Fiction
Vengeance From The Grave Part 3
A Henry James and Roberto De La Cruz Series
My name is Henry Allen James, and I’m Roberto De La Cruz, and we’re writers for Dark Sides of the Truth magazine.
We decided before just jumping into this with four feet and then trying to learn how to swim, we’d do a sanity check and spell out our plan to a couple of people first.
One person being Robert Johnson who happened to be married to Sunny, and the other who’d been with one of us every step of the way as we tracked Dwayne Macy down. Manny Hermanos. As it was Roberto’s turn at the wheel, we took the elevators to the lobby and began the walk to his car.
“You ever tried parking closer to the front door, dude?”
“Henry, that’s probably one of your biggest problems. You don’t get any exercise.”
“Not true, De La Cruz. I have the most nimble fingers in the industry.”
“Good one. You know, I could teach you how to box. It would really be something to see you in the ring against father Brier.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Uh, well, no.”
“Son, you want to get in the ring and mix it up with father Brier, be my guest. I’ll be happy to sit ringside and watch you pound him for a round or two.”
After Roberto unlocked his car, we got in and buckled up.
“You know how to get there?”
“Yeah, I got the address keyed into my phone. GPS will get us there.”
“Naw, Roberto. It’s just like Doc Brown said. Where we’re going, we won’t need GPS.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Never mind. Just drive.”
Twenty minutes and fifteen U-turn requests from Roberto’s GPS lady later, we pulled into the parking lot of the strip center where Robert and Manny worked. Neither of them was expecting us, and we were supposed to have called ahead, but then where’s the fun in that?
After stepping onto the concrete walkway and stopping in front of a single glass door, we pressed the call button and waited.
Robert had implemented some rather heavy-duty security protocols since that time a sleeper cell had broken in and kidnapped Donnie Martin, his only cyber geek at the time.
Now we just had to wait as hidden cameras were trained on us, the areas to our left and right, and the parking lot behind us. A voice crackled out of a speaker just below the call button.
“Henry, this is unexpected. You know you’re supposed to call first.”
“Yeah, I know Manny, but Roberto and I have something we wanna pass by you and Robert.”
“You’re not following protocol, Henry.”
“Ah damn Hermanos, you gonna let us in or not?”
There was what seemed to us an extremely long period of silence, and then we heard a buzzing sound and the loud metallic clack of the door’s deadbolt as it snapped back. We stepped into the tiny alcove, a small square of space, possessing a single couch, a small coffee table, and an even smaller side table and lamp and stopped at an unoccupied reception counter.
Centered in the wall behind the counter was a metal door, void of handles or locks, a smooth square of steel. This was the second line of defense Robert had installed. The door could only be opened from the inside by a bump bar. It was just like exiting the floor of a building into a stairway. Once the door closed, there was no way to get back in without calling someone.
Which neither of us had done.
We waited until the door opened, and Manny Hermanos, Robert Johnson’s newest crewmember, stepped into the alcove, holding the door ajar with one foot.
“Come on in, you two. And Henry…”
“Don’t start on me, Hermanos. It’s too early in the day.”
Manny fell silent, waiting only long enough for us to pass through and checking to ensure the door had correctly closed and was locked. It was a short walk to Robert’s office, and we filed in with Manny in tow then sat, waiting for Robert to finish a phone call.
Robert placed his phone in its cradle, got up and cleared the corner of his desk, then perched against the front of it, his arms folded, and his legs crossed at the ankles.
“Okay you two, what’s so damned important you have to come over in person?”
“Henry? You want to take this?”
“Naw, Roberto. Tell ’em what’s behind door number two.”
It’s incredible how fast the expressions of Manny and Robert changed from looks of mild irritation to twisted grimaces of shock and surprise. Roberto had barely finished telling them what Gorgie claimed to have seen and heard before Robert snapped to his feet and returned to his chair.
For several seconds neither of them spoke, choosing to stare at us as if we’d suddenly transformed into a double-headed Hydra.
“You have got to be shitting us, Roberto.”
“I agree with Robert, you two. There is no way in hell Gorgie could know this. Dante has been dead for almost two years. Victoria’s brother has never even seen the man. This is impossible.”
“Manny has anybody mentioned anything about Dante, or maybe what happened to him to Gorgie?”
“You’re kidding, right, James? You know the rule. Nobody talks about what happened to Dante. Nobody.”
“Which is why we have to.”
“De La Cruz, you’re two are way out of line here. Sunny won’t even talk to me, her own husband about it. And now you two want to stir up this shit? This is insane.”
“Robert you and I don’t know each other very well. As a matter of fact, you and I barely know each other at all. But there’s one thing I don’t do is lie. Never have, never will. I believe Gorgie saw Dante, and I believe Dante wants us to help him.”
“Again, this is bullshit, you two.”
“Hang on, little brother. There was one thing we never asked ourselves during the entire time we were trying to find Dante and later as we hunted Macy down in Hawaii.”
“And what was that, Henry?”
“We never asked ourselves how Macy got his information, how he got the precise location of where Dante would be on the day he got kidnapped. Somehow Macy had the flight information. He even knew what remote parking lot Dante usually parked in when he traveled. Macy knew everything, Robert. How the hell did he know all that? How?”
We could almost see this last question twirling around in their heads as Robert and Manny struggled to provide a reasonable explanation.
“What did Gorgie say Dante told him?”
“Hang on, I wrote it down.”
“Ah geez, De La Cruz, you and Sunny.”
“Hey, maybe you should try it sometime, Henry.”
“Uh, gentlemen?”
Roberto opened a notebook, flipped through a couple of pages, then stopped, “Dante said there’s too much double dribbling being done off the court, and it’s time for some vengeance.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“Henry, I think this is probably one of the craziest things you’ve ever done. I’m guessing you want to call a family meeting and spill this?”
“Yeap Robert, that’s exactly what we want to do. But we need you and Manny to back our play. You need to broach this with Sunny, I’m going to ease into it with Cynthia, and Manny, you’re going to vouch for Gorgie. Then we’re calling a meeting with all the Alexander boys present, and we’re going to discuss this like a family.”
“This is going to tear them apart, Henry. You know that, right?”
“I’m praying to God we’re all stronger than this, Robert.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re right.”
Read On — Vengeance From The Grave Part 4
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