Brent Sinatra: All of Me (10 page)

Before she did, Charles took an expensive handkerchief out of
his suit pocket and wiped her soaked vagina before she pulled her panties up,
and then he wiped his penis.
 
“You’re the
boss,” he said as he wiped.
 
“Stop
panicking.”

“I’m not panicking,” Jenay said as she dressed.
 
“I don’t like being late.
 
It sets a terrible example.”

And within minutes they both were dressed, Charles’ expensive
handkerchief was in the bottom of the garbage can, and they were heading back
outside.

Brent was still sitting on the porch when they came back out.

“See you, luv,” Jenay said to him as she hurried down the
steps.
 
“I can’t wait to congratulate
Makayla!
 
But I’m late now.”

“Don’t drive recklessly just because you’re late,” Charles
yelled after her, worried about her.
 
“It’s
not that serious.”

“I’ll drive safely,” Jenay assured him.
 
“I always do.”

But before she could make it to her car, Eddie Rivers was
driving up and was jumping out of his pick-up truck.

“Hey, Eddie, how are you?”

“Not good, Mrs. Sinatra.”

“What’s wrong now?” Brent asked him.
 
Was the police union trying to give them fits
about the McCurdy/Saunders arrest?

“We’ve got trouble, boss,” Eddie said.
 
“Big trouble.”

Brent stood up and moved to the end of his porch, his water
bottle still in hand, his clothes only marginally dry.
 
“What is it?”

“There’s a gunman at Grantham.
 
He’s holding some of the children hostage.”

Charles and Jenay took off faster than Brent could.
 
They jumped into Charles’ Jaguar, since Jenay
knew how fast her husband could drive, while Brent jumped into Eddie’s truck
and they all raced toward Grantham Middle School.
 
Not just because there was a shooting there,
which was reason enough.
 
But because
Charles and Jenay’s youngest child, Brent’s youngest sister, attended that
school.

The double doors at the middle school flew open, as another
group of kids came running out, with teachers and policemen leading them out.

“He’s got a gun!” they cried to anyone who would listen.
 
“He’s got a gun!”

Eddie’s truck and Charles’s Jaguar swerved onto the campus
and stopped at the main doors.
 
Every
available police car appeared to be at the scene, and half of the school had
been cordoned off.
 
Brent and Eddie
hurried in, and Charles and Jenay hurried in behind them.

When they entered the hall, there was chaos everywhere as
students as well as staff were running down the stairs toward the front
entrance, while others were already down and running out.

“Where’s Bonita?” Charles was asking as they ran.
 
They had tried and tried her cell phone, but
it kept going straight to Voice Mail.
 
“Where’s my daughter?!”

But nobody responded.
 
They were too busy running for their own lives to comment on anybody
else’s.
 
Until they were met by Tangley,
a sergeant with the police department.
 
They ran in his direction.

“Where’s our daughter?” Charles asked.
 
“How can we find our daughter?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Tangley said.

Charles and Jenay’s heart began hammering.
 
“Why are you sorry?” Charles asked.
 
“What are you trying to say?
 
Where’s my little girl?”

“What is it, Tang?” Brent asked him, anxious too.

“It’s one gunman, sir,” Tangley said, “and he’s in the
cafeteria.
 
We just cleared the
school---”

“What about my daughter?”
 
Charles screamed.
 
“Don’t tell me
about some fucking school.
 
Tell me about
my daughter!”

“She’s in the cafeteria,” Tangley said, then looked at
Brent.
 
“I’m sorry, sir, but she’s the
one he has.”

“The one he has?” Jenay asked.
 
“What does that mean?”

“Your daughter is the hostage,” Tangley said bluntly, and
Jenay nearly fell where she stood.
 
Charles placed his arm around her waist, barely holding up himself.
 
“Good Lord,” he said.

“We’re just now clearing the last of the students out of the
entire school,” Tangley said.
 
“Except
for the children in the cafeteria.
 
He’ll
let them go, he said, when you arrive.
 
But he’s not letting little Bonita go.”

Brent began heading toward the cafeteria near the back of the
school.
 
Tangley, Eddie, and Charles and
Jenay followed him.
 
“Who is he?” Brent
asked as he moved.
 
“Do we know him?”

“It’s Clem, sir.
 
The
gunman is Clem Michaels.”

“Who the hell is Clem Michaels?” Charles asked.

“A former cop,” Eddie said.
 
“Brent fired him a long time ago.
 
Years ago.”

“Why would he hold our daughter hostage?” Jenay asked.
 
“We don’t even know him!”

“But Brent fired him,” Eddie said.
 
“And Bonita is his baby sister.
 
He’s out for revenge.”

Charles held onto Jenay even tighter.
 
He could hear her heartbeat pounding, even as
his was pounding too.
 
But when they
arrived at the cafeteria door, a door surrounded by police, Brent turned toward
his parents and told them to wait upfront.

“No way,” Charles said.
 
“That’s my baby in there.
 
My
child. I’m going in too.”

“And so am I,” Jenay said.

“No way,” Brent said.
 
“Now I mean it.”

“I don’t care what you mean, Brent.
 
That’s my baby!
 
I’m going in too!”

Brent looked at Tangley.
 
“Take her up front.
 
Handcuff her
if you have to.”

“What?” Jenay asked, astounded, as Tangley began to approach
her. “Charles, don’t let them keep me away from Nita!
 
That’s my child too!”
 

“You touch her,” Charles said to Tangley, “and I’ll break
every bone in your body.”
 
Then he took
Jenay’s hand and pulled out his own private gun.
 
He looked at Brent.
 
“I’ll look out for her,” he said.
 
“Let’s go.”

Brent knew this was against every protocol written, but he
also knew his father.
 
If anybody was
capable of taking care of Jenay, it was Charles.

“How are we communicating?” Brent asked Eddie.

“How are we communicating, Tang?” Eddie asked Tangley.

“Phone, sir,” Tangley said, pointing to a room across the
hall.
 
“We have a phone connection from
inside the cafeteria.”

“Get him on the line,” Brent said, and one of the uniformed
officers hurried to the side room, and returned with a cordless phone.

“He’s on now, sir,” the officer said.

“Clem?” Brent said into the phone.
 
“I understand you want to talk to me.”

“Come in,” Clem said.

“You’ve got to release the kids first.”

“You come in, they can go out.”

“Including my sister.
 
Then we can talk man-to-man.”

“I’m not stupid.
 
You
think I am, but I’m not.
 
I’ll release
everybody except your sister.
 
That’s the
deal.”

Brent pinched his forehead.
 
“I’m coming in,” he said, and ended the call.

“Brent, wait,” Jenay said, pulling him back, terrified for
him too.
 
“What if you open that door and
he shoots you on sight?
 
What if he
shoots you first?”

“Then he’ll be a dead motherfucker second,” Charles
said.
 
“Let’s go.”

Brent looked at his parents, and then he looked at
Eddie.
 
Eddie understood.
 
As soon as Brent opened the cafeteria door
and walked in, Eddie closed it and he and Tangley stood in front of it.
 
Like prison guards.

“Sorry, folks, but this is police business now,” Eddie said
to Charles and Jenay.

But Charles, astounded that they would try some trick like
this with him, handed Jenay his gun.
 
Then
he grabbed Eddie by the catch of his suit coat, lifted him, and threw him
across the hall.
 
A monitor’s desk broke
in two as he landed on it, but it also broke his fall.
 
When Charles looked at Tangley, it was
enough.
 
Tangley stepped aside.
 
Then Jenay handed Charles back his gun and
they both were about to enter the cafeteria, with Jenay behind Charles, but
just as the doors opened, a roomful of students and teachers came rushing
out.
 
But there was no sign of Clem.
 
Nor little Bonita, to her parents’ dismay.

“Clem, show yourself,” Brent called out again as the students
and teachers ran out.
 
“Where are you,
Clem?”

It took several more seconds, but then Clem stepped out from
behind a partition.
 
Bonita Sinatra,
Brent’s ten-year-old, biracial sister, was with him.
 
He had a gun to her head, but she wasn’t
crying.
 
But when Brent saw her, he
almost went weak-kneed.
 
He stopped in
his tracks.

Charles and Jenay didn’t realize why Brent had suddenly
stopped, as they were just able to fully enter the cafeteria.
 
Until they saw Clem too.
 
And their little girl.
 
Their hearts sank.
 
Charles immediately moved Jenay further
behind him, while Brent, with gun in hand, moved forward.

“Stay right where you are, Brent,” the gunman said, “or I’ll
kill her.
 
I swear I will!”

Brent stopped his movement, but he didn’t put down his
gun.
 
“Put the gun down, Clem,” he
said.
 
“Put it down.
 
No good is going to come of this.”

“No good?” Clem sounded stunned.
 
“You ruined my life and you’re telling me
about what’s good?
 
You Sinatras walk
around this town like y’all own the earth. Your daddy own everything in sight,
you own the police department, and I can’t pay my rent!
 
What makes y’all better than me?
 
You ruined me!”

Brent looked at his sister.
 
He allowed Clem to vent because his every thought was on getting his
sister out of this unharmed.
 

 
“Jo left me,” Clem
continued.
 
“I loved her so much.
 
I did everything for her.
 
That’s why I got into that fight with Eddie
Rivers.
 
It was because of her and how he
disrespected her.
 
He called my wife Jo
the Ho!
 
I loved her and she left me,
Brent!”

“She left you?” Brent asked, but only to buy time.
 
He knew Clem Michaels.
 
He knew how self-absorbed he was.
 
If the focus remained on him and his
problems, he wouldn’t see it coming.
 
“Why
did she leave you?” Brent asked him.

“Why do you think?
 
I
had nothing to offer her.
 
You fired me
and changed everything.
 
She left me,
what difference does it make why?”
 
Clem
was near tears.
 
“She was the best thing
that ever happened to me, but she couldn’t take it either.”

As Clem continued talking, Brent looked into Bonita’s
terrified eyes.
  
Although Bonita was
only ten, she was a smart and perceptive young lady.
 
Brent was depending on it.
 
Because he needed her to understand.
 
He needed her to forget about fear and focus
on him.
 
Clem was going to kill her if
she didn’t understand.
 
That was why he
looked toward the left side of her, and then back at her, as Clem talked.
 
And then he did it again.
  
He looked toward the left side of her, and
back at her.
 
Again and again.
 
Until little Bonita nodded.

“Nobody would hire me,” Clem continued talking.
 
“Nobody would give me a chance to earn a
decent living, how was I going to take care of my family right?
 
Jo did all she could, but she could only get nothing
jobs too.
 
I was tainted because of
you.
 
And I tainted her.
 
Year after year I couldn’t get anything
going.
 
You took everything away from
me.
 
My wife.
 
My home.
 
My job.
 
My life.”
 
His look changed, and Brent knew it was now
or never.
 
“Now it’s my time to take away
from you,” he said, and cocked the pistol he had at Bonita’s head.

As soon as he did, Bonita moved her head to the left as far
as she could, and Brent fired.
 
One
shot.
 
Dead in Clem’s forehead.
 
Clem’s eyes rolled back, and then he and his
weapon fell back.

The police hurried in at the sound of the gunshot while
Charles and Jenay ran to Bonita, refusing to stop until they had her in their
arms.
 
Bonita ran into their arms in
tears.
 
Charles lifted her up, but Jenay
was holding her too.

Brent hurried to Clem.
 
He leaned down and felt his pulse.
 
He was dead.

Charles and Jenay might have glanced at Clem, to make sure he
could not harm their daughter again, but Bonita had their undivided
attention.
 
“Are you alright?” Charles
was asking his daughter as she switched over to her mother and Jenay was now
holding her.
 
He was looking her up and
down and all over her beautiful brown face as if the bullet could have grazed
her somehow.

“I’m okay, Daddy,” Bonita kept saying.
 
“He didn’t hurt me.
 
Brent told me what to do.”

Jenay and Charles looked at each other.
 
They didn’t recall any warnings from Brent,
but they didn’t care at this point.
  
They were just grateful to God that their daughter was okay.