Animal (2 page)

“Why don’t you tell these Nazis to cool out?” another boy shouted, getting in the mustached officer’s face. In his excitement spittle flew from his mouth and splattered on the officer’s face.

“Did this muthafucka just spit on me?” the mustached officer wiped his face with the back of his uniform sleeve. From the shock on the boy’s face it was clear that it wasn’t intentional, but it was all the officer needed to employ
excessive
force. When he reached for his pepper spray Detective Brown grabbed him by the arm.

“At ease,” Detective Brown whispered to the officer. “We’re
in foreign territory, and the natives are restless, so we don’t need you doing something stupid to put us all in an awkward predicament. These people just lost a family member, so if you can’t show respect, at least show a little compassion.”

The officer’s eyes said that he wanted to try Detective Brown, but he wisely fell back. Detective Brown approached the grieving woman and her family. They cast intimidating glares at him, but he was unmoved. “So this is how you wanna go about it, huh?”

“Fuck that. That’s my li’l brother lying out, and these assholes are treating us like criminals,” a girl who looked like a younger version of the woman in the robe barked.

“And they’re gonna keep treating you like criminals the way you’re carrying on,” Detective Brown shot back. “C’mon, people. We all know how this is gonna play out if this gets crazy. Them bluecoats are gonna come through kicking ass and taking names, and that ain’t gonna bring your family back or get us any closer to finding out who did this. Now, we can do this the easy way and have this woman step over and identify the body or the hard way.” He looked over his shoulders at the cops gathering behind him. “Your call.”

The woman motioned for her family to be calm and stepped forward. “Please, just let me see my boy.”

Detective Brown took the woman by the hand and walked her over to the corpse, where one of the medical examiners was scraping under his fingernails. As they neared the body he could feel her begin to tremble so he squeezed her hand to try to comfort her. “Ma’am, I gotta warn you that this isn’t the prettiest scene in the world.”

The woman composed herself enough to speak. “I don’t care. Please just let me see if that’s my baby under that sheet.”

Detective Brown leaned in and whispered something to the medical examiner that made her face sadden. With a reluctant nod, she pulled the sheet from the corpse’s face. As soon as she laid eyes on her baby boy she broke down. Her eyes were telling her one thing, and her heart was telling her another. Before anyone realized what she was doing the woman snatched the sheet off the body completely and beheld what was left of her son, Slick. His eyelids had been melted shut, and the corners of his mouth were cut back to make it look like he had a permanent smile on his face. Slick’s body was covered in cuts and bruises, and his throat had been slit clean to the bone. The only thing keeping it attached to his body were shredded pieces of skin. The most disturbing thing was the word
war
carved into his forehead. She had seen enough.

Detective Brown barely had time to catch the woman when she collapsed into him. She buried her face in his chest, soaking his silk shirt with her tears. Her sobs were so intense that Detective Brown could feel them vibrating in his chest as they came. “I’m sorry for your loss,” was all that he could think of to say, rubbing her back to offer some sort of comfort. Being a father himself, Detective Brown could only imagine what she was going through, and the thought of losing one of his own kids scared him to death.

The woman peeled her face from his shirt and looked up at Detective Brown. Her eyes were swollen and red and would no doubt get worse before the night was over. “Who would do this to my boy?” Her voice quivered. “What kind of animal would do this to a child?”

“Don’t worry, ma’am; catching
animals
is our specialty. We’re gonna get the son-of-a-bitch who did this to your boy,”
Detective Brown assured her. After a few more minutes of consoling and kind words the detective passed the distraught mother off to her family and walked over to join his partner Alvarez, who was scowling over the scene.

“This is fucked up,” Alvarez said in disgust.

“Tell me about it.” Brown loosened his tie. “How many does that make for us this month?”

Alvarez thought about it for a minute. “Five or six. I lost count.”

“And those are just the ones we’ve been working. Think about how many other poor bastards have been splattered around the city in the last few weeks. Nah, this whole situation smells funny. These people haven’t been random shootings or arguments gone wrong. They’ve been murdered . . . brutally.”

Alvarez finally caught on. “Like someone is trying to send a message?”

“Bingo,” Detective Brown nodded, “and from the looks of things it isn’t a friendly message. Something is afoot in the jungle, and I’d be willing to bet my pension that if we dig deep enough, you and I both know who we’ll find tied up somewhere in this.”

Alvarez didn’t understand what he meant at first but when he really thought about it his eyes widened. “You don’t mean . . .”

“Indeed I do,” Brown said. “I thought maybe I was bugging when I first started putting it together, but once I really began to roll it around in my mind,” Brown shook his head, “this has that little punk written all over it.”

Alvarez shook his head in protest. “Brown, I know you’d like nothing more than to slap a life sentence on that whole clan,
but I think you’re reaching. Besides, the last time I checked, the deceased was an affiliate, so why would he whack one of his own?”

Detective Brown gave Alvarez a comical look. “J, I swear if the brass ever decided to give you a random drug test they’d kick your ass off the force. He’s not the deliverer of the message, but the
recipient
. Three of those messes we were called in on were current or past employees. Looks like somebody finally got up the balls to try to put Prince Charming back in his place.” Brown’s lips parted into a wide smile.

“Damn,” was all Alvarez could say once the pieces started falling into place. “If that’s the case, then it’s gonna get way worse before it gets better.” Alvarez shook his head.

“Yup, and once again, we gotta step in to clean up his shit,” Brown said, disgustedly.

“The first thing we gotta do is try to get a line on who the new player in the game is. There aren’t too many powerful or stupid enough to go at him in the streets like this, so the list of names should be a short one. Where do you suggest we start our search?”

“At the source,” Brown said before heading to their car.

Animal stood just beyond the police tape, watching the crime scene among the rest of the spectators. His mane of wild black curls was tucked deeply into a Rasta-style wool cap, and black glasses covered his eyes to protect his identity while he moved within mere yards of the men looking to bury him under a prison for the rest of his days. It was dangerous playing the crime scene so close, but Animal wanted to feel the public’s reaction to his handiwork.

When he noticed the black and brown detectives in the sea of blue uniforms, a smile parted his lips. He was both surprised and
impressed that they had survived his prison escape a few years back when K-Dawg’s men came for him. Los Negro Muertes had been ruthless in Animal’s abduction, and to his knowledge, there had been no survivors. The fact that the detectives had not only survived, but had returned to active duty, told Animal that the two men were more resilient than he had given them credit for. As preoccupied as everyone was with the body and controlling the mob, it would’ve been fairly easy for Animal to kill one, if not both, of the detectives and have a good chance at escaping, but he would let them keep their lives. They’d earned them and were safe . . . unless they came between him and what he had to do.

He watched the detectives hurriedly leave the crime scene and jump in their unmarked car. He had a good idea where they were off to. The Buick zipped up the street and passed Animal, catching him in its headlights. As they passed, Animal made fleeting eye contact with the Puerto Rican detective. There was a brief moment of recognition, then the detective turned away as if he had never seen him. Animal smiled and kept walking toward where he had the rental car stashed.

He felt better after finally being able to spill the blood of his enemies, but Slick had only been an appetizer to the main course. His wrath would be the stuff of legends, and his enemies would feel what he felt—
pain
. He knew before fleeing to New York that the situation was bad, but he had no idea how bad. Though Tionna had tried to assure him that what had happened wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t help but to feel like it was. Had he been by her side instead of caught up in the madness of K-Dawg and Los Negro Muertes, he could’ve been there for Gucci. His only solace was that he had gotten to see her for a little while when he returned home, but the homecoming was a bittersweet one.

TWO

ONE MONTH EARLIER

A
S PROMISED
, R
ED
S
ONJA’S PLAN WAS TO
get Animal safely out of Puerto Rico and on his way to New York. It was no easy task, and he had to go the long way, via ship, because the airports were too risky. When the ship he was hiding on reached Miami, Animal was to meet a cat named Diamonds who would provide him with firearms and the means to make the rest of his journey. His brief stay in Miami had been anything but a vacation, and he’d barely made it out with his life and his sanity, thanks to the twisted games that Diamonds liked to play. But even as twisted as Diamonds was, he kept his word and helped Animal, providing him with a piece of information that would prove invaluable for what he needed to do in New York.

Diamonds had offered Animal an entire arsenal, but he passed on the heavy firepower and opted only for a few handguns. They were easier to conceal in the small rental car than a bunch of machine guns. The last thing he needed was some
overzealous state trooper to find them and create a whole new set of problems. There was no doubt in Animal’s mind that he would hold court in the streets before he allowed anyone to cage him again, but he figured if he could save himself the headache he would.

The drive from Miami to New York was over twenty hours, but he didn’t mind. After what had happened with Diamonds and his crew in Miami, he needed time to think and plan his next move. The plan had been for him to go directly to his safe house in New Jersey, but he had to see Gucci. Sonja had sent word to him about what hospital she was staying in and her condition. Thankfully, she was alive, but she wasn’t doing well at all. It wasn’t a smart move for Animal to go to the hospital, but he wasn’t thinking with his head; he was thinking with his heart, and his heart longed to be reunited with his lover.

As soon as Animal crossed the George Washington Bridge, he rolled the windows down and inhaled deeply. His nose and lungs were filled with the familiar scents of exhaust fumes, rotting trash, and money. He had finally made it home, but he was still a fugitive and had to tread very carefully.

Slipping into the hospital proved to be easier than he’d thought. Security paid little to no attention to him. They had their hands full helping the doctors and paramedics deal with the heavy load of patients that were coming in from what Animal was able to pick up while ear hustling. There was some sort of drug war taking place on the streets of Harlem. Normally, he and his crew would’ve been on the streets doing recon to see how they could capitalize on the feud, but Animal had more pressing issues to deal with than street beefs.

Thinking back to his running partners, Brasco, Nefertiti,
and Ashanti, it filled him with great sadness. They had been all each other had when things were good, but the events leading up to Animal’s arrest tore them apart. Secretly, he blamed himself for the decimation of their crew. Had he only listened to Gucci and left the streets alone everything would still be good, but his unwillingness to let go of old grudges had ruined everything. On more than one occasion, he had wanted to reach out to his comrades to let them know that he was okay, but he knew it was impossible. The police knew how close the four of them had been, so there was no doubt that they were being watched closely.

Animal had spent many sleepless nights worrying about his friends and how they were holding up. Nef had never really been cut out for the streets, so it wouldn’t have surprised him at all if he’d squared up and gotten a job somewhere. Brasco was a warrior, so there was no need to fear about his fate. Whatever Brasco was up to it was probably centered on chasing a dollar. Those two were good, but it was little Ashanti that worried him.

Ashanti had been the runt of their crew. He was the smallest man but had the biggest heart and the most to prove. Much like Animal, Ashanti had lived a very hard life, which is probably why they took to each other the way they did. In Ashanti he saw what Tech must’ve seen in him and took the boy under his wing, protecting him and teaching him to defend himself. Ashanti was a very quick study and proved to have a knack for violence that you didn’t see in the average teenager, but as he had proven time and again, Ashanti was anything but average. From an early age, hardship and the streets had turned his heart to stone, and he loved nothing or no one but his crew.
Thinking of his mischievous face made Animal smile, and he was going to make it a point to try to get word to him that he was okay.