Beneath The Surface (28 page)

Carmen looked until he turned his head. “That’s him. The rude bastard,” she said and started to get up.

“Where are you going?”

“To have a drink with him,” Carmen said. “Relax, Max, I’ll be fine. You just watch my back.”

Carmen walked up to the bar. “Bacardi on the rocks,” she told the bartender.

“Whatever the lady is drinking is on me,” the congressman’s aide said.

“Thanks, but no thank you,” she said without looking at him.

“Come on. It’s the least I can do after I was so rude to you at Congressman Redding’s speech earlier today.

Carmen glanced his way and feigned recognition. “It is you; Mr. Hand in My Face.”

The aide stood up and bowed at the waist. “Please accept my most humble apology.”

Max shook his head.

“Apology accepted,” Carmen said as the bartender placed a glass of Bacardi on the rocks in front of her.

“Now, will you let me buy you a drink?”

“Sure, why not,” Carmen smiled.

“My name is Josh Fillmore and I guess you know that I’m an aide to Congressman Redding,” he said and sat down in the chair next to Carmen.

She accepted his hand. “I’m Carmen Taylor.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Carmen. Can I call you Carmen?”

“If I can call you Josh,” Carmen said with a girlish giggle that made her stomach churn.

“I know everybody in the local news crew; so either you’re new or you’re from out of town.”

“I’m from the city. I work for channel five.”

“Wow. What’s a pretty lady like you doing way out here covering a congressman from the 29
^th
district?”

“With the vote coming up, this could get to be a big story,” Carmen said and finished her drink. “I’m just trying to get out in front of it.”

Josh finished his drink and signaled for the bartender to bring them two more. Max shook his head. He knew that Carmen could hold her liquor with the best of them. Actually, she could drink most men under the table.
She’ll have him eating out her hand in no time,
he thought, then laughed and signaled for a waitress.

“Smart.”

“I try to be. I wanted to ask the congressman if he had any comment about the opposition’s point of view against mountaintop removal.”

“What might that be? Specifically, I mean?” Josh asked.

“That alongside this ecological devastation, there’s an even more pressing human dimension,” Carmen took another sip of her drink.
 
“There’s an Eastern Kentucky University study that sights that children in Letcher County, Kentucky suffer from an alarmingly high rate of nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and shortness of breath.”

“I haven’t read the particular study,” Josh said timidly.

“The symptoms of something they call blue baby syndrome,” Carmen said, quoting what she had read earlier at the library. She finished her drink and once again, Josh ordered another round. “That study suggests that blue baby syndrome can all be traced back to sedimentation and dissolved minerals that have been drained from mine sites into nearby streams. The long-term affects may include liver, kidney and spleen failure, bone damage, and cancers of the digestive tract.”

“Like I said, I haven’t read that study. But I will, and will bring it to the congressman’s attention,” Josh promised.

Carmen raised her glass. “I think you should.”

After several more drinks, Josh got more talkative and Carmen’s questions became more probing. “I understand that there is a group that has invested heavily in the mining and banking interests in your district.”

Josh raised his glass. “I see you do your homework, Carmen.”

“I try to be on top of my job.”

“It’s true,” he slurred, “there is a group of foreign investors that invested in the mining and banking interests in your district.” Josh was a little drunk by this time, but Carmen finished her drink with no problem and Josh followed suite. “But that’s a good thing for the Appalachian region if the purposed regulation is approved.”

“Foreigners?” Carmen asked. “I hope they’re not terrorists.”

“No, no. This group is not involved in terrorism. We checked them out thoroughly before we got involved with them. Off the record, some strings may have to be pulled to get one of the investors into the country,” Josh said and looked at Carmen. He realized that he was drunk and had said something that he shouldn’t have. He knew that he should go before he said anything else. “Well, Carmen, I have an early day so I’m going to say good night,” Josh got up and paid the tab.

“Thanks,” Carmen said, “for the drinks.”
And everything else you told me.
But she was disappointed that she hadn’t found an opening to ask any questions about Tangela House and the congressman’s relationship to her murder.

On the way back to the city, Max drove while Carmen curled into fetal position and went to sleep. Before she passed out, she told Max what Josh had said about the investment group, and that one of its members had to have strings pulled to get him in the country. Max listened to what Carmen had to say, and then he asked a question.

“What does any of that have to do with Tangela House?”

“I don’t know; maybe nothing.”

“So what now?”

“Find Hammdee Yasir.”

The following day Carmen prepared to take a trip to Atlantic City to search for Hammdee Yasir. As she rode down in the elevator, she thought about just how she was planning on finding him. She had no idea, but she was determined to ask as many questions as she had to find him. Once she found Hammdee Yasir, she would worry about what she was going to do with him.

Carmen got off the elevator and walked through the lobby. When she got to the door she heard a familiar and most welcome voice.

“Hello, Carmen,” Black said.

“Hi,” Carmen said with the girlish giggle she dropped on Josh Fillmore the night before. Only this time, the result was much different. It made her smile. “Do you always hang out in lobbies waiting to pounce on unsuspecting women with that sexy voice and that slick West Indian smile?” Carmen said as she walked closer to him. Close enough to kiss.

“No. Only you.”

“Why didn’t you just come up and knock on the door?”

“Didn’t want to disturb you or interrupt anything,” Black said.

“Two things: One, you are never disturbing me. I always want to see you. And two, there is nothing to interrupt,” Carmen said, but Black already knew that. There were two reasons for that: One, he had Victor following Carmen so he’d always know that she was safe. And two, even though Wanda had failed to mention it, he had talked to Nick and he told him that Wanda was “hugged up” with Marcus at Cuisine that afternoon when Rain slapped her.

When Black heard that it made him think about why. Knowing how he felt about Carmen and how she felt about him, why would Wanda invite him to dinner with her and Marcus?

The answer was a cold slap in the face for him. Wanda never liked CeCe and wouldn’t mind seeing them breakup. She knew that Carmen would be drawn to him like a bee to honey, and him to her; which was exactly what Wanda wanted and exactly what happened. That left Marcus conveniently free for her, and everybody played their part exactly the way Wanda wanted.

At first he thought it was funny; then he got mad. Wanda always did have that ruthless
I’ll get whatever I want by any means necessary
tendency. To this point, that tendency had served him well. It’s like Nick once said: Wanda was the mad scientist that made everybody rich. But until then, Black had never been on the receiving end of Wanda’s ruthless quality, and he didn’t like it.

“Well, since I’m not interrupting anything, maybe you’ll let me take you to lunch,” Black said.

Carmen hesitated. She wanted nothing more than to go anywhere Black wanted, as long as she was going too. But Carmen had to stay on task, and that was finding Hammdee Yasir. “I said you weren’t interrupting, not that I didn’t have something to do.”

“What’s that, Carmen?”

“I’m going to Atlantic City to see if I can find Hammdee Yasir.”

Black thought for a minute. “I’ll tell you what. Why don’t I go to AC with you, and once you’re done with finding whoever this guy is, we can have dinner, maybe see a show.”

“Deal,” Carmen said then asked, “How does it happen that you’re here and not with your woman?”

“CeCe.”

“I beg your pardon.”

“Her name is Cece,” Black paused, “and she’s here.”

Carmen started looking around the lobby. “What?”

“Not here in the building, Carmen. She’s here in New York.”

“What’s she doing here?” Carmen needed to know.

“She owns a business—” Black started but Carmen cut him off.

“Prostitution or number running?” She laughed.

“She owns a high-end boutique in Manhattan.”

“Oh.”

“Apparently, there were some issues with the last inventory that she needed to look into.”

“Where’s your daughter?”

“My mother came from Freeport to stay with Michelle.”

“I guess that means your nights don’t belong to me anymore,” Carmen mumbled as she led Black to the parking garage.

He chose not to comment.

She approached
a gold
Mercedes Benz and took out her keys to turn off the alarm.

“This you?” Black asked.

“This me. It used to belong to my sister.” She thought about Marcus. “Me and Marcus almost died in this car,” she said as they got in.

“What happened?”

“Someone was trying to kill my sister and cut the brake line. I was about to stop for a red light and I put my foot on the brake and it went down to the floorboard. I tried again, and the brake light on the dashboard came on. Then I started hydroplaning and a car clipped the tail end and sent the car into a spin. Another car hit me and that forced me off the road. The car slid down a hill heading for the trees.”

“What did you do?”

“I pulled up the emergency brake and the car began to spin again. So I cut the wheel hard to the left.”

“
That bring
you out of the spin?”

“Yes, but the back tires burst and the car hit a tree, just behind the rear passenger door.”

“Were you hurt?”

“No. The window shattered and the side impact airbags came out.”

“Quite an ordeal.”

“It was. Anyway, I got the car fixed and had it shipped here when I moved back.”

“Why don’t you drive it more often?”

“Parking here is murder,” Carmen said as she drove.

“So, who are you looking for?”

“Hammdee Yasir.”

“Who is that and why do you want to find him?”

“You remember the night we went to Lace and Wild Cherry told us about this real scary guy that she hooked Tangela House up with?”