There was one time at this department store, around Christmas, when Rico was six or seven. He saw these ornaments, silver balls with people’s names painted on them, hung on this big old tree they had set up in the middle of the store. He was standing beside the tree, trying to find his name on one of the balls, when he saw one had Ricky on it, right in front of him. He knew it wasn’t his name exactly, but if he could take the ball with him, he believed his mother could paint over the k and the y, make them into an o somehow. Make it so it said Rico.
“There go my name, Mama,” he said, pointing happily at the tree.
“That ain’t your name.”
“Can I have it? We can make it my name when we get home.”
“Your name Creep,” she said, yanking on his hand. “And I ain’t got the time to be paintin’ over shit. You don’t need that thing no way.”
He reached for it and pulled it from the tree. The ball fell and shattered on the floor.
“Now you gonna get somethin’,” she said, slapping him so hard the store and all the Christmas lights in it began to spin. “You fuck up every goddamn thing you touch.”
He cried, and hated himself for crying, as she dragged him through the store. He couldn’t even look at his weak self in the mirror for the next few days.
That was out in public. In private, in their apartment in a rodent-infested, drug-plagued government housing project that someone had the nerve to call the Gardens, down near the Navy Yard in Southeast, his mother was worse. When she was drinking or sucking on that glass pipe, she beat him with her fists. Sometimes she whipped him with a belt. She never did beat on his little sister. Miller couldn’t step to his mother, but he found a way to wipe that grin off his sister’s face.
“My sister don’t scream when you fuck her,” he’d said to Melvin the day before this one, and Melvin had laughed.
Yes she do, thought Miller. She scream and sob, both at the same time.
He was on the street by the time he was twelve. Staying with a bunch of older boys in Southeast, working the corners, learning the game. In and out of schools, courtrooms, and juvenile facilities. The last was Oak Hill, out there in Laurel. Couple of tough ones had tried to step to him there, and he showed them who he was. He walked out of that motherfucker one day, just climbed the fence and went over it where some other kids had cut the razor wire down. Far as he knew, no one was looking for him. Since he’d left the Hill, he’d been in the wind.
Staring at his name burned into the sheath, he thought of his mother, and then that parole woman. How good it felt when he’d cut her across the face, plunged the blade into her chest, and stuck it through her hand when she’d raised it to protect herself. Thinking on it, his dick grew hard.
Miller slipped the knife into the shoe box alongside the money. He went to the bed and loaded the guns. As he worked, he ground his teeth. The sound was like a whisper in the room.
TWENTY-SIX
NIGEL JOHNSON LIFTED the trunk of his Lexus. A light inside the lid illuminated the two toolboxes he had placed there. He looked around the street, as he had done when he parked his car on Hunt Place, just off 46th, a short walk down to Hayes. He seemed to be alone.
Nigel opened both toolboxes. From one he extracted a pair of latex gloves and fitted them on his hands. From the other he removed the two automatics and peeled away the oiled rags that protected them. He wiped down the guns with one of the rags. He checked the Glock’s load and holstered the .9 under his shirt, behind the waistband of his jeans, at the small of his back. He then inspected the Colt. It was a Commander, the government model .45 with checkered grips. He was more familiar with this gun than he was with the Glock; he would lead with the Colt. He did not take the extra magazines. There were eight rounds in the Colt and ten in the Glock. Eighteen rounds to kill two men. It had to be enough.
He holstered the Colt under his shirt, barrel down, the grip resting against his hard belly. He wiped the toolboxes with a clean rag and closed the lid of the trunk.
Nigel went along Hunt and turned right on Hayes, studying the alley layout behind them. He headed toward the corner at 46th. Many of the street lamps were in disrepair. The neighborhood was quiet and very dark. He neared Miller’s house, dimly lit behind bedsheets that hung in every window.
Nigel walked quietly, moving around the side of the house. The backyard was mostly dirt and weeds. A rotted wooden porch with ripped screens was situated at the rear of the house. Beside the porch sat a small set of steps leading to a landing and a back door. A sheet hung in the door’s glass. Near the door was a small window, the size situated above a kitchen sink. It was covered by a sheet as well.
Nigel looked at the door. He could kick it in and go in hard or stand out here in the yard and wait. His palms were damp, and he wiped them dry on his jeans.
Some light bled out to the yard from behind the sheets. Nigel stepped back into the shadows, drew the Colt from his belt line, and held it by his side.
“IT’S HOT,” said Melvin Lee.
“Ain’t hot to me,” said Rico Miller.
“Hotter than a motherfucker in this piece,” said Lee. “Don’t you ever open no windows?”
“No. And we ain’t gonna start now.”
“Thought we was leavin’.”
“Gonna wait till after midnight. Ain’t no one on the road then. We can drive all night.”
“Where?”
“Don’t worry about where. Just sit there and hold that gun. Anyone comes callin’, we gonna be ready.”
The room stank of weed, perspiration, and cigarettes. A naked 150-watt bulb blew white light down into the space. Lee sat on the old couch near the folding table and chairs. He held Miller’s .38 loosely between his legs. Lee didn’t want the gun, but Miller had put it directly in his hand. Lee looked like a bug against the cream-colored couch. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
Beyond the folding table stood Rico Miller, his back against the wall. Miller held the cut-down shotgun barrel up, his fingers fitted in the pistol grip, the stock resting on his thigh. His eyes were pink from the hydro he’d smoked. His face held no emotion.
“I’m goin’ out to have a smoke,” said Lee.
“Have it here.”
“Can’t breathe in here. I’m going out.”
“Go out the back, then, you have to,” said Miller. “Don’t be long.”
Lee got up off the couch and stuck the revolver in his waistband. He did not look at Miller as he walked from the room.
Lee went down a hall and passed through the kitchen. At the rear of the kitchen he unchained the slide bolt from the door. He turned the dead bolt as well. He walked out onto the landing, pulling the door behind him but leaving it ajar. He went down the steps and stood in the residual light leaking from the kitchen. Listening to the crickets, looking out at the black of the yard, he reached into his back pocket for his cigarettes.
He shook a smoke out of the deck. He lit a match and bent his head down to touch tobacco to flame. Something leaped out of the darkness.
Nigel Johnson swung the Colt’s barrel violently across Lee’s face. Lee’s nose shifted to one side; blood jumped up in the weak yellow light. He lost his legs and began to fall. Nigel clipped Lee’s temple with the barrel as he went down. Lee fell to his back and lay still.
Nigel racked the Colt’s slide and pulled back on its hammer. He stood over Lee, bent forward, and put the barrel of the gun to Lee’s mouth. He raised his palm to shield the blowback. He thought better of it and stood straight.
Nigel walked up the steps to the back door of the house. He let his heart slow some, then pushed on the door and stepped inside.
LORENZO BROWN STARED AT Lawrence Graham, gauging the distance between them. Graham still held the gun with its barrel pointed at the floor.
“Don’t think on it,” said Graham, reading Lorenzo’s eyes. “They say you were fast when you were young, but you ain’t young no more. And you never were that fast.”
“You bein’ kinda
casual with that Taurus,” said Lorenzo. “You givin’ me ideas.”
“Try me, you got a mind to.”
Jasmine whined from back in the bedroom.
“I can’t just sit here,” said Lorenzo.
“Do what you got to.”
“I’m gettin’ up.”
“That’s on you,” said Graham.
Slowly, Lorenzo pushed himself up and stood away from the couch. He started to walk around it and head for the hall. Graham raised the revolver and pointed it at Lorenzo. Lorenzo studied the gun’s cylinder and knew, and as it came to Lorenzo, Graham squeezed the trigger. The hammer fell on an empty chamber.
Graham squeezed the trigger six more times, as he had been told to do. Each snap of the hammer hitting nothing was like the strike of a nail in Lorenzo’s heart.
“He said to squeeze it seven times,” said Graham.
“Motherfucker,” said Lorenzo.
“Bullets back in the kitchen, I expect. With that glass of water he got.”
Lorenzo went down the hall and let Jasmine out of the bedroom. He returned with his car keys in hand.
“You comin’ with me?” he said to Graham.
“Where?”
“To help Nigel.”
“Too late for that.” Graham looked at his watch, then back at Lorenzo. “Nigel in the belly of that motherfucker now.”
NIGEL WENT THROUGH the kitchen, his back sliding against the counter, out of sight of the hall. Behind him, roaches crawled across the linoleum countertop.
“Melvin,” said a voice from the living room. “Melvin!”
Nigel turned the handle of the cold spigot and opened it all the way. Water drummed against the porcelain bowl of the sink.
Nigel rechecked the safety on the Colt; the gun was live. He moved from the kitchen to the hall, holding his weapon out in front of him. He could see a portion of the living room ahead, and it was bright.
Show yourself, thought Nigel. I am gonna murder the fuck out of you tonight. He blinked sweat from his eyes.
He came into the living room. Rico Miller stood in the right corner of the room, his back against the wall. He held a cut-down shotgun, and it was pointed at Nigel. For a moment, neither of them moved.
“I knew you wasn’t Melvin,” said Miller. “Melvin got his own smell.”
Nigel scanned the room: sofa, table, chairs.
“You kill him?” said Miller.
Nigel dove as the shotgun roared. The load blew off a portion of the sofa back, sending upholstery up into the air. Nigel landed behind the folding table, grabbed it, and stood with it in his hand. He heard the rack of the pump. The second shot hit the table square, like the slap of God. Its impact threw Nigel back to the floor.
Nigel crabbed backward furiously, the Colt still in his hand. He pointed the gun and squeezed its trigger. Smoke came off Miller’s shoulder as he walked toward Nigel with the cut-down aimed low. The room flashed; hardwood erupted at Nigel’s feet. Miller reracked the shotgun and fired as Nigel shot blindly into a shower of plaster and dust. Miller staggered through pink mist. The shotgun spun from his hands, and he dropped like meat to the floor.
A ringing sounded in Nigel’s ears. There was a ripping pain where the shot had peppered his upper chest. His silk shirt was slick and darkened with blood. He tore the shirt open and examined his wounds. He stood, fought nausea, and kept his legs.
Nigel went to Miller’s corpse. He fired a round into its head. He spit on Miller and walked from the room.
He moved back through the hall, straight through the kitchen, and out the back door. He walked down to the steps to where Melvin Lee lay unconscious in the grass. He shot Lee twice in the chest, holstered the Colt, and walked on.
A dog began to bark. A light came on in a nearby house.
Nigel went to the alley and followed it to Hunt. He saw a midnight blue Infiniti parked near his Lexus. He recognized it but did not stop. He needed treatment and he needed to get off the street. He went to his trunk and opened it. He heard a car door open and footsteps on pavement. He put the Glock into the toolbox but drew the Colt and kept it in hand. Its receiver had not slid open; he still had at least one round.
Nigel looked around the lid of the trunk. He saw Deacon’s second, the one who called himself Griff, walking toward him. The hump under his shirt told Nigel that the young man was wearing a gun.
Nigel, his hands deep in the trunk, put his thumb to the long hammer of the Colt and locked it back. He rested a finger inside the trigger guard of the gun.
“Easy,” said Griff, a friendly smile on his face, his hands raised as he approached Nigel.
Nigel could see that this boy was not much older than Michael Butler. Or Rico Miller, the boy he’d just killed.
“Don’t come no closer,” said Nigel. “I can see you’re strapped.”
“I ain’t hidin’ it,” said Griff.
“Say why you’re here. Speak plain.”
“Deacon sent me. He figured you could use some backup.”
“It’s done,” said Nigel.
Many dogs were barking now. Nigel was dizzy, and there was a deep ache in his chest. He winced against the pain.
“You need help?” said Griff.
“We both gonna need to get gone now.”
Griff looked him over. “Wish I coulda been there with you, big man.”
Nigel closed his eyes. “You talkin’ about your own boys. Don’t that mean nothin’ to you?”
Griff shrugged. “Deacon say kill ’em, that’s what I’m gonna do.”
Griff’s answer chilled Nigel. Sickened, he removed his finger from inside the Colt’s trigger guard. He pulled back on the hammer to release it, then eased it down.
“You all right?” said Griff.
“I’m tired,” said Nigel.
Griff drew his gun and shot Nigel in the temple. The bullet’s exit blew blood, bone chips, and brain matter into the trunk of the car. Nigel slumped forward, his body convulsing violently. Griff shot him in the back of the head.
Griff refitted his gun behind the belt line of his jeans. The gun was a Desert Eagle nine-shot .357 Magnum with a bright nickel finish. He had paid one thousand dollars for it from a straw-buy man in Columbia Heights, and it was his pride.
Gun works good, thought Marcus Griffin. He had wanted to try it for some time.
TWENTY-SEVEN
LORENZO BROWN OPENED his eyes. He stared at the cracked plaster ceiling and cleared his head.
Jasmine rose from her square of remnant carpeting and stretched. Her nails clicked on the hardwood floor as she came to Lorenzo and licked his fingers. He rubbed her neck and behind her ears.
I am in my apartment with my dog. This is mine.
Lorenzo sat up on the bed. From the clock radio came the smooth sound of Donnie Simpson bantering with Huggy Low Down on PGC. Huggy was doing his December roundup, talking about his nominees for Bama of the Year. Their familiar voices made Lorenzo smile.
In the bathroom, Lorenzo swallowed a couple of ibuprofens, a multivitamin, and a C. He exercised, ate a bowl of Cheerios, then showered and changed into his uniform and a winter coat. Going through the living room, he passed his grandmother’s hope chest, now covering a permanently sealed cutout in the floor, and several packages, including a bottle of perfume, an Easy Bake oven he’d bought for his daughter, and a Cinderella Dream Trunk, all waiting to be wrapped. He took a chain leash with a looped leather strap off a nail he had driven into the wall. Jasmine emerged from the bedroom and joined him at the door.
Lorenzo’s landlord had left the plastic Post bag under a brick on the front porch. Lorenzo took it and walked up Otis with Jasmine, passing row houses and government oaks. He came to the corner at 6th Street, the cut-through to Newton. There were no cars grouped down there where Nigel’s mother stayed, and the curtains in her windows were drawn shut. Lorenzo would have to get over there for dinner sometime soon, bring her some of that ice cream she liked. She seemed to enjoy his visits.
&n
bsp; Farther east, Lorenzo went by the row house of Joe Carver’s aunt. Joe’s F-150 was not parked on the street. The job on North Capitol had been completed, and Joe had moved on to a new construction site in Northern Virginia. These days he was always out of the house before dawn.
Lorenzo passed Park View Elementary, where mothers were dropping off their children for the last classes before the holiday break. He cut north on Warder, turned on Princeton Place, and walked down its hill. There he saw Lakeisha, wearing a lavender coat with fake fur around its collar and a clear plastic book bag on her back, coming up the street. Her mother was several steps behind her. Lorenzo planned his walks so that he would see Rayne and her daughter here the same time each day.
Jasmine whined, her tail wagging mightily as she strained against the leash. Lakeisha met them and crouched down to pet the dog and let Jasmine lick her fingers. Rayne, looking good with the latest haircut, came to them and touched Lorenzo’s hand.
“Hey,” said Rayne.
“Morning,” said Lorenzo, telling her what she wanted to know with his eyes.
“Jazz Man love me?” said Lakeisha, looking up at Lorenzo, smiling, showing him her teeth, which had finally come in full.
“In her heart,” said Lorenzo.
“I want a puppy for Christmas, Mama,” said Lakeisha.
“That’s not gonna happen,” said Rayne.
“You can share Jasmine with me,” said Lorenzo.
“And I want a Cinderella Dream Trunk,” said Lakeisha.
“You never know,” said Lorenzo. “You be a good girl, you might get it.”
“But you’re not getting a puppy,” said Rayne.
“Don’t y’all wanna know what I want?” said Lorenzo.
“I already know,” said Rayne.
“You and my grandmother been conspirin’, huh?”
“She’s just being neighborly,” said Rayne.
“Hmm.”
“I better get her to school,” said Rayne. “We on this weekend?”
“I’m plannin’ on it,” said Lorenzo, looking down at Lakeisha. “You have a good one, little princess.”