We followed Angee back in the pizzeria, had a couple of slices and talked. Talked about everything except what me and Wanda wanted to talk about. Every time either of us would try, Angee would just ignore us and talk about something else.
“So,” Wanda said as soon as we left. “Why do you think he did that?”
“I don’t know, Wanda. Maybe it’s just like Angee said it is. Just Uncle Tony being Uncle Tony.”
“Yeah, I heard, but what does that mean?” she asked as we got in her car.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Uncle Tony likes me,” I said and wondered if that would change if he knew that I was fucking Mirella and had fucked her in just about every room in his house.
“Likes you enough to intervene on your behalf.” She paused. “What does that even mean?”
“All good questions, and I wish I had an answer, but you were standing right there next to me, so you know as much as I do.”
Wanda looked at me for a while, probably thinking of another way to ask the same question neither of us could answer. “I don’t get it.” She started the car and drove off.
“I don’t either, but we’re gonna accept this gift horse and I’m gonna thank Uncle Tony when I see him and then we’ll find out what it means. In the meantime, we got other things we need to deal with.”
“You find out who had Whitey killed?”
“Not yet.”
“So, Lisa Benson had nothing to do with it?”
“No.” I paused. “And before you ask, it’s a long story.”
“I have time,” Wanda said and after I got her to tell me how she heard about it, I told her the story. “Dumbass.”
“That’s what Bobby said.”
“So, now that you and Bobby are done playing around with old girlfriends, what now?”
“Right now, I’m gonna get Bobby and we’re gonna ride out to Long Island to see that guy Whitey was in business with that I asked you to check out,” I said, and Wanda told me what little she’d found out about Kasim.
“That’s not much more than King told me.”
“That’s all I could find.”
“Anything else?”
“I talked to Nick at The Late Night,” Wanda began. “He said that him and Freeze haven’t gotten anywhere trying to find out who hired Vance.”
“What about Whitey and Vance? Was there anything going on between them?”
“Nick doesn’t think so, and neither does King. Vance killing Whitey was business to him.”
Wanda glanced at me and saw that I was smiling. “What?”
“Nothing. What did you tell him?”
“I thought maybe it was personal for one of the other two shooters, so I told him to check them out. And I told Freeze to stay on finding out who hired them and make sure that everybody is on top of this.”
“Okay.”
“So, what were you smiling about?”
“I don’t need to tell anybody anything. Everybody knows that you carry power,” I said, and she smiled.
“You want me to take you back to the hotel?”
“Not yet. Ride by the Real Estate office first.”
“You gonna tell Andre about this?”
“No. But I am interested in knowing if he knew about it.”
“Which it are you referring to?” Wanda laughed, but quickly turned serious. “Because to me, they are three separate things.”
“All of it. But you make a good point.”
“Did Andre know that Nicky and Johnny Boy were checking us out?” Wanda asked. “I think he did.”
“I agree. Andre’s got people everywhere, so he hears shit.”
“So, did he know Fat Luca gave the go ahead?”
“I don’t think so. And that’s only because none of The Curcios would tell him.”
“So, he wouldn’t know that Big Tony stepped in on your behalf,” Wanda said and then she got that look on her face.
“What?” I needed to know why.
“Even though we are running our own show now, we still work for Andre, so technically those spots are his.”
“Technically, because we kick up to him, so yeah, technically those are his spots.”
“Your Uncle Tony intervened on your behalf, not Andre’s behalf. On your behalf, Mike. They are two totally different things,” Wanda pointed out and she was right.
“That stays between me, you and Bobby.”
Wanda stopped at a red light. “Still.”
“I know. His ego.”
“Right.” Wanda looked at me. “You know we’re gonna end up killing him.”
“I know.”
When the light changed, Wanda drove on and we rode the rest of the way to Andre’s office in silence.
As we got closer to the Real Estate office, we saw Lucinda, one of Andre’s coke hoes, walking down the street. I didn’t think anything of it until we had parked and saw Shawna come storming out of the office. When Andre appeared in the doorway, Shawna stopped, turned and threw her cell phone at him. It hit him in the chest.
“Maybe this isn’t a good time,” Wanda said.
“Now we know why Lucinda was walking,” I said. “That lazy bitch don’t walk nowhere.”
“If she could drive to the bathroom she’d do it,” Wanda laughed as we watched Shawna yelling at Andre and him seemingly unfazed by it all.
“I guess she caught him and Lucinda doing what they do.”
“Caught him again, Mike,” Wanda said, disgusted. “Why doesn’t she just leave him?”
“Why don’t you ask her?”
“I will. Just not right now,” Wanda laughed as Shawna picked up an empty beer bottle off the ground and threw it at Andre’s car. It shattered harmlessly on the hood and Andre laughed. But when Shawna picked up and threw a garbage can and it hit the windshield, Andre came charging after her. But he wasn’t gonna catch Shawna. She hopped in her car and was driving away by the time he got there.
“I think we should give him a minute,” Wanda mused.
“Why?” I asked as I was getting out of the car.
By the time we got inside the building, Andre was back in his office with the door closed. I tried the knob, but it was locked. Wanda tapped lightly.
“What the fuck you want!” Andre yelled.
“It’s Wanda and Mike, Andre,” she said sweetly and then she covered her mouth. I just shook my head and waited for him to open the door.
“Finally decided to show your face,” Andre said and then he looked at Wanda. “How you doing, Wanda?”
“I’m fine,” Wanda smiled as he walked away from the door. “How are things going with you?” she asked, and we sat in the chairs in front of the desk.
Andre sat down at his desk. “Everything is lovely.”
“That’s good. And how is Shawna doing? I haven’t seen her in so long.”
Andre smiled at Wanda. “That’s because you don’t come around like you used to.”
Wanda shrugged. “Law school.”
“I understand,” Andre said and looked at me. “What’s your excuse?”
“Excuse for what?”
“You been back damn near a week and you just now showing up here.”
“Been busy.”
“I heard.”
“Then you already know why I’m just now showing up here.”
“You find out who had Whitey killed?”
“Not yet.”
“Heard somebody took a run at you and Bobby a couple of times. You think it’s the same people?”
“I’ll find that out when I find out who hired Vance to kill Whitey,” I said, thinking that this nigga hears everything, nothing gets past him. So, he had to have known what Nicky and Johnny Boy were up to. “Anything going on with you that I need to know about?”
“Like I said, everything is lovely. But what about you? Anything going on with you that I need to know about?”
“No. Wanda and Bobby held it down while I was gone.”
“I heard that Crazy Nicky, Johnny Boy and some of his crew had been hanging out in some of our gambling spots.”
“You hear everything,” Wanda said.
“Information, Wanda; knowing what you need to know to do what you have to do. That’s how you get on top and stay on top. I’m surprised Mike hadn’t told you that.”
“Oh, but he has. Many times. That’s why we’re here,” Wanda paused. “To learn as much as we can from the master.”
That girl is something else.
Andre’s smile broadened. “Come by anytime, Wanda. I’ll teach you things that will help you in this game that you won’t learn in law school.”
“I will certainly make time to do that,” Wanda flirted. “But as far as Nicky and Johnny Boy are concerned, I think it was just them having a case of jungle fever. They did a little gambling, had their fill of dark meat, and moved on.”
“And nothing else came of it?”
“No,” Wanda said flatly.
“You hear anything about it?” I asked.
“No,” Andre said flatly, and I knew that he was lying. If he knew that they had been there, he would have called Carmine to see what was up. Only question now is, what did Carmine tell him?
“If you hear anything else about that, let me know.” I stood up. “I gotta make a run out to the island.”
Wanda stood up and started for the door.
“About Whitey?” Andre asked as he got up.
“Yeah.”
“You let me know what’s going on with that,” Andre said to me, but his eyes were focused on Wanda’s ass as it swung to the door.
“I’ll roll by Ricky’s tonight and we can talk,” I said, as we got to the door.
“It was good seeing you, Andre,” Wanda flirted easily. “And you never know, I might roll by Ricky’s tonight with Mike and then we can talk.”
“Anytime,” Andre said, as Wanda opened the door and stepped outside.
“Oh … I forgot to tell you.” She pointed at his car. “There’s a garbage can in your windshield,” Wanda said, and we kept walking toward her car.
“He knew all about it,” Wanda said the second she shut her door. “Only thing he doesn’t know is how it got squashed. He was waiting for you to tell him that.” Wanda started the car. “But he knew. The bastard. He knew and didn’t tell us shit about it.” Wanda drove off. “The bastard.”