Chapter 40

The Good Times End

A week later Eddy sat at the computer watching the live images of Stuckney and Earl in his vehicle when she heard the shattering sound of fireworks. Eddy refused to believe the sounds were anything else. She heard the loud voices of people screaming. Seconds later the computer monitor went blank.

Jumping up from the office chair, she checked the outlet, and then she flipped the light switch on the desk lamp, inadvertently switching on the home security cameras. It was Earl’s idea to install the switches that way.

Her eyes burned from the tears she’d been fighting. Quickly she did the only thing that made sense. This must be Earl’s way of telling her to run, she reasoned. Eddy snatched the DVD from the computer drive and shut down the computer. They’d practiced their escape so many times that it came naturally to her.

“The safe,” Eddy whispered as she took the stairs two at a time. The envelopes were already addressed and stamped. Quickly she stuffed ten DVDs into cases and began sealing everything. Then she grabbed the already packed duffel bag and any information the police might seize and use against them.

“I remember,” she whispered to the picture hanging over the bed. “I didn’t forget anything. I love you, Breito.” She cried as she ran down the steps and out of the house.

Eddy was safe. All she had to do was keep going. She handed one envelope to the post office clerk and smiled. Racing back to her vehicle, she headed to the parkway that led to I-95. Her distress at leaving Earl behind without knowing whether he was safe almost made her cause two accidents. She’d promised him she would leave, but if she left without trying to save him, she’d be a coward. In all the drama they’d been through, he’d never left her behind.

Eddy stopped at a different post office and mailed off the remaining DVDs.

Knowing she couldn’t leave without Earl, she made her way back to the house. After pulling into the driveway, she slid from the car and took out her burner. Slowly she crept into her home through the back door, like a common criminal. She moved to the den and found Stuckney sitting behind the desk, as if he was waiting for her return.

Damn! I can’t get taken in on some bullshit, and if Stuckney sees my gun, it’ll be all over for me. God, only know what else he’ll put on her. She placed the gun on the side table just out of his eyesight and near enough for a surprise attack if she needed it.

“Hello, Ms. Endira Clement. How are things with you lately?”

“Why are you in my home, Stuckney?”

“Oh, you admit that you are the owner of this beautiful house bought with drug money?”

“I admit that you are standing in my den and I didn’t invite you here.”

“Ms. Clement, oh, excuse me, it’s still Ms. Soto, isn’t it? Um, I’m here to pick up a package that Earl told me you have in your possession,” he lied.

“What’s the password?” Eddy asked with a straight face.

She could see his mind working in frustration. Clearly Earl hadn’t sent him. He didn’t even know that there wasn’t a password.

“Fuck you!” he yelled. “That’s the password,” he said, walking closer to her, hoping to scare her into moving.

Eddy was scared shitless, but she refused to back up one inch.

“Bitch, I’ll rape you slowly and kill you slower, if you don’t open the damn safe.”

A tear slid down Eddy’s cheek as she stared at him, but complying wasn’t an option. Shit, if he really wanted the money, all he had to do was look in the trunk of her car, where she’d left the duffel bag. “Fuck you, monkey! I ain’t got shit for ya!” she yelled.

Stuckney panicked. He never thought she wouldn’t do what he asked. Quickly, he gripped her hair in his hand and yanked her around the room, swinging her with force. He could have propelled her through a wall with the strength he put into the spin.

Eddy fell onto the floor, but still she didn’t attempt to move toward the safe.

“Bitch, open the fucking safe before I punish you some more!”

Eddy tried to use his reckless anger against him. She understood that if she continued to taunt him, he’d win, and she’d do whatever he asked to get him to stop the torture. She couldn’t wait for that. She slowly crawled back toward the end table in the hall where she’d placed her gun. It was her only insurance. She had a fifty-fifty chance of making it there. Either he’d kill her, or she’d kill him.

***

The neighbors heard the shot and immediately began flooding 9-1-1 with calls. One neighbor even looked out the door, hoping to get a glimpse of someone fleeing the house.

The police arrived and found Detective Stuckney coming into the house through the back door as if he’d arrived on the scene first. His shield displayed in plain sight, no one questioned his reason for being there.

***

Across town, Earl had shot out the camera in his truck, hoping Eddy was watching and would flee, according to their plan.

Bubarcar had grabbed a duffel bag with one hand and pulled his service revolver with the other.

Earl sat stunned for a full moment before he understood the cop’s intentions. The tiny space in the vehicle left little room for movement. Earl, however, was able to stun Bubarcar with his own weapon.

The first shots rang out and shattered the interior of the truck. Earl hit the surveillance camera, and then he hit the hydraulics, causing the car to jerk up and down. The gun flew from his hand, and he leaped from the truck, headed toward the cemetery. Stumbling through the park, he found the other members of the crew waiting. A light shined in his eyes as he heard the shot whiz past his ears.

“Surrender, monkey.” Bubarcar laughed. “It’s all over for you. You have the right to not get shot and face the courts for Gotti’s murder.”

***

Meanwhile tapes were appearing all over town.

Eve opened the mailbox and immediately recognized Eddy’s handwriting. Ms. Maddy screamed in horror as she stared at the last images of Earl shooting out the camera in his car. The prosecutor’s office barely observed the tapes and began marking them as exhibits for the courts. IAB (Internal Affairs Bureau) was all over the offices, trying to locate the rogue detectives on the numerous DVDs.

Buck opened the package, deciding whoever sent the parcel wanted him to view it. Carefully, he locked himself in the den and watched in stunned silence.

Later, a sinister grin plastered on his face, he sat across from Baldy, trying to understand how things had turned out better than any of them could have imagined. The plan hatched in his hospital room was to jam Earl up. Nothing they’d dreamed would have been as smooth as the hole he’d dug for himself.

“Yo, that nigga can’t go to jail and escape death. If I got to get caught driving dirty, I’m gonna see that bitch dead,” Baldy said.

Buck smiled as he picked up the handset to make a call. “Brian Hopewell, please,” he whispered into the phone. “Just be patient, Baldy. Either karma or the devil has placed Earl where we want him. Have you ever known me to let a debt go unsettled? I learned from you that a coincidence to some is careful strategy, when you live the life we living. Stuckney never bothered us, and there were times during our reign when we couldn’t help but crank up the heat on niggas. And even then we managed to stay below the radar. It wasn’t by sheer luck. Brice Stuckney’s parents owned the house next to the building where I lived with my grandmother. By the time they moved I was about ten, but I always remember that family. They were poorer than us, and the father was a mean son of a bitch that beat his wife. My grandmother used to patch up Mrs. Stuckney when her husband went to work. When Brice started working in the seventy-third precinct, I was one of the first people he approached about protection. Imagine that—he had a badge and a gun, but on our streets, even then, reputation protected you. It wasn’t until he started moving up on the force that we lost touch.” Buck laughed.

Baldy didn’t want to ask any questions, but he had to know. “Gotti . . . was that coincidence or strategy?”

Buck didn’t hesitate. “I can’t take the blame for that, but Stuckney getting turned on to Earl was strategy.”