argument,
and shortly thereafter she moved out. She stopped working in my shop too, so we
pretty much stopped all communication with each other.”
“When was the last time you spoke to her?”
“About a month before I decided to leave the country.”
“So she
hadn’t tried to contact you at all?”
“Nope.”
“What about a man? Did you meet any of her male friends that
might be linked to her murder?”
“She pretty much kept her personal life to herself. I used to
try to get her to go out on double dates with me, but she would always refuse to
go. I guess she was still bent out of shape behind that guy named Syncere she used
to mess with back in Virginia.”
Uncle Lanier shook his head in a frustrating manner. I could
tell he wasn’t pleased with what I had just said. He wanted something more solid,
but I couldn’t give it to him. I could see tears forming in his eyes, and my heart
went out to him, but at the same time my hands were tied. I couldn’t implicate myself
just to make him feel better. Hell nah! I would be a damn fool. He was just gonna
have to let the homicide detectives do their job, because I couldn’t help him.
I rubbed him on his back and told him that everything was going
to be all right, even though I knew it wouldn’t. Bintu’ and his family were notorious
gangsters, and they were pros at organized crime, so there was no way the detectives
or my uncle and his silly-ass wife would ever find out what went on in that abandoned
warehouse. I made a vow to take what happened to my grave, and that was what I intended
to do.
Uncle Lanier took another deep breath and then sighed heavily.
“We are having Nikki’s body shipped back to Virginia today because her funeral is
this Friday at noon, which is three days from now. So please promise me that you’ll
come.”
I hesitated before I answered, because the thought of going back
to that place gave me the creeps. I had no life there. Everyone who was left living
and breathing hated my fucking guts, so why even bother?
My uncle grabbed my hand. “Look, I know you have a lot of bad
memories there. But could you at least block all of that out for this one day?”
My mind was telling me to tell my uncle, “Hell nah!” But my heart
was forcing me to say the opposite. I went against my better judgment and told him,
“I’m only doing this for you and Nikki.”
He smiled. “That’s all that matters.” He kissed me on my forehead,
said good-bye, and turned to leave.
I watched him as he made his way back toward the police precinct,
his head held down the entire walk. It was evident that he was thinking about the
loss of his only child. Nikki was his pride and joy. I knew her parents had many
plans for her life. And now everything that they could have imagined would happen
for her had gone up in smoke.
Although my uncle wouldn’t admit it, I knew deep down inside
that he blamed me for the day she dropped out of school, to the day she got arrested
for transporting Ricky’s drugs, to the very day she got mixed up with that whack-ass
nigga Syncere. No matter what I could have said, they would not have believed me
if I told them that I had nothing to do with her getting with that guy. She’d met
him on her own. But, hey, what could I say? You win some, and you lose some.
After my uncle disappeared behind the double doors of the police
station, I turned around and started walking once again. My stroll only lasted ten
seconds because a taxi rolled up quicker than I could blink.
I got into the air-conditioned cab with absolutely no idea where
I wanted to go. I really didn’t have a reason to be in Houston, other than to pay
my real estate agent a fucking visit. How fucking grimy could she be, setting up
my ass to be picked up?
I thought about calling her trashy ass and telling her I was
taking my fucking house off the market and that I no longer need her damn assistance.
But, nah, I was just gonna