The longer I sat there, the more Mrs. Phillips reminded me of my grandmother. She raised me after my parents disappeared. One day when I was eleven they just didn’t come home. No one really knew what happe
ned to them. My younger brother and sister went to live with my aunt and uncle in Mississippi.
They didn’t want me.
My uncle said they were just babies and they would raise them in the church. He said that I was into too much trouble and he was right. Those days I was into everything. After that, it was decided that I would go live with my grandmother, and I didn’t see my brother and sister again. 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.
About a year ago I went to Mississippi and tracked them down. My brother is a deacon in the church and my sister is married to the minister. I saw them, talked to them, but I didn’t tell them who I was. They had no idea that they even had an older brother. They were two- and three- years old when I last saw them. I guess my uncle never even told them about me. Look how I turned out as opposed to them. Their brother: the gangster, the killer.
“You tell Mr. Black that I appreciate him sending you over to give me that money. I can’t remember the last time I entertained a handsome young gentleman.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“It was meant to be one.” Mrs. Phillips smiled. “I’m not accustomed to taking money from people.”
I stood up and put the envelope down next to Zakiya’s picture. “I understand that, but please take it to cover funeral expenses and that type of thing.”
“You tell Mr. Black if he really wants to do something for me, he will catch the people who took my baby from me. You promise me that, Mr. Simmons.”
“Please, call me Nick.”
“Promise me that you will find out who did this and see that they get what's coming to them.”
“I can’t promise you that, but I promise to do what I can.”
“That’s all I can ask for, Nick.” Mrs. Phillips laughed. “It’s more than the police offered me. To them it was case closed.”
“Do you have a picture of Zakiya that I could borrow?”
She gave me a picture and told me where Zakiya lived. I left that apartment thinking that I probably wouldn’t be able to find the bandits, but I would do what I could. One more thing to get me out of the house, and my mind off Freeze.
Chapter 7
I was up five o'clock that next morning, ready to go and out the house before Wanda opened her eyes. I wanted to be at the police station before the first shift came in. I needed to talk to Tamia Adams. She’s a New York City police sergeant who used to provide information for Freeze. I wanted to see if she had heard anything about the robbery. I had to catch her there because she’d moved and I had no other way to contact her.
Tamia took Freeze’s death very badly, much worse than his so-called woman, Tanya. So bad, that she cried through the whole funeral. After that, Tamia had to take some time off from work ’cause she was cryin’ all the time. That’s why she moved out of her apartment; said there were too many memories of Freeze there. Since then, any time she has something for us she’s been talkin’ to Black directly.
“Sergeant Adams,” I said when I saw her walking toward the building. I guess I startled her ’cause her head snapped around. She relaxed a little when she saw it was me. Tamia gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“How you doin’, Nick?”
“I’m good. The question is: how are you?”
“It gets a little better everyday.”
“Is there someplace we can talk?”
“Not around here.”
“I understand,” I said and we went back to my car to talk.
“What’s up?”
“There was a robbery at one of the businesses we own.”
“Which one?” Tamia asked.
“Paradise Fish and Chicken.”