Brad was at home that evening. He had eaten his dinner and was sitting in an armchair on his balcony. His mother had gone to a meeting at her church and his father to a lodge meeting. He decided to give Jenna a call.
When Brad called her, Jenna had just finished clearing her dining table for her young niece, Kailen and her son. She
was doing the dishes while Jaimie watched television and Kailen did her homework. Jaimie got to watch television as he didn’t get any homework.
“Hello Jenna, I just thought I’d give you a call. It’s been a long time. I was really glad to meet you at your workplace.”
“Brad, I’m happy to hear from you. It’s certainly been a long time.”
“I’m back in Jamaica for good. So if you want I’ll keep in touch.”
“I thought you would have been married a long time ago and forgotten about little me.”
“You should know that I went away to study, not to get married. I’ve returned to help my father run his company.”
“I knew you were friendly with a girl. I can’t remember her name now.”
“That’s Dania Reid, but it’s going nowhere. We’re on the verge of breaking up.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I don’t like to see people break up, especially if they’ve been in a long term relationship.”
“I know what you mean. It’s just that she has this jealous streak in her. She gets all upset if I talk to another woman.”
“Some women are like that.”
“I’m sure you’re not that way. Dania has an exceptional bad streak of jealousy.”
“I think I’d better keep my distance from such a jealous woman.”
Brad laughed and Jenna joined him.
“I knew you had a son. How’s he?”
“He’s okay, he’ll be six years in November and my niece, Kailen, also lives with us.”
“My credit’s running out, Jenna but I’ll give you another call maybe later this week.”
“Okay, Brad, don’t forget to call me now,” she said before they both ended the call.
***
Tuesday night Brad took Dania to Reason’s nightclub. They danced to several songs and were now back at their table.
“Rick and Celia are living together now. Maybe we should do the same thing.”
“We’ve talked about it before and I told you I would
have thought about it. I can’t say I’ve made up my mind as yet.”
“I don’t see what’s preventing you, unless it’s some other woman, you’re thinking about.”
A deep scowl could be seen on Brad’s face. He pushed back his chair.
“You’re always imagining things. Some other woman and me and yet you can’t call any names,” he scolded her as they saw Stewart and Morgana enter the nightclub. They came over and shook hands with Brad and Dania before going to their table.
Brad and Dania resumed dancing. When they were back at their table and having some drinks, Brad looked over at Stewart and Morgana. Dania saw him looking in their direction. They got up to dance again. When they were back at their table, she said.
“I don’t know what to do. I think before long you and
Stewart are going to be fighting over Morgana.”
Brad looked at her and the scowl returned.
“What are you talking about?”
“Everywhere we go and you see Morgana, I get tossed into the background as far as your mind is concerned and she comes in to fill that void.”
Brad took some more swallows of his drink.
“Let me ask you something. If you saw a good looking guy enter the nightclub; aren’t you going to admire him? So what’s wrong about me admiring a good looking girl? It doesn’t mean I’m going to jump into bed with her.”
“Maybe the admiration is mutual,” she said.
“I think Stewart’s a good looking guy, but you don’t see me looking at him and then staring into space as if I’m lost.”
“That’s what you see me doing with Morgana?”
“Of course, that’s why I have to complain all the time.”
“God, you’re jealous. Let’s do some more dancing.”
Brad and Dania didn’t leave the nightclub until a few minutes after midnight. Stewart and Morgana had left a half an hour before them. Brad would have spent the rest of the night with Dania but for her constant jealousy of Morgana.
***
Linton was thinking about his old crew. Most of the guys and girls were from the Hughenden, Red Hills Road, Meadowbrook and Havendale areas. He had won a track scholarship to the Florida Institute of Athletics. His specialty was the four hundred meters races. Before he went away his popularity was based on his prowess on the track. There was a group of them who usually hung out together. Linton could remember a few names. The majority were involved in track and field. They went to parties
together and even to the same church. An only child, he had never felt lonely as there were always friends calling on him.
In the United States he had kept in touch with the crew.
He had come home a few times, visited the old school, and caught up with friends who were still in Jamaica. But as his interest in athletics faded so he lost contact with them. His interest faded when he realized that he wasn’t going to be the star four hundred meter runner he had dreamt of himself to be because of injuries and a lack of motivation. He took up with a wholly American crew and got integrated into their culture.
On Sunday Linton was at home sitting in a chair on his balcony when he heard somebody calling his name. His
mother had gone to church and he had promised to go with her next week. He went to the gate to see who it was. It was Serena Leon. She was short, slim and petite.
“Linton, I didn’t know you were back and you didn’t even come and look for me. I live at the same address.”
Linton embraced her. He remembered Serena. She had been his classmate, Elton Patrick’s girlfriend.
“Why don’t you come inside? Why aren’t you in church or don’t the young people go to church again?”
“Of course we do, but I have to go on campus. I might go to the night service.”
They were now seated on the patio. It was nearly midday. Linton knew that his mother's church would not be over until about two o’clock.
“You want something to drink, Serena?”
“No, I’m okay, so are you cooking for Miss Madeline? And how long have you been back?”
“No, she does all the cooking. she cooked before she went to church. I did a lot of cooking when I was in the States, but she won’t let me go into the kitchen. I just returned last week.”
“I can’t stay with you long. As I said I’m going on campus. I’m completing my degree. My boyfriend should have come to pick me up, but I haven’t seen him yet. His phone seems to be turned off so I said I’d walk to the bus stop and get a bus to Half Way Tree.”
“I’ll drop you up there. So is it still Elton?”
Serena burst out laughing.
“Since Elton went to Canada I haven’t heard a word from him. He hasn’t phoned or written me. The last I heard was that he had gotten married to some Canadian girl.”
“You can fill me in about members of my old crew. People like Bunny Eason, Betty Carew, Denise Pearson, Shanalee Perrier, Douglas Ledgister, Neville Singh and the others. We can talk when we’re in the car,” he said going inside for his keys.
***
Stan felt parched, Bishop hadn’t called. He wanted some marijuana, but he didn’t want to go down to the little wholesale and hold up the old Chinese couple again. He had done that last month and two months before. He called Bidey Samuels and Linford Sanderson but both men told him that they had no hits for him. Both men were underworld figures, crime lords to be exact and they always had somebody they wanted to get rid of. Stan had killed two men for Bidey and two men and a woman for Linford.
He had been held twice by the police on murder charges but had been released when witnesses failed to point him out at the identification parades. He had always tried not to attract too much attention by not spending money freely or dressing too flashy. As a rule he never wore jewelry.
Stan reflected on the number of hits he had made for Bishop. It was about five if he remembered right. The biggest one was the hardware merchant in Papine. Try as he might he couldn’t remember the man’s name. To do those hits he would steal a car and abandon it the same day.
Surprisingly, as he looked at his cell phone it started ringing. Bishop was on the line.
"Stan, I have everything ready, one third of the money plus some of your stuff. You see how generous I am to you.”
Stan didn’t reply, he was still thinking as to why he let this man have so much power over him.
"I’ll meet you in the parking lot of Mister Fisher's bar on Molynes Road.”
"What time should I reach there?" Stan asked.
"Come at about nine o'clock."
Stan's hands were still trembling. He wasn't sure if Bishop wasn’t leading him into a trap. He could just turn up at the meeting place to find Whylie and his boys waiting to beat him up. Or it could be Bishop’s police friends coming to kill him. He decided to take his gun along.
When he reached the bar, he didn’t see Bishop's car, but then as the owner of so many vehicles the man could very well be here and he didn’t know. He had just come out of his car when he saw Bishop coming out of the bar.
Bishop was a big beefy man in his early fifties and was a former policeman turned security consultant when his enlistment contract wasn’t renewed some ten years ago.
"Stan, I’m glad to see you. Come into my car and let’s talk.”
Stan went to Bishop's car. Bishop took a parcel and gave him. He opened his briefcase and took out a large envelope and handed it to him.
"Everything you want is in these parcels. If you ever mess up this job here, they won’t find enough of you to bury.”
Stan wanted to draw his gun and shoot the man there and then, but he knew that even if he killed Bishop, one of his bodyguards would be sure to get him as the man never travelled alone.
Bishop told him the names of the two men he wanted him to kill. He wanted the hits to take place before the Easter holidays started. That meant he had to steal two cars in less than two weeks.
Returning home Stan cut open the parcel. The pictures of the two men were there. Weston Nelson worked in New Kingston while Oraine Chen operated a business on Red Hills Road. He had to begin his stalking from tomorrow. That way he would pick up the men’s habits as he began to plan his kills.
He dipped into the parcel again and took out the bag of
marijuana. It was only half-full. Damn Bishop, he thought, for trying to trick him. He opened the envelope and took out its contents, thirty thousand dollars, he counted it again. He
then examined the notes to make sure they weren’t marked and checked for special markings on them to make sure they weren’t counterfeit.
He took out some paper and made a marijuana cigarette. He lit the cigarette and began smoking. He counted the money again. He would smoke a couple more cigarettes tonight and probably try and let the marijuana last him a couple more days.
Natalie had gone to the country to look for her mother and young daughter and wouldn’t be back until the morning.
He had told her that he was due to get some money soon, but she had told him that she couldn’t wait. It was more than two weeks now that she hadn’t seen her mother and daughter. She had borrowed the money she needed, from a neighbor.
***
Linton had just dropped Flavia home and was relaxing in
his room. His mother had gone to bed. Since he returned to the island he knew that he should get a spread like the one he had in Miami. It would allow him a lot of freedom and he could bring women there whenever he wanted. He just didn’t like going to guest houses or motels some of which simply stank. He would arrange for his mother’s sister, to send one of her daughters to stay with her. He had identified an apartment off Mannings Hill Road and was due to inspect it on Wednesday. The agent had given him the price and it sounded reasonable and was in a good neighborhood.
He had heard about a crew that he wanted to join. They were mostly guys under the age of thirty who had money to spend, drove an expensive vehicle and had a stunner for a girlfriend. They would leave for Ocho Rios, Negril or Montego Bay on Friday evenings, book into a hotel and then party on both Friday and Saturday night. He and Flavia were now going steady. He had also bought a Ford F-150 pick-up.
He thought over the lunch, he had with Bobbette Greene. He had since learned that her boyfriend operated a couple of petrol service stations and several wholesale stores among other things. One of his female colleagues had whispered to him that she had another boyfriend. Linton wasn’t in the habit of sharing with
anybody. Flavia while not being in Morgana’s class coulddo
for the time being while he hunted a stunner to match the leggy beauties his friends were parading with around town. In all this he hadn’t forgotten Morgana. He wanted to see her face when she saw him out here with someone younger than her and even better looking.
***
Stan knew that Oraine Chen lived in an apartment in New Kingston. Houses in these areas had twenty-four hour security. He had seen the man’s wife and young daughter driving out that Wednesday morning. He now knew that Oraine normally left for work by the latest eight thirty in the mornings. Most business places Uptown, didn’t open until ten o’clock so maybe Oraine
wanted to get in early to check up on stocks and other things before they opened up to the public. Stan was behind him that morning when he turned off and drove into his business place. Stan looked at his watch as he continued driving and realized the time was nine o’clock.
Stan went into Oraine’s business place at five o’clock that evening and saw him about to get into his vehicle and realized that the man was armed. Stan was tempted to shoot him there and then, but realized that he didn’t have the advantage of surprise so he just went into the shop and asked for something he knew that they didn’t sell. By the time he came out, Oraine was gone. Stan knew that he had to surprise Oraine. He couldn’t give him any time to go for his gun. He also noticed that Oraine didn’t have any security which was even better.
***
Jenna was lying in one of her couches and she was thinking about Brad. She was thinking of giving him a call as she hadn’t heard from him for more than a week now. She had actually taken up her cell phone to make the call when she thought better of it. If he was having difficulties with his girlfriend she didn’t
want to add to their problems. When next he called her she was going to politely tell him not to call her again. But when she did a re-think she realized that would be the wrong thing to do as she had always liked him. She would, however refuse to get into a relationship with him while he was still along with Dania.
***
Friday and Saturday Stan got the final lowdown on Oraine. He also knew where to get the car he was going to use. For two nights now he had followed an illegal taxi operator to his yard, observing the man’s method of securing his vehicle. For ten thousand dollars an associate had agreed to go with him for that vehicle. So that was that. They would take it away on Sunday night. Whatever cash that was found on the taxi-man belonged to Bully. Stan decided to hit Oraine on Monday.
***
Stewart and Morgana were at Edith Chin enjoying some snacks. They were drinking energy drinks and snacking on potato chips. They had agreed to meet there this Saturday evening.
“Bev will be going with her friends. Mummy, Val and Darren are going to Port Antonio. Sally and Vernon are going with them.”
Morgana was talking about their plans for the upcoming Easter holiday weekend.
“Bev and I’ll be staying in the same room,” Morgana said and laughed. Stewart laughed too.
“It’s supposed to be a romantic weekend. You can’t do that to me. I suppose Glen will be coming too.”
“Leona will be coming down too, but Bev will be with her friends so she’ll be all right.”
“So I’ll be alone in that big bed?”
“I didn’t say that, I’ll be staying with you. I’m only sorry for Bev. Rory hasn’t even sent her a card for her birthday. She likes Glen but Leona isn’t going to let him go anytime soon.”
“So maybe she has to forget Rory and look a new boyfriend.”
“She can’t hear from him and then Roxanne told her that a girl was pregnant for him.”
“What! I didn’t know Rory was like that.”
“Imagine, she’s over here trying not to get involved with any other man and to hear that kind of news.”
Stewart hoped that she didn’t get on his case again, especially with Bobbette. For the three years that she had been away he had always spent the holiday weekend with April. He had told Bobbette that it was a family custom that he spend those weekends with them. She had accused him of being with April but
he had always denied it. He knew that she and Robert would be holidaying in one of the resort towns so he had always found out where they would be and then go somewhere else.
“It’s the first time I’m going to spend a weekend in a
resort with a man. I know I’m going to enjoy it. We always came down during the holidays but it was always with family and friends.”
“But now you’re going to enjoy it not just with any man but your fiancé. It’s going to be fantastic.”
“We can spend the whole time in our room and just order room service.”
“It’s just after seven o’clock. Why don’t we go down to my apartment and spend some time?”
Morgana laughed.
“I know what you want, but you’ll get that this weekend.”
Stewart laughed.
“Why don’t we just spend the week down there? We can even go to Negril and Treasure Beach.”
“Stewart, you’re lucky, you can take time off anytime you want. I have to work. I won’t be getting any leave until later this year.”
“Let’s go down to Randy Chin and play some games with Brad and those other guys. By the way are those guys and girls from your office headed that way too.”
“All the members of the sports club will be down there. Brad, Rick and guys like Alex are members.”
“It’s going to be one big party, all weekend.”
Stewart went to pay their bill and the two of them headed out for Randy Chin in their separate cars.
***
Sunday, Stan drove pass Oraine's business place three times. He stopped twice to wipe his windshield and the other time to take something out of the car trunk. This gave him time to make a quick survey of the area and to know where he should park the stolen car while he waited on Oraine. Bully would control his car for him.
He drove over to Washington Boulevard and came off the road before stopping. He mapped out in his mind exactly
what he would do and his method of attack would give Oraine no chance to go for his gun. He wondered again why Bishop wanted the two men dead, but that was no cocern of his. He had a job to do and he had to do it well in order to collect the rest of his pay. It was dangerous work, but just as deadly and far more profitable than holding up lonely business places or snatching other people’s valuables. Stan left and went to a bar on Whitehall Avenue to have a few malt beverages before going home to sleep. Later tonight he would pick up Bully and go for the taxi-man’s car.
***
Linton stood for a long time looking at his new apartment. He and Flavia had inspected the furniture. They looked brand new; some of them still had the manufacture’s label on them. The appliances looked okay, like they hadn’t been used. He had been told that he was only the second tenant for the apartment and that the complex was little more than a year old. They had gone out to buy things like curtains, bedroom and bathroom fixtures and carpets for the floors. It had cost him more than twenty-five thousand dollars to make the apartment hospitable. Flavia was even saying that maybe it would have been cheaper to have rented an unfurnished apartment. Yet Linton knew what he was doing. He hadn’t made up his mind whether he was returning to the States or staying in Jamaica.
He and Flavia were now lying on their backs and admiring the apartment.
“I have to thank you, Flavia. I don’t know one thing about some of the things we bought except that they were necessary.”
“Can you cook?”
Linton laughed.
“I did some of that when I was in college, but I’ll mostly eat at my mother and you said I can come by you so that should take care of my cooking.”
“What about breakfast? It’s the most important meal of the day.”
“I eat oats most mornings. So I’ll just add a cup of coffee to that plus an egg and maybe some butter and toast and some fruit juice.”
“That should be enough.”
“I’ve joined the crew, I told you about. They’ll be going to Ocho Rios for the Easter weekend.”
“Who’re they, though?”
“They’re mostly guys and girls under thirty, money guys and their girls. They’re party animals and extroverts. They’re on the Noth Coast nearly every weekend.”
“That’s what I’d like. Being in Ocho Rios, Negril, or Montego Bay and what about Portland and places in St. Elizabeth like Treasure Beach but I can’t afford it. I can’t go, so it seems as if you’re on your own.”
Linton sat up.
“At the rates they’re charging only the very rich could afford to vacation down there every weekend. They only go down there once a month. I was joking when I said every weekend.”
“Oh well that seems more affordable. But what caliber of guys and girls are we talking about though.”
“Most of them are bank managers, top of the line insurance executives and other guys earning top dollars. The women are mostly former beauty and fashion model contestants. Let’s go and meet some of them.”
“Wait before you go. That means I don’t qualify.”
“Of course you do. You’re better looking than a lot of them.”
“You’re flattering me.”
“Of course not, come, we’d better go and get ready.”
Flavia had brought a change of clothing so it didn’t take them long to dress and head out to cruise the nightclub circuit.
***
Oraine Chen drove along Red Hills Road on Monday morning. He looked at his watch and saw that the time was
nine o’clock. He hoped that Mrs. Dinnal had arrived early to let in the staff. The wholesale was always crowded on Mondays. When he arrived he saw that Mrs. Dinnal had done her usual. He was pressing the buzzer to go inside when he saw a tall man running towards him with a gun. Oraine made a desperate grab for the gun in his waist, dragged it out and fired a shot. He heard another loud explosion before everything went black.
Stan saw when Oraine drag the gun out of his waist and got off a shot. In the same instance he had triggered his gun twice, one bullet hit Oraine in the left side of his chest and the other in his belly. The bullet from Oraine’s gun flew harmlessly in the air.
As Oraine fell, Stan ran up to him and took up the gun which he had dropped when hit by his bullets. He heard the workers inside bawling for murder, but he didn’t pay them any mind. He took up Orane’s briefcase, then jumped over the nearby wall and went to the stolen Nissan Sunny motor. He drove to an empty lot on Washington Boulevard, parked the Nissan and locked it up. He then put a ‘For Sale’ sign on the car along with a fictitious telephone number. He took off his driving gloves and pocketed them. He then took up the briefcase and walked to a nearby taxi stand and chartered one to where Bully
was waiting for him. As he drove away in his car, he began planning the other hit.
***
By late Monday afternoon Stan was able to figure out that Weston Nelson, his other target had lunch brought to him. He hadn’t seen him leaving the building to go to any of the nearby restaurants during the normal lunch period which was between twelve and two o’çlock.
He left work at ten minutes past five that evening. Stan followed him out to Trafalgar and Waterloo Roads and down South Avenue. Bishop had said that he lived in Leas Flat. Stan wasn’t thinking of killing him at home or on the job as both would be risky. He didn’t know what type of security the man had at home. But most of those top executives were wired up to one of those big security companies. Stan turned down Constant Spring Road. Tomorrow he would follow him again. He wondered if the man was a member of any clubs or lodges. Did he have children still attending school? Did he have to drop his wife at work in the mornings and pick her up in the evenings? He didn’t like messy kills or leaving witnesses to identify him. If Talbert had put a bullet in that girl she wouldn’t have turned up to point him out at that identification parade. Stan drove down to Leta’s Hideout to relax and have a few malt beverages. Later on he would pick up Natalie and probably go to Crystals or Reasons.
***
Stan was now convinced that Weston Nelson simply came to work in the mornings and went home in the evenings.
It seemed odd to him. That evening, Weston drove down to Oxford Road and went across Tom Redcam Avenue and picked up a woman at the library. He wondered if she was his wife or girlfriend. More likely a girlfriend as he hadn’t seen her in his sports utility vehicle this morning. The man turned on Arthur Wint Drive and drove up Old Hope Road and into Mona Commons. Stan went home. He went to the secret compartment in their bedroom and took out some of the marijuana. He took out some paper and made a marijuana cigarette. Natalie soon joined him, making a marijuana cigarette for herself. Stan never told her anything. All she knew was that he worked for Eric Bishop who owned a security firm.
“How was work today?” she asked.
They lived on Latore Crescent in Swallowfield.
Okay, I guess,” he replied as he built another marijuana cigarette.
“Have you ever been to the North Coast before?” he asked her.
“Only once, but that was when I was smaller but don’t forget that I come from that way.”
“I’m talking about Ocho Rios. We can go down there this Friday night.”
Natalie told him that she wanted to go to the corner shop and get something to cook and he gave her some money.
As she made her way to the shop Natalie thought to herself. A few months ago all she could think about was her prison cell and the smell of the mattress she had to sleep on every night. Now she was giving all that up to spend a weekend in a hotel with a man. She had at first thought that he would be the last person she’d ever spend time with in a hotel.
Natalie had spent four years in an English prison before being deported back to Jamaica. She had gotten through safely the first time, but the money she made, ran out soon after she returned to Jamaica and not wanting to go on the streets again, she had decided to take up another load and they had held her at Heathrow Airport. In jail she worried the whole time about her only daughter, Sienna, who lived with her mother in St. Mary.
On the