Chapter 3

Chief sat in his sister’s apartment with his feet perched on her coffee table. His dirty Tims had seen better days. He was sporting a pair of oversized Sean John jeans and no shirt. His hairy chest, tattered with bulletholes wasn’t an appealing sight. There was a half-pound of weed on a plate, not for resale but for his pleasure. Two spliffs were cut and ready to be filled to the brim with purple haze and a bottle of Hennessy barely had a swallow left. Pumpkin, some random chick he picked up at the Wynn Hotel and Casino, was buttnaked. She had fucked him all morning and was patiently waiting to get paid. Sundays were usually slow, so she didn’t mind allowing the clock to tick on just one john.

Chief had moves to make and needed a quick come-up, so when his sister called, he didn’t think twice about leaving New York. Honey couldn’t really talk over the telephone, but he knew that she’d better make his dropping everything to come to Vegas worth it. She’d sent him the cash to take a flight via Western Union, but his goon squad—Big Meech and Delano—had to take the Greyhound bus out West. They were pissed, but Chief explained they had to charge that to the game.

“Yo, what time you getting up outta here?” Chief asked, suddenly bored with the country chick.

Pumpkin was trying to throw in another blowjob or a quickie to increase her fee. Although she never got attached to a trick, he did have some good dick. “What’s the rush, baby?” she purred, reaching for his dick.

Chief smacked her hand away. “Stop! And get up and put some clothes on. It’s damn near three o’clock in the afternoon and you’re still up in here butt-ass naked.”

Pumpkin didn’t like the shift in his mood, but she was used to erratic behavior from her tricks.“I just want to know where you got to be that’s better than right here with me.”

Chief stood up and hovered over the petite, fragile Pumpkin.“Are you questioning me, bitch?”

“No, no, not at all, baby. I just wanted to make you feel good.”

“First off, I ain’t your baby. I’m a grown-ass man. Don’t be running that tramp talk like I’m some lame muthafucka who don’t get pussy.”

Pumpkin began biting her bottom lip. Her eyes cut to her Marc Jacobs bag, where she held her .380.

Chief walked toward her purse. “Oh, you want this?” It was heavy, and immediately he knew what was up. Inside he found her Smith & Wesson gun. Instantly he was filled with rage. He quickly pulled out on her, and Pumpkin knew she was in deep shit.

“You were trying to set me up, bitch?”

“Set you up? What are you talkin—”

The backhand slap with the large ring on his finger silenced the stunned Pumpkin. Her hands immediately went up to shield herself from further blows. Thick blood oozed out of her wound, and she knew the injury would surely scar and leave a mark. She was pissed.

“Oh, you ain’t got shit to say now, right? Huh?” Chief towered over the trembling woman. “You think a nigga like me don’t got the baddest chicks waiting on me back home?”

Pumpkin took a deep breath and exhaled. She needed to regain control of the situation before it went too far. “I know you do, big daddy. That’s why I wanted to spend as much time with you as possible and didn’t want to share your good lovin’ with anyone else.”

Chief didn’t hesitate to smash his fist into her jaw. He punched on the woman like he was fighting a dude in the streets, her lean body taking blow after blow of his indescribable fury. Seconds felt like days to the helpless Pumpkin. All she could do was ball her body up into the fetal position and try her best to protect her head and face. Eventually the blows slowed down to a halt.

“Look what you made me do!” Chief barked. “Done fucked up my Tims and everything wit’ your blood. I should make you clean all this shit up!” He grabbed Pumpkin up by her arm like a rag doll and tossed her off the sofa. “Go in the kitchen and get something to clean up this mess!”

The still defiant Pumpkin wanted no parts in the cleanup.“Just give me my money, so I can leave. You done had your fun with me. Now playtime is over!” she said, her breasts heaving up and down from fear and anger.

Chief’s laughter was high-pitched and maniacal. “You thought I was gonna pay for your wack-ass pussy?” He emptied the contents of her purse onto the table and grabbed her wallet. “No, bitch. You’re gonna pay for this good dick. Isn’t that what you said? That I had some good lovin’. Well, let’s see, I charge”—He counted all her cash—“two hundred and forty-seven dollars for this good lovin’. And you’re lucky, because that’s my discounted rate.”

Pumpkin smirked at his audacity and watched as Chief stuffed all of her money into his pocket and seemed to be proud of his antics.

“You sick bastard!” Pumpkin yelled in anguish.

Chief pulled out his pistol from his waistband and stuffed it into Pumpkin’s mouth. Every inch of her body trembled. Although she knew that selling tail could put her in a precarious situation, she thought she was smarter than the average prostitute, that she could spot a psycho a mile away.

They stared eye to eye.

“I’m gonna pull it,” Chief stated, his face twisted up in anger. He looked demonic, almost monstrous.

Pumpkin squinted her eyes and braced for it. Seconds felt like years, numerous thoughts flooding her mind.

“Don’t cry now,” he replied, and ejected his gat.

Pumpkin flopped back down on the sofa and began bawling her eyes out. Chief lit up a spliff to take the edge off and thought about fucking her one more time before kicking her out for good.

“What the fuck!” He lunged toward Pumpkin and snatched the telephone receiver out of her hands, but it was already too late.

Seconds later the telephone rang. Chief took out his pistol and steadied it on Pumpkin. His look alone silenced her.

“Yes, hello.”

“Sir, this is the nine-one-one operator. We just got a call, and someone hung up. Is everyone all right?”

“Yes, ma’am. My son was playing with the telephone, but his mother has him now.”

“You’re sure everyone is OK in there?”

“Yes, ma’am. We’re all OK. We’re just about to sit down and have supper.”

“OK, thank you, sir.”

“You’re welcome,” Chief sang and hung up. “You’re wrong for that one, bitch!”As Chief inched closer to the terrified Pumpkin, he heard the jangling of keys at the door.

Seconds later Honey entered with her father.

“What the fuck is going on?” Honey asked, shock plastered on her face.

Pumpkin was confused. Could Honey be one of the ‘baddest chicks’ Chief was referring to earlier? Was this chocolate beauty his girlfriend? Pumpkin didn’t know if she also had to defend herself against this female, and if so, she was spent. She couldn’t take another beatdown.

“This ain’t how it seems, Honey. You and Dad just go in your room and let me handle this.”

“Like the fuck we will,” Luther said. He could never stand Chief and not because he wasn’t his biological son. Chief was a loser to Luther and could never quite master the game, no matter how many times Luther had tried to school him. “How many times we done told you about putting your hands on a woman?”

Once Pumpkin realized Honey and Luther were kin to Chief and were against his actions, she ran and embraced Honey. “P-p-p-please help me. He’s crazy!” she yelled, stark naked and shivering.

“Shhhhh. It’s gonna be OK.” Honey rubbed her shoulders. “Go and put your clothes back on.”

Pumpkin ran and began gathering her clothes when a loud banging on the door interrupted everyone. From the hard pounding on the door and the worried expression on Chief’s face, everyone knew it was five-O.

“Who?”

“Police!”

Honey motioned for Chief to take the girl into the back room and hide, to which he was only too happy to oblige. He held her mouth tight and dragged her into the bedroom closet. Just as they were about to pound again Honey swung open the door.

“Ma’am, we got a distress call ten minutes ago. That’s when—”

“Someone called the dispatcher and hung up.”

“Correct,” the officer said, his head cocked to the side. “Has this happened to you in the past?”

“No, sir. I’m just familiar with protocol, from my training.”

“Oh, you’re on the force?”

“ATF, New York division,” she lied.

“Well, I’m glad to make your acquaintance. Might I ask, what are you doing so far away from home? Are you on a case?”

Honey knew he was trying to trip her up. “If I were I wouldn’t be able to disclose that to you. But you already knew that, correct?”

He laughed. “I guess that’s true. So why are you here?”

“I’m visiting. This is my father, Luther. He just picked me up from the airport, and I plan to spend my two-week vacation cleaning out your casinos of all its cash.” Honey laughed at the irony, because that was exactly what she planned on doing.

“Well, it’s certainly good to dream big.” The officer laughed. “Were you here when the call was placed?”

“Yes. It was the neighbor’s kid who just went to the park with his mother. They should be back shortly, if you want to wait and speak with them, maybe thirty minutes or so. Would you like to come in? I’m just about to make dinner.”

The handsome cop considered his options. The female was so gorgeous, he almost wanted to take her up on her offer, but he was on the clock, and a home-cooked meal and pretty face just wasn’t worth it. Besides, the call was bullshit. He’d done his job.

“No, but thank you for the offer. Nothing further is needed.”

Honey closed the door and began to pace back and forth in her living room.

Luther didn’t know the full extent of her worry, but he knew that cops coming to the door and a beat-up and possibly raped young white female couldn’t lead to anything but heat coming down on everyone.

Honey thought quickly. She walked to the closet where Chief and the girl were still struggling. “Let go of her!” she commanded.

Once again the girl ran to Honey for protection.

“What has he done to you?”

Pumpkin didn’t hesitate to drop dime. “He beat me and robbed me for all my money. Almost three hundred dollars of my hard-earned money!”

Honey glared at Chief. “So you tried to call the police, to help you, right?”

“Yes, but he stopped me.” Pumpkin’s tears began flowing once again as she relieved the horror.

“He’s disgusting!” Honey said.

“Yo, you better watch your mouth, Honey!” Chief spat.

“I don’t gotta do a muthafuckin’ thing up in my house!” Honey cut her eyes at Chief and then refocused on the girl. “Don’t worry. You’re safe with me. Why don’t you go and take a shower, and I’ll bring you fresh clothes and make sure I get you your money back with interest.”

A relieved Pumpkin said, “What about my things? My gun and cell phone?”

“I’ll bring all that into the bathroom, but I will have to take the bullets out of your gun. I can’t have you putting a bullet in my brother . . . although he deserves it.”

Pumpkin was satisfied with her demands and retreated to the bathroom.

Once she was gone Honey stated, “You’re gonna have to clean up your mess.”

“I ain’t got no money.”

“You’re as dumb as the day is long,” Luther began. “You think Honey is talkin’ ’bout you payin’ off a whore?”

Chief resented that Luther and Honey thought he wasn’t smart. “Then stop talkin’ in riddles ’n’ shit. I’m a direct type of dude. I keep it one hundred.”

“Look, moron, you beat and robbed a prostitute, and God only knows what else. If we pay her off, in a few days she’ll want to know why. And then she’ll come around and want to get more money. What if she has a pimp? You brought this to my front door. I can’t get knocked, and neither can you, not when we’re in the middle of something this big. You want me to say it?” Honey hushed her voice. “She has to go.”

Chief smiled at the realization. “You ain’t said nothing but a word.”

***

Chief took pleasure in strangling the unsuspecting Pumpkin in the bathroom of his sister’s apartment. Honey felt awful, but she didn’t have a choice. Pumpkin knew the hazards of her occupation. The four-foot-eleven mother of four was stuffed into a black kitchen plastic bag, which was sat by the door to be dumped like trash. From there, Honey, Luther, and Chief scrubbed down the whole apartment wiping away any fingerprints and vacuuming any microscopic evidence that the naked eye couldn’t see, such as strands of hair follicles or broken fingernails.

“Everyone needs to strip buttnaked and toss their clothes into a trash bag.”

“I’m not tossing in my Tims,” Chief complained. “You could forget that.”

“Didn’t you just rob this poor woman for three bills?”

Chief didn’t even answer.

“Thought so.”

Chief reluctantly decided to take off his Tims and toss them in the trash bag. After everyone had redressed, Honey then emptied all the contents of her vacuum cleaner into another bag and then tossed the remaining trash bags in it as well and then tied it shut, all the while handling each trash bag with gloves.

“Why did you throw away the rest of them good bags?” Luther asked and then answered his own question. “If five-O found these bags, they could trace them back to the remaining bags in your crib, correct?”

“No doubt. Each trash bag has an indexing system etched into them for each batch. If they happened to find the bag she’s buried in and somehow connect her to this knucklehead and my apartment, it would only take a lab technician a few weeks to connect my trash bags to the scene of the crime. I’ve come too far to fuck up this early in the game.”

“You ain’t never lie when you said you learned so much from your ATF training. That training just saved your brother’s ass!”

“Stop ridin’ her shit. You act like she Einstein or some shit. Honey ain’t never do nothing so great in her life. She out here starvin’ just like I am. She ain’t better than none of us. She ain’t got a real job, and just commanded me to do a murder on a chick I wouldn’t have ever thought to take out. So stop treating her like she some angel. And let’s not go there on her marrying the same nigga that tried to dead me. But look what that same snake-ass muthafucka did to her ass!”

Honey laughed. Her brother was such a hater. He’d just overlooked the fact that she got him to do the dirty work and commit the murder on a woman he’d just said he would have let walk out the front door. So although he’d said she wasn’t Einstein, she sure knew how to manipulate others and mastermind a crime. That had to count for something.

“Chief, we got too much to do than argue over the past. André is my past, and I’ve accepted and taken responsibility for all that’s happened.” I pulled off my gloves and redirected my attention toward my father. “Luther, you and Chief need to go and dump her in the desert, while I find a dumpster for our clothes. We can’t dump them both in the same place. And, Chief?”

“Yes.”

“Make sure you dig the grave deep enough that the coyotes and wolves can’t pull her up.”