Avenging Alex (21 page)

The Eastland Avenue neighborhood seemed more quiet than usual. Tirrell Ellis emerged from the brick-front house he still shared with his grandmother to retrieve the mail. Because of the brutal attack he'd suffered two years prior he now had to walk with a cane and the limp favoring his left side. He nodded to a neighbor across the street who was also checking her mail. The box was filled with grocery store coupons and bills, but a manila envelope addressed to him caught his attention.

He hobbled back into the house and laid the bulk of the mail on the dining room table. He eased himself down into a chair and before opening the envelope he held it up to the light to see if he could tell what it contained. When he opened it, four pictures fell out onto the table. He stared intently at the images of the baby girl in the photographs whose hazel eyes were the reflection of his own. He turned one over. All that was there was the name Cerena and the date May 15, 2009. For some inexplicable reason he felt a tug that he hadn't expected. He checked the envelope for a return address and read the postmark from Monrovia, California. He leaned back in his chair, staring at the baby, rubbed his hand over his faded haircut and whispered, “Alex.”

“Tirrell, are you all right?”

Tirrell looked up to see that his grandmother Betty had come in from the kitchen. “Uh, I don't exactly know what I am right now, Noonie.”

“What's the matter?”

Tirrell handed her the pictures. She wiped her hands on the towel she carried, sat down in a chair beside him, and carefully examined the images. “Cerena,” she said aloud. “Whose child is this?”

“Who does she look like to you?” he asked.

The stout woman pulled on her reading glasses and thoughtfully rubbed her fingers over her lips and then traced the outline of the photograph. “She looks like you when you were a baby.”

“Congratulations, Noonie. I think you're a great-grandmother, again.”

“What?” The woman's stunned expression spoke volumes. “Tirrell, where did these pictures come from?”

“They came in the mail,” he responded. “In this envelope. It has a postmark from California.”

“California?”

“I think Alex Solomon sent them. I think that girl is my daughter.”

“Oh, Tirrell, what would make you say such a thing?”

Tirrell leaned intently toward his grandmother. “Don't you see, Noonie? Alex made a deal with the Feds and got ghost. Two weeks ago we hear on the news that Xavier Rivera is dead. Now all of a sudden I get this in the mail. If it's not from her, who could it be from then?”

Betty Ellis removed her glasses, shook her head, and closed her eyes. Tirrell awkwardly pulled his lean six foot one inch frame up from the table and limped to the kitchen without his cane.

“Tirrell, what are you doing?”

“I'm gonna call Kevin. He's a DA. If Alex Solomon is alive and if that girl is mine then I need to find her.”

“No, Tirrell,” Betty admonished.

“What do you mean no? If Alex sent me those pictures she did it for a reason.”

Betty stood up from the table, pressed her hands together, and walked over to him. “That woman was nothin' but trouble from the day you met her. For all you know this could all be some kind of hoax or scheme to get back at you.”

Tirrell scoffed. “Get back at me for what, Noonie? I ain't got nothin' left that she wants.”

Betty lovingly cupped her grandson's face in her hands. “Baby, after all the hell that woman put this family through you can't hope to find her and bring her back into our lives.”

Tirrell pulled away. “I don't give a damn about Alex Solomon,” he snapped. “If that girl is my daughter I have a right to know. And, if Alex gets in my way I'm gonna do what I should have done two years ago.”

“Tirrell—”

“I mean it, Noonie! I'll kill her! This time, I swear to God. I'll kill her!”

Urban Books, LLC
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Avenging Alex Copyright © 2014 Lewis Ericson

 

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.

ISBN: 978-1-6016-2400-0

 

First Trade Paperback Printing January 2014

 

 

 

 

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