"Anybody else?" Black asked.
No one said a word.
"All right then. My plan is based on the fact that for every action there is a reaction. If certain things happened, I can get people right where I need them to be. Now, there are enough people who hate André to go around. Cops won’t care, and as long as business doesn’t suffer, no one else will care either."
"Just as long as everybody continues to get paid, you’re right. Nobody will care." Bobby added.
"We have to kill Ricky. Him and André started out together. He’ll try to take over. Benny and Dupree were loyal to André, so they gotta die too. And that’s it. Now if André dies, Cazzie will try to move on us. So we have to kill him too. Killin’ Cazzie will be harder, but not impossible."
"Go on," Bobby said.
"All right now, everybody pay attention. Benny and Dupree are the key to it all. They make the rounds every night to collect the money from all the houses. On Friday nights there’s more than a quarter of a million dollars. They start at one o’clock, and by three thirty they’ll be coming out of the last house. That’s where we’ll hit them. Nick, you, and Freeze will be waiting for them. As soon as they get to the car, you and Freeze blast them. Nick, you cover while Freeze gets the money."
"Done," I said. Good soldier, you know.
"Now, Benny and Dupree are dead and the money is gone, what’s gonna happen next?" Black asked.
"Somebody will call Ricky’s punk ass," Freeze said.
"Exactly. Someone in the house will call him to tell him about the robbery. Ricky will be at his after hours spot. Sitting in that office, just like he does every fuckin’ night. As soon as he gets the call about the robbery, he’ll call André and they’ll meet at André’s office. Bobby, when Ricky comes out of the office and starts to make his way through the crowd, you and Jamaica take him then."
"What about Cazzie?" I asked.
"He’s the wildcard in all of this. Problem is, there’s no way I can control his movements the way I did everybody else."
"Black," Jamaica said. "Let me take care of Cazzie. I know how to take him."
Black looked at Jamaica for a long time. He knew Jamaica was off the chain with that heroin. We all did. "Okay, I’ll leave that all to you, Jamaica."
"What about your boy, André?" Freeze asked.
"When he gets to his office, I’ll be there waitin’ for him. Now for this to work, everything has to run on schedule." Black gave me, Bobby, and Jamaica a pager.
"What’re these for?" Bobby asked. "I already got a pager."
"When you complete your assignment you page the next man. Three sevens if everything goes as planned. If anything goes wrong, you page the next man with all nines. When it’s over, we all meet here. Anyone get nines, we abort and meet back here. Any questions?"
It all worked out just like he planned it. Except for Jamaica disappearing, it all went off clean and easy. When he didn’t show up afterwards at The Late Night nobody really gave it much thought. We all just figured he was off somewhere getting high. Like I said, we all knew Jamaica was off the chain with the heroin since Vickie died. He and Vickie were real close. They used to get high and hang out all the time. But, shit, hangin’ out was all Vickie ever wanted to do anyway. I laughed out loud.
"What’s so funny?" Wanda asked.
"Nothing really. Just thinking about Vickie."
"Vickie? What brought that on?"
"Been thinkin’ a lot about the old days. You know. How Vickie died and the effect it had on things."
"It affected all of us."
"Yeah, I guess, but not like it did Jamaica. How is he anyway?"
"He says he’s all right, but the last time I talked to him, I don’t know, there was something funny about the way he was talking. Something about his tone brought me right back to when Vickie died."
"Where is he?"
"He’s in the Bahamas. Black says he has gotten himself into a few things down there. I just hope that whatever he’s into doesn’t involve drugs, is profitable, and doesn’t cause any of us any grief."
"You think he’s back on?"