Fiction
Vengeance From The Grave Part 5
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.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
After receiving the green light from the Alexander family to pursue this latest “visit” from Dante Alexander, a star basketballer who’d been dead for nearly two years, we thought it best to return the favor.
We met Donnie and Gorgie at the mall and staked out the food court, hoping for a repeat engagement. While Donnie and Gorgie entertained themselves in the video palace nearby, we tried to make ourselves comfortable in a pair of plastic chairs at a wobbly table.
“You think he’ll show?”
“No idea.”
“Will you be able to see him?”
“Again, Roberto. No idea.”
“What’s bothering you, Henry?”
“I’m not sure you’d understand, son.”
“Try me.”
“Well, in a lot of ways, I’m kinda like Sunny on this one. It was the first story she and I did together.”
“Paging Doctor Baxter Huntley?”
“Excellent, Roberto. It seems like you’ve definitely done your homework. Well, that story kicked off a hell of a chain of events. If I had never had the car accident that put me in that particular hospital. If Sunny and I hadn’t put old man Macy in prison, things would have been different. In a way, I feel as guilty for Dante’s death as Sunny does.”
“But you two still keep doing stories.”
“It’s what we do, Roberto. And now it’s what you do.”
“And his son? What about Dwayne?”
“So here’s the deal. That’s where this whole thing went sideways. Sunny and I didn’t even know Macy had children. It wasn’t until…”
It’s strange how time passing can either be brutally quick or agonizingly slow when you have to relive things you’ve spent years trying to forget. In this case, as one of us dredged up terrible memories, time seemed to grind to a halt.
“Until Dante was kidnapped and murdered?”
“Yeah, son. Macy’s boy Dwayne played us like a fiddle. Led us around the merry-go-round real good. When we finally did find Dante, it was too late.”
“Damn.”
“But the kicker to all of this? If we had found Dante much earlier, even days earlier, it would have still been too late. Macy killed Dante immediately, and the same way his father killed those children.”
“Oh, man.”
“Yeah.”
We were quite content to let the conversation, especially this topic, wither on the vine and die. Not that it mattered because at the same moment, Donnie and Gorgie showed up with paper tubs of nachos and drinks, and we all began snacking and talking with our mouths full. Eventually, the conversation devolved into Gorgie smack-talking Donnie about his complete lack of precise coordination and concentration.
“Wow, for a little dude, you sure got a big mouth.”
“Donnie, you’re such a wuss. You can’t even get past the second level? Really? I reached that level with my eyes closed.”
“You’re such a big liar, Gorgie. Besides, you still owe me five bucks for your part of the nachos. I saw your sister give you twenty, and all of a sudden, you’re strapped for cash? How about I grab you by the ankles and shake that money out of your butt?”
We were all concentrating on our food, each of us expecting the boy to fire back a wiseacre comment. When he didn’t, we looked up. Gorgie was staring across the food court, his gaze fixed on an empty table with four chairs, his mouth open. One of the chairs was pulled out as if someone had been sitting in it and just not pushed it beneath the table.
We watched as a glob of nacho cheese slithered off the chip Gorgie was holding in his hand halfway from the paper tub to his mouth.
“Gorgie. Do you see him? Is Dante at that table?”
Instead of replying, Gorgie nodded.
“You can’t see him, Henry?”
“No. Maybe he doesn’t want me to see him just yet, Roberto. I don’t know.”
Gorgie returned his chip to his heap of nachos and whispered, “he’s waving me over to him. What’ll I do now?”
“We do what he wants. Donnie, stay put. Roberto, you, Gorgie, and me are going to have us a little chat.”
We bracketed Gorgie and wove our way around the assortment of tables strewn about the open court area, then sat down and stared at one another.
“What now?”
“Ask him what we can do to help Gorgie.”
Gorgie opened his mouth to speak, then cocked his head and squinted. He slowly twisted around and stared at us.
“He says, hey Henry. And that you look like you’ve put on a few pounds. And he wants to know if your partner is the Roberto De La Cruz that crushed that guy. What? Oh Tyler, yeah, that’s what he said. Tyler in the title fight two years ago.”
“One and the same, sir.”
“Ask him how we can help?”
“He says he can hear you, Mr. Henry. What? Oh, how’s Sunny?”
“She’s okay, Dante. The entire family misses the hell out of you.”
“He says he’d like to see her one last time.”
“We’ll make it happen, brother. But first, you need to help us help you. Gorgie said you said somebody’s doing a lot of double dribbling off the court, and it’s time for a little vengeance. What do you mean by that?”
Gorgie nodded, “he says there are only three of four people in the back office who arranged travel for the team or had access to the info. One or more must have had a reason to release that information.”
We traded a knowing glance at each other and then turned our attention back to Gorgie.
“Got any names for us?”
Gorgie shook his head, “he says no. his only contacts were through the coaching staff.
“Henry, so we start digging around the Dukes organization starting with the back office?”
“Yeah, Roberto, but I got one more question, Dante. Why this food court? Why here and why Gorgie?”
Gorgie leaned his head forward, concentrating on the back of the empty chair where Dante supposedly sat.
“He said this was the last place he came before, well, you know. They’re the best nachos in town. Oh, and he said I’m special, and he wanted you and Miss Sunny to know that. He also said he’s not tied to this place and that he’ll be following you two around for a bit if you and Roberto need him.”
“Okay, ask him if he has a name in the back office.”
“I can’t, Mr. Henry. He’s gone.”
“Damn.”
We immediately got up and returned to our original spot. From this point on we needed to do what did best and begin sticking our noses where they didn’t really belong, but where they needed to be.
“Donnie, you and Gorgie good to make it back to Cynthia’s house?”
“Of course Roberto.”
“Okay, you two need to keep this quiet. Got it?”
“Clear.”
“Henry, let’s roll.”
“You know that’s my line right De La Cruz?”
“Okay about this? Oye viejo, levanta tu trasero y vamonos.”
“Did you just call me an old man and tell me to get my ass up?”
“I did. You got a problem with that?”
“Nope, just making sure you weren’t cussing me out.”
“Trust me, Henry. You’ll know when that happens.”
Read On — Vengeance From The Grave Part 6
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