured into telling PR or somebody connected to her,
who knows what
before they blow his brains out," Kirk said and walked back in the kitchen. "Too bad he can’t tell us what he told them. At least we’d know where to go next."
"You guys throw a party and didn’t invite me?"
Kirk and Richards turned to see Detective Sanchez walk in the apartment. "What? You didn’t get the memo about killing drug dealers?" Richards mused.
"I must have missed that one. Que Pasa, Kirk?"
"Gene."
"I take it these are the shooters you been looking for? I’d ask if you killed them," Sanchez said as he looked at one of the bodies, "but shooting suspects in the head isn’t exactly your style."
"You recognize anybody?" Kirk asked.
Sanchez walked around the room and checked each of the bodies. "This one."
"Who is he?" Richards asked.
"KK Rockwell."
"You know who he’s with?" Richards asked.
"He used to run with a chick named Rain Robinson."
"Who’s she?" Kirk asked.
"You remember Jasper Robinson?"
"Yeah—used to run few gambling spots back in the day."
"Rain is his daughter. She was a small timer; a little coke, a little heroin when she could get it. But my sources tell me that she retired and took over JR’s night club and his gambling interests after her father died."
"PR?" Richards asked.
"Could be," Kirk said as one of the uniformed officers came in the room.
"Detectives, I just talked to a lady who saw a man and a woman leaving the building after she heard the shots; said they got in a gray Taurus."
"She give you a license number?"
"No sir."
"What about a description?"
"She didn’t get a good look at them. Only that they looked like they were in a hurry."
"Thank you, officer. Go ahead and get that out on the wire."
"Already done, detective, and we got a report that a gray Taurus was seen in the area of another murder."
"Another one?" Sanchez asked.
Kirk looked in the kitchen at the dead man. "I guess you gave somebody up. Any details?"
"Witness said the Taurus stopped, pushed the body out and drove away."
"Think we should take a look?" Richards asked.
"No, I’d rather ride by JR’s and see what Miss Robin-son has to say about all this," Kirk said, and him and Richards left the apartment and headed for JR’s.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Nick and Rain were on the way back to her apartment when her cell phone rang. "This Rain."
"You need to get down to the club," a female voice said.
"Who is this?"
"It’s Rose from the club."
"What’s goin’ on?"
"We got robbed."
"What?"
"I said—"
"I heard you. What happened?"
"Five of them came through the back door with guns. Two of them hit the safe in the office and the other three took the gambling room."
"Goddamn it!" Rain shouted. "These niggas gonna break my ass. Did anybody get hurt?"
"Not bad, but somebody called the cops. They’re all over the place."
"Did they find the gambling room?"
"Not yet, but—"
"I’ll be down there," Rain said and ended the call. She looked at Nick. "Somebody hit the club. Rose says cops is all over the place. But they haven’t found the gambling spot."
"You know how much they got?" Nick asked.
"I don’t know. I won’t know until we get there," Rain said and drove a little faster.
When Rain slowed down for a red light, Nick turned to her and said, "Let me out here."
"What? Didn’t you hear what I said? Somebody robbed the club and the gambling spot."
"Yeah, I heard you. Did you hear me? Let me out here," Nick said again.
Rain stopped short and Nick reached for the handle. "What is wrong with you?"
"Nothing’s wrong. I just got something I need to do right now."
"What you got to do that’s more important than this?"
"Right now, what I’m gonna do is more important. So you go deal with what you gotta deal with and I’ll get with you later."
"Are you serious? I need you with me on this."
"For what? Whatever happened is already over and done with. What you need me for?"
Rain had no answer.
"I didn’t think so. You go on, handle your business. I’ll get with you later and we’ll talk about who your enemies are, and how many more there are."
"You not runnin’ out on me, are you?"
"No, Rain, I’m not runnin’ out on you. I got too much invested in you for that to happen," Nick said and thought about Wanda.
He got out of the car and watched as Rain drove away fast. He walked down to next corner and hailed a cab. "Where to?"
"Just drive," Nick said and thought about what he was gonna do next. He took out his cell phone and started to call Monika. Before it started to ring, he ended the call and put the phone away. He knew that he was gonna need backup, but Monika wasn’t the one he needed on this one.
At this point, Monika was too tied to Black. She had become Black’s personal assassin. He wasn’t willing to put her in a position where she would have to keep something from him, much less have to lie to him. This was his cross to bear.
Nick took the phone out again and held it in his hand for awhile. Then he dialed Bobby’s number. It went straight to voicemail. Then he tried calling him at the club. "Impressions, this is Tara."
"Tara, its Nick."
"What’s up, Nick?"
"Is Bobby there?"
"I’m not sure. Hold on, let me check," Tara said and put Nick on hold.
He had been on hold for about five minutes and was about to hang up when Bobby came to the phone. "Hello."
"Bobby, its Nick."
"What’s up, Nick?"
"I need you to do something with me."
"What you need?"
"I’ll tell about it when I see you. You remember that thing we talked about earlier?"
"Yeah," Bobby said and immediately had a good idea what Nick had in mind.
"Meet me outside."
"I’m on my way," Bobby told Nick.
"How long before you get there?"
"Give me thirty minutes."
"See you there."
Nick told the driver where to go and leaned back. He thought about his history with Bobby. Things have gotten better between him and Bobby, but Nick knew that he’d never forget that night. It should have never happened; but Nick was gone, too far gone. Her name was Camille Augustus.
Nick knew when he met her that she was with Bobby, but it didn’t matter. He had to have her. Nick had never met any woman like Camille. She was fascinating to be around and to talk to. The way she talked with that thick Barbados accent. And she was beautiful; her dark complexion, her flawless body, and those dark eyes.
Thoughts of that night used to haunt Nick like a bad dream that would never end. Bobby with his gun in Nick’s mouth, screaming that he was gonna kill both Nick and Camille. Black with his gun to Bobby’s head—"Bobby, please," he pleaded quietly. "Take the gun out of his mouth and put it down."
Nick and Bobby had made peace and put that all behind them. Now Bobby was the only one that Nick could depend on.
Funny how things come around,
Nick thought as the cab got to Fat Larry’s. He saw Bobby’s CLK350 Cabriolet car parked outside. "Pull over by that Benz," Nick told the cab driver.
He got in the car with Bobby and told him what had happened with Rain. "How you wanna play it?" Bobby asked.
"I just wanna talk," Nick answered.
"Your show," Bobby said and put on his gloves. Nick already had his on. They got out and went to the door. The restaurant was closed but Nick saw Stark’s car parked in the alley. They banged on the door and Moon came and let them in.
"What’s up, Bobby. What’s up, Nick," he said.
"Where’s Stark?" Bobby asked.
"He’s in the back. Come on," Moon said and they followed him to the back of the restaurant. When they got in to office, Stark got up and came from behind his desk.
"Bobby, Nick, what brings y’all down here?" Stark said and they shook hands.
"I need to talk to you about something," Nick said.
"What’s up?" Stark asked. Bobby looked at Moon. "Would you excuse us for a minute, Moon?"
"No problem," Moon said and left the office.
When Moon closed the door, Stark sat down on the edge of his desk. Nick stepped to him.
"You selling product to Rain?"
Stark looked at Nick and Bobby. "She tell you that?"
"No, she didn’t give you up. It was just something she said or didn’t say that made me think that you were."
Stark dropped his head and laughed a little. "Yeah, I—" but before he could finish his sentence, Bobby was on him.
He grabbed Stark by the throat and shoved his gun in Stark’s mouth. "Do you realize the position that puts Black in? The position it puts all of us in?" Bobby said softly.
Stark nodded his head.
"You heard about what’s going on with Rain?" Nick asked.
Stark nodded his head.
"Kirk been to see you, hasn’t he?" Nick asked.
Stark nodded his head.
"You know it’s not gonna take long for him to connect you to Rain, and you to us," Nick said calmly.
Stark nodded his head.
"You knew this shit could happen, but you did it anyway. But she was runnin’ a good program for a while. Quiet. And she was bringing you plenty of money. If this shit wasn’t happening and she didn’t have to tell me about it, it would still be all good."
Bobby’s grip got a little tighter. "So you been sittin’ in Black’s face all this time, and all the while you got your knife in his back," Bobby said.
Stark nodded his head.
"If you live long enough, you’ll learn that loyalty is worth more than money," Nick said and Bobby eased the gun out of Stark’s mouth.
Stark reached for his throat and tried to catch his breath. "Black know about Rain?" he asked.
"Not yet," Bobby said. "And for your sake you better hope he doesn’t find out." He turned his back to Stark and put a silencer on his gun.
"Rain is done as far as you’re concerned, understand?" Nick told him.
"Yeah, I understand," Stark said still gasping for air. "What can I do to make this right?" he asked.
"I just told you. It ends tonight," Nick said and Bobby followed him to the door.
When Bobby got to the door he turned around and raised his weapon. Both Stark and Nick looked at Bobby as he pointed the weapon at Stark.
"What’s up, Bobby?" Stark asked.
"Like Nick said, for you, it ends tonight," Bobby said and put three in Stark’s chest.
Nick looked at Stark’s body on the floor and then at Bobby. "What happened to
it’s your show
?"
"This nigga betrayed all of us. He had to die. Now, question is, what you gonna do with Moon?" Bobby asked.
Nick shook his head and opened the office door. He saw Moon sitting at a table near the office. "Moon, could you come here for a minute." Nick closed the door and put a silencer on his gun.
Moon got up and headed for the office. He opened the door and stepped in. He saw Stark’s body on the floor. He was about to reach for his gun when Bobby closed the door and Nick put two bullets in the back of his head.
They left the office and locked the door. They exited Fat Larry’s through the back door. Nick got in the car with Bobby and they drove off. "What you gonna do now?" Bobby asked.
"I know one thing. I gotta cut Rain loose," Nick said.
"It’s too late for that now," Bobby said without looking at Nick. "It’s gone way past you just cuttin’ her loose."
Nick looked at Bobby and knew that he was right. "I’m gonna have to kill her," Nick said without emotion, but the idea of having to kill Rain was tearing him up inside.