It was after 11:00 by the time they reached the Whitestone Bridge. Since it was going to be too late for Mario’s, Travis asked Me’shelle to take him straight home. He’d pick up a couple of slices from a place around the way. Once they got to Travis’s house, he turned on some music.
“That’s what I missed the most while I was gone.”
“What’s that?”
“Jazz.”
“Who are we listening to?” Me’shelle asked with a bit of a frown on her face.
“Wes Montgomery,” Travis replied proudly as he sat down at the dining room table and prepared to eat his pizza.
“Never heard of him.”
“He’s on guitar. I take it you don’t really like jazz.”
“Some of it’s okay. I mean, like Kenny Gee, David Sanborn, stuff like that. But this is-I don’t know.”
“This is real music. Guys like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, these guys put their whole heart and soul into their music. Kenny Gee wishes he could play the sax like Coltrane.”
Me’shelle laughed. “If you say so. I guess I’d have to hear some.”
“Stick around and you will,” Travis said. “I almost forgot.” He went and got the small box out of his pocket. He returned to the table and handed the box to Me’shelle. “This is for you.”
Me’shelle looked at the box and knew it was jewelry. She opened the box. “Travis, it’s beautiful.” The necklace Travis bought her was platinum with a half-carat diamond. “Is this the little souvenir you said you were bringing me?”
“Yup,” Travis said with his mouth full of pizza. “Do you like it?”
“Yes, it’s beautiful. Thank you so much. How did you know I love platinum?”
“I didn’t. I just thought it would look beautiful on you.”
“When you said you were bringing me a souvenir, you know, I was expecting a T-shirt with some stupid sayin’ on it or a bag of sand or whatever.”
Travis got up, took the necklace from Me’shelle and put it on for her. “I was right. It does look beautiful on you.”
“I don’t think the words ‘you shouldn’t have’ are enough for this, Travis. How much did this cost?”
“A gentleman never tells.”
Chapter Eighteen
Early the next morning, Travis called Freeze. He wanted to find out what was going on before he spoke to Ronnie and Jackie. Freeze told Travis to met him at Cynt’s at 1:00. Since he wanted to talk to Freeze alone, he called Jackie and told her to meet him there at 2:00. Then he called Ronnie.
“What’s up, Ronnie?”
“It’s about time you came back to the real world. When did you get back?”
“Last night,” Travis said.
“How was the island?” Ronnie asked. Travis noted the cool tone.
“It was great. Weather was nice. I had a good time.”
“Did you meet Veronica?”
“Yeah, we hung out a couple nights. She was real cool.”
“Well, what does she look like?” Ronnie asked.
“Yo, she doesn’t look anything like she sounds. She’s a big, juicy, fine-ass muthafucka.”
“Really? So, I know you had a good time with her. I know you like them juicy. Which reminds me, your girl Mystique has been askin’ for you every time I go to Cynt’s. Said you don’t call her no more,” Ronnie said, trying to sound like a woman.
“What you tell her?”
“Not a damn thing,” Ronnie said and laughed. “She gets real funky when she don’t get what she wants, don’t she?”
“She sure does,” Travis replied and laughed.
“So, what’s up, Travis?”
“I know we need to talk and that you got a lot of questions.”
“I just asked the only question I got.”
“Then the answer is it’s all good. So, why don’t you meet me at Cynt’s at two? We’ll talk there. Cool?”
“Cool. If you say it’s all good, then that’s all I need to hear,” Ronnie said.
After Ronnie hung up, Travis called for a cab. In addition to going to Cynt’s, he had a few other things he needed to get done. Before anything else got done, Travis had to do the one thing that had been bothering him for the past week.
Travis stood in front of the grocery store looking for the camera that somehow he missed while he was planning the job. As discreetly as he could, he walked out into the parking lot, looking on top of the building for mounted cameras. There were none. They’re here somewhere. Travis thought back to the job itself and the brief piece of footage that he saw on television. He thought about the angle from which the footage was shot and where the camera had to be in order to get that shot. The lights.
Travis stopped at the spot where he had the correct angle and looked up at closest light pole. Then he walked back in front of the store and picked up the pay phone to call another cab. From that spot, almost exactly where the armored truck was parked, he could see them. They were small, built into the pole. With the morning sun shining, they almost looked like reflectors, but now he was sure that they had to be cameras. They were perfectly positioned to get an excellent shot of everybody exiting the store.
When his cab arrived, Travis got in and headed for Cynt’s. Easy to miss, but you should have seen them anyway.
Freeze had arrived at Cynt’s early and was there, waiting for Travis when Wanda came in.
“What brings you up here so early in the day, Freeze?” Wanda asked and sat down next to him.
“I was just about to ask you that,” Freeze replied.
“Cynt asked me to stop by to discuss a legal problem she’s having.”
“What problem she havin’?”
“Calm down, Freeze. She said it was a personal problem. If it’s something that you need to know about, I’ll tell you. So, what are you doing here?”
“I got to meet somebody here at one. And I had to bring some money up here so they could open the tables.”
“Why?”
“It was a weird night in the NBA. A lot of upsets,” Freeze said then pushed the newspaper in front of Wanda.
“Knicks beat the Lakers, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s the one that broke us. Everybody made that sentimental bet on the Knicks to win.”
“Shit happens,” Wanda said. “We aren’t that bad off, are we?”
“Nothing we can’t handle, but we need to bust ’em on down at football this weekend or everybody’s envelope gonna be a little light this week.”
“That’s how it goes,” Wanda said. “Who are you meeting with?”
“Travis Burns.”
Wanda rolled her eyes and sucked her teeth. “The wannabe robber.”
“No, baby, my nigga’s the real thing.”
“Yeah, right.”
“I didn’t notice you complainin’ or callin’ him no wannabe when he personally made your envelope a little fatter. My nigga is smart; he’s organized, he’s disciplined, he’s got his crew under control. They execute their jobs like clockwork, and he’s a good earner. So, tell me the truth, Wanda, why don’t you like him?”
“Think about what you just said: smart, organized, disciplined, in control. He reminds me too much of Mike Black.”
Freeze thought about it for a second. “Now that you mention it, he damn sure does.”
When Travis arrived at Cynt’s a little early, he was surprised to see that Freeze was already waiting for him. He expected Freeze to keep him waiting like he usually did. Wanda saw Travis coming toward the table. “Here comes your nigga,” she said mockingly. “I’ll leave you two to talk.” Wanda got up from the table and headed for the stairs to the offices for her meeting with Cynt. She passed Travis on the way. Travis smiled as men did when they saw Wanda walking toward them.
“Hello Travis,” she said and kept walking.
“Hello, Wanda,” Travis said nervously. What’s up with that? Wanda never speaks to me.
Travis sat down at the table with Freeze. “So, what’s the word?”
“The word is good. I got it on good information that the cops don’t have a clue on who ran that job at the grocery store. They assume that the same people that ran that job ran the jewelry store job, but they got no leads on either case. I know there was some concern about the video surveillance of the parking lot, but they gone over it a bunch of times and they remain clueless. But that’s a cop’s nature.”