After All (23 page)

“
It's going to be hot.”
Michelle sifted through the chaos of her desk. Finally she found a
tattered sheet of note paper.

“
When do you
start?”

“
After Christmas. Mr.
Lockport and I decided we would start off the new year with a real
bang. Between your Christmas pieces and Jennifer's fluff stuff, it
just makes sense.”

“
My oh my. No wonder Jason
is having such a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. You
know how jealous he is.” Earl wagged a finger at her.

“
What if the DA moves and
Channel Eight or six pounces on it?” Gracie chewed on a chocolate
snowman.

“
Nathan checked with his pal
over there. They're going slow. Making sure they do everything
right. A month at the most before they make any more big
announcements. Meantime, all the other guys can do is a tired
rehash of the same old same old.” Michelle pulled her copy from the
laser printer.

“
Sounds reasonable.”Earl
began munching on candy from the wreath shaped dish on Gracie's
desk.

“
And nobody else is working
on anything to do with public housing, not even the newspapers.
I've been keeping my ear to the ground.” Michelle scanned the
pages. With a red pencil, she made revisions.

“
That gives you some
breathing space, too. You can concentrate on a cozy Christmas with
your new love.” Gracie made kissing sounds.

“
Grow up.” Michelle
continued to read.

“
Don't forget my friend at
HUD.”Earl spoke around a mouth full of cinnamon
reindeer.

“
I've already got an
interview lined up with him to get his reaction to my reports.
That's going to be the fourth segment in my series.”Michelle
grimaced at a paragraph then went to work on it.

“
Taught her everything she
knows.” Earl rose from the chair.

“
In your dreams.” Michelle
gave a short laugh.

“
Well ladies, if I don't see
you again, Merry Christmas. I'm off to another round of festive
shopping with the frantic missus.” Earl pulled on his overcoat. He
waved goodbye.

“
How close are you to Ike
Batiste?” Gracie peered over her shoulder.

“
We barely speak.”Michelle
sat back in her chair rubbing her eyes.

“
That's not what I mean and
you know it.”Gracie pointed her pencil at her.

“
The repair scam has got his
fingerprints all over it. Of course, there are ways he can wiggle
out of it. He's distant enough from the day to day business that he
can let his foreman take the fall. But his connection to the drug
dealing and extortion is even more shadowy. I don't know. Maybe he
isn't part of the bad stuff.” Michelle stared at her narrative. She
shuffled the pages around as though they were pieces of a
puzzle.

“
He can't know everything
his employees and associates do, right?” Gracie said.

“
Right. Those ex-cons could
be taking advantage of his generosity. Maybe Charlotte Kinchen and
Bridges got greedy. Maybe they decided to build themselves a nest
egg. Maybe they've all got Ike fooled.”

“
Maybe.” Gracie returned her
gaze for a time.

“
Are you buying any of
this?” Michelle said finally.

“
Hell no.”

“
Me neither.” Michelle raked
fingers through the thick tangle of her hair.

***

Marcus stood in the cold night air
outside the apartment. The loud booming that came from his fist
hitting the metal door reverberated through the dilapidated cinder
block complex. He waited patiently knowing he was being scrutinized
through the camera mounted above his head.

“
Whaddya want?” a gravely
called out.

“
Lonnie sent me.”Marcus
lifted his head slightly to make sure they got a good
look.

“
Come on in.”The door swung
open. The owner of the voice was at least six five. His face was a
mask of watchful caution as he closed the door. Not once did he
turn his back to Marcus. With a tilt of his massive head he
directed him down a hallway.

Voices came from a back room.
Boisterous laughter broke out as Marcus came to what should have
been a large bedroom. Instead there were two card tables. Seated
around on it on battered chairs were four men playing poker. At the
other sat three other men. One counted money, a pile of twenty and
fifty dollar bills. The other two bundled them into stacks. In the
few minutes Marcus stood taking in the scene, loud knocking came
twice. Both times, one of the three left with small bags of white
rocks. He returned after only seconds to add bill to the pile of
money yet to be counted.

“
I'm Marcus.”

“
What's up, man. I'm J. J.
These my boys. Andre,” J. J. said. He pointed to the man counting.
Andre didn't stop or look up.”That's Barrone takin' care of
business. That's Bobby, Derrick, Leo, and T-Bone.” A chorus of
grunts greeted Marcus. Five pairs of eyes sized him up
rapidly.

“
Got your business straight.
Nice.” Marcus nodded towards the money.

“
We doin' all right. Lonnie
say you the one put him onto them boys stealin' our money.” J. J.
took a drag on his cigarette.

“
Yeah.”

“
You a smart business man
s'posed to tell us some big plan.” J. J. squinted at him through
smoke.

“
You got something against
making more money?” Marcus spread his hands wide. The room got
quiet as they stared at each other.

“
Nah, not a damn thing.”J.
J. pulled out an empty chair as an invitation for Marcus to sit
down.

For the next hour they sat talking with
their heads close together. As Marcus spoke he gained the attention
of the other six men. They mapped out a strategy to sell a higher
volume of drugs by moving their operation to a house just off
Government Street near downtown. Marcus told them how to attract
more upper middle-class customers.

“
But the real money is in
moving large quantities through Texas from Colombia, El Salvador,
and other Latin American countries. We process the product. Then
sell to big time dealers with their own network of boys on the
street. It won't be overnight. We've got to make connections with
people I know. Once they see we got the serious cash to do
business, no problem. We start small at first. Hook up with some
dudes I know in Easy Town, on the Lakes, like that. Pretty soon
we'll be making money.”

“
So how you know all this?”
a female voice cut in.

“
I ain't never heard of
you.”

Marcus peered over his shoulder. A
woman the color of caramel walked over to stand next to J. J. Her
hair was in long braids to her waist with small gold beads woven in
near the scalp circling her face. Each ear lobe sparkled with four
diamond studs. She wore high heel black leather boots and a black
leather mini-skirt. Underneath a multi-colored suede bomber jacket
she wore a black cashmere turtleneck sweater. For all that, Marcus
didn’t think she looked cheap or gaudy.

“
Like I said, I know
people.”

“
Why you ain't in business
for yourself then? Why you need us?”She popped her gum
loudly.

“
Tia, this here is Marcus.”
J. J. said.

Marcus did not question her right to
demand an explanation. Clearly she held a position of power with
this group. “You've got manpower. I've got connections. By merging
our respective assets we can realize substantial
profits.”

“
How substantial?” Tia's
slight smile revealed a set of even pearly teeth between lips
painted a dark copper color.

“
Millions. There's no reason
we can't make millions. As long as everybody understands we're
moving to a new level.”

“
Talkin' big. Hope you can
back it up.” Tia gave him an appraising glance from head to
toe.

“
I can deliver the goods.”
Marcus regarded her curvy body encased in leather and
suede.

“
Come in my office.” Tia led
him down another hall to a room furnished very differently from the
rest of the apartment flat.

An expensive sofa in a dark brown,
green, and peach floral pattern was set against one wall. Chairs,
some leather, were scattered around the spacious room. Opposite the
sofa was a bar with red velvet trim and three matching barstools. A
compact disc played a thumping, slow rap melody as background
music. On the heavy mahogany coffee table was spread various drug
paraphernalia, including a pipe. A white powdery mound sat on large
rectangular mirror.

“
This place is really big.”
Marcus glanced around him.

“
Yeah, enough space for
business and pleasure.” Tia walked away from him with swaying hips.
She turned slowly. “Drink, coke, or both?”

“
Crown Royal if you got
it.”

“
Sure.”S he waved a hand at
the table. “ That's top quality product. Help yourself.”Tia brought
him a glass.

“
Maybe later. Business
first.” Marcus gulped some of the amber liquid. He licked his lips
with a tiny flick of his tongue.

“
Tell me 'bout this master
plan.” Tia sat next to him and crossed her legs.

“
Friend of mine got his own
private plane. We can move some of the product like that. But we
got to have different routes in case we lose a shipment. Some by
truck. Eighteen wheeler. Some by boat. If we get it all through,
great we make more money. If we lose one, we still make a profit.
I've got some other ideas.” Marcus stared at her legs then let his
gaze travel up her body to her face.

Tia lifted an eyebrow at him. “I see
you do. How we gone finance all this?”

“
You got enough in that room
alone. At least to start.” Marcus jerked a thumb in the direction
of where J. J. and the others still carried on their
transactions.

“
You been thinkin' this up a
long time. Gone mean a big change for my organization.” Tia let her
jacket fall open to reveal full breast stretching tight against her
sweater.

“
I think you're ready,”
Marcus said huskily. He placed a hand on her waist.

“
Is that what you
think?”

“
Sure you are. You wanna be
a big player, too. Don't you, baby?” Marcus nibbled her ear lobe.
“I'm gonna take you there.”

Wearing a sly smile, Tia guided his
hands over her body.”Then let’s do it.”

Chapter 10

“
Ready?” Anthony gave her a
nervous half smile. He fumbled with the car keys trying to get them
out of the ignition.

“
Sure.” Michelle smiled back
though she felt anything but sure.

The huge house was brightly lit. Tiny
white lights surrounded the carved double doors while green lights
were strung around two large windows on either side of it. A large
heavily decorated tree dominated one of the windows.

“
This is one gorgeous home.”
Michelle was dazzled despite herself.

“
One of Uncle Ike's friends
is an architect. Uncle Ike built it for his first wife. It was her
dream home.”

“
Marcus's
mother?”

“
No. Aunt Delores was his
second wife.”

“
How many--” Michelle
snapped her lips together quickly. Michelle knew of Ike's
reputation with women. But she had sworn to avoid any subject that
could lead to an argument.

“
How many what?” Anthony
tugged at his already straight shirt collar.

“
Wonder how many lights it
took to decorate so beautifully.” Michelle was grateful that
Anthony was too preoccupied to detect her response as
improvised.

“
I don't know.” Anthony
vigorously brushed his jacket sleeve. Looking at her red jacket
with black velvet lapels, he began brushing them, too.

Michelle lightly slapped his hand.
“Will you stop it? We're not paying a call on Queen Elizabeth. He's
your uncle. I'm the one who's supposed to be jittery.”

“
Okay, okay.”Anthony drew
his hand back with a laugh. “You're right. I just want everything
to go well.”

“
Don't give me that look.
You want me to cross my heart and hope to die I won't say something
offensive?” Michelle held one palm up.

“
Of course not.” Anthony
turned to ring the doorbell then faced her again. “Would you?”He
dodged another slap. “Whoa now! I'm joking, I'm joking.”

Ike opened the door with a drink in his
hand. “Hey you two. Come on in.”

“
Merry Christmas.” Anthony
shook Ike's hand.

“
Same to you. Well young
lady, don't you look beautiful this Christmas Eve. The lady in
red.” Ike bent forward as if expecting to kiss her.

“
Happy holidays.” Michelle
moved her head away and stuck out a hand instead.

Ike wore a tolerant grin as he shook
her hand. “Come on in. Let me introduce you to these old buddies of
mine. That old goat is Buster Wilson and his wife, Macie. This is
James Bridges, and his lovely wife, Sheila. And that's my son
Marcus. And this is Caroline.” He put an arm around the waist of
the short busty woman who was obviously his date. “I'm expecting a
few more people.”