The Face That Launched A Thousand Bullets (The Cartel Publications Presents) (16 page)

“I knew ‘bout you and Candy the second after you fucked her. But bein’ the nigga that I am, I was determined not to let a hoe interfere wit business. You couldn’t do that. And since it was that easy for her to leave, I felt you did me a favor. I got to admit, I just thought you were fuckin’ her from time to time. I ain’t know ya’ll were in here beatin’ each other’s asses and shit.” Kurtis Blow and Kavon laughed. “Nigga, I knew this would be the first place you’d run.”

“I ain’t run.”

“Shy, you ran. You know how much I love that woman and you ran. You got scared. I coulda smoked your ass a long time ago but I wanted to make sure my Tara was a’ight. And now that she is, I’m here” Kavon smirked.

“Nigga, fuck you!”

“They’ll be plenty of time for fucking.” Kavon grinned. “Plenty of time.”

Shy didn’t know what that meant and he adjusted on the floor. He wondered if he could take them out but quickly wiped that thought out of his mind after remembering his weapon was in his coat on the floor and in the living room.

“Why don’t you fight me like a man, huh? Straight up!” Shy offered seeing no other ends to the means in sight.

Kavon laughed.

“Shy…Shy…Shy. Have you taught me nothin’? Why do dirty work when I can pay somebody to do it for me? Plus I’m too pretty for this shit.”

“That’s why you got this nigga here?” he responded. “Cause you can’t fight your own battles? ‘Cause he your bitch?”

“Battles?” He smirked. “Nigga, I fight wars.” Kavon responded in a cold tone. “Main man bout to do everything to you, you did to my wife and more.”

Kurtis Blow cracked his knuckles.

The look on Shy’s face transmogrified from confidence to concern in an instant.

“Stand up.” The stranger finally spoke.

Shy looked up at him and reluctantly stood up. He figured if he was going to die, he might as well go out fighting. The moment he rose to his feet Shy stole Kurtis Blow off the top. Whop!

But Kurtis seemed unmoved. You would’ve thought he stroked his face instead of hitting him. He smiled and returned the favor by hitting him so hard, he regained his position on the floor again. Whop!

Blow after blow he dealt Shy until his large limp body remained down covered in blood. Candy still on the bed cried her eyes out.

“That’s enough for now,” Kavon said, stopping him. “Take his pants off.”

Shy was still moving, slightly conscious, but barely. Kurtis Blow was trained at this shit. When his pants were off, Kavon threw him the knife and the duct tape he brought with him. Everything was thoughtfully planned.

After Kurtis taped Shy’s mouth and hands, Kavon said, “Go in slow.”

With his legs bent at the knees, Kurtis rammed the knife into his rectum as Shy screamed out in agony. His voice muted.

“Do it again.” Kavon demanded. And again he rammed it up his anus. “That’s enough.”

With Shy falling in and out of consciousness it was important to Kavon that he got a few things off of his chest before Shy took his final breath.

Kavon walked over to him and knelt down. “One last thing. I know that bastard kid was hers the moment I saw his eyes. Whatever happened to bros above hoes?” he asked sternly. “It don’t even matter now though. And don’t worry, I’ll let the lil nigga call me daddy.”

Pop! Pop! Pop!

He shot him three times before he backed away and eyed his work. Candy, now quiet looked petrified after realizing she’d have to be dealt with next.

“I say we kill her,” Kurtis said, breaking the deafening silence.

Kavon looked at Kurtis and back at her. He didn’t want to kill her because she had a son, and he’d already taken his father.

“Can I trust you?” he said, seriously walking over to the bed.

“We need to kill her man,” Kurtis interrupted. “She’s seen my face, too.”

Kavon looked down knowing he was right.

“I promise I won’t say nothin’,” Candy interjected. “You know me.” She cried, wiping the sweat off of her face with her hands.

That statement almost got her killed. Everything in him told him to exact upon her the same fate. But the softer side of him, the side that was becoming a father, thought about Lil Shawn. He didn’t want him growing up with nobody to care for him even if it was her fucked up ass.

“I’m gonna let you breathe. But if there’s a problem, we will come back and finish you off. Do you understand what I’m saying?” he said calmly.

She nodded yes.

“If you ever tell anyone…I will be back.”

“I won’t tell anyone, Kavon…I promise. You can trust me.”

Four Days Later

Homicide Detective Betha knocked on Candy’s door with his partner Detective Mesaline. Although Detective Betha was white, and Mesaline was Italian, their beliefs mirrored one another so closely, they could be brothers.

Years of food, alcohol and cigarette abuse showed all over their dried faces and protruding bellies. Homicide detectives had to be tough and diligent. It was rough trying to get people to cooperate with police especially in the D.C, area.

“Who is it?!” Candy yelled on the other side of the door.

“Detective Betha and Mesaline. We’d like to talk to you for a moment.”

There was brief silence and they could hear wrestling on the other side of the door. Two minutes later, it swung open and Angel walked over to the couch wearing a pink robe. A cigarette dangled from the corner of her mouth.

“What’s up?” Candy crossed her right leg over the left one. “I’m kinda busy.”

They looked around. “Well it’s obvious you ain’t been busy cleaning up.”

She stuck her tongue out.

“This’ll only take a second.” Detective Betha sat in the chair across from her while Detective Mesaline remained quiet and looked around. “How are you holding up?”

“I’m fine I guess! All I really want to do is move on with my life and take care of me and my son.” She removed the cigarette from her mouth and emptied a few ashes on the table instead of the ashtray inches from it. “But ya’ll keep bothering me like I murdered him.”

“We’re not bothering you, ma’am.” Detective Mesaline said as he looked down at his partner. “But you do seem to be handling this pretty well.”

“Where I’m from people die all the time.” She looked up at him and back at Det. Betha. “Now what ya’ll really want with me?”

“We want to ask you a few questions for starters.” He whipped out a small spiral notepad from his inside coat pocket. “Did Shy have any other enemies that you know about? Because like we said earlier, the crime seems hate-related. It doesn’t seem like a robbery like you said it was.”

Realizing talking to her was a dead end, they both decided to leave. There were other ways of getting the truth and it wouldn’t be through her.

“Lieutenant Devely. It’s Betha and Mesaline. We’re gonna need the search warrant after all. She’s not trying to help. I’m positive she had everything to do with this murder. And the wire tap will prove it.”

First District

Wire Tap Surveillance

It had been two weeks since Detective Betha and Detective Mesaline were able to get a warrant and still nothing. They were frustrated as they watched over the machine waiting for evidence of any kind. But so far everything they heard seemed like a waste.

If Candy Brown wasn’t talking about going shopping, she was talking about who she would fuck to go shopping. All they were sure of now, was that she could care less about what happened to Shy.

Securing a warrant wasn’t easy. They had to convince the judge that Candy had probable cause to kill Shy and that she carried through with it. And after learning that she had a small life insurance policy on his head for $10,000, that she claimed was for their son, they thought it would be easy enough to do.

Before Judge Cheryl Bail signed anything, she wanted to be clear on the conditions. It wasn’t too long ago that both Detectives fumbled an entire case by submitting tampered evidence that had been given by an unreliable source. She did not want to have that type of mishap happening again. But the detectives assured her this time was different.

And now with everything in place, they were waiting for that one moment, when all would be revealed.

In The Mall

Candy pulled Lil Shawn by his arm in the Union Station mall, in D.C. She was in the Benetton shop picking up a few shirts, as her five–year-old son begged for food.

“I’m hungry!” he cried. “I want to eat.”

“Shut yo ass up!” she told him. “You ate this morning.”

It was now 6 in the afternoon. The truth was, she was an awful mother who preferred to spend the remainder of her money on gear instead of taking care of her only child. If it were quiet enough, the boy’s stomach could be heard growling from a few feet away.

After hearing what he already knew, the little boy cried even worse. When Shy was alive he spoiled his son rotten. No matter what, Shy spent at least three days a week with him. If Shy was capable of loving someone, his son would’ve been the only one to receive it.

Candy was fed up with Lil Shawn’s whining. She decided to sooth his beastly ass by feeding him. He was chubby like his father was when he was his age.

Walking to McDonald’s, she ordered the Happy Meal when the child could clearly eat a regular size helping. But the moment she dipped into her purse, she noticed all she had was five dollars. This was a problem because they still had to catch a train home. So she decided against getting him anything to eat.

That was it! She had to talk to Kavon. It was his fault she didn’t have the bottomless pit of dough anymore. Lately, all she had was a steady stream of cops questioning her about Shy’s murder. Surely her lazy ass could’ve gotten a job but why? And yes she spent all of the life insurance money. Still, she wanted Kavon to feed her habit for fly clothes. If he didn’t, she had all intentions of doing what she had to do to make him pay. She wasn’t afraid of his threats anymore either. She knew him enough to know he had a soft spot and children were it. And as long as Lil Shawn was alive, she’d be safe.

It was settled. She had to make a call.

Kavon’s Home

Kavon helped Tara who was walking on crutches to the couch. Despite being in pain, she stayed upbeat. Her courage made him love her even more.

“I can’t wait to make you my wife.” Kavon knelt down in front of her and massaged her feet.

“And I can’t wait to be your wife.” She stroked his face softly.

She showed him the rock on her finger as if he wasn’t the one who dropped enough cash on it to feed a small city in Africa for a week.

“Get that thing out my face, girl.” He joked. “I can’t see.”

She laughed. He smiled.

“You sure you don’t want to go to the Justice of the peace and make this official. We don’t need no fancy ass wedding to prove our love to one another.”

“No…I want to marry you right.” She said not wanting to have a rush wedding simply because Shy almost took everything from them.

Kavon looked at her face and noticed it was healing nicely. You barely saw where Shy’s teeth had punctured her face. To him she was more beautiful now than ever. As he talked to her, his pager went off on his hip. His heart dropped when he saw the number. It was Candy’s home phone.

“Baby, give me a second, I got to make a call.”

“Sure honey.” She said, never questioning his motive for leaving so abruptly.

Kavon walked to the kitchen, picked up the yellow phone on the wall and dialed the number.

“What, bitch?”

“Now…now…now.” She said slickly. “Is that any way to talk to someone who can keep your secret?”

His heart dropped. The bitch was threatening him.

“I thought we agreed that our arrangement was done.” He said angrily.

“We did.” She laughed.

“So what the fuck you want from me now?”

“Fifty thousand dollars…cash.” She told him right off the top. “And that’s an easy price to pay for me not to tell the cops you killed Shy.”

“You dirty, whore.”

“Kavon, please! Stop with the compliments. You are the one who took everything from me. I barely got enough money to feed my kid! Either you pay up or I’ma tell everything I know. And I do mean everything. You got five hours to think about it. When your decision is made, meet me at Haines Point to drop off my cash.” She said hanging up.

He had to think. If he paid her, he might as well open a bank account in her name, because the threats would never end. But if he didn’t, he was going straight to jail. As far as he saw it there was only one choice, he had to put her to sleep. He was a fool for not doing it in the first place.