The Corner II (34 page)

“Oh, sweet potato pies. I’m starting early on my cooking. We have a lot of family coming over for Christmas dinner.”

LaTanza caught the word we and wondered who that we was. Carlos was in jail so maybe she had moved on to someone else. Someone she was going to pin the baby on since Carlos was in prison. But maybe it all depended on how much time Carlos received, so she still had to carry out what she was here to do. She noticed the picture of a young girl on the wall, Angelica’s daughter. The girl looked to be about seven, a year older than Carlita. Angelica saw that LaTanza was gazing at the picture.

“That’s Marie, my daughter. She’s a year older than your Carlita,” the woman said not meaning anything by it but that infuriated LaTanza and she even surprised herself the way she kept her cool.

“Oh really! You seem to know a lot about me and I just found out about you recently,” she smiled sarcastically.

Angelica grinned nervously saying, “I think we better have a talk because I get the feeling that Carlos might not have talked to you about me and I think there might be a misunderstanding. Can I get you something to drink?” she asked as she unzipped her Adidas warm up jacket and LaTanza was able to see the roundness that the jacket was hiding. She wanted to do Angelica right there and get the hell from this side of town but she thought that it would be a good idea to talk to the woman. To see what she had to say so when she drove downtown to MCC to visit Carlos for the last time she could tell him all she knew about his side dish.

“No, thank you,” LaTanza said as she sat on the beige micro fiber sofa.

Angelica sat on the love seat and for a moment there was a pause. They were like two heavyweight boxers trying to figure the other one out. LaTanza couldn’t believe that the woman sitting across from her had let her into her home willingly. She thought that if she had been fucking someone’s husband that it was no way she was unlocking the door. Angelica was about to speak, but LaTanza beat her to it.

“Were you fucking my husband?”

Angelica looked surprised by the question and didn’t answer so LaTanza asked again.

“Don’t look dumbfounded. Were you fucking my husband?”  She looked at Angelica’s stomach. “And are you pregnant by him.”

Stunned, Angelica said, “I…I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe that you have come over here to ask me...to accuse me of sleeping with Carlos.”

LaTanza was getting tired of the act. She couldn’t believe how innocent and wholesome the woman sitting before her was portraying herself to be so she decided to get the ball rolling a bit faster. She reached under her sweater and pulled out the .38.

“Please don’t. My daughter is in the other room sleeping!” Angelica cried out.

“Then spit it out and fast. I have shit I have to do, bitch!” 

*     *     *

DC was shocked when he saw the shinny automatics pointed at him. “What the fuck!” he shouted.

Noonie turned and leaned toward DC telling him, “Raise your shirt up.”  He did and Reese took his Glock from his waistband and even though he was clothed he felt naked and cold.

“What’s this shit all about?” DC asked nervously.

Noonie reached inside his glove box and grabbed a folder then put DC’s pistol in the box. He turned toward his friend and handed him the file. It was what Slim’s contact at the police department records office could come up with and for five grand and the promise that the officer’s secret was safe the paperwork was in his hands in less than a day. DC looked over the files. First he saw John John’s picture and he was in a Chicago PD uniform and the nametag read Anderson. Then at the bottom was the date when John John was sworn in as a Chicago Police officer and his full name Devin Anderson.

DC felt sick to his stomach as he continued to flip through the pages. It had Devin’s various assignments, patrol, gang unit, warrants and narcotics. The next page was marked as confidential and this is what Slim paid the sergeant for. Devin had been working undercover trying to infiltrate Slim’s crew. His mission was to find out where Slim was, what he looked like and to buy drugs and put as many cases on all individuals involved. He closed the file not wanting to read anymore.

His face became pale and he was shaking a bit. Reese asked, “Where did you meet this muthafucka and I don’t want to hear that shit you ran to everyone else that he went to high school with your brother.”  Reese pushed the barrel of his pistol on DC’s cheek yelling, “Talk nigga!”

“I saw him in all the right places. Clubs and the streets. I swear that nigga was out selling dope. I saw him myself and I assumed that he wasn’t the police. We talked and I figured that he could be of use. That he could bring us a lot of money and he did.”

“Fucking police money. Fed money. Government money you stupid ass,” Jamel yelled as he turned his head to shoot a dagger filled stare at his now former friend. When he turned the light in front of him had just turned red and he slammed on the brakes. The truck fishtailed in the snow causing the men to sway in the SUV. That was DC’s chance and he missed it. He should have made a break for it by leaping out of the truck taking his chances at getting hit by an oncoming car. His odds of living were better that way than with the three men in the truck.

Noonie who was still holding on to the dashboard yelled, “Keep your eyes on the fuckin’ road!”

“A’ight man. A’ight,” Jamel said as he drove.

DC tried copping pleas but shut the fuck up when Reese clocked him hard in the head with the pistol. It didn’t knock DC out but he began bleeding, his head began hurting and he got a little dizzy. They rode in silence for the next ten minutes until they reached the Forest Preserve. Jamel put the truck in park and was about to get out when Noonie told him, “I got this. It’s my boy and I should have known better to double check the outsider. Slim said for me to handle this.”

Jamel pulled his door back shut.

Reese asked, “You sure you got this?”

“Kick his ass out the door,” Noonie said as he stepped out into the cold night.

Noonie opened the door and Reese’s Timberlands bruised a rib when he kicked DC out. He fell to the ground and rolled over in the snow as blood from his split head stained the wintry crystals. Noonie pulled his pistol and aimed it at DC. He yelled for him to get up and walk toward the woods. Normally DC would have said fuck it and the man holding a pistol on him would have had to kill him right then and there but he figured he had a chance with his friend. He and Noonie had been through too much together for Noonie to be able to pull a trigger on him so he figured he had a chance, but that’s when Noonie clocked him in the jaw with the butt of the pistol telling him to get a move on it. After recovering from the blow DC stood and looked into his partner’s eyes. He couldn’t get a read on the man who he loved like a brother. His head was throbbing and he was scared. He didn’t want to die, but he started taking the steps toward darkness. His steps were baby steps until Noonie kicked him in the butt telling him to get a move on it.

Reese and Jamel looked on as DC and Noonie walked into a clump of Evergreen trees then faded into the woods that were lit only by the moonlight. Reese pulled out a blunt. He lit the herb and passed it to Jamel who puffed and blew smoke as he muttered, “I never liked his punk ass anyway.”

*     *     *

Tears began streaming down Angelica’s face as she asked, “I don’t know what you want me to say. I haven’t been sleeping with Carlos. He’s just my friend.”

LaTanza gritted her teeth and tried as best she could to keep her voice down. “You lying bitch. You were fucking my husband and now that I’ve found your ass you want to deny everything. I heard Carlos talking to his father about it.”
     “No, seriously you’ve got to believe me. You can ask Carlos. His father wanted us to have a baby together but Carlos wouldn’t…I wouldn’t. He’s married and I have a boyfriend. Carlos loves you and has never cheated on you. I swear.”

LaTanza pointed the pistol at the woman yelling, “You’re lying. You just want me to walk out of here and spare your cheating life. Its bitches like you
mom
.” She shook her head from side to side. “I mean Angelica. Its bitches like you that make it bad for all women.”  The pistol shook in LaTanza’s hand and Angelica hoped and prayed that her finger wasn’t twitching the same way her arm was. Carlos had told her that LaTanza had some issues that he was helping her with but she never figured that the woman was psychotic.

“No, seriously Carlos and I have been friends for over twenty years. His dad and my dad were friends and we grew up together like brothers and sisters. You know my dad Antonio.”  She frowned a bit when she said, “He was killed when Carlos’ dad was killed.”

Angelica noticed that LaTanza was lowering her gun a bit—that she was thinking. She decided to continue trying to get her to understand and realized that she had never slept with her husband.

Angelica pointed to the coffee table. “Look, inside the photo album and you’ll see me and my man.”

LaTanza grabbed the album and opened it. Angelica was with a nice looking black man. First, there were pictures of them with a newborn in the hospital all the way to recent pictures. The child was the same child that was on the wall. Angelica explained that her father hated that she had a baby by a black man and they didn’t really speak to each other, only when she tried to contact him. He would always start off by asking if she was still married to the nigger and that would end the conversation until the next holiday when she tried to reach out to him. LaTanza was able to understand where she was coming from seeing as how she found out the truth of how her father-in-law felt about her being black.    

LaTanza told Angelica that she heard Carlos say that he had gotten her pregnant. Angelica told her that it was all a lie. That Carlos just told his father that to please him until he got most of their businesses, stocks and legal money in his name so that she and Carlita would be taken care of in case something happened to him. She told her father the same thing and he decided to put her in his will. Her fiancé wasn’t happy about it at first but agreed to it after having a hard time finding a job after he was laid off from the refinery. They were now financially secure and at the first of the year they are going to open a daycare and a lawn service with the money.

LaTanza couldn’t believe what had happened. She had set her husband up to do jail time thinking that he had another woman and was intending to leave her and Carlita in the poorhouse. She put her weapon away, and being typical LaTanza, she didn’t apologize, she simply told Angelica that she didn’t know—that it was a misunderstanding. She stood and headed for the door and before she pulled it open she asked a relieved Angelica, “Can I have your cell number?”

Confused she asked, “Why? I mean I just don’t understand.”

LaTanza waited for her to write down the number. Angelica handed her the piece of paper figuring it couldn’t hurt, hell she was able to find where she lived.

LaTanza answered, “Well, with Carlos gone and I’m not the nine to five type I might need a babysitter seeing as how I’m going to be busy running the cartel now.”  She walked out of the house and into the snowstorm where another inch had already fallen. She noticed Angelica’s husband pulling up. He got out of his car carrying a turkey.

“Merry Christmas,” was all LaTanza said as she walked past the man and headed down the street.

Angelica was standing in the doorway stunned at what had just occurred. Her husband gave her a kiss and a hug. He asked, “Who was that, honey?”

“A sick and dangerous woman,” was all she said as she led her husband into the house and locked the door.

*     *     *

The steadily accumulating snow crunched under their boots as they headed deeper into the woods. DC was about five yards in front of Noonie and hadn’t said a word. He was waiting until they were away from Reese and Jamel because he knew they didn’t have a problem with killing him and copping pleas would have only angered them so he waited until now. He kept stepping as he looked back begging, “Come on, Noon, man. We’ve been through too much don’t do this. I love you like a brother.”

Noonie waved at him with the pistol to keep walking. He did and tripped over a small bush. He stood and his entire front side was covered with snow. His head was still bleeding and he felt light headed. He stopped walking because he didn’t want to die—at least not like this. Not by the hands of his best friend. The moonlight was piercing through the leafless trees and the thick evergreens casting a gray haze in the woods. The two men were able to see each other’s breath in front of their faces. DC was breathing hard and he noticed the water in Noonie’s eyes. He felt a bit relieved thinking that maybe his boy couldn’t do it.

Noonie pointed the gun at DC and he thought about running but knew it was no way to outrun a bullet.

“Close your eyes,” Noonie said calmly.

“Please, man I didn’t know John was the police! I swear I didn’t know. Man we’ve been through too much to let something like that cause you to want to kill me.”

“Shut the fuck up, DC! You know the rules of the game. I don’t change them for nobody. Now close your fucking eyes and quit making this shit harder.”

DC closed his eyes telling Noonie, “Remember at the pool in Brunswick when we were twelve and you didn’t know how to swim. You were at the bottom of that pool and I dove in and saved you. I didn’t know how to swim either. I did that shit on instinct. Out of love for you. My love for you showed me how to swim and that’s what pushed my scared ass in that water to save you.”