Fatal mistake, p.14
Fatal Mistake, page 14
Naverone pointed to her face. “Up here Brooks.”
“Like that’s better. Now I’m looking at your lips which are swollen from our good morning.” He tilted his head to the side as he teased. “Imagine what our good nights will be like.”
“Peter Crane, the eighteen year old son of Stacy Crane is the topic on the table.”
“Right.” He sat up straight. “You have a way to get his DNA? If you succeed we could use it as collateral to have the case dropped before going to court. There’s one problem with that. The public will think my father bought them off.”
“Not if it comes with an apology and the real father steps forward.”
A message came to Vernon’s phone. “My father will be here at ten.” He looked at his watch. “That gives us less than an hour to put this plan together.”
“Already done.” Naverone sent a text message from her phone. She looked up. “I have two of my girls who will approach the kid after school. She pulled up a picture of Peter on her cell. “He’s a good looking kid.” She showed the picture to Vernon. “Athletic, smart, straight, all-American kid. Attends private school on Park Avenue. Tuition is around thirty thousand dollars a year. Well within her means when she worked at Brooks International. Have no idea how it’s being paid now. The kid has a steady string of girls chasing him. They are usually at a spot called Dango’s after school.” There was a knock on the door. “That would be for me,” Naverone said as she stood and walked over to the door.
Two girls walked into the office. “Vernon Brooks, brother to Nick.” She pointed as the girls walked towards him.
Vernon stood extending his hand. “Good morning.”
As he moved another chair to the desk, Naverone introduced them. “Vernon, meet Karess Parker. She has an Army background with a stint in Afghanistan. Her specialty is knives, spear, bow and arrow or any sharp item.
A petite woman, with her hair in a ponytail, black tunic top over jeans, with boots shook his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Raven Junee.” She looked like an innocent sixteen-year-old dressed in a thigh-high skirt that showed her muscular thighs, a midriff top, and three-inch high heel boots that accentuated her legs. She came to us via the Marine Corp, then Secret Service. Her specialty is the martial arts. She can kill with her bare hands, or her thighs, your choice.
“Hello.” She shook his hand and they all took a seat.
Vernon began to laugh as he sat behind his desk. “Beautiful and dangerous. The kid doesn’t stand a chance.”
“That’s the idea.” Naverone smiled. “Raven has an appointment to meet with the admissions director at the school who has arranged for Peter Crane to give a tour of the campus. Karess is going to go along as a friend who may be interested in attending the school as well.”
He looked at Karess. “Cherokee?”
“My family roots are here in Virginia near Stafford County.”
“How old are you?”
“A girl never tells.” Karess smiled.
Vernon turned to Raven. “You’re not telling either?”
“If I tell you…”
“You have to kill me.” Vernon waved them off as they smiled at each other. “Tell me your plan.”
“We are going for the simple cheek swap if we can get it. If not we going to get a sample of his blood.”
“Do I want to know how?”
“No,” Raven replied.
“How soon can this be done?”
“Two days tops,” Karess replied as she stood. “The samples will be stored and turned over to Dr. Mason.”
“Harry Mason at Quantico?”
“Yes. No chain of custody issues.”
“Our plane leaves in two hours.” Raven stood to join her. “We’ll send info once we make contact.”
“If all goes well, we will be back in Virginia by Wednesday. Have the results by Friday, if not sooner.” Raven shook Vernon’s hand when he stood.
“We are scheduled for court next Tuesday,” Vernon stated. “I would like for this to be resolved before then.”
“I’m going with the girls. I will be meeting Taylor at Nicole’s place.”
“Taylor?”
“Yes, your daughter.”
Vernon grinned. “I know she’s my daughter, thank you. Why are you two meeting up?”
“I promised to introduce her to Jason Whitfield. So we’ll be stopping in DC before coming home.” The look on Vernon’s face was priceless. Naverone laughed out loud. “You need to get a grip.” She laughed and started to follow the girls out the door, but Vernon stopped her.
“Rene, where is Genesis?”
“Why?”
Vernon caught the nip in the air. “Because I asked.”
Naverone hesitated for a split second. “She’s covering Bobby Kennedy.”
“Okay.” Vernon held her gaze. He walked over to her. “Genesis was in the past. I told you how I felt about her because I do not want any secrets between us. Are you okay with that?”
Naverone did know how she felt about it. “Did you two ever…”
“No. We never made it to that point. She was with butthole and I was with Constance.”
Naverone smiled at the nickname Genesis always called her ex. She held her head down. “I was jealous for a minute.”
“Just a minute?” Vernon kissed her nose.
“Maybe two when Genesis told me about you two.”
“The last thing I want to do is come between your friendship. Is this something you can handle?”
“There’s no alternative. We’re in too deep.” She held his gaze. “But if you screw with me one time, I’ll kill you in your sleep.”
“If you’re beside me it will be a sweet death.” He kissed her as she pulled away and walked out of the door.
Not long after their departure, Avery knocked on Vernon’s door. “You too busy for your Pop?”
Vernon stood and smiled as he walked over and hugged the man who’d raised him. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“Sounds important,” Avery said as he started to sit in front of the desk, but Vernon stopped him.
“Let’s sit on the sofa. You want a beer?” Vernon looked over his shoulder as he walked towards the bar area of his office.
“It’s ten in the morning, son.”
Vernon nodded. “I’ll bring two for each of us.”
Avery frowned as he reached for the bottle his son was offering. “What’s going on, son?”
“Someone is going to be joining us soon, but I want to talk with you one-on-one before that.”
Avery opened the bottle and took a drink. “Okay. You have my undivided attention.”
Vernon smiled. Pop had been saying that exact thing to him since he was a child. When he said, ‘Pop can we talk’, his father would stop, put down whatever he had and look him straight in the eye and say those words. “Simple question first.” He took a drink then looked at his father. “Is there any chance Peter Crane is your son?”
“No chance in hell,” Avery replied, then held his son’s glare. “Next question.”
Vernon laughed. “All right Pop. Tell me all you know about Isaac Singleton.”
Avery snorted, shook his head and sat back on the sofa with the beer bottle in his hand. He tilted the bottle. “Tell Geraldine we are going to need more of these.”
Vernon smiled. “We have plenty.”
Avery sat up, drank the contents of the bottle, put the empty one on the table, then took another. “I hated that boy from the moment I met him. Couldn’t stand the ground he walked on.”
“Is it because he walked those grounds with Mom?”
“You’re damn right,” Avery growled at his son.
Vernon tapped his beer bottle against Avery’s. “You got the girl Pop.” He chuckled. “You can let that anger go, for now.”
“Singleton is not the type you let anything go with. You have to stay on your p’s and q’s around that ass.” Avery shook his head again. “Vernon, the one thing I never did was talk bad about your father. I always figured one day when you grew up you would run across him and find out on your own the kind of man he was.”
“I never had reason to, Pop. I had you.”
Avery’s expression softened with that statement. “That’s right.” He held his chin high. “You did.” He smiled, then exhaled. “I met your mother at a civil rights conference at a library near Fredericksburg. There weren’t many Blacks living in the area, so naturally we gravitated towards each other at the conference. My goodness.” He smiled. “Your mother with her cornrows and that coke-bottle shape had every head in the room turning.”
“My mother in cornrows?”
“She did them herself. I watched her.” Avery laughed. “God.” He sat back glancing out the window as if looking back on that time. “I swear I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. She had on a Dashiki top, bell-bottom jeans and this dumb bag she called a purse with strings of beads hanging from it. Oh…she was a sight. She had just turned sixteen at the time. I was in my first year of college at Morehouse. Your grandfather knew I was trouble.” Avery laughed. “He came over, patted me on the shoulder and said. ‘She will never know you are interested if you stand back here gawking.’ I straightened my tie, walked on over and started talking to her. She told me she had a boyfriend, but hell, I didn’t care. He wasn’t there. So we started talking. I lived in Atlanta, she lived here in Virginia so there wasn’t much we could do. I would call and talk to her just about every day. We became good friends fast. Every Saturday we would look at Soul Train together. Your grandmother used to fuss about the telephone bill back then. But, I told her to take it out of my allowance. There was no way I was going to stop talking to her.” He laughed. “From time to time, she would mention Isaac, the great basketball star. I would act like I cared, but I didn’t.” He looked at Vernon. “I knew he was wrong for your mother from the very beginning. The summer after I met Gwen I went to Howard for a six-week program. We hung out on the weekends, when we could. She asked me to go with her to one of Isaac’s basketball camps so I could see how good a player he was. So one weekend I went. He was the asshole of a peacock I thought he would be.” Avery laughed. “Around all his boys acting like he was all of that. He was…but he didn’t have to act like it. You know.” Vernon nodded as he took a drink of his beer and continued to listen. “He didn’t like me being with his girl. He tried calling me out. Challenging me on the court. I declined. I told him, that’s your lane. I’m more effective in the courtroom than on the basketball court. He came over and shoved me. Saying ‘you trying to call me dumb in front of my girl?’ I said no. I’m just saying you’re the basketball player. We have two different courts. That’s your court. ‘Damn right. In fact get the hell off my court’. Gwendolyn was hot. She pushed him and told him, ‘stop acting like a jerk. He’s my friend that I wanted you to meet.’ Isaac was pissed then. ‘He’s just trying to get in your drawers. Coming around here in a tie and shit. It’s a basketball court. Take your country-ass back to Atlanta’. I knew how to walk away when someone was acting like an ass. I threw up my hands and said. ‘Cool man.’ I turned and walked out. Gwen came running out behind me. She said ‘I’m sorry Avery for the way he acted. I’ll take you back. I told her no. I’ll take the subway back. She should stay, clear things up with him. But I told her he was right. I don’t mean about trying to get into your panties. But I do like you. I like you a lot. He can see that. It’s the reason he’s acting like he is. I would do the same thing. I’ll call you later, I said, then caught the subway back to Howard. We didn’t talk for a few days. But when we did, it was as if there was no break. Things changed for them then. He would guilt her into doing things. ‘If you love me you wouldn’t say no to me.’ I would say maybe he has a point. But she would counter with ‘no I do,’ There was always some hesitation. Like she knew something wasn’t right, but he was her boyfriend so…” He exhaled and looked down. “I will never forget that phone call from her. She was so scared. So scared. She found out she was pregnant and Isaac the boyfriend had been shipped off to college and his parents wouldn’t even open the door to talk to her mother or take her phone calls. I told my father as much as she had told me and begged him to take me to her before she did something foolish. Back then, they had abortion clinics, but I didn’t want her to do that. We drove from Atlanta to Fredericksburg that night. He talked to me all the way asking if I was sure this was what I wanted to do. I told him if Gwendolyn would have me I was going to marry her and her child would be our child. It took some convincing her mother and Gwen, too, for that matter. But, we got married that Saturday. We brought Gwen back to live with us. We stayed with my parents so she wouldn’t be alone in a strange city. Once she had you, we stayed for about six months, then we got our own place. Your grandfather tried to keep us in the house.” Avery laughed. “I think he just wanted to keep you there. I finished law school. Worked with your grandfather’s firm for a while then moved back to be close to her mother, before she passed away. We never heard anything from Singleton. We sent pictures and information on you from time to time. Then one day I came home and Gwen was cursing up a storm. She had received a letter from some attorney stating to stop attempting to contact Isaac Singleton or they would charge her with harassment.” Avery laughed. “She called the man some of everything in the book. But after that day his name was never mentioned in our home again until that day at the house after Nicole’s trial.”
Vernon sat there for a long moment after his Pop had stopped talking. “You loved her and me that much?”
Avery turned to his son, who was sitting next to him and stared into his eyes. “Still do.”
Vernon reached over and hugged his father. They held on to each other, acknowledging the love that was flowing between them. They broke away. “We are going to take the bastard down.” He stood, walked over to his desk and pushed a button for Geraldine. She had sent him a text letting him know Cannon was there twenty minutes ago, but there was no way he was going to stop his father from taking. “It’s time you know what all this crap is about.”
Cannon walked through the door. “You ready for me?”
Vernon nodded, as he walked towards the conference table on the other side of the office. “Join us over here Pop. Cannon my father, Avery Brooks. Pop, this is…”
“Cannonball McNally. Man I used to watch you play and flinch every time you hit a man. You were a beast. You used to shoot out of that pocket like a rocket. I loved watching you play.”
Cannon smiled. “Thank you, Sir.”
“Pop, Cannon is going to share some information with us about Isaac Singleton. When he finishes we are going to determine the legal way to bring this man down.”
Avery cleared his throat. “You know Constance is still talking to this man.” He looked up at Vernon.
“It’s okay Pop. Constance is free to do what she pleases. I’ve secured a condo for her with all the amnesties she can stand. All I need from her is to file for divorce so I can move on with my life.” He sat at the table. “What we are about to embark on takes priority in my life. Before this night is over I am going to have a plan in motion to take over Singleton Enterprises and give it to its rightful heir. With any luck, Singleton will be up under a jail where he should have been years ago. He is going to curse the day he ever met Gwendolyn Spivey.”
Avery looked at Cannon, then back to Vernon. “Damn, son.”
Chapter 13
B
y that night, the ladies had made contact with Peter Crane. Naverone believed the plan was progressing according to plan. Now, she had to keep her promise to Jason Whitfield and Taylor Brooks. She pulled out her cell as she stood outside Nicole’s Place where Taylor was staying. “Jason, this is Naverone. Do you have things in place?”
“Yes, yes. I swear I do.”
“Don’t mess up. Don’t have any girls around, none of your boys and make sure your place is clean.”
“I got it all covered, Ms. Naverone. I promise I will not mess this up.”
Naverone smiled. She was beginning to really like this kid. “We’ll be flying out in an hour. We should land around seven, your time. We’ll meet you at the game.”
“I’m gonna show her my skills.” Jason bragged as he gave a high-five to one of his boys.
“What was that?” Naverone’s attitude changed in a flash.
“That’s just my boy Clint. He’s gonna be gone by time you get here. He’s out Ms. Naverone…He’s out.”
“Look, there are rules with this girl Jason. Don’t make me break my foot off in your ass.”
“No, no, Ms. Naverone. It’s not like that. I swear I will show her nothing but mad respect. I was talking about my skills on the court…the basketball court. Nothing else.”
Naverone exhaled. “Did I tell you who her father is? If that’s not enough remember her uncle knows people who can make your ass disappear and so do I.”
“I know, Ms. Naverone.” Jason hesitated. “I promise I won’t mess with her like that. I really just want to meet her. I think she’s cool. Like someone I could really hang with, you know.”
“I know Jason,” her voice softened. “Just know she’s precious cargo.”
Naverone disconnected the call and prayed she was doing the right thing. With kids, anything could go wrong. If it did, she would not only have to answer to Constance, but Nick and Vernon, too. She exhaled as she walked through the door. What could she do, she was a sucker for love.
***
Raven and Peter hit it off quite well. Two of his friends and Karess were walking behind them as they headed to Peter’s house.
“I have to be back at the hotel by nine or my parents will have a fit,” Raven said as they reached the doorman.
“We’ll have you on the subway by eight. The subway goes right under your hotel.” Peter said as the door was opened for them. Raven hesitated as she looked back at Karess. “I don’t know. Maybe we should go back to the hotel now.” She said more to Karess than to Peter.
