Epilogue

“Such a nice homegoing,” said the shaky voice belonging to an elderly white man who stood on a hill in the far distance.

He peered down and watched a small group of young people making a toast at a grave site. He had been there for the entire ceremony and had enjoyed the celebration of life. In his whole life he’d only heard of one other person being buried in a golden casket. And it just so happened that they were right next to each other. He hummed the tune of “Take My Hand Precious Lord” and stepped away from the hill to walk to the awaiting Rolls-Royce. A hand found its way to his elbow to assist him, and he snatched it away from his companion.

“Dammit! Stop trying to help me all the time before I have you arrested,” he said, glaring at the tall black man.

“Jacob, you haven’t been a detective for a long time. Plus, you work for me, remember?”

“Not anymore, I don’t! You’re dead. I just watched you get buried with my own eyes.”

Caesar King laughed but then grimaced at the pain he felt in his healing ribs. He was trying to help his old friend when really it was he who needed some assistance down the hill. He had wanted so badly to go down and announce his presence, but he knew that, for a while, it was best he didn’t. Still, that didn’t make it any easier to watch everyone break down from the loss of him.

Back at the museum, Nasir had been right when he said that Caesar knew the place like the back of his hand. When the ceiling at the exit came crashing down, it looked to Boogie that he had been crushed by it. But he hadn’t been. Caesar used what little oxygen he had left to locate the crawl space Paul had shown him years ago. He barely had made it out when the entire building came crashing down. From behind the building he could hear Boogie’s screams, and the hardest thing Caesar had ever done in his life was walk away like he hadn’t.

Caesar somehow managed to get to his old friend Jacob Easley’s home and get patched up. Jacob called in one final favor, and that favor was the body they had in the golden casket. After Caesar killed Nasir, he realized that he’d put the last of his demons to bed. He was ready to move on to the next chapter of his life. But he knew that if any of his loved ones knew of his survival, he would always be tempted to go back. So he chose to let them believe he was dead. He had money in offshore accounts and a private jet nobody knew about. He would be just fine.

“You know you can’t tell Michael about this, right?” Caesar asked, helping Jacob into the car.

“I won’t. And hell, I only have about six months to live anyways. Your secret will die with me.”

Caesar shut Jacob’s door and went over to the driver’s side. When he got in, he sighed and said goodbye to his old life. He drove away without looking into the rearview mirror once. Jacob was dying of cancer, and it was true that the doctors had given him six months to live. Caesar couldn’t think of a better way to repay him for all his years of service than to send him home with a bang.

“So where do you want to spend the next six months of your life?”

“On a beach with beautiful women. Lots of beautiful women.”

“I think I know just the place,” Caesar told him.

“Good.” Jacob leaned back in his seat and got as comfortable as he could. “You think you’ll ever come back here?”

“I’ve come back from the dead before, so who knows? Maybe.” Caesar’s lips spread into a slow smile as the sun beamed on his face. “Maybe.”