The Diamond Syndicate

“Yeah. Who you think I’m talking to?”

“Oh, I didn’t know, since you haven’t said more than two words to me at one time lately.”

“Pssh! Come on, man, just answer the question.” Kyle frowned.

“I don’t know about Diamond. That last witness and Shakeeda threw a monkey wrench in your program, little brother.”

“Yeah, I know. I was pissed off with that bullshit!”

“Yeah, me and everybody else in the courtroom could tell. You lost your cool, and that ain’t never good,” Kendall said, schooling him.

Kyle looked out the window while Kendall drove. “You did a good job with Dante’s part of the case.”

“Thank you. I mean, really, they didn’t have anything on the kid concerning the murder. Whether he did it or not, they couldn’t provide any evidence.”

“Do you think he did it?” Kyle looked over at him.

“Naw, I know he didn’t do it. But he was there and it was Diamond’s master plan. She got that boy so well trained to jump on her command that if he did testify on his own behalf that he didn’t do it, she probably would have had him killed. I don’t know where this Waheed character came from, but by him putting out there that Dante wasn’t at the scene of the crime is surely gonna help my case.”

“Yeah, I feel you. Diamond is a piece of work. All I can say is, if she ever had a chance, she fucked it up by tripping out in court.” Kyle sighed.

“So you’re throwing in the towel?”

Kyle didn’t say a word. He continued to look out the window while he bit on his thumbnail.

“Uh-oh, you’re biting your nails. You’re really concerned about this one, huh?”

“I never lost a case,” Kyle said.

“Little brother, it’s not always about the kill, the W. Sometimes you gotta take the L for the team. You focus so much on the win, you lose focus on what’s important.”

Kyle nodded. For once, he listened to his older brother, instead of thinking that he knew it all.

“Don’t worry about it, bruh. Just let the chips fall where they may. You are still the best damn attorney I have ever seen.”

“Better than you?” Kyle looked at him, a smile on his face.

Kendall smiled back. “Yeah, little brother, better than me.”

THIRTY-SIX

The Verdict

It had been one week since the jury went out for deliberations. Prosecutor Swartz was at home when she got the call that the jury was back. She called her partners and got herself together to go to the courthouse.

Kyle and Kendall were already at the courthouse on another case they were investigating, which was scheduled to start in two months. They made their way to the courtroom to hear the verdict.

One hour later, everyone began to fill the courtroom. The attorneys were already sitting at their tables when Dante and Diamond were escorted back into the courtroom for the verdict.

Diamond looked around for Trey, but didn’t see him. She had been in lockup since her courtroom outburst and had no phone privileges due to her behavior. She was pissed because she desperately wanted to get in touch with Trey so he could get rid of Shakeeda for testifying against her. But she didn’t know that Trey was sitting in jail while she sat in court.

The police had raided Trey’s townhouse and found drugs, money, and an arsenal of guns. The police had had him on surveillance for several months. He had gotten too big and was pulling in a lot of money.

Trey was always careful to stay out of the radar and kept himself far from any contact with the police, but the police had informants who got paid to give them information on all the big-time drug dealers. Because Trey always stayed on the move, it took them some time to catch up to him. When one of his workers had gotten arrested, he snitched on Trey to get time knocked off his sentence. This helped the police bang the final nail in the coffin.

No one from his crew even came to bail him out. Th

ey all took advantage of his stash. They knew that Trey would be going away for a long time, so they began to branch off and do their own thing with his money.