Hostile Takeover

“Yeah, Mike, you owe me for this one.”

“Whatever you want.”

Her voice softened. “I’m going to hold you to that. Bye, Mike,” she said, and hung up the phone. My next call was to The Late Night.

“Late Night.”

“Vickie?”

“Yo, Mike, what’s up?” Vickie slurred. She sounded fucked up. “I’m sorry I rolled out on you without saying goodbye, but you were sleeping so peacefully.”

“It’s cool. What are you doing answering the phone? Where’s Sylvia?”

“She said she had a date, so I said I’d answer the phone for her.”

“Is Nick or Jamaica there?”

“I haven’t seen them.”

“Shit.” Now it was me that wanted to suck my teeth. “Is The Kid there?”

“He’s right here.”

“Put him on.”

“Hold on,” she said, and put Freeze on the phone.

“Yo, Black, what’s up?”

“Is Nick or Jamaica there?”

“Nope. Nick was here, but he rolled out about an hour ago. Why, what’s up?”

“Is Wanda there?”

“She’s not here either.”

“Fuck. How fucked up is Vickie?”

“I heard that, Mike and I am not fucked up,” I heard Vickie yell.

I hated to do it, but I didn’t have much choice. “I need her to drive you to Roscoe’s right now. I’m in the office.”

“Understood,” Freeze said, and hung up.

Since I didn’t want to close the spot or wait until it closed, I looked around Roscoe’s office for something to wrap the body in so we coul

d get it out of there and dispose of it. There was an imported Persian rug on the floor that Roscoe probably paid a lot of money for. But since he wouldn’t be needing it any more, I wrapped his body in it.

It was a half an hour later when I heard a knock at the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s me and The Kid,” Vickie said. “Open the door.”

“Shit,” I said softly, and immediately regretted not telling Freeze to come to the office by himself. Like I said, Vickie didn’t have any part in what we did, and I liked to keep it that way. The last thing I wanted was for Vickie to see this. I unlocked the door and was glad that I didn’t wait for Freeze to wrap up the body.

“See I’m not that fucked up,” Vickie said as she walked in the office. “So what was so important …” she stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the body. By this time, blood had seeped through the rug. She looked away. “Tell me that’s not what I think it is.” Vickie covered her mouth. “I’m gonna be sick,” she said, and rushed out of the office.

“Great.” I shook my head. “Go after her and get her keys.”