In a Cold Sweat (32 page)

“Oh. You left out the part about you runnin’ away,” Bobby said and he and Jamaica laughed all over themselves. That’s why he did it, and I deserved that.

“Is that all you came here for?”

“Me come for Freeze,” Jamaica said no longer laughing.

We would lay him to rest the next day.

Wanda got a call from Kirk, which came as no surprise. Since it happened in Manhattan, it wasn’t Kirk’s case. But once he heard that Freeze was the person that got killed at the fight, he had to come see me. I met him at Cuisine that next afternoon. Kirk came without Richards so I knew that in addition to Freeze, he wanted to talk about DeFrancisco. After he relayed his condolences, he got to the business at hand. “So tell me what happened?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. By the time I got there he was already in the ambulance. And why do you even care, detective? This ain’t your case.”

“I know it’s not. I’m just askin’,” Kirk said.

He started to say something else, probably to justify why I should talk to him, but I cut him off. “No, Kirk, you're a cop askin’ questions. In my experience, that’s never a good thing.”

“Why don’t you tell me
anyway.
”

“You already know as much, if not more, than I know, or you wouldn’t be sittin’ here.” I laughed a little. “Like you would show up here unprepared. Not happenin’.”

“Okay. I know what Nick told the uniforms, and what he will tell the detectives when ever they get around to reading Freeze’s
file
and realize who he is.”

“A fact that I’m sure you’ll be glad to point out to them.”

“Nah, I’m not trying to create any more work for myself.”

“Good. ’Cause you know as well as I do that once they figure out who Freeze is, they’re not gonna care who killed him and won’t put too much effort into finding out unless you point them in a direction. So why don’t you tell me what you know.”

“That some guy just walked up and shot Freeze twice. I know nobody really saw anything except a black man running away with a gun. But you and I both know that ain’t what really happened.”

“What really happened, detective?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. I was just wondering if this had anything to do with The
Commission?
”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t there. But you know I’ll find whoever did it. I promise you that. He won’t be able to hide for long.” I paused for effect. “Is this the part where you ask me to let the police handle it, detective?”

Kirk laughed and so did I. That’s twice I’ve seen him laugh. I didn’t think Kirk laughed; he’s always on the job. In a lot of ways, he reminds me of me. Makes me wonder what kind of cop I would have been. And then I came to my senses.

“No, nothing like that,” Kirk said, still laughing. “I just wanna know if I should be expecting more bodies?”

“From what I hear, there is no more Commission. They went underground screamin’ peace.”

“Don’t want any parts of you, huh?”

“I guess not. And believe me, I been lookin’,” I assured the detective.

“Yeah, I know. You and
Bobby been
rollin’ around callin’ these kids out since we talked about it. Heard you even got word to big Darryl about his brother.”

“Not much gets by you, detective.
You been
keepin’ on top of this.”

“Just trying to stay ahead of it, that’s all.”

“Like the good cop you are. And I mean that as a compliment.”

“I took it as one,” Kirk said and got ready to leave. “Oh, one more thing.”

“What’s that, detective?”

“Your boy DeFrancisco escaped while he was being transferred on Friday. With the history you have with him, I just thought you should know.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for him,” I promised, but I knew it wouldn’t be necessary. I knew that old wood house in the middle of nowhere would burn to the ground and no one would find it for months, maybe years.

Kirk stood up. “Sorry about Freeze, Black. I mean that.”

“Thank you, Detective,” I said to Kirk and he began walking away. But then he stopped.

“The Commission is done, huh?”

“That much I can assure you, Detective.”

And I could.

CeCe arranged for Stark to meet me on the upper level at The ESPN Zone in Time Square. Just the two of us. I had to give CeCe credit. She got it done for me and did it quick. Maybe there was more to her than just being fine as hell. I wondered how long it would take her to put herself in some situation when she would be alone with me. There was no question about it. I was gonna end up fuckin’ CeCe.

Like I said, it’s kind of a rule. A woman can’t set the pussy out the way she was settin’ it out and
a man not get
it. Especially a fine ass woman like CeCe. But for now, I was content to keep it business. She was a dangerous woman and I knew it, but that’s what makes it interesting.

I met Stark at the zone at ten o'clock that same night I met Kirk. Even though I promised to meet Stark alone, Nick insisted on coming with me. He really hasn’t left me since it happened. I knew he felt responsible, especially since I told him to watch Mylo and Freeze is dead anyway. I don’t blame him for that. This is a dangerous game we play and people die. It’s fucked up, but it is what it is.

Nick went in before I did wearing a disguise and was sittin there when Stark came in. He brought two guys with him. After they scanned the room for familiar faces, they sat down and Stark came up stairs.

I finished my drink and stood up when I saw him coming toward me. “Thank you for agreeing to see me.” I extended my hand in friendship and respect and he accepted it.

“I’m sorry about Freeze,” Stark said.

“Yeah, so am I.”

I am so tired of people beginning conversations with me with the words, I’m sorry about... First Cassandra and now Freeze. Who’s next? Bobby? I didn’t even want to think about losing my brother. “Please, have a seat.” I flagged down my waitress.

“Thank you,” Stark said and sat down.

“What are you drinkin’?”

“Jack Daniels on the rocks,” he said.

“Another Remy for you?” the waitress asked.

“If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” she said and walked away swinging her hips.

“Mylo, huh?” Stark said.

“He wanted to make it look like we were at war. After y’all were dead, cops are lookin’ at me while he takes over your business.”

“I can see that now,” Stark admitted.

“I know it was his idea for y’all to get together. Buy more
product
that way.”

“But his real point was you. He was always pushin’ that shit hard. That you were coming after us,” he said as the waitress brought our drinks.

“What I wanna know is how he got with y’all?” I asked when the waitress left.

“You don’t know?” Stark asked smugly.

“Know what?”

“Mylo used to buy from Birdie. I don’t mean to speak ill of the dead, but he said he was doin’ business right under Freeze’s nose,” he said like he knew he had the upper hand, and he did, ’cause I had no idea.

“Yeah, I know. He had Freeze completely fooled.” I hated to admit it, but it was true. Mylo had worked his way inside my house and had done more damage than I ever thought possible.

This wouldn’t have happened if I was runnin’ my own show. I definitely wouldn’t let that nigga run my game. If he wasn’t runnin’ the game, he would never have been able to get close to Frank.

What was Freeze thinkin’?

He was thinkin’ that Mylo proved his value and loyalty by snitchin’ on Birdie and Albert after they tried to have him and Nick killed. I understand the logic, but damn it was fucked up in this case.

“But I want you to know, and I mean this, you and I don’t have a problem. We never have. Just as long as your business doesn’t conflict with mine,” I told him.

Stark sat up a little straighter in his chair like he was finally taking me seriously again. “So, just exactly what
is
you sayin’?”

“All I want is peace. All that shit about me killin’ drug dealers for sport is bullshit. I don’t give a fuck how you make your money. Your hand ain’t in my pocket. So as long as you keep your hand out of my pocket, we don’t have
no
issue.” I didn’t think it was really necessary to threaten to kill him if he did. I think he got the point.

“All I wanna do is
make
money. You make yours your way, I’ll do my thing. I got nothing but respect for you, Black. Believe that.”

“Then maybe you might help me with something?”

“What's that?”

“Mylo.”

“What about him?”

“I need to know where to find him.” I hated humbling myself like that, but he knew Mylo better than I did, so I needed him.

“CeCe said he was dead.”

“He shot Freeze before he got away. You know where he might hide out?”

Stark took a sip of his drink and thought for a second. “I might know someplace.
Me
and Mylo was hangin’ out in Philly and he took me to this house. I didn’t go in with him and he wasn’t in there for long, but when he came out he said every once and a while you gotta check on your foundation.”

“Where in Philly?”

Stark told us where to find the house. It was in a little town outside of Philly called Marcus Hook; a three bedrooms, three story, single family house on West 3
^rd
Street.

The house was in darkness when
me
and Nick got there. I wanted to go alone. I wanted to be the one to kill Mylo, but Nick said that he had to be the one to kill him. I understood.

We sat outside for about an hour and didn’t see any movement inside. We walked up on the house and Nick disabled the alarm, put on his night vision glasses, broke in the back door and searched the house while I played sentry and waited outside. I hate waiting.

When I saw Nick come out of the house, we went back to the car.

“House is empty,” Nick said. “Two car garage, family room on the ground level. Living room, dinning room, kitchen on the second level. Three bedrooms up top. I could tell somebody had been there recently. But I could tell that nobody had been there for a while before that.”

“Really? How could you tell that?” I asked.

“All the food in the refrigerator was bought recently and there’s dust everywhere.”

“So we wait.”

We had been there for a couple of hours, neither of us really said too much. I was thinkin’ about Freeze, and I just assumed that Nick was too. I was thinking about Michelle too. I had to do everything I could to keep all this violence away from her. For the time being, I felt like she was safe on the island with my mother and Jamaica watching over her, but I know anything can happen and there was nothing I could do about it.

I thought about Cassandra, and before long, Mystique was on my mind. I really wasn’t trying to get hooked up with another woman that soon after Cassandra, but there I was, claiming her, as Bobby put it. I wondered what I was doin’ with her and how far I was willing to let it go.