The Corner II (32 page)

Parked across from the street of a video store Dre watched and waited as the Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans and Cubans went in and out of the video store. It wasn’t time for the store to close but the info he’d gotten let him know that his target was about to get off work and here she was walking out on time. He watched as the short, chubby Mexican woman, with a ponytail that hung down her back, carried a bag of videos walking toward a Chevy Malibu. Dre slowly drove the Expedition toward the car. When the woman neared her car she pointed her keypad at the vehicle disarming the alarm. She was about ten feet away when Dre cruised next to her and rolled down the window. The woman paused and before she could scream Dre let out five shots from a .357 magnum that tore through the woman’s coat and her chest. The impact threw her into the pickup truck that was parked next to her Malibu. Dre sped off to ditch the vehicle and get into a car where his partner was waiting to assist in his getaway.

Once the coast was clear, people came running out of the store to check on the woman. As soon as the cannon Dre fired sounded off, people inside the store looked to see what was going on, and they got a good look at the SUV. Once the truck was gone, they ran to see if Victoria was alive and when they reached her it was obvious that she was gone. Her entire shirt was soaked with blood from the holes that were put in her. Her eyes were opened looking up into the dark sky with the bag of videos still clutched in her hand.

A co-worker of the slain mother of two cried in Spanish, “Someone better call Chavez and tell him his baby mama been killed.”

*     *     *

It had been over two weeks since Chavez’s baby mama was murdered and Chantel shot. When Chantel lay limp in the gas station parking lot, Tesha thought she was dead but, when the police arrived and the shooting stopped, Tesha was able to hear her friend moaning. She’d been shot in the arm and the shoulder. The police officer on the scene acted quickly by administering first aid to Chantel until the ambulance arrived.

Once at the hospital, she was rushed to surgery where she recovered well and also found out that she was pregnant. When Noonie arrived Tesha told him what had happened, and he was rather calm knowing he needed to be for Chantel’s sake. He did tell Tesha that he’d get with her about the dude, Shaun, that helped them out. The police had held the man for questioning but had let him go after finding that it all was self-defense. He had a permit to carry his weapon seeing as how he was the owner of a couple of clothing stores and has a gun permit for that reason.

When Noonie went to the hospital to see Chantel, he found his woman lying in the bed half asleep. There was an IV hooked up to her, and he heard the beeping from the machine that monitored her heart rate. When she saw Noonie she rubbed his face and told him that she and the baby were going to be okay. He looked puzzled for a second then looked at Tesha who told him that it was true that he was going to be a daddy. He was so happy but was now even angrier that his woman
and
his child were almost taken away from him.

Things were different for Chavez. He had to bury one of his three baby mommas. Victoria had two children by Chavez, Ricky and Sonia. The two would now have to grow up without their mother. He was in the streets too much to take care of them on his own so his mother took the children in since Victoria’s parents were too old to care for two young children. Chavez and Victoria had stopped seeing each other a long time ago because of his lifestyle but were on good terms. The man who took the life of his children’s mother was going to have to die a slow death, and he was going to make sure of it. He had a description of the vehicle and it was identical to Noonie’s. He decided to send a message to Noonie’s people since he hadn’t been able to find him.

A Man of Two Identities

“
G
irl, I can’t believe that your ass is on your way to Indy!” Shay yelled into the phone.

“I can’t either, but I don’t know what else to do. I miss him, and I think his mother could answer some questions for me,” Lisa told her friend as she drove down interstate 65.

“Well, I don’t like the way he played you, but I guess it is possible that he did fall in love with you.”

“I just need to talk to his mother about something. Something I saw at her house that may answer a lot of questions for me.”

Shay told her friend to call if she needed anything but to also call when she arrived at Devin’s mother’s house so she’d know that she had made it okay.

Lisa was pulling into Mrs. Anderson’s driveway before she knew it. The woman wasn’t expecting her so she hoped that she was home. Lisa saw the curtain go back when she stepped out of the car. Once she got to the porch the door opened and Clara asked, “Lisa? What are you doing here?”

“Hi, Mrs. Anderson, I mean Clara. You said that if I needed anything to let you know.”

“Yes?”

“Well I need to talk to you about a few things.”

Clara saw the pain on Lisa’s face. “Come in child and tell me what’s on your mind,” Clara said sounding concerned. Clara left Lisa in the family room while she fixed some tea. Lisa looked around at all the pictures and that’s when she noticed what she’d remembered seeing, the ring on Devin’s grandmother’s finger. It was the same ring that’s in her purse. The same ring Devin gave her the last time they saw each other almost a month ago. Once Clara came in with the tea, Lisa didn’t hesitate asking, “Did Devin tell you of our breakup?”

“Yes, he did and he’s heartbroken.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“He didn’t have to because he’d already told me how you two met. I told that stubborn boy that you were a head strong woman and wasn’t going to take kind to him lying to you.”

Lisa was glad to see that even Devin’s own mother saw her point of view. She asked, “Why did you play along with him when I came to visit?”

“Because my son loves you and he asked me not to let on that he was a policeman. He wanted to do it himself. You see, Devin’s reason for being a cop goes deep. I shouldn’t be telling you this.”  Clara gathered herself then continued. “His sister overdosed on that crack rock stuff out in LA while trying to be a movie star. He was young and didn’t understand, but as he got older he realized what had happened. And since then…well he wanted to be a policeman and wanted to work narcotics. When this assignment came up, he saw it as an opportunity to help all the sisters out there who didn’t have anyone to protect them. And that way of protection was to get as much of that poison off the streets that he could. And the people who sold it.”

Lisa listened and her facial expression changed. The man she loved was trying to avenge his sister’s death the only way he knew how. Lisa asked about the ring, and Clara told her that it was her mother’s ring and that was one of the things she left Devin, and it was for the woman he married. Lisa was taken aback. She still loved Devin and she wanted to forgive him, and she thought that she’d give him a call.

*     *     *

Jamel and Feet, who was a shorty who sold on the corners who had dreams of moving up and rolling with the big dogs, were in one car; DC and John John were in the other. They’d been going to the stash houses collecting money and dropping off product. They pulled up at the last house and before DC and John John went in to pick up the money, John John asked, “Why the hell they call that little nigga Feet? I know his mama didn’t name him that.”

DC laughed as he put the Chevy in park, “You must have never seen that little nigga run. I swear his ass ought to be on the track team at his high school ’cause that is the fastest nigga I’ve ever seen.”

“How fast?”

“Well, one time he was on the corner hustlin’ and you know he ain’t nothing but sixteen, so five-o walks up on his ass cause Feet let him. That little nigga told the five-o ‘I’m ’bout to run so get ready’.”

“Bullshit,” John John laughed.

“I’m telling you and this wasn’t no fat ass cop. This was a fresh out the academy in shape brotha. Feet ran, stopped and let the cop catch up and took off again and didn’t lose a sack. Jamel paid that nigga double that day and bought his little ass some gear from that joint on 87
^th
.”

John John’s cell rang and he noticed the number was Lisa’s. Normally he wouldn’t have answered it while out working, but he was aching to hear from her and here she was calling after all this time.

“Hello,”

“Hi, Devin, you busy?”

“A little, what’s up?”

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry and I want to work things out. I do love you and I want you to be happy and that I don’t want you to quit working—”

“You don’t have to explain. Can I see you tonight and we talk about it?”

“Well, I can’t. I’m staying at your mom’s tonight for dinner.”

“You’re at my mom’s? What are…?” Devin figured out what had happened and he was glad that Lisa did pay his mother a visit. He knew mom had a way of making everything okay. “Tell her I said hi and not to be telling all of my business,” he joked. “But let me call you two later okay?”

“I love you, Devin.”

“I love you, too.”

DC teased, “Sucka fo love ass nigga, let’s go get this money so I can get the fuck home, it’s colder than a mutha.

DC and John John got out of the car and headed for the house. DC hadn’t been paying attention or he’d have noticed that both porch lights were on. They only kept one on and if both were on or off they were to use caution. Only the right light was supposed to be on. When they reached the porch they knocked and didn’t get an answer and that’s because all of their men inside were dead.

Jamel and Feet were rolling a blunt, but Jamel was keeping watch. That’s when he noticed a shadow in the darkness creeping from the side of the house. “Jack move little nigga!” he yelled to Feet as he pulled both pistols and was out the car firing at the shadow. DC and John John fled in different direction as shots came out of the front picture window of the old single family home. DC was behind a tree busting shots at the windows of the home. He yelled, “John you okay?”

“I’m hit,” he yelled and was obviously in pain. He had run behind a parked car after being hit in the back with a round.

Jamel had laid the man lurking in the shadows to rest, but shots were still coming from that area. Feet was trying to make his way to John who was exchanging rounds with men in an approaching car. Even though he was hit, he was still able to shoot. The car kept coming, and Feet was firing at the vehicle also. Rounds were being exchanged and it sounded like a war zone. DC and his boys were laying the men down, but it was too many of them. Chavez had sent some soldiers to rob and take over the house. He had paid someone a hefty price for the information of where one of the houses was. People on the streets who kept an eye on what was going on knew where the dope man’s spots were at, so that way it was a good idea to keep on moving them every now and then. The sucker who got paid was down the street in his basement counting his fifteen grand unable to hear the war that was going on down the street since his music from his new stereo system was blasting while he drank Grey Goose and counted his money.

“It’s too many of them, let’s stab out,” Jamel yelled.

It made sense seeing as how the men were just about out of ammo. John John took another round to the leg and he grunted. DC made it to Jamel’s car, Feet was stuck and the police were coming their way. The Latins had dipped to the alley so he definitely wasn’t going to head toward the house. He didn’t want to leave John John and figured this could be a way of making his way up in the crew. The shots had ceased but the police was there. Feet had just ditched his pistol in the storm drain and acted as if he was an innocent bystander who was helping a shot man.

“Get your fucking hands up,” the officer yelled as he pointed his weapon at Feet.

The youngster did what the man said as blue lights illuminated the area and sirens were deafening. Feet looked over at John who was passed out, saying, “I was just passing by and these guys shot him. There were a lot of them they took off toward the alley.”  He sounded so convincing and looked his age when he pleaded with the officer as the man called dispatch for an ambulance.

More squad cars arrived on the scene. Tires coming to a screeching halt on the frozen pavement. When one of the officers who just arrived saw John John laying on the ground bleeding he yelled, “That’s Anderson. I went to the academy with him. I just saw him last week. I think he’s working narcotics.”  He looked at Feet, “You killed
Devin
!”

The next thing Feet saw was darkness. The patrolman who was a friend of Devin’s had knocked him out cold with the butt of his shotgun.

*     *     *

Lisa and Clara made it to Chicago as fast as they could. Clara had received the call while Devin was in surgery and by the time they made it to the city he was in recovery. He was coherent when the two women he loved showed up and a smile slowly overcame his face when he saw the ring on Lisa’s finger. After making sure he was okay, she told him that she would marry him and he was happy—the perfect medicine for his wounds. They talked for awhile and the doctor gave them the good news that he was going to be fine and wouldn’t have to stay in the hospital long. Lisa stared for a second when she saw the pretty statuesque sista walk in the room. At first she thought that maybe it was a girlfriend, but that fear was quickly squashed when she introduced herself to Clara as Lt. LaDonna Dixon, Devin’s commanding officer. They talked for a bit and when she saw that Devin was okay, she told him that he could take off all the time he needed and told Lisa that she was a lucky woman. Lisa and Clara left to give Devin some time to rest and get Clara set up at her apartment. They would shower and be back in a few hours to sit and comfort the man they both loved.