"What happened, Jett?" But he didn’t say a word. He just kept on staring at Monika. Since he wasn’t talkin’ again, I told him what the doctor said. I couldn’t tell if he was listening or not. I’d never seen Jett like this and it worried me. Jett was always live. This wasn’t good. They had been my two closest friends, my only family for years. Now one may die and Jett, I couldn’t tell where he was. But it wasn’t good. I had a pocket full of questions and no one to ask.
"She called me, Nick. She said things didn’t go well with Chilly. She said to meet her at her house. When I got there I heard the shots. I ran to the door, yellin’ for Monika. I went inside and saw her. Lying there. I picked up the phone and called an ambulance. She tried to talk. But I couldn’t hear what she was sayin’. I did what I could to stop the bleeding and make her comfortable." Then he stopped talking again. He still hadn’t taken his eyes off Monika. He still hadn’t blinked. Another ten minutes or so went by before Jett started talkin’ again. "I heard a noise in the back. I got to the back door in time to see someone drive away. I got to my heap and I followed him. He didn’t pick me up. He stopped at a house on 229th street. I put on my gloves and went in after him. He didn’t hear me come in. Caught him in the bathroom pissin’."
"Who was he, Jett? Was he black, white, what did he look like?" No answer. Just that pale, glassy eyed look. Like my questions annoyed him. I decided I would save my questions until he was finished. He looked back at Monika. I watched the tears roll down his cheeks. My eyes began to water again. I got up and walked back to the window.
"I popped him in the back of the neck and dragged him into the living room. I put him in a chair and tied him up. I slapped him around until he came out o
f it. I took out my knife. He tried to get free." Jett shook his head. "That wasn’t happening. The more he moved the tighter they got. I asked him who he was and why he shot Monika. But he didn’t answer, so I cut him. Just a little cut on the arm to get him bleedin’. But he didn’t say shit. Didn’t even finch. I told him I would cut him everytime he didn’t answer me. He just looked at me. So I cut him again. But he wasn’t talkin’. I worked him over pretty good, but the bastard wasn’t sayin’ shit. So I went back to cuttin’ him."
"How many times did you cut him, Jett?"
"I don’t know."
I forgot my promise not to ask any more questions. At least he answered me. But he stopped talkin’ again. Just starin’ at Monika. It took almost a half-hour before Jett spoke again. "We had been there for hours, Nick. Blood was all over the floor. He was shakin’ and shit. I was really fuckin’ pissed when I saw the sun coming up. I walked up to him and cut his throat."
"You killed him?"
"That’s what I just fuckin’ said. I cut his fuckin’ throat."
I sat down in that hard ass chair and buried my head in my hands. "Jett you killed the only person who could tell us who tried to kill her and why."
"He wasn’t gonna talk, Nick so he had to fuckin’ die."
"You’re probably right."
"We don’t need him to tell us shit, Nick." Jett finally faced me. The expression on his face didn’t change. "That fuckin’ Chilly knows why."
"What did you do with the body?"
"I left him there."
"Come on." I got up and walked out of the door. Jett was right behind me. He drove me to the house and we went inside. There he was. The sunlight was shining brightly through the window on him. A pool of blood surrounded the chair. Jett stood there and looked at him, while I searched the house. It was empty. No clothes in the closets, no food in the refrigerator. Nothin’ to go on. "Lets go."
* * *
Chapter Twenty-one
I drove Jett’s car back to the hospital and left him there to be with Monika. In the condition he was in, that was the best place for him. He would be of no use to me and maybe just a little out of place where I was goin’. My destination was Woodlawn Cemetery, for Jake’s funeral. I drove back to my apartment to pick up my rifle. Felicia was gone when I got there.
I stood quietly off to the side and watched Mrs. Childers and Chésará hold one another and cry. But my eyes were on Chilly. There he was, standing there with that smug look on his face. Not consoling his wife in her time of loss. That’s because the ugly fuck did it. He probably had Lisa killed, figuring that Jake must have told her what was up.
And Monika.
I was gonna kill him. I looked around the crowd. There was an older couple watching from the other side as Jake’s casket was lowered into the ground. The woman was crying and the man just held her close to his chest. I figured that was their parents. I wondered who called them? Chéz most likely. Mrs. Childers, I mean Gee, wouldn’t call them. She said they were dead to her. Maybe she felt they should know their son was dead.
I thought about losing my parents when I was eleven. No one really knew what happened to them. One day they just didn’t come home. So my brother and sister went to Mississippi to live with my father’s brother and his wife. They didn’t want me. My uncle said they were just babies. They would raise them in the church. They would be all right. But I was into too much trouble and he wasn’t havin’ it. Not in his house. Said I was probably the reason my parents didn’t come home.
He didn’t know I was listening.
I never saw my brother and sister again. I don’t think about them much. But I was feelin’ kinda family. Maybe I would go to Mississippi and try to find them. What would I say to them? They probably don’t even remember me. It was decided that I would go live with my grandmother. And after awhile, it didn’t matter as much. My grandmother was good to me. She showed me much love. She died five years later. But I had a new family by then. And after Black kicked my ass on my first day on the block, they showed me much love too.
While I was daydreaming, the funeral party had broken up and Chilly was safe inside the limo. I followed the limo to their house. I had no idea what I was goin’ to do. Would I simply ask him what happened with Monika the night before? Or would I just drop him because he deserved to die. When the limo arrived at the house, it was crawling with cops. I parked the car down the street. As soon as the limo stopped, the cops opened the door and took Chilly into custody.
"Shit!"
The cops put him in the car and I watched as the police car drove past me. I looked at Chilly, he looked at me. The feelings were mutual. I drove away thinkin’ about Monika and before I knew it, I was back at the hospital. When I got to intensive care, Jett was gone and Detective Richards was there.
"What happened Richards?"