The durham mob, p.21
The Durham Mob, page 21
“Is your brother down with this?”
“I haven’t discussed it with him, but I’m not going to keep this car for two years until he gets out. I’ll tell him when I go up to see him.”
“Well, that’s between you and your brother. I don’t want any shit later.”
“Once you pay and get the papers and the key, it won’t matter what he thinks,” said William. He continued to count the money until he had four thousand. It was in five stacks and looked like more than it was. “You got enough, Bob asked?
“You’re not going to check?”
“Naw, I trust you. Sign the papers and give me the keys.” William signed his brother’s name and gave him the keys. “Call down to the garage and tell Ike to let me have the car.”
“Will do.” William called down to the garage and told Ike to let Bob take the car. It was done. One problem solved. He wouldn’t have to take care of the car and there would be more money to put in the commissary for his brother. He didn’t know how he would react to the news, but he would soon find out.
A few days later, he went to visit his brother. After they shook hands and sat down, William told him, “I sold your car.”
“You sold my car!” After slightly raising his voice, he quickly looked at the guard who was looking at him! Raising one’s voice and many other human reactions were forbidden. “You sold my car! I’m not going to have anything when I get out!”
“What was I supposed to do with it, drive it occasionally, looking like a dope dealer with two Cadillacs or pay for garaging it for two years? I sold it to Bob for four thousand dollars. It was a good price.” After a moment, “It’s only a car, I can always get another one,” he said calmly, looking and sounding like the Coy of old, the one who hardly ever raised his voice or showed too much emotion.
“What do you want me to do with the money?”
“Just put it with the bail money and keep it for me. I’ll need some bread when I get out.” It wasn’t that Coy had to trust him with his money, he really trusted him. He knew William wouldn’t steal from him or cheat him. That was one of his advantages. William was annoyed at the whole scene. He looked him directly into his eyes and said, “If you had given me the money you promised me, you wouldn’t have to worry about money! If you had managed your money like the accountant that you are, you wouldn’t have money problems! If you and Sid had not snorted up your profits from the coke, you wouldn’t need money, and if you had taken care of your possessions like your furniture and clothes, you would have a lot when you get out!” Coy stared ahead without saying a word. What could he say? He was guilty of all that and more. William didn’t mention how Coy had cheated and stole from him. He didn’t say anything more about the mistreatment by Coy even though he was thinking it, because it had nothing to do with money. During the silence, William regained his composure and they both changed the subject. Finally, the visit was over until the next one. He was committed or he would have to answer to his mother!
CHAPTER 39
Lita had overstayed her student visa by two years and was told that she would have to leave the United States. She did not want to return to the Philippines, so she investigated moving to Canada and found that she could immigrate there easily because she was educated and a social worker, which they needed badly. Everything had been cleared for her to move to Montreal. William spent some quality time with her before she had to leave. Although she had a very close relationship with William, she did not become very emotional about leaving. It was something that had to be done. Canada needed social workers and they paid more than in New York. It wasn’t a bad deal and Montreal was only a few hours flight from New York. William was still seeing Iliana, his number one, and Lottie, but he took the time to say his so long to Lita. “You will come to visit me, won’t you?”
“Of course, I will. After all, you’ll be so close and I can practice my French there.” He meant it and she believed him.
A few nights later, William was on his way home and decided to stop by the Midway Bar. He seldom went there alone. He usually went there to meet someone at their request. It was not his favorite meeting place. Many hustlers hung out there, drug dealers, numbers guys and other criminals and most often, pretty girls who went there to meet these types of guys. He was looking for Bob. When he didn’t see Bob’s Cadillac double parked outside, he started not to go in. In Harlem, big time drug dealers didn’t park next to the curb, they double parked, often triple parked. Most of the time, there were not enough parking spaces in front of the clubs and bars, and no drug dealer would be caught standing outside waiting for someone to move his car so he could get out, and he wouldn’t park a block away and walk to the club. William went inside and looked around for a few minutes. When he didn’t see any of his homeboys, he started to leave. A guy walked over to him and introduced himself. “You’re Coy’s brother, right?” William looked around and said, “Yea.”
“My name is Earnest. I was an associate of your brother. How’s he doing?”
“He’s doing well under the circumstances.”
“Next time you see him, say hello for me. Tell him when he gets out, he can depend on me to look out for him.”
“I’ll do that.” Before William could turn to leave, Earnest quickly said, “Let me buy you a drink.”
“I need to be getting home,” said William.
“I would be honored if you would have a drink with me,” Earnest suggested.
William was getting more and more offers to buy him drinks or to do him some kind of favor. He didn’t think much about it, but more and more people were convinced that since the police didn’t get any of the money that Coy embezzled, William had it. They didn’t know that Coy had spent all of the money and went to prison practically destitute. Earnest was so insistent that William decided to accept the offer for the drink. As soon as they sat down, William asked, “How did you know my brother?”
“We did a little business together.”
“What kind?”
“With some warm paper.” William was not interested in any details. He really didn’t care.
“Maybe I can do you a few favors.”
“What kind of favors?”
“I get boxes of airline tickets. All you have to do is write in where you want to go. They’re good for a whole year.”
“You sell these tickets?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to do business with you. Let me give you a few. I owe your brother. He did me a few favors.” They finished their drinks and Earnest said, “I’ll walk you outside. Outside, Earnest had a five-year-old Cadillac limousine, double parked naturally, with a chauffeur inside. He wasn’t a real chauffeur, but one of his flunkies. It made him look good and impressed people that he had more money than he really had. It was good for business. “Let me pick you up tomorrow and we can go downtown and have lunch. It’s all clean, no business,” he said.
William looked at the Cadillac and the chauffeur and snickered to himself. He thought it would be fun. “Okay man. What time you wanna come by?”
“I’ll pick you up for lunch at noon.” William gave him his address. At exactly at 12 o’clock, Earnest was outside in his limo. William came down and the fake chauffeur opened the door and William got in. He actually was his chauffeur, but he was also a co-conspirator in crime. They were chauffeured downtown. When the limo stopped at stop lights, people stared. Earnest loved it. The limo stopped at the West Boondock restaurant which William knew very well.
They had a good lunch and Earnest talked about the fun he had had with Coy, partying and snorting coke. On their way back uptown to drop William at his apartment, Earnest reached over and gave William five airline tickets. “I made money with your brother and I owe him. Take these tickets and enjoy yourself. Maybe you and I can do some business in the future.”
“Can these tickets be traced?”
“No, these are blank tickets and they are legit. All you have to do is write down your destination to and from and you’re good to go. I wouldn’t give you any bull-shit tickets that could get you into trouble. Hey, if you got busted, you’d have to tell them where you got these damn tickets. Then, you’d rat me out and I’d have you killed, and I’d spend the rest of my life in prison. Just joking, man! These tickets are clean.” William smiled at the joke but was still a little nervous. “I’ll take your word for this. Thanks.”
“It’s for your brother. He’s a righteous guy!” You can mention to your friends that you know where they can get some cheap tickets.” At last, the truth came out. He wanted to do business and he assumed William had money and connections. William took the tickets and thanked him. “Who knows, maybe we can do some business in the future.”
“Gladly,” replied William but he had no intentions in getting involved.
CHAPTER 40
William had an acquaintance in the Virgin Islands called Big Daddy, who used to work in the government program with his brother and Charles. Big Daddy had been arrested a few days after all of the big fish had been arrested. He had the same lawyer as the rest of them, Larry Fietel. Larry asked Big Daddy to come down to the DA’s office to see if he could help them sort out some things and it could possibly help Big Daddy. When Big Daddy was seated, Larry asked him if he had played a role in the scheme involving Coy and Charles. Big Daddy swore that he just worked there and if he helped in any way, he had not been aware of it. “I was just doing my job?”
“Did you carry any money to anyone,” asked Larry? “Did you pass any checks to anyone?”
“Absolutely not,” replied Big Daddy!
“I just want to be sure because the charges are that you facilitated the transactions by delivering money to participants.”
“I have no idea what they’re talking about!” The prosecutor had an assistant to set up a screen, and then rolled out a projector. They lowered the lights and started the projector. Immediately on the screen could be seen a large black man, passing stacks of money to another person. Larry looked at Big Daddy and said, “That man passing the money looks like you.”
“He does, doesn’t he?” replied Big Daddy. Larry looked him straight in the eyes and asked, “Is there anything you want to say to me? The DA wants some information, but if you are not the one on the screen, you won’t be able to help him. He’s willing to help you if you will help him.” Big Daddy was scared shitless. “I’ll help all I can if I can avoid jail,” he said with a painful look on his face.
“That’s what the DA is promising if you are completely honest.” By that time, the thought of spending time in prison was the most frightening thing he could think of. Spending the night in jail had already been traumatizing enough for him. He had never been arrested before and he wanted to end this nightmare and was willing to tell on everybody. He “cooperated” and sang like Caruso. He was spared any further pain and walked away a free but damaged man. He sold his Cadillac and moved to St. Croix, The United States Virgin Islands, “Just in case anybody finds out I cooperated.”
Since William had these free tickets, he decided to go St. Croix for a short getaway. Big Daddy had told him that he could always stay with him. He had a nice small house with two bedrooms and two baths. William’s friend, Angus, who owned The West Boondock Restaurant owned the restaurant at the airport. William was not aware that big Daddy had “cooperated.” He was in Europe when all of that stuff took place. He flew to St. Croix and rented a car. He got directions from an airport employee and headed out. There were narrow, two lane roads to negotiate but after some effort, he found Big Daddy’s house. Big Daddy greeted him and introduced him to his live-in girlfriend Sonia, a Puerto Rican lady whom he had met there. Since Big Daddy didn’t have a job, he had the time to show him around. He had managed to store away some of the ill-gotten money, and the money from the sale of the Cadillac for survival. They went to check out the beaches. “These beaches are nice and clean but I haven’t seen or felt this many insects since I was in South Eastern Texas,” said Big Daddy. William didn’t know about South Eastern Texas but there were just too many insects to enjoy that beach. “The best beaches are the ones behind the hotels. Maybe they knew how to get rid of them there or the area was too expensive for the insects, so they all came to this beach. Let’s go to one of the big hotels where the insects are not allowed. We can have lunch there.” It was a typical tourist hotel right on the beach. Since the town of St. Croix, which was founded by the Danish, was old and had only a few small clubs that were frequented mostly by the locals, the action was at the tourist spots, mostly the beach hotels. They ate lunch at William’s expense. They chatted with some tourists and William was searching for some action. Most of the ladies were with partners, so they had a few drinks and talked about the good times and the wonderful ladies in New York. Big Daddy got quiet and began to look serious. He leaned forward, closer to William and said, “I know something that might interest you. I know you’re not into this kind of business but you can make a killing.”
“What kind of business?”
“I have a contact here who can get you a kilo of coke for five thousand,” he said.
“As you said, I’m not into that business or any other kind of crooked business,” said William, but I’m sure there are people in New York who would be interested, people like Charley Red.”
“Yeah, but Red ain’t got five G’s, does he?”
“I don’t know what he has, but I don’t want to touch any coke except for the little I use occasionally. Anyway, how would you get it to New York?”
“The guy will deliver it to the airport and pass it on to someone.”
“Sounds like some kind of spy shit except these are drugs. I’ll tell Red about it when I get back and let you know. Sounds like a good deal for anyone who is interested,” said William. That was the end of that conversation. William returned to New York but he forgot to mention it to C. Red.
When he went to visit his brother, he remembered and told him the story. Coy’s eyes lit up. He had dealt with kilos of coke and said, “If I was on the outside, I’d jump all over that. Why don’t you do it with my money? You can get C. Red to pick it up at the airport for you and give him a little piece. If I can double my money, I’ll have something when I get out. Maybe it can be a once-a-month thing. Then, we can make some real money,” Coy said enthusiastically.
“Do you think I want to be in here with you?”
“Like he said, you don’t have to touch the stuff. Let Red pick it up at the airport and Red can even get a buyer for you…and me.”
“Sounds too easy and it’s still dangerous.” Coy was in his convincing mode. His mother used to say, “He can sell rat poison to a rat.” William’s funds had gotten a little low and he didn’t want to use his brother’s money, although he wouldn’t have felt guilty if he had. He began to rationalize and find justification for going ahead with the deal, since he had not worked since he quit his teaching job. He thought he could pull a few thousand out of it for himself. So, he allowed himself to be convinced again, although he had promised himself that he would never again get involved in any kind of criminal activity with or for his brother. “Okay, I’ll do it for you if C. Red will do all of the dirty work. I’ll just put him in touch with Big Daddy. He knows Big Daddy anyway. I’ll contact Big Daddy and set it up. I’ll have to fly down again to give him the money.”
“This could be a life saver. You could make some money, C. Red could pull out a few dollars, and you could put away some for me. I’ll have a nest egg to get started. Why did you spend so much money flying down to St. Croix?” William related the story about the guy, Ernest, who used to do business with him, gave him some stolen tickets. He told me to tell you that he would be here for you when you get out. Coy remembered the guy. “Tell him I might need him. Great,” said Coy, Now the deal with Big Daddy was done. William went back to the city and called C. Red to present it to him. Red was not afraid to do anything. He had sold small amounts of coke and helped Swazy and Bob with their heroin businesses, and the airport didn’t have a lot of security anyway. Red came down to his apartment and greeted him.
“I got a good deal for you. Remember Big Daddy?”
“Of course, we used to party together when he worked for Charles. What about him?” William went on to explain the deal. Red didn’t hesitate. “When do we start? If this thing is real, I can put some of my money in to get an extra key for myself.”
“I got to fly back down to work out the details and give him the money. How much do you want for your cut?”
“Well, let’s see how much we can get when we sell it. We might be able to get fifteen or a little better for it. I’ll take about three G’s for picking it up and selling it. There’ll be enough left for you and Coy to split. How does that sound?”
“Sounds okay to me but I don’t want to get my hands dirty.” Again, William was rationalizing that he was not breaking the law, just facilitating. It had always been important to him that he was always going to be honest with people and was never going to break the law. That’s the way he was raised. That’s what his mother expected.
“I’ll do all of the dirty work. Let me know when you’re ready.”
William called Big Daddy and told him he would be down the next day. All the free tickets were coming in handy. He arrived in St. Croix and followed the same procedure. He rented a car and drove to Big Daddy’s house. He asked for the plan before he committed the money. “My man will fly into La Guardia airport carrying the merchandise in a valise. He will be wearing a Hawaiian shirt and green pants. You can’t miss him. He will go into the first restroom. You will go in and do that spy thing. He will go into one stall and you will go into the other and he will pass the valise under to your side. Are you picking it up?”
