Wifey 4 Life (24 page)

Finally Walt, Jeff, and Griff tied both sandbags to Tony’s body
and threw him into the lake. When his body hit the water, I heard a big splash.
I couldn’t see where they threw his body, but I knew he was in there. I then saw
them standing by the lake looking into the water. I assumed they were waiting
until his body sunk to the bottom, because they didn’t make another move.

“Kira, please let me go. Don’t let Walt be the one to tear the
rest of our family apart. You’ve got the control in this situation.”

“No, I don’t. It’s out of my hands now. After I escaped you,
I went to Walt and he said that he was going to handle everything for me.” I turned
my attention back to Walt, Jeff, and Griff.

“Did you ever find out the real reason your mother left Walt?”

Shocked by my uncle’s question, I turned my attention back to
him. “What?”

“Did your mother ever tell you the real reason why she left Walt?”

“No.”

“Had you ever asked her about it?”

“Well, all I asked her was why we were moving back to Grandma’s
house.”

“And what did she say?”

“She never really gave me a straight answer. All she said
was that they were separating, so we had to move out. But Walt told me that it was
you and grandma that broke them up.”

“I hate to break it to you, but that was a lie. When your mother
started dating Walt, he was a pimp, and she didn’t know it until after y’all moved
into his place. And before your mother knew it, he had her strung out on drugs and
tricking on Church Street.”

“Nah, I don’t believe that. My mother would not have ever stood
on the streets and sold her body. She was too high-class for that. She wore more
designer name brands than most celebrities on TV.”

“That period in her life started after she left Walt and entered
rehab.”

“Rehab? My mother never went to a rehab!” I roared, jumping to
her defense.

I didn’t remember her ever going to a rehab center, and I sure
as hell didn’t remember her tricking on Church Street. However, I did remember her
coming late at night to Walt’s house, and Walt asking her where his money was. I
always heard her tell him that it was in her purse, but I never thought anything
of it. I chalked up those conversations to her either borrowing money from him,
or her taking money out of his wallet without him knowing it.

“Kira, do you remember when she used to leave you at grandma’s
house every other night and tell you she had to go to work?”

“Yeah.”

“Where do you think she was going? She wasn’t clocking in at
the nightclub doing bartending work like she had you believing. She was out on the
corner working for Walt.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “I’m sorry, but I don’t believe
it.”

“Well, do you remember the morning your mother picked you up
and you asked her why she had that black eye? And she told you she got into a fight
with a guy who tried to mug her when he was leaving work.”

I sat back and thought back to that particular morning, and I
did remember that. As a matter of fact, he and my grandmother were both there encouraging
her to stay at the house with them. “Yeah, I do remember that,” I told him.

“Walt was the one who hit your mother, Kira. He was very abusive
and controlling toward her. He was the guy who beat her up that night before she
came to pick you up.”

“Why?”

“Because she told him she didn’t want to live her life like that
anymore, and that she wanted to get off the streets. But he wasn’t trying to hear
that. He wanted her to continue working for him. And when your mother stood up to
him and told him that night was her last night selling her body, he punched her
in her face and tried to hurt her pretty badly. As soon as I saw her face, I went
to his house with my gun in my hand, pointed it directly at his head, and threatened
to pull the motherfucking trigger if he ever put his hands on her again.”

“What did he do?”

“He couldn’t do shit. He was alone, and I didn’t give him a chance
to get his gun from inside his house. So I pretty much had him on his knees. But
now the tables have turned. He got me on my knees now. So I know he’s itching to
get me back. I saw it in his face when the other guy brought me around the side
of the van.”

“Maybe he is, but I don’t think no one wanted you more than me.”

“Nah, I don’t think so. When I pulled my gun out on him that

day, I tested his manhood, and he didn’t like that one bit. He
has had a personal vendetta against me for many years, and he’s not going to be
happy until he gets back at me.”

Hearing my uncle tell me what I had always wanted to know
was disturbing. But what really messed up my head was how I’d confided in a man
who had no respect for my mother and damn near took her life. He’d introduced her
to drugs and forced her to be a fucking prostitute. I couldn’t believe how he had
pulled the wool over my eyes all this damn time. How grimy could he be?

I wanted to confront him at that very moment with this shit,
and put him on blast, but this wasn’t the right time. Plus, I didn’t know how he’d
react. I had never seen Walt’s bad side until I saw him pistol-whip the hell out
of Tony. He looked menacing, and if he unleashed that same demon on me, I wouldn’t
know how to handle it.

I sat there for a moment and tried to figure out how I would
play out this scene. I was still upset with my uncle and wanted his head on a chopping
block, but at the same time, the thought of what Walt had done to my mother, and
the fact that he had fooled me all this time sent my blood pressure through the
roof. I wanted his head on the chopping block alongside my uncle’s. But I knew I
couldn’t have it both ways, so I had to figure out which one deserved to be there
more.

Tony’s body must have finally sunk to the bottom of the lake,
because Walt, Griff, and Jeff began to walk back toward the van. From the moment
they took their first step in my direction, my heart started beating out of control.
My uncle couldn’t see them, but he heard their steps, so when he started talking
to me again, there was some urgency in his voice.

“They coming for me, Kira. So what’s it going to be?”

I thought for a second about my uncle. It was already etched
in stone that Walt would take his life, and I still didn’t have one ounce of sympathy
for him. Everything he’d done to me warranted the plans Walt and I had for him.
But by the same token, I wrestled with the thought of what Walt took my mother through
back when we lived with him. I knew I couldn’t get both of them the way I wanted,
so I had to make a choice, and I also knew that I needed to do it quickly.

I looked at my uncle and said, “If I help you get away, are we
gonna end this on a good note and go our separate ways?”

He tried to respond to my question, but I interrupted him before
he could utter one word. “I don’t want to hear you breathe my fucking name for no
reason at all. After tonight, I don’t exist anymore. We are no longer related. I
am dead as far as you’re concerned, so don’t try to find me. I don’t care if you’re
on your deathbed, just leave well enough alone. And if I find out the Houston homicide
detectives are looking for me, then you will have hell to pay. Do you understand
me?”

He nodded.

I turned around and looked back in the direction of Walt and
the other guys. I figured I had about thirty-five seconds to do or say whatever
I needed to say to my uncle before they reached the van. I reached inside my handbag
and grabbed the small utility knife I had attached to my nail clipper. Since his
hands were tied behind his back, I leaned down and placed the knife in his hands.
When I sat back up, I looked into his face and noticed how his expression had changed.
I could tell that his spirits had lifted.

“Use that to cut yourself loose,” I whispered to him.

Unfortunately for him he couldn’t respond. Walt, Griff, and Jeff
were already within arm’s reach of the van. When they grabbed the door to climb
back into the van, my uncle and I both changed our expressions.

“Is he behaving?” Walt wanted to know right after he climbed
into the van.

I cracked a half-smile and told him I had everything under control.
As Jeff started up the ignition and drove the van away from the lake, I started
to climb back into the last of seat of the van, but I decided against it this time,
and stayed where I was, which was in the middle seat.

Walt sat beside me, while my uncle lay on the floor. He placed
his feet four inches away from my uncle’s face. “I ought to spit on you and kick
you in your motherfucking face! The sight of you makes me sick to my stomach. And
I can’t wait to get you in a place where no one will hear you while I torture your
ass to death.”

“Where are you taking him?” I asked.

Griff suggested that we take him to this abandoned dumpsite in
the Berkeley section of Norfolk, so when we were done with his body, we could just
leave him there.

Griff said, “No one is going to find him for at least a couple
of months.” Then he smiled. “Probably longer than that.”

I didn’t comment at all. My main focus was to figure out an escape
plan for my uncle before Walt and the rest of the guys made him into mincemeat.
I knew that if I tried to change Walt’s mind about killing Lanier, he’d probably
look at me and laugh. The other guys probably would laugh in my face too. Not after
he’d witnessed Walt kill Tony. Plus, he’d witnessed all three of them dispose of
his body.

I was an accessory to three counts of murder, and not only that,
but I’d confessed and told my uncle that I’d witnessed Nikki’s murder, so I had
more to lose than anybody. But I was still willing to set him free if I could kill
the bastard who had hurt my mother.

T
he first ten minutes of the ride to Berkeley was pretty quiet
until Walt started tormenting my uncle, kicking him a couple times in the stomach,
talking a lot of shit to him, and reminding him that he planned to beat him when
he got to the location.

I noticed the fear in my uncle’s eyes grow. A small part of
me felt sorry for him. If I didn’t get him out of this van before we got to that
dumpsite in Berkeley, my chances of helping him escape would be gone. Time was running
out.

I looked down at my uncle while Walt continued to badger him.
I couldn’t talk out loud, so I moved my mouth in hopes that he could read my lips.
I instructed him to cut off the ropes from around his wrists.

He looked at me like he didn’t understand, so I made a few hand
gestures. I placed my finger against my wrist and moved it back and forth like I
was slicing something. He got my drift then.

Meanwhile, Jeff informed us that he needed to stop and get some
gas.

 Walt didn’t think it was a good idea, but when Jeff stressed
to him that they wouldn’t make it to the dumpsite unless he stopped, he said, “Look,
I don’t care what you do, just as long as you don’t stop at a gas station that’s
crowded with people.”

“A’ight,” Jeff replied.

I looked straight to the front of the van and noticed that
the gas light was on. Then I looked back down at my uncle and started mouthing instructions
to him again. I told him to get ready, and he seemed to understand.

My heart started beating uncontrollably. It felt like I was the
one trying to escape, not my uncle.

Griff said, “Man, I’m so glad you’re stopping, because I gotta
take a shit really bad.”

“We don’t have time for that, Griff,” Walt snapped. “You gon’
have to tighten up them butt cheeks and hold back, ’cause we got a mission to complete.”

Griff turned around in his seat. “I understand what you’re saying,
Walt, but I ain’t gon’ be able to hold this shit any longer. I’ve been holding this
shit since I left your house.”

Walt shook his head. “Nah, I can’t let you get out this van.”

“Yo, Walt, I ain’t bullshitting you. My stomach is killing me
right now. And if I don’t take care of it real soon, I’m gon’ end up shitting on
myself.”

Jeff started cracking up with laughter.

“Griff, you know this ain’t how we conduct business. And, Jeff,
you know you should’ve stopped and got some motherfucking gas before you picked
me up. All this stopping shit is for amateurs, and I ain’t no motherfucking amateur.
So y’all need to get y’all shit together.”

“I got my shit together,” Jeff said as he pulled into a BP service
station off Chesapeake Boulevard, a quarter mile from the Five Points intersection.
“If we weren’t riding all over the Tidewater area, I wouldn’t have to stop and get
gas. I had a little over a quarter tank, so that was enough for the trip out Huntersville,
Military Highway, and that spot out at Virginia Beach. But when you added Barraud
Park and fucking Ocean View, that kind of took it to the limit.”

When Jeff pulled up to a gas pump and shut off the ignition,
Griff immediately opened the passenger door and hopped out of his seat without saying
one word. He shut the door behind him and raced off to use the service station restroom.

Jeff burst into laughter as he watched Griff race toward the
store. “I’ma laugh my ass off if that nigga shits on himself.”

Walt wasn’t in the mood. “Can you hurry up and pump the gas so
we can get the fuck out of here?”

Jeff looked back at Walt before he got out of the van and assured
him that he was on it. Then he got out of the van and closed the door.

I looked back at my uncle. He was looking toward the van door.
I could tell he was trying to avoid eye contact with Walt as much as possible.

Walt sat in the chair next to me with an evil expression on his
face, staring at Jeff until he disappeared behind the door of the service station.

While Walt’s attention was on Jeff, my uncle managed to cut the
rope off his wrists. I watched him through my peripheral vision. I didn’t want to
focus my attention on him, because Walt would have caught on to what he was doing.