URBAN: Chosen By A Kingpin (35 page)

“Here you are.” She slid the key to him.

“Thank you.”

He walked to the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He moved past the urinal and looked at himself in the mirror. He almost laughed. He looked homeless. He always took pride in how he looked and what he wore, so to see himself in these rags, it was strange. He splashed some cold water on his face and opened the package of hair dye. Out fell a pair of gloves and and paper instructions. He browsed through it quickly and then applied it to his hair.

Suddenly there was a sound of someone trying to open the door.

“Yo, someone is in here!” He yelled. He looked back at the directions. It suggested that the user applied some to the eyebrow hair to match. He shrugged his shoulders and did it. Once again, there was someone at the door. “I’m almost done.” He told them.

“Well there’s a line out here.” The female voice said. “This is the only bathroom in the place. You have to be considerate of other people. You are not the only person here that has to use the fucking bathroom.” She went on. Antwon tuned her out and when enough time passed, he rinsed out the hair dye. He took a paper towel and dried his head. He looked at the mess he left behind. Just as he was about to clean it up, the person knocked on the door again.

“Sir!”

He aggressively opened the door and threw the key at the impatient customer. She looked at him confused.

“Blame yourself for the fucking mess. If you had been more patient…” He didn’t finish his sentence; instead he left the restaurant. He got one block down before he called Lionel to pick him up.

After Lionel dropped him home. He turned on the TV to watch the news.

“Today there has been a shooting in front of Brooklyn’s adult entertainment club.” The news anchorman started the story of the shooting. They spoke of Janine and all the crimes that she confessed to, including the murder of the owner from the club she worked in earlier. Antwon shook his head as he saw the club where he was shot on the screen again. It brought back old memories. He started paying attention when he heard the newscaster say:

“Police are looking for an African-American male, believed to be in his mid twenties.” And that’s when Antwon’s paranoia went to overdrive

“What if they find me?” He thought and the crazy thoughts kept going and going. He tried to go to sleep but his thoughts kept racing. He started to drink but when he ran out of liquor, he needed something else to make him feel better. He went to his drug stash. He still had a bit left. He thought about taking some but he didn’t want to become one of those stereotypical drug dealers that took their own product. He always laughed at them. How did they ever expect to make money if they were stealing from themselves?

There was a knock at his apartment door. He rolled his eyes. He figured it was Lionel. He went to the peephole and saw a cop along with the detective that questioned him during his shooting. He could never forget that detective. The second he was out of surgery from his shooting, the detective was waiting for him. He kept asking Antwon questions, but since Antwon was raised to never trust the police, he told him nothing. To see the detective again, made him nervous.

“Yeah?” He yelled on the other side of his door to the officers.

“Antwon, sir? It’s Detective Ward along with Officer Stewart. We are here to ask you a few questions.”

“Okay! One second” He quickly ran and threw a hoodie and sweatpants on. He put the hood up and then opened the door. “I’m sorry for taking my time, I was asleep.” He lied. “What’s up?” He opened the door a bit.

“We’re just here to update you on your case.”

“My case?” Antwon was lost for a second but then he remembered. “What about it?”

“Would you like to invite us in?”

“I really don’t want anybody at my house right now. I don’t feel so well.”

“We’ll just be in and out.”

He let them in and sat on his couch.

“Well we have solved your case. We found the man that shot you.” Detective Ward leaned against the door.

“You did?” Antwon tried to look nonchalant. “That’s good.”

“It is, but he’s dead.”

“Wow. I’m not going to shed any tears though.”

“I can understand that, but I still have to bring you this news and then ask you one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Where were you tonight?”

“I’ve been here all night.”

“Was anybody with you?” He asked.

“I was with my friend earlier but after that I was alone.”

“Okay.” The detective looked around. “Do you mind if we took a look around?”

“Not to be a dick, but do you have a warrant? I barely invited you in my house but I did, since you see nothing in plain sight, I do not give you permission to search my home.”

Antwon knew a thing or two about the law. He thought that the cop was there for one reason, to ask if he killed Martin. As soon as the cop started to look around the room, Antwon figured it out. He was either a suspect or a person of interest.

“Ok.” The detective gave a smirk. “Can we use your bathroom?” He asked but Antwon shook his head firmly. He started standing up to guide them out.

“You guys can leave now.”

Lionel stared at his friend. He couldn’t believe what he heard. That would explain why his friend looked like that.

“So…you’re telling me that you killed Martin?” Lionel asked.

“I’m not going to say yes or no to that. I don’t ever want you in the position where you have to answer that question under oath. I simply told you a story; whether or not you believe it, it is up to you.” He gave his friend a look and Lionel knew what he meant. He didn’t want him to go to court. Antwon and Lionel had been friends for years, but they were more like brothers. Antwon already put himself in a bad position, he didn’t want his friend suffering as well. That’s why he was going to do his best to keep him out of trouble.

“I need you to do me a favor.” Antwon started out of nowhere. “I need you to take this money and put it in your mother’s account.” He handed him a thick envelope. When Lionel opened it, it was nothing but crisp $50 and $100 bills. His eyes opened wide.

“What is all this? Where did you get all this money?”

“You don’t think you were the only one saving some of the paper he was making?” Antwon gave one of his widest smiles. He really looked like his old self. “I put some paper to the side too.”

“But why are you giving all of it to me?”

“I have some money for myself, don’t you worry about it.”

“But if this is all the money that you made…”

“I sold all my shit. I got some Gs for myself, I’ll be fine.”

“You’ll be fine?’ Lionel didn’t understand it at all. “What are you about to do?”

Antwon was still smiling, but now it actually worried Lionel. He knew his friend well and knew that if his friend was in trouble, something big was going to go down.

“I’m going to be going. soon.”

“Going where?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know or you don’t want to tell me?”

“Both.” He chuckled. “Just do me a favor and give the money to your moms. It’ll get ya closer to the house. Ya need to get out of here.”

“What you mean?”

“Listen, it’s only a matter of time before they try to find me and everything about my past. Once that crackhead bitch Ms. Rita goes flapping her gums, how long do you think before she starts talking about you and how we made money.”

“She won’t do that.”

“It’s funny how you putting all this trust into a crackhead.” Antwon laughed. “They are not the most reliable people.”

“She supposedly in prison or holding.”

“The more reason that you and your mom need to be out of here. You take that money and you get a house out of this neighborhood.”

“But if that’s the case, I don’t need to be around my mom neither.”

“What you trying to say?”

“I think I should go with you.”

The room fell silent. Antwon leaned back and thought about it. He was going to be on the run. He hoped that if the police’s efforts focused on bringing him to justice, that they wouldn’t bother looking into his past. He smiled because he knew that his friend had been his partner for a long time, but it looked like it was coming to an end.

“No, you stay here.” Antwon stood up. “I’ll take the heat for everything.”

“I’m not going to let you do that.”

“Let me?” Antwon laughed. “Nigga please.”

“I’m not going to do it.”

“It’s happening regardless.” He walked towards the door. “You not gonna hear from me.”

“Hold up.” But Antwon was unlocking the door already. “What you doing?”

“It’s been real.” He extended his hand. Lionel was about to protest, but he knew his friend well enough. Antwon was going.

“Yo, I don’t even know what to say.” He gave him a pound then pulled him in for a hug.

“Just tell me bye.” He smiled.

“Be safe.” He told Antwon. Antwon nodded and made his way outside of the building. He took one last look at the neighborhood, and then left.

Giselle came home smiling from school. She had a new plan and a goal to reach. In a few months she will be 18 and if all goes as planned, she will be well on her way back to her home of North Carolina. She was excited for the first time in a long time. Everything was going to go her way. She knew nothing and no one could stop her. She turned to walk into her building and froze when she saw it.

“You fucking bitch!” Ms. Rita lunged for Giselle. She was in the lobby rocking back and forth before she saw Giselle walking in. She was very much still angry at her and the fact that she just got high, didn’t make the situation any better.

“Get away from me!” She screamed at her foster mother. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Me? You’re the one that tried to get me locked up so you and your drug dealer boyfriend can run the streets.” Ms. Rita yelled loudly.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She played off. There were a few neighbors that were close. She didn’t want them hearing what she was saying, but it was hard to do as loud as Ms. Rita was.

“Don’t play stupid.” She walked towards Giselle. “I was hoping that you would be dead by now.”

“What?”

“You fucking bitch. They were suppose to kill you bitch.” She spit on Giselle. She was just about to hit her when someone came in pulled them apart.

“What is wrong with you?” The guy asked the deranged woman, but she wasn’t being cooperative as usual. “If you don’t calm down, I’m going to have to put you under arrest.”

“Who do you think you are cracker motherfucker?” She spat at the man.

“I’m Detective Ward.”

The detective then waved an officer over. Ms. Rita started thrashing wildly as the officer tried to put cuffs on her.

“You fucking bitch!” She went for Giselle again, but the cop just tackled her down to the ground.

“Stop resisting!” He ordered her while Giselle and Detective Ward watched. Finally they got her under control. She was put under arrest and thrown in the back of a squad car. She was still screaming and moving violently in the backseat of the car.

“This is crazy.” The cop commented with a grin. “To think we are here to question one guy and we walk right into this. I guess this is something that happens a lot.” The cop dusted off his uniform and walked back to Detective Wade.

“This is just your rookie year so you should expect even more craziness.” The detective told him. He turned to Giselle, “Can you tell me what’s going on?” She opened her mouth to speak the whole truth, but decided against it.

“Just another crackhead.”

“She had it out for you.” He squinted. “Are you sure it’s not anything more?”

“That lady is crazy. You really can’t believe anything she says.” She shrugged off.

“Okay, do you know where apartment 23 is?”

“Yeah, it’s right next door to mine.”

Both men of the law stopped and looked at each other. Almost immediately, Detective Ward pulled out a small memo pad.

“What can you tell me about Lionel-”

“What do you want with Lionel?” She asked before the detective could open his pen.

“Do you know him?”

“Only as a neighbor.” She lied. “We really don’t talk that much beside just greeting each other.”

“Oh yeah?” He jotted that down. “Do you know his friend Antwon?”

“Like I said, he’s just a neighbor. We’ve had a few talks but that’s about it.” She tried to play it cool as she could. She was giving off that cool vibe even though on the inside she was panicking.

“Okay. So you’ve never seen him with Antwon?”

“I can’t say. I’ve only spoke to Lionel here once and maybe I bumped into him around, but nothing like we were friends.”

“Okay.” The detective nodded his head.

“I’m sorry, I’m just a little bothered about what just happened.” She gestured towards the squad car where Ms. Rita was now calming herself down. “I’m just a little…”

“I get it.” He sympathized with her.

“I’ll bring you to the apartment.”

She led the way and brought them to the apartment. She told them a quick but very courteous goodbye. The second she got inside, she sent Lionel a text message.

“Whatever you do, do not open the door. Just trust me on this one.” She looked out of the peephole and could only see their arms. She heard them knocking and ringing on the doorbell but nobody opened at all. They kept going but nothing happened. Pretty soon, they gave up and went away. She ran to the kitchen and looked out the window. She saw the men get into the car and drive away.

She went to the door and started knocking on the door.

“It’s me.” She said after a few knocks but still no one came to the door. “Lionel?” She knocked again. Then she felt her phone vibrate. She looked down to see a text message from Lionel. It read:

“I’m not even home. What’s going on? Is it Ms. Rita again?”

She replied back, “I need to see you right now.” He responded back with the address to the pizza shop that wasn’t so far from their apartment building.

Giselle walked cool and casually to the pizza shop. She felt scared. She was so paranoid. What if the cops were watching her? What if this was all a set up? What scared her even more was that her suspicions about Antwon seemed to be true. It was likely that he killed Janine’s boyfriend. Janine’s boyfriend was an asshole, but Giselle didn’t think that meant he deserved to die. She shook her head at the whole thing. Her life sure has been crazy since she’s been in New York. The sooner she got to North Carolina, the better.