The Apostles (33 page)

“Nall, just checking it out and looking at a few houses and shit. Other than that I plan to be chilling for the next two weeks. Kick my feet up or take some long walks. If this place is as sweet as Nessa say it is I'm definitely going to move there.”

“I heard it rain up there all the time,” Dante observed.

After dumping nondairy creamer and sugar in his coffee cup, Solemn Shawn said, “Yeah, I heard that too. You know me though. I love those rainy days, A. I'm kind of looking forward to that. I think I've had my fill of Chicago.”

“You said it, SS. Some days I be so sick of this crazy-ass city and crazy-ass weather I could scream sometimes, A. I think it be the weather that have these motherfuckas going crazy and shit. Hot as hell one day, freezing the next. Lake effect snows, unseasonably cold, cooler by the lake, and ozone action days. All that shit be driving cats out of their damn minds.”

Solemn Shawn laughed—a dry, hollow sound. “I never thought about it that way. I know it got to be something ‘cause cats in Chicago is crazy. Wipe your chin, A.”

Dante used a napkin to wipe a jelly smudge off his chin. “Thanks, A. Don't worry ‘bout shit while you're gone, A. We got it.”

Solemn Shawn watched the parking lot for a few moments while Dante continued to make short work of his steak and eggs. Without looking at Dante, he asked, “Any word on who killed my sister?”

Dante's fork paused. “Not exactly. Murderman and his crew of killers been torturing motherfuckas, kneecapping cats—all that type of shit and still no word. Basically we nailed it down to the Governors. We saying that because of those twins of theirs that got merc'd.”

“You really think it was Vee and ‘em?”

“Yeah, near as we can guess. The Heads didn't want to bother you so we got together and hollered. Everybody said it seemed likely. Murderman been on his ass for two days now. We looking for him to drop real soon. As soon the opportunity presents itself we gone make sure Vee becomes one of the living challenged. We done allowed this nigga to breathe for too damn long anyway.”

“What about his peoples, Tay? If y'all gone make such a major move you got to get rid of the next in line too. Art of war, A. If you get the emperor, you got to get his general too.”

Appreciating Solemn Shawn's wisdom, Dante said, “We got that covered too. There's only two studs besides Vee that need to get it too. A chump named Teddy and one they call O. These niggas is supposed to be heavy hitters for the Governors. They ain't no problem
though. We assigning death squads on they ass. They ain't ready for this shit. The problem is we been letting these cats live for so long they think we sweet. When it goes bad for these studs it might make things hot for a while, but you'll already be out of town so you'll be cool.”

“Sounds like y'all got everything worked out,” Solemn Shawn said as he took another sip of his coffee. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some money. He tossed two twenties on the table and stood up. “I'm ‘bout to make a few runs. Probably go check out my nephew and my sister before I got to go and get ready to leave.”

Dante stood up and hugged his friend. After breaking his embrace, he asked, “What about yo scratch? It's in certified cashier's checks. You feel like getting it now?”

Solemn Shawn glanced at his wristwatch. “Nall, I ain't got time now. I got to drop Nessa off the doctor. Drop the checks off at A-Land and I'll scoop them up before I go out of town. Leave them with Bezo and tell him I said to put it up for me. Hit me if you need me, A.”

Dante sat down and ate his last spoonful of eggs as he watched Solemn Shawn zoom away in his pickup truck.

“W
HERE ARE YOU
, S
HAWN
?” V
ANESSA ASKED WITH A NOTE OF
irritation in her voice. “The airport shuttle is downstairs.”

“Fuck! Sorry, baby. I was halfway home before I realized that I'd left something that's pretty important.”

“You better not make us miss our flight, Shawn,” Vanessa said. She was walking around the condo as she talked to him, making sure that she hadn't forgotten anything. The doorman had already taken their luggage down to the shuttle van. She reminded him, “You know that we've got to get there early to go through all them doggone security checks.”

“I know, I know. I'll be there. Just check the luggage and wait for me in the first-class lounge. Get you something to eat so you won't be cranky. See you soon.”

Solemn Shawn closed the flap on his cell phone and tossed it on the seat. Like an Indy 500 driver, he steered his truck through afternoon traffic. The throaty roar of the chrome-tipped Harley-Davidson exhaust pipes sounded like a small fighter jet as he gunned his way through every available opening in traffic.

“Damn!” he said aloud. “I got to really make good time to not miss this flight. I'm gone have to park at the airport too. Playing with Lil Shawn and that doggone go-cart.”

He had unintentionally let the time slip away as he played with his nephew. Now he still had to make it to A-Land and from there to Midway Airport in forty-five minutes. He wasn't worried about
getting his money from the game room, he was more concerned about retrieving Vanessa's engagement ring. It would make their trip less than perfect if he couldn't present her with it during their stay in Tacoma. Just the thought of her reaction brought a smile to his face.

“Sometime today, lady,” he said to the driver of a Suzuki Tracker who seemed to have fallen asleep at the red light. “C'mon, c'mon.”

Deftly he maneuvered around the Tracker and pulled a series of harrowing passing moves that allowed him to make it to A-Land in less than ten minutes.

All of the parking spaces on the block were taken, so Solemn Shawn decided to double-park in front of the game room. He was putting on his hazard lights when he saw a police cruiser coming up the block. The cruiser pulled alongside his truck.

“You can't park here,” the officer on the passenger side announced.

“I'm just running in the door for a moment,” Solemn Shawn countered.

“If you leave it, we'll ticket it.”

“I'll just be a moment, Officer,” Solemn Shawn promised.

“I don't care. If you leave it, I'm ticketing you.”

“Fuck me!” Solemn Shawn said as he threw the truck into gear. He whipped around the corner, into the alley, and pulled up in the rear of the game room. Careful not to block the alley, lest the haters try to write him a ticket, he parked and got out. A quick search of his key ring yielded the key to the back door of the game room. He inserted the key into the lock and tried to turn it. When it resisted he remembered this lock always stuck a little, so he jiggled the key until the tumblers gave way.

“Bezo!” he called as he stepped inside the rear room of A-Land. As he closed the door behind himself, a black Oldsmobile Aurora with tinted windows stopped to check him out.

Behind the wheel of the Aurora, Vee said, “I knew that was that nigga's truck, Cave. Did you see that? That was Solemn Shawn.”

“Who?” Cave asked nervously.

Vee was plainly excited as he reversed and pulled into the alley. “Nigga, Solemn Shawn. That's the number one Apostle. We done caught this nigga slipping. He by hisself and parked in a alley. You got yo heat, little nigga?”

“Yeah, I got my pistol,” Cave answered.

“Good,” Vee said as he pulled alongside the building beside A-Land. He parked so he could watch Solemn Shawn's truck. “Little nigga, when that stud come out the door hit his ass up before he get in that truck. I mean empty that blowpipe, nigga. You a killer, right?”

“Hell yeah, I'm a killer,” Cave said with way more confidence than he felt.

“Well, you better bake that nigga then or we gone Cold War yo ass. You got me, little nigga?”

“Don't even trip,” Cave said as he left the car. He was glad that he got out of the car before Vee could see his knees shaking. Quickly and quietly he ducked by the rear bumper of Solemn Shawn's pickup truck with his pistol in his hand.

Inside the game room Solemn Shawn walked up to the candy counter. Bezo was sitting on a stool, juggling quarters in his hand while he watched an episode of
Springer
on a thirteen-inch color television atop the refrigerator. His arm was still in a sling.

“Bezo, you didn't hear me calling you?” Solemn Shawn asked.

“Nall, nigga,” Bezo said. “If I woulda heard you, I woulda answered you.”

“You must be drunk,” Solemn Shawn observed.

“Ain't nobody drunk, Shawn. The minute I don't jump to it here you go saying that I gotta be drunk or something.”

“Have you been drinking?” Solemn Shawn asked plainly.

“What that got to do with anything?”

“Have you been drinking?”

“Nigga, yeah I been drinking, but I ain't drunk,” Bezo protested. “There's a difference between drinking and being drunk. If I was
drunk, so what. I handles my business like I handles my liquor. Like old dude Eric the Entertainer say, ‘I'm a grown-ass man.' I'm yo elder. Fuck you mean, have I been drinking. Nigga, this a video game arcade not corporate America. So fuck it. I been drinking. Hell yeah, and I'm gone continue to drink, gotdamnit.”

“All right, Beez. I ain't got time for this. I'm on my way to catch a flight and I'm running late. I came to get that ring and Dante left something here for me.”

Bezo swayed to his feet. He pulled up the mat at his feet and used the edge of a spatula to pry up one of the floorboards. He pulled a white envelope and Vanessa's ring box from the hole in the floor and handed them both to Solemn Shawn.

“Thanks, Beez. I gotta run.”

“Hold on, boy. You ain't got to be nowhere that damn important that you can't give yo peoples a hug before you leave, nigga. Shit, with the way things going these days this might be the last time I see yo ass.”

Bezo lurched over to Solemn Shawn and draped his arms around him. He planted a sloppy kiss on Solemn Shawn's jaw.

“All right, Bezo,” Solemn Shawn said as he untangled himself from the drunken game room proprietor. “I gotta go, man.”

“You take care, nigga. I love you!” Bezo called after him.

Hurriedly, Solemn Shawn went through the back room and slid out the door. He stopped to lock the door and then popped the locks on his truck.

The chirp of the pickup truck's alarm made Cave stand up and step from behind it. He leveled his pistol at Solemn Shawn's chest.

Preoccupied with his time dilemma, Solemn Shawn didn't look up until he had walked all the way into the trap. He saw the gun in the hand of the young zit-faced boy too late. Time stood still as the young boy pointed the gun at him. He seemed to be waiting.

“Pop that nigga!” Vee yelled from the car.

Cave squinched his eyes and pulled the trigger.

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

Blam!

Solemn Shawn watched the gun leap and jerk in the boy's hand. Instantly he felt the most intense pain of his thirty-something years. Smoking holes, five in all, appeared as if by magic in his shirt. It hurt to breathe and at the same time he was gasping for breath. His stomach felt like it was on fire as his intestines began to bleed in on themselves. He sagged to the ground. The envelope and ring box he was holding fell from his hand as he clutched his stomach and chest. He rolled over on his side and balled up.

Blam!

Blam!

Cave shot him in the back two more times, but he was past feeling pain now.

“Little nigga, bring yo ass on!” Vee shouted from the car.

Cave ran and jumped in the car. Vee pulled from behind the building. He stopped alongside Solemn Shawn's body and opened his car door to look down at his old nemesis. Solemn Shawn wasn't moving. Vee started to pull off, but he saw the ring box, and envelope on the ground. Ignoring the envelope, he scooped up the ring box and opened it. The dazzling brilliance of the diamond engagement ring almost blinded him.

“Gotdamn,” Vee said. “Shit, he just saved me the trouble of buying Sakawa an engagement ring.”

“Let's get out of here, Vee,” Cave said shakily.

“Yeah, you right,” Vee acknowledged as he burned rubber out of the alley.

Solemn Shawn lay there as his blood began to pool around him on the alley floor. His body was hurting so badly he wanted to cry
out, but he couldn't remember how to make his voice work.
Vanessa is gone act a fool if I miss that flight
, he thought.
I bet when she see her ring she won't be tripping too hard
, he said to himself as he passed out.

As Vee's car passed the garbage Dumpster near the end of the alley, Odell ducked down as far as possible, praying that the men in the car wouldn't notice him. He had seen everything. Although he didn't know the shooter, he most definitely knew who Vee was. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he got from behind the Dumpster and approached the body on the alley floor. He had thought it was, but now that he was closer, he could see it was Solemn Shawn the boy had just executed.

“Damn!” Odell said. He turned to make himself scarce before someone else happened upon the body, but something slapped against his leg. The envelope that Solemn Shawn had carried had been blown against his leg by the wind. Curious, Odell bent and picked up the envelope. As he turned it over he saw the corner of a check. Peering into the envelope he saw numerous checks with very large dollar amounts on them. Without hesitation he broke into a dead run. He didn't stop until he was six blocks and four streets away.