The cost of vengeance - [15]

“I don’t know what his name is, but they call him Baby John.”

“Thank you,” I said and helped Whitlow get up. “Get outta here before I change my mind,” I said and Whitlow limped away.

Chapter Eight

Mike Black

Jada West. What to do about Jada West. The first time I saw Ms. West was at a little club where she used to dance. We talked for a minute and then I had business to take care of, so I left thinking that she was one of the most beautiful women that I had ever met; and wondered what a beauty like that was doin’ dancin’ in a dive like Ecstasy? Then I thought about Mercedes. She’s a dancer at Cynt’s and she is drop-dead fuckin’ gorgeous, but she had about as much brains as a box of rocks. I mistakenly put Ms. West in that same category and didn’t give her anymore thought.

“Black.”

“Huh?”

“We’re here,” Victor said.

“Don’t look like that. I’m not gonna kill Sabrina. I just want to ask her some questions about Bo,” I said and Victor and I walked toward the house.

“Yeah, you told me. But suppose she gives you the wrong answers?”

“Then I’d have you kill her,” I said and kept walking. Victor stopped. “I’m only kiddin’. I wouldn’t ask you to do that.” Victor had been fuckin’ Sabrina, so I wouldn’t ask him to kill her. I’d get Monika to do it. But I didn’t think that would be necessary. I just wanted to ask her some questions about Bo. Before I had him killed, Bo Freeman worked for me. He had to die when he and his partner, Hank Jackson, conspired with Cruz Villanova to kill me, Nick, and Bobby. They’re all dead now.

I rang the bell and waited for Sabrina to answer. Sabrina Cole was a very beautiful thirty-seven-year-old woman who talked slow, and was just country enough to be sexy. She had been with Bo for twelve years; since she’d arrived in New York from Mississippi. During that time she’d had two years of good and ten years of bad. Her life was made bearable when she started sneakin’ around with Victor. “Hey, Black,” Sabrina said when she opened the door. “Hey, Victor.”

“How you doin’ tonight, Sabrina?” I asked.

“I’m doing just fine, Black. Y’all come in,” she said and stepped aside.

I leaned close to Victor and whispered, “Wait here.” His eyes opened wide. “Don’t worry. I told you I wasn’t gonna kill her.” Victor didn’t look convinced. “Right,” I said and handed him my gun. “That make you feel better?”

“A little,” Victor said.

“Y’all comin’?” Sabrina asked.

“Comin’ right now,” I said and closed the door behind me.

Sabrina led me into the living room and I sat down. “You know something, Black?”

“What’s that, Sabrina?”

“I been invitin’ you over here for dinner or drinks and whatnot for years, and this is the first time you been here.” Sabrina sat down across from me. “Now, I’m not tryin’ to be rude or disrespectful or nothin’ like that, but what you want, Black?”

“I want you to know, for what it’s worth, I liked Bo, and I’m sorry it turned out the way it did.”

“I’m glad you came to say that, but that ain’t what you here for, is it?” Sabrina asked. She was a beautiful woman; I understood what had Victor so excited.

“You know what Bo was plannin’?”

“No. Bo never talked to me about y’all’s business.”

“Who was over here talkin’ to Bo the last couple of weeks?”

“One night Hank, Bull Harris, and Skip Skinner was here.”

“You hear what they was talkin’ about?”

“No, Bo told me to go to the club and stay gone until he called for me,” Sabrina said.

“What did you do?”

“I called Victor.”

“He just made it too easy for you, didn’t he, Sabrina?”

Sabrina smiled and laughed a little. “Yeah, Black, he really did.”

“I’ve been tellin’ men for years: don’t leave your homework undone, ’cause there is always some man that is more than willing to do it for you,” I said and Sabrina’s smile got bigger.

“Guess you didn’t have that little talk with Bo, huh? If you did, he didn’t listen.”

“Anybody else come by here lately?”

“Cruz Villanova.”

“He come alone?

“No, his boy, Jorge, was always with him.”

“Anything else you think I need to know about?”

“I think Bo had something to do with Kenny gettin’ killed.”

“What makes you think that?”

“I heard him talkin’ to Bull one night and I heard him say somethin’ like: ‘He wouldn’t be dead if he had got with me in the first place.’ I didn’t think nothin’ of it, but now, after all that’s gone on, I think he was talking about Kenny.”

I got up. “Bo was involved in a lot of things.”

When I was leaving the house, Sabrina walked me to the door and I made her come out to show Victor that I didn’t kill her.

“I told you that I wasn’t gonna kill her. You gotta learn to trust me,” I said to Victor as he drove off. “Now, get Bobby on the phone for me.”

“Bobby; it’s Victor. Black wants to talk to you. Hold on,” Victor said and handed the phone to me.

“You busy?”

“Not really,” Bobby said.

“Where you at?”

“I’m at Grant’s. Why?”

“Stay there. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. I need to talk to you about something,” I said and ended the call. I handed Victor back his phone and relaxed.

“You find out what you wanted to know from Sabrina?”

“Yeah.”

“You don’t think Bo and Hank was in it alone, do you?”