Dirty DNA (G Street Chronicles Presents) (16 page)

SW Washington, DC

Gatsby followed YaSheema since earlier that
day and lost her somewhere in the congestion of Georgetown traffic.
Nothing had seemed abnormal in her travels. She had ventured to
Southeast DC and made two stops since leaving her home. She had
gone to a well-known drug area known as the Parklands. She had
entered one of the buildings and left after about ten minutes or
so. From there she had driven to a different section of Southeast
and was met by an unknown black male whom she accompanied into
another apartment building.

Gatsby hadn’t thought much of her travels
until she had rushed out of the building about an hour or so later
in a big hurry. She had a look of worry on her face. She got in her
car and broke all types of laws and speed limits from one side of
the city to the other. Gatsby hadn’t tried to stop her or detain
her so he could see if he could find out what had her shook up.
Somewhere on M Street, Gatsby had lost her and figured she was
heading home.

Unfortunately, YaSheema had come home to a
grizzly scene. Her father had been brutally murdered in his home
and long-time family friend, Oscar Jones had been critically
wounded and was fighting for his life in a nearby hospital. Once
the officers were able to get YaSheema out of the house and to the
station, she wouldn’t talk.

Gatsby knew she knew more than she was
letting on, but she wouldn’t open her mouth about it. Something, or
someone, had led her home. The call for distress didn’t come over
the police radio until after he had followed her good into
Georgetown and lost her. So far, the girl had witnessed her
boyfriend murdered, and then someone tried to wipe out her entire
family. Gatsby had no idea how he was going to get her to talk, but
he had to try. He tried to make sense of all of the senseless
violence that seemed to be following YaSheema and could not make
heads or tails of any of it. No one should have that much bad luck.
Gatsby had covered all of his bases before even trying to question
her. His questioning of the girl’s “so called” uncle was useless.
He had been Medevac’d out to Prince Georges Hospital Center. He
said the same thing the police already knew. Nothing.

He said he had been
preparing to escort Mr. Clayton out on some random errands and was
met in the garage by masked individuals. That was all he could
provide. Gatsby popped open his bottle of antacids. He shook three
out of their container and ate all of them and washed them down
with a warm
Pepsi
. Gatsby pushed the pencil round and round his desk before
pushing his roll chair away from his desk and standing up. Hating
to be the one to have to question the girl again; Gatsby prepared
himself for what he knew was going to be damn near impossible.
Getting anything out of the daughter of the late, kingpin, Darnell
S. Clayton would take a miracle. She had already proved to be a
hard ass.

Walking out of his office and into the
questioning room, he turned the knob to find YaSheema sitting with
a blank stare on her beautiful ebony face. She looked as though her
soul was lost. The shit that happened to her was worse for her than
the hit on her boyfriend. She had all the classic signs of shock
starting to set in, and Gatsby wondered if he should get her some
medical attention.

As if she were reading his mind, YaYa spoke
up. "No, I am not crazy yet; but if you all don't find out who did
this to my family someone else may need medical attention. I am in
no mood for playing games with you or anyone else. Detective
Gatsby, let’s get this straight right now. I don't know what
happened. I don't know who would want to hurt my Dad and Oscar. I
received a text message from my brother who told me to “run.”
Instead of running, I went straight home and found Oscar and Daddy
like that. I cannot find my baby brother and I am afraid for his
life.” YaSheema had decided to tell Gatsby about her brother just
as a pre-caution.

“YaSheema, as I promised you before, I will
find out what happened to your loved ones. Do you think any of this
was connected with the murder of your boyfriend?" He asked as
gingerly as he could. He didn’t want to set her off again.

I cringed and shifted in my seat at the
mention of Papi. I had handled all loose ends dealing with him,
unlike the stupid detective who was still looking for his killer
whom he would never find because I had deaded that bitch days
ago!

"Detective to be honest with you, it could
have been anyone."

“YaSheema, do you know where your brother
could have gone if he indeed made it out of the house before the
violence occurred? He could be the missing piece to this
puzzle."

I cocked my head to the side as if I were in
deep thought. I knew where he was, but I wasn't going to tell the
Feds anything before I got a chance to talk to him. I was willing
to bet my left hand to God that he had made his way to Trinidad to
NiQue's. Where else was he to go?

"No detective, I don't know where he could
be. Please find him because he is all I have left in this world
besides Oscar, and I am not going to sit here and wait for some
more bad news." I demanded.

I thought by adding that would convince the
nosey ass detective that I didn't know anything in regards to my
brother's location.

"Ahhh…Ms. Clayton, may I ask where your
mother is? I have her listed as Christa Reynolds. Maybe your
brother went to her for help."

I shook my head. "My mother left my father's
home months ago and hasn't been seen since. You see my brother is
my half brother. He was not my father's son. My mother came back
into my life about seven months ago and then she disappeared and
left Neko with us. My Dad took on the role of being Neko's
provider. We have no idea where Christa is." I stated coldly.

My cell phone began to vibrate. It stopped
Gatsby from moving to his next question about where he could
possibly look to find Christa. The text read, “Call me when they
let you go.” It was Neko. I could feel the headache I had acquired
starting to subside with just that text. I knew he was safe and
that made me feel much better than I had felt all day.

After receiving that text from Neko, I was
able to breeze through the rest of the questions with ease. Once
Gatsby was finished playing twenty questions with me, I gathered my
things and left the station. I hadn't even noticed that I was still
wearing the blood stained clothing from holding my father in my
arms. I damn near ran to my car and jumped inside and began dialing
NiQue's number because I dared not call Neko on his phone because
that retarded cop had made it seem that Neko may have had something
to do with all of the shit going down, and I sure didn't want Neko
involved in my mess any further than he already was. NiQue answered
on the first ring. I wasn't going to talk too much.

"Aye NiQue, is he there?" I asked.

"Yes, he is here. Are you ok? Do you need me
to come and get you? Where are you? What happened?"

I wasn't feeling her. She should have known
better than to ask me a bunch of questions. She was starting to get
on my nerves here lately. I wasn't going to answer shit and she had
Neko right there with her. I am sure he could answer all of the
questions she had. I pressed the end button on the phone and tossed
it to the passenger seat. I drove in the direction of Northeast
DC.

I slid in a Cap
Citi/Kushboys CD and needed some motivation to stay strong and to
ride the shit out until the wheels fell off. "I'm A Winner" by
Lucky Lamar and Mama's Moonshine came pouring through the
Bose
system. They were
singing the truth. I was a winner but I was losing so much, so
fast; it was hard to believe what had happened. I didn't even want
to think about my Daddy not being around with me. As far as I was
concerned, he was right there with me. I puffed on a Djarum as I
sped through the busy streets of Drama City. I reached NiQue's
house and Neko was sitting on her front porch. His eyes were red
and all of NiQue's father's guards were posted all around. You
would think they were just niggas hanging out if you didn't know
any better. I ran full speed to my brother's waiting arms. I could
tell he had been crying and he wasn't hiding how hurt he was with
what had happened. He loved Daddy just as much as I had because he
was one of the only people who loved him as much as I
did.

Neko pulled me into his embrace and
cried.

"Neko what happened?" I
asked confused. "I went to make a run to Corrine's house and found
her folded up in the closet. Neko, I ran from there to Dread's
house and that's when I got your text." I continued. I was just
spilling my guts and not even paying attention to NiQue who was
taking in every word. I saw how she had grimaced when I mentioned
Dread. She would have to get over that shit and understand that he
and I were just friends. Although I didn’t owe her any
explanations, I felt like that needed to be explained, but it just
wasn’t the time. I had more important shit on my mind.
I
held on to Neko tight and cried. I held him so tight because I felt
like if I were to let him go, something bad would happen and I
couldn’t afford that. I searched all over his frame to make sure he
was unharmed and continued.

“I came straight home as soon as I got your
text. When I got there Oscar was hurt critically and Daddy is
dead.”

I began to tear up again and I felt faint.
NiQue rushed over to my side and passed me a bottle of water. I
tried to gather my composure so I could get Neko’s take on the
whole thing.

“Neko.” I said between sniffles. “How did
you get out of there? What happened in there?” I asked.

Neko was barely audible as he tried to run
back the deadly events. He had tears soaking his face and was
shaking so bad, he couldn’t control it.

“I was about to leave to head over to this
side of town and I went to ask Oscar to move Pop’s car so I could
get out of the drive way. When I came back to the garage, I saw the
garage door was opened so I figured Oscar had moved the car.
When I stepped into the garage from the house I saw Oscar running
back into the car bay from the driveway. There was a dark colored
van in the turn around and I knew who ever it was, wasn’t invited.
Something deep inside told me to go back inside the house. I ran. I
ran up the stairs past my room and into Pop’s room. I hid in the
hide-a-way space in his closet. That’s when I heard the shots
fired. YaYa, I thought the gunshots would never stop. I sent you
the text from Pop’s closet. When the gun fire ceased I left out of
the closet and ran out of the front door. I never looked back.”
Neko’s voice had trailed off.

The tears were streaming from Neko’s gray
eyes. I don’t know what was more heartbreaking. Losing my Daddy, or
watching my brother, who was such a warrior earlier, cry like a
baby. I felt woozy listening to Neko relive the whole ordeal. NiQue
was crying as if she had lost one of her own. Something inside of
me clicked and I stopped crying. I wiped away the tears and stood
up. I still wasn’t sure if I was strong enough to stand and walk on
my own, but I was going to try.

“NiQue, I have some things I have to handle
and since my home is a crime scene and Neko and I cannot just walk
back in there safely, can he stay here?” I asked.

NiQue nodded her head up and down slowly. I
couldn’t quite read her emotions. She looked like she felt sorry
for us. She had a look of sadness in her eyes, but there was
something sinister lurking behind the sadness. She wasn’t happy
about the Dread comment, and I knew we were going to have to talk
about that shit at some point. I, on the other hand, was on a
mission to find out who had set out to destroy me and my family. I
started walking down the sidewalk towards my car that was parked
haphazardly at the curb, and Neko ran up behind me.

“YaYa, I am coming with you. You ain’t
leaving me here while you out there.” He said wiping away his
tears.

I looked at my baby brother and had to
remind myself he was raised to try and take care of shit no matter
how bad it was. He may have looked like a grown man, but he wasn’t
ready for all that was going on. There was no way I was dragging
him into that shit.

“Neko, I have to find out who did this to us
and you cannot get yourself involved. It seems as though whoever is
after the family doesn’t know about you, and I want to keep it that
way.”

Neko opened his mouth to argue, but I
stopped him before he could even formulate the words to try and
convince me that riding out with me was the smart thing to do. I
didn’t want to leave him because I didn’t know if I was ever going
to see him again, but I couldn’t risk him getting hurt or even
worse, killed…because of me. Maybe he knew that coming with me
wasn’t a good idea, because he didn’t ask or try to join me again.
NiQue just nodded her head at me as if to say she knew her position
and she was going to look after my baby brother. I got in the car
and pulled away from the curb with my baby brother and best friend
watching me drive away to my unknown future.

Marygold’s Hall and Nightclub

Lanham, MD

I sat up in the bed looking out of my hotel
window thinking to myself; my father was gone, and I couldn’t make
contact with my brother unless I wanted to put him in harm’s way.
NiQue seemed like she had a chip on her shoulder since she had
heard me mention Dread’s name. Oscar was in PG Hospital and from
what the doctors were willing to tell me, being that I had no
blood relation to him, he was stabilized but was still in serious
condition. I had taken up temporary residence in the Hilton in
Crystal City because I felt like it was safe to stay there. I had
requested that several of NiQue’s father’s guards post up in and
around the hotel. I had been there for four days. I had barely
eaten, and I wasn’t going to leave until I had a game plan.