Keyshia and Clyde (17 page)

Chapter 30
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Keyshia and her daughter, Christina, were in their own little world, laughing and playing and trying to make up for the time they'd missed together. They couldn't keep their hands off each other, hugging each other for what seemed like the thousandth time. When Keyshia introduced her daughter to Clyde, they seemed to hit it off immediately. The three looked like a family as Keyshia and Clyde swung Christina from their arms.

The reunion started unwinding at about ten o'clock that evening as family members hugged and kissed. It was about the same time that Christina's father pulled up to take her home. Christina pleaded tearfully with her newfound mother to come home and live with her.

“Mommy, why don't you and Mr. Clyde just come home and live with me and my daddy and we can all be together?”

“Christina, that would be real nice, but that is not possible.”

“Why, Mommy?”

Keyshia could not answer her. All she could do was look in her daughter's precious, innocent face.

“Then can I come with you, Mommy?” she asked excitedly.

Keyshia could only tell her the truth. “Christina, right now your mommy can't take care of you the way Mommy wants to. For right now, it is best that you stay with your daddy, until your mother gets a job, maybe a house, and gets on her feet a little. When that happens . . .” Keyshia smiled widely. “You can come stay with Mommy as much as you want. How does that sound?”

Christina smiled and said, “Sounds great, Mommy!”

Keyshia stared at her daughter. “How did you get to be so smart?”

Christina shrugged and answered, “I don't know.”

They embraced for the final time, and Keyshia said, “I love you, Christina. Always remember that Mommy loves you to death. Now go ahead to your father.” She stood and watched her run into her father's arms and waved until they were out of sight.

Clyde walked over and asked, “You okay, baby?”

Keyshia threw her arms around Clyde for a long hug.

By noon the next day, Keyshia and Clyde were packed and ready for the fifteen-hour drive to New York. All of Keyshia's family were saddened to see them leave, especially her mother and little sister, Kenya. Keyshia and Clyde hugged each of her family members who lined up to see them off. Keyshia hugged her mother last and whispered in her ear, “This is for you and the boys and Kenya.” And she slipped her mother a thousand dollars.

Her mother shook her head. “Keyshia,” she began, but Keyshia stopped her.

“I know what you gonna say, Ma, but just accept it for me; it would mean the world to me.” Her mother stared into her eyes and nodded. They embraced again, and Keyshia pulled away and entered the car because she didn't want to break down in front of everyone.

Kenya ran to the passenger side of the car, and Keyshia smiled as she looked into her little sister's big doe eyes and asked her, “What's wrong, Kenya?”

“I want to go with y'all!” she said.

Keyshia rubbed her smooth dark skin and said, “Baby, there's nothing in the world I would like better than to bring you back with me, but right now, me and Clyde have to take care of some important things.” Kenya put her head down, dejected.

“But . . . ,” Keyshia said.

Kenya lifted her head as Keyshia continued, “I promise that the next time we come down here you can come back with us to visit. How does that sound?”

Kenya's face lit up and she leaned in and kissed her sister and said, “You promise?”

Keyshia nodded. “I promise.”

Clyde honked his horn and everyone waved good-bye and didn't stop until they were out of view.

They arrived at the George Washington Bridge just before seven in the morning and decided to get a head start and take care of everything that morning. Since the bank opened at eight, Clyde decided to head there and pick up all the money from Ceasar. He had been calling Sonny since last night to ask where to meet him to drop off the money, but he'd got no answer, so he decided to call Martha to see if Sonny had left a message for him.

“Hello, Martha, this is Clyde.”

“Hey, Clyde, how is your trip turning out?”

“It was okay, but I'm back now and—”

“You back, since when?” she asked.

“I just pulled into the city and I'm looking for Sonny. You heard from him?” The phone went silent, and Clyde asked, “Martha, you still there?”

“Yes, I'm here.”

“Well, did Sonny leave a message for me?”

“Umm,” Martha stammered, “I ain't heard from him since two days ago.”

Clyde frowned. “Okay, if you hear from him, can you tell him to call me? It's important.”

“What's the matter? Can I help you with something?” she asked.

“Naw, it's not that important,” Clyde lied. “Listen, I gotta go. I'm about to meet Ceasar at his job.”

“Clyde,” Martha said, “uh, you think you can stop over here first?”

“I'm sorry, Martha, I got to take care of something real important.”

“Please, Clyde, stop by here first. I need to see you about something.”

“Martha, what's wrong? Is everything all right with Sonny?”

“Yes, far's I know, but—” Just then he lost signal on his cell phone.

Keyshia asked, “What was that all about?”

Clyde shrugged. “She probably needs more money or something.” He sucked his teeth and said, “We just go to a Hundred and Twenty-fifth to see Ceasar, and I'll see her later.”

When they got to 125th Street and Lenox, traffic was unusually heavy. When they finally arrived at the bank, Keyshia double-parked. Clyde looked around and saw traffic cops all over the place and told Keyshia, “Listen, we can't double-park here, so drive around the block or something and come back so we don't get a ticket.” Keyshia nodded.

As Clyde got out of the car, he heard Keyshia call, “Clyde!” Clyde turned around. Keyshia smiled and said, “I love you, boy.”

Clyde smiled like a little boy and said, “I love you, too, girl!”

Keyshia watched him walk to the curb and enter the bank. She drove off and after a few blocks ran smack into traffic. She peered out of the driver's-side window and saw a funeral procession. She couldn't even do a U-turn because it was so congested. After ten minutes of waiting, she stepped out of the car and watched a convoy of high-end cars follow a black hearse. Curious onlookers on the sidewalk watched the nearly fifty-car procession pull out one by one. Keyshia overheard a conversation between two drivers next to her and asked, “Whoever died must be pretty important to cause this much traffic. I wonder who it was?”

Both drivers looked at her, and one said, “You don't watch the news or read the paper?”

Keyshia smiled and said, “I was out of town for a week.”

They nodded and the other said, “Well, it was hell up here in Harlem last week. Black Sam and his entire posse got wiped out! They say it was the worst killing since the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.” He held up the
Daily News,
which read,
HARLEM'S GANG BOSS BLACK SAM LAID TO REST TODAY.

Shocked, Keyshia quickly got back into the car and pulled over to park it. The men looked at her as if she had gone mad. Keyshia jumped out of the car and ran the two long blocks down 125th Street toward the bank as if her life depended on it.

When Clyde entered the bank, he looked for Ceasar but he didn't spot him. He observed a security guard watching him closely, so he walked over to an older female employee who was sitting in a cubicle and asked, “Excuse me, ma'am, I'm looking for my brother Ceasar Barker?”

She smiled and walked toward him and said, “You look just like your brother, only taller. I'm Mrs. Williams, your brother's supervisor. I just hung up with Ceasar and he said he will be a little late. You can wait for him over there, if you like.” She pointed to a seating area in the rear.

Clyde thanked her and said that he would. He took a seat, and no sooner did he sit down than three men burst through the bank door and announced a robbery. Clyde couldn't believe this was happening. The men, who held shotguns and handguns, quickly rounded up everyone.

“Put your fuckin' nose to the floor, and if one of you mother-fuckas moves, I'm gonna blow your fuckin' brains out.”

Clyde immediately recognized the voice. One masked man came to the back and pointed the weapon in Clyde's face and ordered him up front. When he got to the front, the masked man with the shotgun paused and stared him in the eye. Clyde recognized him instantly—it was his brother Sonny. Clyde knew enough to play everything cool and obeyed the man's order to lie on the floor. Clyde heard Wolf's voice as he grabbed the older lady he was speaking to earlier and ordered her to open the door to where the tellers were. She screamed in fear, and Wolf whacked her with his handgun and pushed her to the door, telling her all the while, “Shut the fuck up, bitch, and get them keys out!” Clyde didn't know the third man, but he appeared to be very nervous and shaky, which was a bad sign.

The security officer who was lying beside him reached toward his ankle.

Damn, Clyde thought, Sonny's slipping by not watching his hostage. He began to panic when he watched the security guard pull the pistol out of his leg holster and begin to rise. He saw the glint in the security guard's eye and read his body language: He wanted to be a hero, and Clyde knew he was going to kill his brother, who had his back to them. Clyde rose quickly to his feet, grabbed the man's hand, and wrestled with him for the gun.

Pow . . . pow . . . pow!
Shots flew everywhere as the security officer squeezed off round after round. The third gunman panicked and ran out of the bank. Sonny and Wolf joined in the struggle and bashed the security officer in the head with the shotgun, causing him to go down instantly. The hostages began to cry and scream for their lives. Sonny, Wolf, and Clyde ran out of the bank, but as soon as they had exited, they were swarmed by police cars and cops pointing weapons at them. They knew it was a no-win situation, and all three fell to their knees.

When Keyshia got to Lenox Avenue, she panicked when she saw the bank surrounded with police cars. She ran at top speed and got there just in time to see the police handcuff Clyde and walk him to a squad car. Keyshia lost all feeling in her legs as she collapsed at the sight of seeing her man arrested. “Clyde!” she yelled.

Clyde looked up and saw Keyshia, and he was totally helpless. “Clyde, no!” she screamed over and over. She tried to get to him, to just touch him, but she couldn't. The burly cops wouldn't allow it. Just then, Ceasar came up behind her and hugged her as they watched both his brothers be led into a police car.

Chapter 31
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Ceasar drove Keyshia home. Though he was saddened by the fact that both his brothers had been arrested for armed bank robbery, he couldn't help but feel violated because his brothers had committed the act at his place of employment. Keyshia told Ceasar that Clyde was innocent.

“You're wrong, Ceasar. Clyde didn't have anything to do with that bank robbery,” she pleaded tearfully. “We just came back from South Carolina when I dropped Clyde off to meet you to get the money you were gonna give him to pay off Black Sam.”

Ceasar asked, “Why would Clyde want to pay Black Sam his money back if he was dead?”

“Clyde didn't know, Ceasar! We just pulled back into New York! When I heard I ran to tell Clyde!”

Ceasar's mind was processing all this as he stared at the floor. “Did Clyde ever tell Sonny that he came up with all the money?”

Keyshia shook her head. “I don't think so. He was trying to contact Sonny for a while to let him know where to meet him to pay Black Sam his money.”

As Ceasar stumbled to the couch, Keyshia caught him just in time. “Ceasar, what's the matter?”

Spooked, he looked into Keyshia's eyes and said, “Sonny killed Black Sam for Clyde.”

Equally horrified, Keyshia asked, “How do you know Sonny did it?”

Ceasar's face collapsed as he said, “Because I told him to.” He explained, “You remember when we went to see my mother at the nursing home that Sunday?” Keyshia nodded. “This was before you guys told me how much money you came up with. I was talking to Sonny about Clyde getting involved with Black Sam, and Sonny told me how much money he owed him.” Ceasar shook his head. “When he told me how much, I panicked and told him that Clyde couldn't come up with that kind of money and that he should get him out of it. No,” Ceasar said with emphasis, “I ordered Sonny to get Clyde out of it by any means necessary.” His voice cracked, as he turned to her and said, “Oh, my God, I didn't think he would kill all them people for Clyde!”

Keyshia tried to assure him that it wasn't his fault, but it didn't matter. He felt like he was just as involved with the murders as Sonny. Ceasar began to fall to pieces, crying hysterically. “Listen, Ceasar,” she said, “we got to think. We can't afford to buckle right now.” She looked him straight in his eyes, and he admired her strength. “Clyde and Sonny need us right now, and we are their only help.” Ceasar began to pull himself together and sat up straight and nodded.

“Now,” she continued, “the best thing we could do for them right now is hire a good lawyer, right?” Ceasar nodded. “Do you still have the money that Clyde gave you?”

Again Ceasar nodded. “Yes, I left it in my safe deposit box I have at my job.”

“Okay,” said Keyshia, “that's a hundred and thirty thousand right there. Now all we got to do is find them a good lawyer, and I think that's where you have to come in, Ceasar.”

They talked strategy for nearly two hours.

“I just wish I was there when Clyde walked in the bank.” Ceasar said. “Maybe none of this would have happened.”

“Ceasar,” Keyshia asked, “you wasn't inside the bank when Clyde walked in?”

“No, I called in to work an hour late. Martha wanted me to stop by that morning. She said it was an emergency, but when I got there, nobody answered the door.”

Keyshia told him that Martha was home when Clyde talked to her that morning and that Clyde told her he was going to see Ceasar at his job that morning.

Ceasar shrugged it off and quickly changed the subject. He looked at his watch and said, “Ooh, it's getting late. What I'm going to do is go to the bank and get the money so we can find them a lawyer. I want you to give me a call in the morning.” He handed her his card. “That way, we could meet up and go and find one together.”

Keyshia smiled and nodded, but she still felt uneasy. He gave her a light hug and kiss and assured her things would be okay.

Keyshia tossed and turned all night. Unable to sleep, she stayed up and stared at the walls. Everything was just moving too fast for her to comprehend, and she didn't know whom she could trust. She tried not to think the worst and hoped that the truth would come out, but she couldn't help thinking how everything had gone down.

At last it was six-thirty in the morning and Keyshia couldn't wait any longer. She decided to call Ceasar.

“Hello,” responded the voice on the other end.

“Ceasar, this is Keyshia.”

“Keyshia, I got some bad news.” Keyshia immediately grew tense. “I got fired yesterday because they found out that both my brothers were part of the robbery and they think that I'm somehow a part of it. I'm under investigation by the police.”

He paused for a moment before he continued. “Keyshia, they froze my funds and sealed my safe deposit box with the money.”

Keyshia flipped. “What!” she yelled. “No, Ceasar, don't say that, don't say that!” She began pacing the floor.

“I'm sorry, Keyshia.”

“Ceasar, please tell me this is a fucking joke?”

“Keyshia, these are my brothers' lives we talking about. I wouldn't joke like that.”

“Ceasar, if you got something to do with this shit—”

He interrupted her, “Keyshia, I know how much you love Clyde, and you're not thinking right, but watch before you say something you might regret. These are my brothers, my fucking blood, and you think I had something to do with this shit?”

Keyshia would not back down. “Remember what I said, Ceasar—if I find out you had something to do with this shit, I'm coming after you, that's my word, I'm coming after you!” She heard a click on the other end of the line and threw her cell phone at the wall, smashing it to pieces. Suddenly she felt sick and fell on the bed. She folded herself into a ball and cried and cried until she fell asleep.

She was alone again!

Keyshia waited downtown at Manhattan court for sixteen hours until they finally called Clyde's name, along with Sonny and Wolf, to be arraigned. Ceasar was there also, but he sat on the other side of the court several rows behind her. Keyshia sat up when the three men walked into the courtroom. Clyde looked tired and disheveled but otherwise okay.

Clyde turned around periodically, nodding to Keyshia that everything would be all right, but it pained her to see him handcuffed and helpless as he stood before the judge.

Keyshia hadn't a clue about the legal jargon the lawyers were exchanging, nor did she care. The only thing she hoped for was that Clyde would be released, because she knew that there was surely a mix-up. But her world came tumbling down when the judge announced bail of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars each. She couldn't comprehend what was happening as the court officer began to escort Clyde and the two other men right back where they had entered.

“No!” she said, standing up. “Clyde, no!”

Clyde stopped in his tracks, turned back toward Keyshia, and yelled, “It'll be all right, baby!” over and over as they led him out the courtroom door.

A week later, Keyshia made her first visit to Clyde at Rikers Island. She was so excited to see him that she didn't sleep for two days leading up to the visit. Ever since the arrest, she had barely eaten and was a nervous wreck. She called ahead to ensure she had the proper identification and paperwork. She even found out what inmates could and could not have on visits and the maximum amount of money she could leave in his commissary account. She wore her best outfit the day of the visit and had to use extra makeup to hide the worry marks under her eyes to give Clyde the impression that she was holding up.

Clyde, along with Sonny and Wolf, was housed at the Beacon, a maximum-security prison on Rikers Island. Keyshia found some small comfort in the fact that he was housed with his brother and would at least be safer. While being processed, she overheard a young woman telling the officer that she was there to see Sonny Barker. Keyshia introduced herself, and the woman said her name was Cheryl. Cheryl had a bright smile and seemed very mature and educated, so Keyshia wondered how she and Sonny had gotten together. But Keyshia knew good girls always like bad boys, and Sonny was as bad as they came. Their common grief made the entire experience a lot easier on Keyshia because Cheryl had been through this process with Sonny before, so she knew what to expect and filled Keyshia in on everything.

Finally, they were permitted through the last phase of the process and entered a room with numbered tables, which were assigned to each inmate and his visitor.

“Barker, S, table six.” Cheryl smiled at Keyshia, walked over to table six, and sat down.

“Barker, C, table twelve,” barked the corrections officer, pointing. Keyshia followed his finger and made it to the table and sat down. Not much later, the mechanical door opened and men in gray jumpsuits and flip-flops entered the room.

Clyde was the first one to enter, and he immediately spotted Keyshia. Keyshia could hardly contain herself and shot to her feet. They embraced as if they hadn't seen each other in years.

Keyshia didn't want the feeling to end as she closed her eyes and imagined they were back on the outside instead of behind steel gates. When they finally forced themselves apart, Keyshia looked in horror at Clyde's swollen and bruised face.

“Clyde, who did that to you, baby?” she cried, covering her mouth. One of Clyde's eyes was black and purple and closed shut. His lower lip was so swollen that it hung limp and was caked with blood.

“Fucking police!” he answered. “Right after that courtroom drama, they beat the shit out of me, Sonny, and Wolf.” Clyde nodded. “But them punk motherfuckas had to do it with us handcuffed!”

“Did you see a doctor? Did you tell somebody?”

Clyde shrugged and said, “Naw, I'm all right, don't worry about it.” He tried to smile. “You looking good, baby, I miss the shit out of you.”

Keyshia blushed. “I miss you, too, baby. I can't even sleep.” She put her head down and started crying, something she'd said she wouldn't do, but all bets were off.

“I know, baby, but don't do this to me now. I won't be able to take seeing you like this.”

Keyshia tried to suck it up and apologized. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Clyde.”

He helped her rub her tears away. “You ain't got nothing to be sorry about. It's just that I'm powerless in this bitch, and it ain't nothing I can do right now but think ill shit, you understand?” Keyshia nodded and took a deep breath.

Clyde looked around and lowered his voice. “You know I ain't had nothing to do with that shit, right?” Keyshia nodded and said she knew. “Sonny and Wolf planned that shit, and it just happened that I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The only way I got caught up in the mix was because Sonny had slept on the security guard and I caught him pulling a gun from his ankle holster and stopped him from shooting Sonny.” Clyde kept looking around for unwanted ears as he continued, “All we got to do is hire a good lawyer to separate me from all this fuck shit and I think I'm good.” He looked around again and asked, “Did you hear about Black Sam and his people?” Keyshia looked around nervously and nodded.

“You know what went down?” he asked again. She nodded. He moved closer to her and said, “So that means that we ain't got to pay him.” He gave Keyshia a crazed smile and continued, “We could now use that money on a lawyer for me and Sonny!” He nodded as if all his problems were solved. Keyshia put her head down, not wanting to destroy his hopes. Clyde immediately saw that something was wrong. “What is it, baby, what's wrong?”

Keyshia lifted her head and faced him. “Ceasar said that the feds confiscated the money.”

Clyde shook his head as if he had heard her wrong. “What?” “The police found out that he was your and Sonny's brother and the bank launched an investigation on him, too, and fired him.”

Clyde closed his eyes as all hope seemingly disappeared. He put his hand on his head and began to rock back and forth, unable to believe what he'd just heard. When he lifted his head, Keyshia saw his tears and felt even worse for him. She didn't want to tell him about the argument she and Ceasar had got into or what she thought. She felt that he already had enough on his plate and any hint of betrayal would definitely push him over the edge.

“Didn't Sonny tell the police that you ain't have nothing to do with it?” Keyshia asked.

“Sonny and Wolf told them I wasn't part of it from the first time they arrested us, and they said they would sign statements saying so, but these motherfuckas ain't trying to hear that shit,” Clyde answered, defeated. “I'm fucked!”

“Clyde,” Keyshia said, “we'll work something out.”

He snapped, “Work what out, Keyshia? We ain't got no money. What kind of lawyer I'm gonna have now?”

Keyshia was shocked. She'd never seen Clyde lose his cool like this before. He must have known something she didn't. “Clyde, is there something you're not telling me?”

Clyde closed his eyes and shook his head. “I'm sorry, Keysh, this place just got me stressed out. I'm not built for this shit. It's like the walls is closing in on me, yo.”

Keyshia stared into his eyes and saw something worse than fear there—she saw death!

“Clyde,” she said in desperation, “you not telling me everything.”

Clyde knew he couldn't lie to her and told her flat out, “They offered us ten years to cop out.”

Keyshia gasped, losing the air in her chest. Clyde continued, “Our lawyer said that we could get hit with a minimum of twenty-five years if we blow trial. The lawyer said he guarantees that we would be convicted since they caught us dead stinking in the act. Sonny and Wolf said they gonna take the deal.” Keyshia was speechless. Clyde looked around again and edged closer and said with more seriousness than she'd ever heard before, “I ain't doing ten years, Keyshia. I'd rather die first!” His one good eye was aflame as he stared deep into Keyshia's eyes.