7

I got back to Derby Run at about 2:30 am, and Tammy was still curled up in the same spot on the bed that I’d left her in. She looked angelic laying there with a shiny glow all around her body. I curled back up with her and went to sleep.

Tammy and I woke up later and decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood. As we walked, I filled her in on the events that had happened last night while she was in a deep sleep. She couldn’t believe that Andre had gotten involved with Isaac or anything dealing with the streets. She told me that she didn’t want me dealing with Isaac at all because it could easily turn into a situation like Tyrone. I let her know that I shared her feelings about Isaac. Once we returned from our walk, I decided to call Rodney. He was always up early in the morning, whether he was selling heroin or not. He answered on the first ring and immediately started questioning me about last night.

I told him to meet me at Buckroe Beach in Hampton at 12 noon and I’d explain everything. It was only about 9 am, so I had a few hours to spend with Tammy. We ate a big breakfast and discussed some of our options concerning business. I decided it would be in our best interest to sell the fifteen kilos we had left and put our money into legal business ventures. Too many things could go wrong if we continued to dabble with the streets. We planned a trip for July 4th to visit her brothers, pay Trey his $250,000, and officially announce her pregnancy and our departure from the drug game completely. That left me a little over two weeks to get rid of the fifteen kilos.

At about 11:30, I jumped in the BMW and headed to Buckroe Beach. I met Rodney out on the pier and we discussed the night before, as well as the things I wanted to do in Richmond. Rodney had no intentions what so ever of getting out of the drug game anytime soon, so I told him that I’d speak to my connect about supplying him in the future with whatever he needed. He was with me 110 percent on the Richmond project because he wanted to get away from Newport News for a few weeks.

The Frank and Terry situation was starting to get to him. I knew I’d have to talk to Tammy before I’d ever be able to plug Rodney in with Trey, but we’d have to deal with that issue at a later date. Monday morning Rodney and I were gonna head to Richmond to holla at Black Jay in Highland Park. Before we left the beach, I told Rodney that he’d make $60,000 off of our Richmond operation. That was the $4,000 a kilo that I wouldn’t have to pay Tyrone.

When I got back to Derby Run, Tammy was gone somewhere in the Sonata. She’d left a note saying that she was going to Dairy Queen across from the Shady Banks Shopping center by Bethel Manor. Since I was still thinking about Richmond, I decided to call Black Jay. He picked up on the second ring sounding half asleep. After a few seconds of him asking who I was, he realized who he was talking to. I wasn’t one to stay on phones long, so I let him know that I’d be in Richmond on Monday at noontime. We decided to meet at the Burger King on Azalea to discuss our plans. He let me know that he had found out some more info about Tyrone and he’d fill me in on Monday. Once I hung up with Black Jay, I made a call to the owner of the condo in Henrico. I hadn’t received any calls from him or the police, so I assumed that he hadn’t been notified of any problems at the condo. I got an answering machine, so I hung up without leaving a message. I decided I’d just stop by and talk to the nosey neighbor on Monday after meeting with Black Jay. Tammy arrived back home shortly after I ended that phone call.

She looked marvelous in her yellow and white sundress as she ate an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen. She walked up to me and licked her tongue out as she put a big scoop of her Blizzard on the tip of her tongue. I put my mouth around her tongue and slowly slid the Blizzard off her tongue and into my mouth. She gazed at me seductively with those beautiful penetrating eyes of hers. I kissed her lips gently and told her that I was gonna take her to dinner and a movie that evening. We hadn’t really been out since our last trip to D.C. before we headed on to New York. We chose Red Lobster for dinner and decided we’d pick the movie once we got to the theater.

So, later that evening, we headed to Red Lobster on Mercury Boulevard in the Riverdale Shopping Center. Instead of waiting to be seated, we sat in the bar area by the televisions. Tammy immediately ordered an appetizer with a Caesar salad. All I needed was those amazing biscuits they served hot and tasty. While we waited, we talked about the future and what we expected, as far as long-term goals, as well as our six-month goals.

Soon, we’d be busy with doctor’s appointments, house hunting and running a successful laundry mat business. The only thing we were disagreeing about was who was gonna name our child. We decided she’d name it if it was a boy and I’d name it if it was a girl. Our dinner came swiftly, and we devoured the shrimp and lobster along with the baked potatoes and biscuits we’d ordered. It wasn’t too late, but Tammy was already exhausted; so we headed home instead of going to the .99 cent movie right next to Red Lobster. We rode home down Armisted in the BMW listening to the radio; we didn’t notice the dark blue sedan that was following us from the time we’d left Red Lobster. By the time we got home, we were both tired so we called it a night.

Monday came quicker than expected, but I was ready for the trip to Richmond. I drove the Sonata instead of the BMW, so I wouldn’t get any unwanted attention. I picked Rodney up at his spot out at Signature Place and we headed out to Richmond. As we rode, he filled me in on the things that were going on out in Newport News. The streets were talking about the confrontation that had occurred at the Holiday Inn, but no one knew the extent of the situation. Just to be safe, Rodney had stopped all of his heroin business in Newport News until a later time. He wanted everything to die down, and then he’d come through like a storm. All he needed was the heroin we’d hit “Bad Newz” with at the beginning of the year. I told him that I’d holla at the connect within the next month to see if he was willing to do business with Rodney, then we ran through my plan for Richmond once again before we arrived at the Burger King on Azalea Boulevard.

I saw the white corvette in the parking lot, but Black Jay was not in the car. I parked and headed into Burger King. Black Jay was sitting in the back by the windows facing Azalea. He was dressed in his usual sweats, Tims, t-shirt, and fitted cap. I sat with him and we started to discuss everything; from Tyrone, to taking over Richmond. He said the word on the streets was that Tyrone had been fucked up really bad and was supposedly in critical condition at MCV Hospital, but he didn’t know what happened or how long Tyrone had been in the hospital. I didn’t want to let him in on the fact that this would only be a one time thing until the fifteen kilos were gone; I wanted him to think that we would slowly be taking over every neighborhood on the Northside of Richmond. We ended the conversation after we discussed some prices.

Once we got outside, I introduced him to Rodney and let him know that he’d be dealing with Rodney whenever he needed more cocaine. Black Jay was paying $13,500 for a half a kilo, but it wasn’t very pure. I charged him $12,500 for the same thing, but I guaranteed that the quality would be much better. He only had about nine ounces of the bullshit cocaine left that he had to get rid of, so I told him that we’d start supplying him on Friday. Once he approved of our cocaine, then he could start supplying other dealers in Richmond with coke. Rodney and I left Burger King and headed down Azalea towards Henrico High School on our way to the condo.

Once we pulled into the complex, I saw the nosey neighbor sitting out in her front yard with her lawn chair. I got out of the Sonata and walked straight to her instead of going towards the condo. She said that things had been quiet around there since that girl came by with the U-Haul. I asked who the girl was and all she knew was that it was one of the girls the nice fellow used to be with. I guessed that she was talking about one of Tyrone’s girls, since she had mentioned that B was the disrespectful one. Then it clicked; she had to be talking about Ebony. I told her I’d come back to talk shortly and I headed to the condo. My key still worked, so the locks hadn’t been changed or anything. I motioned for Rodney to get out of the car and come in. Once inside, I noticed that the downstairs part of the condo was completely empty.

There was dried up blood in a big space on the kitchen floor and the trash can smelled like shit. There was old food hanging out of the trash can and had flies all over it. I headed upstairs before I explained to Rodney what was going on. The bedroom set and everything else was gone. Nothing that I’d left in the condo was really that valuable, so I wasn’t too worried about the place being cleaned out. I knew Ebony was a heroin addict, and she’d probably gotten a quick fix for all the furniture.

Rodney and I discussed the easiest way to handle the whole Richmond situation. We decided that on Friday, Rodney would come back to Richmond with five kilos of cocaine and he’d stay at the condo until he sold all the kilos that were left. I would come back on Friday with Rodney to set up the condo with some new furniture and make sure the first deal went well with Rodney and Black Jay. Rodney always kept a few guns with him, so he wouldn’t need anything else for the short time he’d be in Richmond. Black Jay was already well established throughout Richmond, so fifteen kilos would move rather quickly. With those plans in mind, we left the condo and headed back to Hampton at about 3 pm. I dropped Rodney off at Signature Place and told him that I’d follow him up to Richmond on Friday morning.

Once I got back to Derby Run, it was about five in the evening. The BMW was gone, so I figured that Tammy had gone to get some ice cream or something. Once I got to the front door, my heart almost stopped. The front door was pushed closed but the wood around the door was laying on the ground. The door had been kicked in, then pushed back closed to look like everything was okay. I didn’t have my gun on me, so I inched in the house with caution. Nothing in the living room was disturbed, so I headed to my master suite. Everything was still in its place just as I had left it. Then I went to Tammy’s master suite, but nothing was bothered in there either. I pulled my cell out and immediately started calling Tammy’s cell but it made noises like her phone was out of service.

This was starting to bother me, because I knew something had to be wrong. No one knew where we lived, so the only thing I could think of was that the police had kicked in the door. I started to call the police station, when I realized that I’d never checked on the money and the fifteen kilos that were left. I ran to Tammy’s closet looking for the suitcases with the false bottoms and they were still there. I busted all of them open and counted out the fifteen kilos of coke that remained.

I remembered that I’d put the duffel bags of money upstairs in the closet by the loft. I flew up the stairs, and when I opened the door to the closet I couldn’t move. Tammy was laying there with duct tape over her mouth, around her ankles, and around her wrists. She was laying on her side with tears flowing from her eyes. After what seemed like forever, I reached down and tried to tear the tape from her ankles first, but it wouldn’t budge.

I ran downstairs, got a sharp knife from the kitchen and ran back upstairs to cut the tape. It took some time to get the tape off of Tammy’s wrists and ankles, but there was no way I could cut the tape from around her mouth. She was dressed in a t-shirt and some white panties and she looked so helpless laying on the floor with the tape around her mouth. Even after her ankles and wrists were free, she made no attempt to get up. I told her to hold still while I ran to get a razor blade out of my tool box in the kitchen.

Once I got back upstairs Tammy was sitting up with her back against the wall of the closet. I could see blood stains all over the front of her panties and I slowly began to lose my oxygen. Tammy was crying and I was hyperventilating. All I could do was drop down to my knees and hold her with all my might. I couldn’t imagine that someone had violated the love of my life. Finally, I turned her to the side so I could cut the duct tape from the back with the razor blade. I ended up cutting a little bit of her beautiful hair off in the process. Once I cut all the way through the tape, I had to slowly peel the tape off of her mouth, face and hair. The first thing Tammy said was, “Baby they got all the money.” I wasn’t even thinking about any money; all I was thinking about was how long it would take me to send everyone responsible for this to Hell. I asked Tammy, “How many of them was it, and did all of them rape you?”

She held me tight, told me that no one had raped her and that there were two of them. She explained that she was spotting blood, most likely from the stress of the whole ordeal. We couldn’t call the police, because the only thing missing was over $500,000. I told Tammy that we were going to the hospital immediately and we’d figure everything else out after that. I didn’t wanna stress her out anymore at the time and I wanted to get her checked out.

I helped her down the stairs and grabbed some sweats and flip flops for her to throw on so we could head to the hospital at Langley AFB. Just as I went to grab the keys, I remembered that the BMW was gone. She saw the look on my face when I grabbed my Sonata keys and she told me that they took her cell phone and car keys. I led her to the Sonata and broke the speed limit as I headed to the base hospital. We arrived at the emergency room in about seven minutes.

I told the nurse that Tammy was pregnant and bleeding and that she needed to be checked out immediately. One of the same nurses from the day we found out Tammy was pregnant happened to be working that evening, so she was quick to get Tammy in the back. I stepped outside and made a call to Rodney. I told him all I knew at that time and promised to fill him in once I got the whole story from Tammy. The only thing I could think about at the time was whether or not my little boy or girl was okay.

I sat in the waiting area for about two hours before the nurse came out and told me I could go to the back to see Tammy. When I got to the room, Tammy was laying back on the bed with a hospital gown on. She had a bandage on her right arm and a hospital band on her left arm. I sat on the bed and leaned over and kissed her lips. She said everything was fine and that her points were still going up.

I didn’t know anything about what she was telling me, so I told her to explain everything in regular words. She told me that the baby was still growing and that the doctor said that a little spotting was okay. They had admitted Tammy so they could monitor her and the baby for at least twenty-four hours. Either Tammy was a good actor, or the home invasion hadn’t affected her that much. I had seen her switch moods before after something tragic happened, but this was a little weird. She just looked very calm and peaceful, like someone sitting on the beach enjoying the sun and the breeze.

I needed more info on the robbery, but I didn’t wanna push the issue just yet. I asked her how she felt and she said she was fine. She wanted to know why I was looking at her like I was. I told her that she looked so beautiful laying on the bed with that glow and it was mesmerizing me. Somehow she knew I was lying. She asked me why I hadn’t asked her about what happened yet, and I told her I didn’t wanna stress her any more than she already was. That’s when she started telling the story from the beginning. She had been nodding off on the sectional in the living room watching the Lifetime channel when the door got kicked in. Two men with ski masks covering everything except their eyes, burst in with a shotgun and what looked like a .45 automatic.

It took Tammy a moment to realize what was going on, so by the time she got up to run, one of the gunmen grabbed her. They put the .45 to her temple and asked where the money was. Tammy told them everything was kept upstairs in the loft because she thought she had a better chance of getting to her closet if only one gunman was on her. Instead, they walked her up the stairs at gunpoint until they found the duffel bags full of money. After they saw all the rubber banded bundles of money, they pulled some duct tape out of a bag that one of the robbers had strung around his shoulder.

One of the gunmen taped her ankles and wrists together, and then asked where the car keys were. She told them they were on the counter by the kitchen with her cell phone. Then the same robber wrapped the duct tape around her mouth and told her if she moved or made any noise, he would kill her. He laid her in the closet where the money used to be and closed the door. She said it seemed like at least two hours passed before I opened the closet and found her. Even after hearing all of that, I knew there were still questions that needed to be answered, but I didn’t think Tammy had those answers.

I needed to call the car in stolen and notify our insurance agent as soon as possible. I only owed a few more thousand on the BMW, so if it was totaled when they located it, then my insurance policy would cover everything. Furthermore, I thought it’d be best for us to move out of Derby Run since it was no longer a secret living place. Too many new thoughts were popping in my head, but I knew I’d have time later to dwell on those things. I gently kissed Tammy and told her to get some rest. It was going on 9 pm when I left the hospital and headed back to Derby Run.

I called Rodney and told him to meet me at Derby Run after I gave him the address. He pulled up just as I was getting out of the Sonata. We walked inside and I started telling Rodney the same story that Tammy told me. Rodney stopped me several times to ask the same questions that I was thinking to myself as Tammy told me the story. Why wasn’t any other part of the house touched? How would they have known no one else was in the house, if the story went the way Tammy told it? Rodney and I were thinking alike, and I didn’t like the feeling that was coming over me. We both walked all through the house looking for any clues that would change our suspicions, but nothing in the house was disturbed but the wooden frame on the side of the front door. We decided to ask the neighbors on both sides of us if they’d heard or seen anything unusual earlier today. I didn’t know either neighbor, but I spoke to them every time they were outside.

The neighbor on the left couldn’t recall anything out of the ordinary happening. The couple on the right of us did recall seeing a car leaving the area that they hadn’t seen before, but they didn’t think it was out of the ordinary. They said it only caught their attention because the license plates were from another state. They couldn’t remember exactly what state, but they said if they remembered they’d let me know. Before they closed the door, the woman said that she’d seen my pretty little girlfriend outside at about 3:30 talking on the phone and looking down the street.

I thanked them and told them if they remembered anything else to get in touch with me on my cell and I left them my number. The only thing Rodney said when we were walking back to my house was that it was an inside job. I’d had that feeling for a while, but I didn’t wanna accept the fact that my Tammy had had anything to do with the money being missing. I called the police and reported the car stolen and I left a message with my insurance agent about the matter. I checked Tammy’s closet and all the guns were still there where I’d last seen them. I already knew the fifteen kilos were still in the false bottoms of the suitcases.

I still owed Trey $250,000, which I could easily pay with the fifteen kilos left, but that wouldn’t leave me with much at all once bills, insurance, and the laundry mat was paid off. The only person I could trust at that point was Rodney until I found out more info. We loaded the guns and suitcases into the back of Rodney’s Lexus and headed out to his spot at Signature Place. I pulled the front door at Derby Run closed as far as it would go and followed Rodney in the Sonata. Once we got to Rodney’s place, he told me that he had a female friend that worked at Motorola that could get cell phone records as long as you knew the number and the name it was registered under.

Tomorrow we would definitely be going to talk to her. Something about the whole situation didn’t make any sense to me. Why would Tammy wanna have me robbed when she knew that we were building things together? Things definitely weren’t adding up though. It was getting late, so I told Rodney that I’d get back with him about noon on Tuesday. He offered to let me stay at his spot, but I told him I was gonna head to Bethel Manor and chill with my brother Andre for the night.

It was a little after 11 pm when I left Rodney’s place and headed towards Bethel Manor. My gut feeling told me that Tammy had to be responsible, but my heart wouldn’t let me believe it. Some people can be standing in shit, but won’t believe it’s shit by the smell alone; they have to actually taste it! I was rewinding the past year and some change in my head to see if any small or major signs had been present that maybe I’d missed. I’d put my heart into a female for the first time in my life and the outcome wasn’t looking too bright at that point.

When I pulled up to my parent’s house, I parked on the side across the street from the park. It was late for a weekday and I knew my parents would be asleep. I looked through the little window of the front door and I saw Andre on the couch with his long-time girlfriend Keisha. I gently tapped on the glass to get his attention, and he came to open the door.

I walked in, spoke to Keisha and then asked Andre to come with me upstairs so I could have a word with him. We went to my old room, which still had my bed and the furniture that was in it last year before I moved out. I ran down a few minor things about what had happened, but I didn’t want to alarm him or talk about my suspicions at that point. He asked about Tammy, and I told him she was a little shaken up, so I’d taken her to the hospital to be monitored. We talked for about ten minutes and then I let him go back downstairs to entertain his company while I crashed for the night in my old bed. I hardly got any sleep because I kept waking up in cold sweats from the nightmares I was having. I needed answers to important questions and I wouldn’t rest well until I got them.

The next morning when I got up, my father was gone to work and my mother was gone to early morning bible study. They never knew I’d been there last night. Andre was still asleep when I woke up at around 8 am. I called the hospital to check on Tammy, and they told me the doctor was with her. I left a message that I’d be at the hospital around noon with some lunch. Tammy was still the mother of my child, so seventy-five percent of me was still hoping that there was a reasonable explanation for every bad vibe I was feeling.

I called Rodney and had him get in touch with the female at Motorola. They had a branch office off of Warwick Boulevard in Denbigh by the bowling alley. The girl’s name was Amy and she wanted us to meet her at her job at 9:20 am. I told Rodney I’d drive to his place and ride with him to her job. We pulled up in the parking lot of her job at about fifteen minutes after nine. Rodney called her from his cell and gave her all the info on Tammy as I called it out to him. About ten minutes later, a very attractive white girl who favored Mariah Carey walked out to Rodney’s Lex. She got in the backseat and Rodney introduced us to one another. She pulled out a printout of calls made and received by Tammy. I only needed to see the printout of the last couple of days to figure out some things. She handed the printouts to me and I scanned through to yesterday’s date. The list only showed the numbers of the outgoing calls, but it had the time, date, and duration of the incoming calls.

It also listed the times of the outgoing calls. Between 12 pm and 3 pm, Tammy had received ten incoming calls, but none lasted more than two or three minutes. At 3:30 pm, Tammy made an outgoing call and the area code was all I had to see to know that I had somehow been played for a fool. I had to look over the number again to make sure I was seeing the right thing; the number had a 718 area code, but it was to a cell phone. The printout specified whether a caller called cellular to cellular, because it was cheaper.

The only people she could have possibly been calling was her brothers. I asked Amy was there any way she could get the numbers of any of the incoming calls, and she told me no. I thanked Amy and Rodney tried to hand her some money, but she refused. She told him to think of some good way to repay the favor in the near future. By the time we pulled out of the parking lot, my brain was running through a thousand different scenarios. Something still wasn’t making sense, and Tammy was the only one who could answer my questions. So, I had to play along with her story until I got the answers I needed. Somehow, I was positive that the BMW would be found unharmed since it was in Tammy’s name. Also, even though my temperature was beginning to boil, I had to think about my unborn child that Tammy was carrying too.

As we rode, I told Rodney that the Richmond situation was gonna continue as planned, except we wouldn’t be buying any furniture for the condo in Henrico. Instead, I’d take the mattresses and TV from my master suite at Derby Run and put it in the Henrico condo. After we started doing business in Richmond, we could slowly furnish the condo. Now everything that I had planned for over the past few months would slowly change forever. Once we got back to Signature Place, I thanked Rodney and told him to expect a call from me by Friday. He saw the look in my eyes so he didn’t need to ask if I’d found the info I was looking for.