Cos was up with the chickens that morning, busting his ass to go meet Cowboy. Their leader had given them all instructions to meet at his place so they could split the take from the Macy’s robbery. Because of the brave/stupid security guard, they didn’t get what they planned but they’d still snagged $175 grand, giving them $35,000 a piece. He wouldn’t be retiring anytime soon, but it was still a respectable haul.
It was already 7:30 a.m. and Thor still hadn’t arrived at Cos’ place. When his Honda had mysteriously broken down on him the night before, Cos called Thor and asked if he would swing by the crib and snatch him, but as usual Thor was late. “Fucking idiot,” Cos mumbled, checking the clip of his .45. He figured he’d give the big man ten more minutes before he jumped in a cab.
Cos settled in his recliner and clicked on his big screen television. It was the latest in Hi-Def technology. Just one more perk to leading a life of crime. The morning news was on and, as usual, it was depressing as hell. After seeing something about a little girl who had been killed by her mother’s jealous boyfriend, he shut the television off. It was Christmas morning and he didn’t need something like that ruining his mood for the day.
Cos was about to go into the kitchen and grab a cup of coffee before calling a cab when there was a loud knock at his door. He never had visitors, especially unexpected so he un-holstered his gun before creeping to the door. Cos had made it within a few feet of the door when it came crashing in. A swarm of blue uniforms flooded his apartment, shouting and brandishing weapons.
“Drop the gun and eat the fucking floor!” one cop shouted, pointing his gun directly at Cos. The cop’s hand shook nervously making Cos wonder if he would shoot him by accident. Knowing when he was facing insurmountable odds, Cos dropped to his knees and raised his hands over his head. The cops wasted no time tackling him roughly to the ground.
“Take it easy, I’m not resisting,” Cos said as the cop shoved his knee into his back harder than he needed to.
“The other one isn’t here,” one of the officers said after a quick examination of the bedroom.
“What the hell is going on here?” Cos asked.
“Costello Brown, we have a warrant for your arrest,” the lead officer informed him.
“What the fuck for?”
“For armed robbery and accessory to murder.”
Cos’ eyes got as wide as saucers as he instinctively calculated the time he’d be facing. He was a notorious thief, so he could understand the robbery, but the murder baffled him. “Hold on, man, you’ve got the wrong guy!” Cos pleaded.
“Well, we have a witness that says differently,” the officer said in a smug tone. The police lifted Cos roughly from the ground and dragged him from his apartment.
Cos’ mind raced trying to think of anything that he might have done wrong to have him in such a fucked up predicament but, when you had done as much dirt as he had, there was no way to tell. The only thing he could do is keep his mouth closed and wait to see what happened.
Thor sped through the streets of Harlem cursing himself and the bitch that had made him late on such an important day. He just hoped that Cos wouldn’t be too mad at him when he got there. As soon as he bent the corner of Cos’ block, his jaw dropped. There were at least five vehicles and fifteen officers milling about in front of his building. He slouched in his seat and coasted by to see what was going on.
In the center of the sea of blue was Cos. His hands were cuffed and there were two cops wearing shit-eating grins escorting him to one of the cruisers. Cos made eye contact with the big man, but didn’t stare. Thor knew without having to be told that he needed to reach Cowboy with all possible haste.
“That was some stupid shit, Frankie!” Cowboy yelled, holding his drenched cell phone between his fingers.
“Baby, you don’t have to curse at me. It’s not like I did it on purpose.” She had been in the kitchen doing the dishes and talking to her brother on the phone when she accidentally dropped Cowboy’s phone in the sink.
“It was still some stupid shit. I don’t know why you were on my phone anyway,” he placed the cell on the radiator hoping that it would help.
“Because the battery is dead on mine, and your ass is too cheap to get a land line,” she shot back.
Cowboy wanted to slap the shit out of her, but a fight with Frankie was the last thing he needed that morning. The last time they had gotten into it, he winded up having to go to the hospital to be treated for the gash on his head she had given him when she hurled a lamp at him.
“Why don’t you make yourself useful and go down to the pay phone to call Cos and Thor. They should’ve been here by now,” Cowboy told her.
“Cos called while I was on the phone and said they’d be here in a little while,” she lied. The only person she had spoken to other than her brother that morning had been Duce telling her that Cos and Thor would be detained. The night before, he had sabotaged the engine on Cos’ Honda. Cos had called Duce and asked him for a ride to the meeting, but he fed him an excuse, leaving only Thor to pick him up. They were going to be quite surprised when the police rushed them on the way out.
“Well, in the meantime, why don’t you make a nigga something to eat!” he yelled.
“I got something for you to eat you sneaky piece of shit,” Frankie mumbled. Cowboy was about his paper and had plenty of it, which was the main reason she dealt with him, but he had no idea how to treat a lady. She didn’t know how she had managed to put up with him for as long as she had, but thanks to Duce, she wouldn’t have to do so much longer.
Cos leaned against the wall in the police precinct wearing his best ice grill. There were four other men in the room with him, all holding large index cards with numbers scribbled on them. The police had questioned him for over an hour, but he remained perfectly silent. They were insinuating a million and one things, but the more they spoke the more confident he became that they didn’t have anything on him. The thing that he found to be strange was the fact that they kept asking him about Thor. Only Cowboy, Duce and Frankie knew that he was supposed to pick him up that morning, so one of them had to be the leak. No matter whom it was, he was going to make it his business to kill them once he was back on the streets.
The police popped shit and made threats, but none of it moved Cos. He had been in and out of jail far too long to let their empty threats rattle him. He refused to utter anything other than “I want to see my lawyer.” Only when his lawyer arrived did he agree to participate in the lineup to prove that they had the wrong man…or so he hoped.
Behind the two-way mirror, the lead detective, who had rushed his house, sat with a young woman. She fidgeted nervously in the hard plastic chair staring at the five men on the other side of the looking glass. She had never seen any of them before, but had been given a description of the man she was to point out during the lineup.
“That’s him,” she said, pointing at Cos.
“Are you sure?” the lead detective asked.
“Yes.”
“This is bullshit,” Cos’ lawyer threw his hands in the air. “This woman is a prostitute with a rap sheet a mile long. How the hell is she credible?”
“Because she was there,” the lead detective told him. “Your boy Brown is a notorious piece of shit and the thing that happened at the Doll House is right up his alley. Now, instead of sitting here slinging insults, I suggest you start trying to convince him to take the deal the DA is sure to offer him for the other four perps.”
“This is a miscarriage of justice and I won’t stand for it!” the lawyer said animatedly.
“Then sit down,” the lead detective said, turning his attention back to the woman. “Now, take a good look honey and there’s no need to be scared because he can’t see you. Is that the man you saw at the Doll House?”
“Yes, that’s him,” she said wondering if the detective was telling the truth about the mirror. “I was tending bar that night and I remember seeing him lurking around the door before the shooting started.”
“Okay sweetie, we’ll have one of the officers outside take you home. Thank you for your time.”
The woman nodded and left the room. What she had told the police was half true. The woman had been the bartender at the Doll House the night Cos and the others had robbed it, but she didn’t see his face. Duce had paid her a small ransom to say otherwise. Of course, she would be nowhere to be found when it was time to testify, which would more than likely make Cos a free man, but this was how Duce had planned it. He didn’t want his one-time friend gone…just out of the way long enough for him to whack Cowboy.
Cos was less than pleased to find out that he had been fingered as one of the robbers at the Doll House, but he managed to maintain his cool. He needed to keep a clear head in light of the situation. He knew that no one other than the stripper he had tipped had gotten a good look at him, and there was no way his own little cousin would drop a dime on him, leaving only the members of his crew. He and Thor were like brothers so that left Duce, Cowboy and Frankie. Either one or all three of them would pay for turning on Costello Brown.
His lawyer sat waiting for him behind a conference table, while a uniformed officer stood outside the door. As soon as he sat down, the lawyer immediately went into his spiel about how he was going to do everything in his power to free Cos but was waved silent. “Nix the bullshit because I’m not really in the mood to hear it,” Cos said, leaning in to whisper. “This is what you’re gonna do. Get my cell phone out of my personals as soon as you can. Send big brother a text telling him that there’s a weasel in the hen house. He’ll know what it means.” Without waiting for the lawyer to respond, Cos returned to the conference room door and yelled for the officer to take him back to his cell.
Whoever was behind the set up was sure to have covered their bases so there probably wasn’t much he could do other than wait for his arraignment and play it from there. But whoever the traitor was would soon find out that Cos wasn’t without his own resources.