Against the Grain (25 page)

31

Kay was charged with thirty-one counts of conspiring to run a continuing criminal enterprise, drug possession and distribution, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, ten million dollars in tax evasion, conspiracy to distribute 2,500 kilos of heroin, and murder. Kay couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. He put his face in his hands. Two U.S. Marshals handcuffed Kay and took him to Central Booking. When he finally got to use the phone, he called Shu-Shu, who was already in Baltimore. She cried into the phone as she told Kay that she heard about it through one of the employees at work, who heard about it on the radio. She told him that the shit was all over the news and everything.

She was with the lawyer and they’d been trying to track Kay down but everybody had been giving them the runaround. Kay told her that he was okay and that he loved her. She put the lawyer on the phone. Kay told him everything he’d been charged with and he told Kay that everything would be alright. They had to wait until Tuesday for a bond hearing. It was Thursday. Kay didn’t want to hear that so he told him to put Shu-Shu back on the phone. He told her that he didn’t trust that motherfucka and for her to hire the Dream Team if she had to. No matter what the cost. He told her to go home and he would call her in a little while. When the officer brought Kay his food—two hard-boiled eggs, a scoop of oatmeal, a slice of toast, and a carton of milk—he looked down at the tray and knew he wasn’t about to eat that shit. He told Shu-Shu that he loved her again, hung up, and went to his bunk to lie down for a minute. He put both hands behind his head and stared off into space.
Damn, here I go with this bullshit again. I done fucked up for real this time,
he thought to himself. Then he realized how hungry he was and could hear Scatter’s voice telling him, “When you get knocked and all the red carpet treatment stops, that’s when reality begins.” Kay smiled and dozed off to sleep.

•         •         •

Apache stood there smiling at Kay. He was dressed in a white button-down shirt and white jeans. Kahdijah walked up to Apache’s left side and he put his left arm around her shoulder. She looked good, clean, and healthy. She wore a white backless top and a pair of white capri pants. She smiled at Kay. Scatter walked up on Apache’s right side. It was more like a pimp strut. He wore a white two-piece suit, white shirt, white shoes, and a white pimp hat. He smiled and Kay could see that he still had his teeth. Apache took his right hand and held up the peace sign. Then he put it across his heart. Kay knew what it meant. Kahdijah blew a kiss to Kay, then she and Apache turned and walked away holding hands. Scatter just stood there and stared at Kay for a moment. Kay also understood that. Big Duke walked up wearing white jeans and a white hoodie. He stood next to Scatter and smiled. The four of them were telling him that they were at peace and they loved him. He loved them, too. Scatter looked over his left shoulder at Apache and Kahdijah. When he saw how phat her ass was in those capri pants, he looked back at Kay and pointed as if to say, “Do you see that?” He turned back to Kay and pointed at him with both hands. Then he made two fists and crossed his hands like an X and patted his chest twice. He turned and tapped Big Duke on the arm as if to say, “Come on.” And in a fast pimp strut, he caught up with Apache and Kahdijah. Big Duke put both hands in the big pocket on the front of his hoodie, showed Kay that he still had his burner, turned and followed them. Kay watched the four of them walk into the darkness until they were gone. He slept peaceful after that.

•         •         •

Kay went to the bond hearing Tuesday morning wearing a blue Sean John two-piece suit and a pair of blue ostrich shoes that Shu-Shu had dropped off at the jail the day before. When Kay was escorted in the courtroom he saw his lawyers, Warren Downs and Andrew Broccoletti, standing behind a table. Andrew Broccoletti was a high-powered attorney out of New York who had represented some very high-profile cases and won. A friend of Shu-Shu’s turned her on to him. Kay walked over and shook both lawyers’ hands. He thanked Broccoletti for taking his case. He turned around and looked at Shu-Shu, who was sitting in the first row of benches right behind the lawyers. She wore a sable-trimmed cashmere coat and brown suede over-the-knee boots, and a black wool beret. She looked beautiful. They blew kisses to each other. Kay turned to talk to the lawyers.

“I’ve been looking over your charges, and I’m going to be honest with you. Your chances for bail are slim to none,” Mr. Broccoletti said.

“Well, the probation lady came and talked to me about an hour ago. She asked me if the judge gave me house-arrest today, would my mother let them hook up a monitoring device to her phone? I told her yeah,” Kay told them.

“Alright, just sit tight and I’ll handle this.”

Just as Kay feared, the judge denied him bail. No matter how much Broccoletti argued, his status didn’t mean nothing to them. They said Kay was a flight risk. As the marshals escorted Kay to the back, he told Shu-Shu that he loved her. They put him in a holding cell behind the courtroom. His lawyers came back there to talk to him.

“I’m sorry, buddy. You see that I tried my hardest,” Broccoletti said.

“Are you alright?” his other lawyer, Warren Downs, asked him, because Kay kept his head down looking at the floor.

“Listen, I’ve got to get back to the hotel so that I can study your charges some more. Plus I’ve got to make a few important calls. I took your case in the middle of a case I was doing for a famous rapper with a gun charge so I’ll see you first thing in the morning,” Broccoletti said.

Kay never looked up from the floor. The lawyers stood there another thirty seconds without saying a word. It was an awkward silence. Then Broccoletti, trying to give Kay some hope, told him that he would file for another bail hearing and that he would see him in the morning.

•         •         •

Instead of taking Kay back to Central Booking, they took him to the supermax down on Madison and Greenmount Street. At the supermax they housed most of the inmates underground. Kay was put four floors down. This floor was considered the worst because that’s where all the hard, stupid, murderous niggaz were kept. All the inmates and officers knew who Kay was. The inmates cheered and banged on their doors as the guards escorted Kay to his cell. Kay wasn’t in the mood to make any new friends, so he didn’t answer as the guys yelled his name. They wanted to know if he needed anything like cosmetics, snacks, or stamps. When Kay didn’t answer them, they knew that he didn’t want to be bothered. They respected that.

The next morning, Kay’s lawyers came to see him.

“It doesn’t look good for the home team, Mr. Frost. There was someone inside your crew that was working for the Feds. They even got an eyewitness to a murder you supposedly committed. They got two bodies, Mr. Frost. One of them is Terry Miller, aka Magic. And the other is Michael Daniels,” Broccoletti told him.

Kay knew he was through. But how did they find Mike’s body? Everyone was dead or left town. The last person to see me with the body was that nigga P-Nut. And Nut was there when I killed Magic.
Oh shit! That nigga Nut is po-po,
Kay thought to himself. Before Kay could say anything the lawyer told him that the FBI along with the DEA had been watching Mike and other members of their crew very closely before Kay came home from prison. When Kay came home and blew up so quick, they decided to try to build a case against him also.

Kay looked up from the floor and asked his lawyers, “What’s the worst that could happen if I take it to trial and lose?”

Broccoletti thumbed through his stack of notes, then said to Kay, “You’re looking at life for the thirty-one counts of conspiracy. They’ll probably give you life for the possession, distribution, and tax evasion. Life for the conspiracy to distribute 2,500 kilos of heroin. Probably twenty years for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. And for the two bodies . . . the death penalty. That’s just a quick assumption. Nothing is written in stone.”

Kay couldn’t believe what he was hearing. His thoughts immediately went to his family. Especially Shu-Shu and Lil ‘C’.

Broccoletti interrupted Kay’s thoughts, “Mr. Frost, I think you should know that I’ve had three different agents call me at my hotel between last night and this morning. I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life. They want to talk to you. They know that you’re the middle man and they’re ready to make you a deal.”

Kay got up and paced back and forth, then said, “I can’t be no snitch, man, fuck that! That ain’t the rules of the game. I’ve got to keep it real.”

Broccoletti looked at Kay and shook his head. “Keep it real? Keep it real to what and to whom? Some motherfuckers on the streets, excuse my language, but some
person
on the streets that ain’t going to do shit for you and probably won’t remember your name in ten years while you rot away in prison? I’ve represented wiseguys in the mob and even they knew when the deck was stacked against them. They knew when to hold them and to fold them. Now I’m not telling you to cooperate with the government. I’m willing to go to trial and fight this thing to the end, but I think you should also know that before you came home from prison, Michael Daniels was getting your mother to put a lot of shit he bought, like cars and houses he used for dope spots, in her name. So the Feds have a fugitive warrant for your mother’s arrest. They’re going to charge her with conspiracy. They’re also going to confiscate her house and all your sister’s hair salons because they feel like everything was bought and maintained with drug money.”

Kay looked at Warren Downs, his other lawyer.

“Don’t worry about your and Shu-Shu’s assets. Nothing has your name on it and I’ve done a good job over the years of hiding things through dummy corporations,” Warren told him.

“The government is willing to forget about the charges against your mother if you cooperate with them,” Broccoletti said.

“Shit! It ain’t nothing for me to think about. I can’t let my moms go to prison. Set up the meeting.”

“Before you say a word to them, I want you to sign a plea agreement.”

“A plea to how much time?” Kay asked.

“I’m not sure, Mr. Frost. Give me some time to talk to them and work things out. I’ll get back to you in a few days.” Broccoletti got up and shook Kay’s hand, then headed for the door.

Warren Downs got up to follow Broccoletti, but Kay stopped him. “I need to talk to you for a minute in private.” When Warren shut the door behind Broccoletti, Kay informed him on what his next move would be.

•         •         •

A few days later, the U.S. Marshals took Kay to the Federal Building downtown where he met with both his lawyers. Broccoletti opened his briefcase and took out the government’s plea agreement. The plea was for ten years to life. By signing it, Kay would be pleading guilty to the known and unknown. No matter what he said he did, he could get no less than ten years and no more than life in prison. Because he would plead guilty to the conspiracy to distribute 2,500 kilos of heroin, the government agreed to drop all other charges, including those against his mother.

“You got a pen?” Kay asked.

Broccoletti handed him a pen and said, “I spoke to the U.S. Attorney in charge of this case and she said that if you help get some of the dope off the streets and give them the money you got stashed, she’ll consider putting in a motion for a 5K1.1. That’s a time reduction at the time of your sentencing. Then within a year after you’ve been sentenced, she’ll file another motion for a Rule 35. That’s another time reduction. She said that she can’t tell you what it’s going to be because that’s up to the judge.”

Kay liked the sound of that.

When Broccoletti went out of the room to let the agents know that they were ready, Kay looked at Warren and whispered, “Give them seven million dollars.” Warren shook his head okay.

Andrew Broccoletti came back in with at least six FBI and DEA agents behind him. They all came in with their pens and pads and took a seat. They smiled at Kay now, feeling as though he was on their team. But that was so far from the real truth. The only reason Kay was sitting in that room was because of his love for his mother. It would destroy his family if he were to let her go to prison. The Feds played a dirty game. If he had his way he’d kill every agent in the room. Agent Powell asked Kay if he was comfortable and if he wanted something cold to drink before they got started.

Agent White sat next to Kay and told him, “Listen, before you think about lying to me, I want you to know that I’ve been doing this for twenty years. The only reason why you’re here is to make sure that everything I’ve got is correct. So if I catch you lying, I’m going to get up and walk out of here and we can just forget about everything. You can rot in prison. Your mom can rot in prison. Your whole family can rot in prison. I don’t care. Do you understand?”

Kay nodded his head and said, “Aiight, man, I feel you.” Then he took a deep breath.

“Now tell me from the beginning, how you got into the dope game,” Agent White said.

Over the next three days the Feds did a rash of raids in Baltimore, New Jersey, Detroit, Atlanta, New York, North Carolina, Philly, Ohio, Pittsburgh, Cali, and Milwaukee. One raid resulted in nineteen arrests, eleven pounds of heroin, fifteen guns, and 2.2 million in cash. They raided the houses of all the lower-level workers. They picked up Joey You also, and reindicted his father along with him. It made national news. On the fourth day, the Feds showed Kay hundreds of pictures. He had to identify all the faces he recognized. Just as he figured, he saw everyone’s picture except Nut’s. When they asked him about Dre, Kay told them that Mike said he’d killed Dre and his girl and that’s why he killed Mike. Then they asked about Officer Ayala, and Kay gave her up. She was picked up the same day.

When they asked Kay to tell them about the next big shipment of pure heroin, he hesitated. He knew that it would involve Shu-Shu because the drugs came in through the exotic cars she ordered from Cali. The drugs were in the panels. There was no way that the Feds were going to believe that for almost six years, she didn’t know about it. After Kay told them where to find the five hundred kilos, an agent took out his cell phone and made a call to the FBI in Washington, D.C. Kay looked at Warren. Warren did as he was instructed and got up to go to the restroom. He made sure no one was in there as he dialed the number on his cell phone. When Shu-Shu answered, he said, “Spooker.” He hung up his phone and went back to the meeting. As he walked in the door, agents rushed out past him to raid Shu-Shu’s exoticcar business.