The durham mob, p.6
The Durham Mob, page 6
The next day, the time cards were put into the computer to issue checks. When the checks were printed, Wake and Bob knew by the job site codes which checks were bogus, so they pulled them. The checks came out in bundles. He put them in valises and like couriers and took them to their rightful owners, Charles, Gene and Coy. The girls were then called back Friday evening to sign the checks. The check stubs were separated from the checks and thrown into the incinerators. The lists came out and the checks were signed with the proper signatures. As soon as they were ready, they were taken by Bob to the five check cashing venues. The operators of those venues had special people to cash each check, taking out ten percent for themselves. The rest of the cash, in small bills, was put into shopping bags to be delivered to the principles. Charles had his money divided, so that Swazy, Bob, Sid and William were given $2,500 each, and the rest delivered to him at his apartment by Wakefield. Bob was the delivery man from Charles to William. That was the first time William understood the scale of the caper. If he received two thousand, five hundred from Charles, then this thing must be very big. Coy gave him nothing. Later, he heard Coy bragging about screwing Lauren on the $33,000 like he once saw in a movie. He still consoled himself with the fact that he didn’t work for the program and after giving them the names, he did nothing else, nothing illegal. Unbeknownst to the rest of the guys, especially William, Coy allowed Sid to put in a list of names and he was taking in four thousand per week. Hazel, his permanent side lady, signed his checks.
Since they all had more money than usual, they gathered at William and Coy’s apartment to play poker. Swazy didn’t gamble, so it was William, Sid, Wake and Bob, “I see that, that twenty-five and, and raise you fifty,” said Sid. He loved to gamble and did it as often as he could, but now, he liked it even more. “I see that fifty and raise you a hundred, “said Wake. They all started laughing at the same time. They were now betting like Maverick from the TV show; like rich guys. They had never had that kind of money to gamble. It was fun, the idea that they could afford to bet like that. When they were in high school, the biggest raise was twenty-five cents. While they were playing, Coy came over and dropped three hundred dollars in one-dollar bills on top of William’s money. William was surprised and he stared at Coy without saying a word. The other guys were surprised and stared also. Coy turned and walked away. No one said a word. They continued to play. Two weeks later, Coy asked William, “Where’s my three hundred?” William thought that Coy had given him some money for the first time. “What three hundred? I didn’t ask you for any money. I thought you gave it to me.”
“No, it was a loan.” William could hardly contain himself. He got so angry. He thought that for one moment, one time, his brother had done something good. “I didn’t ask you for any money and I’m not paying you any money! You’re a real piece of work!” He turned and walked away. Later, he told the guys about the incident. They thought Coy had given him the money also and were just as shocked. This was the new Coy whom no one recognized. But still, they were not going to get involved. Nobody was going to rock the boat. They had tasted the first fruits and couldn’t wait to get more. Plus, they all liked and admired Coy. He was always nice to them and they were impressed that he had a master’s degree in accounting and was in charge of this gigantic program.
That weekend, there was a lot of noise. Charles was usually loud but that Saturday, he was a monster. They partied at Charles’ apartment all day and night. There was lots of champagne as usual and lots of coke. Charles was like Batman. When he had a party, it seems as though the bat signal went up into the sky and every beautiful young lady and all of the home boys instantly knew and showed up for the festivities and the party favors. All the guys knew there would be plenty of coke and pretty ladies. Coy was cool. He and Lauren went by Charles’ but only stayed a short time. He wasn’t wild like Charles and the younger guys. Charles had earned his other nick- name, “Wild Child.” On Sundays, he was CCC, Champagne Charles Clayton and on other days, he was the “Wild Child.” Coy carried himself in a way that it was obvious that sort of behavior was beneath him. As usual, William didn’t even know that Charles was partying that day.
William took Arlene to Central Park with a blanket to lie on the grass and watch the people. She informed him that Coy had hired her to sign the signatures for the checks and had told her not to tell him. Of course, he was surprised that he had hired her but not that she was telling him. When she asked Coy why he didn’t tell William, she said he didn’t respond. She asked William why he thought Coy didn’t want him to know, he told her he had no idea. It was just another insult to William. A few of the other girls working for him were his home girls, who also asked Coy about William. Arlene said that he didn’t respond to them either. William was not even aware that Coy was renting the motel to use for the illegal work. William was completely in the dark and completely left out of the entire operation. Coy was paying her two hundred dollars per week, just like the other girls. She told him about her job and how the whole scheme worked. “Has Coy given you any money,” she asked.
“Not one dollar,” he replied. Then, he told her about the three hundred dollars.
“Do you have any idea why he is being so cold and not sharing with you?”
“I don’t have a clue.” He told her that he suspected that Lauren might be part of the reason, but as he had said before, Coy was never controlled by any woman. She might be an excuse, but not the reason. It didn’t bother him very much. He had his own life, friends, Arlene, and a few other close lady friends. He had never seen this side of Coy but he figured that, “It’ll all come out in the wash,” as the saying went in North Carolina.
CHAPTER 12
Charles began planning for the next week-end. He was going to rent this dance hall on 85th street and Broadway and throw a big dance. He sent Swazy to make the arrangements and gave him five thousand in cash to pay for the rental of the big hall. He told Swazy to give a thousand to some of the girls and get them to do some decorating. Swazy set out to get the job done. He sent Swazy because he was the most intelligent and the most dependable. However, Swazy was not a flunky. He did have a professional job and was not prone to be a flunky as much as he liked the money from Charles. He earned more in one week from Charles than he earned in four months on his job.
The Sunday of the dance had arrived. The dance hall had been decorated by some of the young ladies hired by Swazy with Charles’ money. As usual, Charles had invited almost everyone he passed during the previous two weeks. They began arriving mostly as couples but there were many single guys coming to find new adventures. Since there were no tickets, there was no one turned away. After an hour, the crowd had grown large. The band was playing and many had started dancing. It made him feel more important that he could hire a band and pay them in cold cash. The band thought he was rich, wild and crazy. After the place was almost full, the band began to play “Hail to the chief,” which was the music played when the president of the United States entered a room. But instead of the president, Charles strolled in, wearing a white suit with Diane on his arm. She was, “dressed to kill.” The crowd parted and they walked to the center of the hall where they began dancing to the band playing the O’Jays, “Money, Money, Money.” Charles was a great dancer but Diane was only pretty good. They were putting on a show. Charles was in his element. They danced to three consecutive songs. The others joined in, but were careful to leave plenty of room for Charles and Diane to be in the center of the floor. The dance was rolling. There was plenty of food and drink. There was also the clandestine coke. Someone was always heading to the rest rooms with several followers. Most often, it was a guy, followed by women. It didn’t matter which rest room they went to. It was all good. About an hour after Charles arrived, there was a little commotion and the crowd began to look towards the entrance. Charles noticed and began looking that way also. Coy and Lauren were arriving. Coy was also dressed in a white suit and Lauren was in a mini dress that showed her shapely body and great legs. They sailed through the crowd just as Charles and Diane had done. As soon they arrived towards the center, and very close to Charles and Diane, they began dancing. Coy was a great dancer and Lauren was even better; better than Diane. They were quite a pair. Charles couldn’t stand to be upstaged by anyone, but there were three people to whom Charles didn’t raise his voice; Coy, William and Gene Griffin, who was not present at the party. After that beach party, Gene never attended any functions. He decided to stay out of the lime light. Charles had a great deal of respect for Coy and William. Coy was also the most important link to embezzling all that money. Gene was a hood and maybe a bit dangerous. Charles was a little afraid of him. When the music stopped, Charles approached Coy and said with a smile on his face, “You know whose party this is, don’t you?” Coy replied, “Yea, yours, but we’re just trying to add some spark!”
“We were doing alright before you arrived,” Charles said in fun. But deep down inside, Charles was not pleased and Coy didn’t care. Coy had no ulterior motive. He always shied away from any kind of confrontation. Charles knew his personality well, and was much less offended than he would have been if anyone else had pulled this stunt. Had anyone else dared to upstage Charles, he would have put them out. Coy only did this because Lauren wanted to do it. She thought it would be fun and Coy agreed. It was all in fun. The party was great. People talked about it for weeks and were waiting for Charles to try to top it. The next day, William heard all about the dance but he didn’t say a word to Coy about it, nor ask why he wasn’t told. The relationship continued that way.
The next week came and the process was repeated. The girls did their jobs, the insiders did their jobs and Coy kept his eyes open for any problems. For example, sometimes the computer would throw out Social Security numbers. Someone would bring it to Coy’s attention and he would give them another series to correct the rejection. Also, Charles had been given his own printing press to quickly print out checks for kids who didn’t receive theirs, so they wouldn’t riot.
Charles created another dramatic situation. He invited all of the guys down to his apartment to show off a new gift for his fiancée. He led everyone outside to the parking lot and pointed to a new white convertible Pontiac. He turned to Diane and said, “That’s for you, baby. My woman travels first class.” The homeboys looked at the scene for what it was, another C.C.C. ego trip. No one really minded Charles’ theatrics. In fact, they all found them quite amusing. Some of them did the same kinds of things but on a smaller scale. Diane was accustomed to Charles’ need to be dramatic. She was being constantly showered with material things but Charles gave her very little love. He didn’t know how. He didn’t even have sex with her very often. She seemed to be kind of a symbol for Charles. He had orgies with many different women but he didn’t ask her to participate in them. She was the only one he spared. All of the other women were expected to participate, especially after absorbing a lot of his coke. He even had girls in bed with him sometimes when she came to his apartment. She never complained and he never explained. On these occasions, he would give her a few thousand and tell her to go shopping, or to go to Puerto Rico for the week-end, which she occasionally did. Many week-ends she spent in Nassau, The Bahamas. Mostly, she just stored the money for the inevitable rainy day. She had never met anyone like Charles. She cared for him but she felt sorry that he felt the need to present himself as a hard, non-caring person in public when she knew that he could be a little tender in private, even if only for a short time. She realized that the relationship was not going to end in marriage and was not going to last indefinitely. Diane didn’t really know if she wanted any kind of future with Charles, or if it was possible for any woman to last with him. She stayed because of the money and the nice presents. She took all of the gold and told herself, “But I really do care for him.” Her conscience was appeased and no one else really cared. The only reason she was spared by the wolves was because Charles had telegraphed, without saying a word, “She’s special and off limits,” and no one wanted to get on his bad side. It’s the golden rule and Charles had the gold. Normally, because he spent so little time with her, one of the others would have helped him out. This time, they all looked away.
Lauren had been complaining that she didn’t want to live in the apartment with William. She continued to ask Coy to move. “We should get our own place!” Coy had not planned to move at first. He had already hired an interior decorator to put in French curtains and drapes in the living room. They were expensive. William learned that the decorator was the father of one of his ex-conquests. Coy was feeling powerful getting all that money, and decided to move. Again, he didn’t say a word to William and still had not shared a penny of the thousands he was raking in. Lauren wanted to get out of Manhattan and she no longer wanted to share the space with William. She wanted to live in a high rent area and, of course, Coy felt he deserved a better life since he was flush with cash and could afford to live in areas he could not have afforded before. He found this huge building. Actually, it was three buildings joined together in Riverdale, just north of Manhattan. He came to William and told him he was moving out and asked him if he would put the new place in his name since the Audubon apartment was in Coy’s name. William, being the good brother went with Coy to sign the lease. He knew Coy was making a lot of money and would be able to pay this higher rent. He was living his life and it didn’t concern him. He felt that since his brother was an accountant, he would certainly know what he was getting into. Later, William heard that Coy had hired the same decorator to do his entire apartment, but he never went to see it. The three adjoining buildings had a huge underground parking garage that was under the entire structure. There were two entrances and exits with assigned parking spaces. Coy had two spaces because he had a two-bedroom apartment. He needed both because he had bought a red Eldorado Cadillac that he planned to give to Charles as a thank you, but Charles didn’t want it. It was the kind of car that drug dealers drove, bright red with white leather upholstery. Charles was loud but he didn’t want to be that loud, so Coy kept it for himself. Later, William heard that Coy had hired the same decorator to do his entire apartment, but he never went to see it. The entrance to the apartment led to the dining room which he covered with red and pink velvet wall paper. To the immediate left was a doorway that led to the master bedroom, and to the right was the entrance to the kitchen. The living room was straight ahead. The second bedroom was on the opposite side of the living room, facing the wall to the front of the building. Coy had the dining room raised so one had to step up after entering and step down into the living room. He had a very large bar built into the living room. The bar had stereo speakers built into each end, and a TV in the middle with sliding doors. Behind the bar were the best glasses, the stereo system with controls and a tape recorder. In front of the bar was a sectional leather sofa that cost $1000. There were hanging lamps with marble bases at each end of the sofa that cost $450 each. The master bedroom had a king size bed with a brass frame that was another $1000. The two end tables were four feet tall brass that matched the bed frame. They cost $500 each. In the kitchen were the best plates and glasses and silverware. The other bed room had a sofa bed. The entire decorating and furniture cost $27,000. He chose Sid to be his roommate, not William. Why would he, he was moving to get away from William. Everybody wondered why Coy chose Sid as his roommate. The other home boys all had jobs and apartments. Sid, who never liked to work and never kept a job very long, was available. He was a crook at heart, loved coke, and women even more. He was a big “freak’’ with the ladies and on a few occasions in his past, got some “boy pussy,” every now and then if he needed some money. Since he had gotten rich and had the coke to attract all of the ladies, Coy had become freakier too. He knew William was not going to be that kind of roommate. He had also continued putting distance between them physically and emotionally. Lauren was happy at first, but shortly after moving in, Coy realized the potential of this great pad for catching and keeping even more ladies, so he got Lauren a small apartment on the west side of Harlem. He paid the rent, so she accepted it. She knew this day would come. She made no complaints. She occasionally spent the night with Coy and snorted a lot of coke but she understood why she was no longer living with him. She had always accepted that Coy screwed other women. She didn’t care as long as she kept her spot in the pecking order. Now, she wasn’t sure exactly where she stood.
CHAPTER 13
Charles had begun having more parties regularly, especially on Sundays. Every Sunday, he had a champagne party with a bath tub full of the bubbly. He was living up to his reputation as Champagne Charles Clayton. Charles called William, “Listen man, I need you to come by my place about 9:00 p.m. It’s important.” William hesitated because he knew Charles was always making flunkeys out of the other guys, telling them to go to the store for him to get cigarettes or “to bring something when you come” and other chores. William was not about to be his flunky. Since he thought it might be related to his brother or about money, he said he would be there.
William called Linda and asked if she wanted to go. She was very excited and agreed to go. “I’ll pick you up in half an hour. Is that enough time?”
“You know a girl needs more time than that to get ready. Make that an hour.”
“An hour it is.”
“I’ll be downstairs,” replied Linda. He picked her up and headed for Delano village where Charles lived. When he arrived, Charles opened the door and a small crowd of people yelled “Happy birthday!” William was surprised. He looked around and saw his brother, Sid and most of the home boys, and several ladies that he didn’t know. Lauren was there too. Charles announced that the party was for William and for Sid, since their birthdays were one day apart. Charles loved to find excuses to have parties, even though he had them often for no other reason than to show off and meet new ladies. Charles took William and Linda into the bathroom and showed them the bathtub full of champagne. William reached for a bottle and Charles pulled his hand back, “That’s for the peasants. The good stuff is in the kitchen.” He took William into the kitchen. “Here, this Piper Heidsieck is for us!” Many people were arriving and the party got into full blast. There were lots of lovely ladies dancing and lots of guys, checking them out and deciding which one to move on first. Charles had plenty of cocaine and marijuana, and most people were getting high on one or the other, and some on both. All five rooms of the apartment were full of people. Some had even started to get a little intimate in the bedrooms. Charles, always looking to be dramatic, turned down the music, quieted everybody down and stood on a chair and yelled out, “Quiet all you dead-beats! I have a big announcement. Diane and I are getting engaged,” and held out this large diamond ring. All the girls were oohs and ahhs. But all the guys were winking, chuckling under their breaths and asking, “Who does he think he’s fooling? Diane, who was his favorite for the moment, looked pleasantly surprised. She was not aware that they were getting engaged, but she accepted the diamond ring anyway.
