Rick had returned from the country saying he was tired and he and Celia stayed home that evening. Stewart went to Corners alone.
Saturday evening Kedija called Linton to announce that she was feeling stuffy and didn’t think she could go to Corners with him again. Linton felt that he needed a bit of socializing and decided to go alone. He knew crew members would be there and he would just tell them that Kedija was ill.
Linton greeted crew members and danced with some of Kedija’s friends, but decided to leave a bit early. He said goodbye to members of the crew who were there and went outside to the parking lot where his van was.
He was opening the van door when something hard jammed him in his back.
“Don’t move, make one sound and you’re dead.”
Linton was sure that the voice was familiar.
“I don’t have any money on me.”
Stan took Linton’s pick-up keys from him and opened the van door.
“Jump in,” he ordered and Linton got into the driver’s seat.
Stan came around and got into the passenger seat and threw the keys at Linton.
Linton caught them but did nothing. Stan pushed the gun muzzle in his side.
“Hey guy, who do you believe killed Oraine Chen and the banker guy, Winston Nielson last month? You’d better drive if you don’t want to get what they got.”
Linton started the pickup and they drove off.
“Where are we going?” he asked Stan. He had been hoping that one or two crew members might have come into the parking lot, but there might have been nothing they could do as none of them were armed as far as he knew.
“Just drive out to Knutsford Boulevard. I will tell you where we are going when we get there.”
Linton was sure he recognized the voice, but he couldn’t remember the man, even though he had a good look at him. They were about the same height, though the gunman was thinner than he. Both of his eyes looked funny and Linton thought it could be from substance abuse. They drove down Holborn Road and went around the corner from the shopping center before Stan told him to stop. Linton thought he knew the avenue they were now on. It was Chelsea Avenue and he had heard that it was a dangerous place to be on late at night.
“Give me your wallet and take off your chains, rings and your watch too.”
Linton handed him the wallet and took off the two chains he had on plus the chain he wore on his hand and the two rings he had on his fingers and his watch. They were worth more than a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Stan put them in his bag. He counted five thousand dollars in local currency plus five hundred American dollars. Stan took out the man’s two bank cards and asked him if both of them were working. Linton told him that both of them were working. Good, Stan thought, that meant that he could get at least one hundred thousand dollars.
Stan had seen Linton’s shoes and knew that they were English made and looked expensive. He remembered that he had only one pair of shoes as he had to leave the half a dozen he had plus sandals and sneakers at the house and Natalie would have sold or given them away.
“What size shoes do you wear?”
“Number ten,” Linton replied. It was the same size Stan wore.
“What brand are they?”
Linton said he couldn’t remember. He took off his right shoe and gave Stan.
Stan looked inside the shoe. He saw the name, Randall.
He had heard about the brand. It confirmed his earlier suspicions.
“Take off the other foot.”
Linton took off his other shoe and Stan put them in the bag he had with him.
“We are going down to Cross Roads to the machine just after you pass Eureka Road, now drive.”
They reached their destination and Stan told him to park as near as possible to the front of the building.
e going to bring me one hundred thousand dollars.”
“I don’t have that kind of money in my account,” Linton said and found a knife at his throat.
“How much do you have?” Stan asked, realizing that these big guys lived on credit cards and didn’t carry around large amounts of cash.
“Fifty thousand.”
“All right, go and get it.”
“I can’t go out there in my socks alone.”
“Hey, guy, don’t joke with me. I will push my knife in your side. Just go and get the money. I am watching you and if you try to run away I am going to shoot you. Anyway at this time of night a guy like you wouldn’t last long on these streets.”
Stan opened the van door and pushed Linton out.
When Linton returned with the money and Stan had counted and pocketed it, he returned Linton’s wallet to him.
“You are going to drop me so that I can pick up my car. Where do you live?”
Linton told him that he lived in Smokeyvale. Stan considered for a moment. He knew that Linton was lying. Most of these single professional guys chose to live within easy reach of the popular hot spots plus rents were also cheaper. Maybe he should have trailed him home before he made his move.
Linton dropped Stan where his car was parked on St. Lucia Avenue. He then drove to the Cross Roads police station to report the robbery. Driving home, he stopped several times to make sure that he wasn’t being followed.
Stan had thought of trailing Linton home, but knew that with so few cars on the road the man would be a fool not to realize that he was being followed.
He was going home almost ninety thousand dollars richer plus Linton’s valuables which he estimated might be worth more than a hundred thousand dollars. He would make Linton his feeding tree eventually finding out where he lived and going there to rob him.
***
Brad and Jenna went shopping that Saturday morning, Downtown, Kingston. Jenna revealed to him that it was the first time she was coming Downtown in years. She felt that the place was too crowded, the people too loud and prone to violence and some streets and lanes simply stank. That night they went to Corners, they saw Rick and Celia there.
***
Glen was searching for a reason for Leona bantering him about her desire to live with him. He just wasn’t ready to take up the responsibilities of a live in lover. His parents might evict him from his flat, cut off his allowance and tell him to go and work to support her. They only allowed her to stay with him sometimes because they knew that she was his girlfriend. So why couldn’t she understand that? He thought she was also unreasonable in
wanting him to give her a weekly allowance. She had never complained about his lovemaking. He was always careful to use protection as she refused to go on the pill or use any other form of contraceptive. He was waiting for her at Lydia’s Lounge. She should have reached there by five o’clock and by his watch it was almost five thirty which wasn’t unlike her. He ordered a malt beverage and was drinking it when he saw her car drive in. She took another five minutes to lock it up and come over to where he was.
“Hi, Glen, how are you?” she asked hugging him.
“I’m okay, for a moment I thought you had another appointment,” he replied as they pulled apart.
“You know how the traffic is sometimes and I was looking for something in my bag and couldn’t find it.”
He drank some more of his malt beverage and ordered a canned soda for her.
“I thought we should meet to try to settle some of our differences.”
“I quarrel with you all the time because you’re so tight with money. I told you that we should live together and you threw it out of the window.”
“Would your parents agree for me to live there with you? I think not; my parents agree for you to stay up at my place as much as you want. But you want more, you want us to actually live as man and wife when you know I can’t afford that.”
“Okay, so I no longer want to live up there with you, but every time I ask you for money you refuse to give me. You only give me when it suits you and it’s never enough.”
“Because I don’t have it to give you. If and when I give you anything, it’s based on my budget.”
“I give my body freely to you. Have you ever thought about that? Look how you behave as if that’s nothing.”
Glen was at a loss for words. Men and women living together were making sacrifices. A woman had needs just as a man. It wasn’t fair for the woman to always remind the man that she was satisfying his needs but he wasn’t doing likewise. But Glen didn’t go there.
Glen ordered a second malt beverage for himself and another drink for Leona.
“Why did you decide to talk to me?”
“Because I like you, I wouldn’t talk to a guy if I didn’t like him.”
“I like you too, and so we’re together. I give you money when I can but I’m on a tight budget. You could get a job at one of my mother’s pharmacies.”
“I could get a weekend job with my father, but I have too much studying to do.”
“Cut down on your expenditures then. Do you make up a budget?”
“Sure I do, but it’s always busted by the middle of the month.”
She told him how much money she got which was a bit less than he got. He couldn’t believe that she got so much money.
“Every day you eat at Chet’s place which charges almost twice for lunch as the cafeteria so why don’t you eat there?”
“I don’t like their food,” she replied and stood up.
“I’m leaving. I’ll see you on campus on Monday,” she said. She finished her drink and went to her car.
Glen felt that her behavior was strange. There were children of the rich on campus and maybe Leona was trying to be like them. He had never counted himself as one of them despite what people like Bev might think. Come to think of it, he hadn’t talked to her for more than a week now. He would call her when he reached home. He finished his drink, paid his bill and went to his car and drove home.
***
Stewart and April were at Edith Chin’s bar and grill in Manor Park. They had bought jerked chicken and festival. Stewart was washing down his food with a beer while April was drinking a soda. It was minutes to six and the joint wouldn’t close until way past midnight. April was glad to be out only in jeans and slippers and a blouse making up her outer garments as compared to the extra clothing she had to wear in the States to keep warm.
“First time you’ve been out since you returned?”
“Don’t forget that I just returned home last week Sunday. I had lunch with Anneisha and her husband on Wednesday.”
“It’s nice sometimes to get out of town. I don’t mean going on the North Coast but there are a few places out of Kingston doing some interesting things.”
“Tell me about them. You should know everything that’s going on around town.”
“Remember before you went away we used to go to a few of them.”
“We can go to Easons when we are finished here.”
“I want to return home and go to my bed.”
Stewart laughed and said.
“You want to go to bed so early on a Sunday evening. I’m sure you’re not working.”
“Talk about work, I’ll soon have to be sending out my resume as the little money I brought home will soon be finished. Maybe I don’t dig the late night scene anymore.”
“You’ll soon get used to it again. As for getting a job, they’re pretty scarce, but you could still try,” he told her.
They had now finished eating and he ordered another beer for himself and an energy drink for her.
“I really missed you. Now that you’re back, I hope that nothing will come between us again.”
“I hope so and that you won’t let some woman break up our relationship, although Morgana is still out there.”
“Out there is the operative word. She pestered me about Bobbette. We’ve held so many meetings about that girl. I’m glad that she’s getting married.”
“She’s tying the knot with her millionaire boyfriend. Maybe Morgana will give you back your ring if she found somebody as fabulously rich as Robert.”
“I don’t know what Morgana wants. All she wants to do is accuse me of keeping women with her.”
“I thought you would have married her. All the time I was over there I was listening out for wedding bells. I told myself that once I heard them I would know that I’ve lost you forever and it would be a long time before I returned to Jamaica.”
They had now finished their drinks. He stood up.
“Let’s go down to Easons. It’s a relatively new establishment. If we don’t like it there we can always go to Corners or Ruddys,” he said. He paid their bill and they exited the bar and grill for Easons.
***
"Short of going to the police and telling Rick about it, I honestly don’t know what to do,” Celia declared to Dania as she sat on her patio that Sunday evening.
Rick had gone to watch a football match at Constant Spring. She had excused herself saying that she was going to visit Dania.
"That guy looks like he's crazy or something. Look how I told Brad that I was ending our relationship. He asked me to reconsider, but when I said it was final, he simply accepted it and moved on.”
Dania didn’t of course mention the fact that she had tried to get Brad back by going to scare off Morgana whom she thought he was infatuated with and ended up fighting Jenna. But then Celia would have known all about that.
Dania knew that because Rick was an Uptown man, Teddy might feel that he was soft and easy pickings. But she doubted if it came to a fight Teddy could prove a match for either Rick or Greg both of whom were bigger than he.
"He's just trying to scare you. It's a pity Greg never hit him down.”
"I feel I should have told Rick before and now he phoned him at his office and practically threatened him.”
"Don't you have any police friends, you could tell? All they would have to do would be to talk to him. I'm sure Teddy would be too scared to bother you again.”
"Why didn't I think of that before? Come to think of it, it’s not a bad idea. Girl, you really have your head screwed on tight.”
"I know a policeman, I'll talk to him tonight," Celia said getting up.
"If this doesn't work, you might have to talk to one of those Dons.”
Celia laughed and said.
"I'll be seeing you, Dania." She made her way out to her car.
***
Monday morning Morgana phoned Stewart to announce that she wanted a meeting with him. They hadn’t been seeing much of each other lately. Their lovemaking was practically on hold due mainly to her own reluctance to go to bed with him again until she found out the true state of his relationship with Bobbette. They agreed to meet at Lydia’s Lounge off Hagley Park Road. Morgana would have objected had she not been there before with some friends.
When she arrived there was no sign of Stewart so she selected a secluded spot where they could sit and talk without being disturbed or overheard. She was wearing a navy blue
pants suit and a yellow blouse with floral designs. As she took her seat she saw several men looking in her direction and prayed that Stewart would soon arrive so that she wouldn’t have to spend time fending off unwanted attention. She ordered a fruit punch and was having it when she saw him coming over.
"Hi, sweetie pie, sorry to be late, this traffic thing is really getting to me. I was in Portmore and had to drive on the Mandela Highway to reach here. Anyway, what’s up? You haven’t called me or anything."
"I wonder which one of us is avoiding the other. If I hadn’t called you, I probably wouldn’t have heard from you again.”
"How can you say that? I'm busy, that's all. I’m trying to make some money, remember I work on commission,” he said as one of the waiters came over. He ordered a beer for himself and another fruit punch for her.
"Why didn't you tell me that Bobbette was getting married?”
"I didn't think you'd be interested. You and her are hardly friends.”
Their drinks arrived and Stewart poured his beer into a paper cup. Morgana took some of her fruit punch through a straw.
"So is that why you've been behaving the way you have?"
"I’m not behaving any way different from normal. It's you who are imagining things. So she’s getting married to Robert Parsons. When she told me I congratulated her.”
"Has she invited you to her wedding?"
"Sure she has and you too, I have the invitations in the car."
“You're lying. Bobbette would never invite me to her wedding and why would she invite you, her ex-lover?"
Stewart drank some of his beer.
“So I’m her ex-lover now. You’d better stop spreading rumors about that girl and me. Suppose Robert hears you. Maybe you can tell me when I started and stopped being her lover.”
“Robert must be blind, deaf, dumb or something not to know that his dearly beloved is cheating on him with you.”
"Every time you see me, you are always talking about Bobbette. I can’t understand why you’re so jealous of her. If you want to know so badly, whether I was sleeping with her or not why don’t you ask her,” he shouted.
"I'm sorry the day I ever agreed to start dating you again. You can't be trusted. I don't even know who else apart from Bobbette you’re sleeping with," she shouted back.
"You want to make this into a shouting match. Maybe you want to break off with me so that you can start seeing Brad."
"I see Brad everyday and he's just my friend and colleague plus he has his girlfriend.”
"You think I didn't see you the other night we were at Corners. How you were looking so scornfully at that girl."
"I'm sure we didn't come here to discuss Brad and his girlfriend. As far as I’m concerned, we aren’t happy. I don't know about you, but I certainly don’t want to be in a relationship with a man, whom I can't trust."
"I suppose you want me to trust you. Why did you have to date that guy, Linton Marsh, while you were in Florida?”
"I think you’re looking for some lame excuse for your own cheatings. What did you want me to do, keep myself pure for a man with whom I was no longer in a relationship? You were sleeping with other women, both while I was away and since I returned and even before I went away. Look, I think I’d better go. You can give Bobbette back her invitation if in fact she did give you one. Tell her thanks, but no thanks,” she said, scooping up her bag and car keys and going past him towards her car.
Stewart felt like hurling some bad words at her. Damn her anyway, he’d call Sadie tonight and arrange something. He would start checking out some of the girls he used to sleep with before she returned. He had dumped most of them, only keeping Bobbette. But Bobbette was gone now. He saw some men looking at him. He knew what they were thinking. They grudged him for being with such a woman whom they could only imagine being with in their dreams. They were probably laughing, believing that she had walked out on him. He would show her. He would leave her and laugh at her when she came running back to him.
He was ordering another beer when he saw Jose Maragh coming over. Stewart had known Jose for a number of years as a top salesman for Palmer and Gold Limited, the company, that Byron Simmonds, Morgana’s late father, once headed.
"So how’s it going, Stewie? I saw you and your fiancé in some heated conversation. It seems as if she left in a huff," he commented before taking another gulp of his beer and taking a seat.
"You know how women are. It's just a little disagreement we had,” Stewart replied before drinking some more of his beer.
"You know that she’s my late boss's daughter though. What happened to her smaller sister?”
"She's still around, going to university. So, Jose, what happen to the girls?”
Jose laughed and said.
"Two of them are supposed to check me here. I'm wondering how I’ve not seen either of them yet.”
"I’ll buy you a beer, but I can’t stay around as I'm going to check a girl.”
“Not so fast, Stewie, the two girls who, are supposed to check me here, are very nice. Hold on and maybe you can help me out with them. It’s because I know that you’re pretty sharp why I’m asking you to stay,” Jose said and Stewart laughed.
“I hope the wait will be worth it, but knowing the kind of girls you go for I’m sure it’ll be,” Stewart said as they saw a girl coming out of a taxi and Jose whispered that she was one of his dates. Stewart decided to wait, if the other girl looked anything like the girl coming over to them now his wait would be worth it.
***
Celia reached home early that evening and was relaxing.
had prepared a light dinner for herself and Rick. She was
having a glass of champagne when the telephone rang.
Corporal Bayliss was on the line.
"Celia, what's going on? Listen, I heard your complaint, but we can only talk to him. Has he ever physically abused you?’
"No, Corporal, but he keeps on pestering me. I was in a relationship with him and I told him it was over but he won’t listen.”
The Corporal understood what Celia was saying. At
most police stations such complaints were regular and
Constant Spring was no exception. He knew Celia and her
mother, although he didn’t tell her that the man she was talking about had a very big file. He couldn’t understand why girls like Celia got mixed up with guys like Steadman Pryce.
"I'll try and see what I can do, but there isn't much as I told you before.”
"Thanks for talking to me, Corporal," she replied before hanging up.
She had hardly finished talking to the Corporal when Rick drove in. After parking and locking up his car, he came into the living room.
"How was today? You're home early. Is everything okay?"
"I don’t have any problems that I don’t know about. Are you planning on going out later?" she asked.
"Brad, Alex and some of those guys are going to Randy Chin to play some dominoes,” he said. "I'm going to take a bath and we can have dinner.”
After they had dinner Rick decided to go to Randy Chin to join his friends in playing some dominoes.
Celia decided that she would remain at home as she had some phone calls to make.
When Rick returned at around twelve o'clock, Celia was
in the living room drinking some cherry juice and watching television. She told him that she had made some sandwiches for him, but he told her that he wasn’t hungry.
He sat in a couch opposite her. Celia had been wondering, his manner towards her seemed cordial to say the least.
"I'm going to repeat, do you know this guy, Teddy?”
"You have asked me already and I told you no. Why do you think I’d be hiding anything from you?”
"I keep turning around this thing in my head. Why would a guy I don’t know tell me that I should remember his name unless he was issuing a threat?”
"As I said, it could be some crank. Maybe you should’ve reported it to the police.”
Rick let the subject rest for the time being. If he found out that Celia was lying, he would break up with her. That was a promise he made. If that guy thought he could scare him, he had another guess coming. He had done a fair amount of boxing while in college and had also attended several self-defense classes.
"Are you planning on going to Bobbette's and Sally's weddings?”
"I'm sure about Bobbette's but not Sally's. I don't like what Bev tried to do and I don’t want to be near her for a very long time.”
Rick didn’t want to get on the subject of his short-lived romance with Bev again. He and Celia had been over it several times even after it ended.
"I'm going up to bed. Are you coming?" Celia asked.
"I'll soon be there."
***
Jenna was marveling at Brad’s stamina. For the past
week they had been making love non-stop. Both had jokingly accused the other of being over-sexed. They had both agreed that this was the best sex they were getting.
Tonight both of them were lying on their backs after another intense session of lovemaking.
"You’re going to get me pregnant."
"Aren't you on the family planning? Don’t you trust it?”
"I don't like taking the pills and I worry that sometimes I might forget and then you don’t want to wear a condom.”
"I've done numerous HIV tests and all have proved negative."
"Why did you do a HIV test?"
"It was part of the medical before I was admitted to college and when I took out life insurance. It was also part of the medical before I got this job.”
"I sometimes wonder where was a girl like you hiding all this time.”
"Lord Brad, you make me feel so special. Maybe if you and I had found each other, Jaimie would be your son.”
"Hush, baby, we can't turn back the hands of time."
"We can't, darling, but I just wished we had met earlier. Are you going to my ex’s wedding?"
"I got an invitation, but seeing that you aren’t going I certainly don’t want to turn up there alone. I’ll probably send Bobbette a present. She knows that I’m seeing you so she’ll understand. But Morgana, this girl, who works at my office, her aunt is getting married and she invited us.”
"That's the girl, we saw at Corners the other night with that tall guy with the flat top hairstyle. You should see the look she gave me when she saw me dancing with you.”
"I don't believe you were seeing right, anyway are you coming? Don’t worry about Morgana, I don’t think things are on the level between her and her fiancé.”
"I want to sleep. If she was more friendly, I could tell her some things about that guy that would simply shock her.”
"What! I didn't know you knew Stewart."
She laughed and said.
"I'm a very discerning person, but if you want to hear, I’ll tell you another time. I want to sleep.”