The Conglomerate: A Luxorious Tale (34 page)

              “Baby listen to me. I know you’re pissed, but if you kill her we will never know who’s behind this.”

It took some seconds for Jo
ey’s words to register with Zay. Once they did, he slowly slid his hands from Isadora’s neck.

Jason stared at the video for a second time in utter s
hock with his mouth wide open. He felt a slither of relief that his daughters were not at home, but he couldn’t be overjoyed since he knew that his mother was. The video disappeared as his phone rang and “Mom” appeared on the screen. He hurriedly answered.

             
“Hello Ma, hello?”

             
Hysterical Dorenda cried, “Jason, I’ve been trying to reach y’all. My house has been shot up. Frannie got shot.”

             
“Is she alive?”

             
“They just took her back for surgery.”

             
“What hospital are y’all at?”

             
“Carolina’s Medical Center, but Jason why would someone do this to my home?  Why?” she pleaded.

             
“I don’t know Mama; just hang on one of us will be over there.”

             
Angrily glaring down at Isadora as she coughed uncontrollably in dire pain, Zay asked Jason. “What did moms say?”

             
“Her house was shot up and Aunt Frannie got hit. She’s in surgery”

An already real situation got extra real for everyone in the room,
especially for Tony and Rico. The clouds of liquor that the brothers’ minds were engulfed in suddenly started fading away. Rico stood up.

             
“Mom’s house got shot up? The fuck is going on around here?” 

             
“No more stalling Zay,” Tony walked over to his brother. “What the hell is this all about?” he demanded.

             
Zay cut his eyes over at Evan. Ashamed, she looked away. “Let her tell you,” he pointed at Evan. “I don’t feel like telling nobody that dumb shit right now. This is her bullshit anyway. We’ve all just been pulled into it.”

             
Tony and Rico turned their attention to Evan.

             
Joey picked up Zay’s cell and began the video as it came on she had a thought.               “Hold up, I know how to find out who sent her, but before you start talking to them,” she spoke directly to Evan. “Tell Rahmel to take a couple of guards and go over to the CMC for my mother-in-law.” Joey flew out the office, in her heels she sprinted to the office that Isadora and Bev shared. She looked behind Isadora’s desk and spotted the brand new $14,000 pink Ralph Lauren Ricky bag that she’d complimented Isadora on earlier in the evening. At the time it hadn’t ran across Joey’s mind. She’d never seen Isadora carrying a bag that cost more than thirty-five hundred dollars. Joey had wondered if Isadora had purchased it or if it was a gift.  Now, she knew that it was more than likely bought with the proceeds from the robbery. 

             
Joey opened the purse and took out what she was looking for, Isadora’s iPhone.  She knew that like everyone else in the modern world, a person’s entire life could be found on their smart phone. Joey pressed the phone’s home button only to find that the phone was locked and could only be unlocked with Isadora’s fingerprint. With Isadora’s personal items in hand, Joey rushed back to her office.

              “I got her phone,” she announced, entering through the door. Joey handed Cee the purse. “Go through her bag to see if it’s anything in there that can tell us something.” 

Feeling the onset of defeat, Isadora frowned and dropped her head.

Joey held the phone next to Isadora’s right hand that was still bound to chair arm.  “Press the button,” she told Isadora.

Isadora closed her hands into a fist and squeezed them tightly.

“Yo open ya fucking hand, ’cause I’m not about to struggle with you.”

             
Refusing, Isadora squeezed her hand tighter. Mish stepped back in and slammed the hammer against the top of Isadora’s hand twice. Howling in pain Isadora involuntarily uncurled her hand. Joey grabbed her index finger, and pressed the phone’s home button instantly opening the phone. Telling the story of her shady past, Evan stood in semi-circle surrounded by Tony, Rico, Jason, Rez, and Zay. Joey went over to them.

             
“I know she’s explaining this situation, but she need to go through this phone with me right now.”  Holding the phone up where they both could view it, Joey scrolled through the short list of contacts.

             
“Ev, Do you recognize any of these names?”

             
“Nope.”

             
Joey closed the contact list and opened up the phone’s photo album, she scrolled through an array of tiny pictures of Isadora’s recent vacation to Beverly Hills and Las Vegas. Most of the pictures were of Isadora posing next to sights and landmarks.
This sure doesn’t look like a funeral to me,
Joey thought, continuing to scroll down until she happened upon a picture of Isadora with a man standing behind her, holding her at the waist. Joey tapped the picture box enlarging the image on the screen.  Her mouth fell ajar and her heart stopped. She recognized him and so did Evan.

All of the color slowly drained from Evan’s face as she stared at the screen wide eyed.  Taking a half step back, Joey cocked her head to the
side and sourly glared at Evan.               “What kind of shit is this Ev?”

             
“I dunno. I don’t understand,” Evan replied never taking her eyes off the screen.  She couldn’t pull her eyes away from the man’s face. He was a little thinner than she remembered and he’d obtained a thick scar that ran diagonally from the left tip of his hairline, across the outer edge of his right brow, stopping at his temple. Yes, there were a few differences, but there was no doubt in Evan’s mind as to who he was.

             
“What are y’all looking at?” Cee asked moving toward the pair. She took the phone from Joey and squealed.

             
“That is fucking Gage!” she looked at Evan then to Joey and back at Evan. “You said that he got killed! What kind of games are you playing?”

             
“Let me see that,” Zay extended his hand to Cee. She placed the phone in his palm. Jason and Reza flanked at his sides to get a view.

             
“That is that nigga,” Reza spouted upon laying eyes on a face that he would never forget.

             
With her mind racing at warp speed Evan stood frozen as every eye in the room zoomed in on her.
How can he be alive?
she thought.
I shot him in the head for God’s sake. I watched him die.

             
“Evan!” Cee yelled. “Snap the fuck out of it and tell us what is going on.

             
Though badly battered and covered in blood, Isadora displayed a smug smirk.

             
“Give her a minute,” she spoke up. “She’s confused. She thought that she killed both of them.”

             
“Killed the both of who?” Joey questioned bewildered. “Evan what is she talking about?”

             
“Don’t act like you don’t know,” Isadora spat.

             
“Yo, shut the fuck up, ok!” Joey retorted. “I’m talking to Evan.”

             
“And I’m talking to you and I’ve been waiting long time to confront you three bitches.”

             
“About what?”

              “The night Evan murdered my brother, Marshawn, and tried to kill his friend Gage so that you whores could take his stash.”

             
Zay glared at his wife, “So you were a part of this grimy shit?”

             
“Hell no I wasn’t, she is lying!”

             
“I’m not lying my brother was killed and more than six million dollars was stolen from his home.  And I saw you three bitches there. It was twelve years ago, but I remember it like yesterday,” Isadora closed her eyes and envisioned one of the most horrible nights of her life while continuing to talk.

***

May 2001

Isadora pushed her brand new candy apple red Mitsubishi Eclipse through the quiet streets of Sugar Loaf with the music blasting. It was graduation weekend for most of the colleges in and around Atlanta. The clubs were going to be jumping extra hard, and Isadora was ready to hit the scene and show off her new wheels. First, she had to stop by her big brother’s home for some cash. She was the apple of Marshawn’s eye. There was nothing that he wouldn’t give his baby sister. The 2001 Eclipse had been a gift from him just for completing her first year as a computer science major at Emory University.  Turning on the dead end street that led to Marshawn’s palatial home, Isadora saw three cars exiting the cul-de-sac. She knew that they had to be leaving her brother’s home because it was the only house in the circle.  Isadora looked at the female driver of each car as they passed by. Three pretty faces in luxury cars. “Strippers,” she hissed. Isadora could only imagine what they had been doing at her brother’s house, probably a foursome she told herself. Entering her brother’s home, Isadora called out to her brother.

“Marshawn!”

He didn’t answer.

“Marshawn,” she hollered out again.

Still no answer.

Isadora
followed a ticking sound to the theater room in the rear of the home. “Oh God nooooooooo!” she shrilled at the sight of her brother’s bullet riddled body. She backed out of the room, scared that someone could still be in the house. Isadora ran to her car, locked herself inside, and called 911. When the paramedics and police arrived Marshawn was pronounced dead, but they found Gage on the second floor. He’d been shot twice in the side of the neck and once in the head. One bullet was lodged in his neck; the second bullet went straight through his neck. The bullet that he’d taken to the head circled around his brain and exited out the front of his skull. He was barely alive from the loss of blood and the trauma from the bullet slamming against his head when he was rushed to the hospital. Gage survived surgery, but slipped into a coma afterwards.

             
Although Isadora didn’t know Gage, she assumed that he was a friend of Marshawn since he’d been shot as well. She stayed by his hospital bed for three days and when he awoke from his coma; Isadora’s face was the first thing that he saw. The doctors sent her out the room immediately so that they could check him out. Standing in the hallway, Isadora overheard a nurse on the phone notifying the homicide detectives that Gage was awake. When the doctors left the room she rushed back in, she had questions that she needed to ask before the police showed up at any minute.

             
Isadora leaned close to the bed. “I’m Isadora, Marshawn’s sister. Were you two friends?”

             
“Yes,” Gage responded in gruff whisper, his was throat extremely dry from his long slumber.

             
“Who did this to you?”

             
“Evan.”

             
“Is that a man?”

             
Gage shook his head side to side.

             
“A woman?”

             
He nodded his head up and down.

             
Isadora remembered the three women that drove past her on the way to the house that night. With everything that had happened she’d forgotten about seeing them.               “Was she with two other women?”

             
Gage thought about it and the last thing he remembered before completely losing consciousness was hearing Evan on the phone with Joey directing her to the house.  He’d been double crossed by Evan and her friends. The detectives swept into the room before Isadora could ask him anything else and put her out. When Isadora returned to the hospital next day, Gage had concocted a brilliant story about what happened that day. He told Isadora that Evan was there as Marshawn’s date and that they were waiting for Evan’s to arrive. Gage said that he left to go to the store for blunts and when he returned Marshawn was dead. He said when he went to search the house for the shooter, Evan shot him. Isadora ate his story hook, line, and sinker.

             
Isadora visited him every day until he was released from the hospital. During those visits they established a foundation to a friendship that led to a full blown love affair.

* * *

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    
Returning to the present from her trip down memory lane, Isadora opened her eyes and stared her directly at Joey.

              “Don’t ever tell me that you were not there.”