Beneath The Surface (10 page)

“How you know?”

“Take Mikey with you,” Black said imitating Angelo.

“That’s exactly what he said,” Leon laughed.

“’Cause Angee knows I’ll shoot that nigga,” Black said and
laughed.

“So if I’m gonna end up killin’ this nigga, anyway, let’s go kill him and be done with it."

“’Cause I don’t feel like killin’ nobody today. Tomorrow, maybe; but not today. I have something else in mind for today,” Black said, and thoughts of Carmen rolled around in his mind.

Determined to make her opportunity count, Carmen decided to get some background for her follow-up story. She got in the car and looked at the clock. She had hoped that she would have gotten a call from Black by then, but since he hadn’t called, and Marcus said that he was going to a lecture with Wanda, Carmen went to the victim’s apartment. She knocked on the door and hoped that someone would answer. If not, she would start knocking on her neighbors’ doors.

“Who is it?”
came
a female voice from the other side of the door.

“My name is Carmen Taylor. I’m a reporter for channel four. I was hoping to talk to somebody about Tangela House,” Carmen said and the door cracked open.

“What do you wanna know?”

“Can I come in?”

The woman opened the door a little wider and looked Carmen up and down. “Sure,” she finally said, and stepped aside to allow Carmen to enter.
 

“Thank you,” Carmen said, and followed her into the living room. “I’ll try not to take up a lot of your time.”

“What do you wanna know?” the woman asked again.

Carmen smiled. “I just want to know who she was. But let’s start with your name?”

“My name is Robin, Robin Waller.”

“I take it you and Tangela were roommates; how long did you know her?”

“We just about grew up together,” Robin said, and tears rolled down her cheek. “We’re from the same town in Pennsylvania. Place called Lower Paxton; its right outside of Harrisburg. We were best friends until we graduated. Then I went to college and Tish took off for New York. After that, I didn’t see her again until about a year and a half ago.”

“Here in New York?”

“Yeah; I ran into her on the street one day. We talked for a while, exchanged numbers, you know, and that was it until I got a call from her late one night about six months later. Tish said that she was in jail and asked me to get her out.”

“What was she in jail for?” Carmen asked.

“Hookin’. By that time Tish was homeless, hookin’ on the streets, and hooked on meth. I mean, I was shocked at how far she had fallen so fast. I mean when we met the first day, she looked great. I’m ashamed to admit that I was a little jealous of her; you know, she was dressed real nice, hair was done up. She looked like she had money. But when I got her out that night, I could barely believe that it was the same person.”

“What did you do?”

Robin looked at Carmen like her question was stupid. “I took her in, helped her get clean; got her into an outpatient rehab program. I bought her some new clothes and then I got her a minimum-wage temp job that she hated. Tish was doin’ good; started to look healthy again. But that job wasn’t enough for her, so Tish began hanging out with old friends; started dancin’ at a topless club.”

“When was this?”

“About three, maybe 4 months ago.”

“You know the name of the place she was dancing?”

“It’s called Lace.”

“Where is that?”

“It’s on 7
^th
Avenue, between 48
^th
and 49
^th
.”

“When was the last time you saw her?”

“Couple of weeks ago. She came by here to pick up something and left,” Robin lit a cigarette. “Cops know who killed her?”

“No, not yet,” Carmen said and stood up. She was about to leave, but then she got an idea. “You mind if I take a look at her room?”

“No, go ahead. It’s the one on the left. I’ma
get
around to packin’ up her stuff; take it home to her mama. But I just haven’t had the energy.”

“I understand. After my sister died, it took me the longest time to get to her things. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Carmen said and headed for the room. “I promise not to be long.”

“Take your time, honey,” Robin said, and Carmen closed the door behind her.

Carmen looked around the room at Tangela’s stuff. There wasn’t much, and it was obvious that Tangela hadn’t actually stayed there in awhile. She checked the closet: a few outfits; probably stuff that Robin had bought for her that didn’t fit her new lifestyle. Carmen walked over to the mirror when she noticed a newspaper clipping hanging there. It was a picture and an article about Congressman Terrance Redding, who was being praised for proposing legislation that, if passed, would bring coal mining investment to his western New York district.

After enjoying a very interesting lecture, Wanda and Marcus spent the day together at her office, and he got a chance to observe what Wanda did.

Marcus took a second look at the office that Wanda had for him, and decided that it would do until he needed more space. Wanda had to contain her excitement when he told her that he was going to accept her offer. With that out of the way, Wanda led Marcus to the conference room so he could sit in on her morning meeting. He listened while Wanda got a report on their real estate, entertainment, finance, automotive, and construction enterprises, from each of the department heads.

 
The focus of that morning’s meeting was the entertainment division. Recent issues with one of the rappers that their company
managed,
forced the need for them to start their own record company. At this point, Wanda was frustrated and wondering why it was taking so long.

“There’s a lot more to it than just buying the building, equipment, their contracts, and opening the door,” Ritchie, the head of the project, explained to Wanda. “I have some distribution items to put in place and supply chain issues to iron out before we’re ready to launch.”

“I want to see something we can move on in two weeks, Ritchie.”

“You got it.”

Marcus was impressed; not only with Wanda, but also with everything that their company was involved in. He had a totally different impression of what she did. And at the end of the day, he told her. Marcus was sitting alone in what was now his office, when Wanda came in and sat down. “Well, what do you think?”

“I have to say that I owe you an apology. I had no idea that you were involved in so many businesses.”

Wanda smiled a very satisfied smiled. “Did you think you were going to spend the day at one of the gambling houses? Or maybe you thought we were going to the strip club?”

“That would have been fine with me, but no, I guess I didn’t know what to expect. But I wasn’t expecting all of this. And all of this is legal?”

“One has nothing to do with the other,” Wanda said proudly about the business that she had built over the years.

“You guys are doing big things,” Marcus said.

“We’re not doing as well as we were,” Wanda said, and thought about Meka and the money they’d lost. “Changes in the market, you understand. But we’ve managed to make money in this economy.”

“Well, Wanda, I am very impressed.”

“Impressed enough to buy a woman dinner?”

Marcus looked at Wanda and smiled. “I can do that. But can I meet you somewhere in an hour? I have something I need to take care of.”

“I have a few more things that I need to take care of here before I go, so that’s fine,” Wanda said and got up.

“Where do you want to meet?’

“At
The
Gotham Bar and Grill on 12 East 12th Street. Say six?”

“Six it is,” Marcus said and followed Wanda out of the office.

 
After finishing up her work, Wanda left her office and headed for The Gotham Bar and Grill. While she waited, she thought about how Marcus was walking into the trap she was laying for him. She took a minute to think about whether she really wanted Marcus, or if she was just using him to get over Nick. And did it really matter in either case? Wanda decided that it was a little of both, and that it didn’t matter. She just wanted to be happy.

Wanda thought back to the last conversation that she’d had with Nick. It was after Kenny’s funeral and she was somewhat intoxicated. They talked about his relationship with Rain Robinson and what really happened between them, and how it led to their breakup.

Through her own sources, Wanda found out about Rain selling drugs and the robberies. She told Nick that she understood what he was doing, and why he had to do things the way that he did. Wanda forgave him for not telling her what was going on, but she still refused to believe Nick’s continued insistence that there was nothing going on between him and Rain. Her real issue was that he’d lied to her, and that, she couldn’t forgive. When Wanda got up to leave, she stumbled a bit. “I’m a little tipsy,” she giggled and balanced herself.

“You want me to drive you home?” Nick asked, noticing that Wanda was a little unsteady on her feet. “No, Nick, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”
 

“Because I’m a little tipsy and that always leads to bad decisions,” Wanda said, and went home alone that night. She knew that no matter how she felt about Nick, he wasn’t the right man for her. He never was, and no matter how she tried to mold him, he never would be. There was a man out there for her. She knew what she wanted in a man, and made up her mind not to settle this time. She set her sights on Marcus; and she would have him.

It was a little after six when Marcus arrived at Gotham. Wanda liked to eat there because Gotham was among the first places she liked to abandon pretension and formality, in favor of a more casual, without compromising, service. Fine dining in New York once meant tuxedoed waiters and boardroom-level dress codes for guests.

Over a dinner of White Tuna Sashimi, seafood salad, Miso Marinated Black Cod for Wanda, while Marcus enjoyed the Grilled Rack of Lamb, the pair had a lively discussion about mergers and acquisitions. Another area of law that Marcus, a criminal trial lawyer, wasn’t really up on.

“I have two associates at my firm in Atlanta that handles mergers and acquisitions.”

“I have associates at my firm that specialize in mergers and acquisitions, too. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t keep current. Admit it Marcus, I’m a better lawyer than you,” Wanda jeered.

“I wouldn’t go that far, Wanda,” Marcus said, feeling a little outdone.

“How far would you go then?”

“I’d say that you are, at this point, a more diverse lawyer than I am. And I say: at this point, because I used to handle different types of cases all the time.”

“Then Roland Ferguson came along and you got on television.”

“And the firm grew.”

“You started getting big murder cases.” Wanda leaned forward a little, looked in his eyes, and dropped her voice down an octave. “And murder cases are so much sexier than mergers and acquisitions.”

“Yeah—they really are,” Marcus said slowly, nodding his head. He took a sip of his drink. “I was really surprised when you told me that you never tried a murder case.”

“That’s because you had no idea what I did.” Wanda laughed a little. “You still don’t. But you stick around and Wanda will show you how to practice law again. Tomorrow you’ll meet my legal staff,” Wanda said, and made a mental note to call her personal assistant to schedule a meeting with the legal staff.