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"Now him I’ve heard of. Heard they found his body in some river in Jersey," Black taunted that day. "But you answered your own question. If these guys are low-rent drug dealers, I wouldn’t know them or anything about them. Maybe you should talk to Freeze. He keeps up with that kind of shit. It’s like a hobby to him. But since you drove all the way out here to ask me about them, it must be something that you can only ask me."
"That would be correct," Richards said.
Then Black took a step closer to Richards and got in his face, and Kirk thought he was going to have to separate them. "You don’t like me, do you, Detective Richards?" Black asked Richards. "To you, I’m just another arrogant crook who doesn’t deserve the respect Kirk shows me."
"That would be correct," Richards stated plainly.
"That’s why I respect you, Detective Richards, ’cause you don’t like me and you have no problem lettin’ me know that you don’t like me. You’re not like a lot of other cops who smile in my face or try to act tough. You do your job, and I respect you for that."
"Right," Richards said.
"Whatever I can do to help you, Detective Richards?"
"Somebody killed Cash Money in his apartment and K Murder was killed this weekend in a drive-by."
"I don’t know anything about that. I just came back from the Bahamas today. Like I said, Freeze keeps up with that type of shit. So unless you’re tellin’ me that these are the guys that killed my wife, I wouldn’t know anything about them. Why would I?"
"That’s what I asked one of them," Richards said, referring to Bruce Stark.
"What he say?"
"He didn’t have a reason either, but right now he’s sitting behind fifteen guys—"
"Seventeen," Kirk corrected.
"Okay, seventeen guys; waiting for you to come after him."
"So let me get this straight," Black said. "Four baby ballers that I’ve never heard of, are so scared that I’m gonna kill them that they got together to protect themselves against me, but I don’t know them? But now two of them are dead, which says a lot for their security, and they think it’s me that killed them. So now, one of them is so scared of me that he is sittin’ behind a little army waitin’ on me to show up. Is that what you’re tellin’ me?"
By that time it was obvious that Black was fighting back his laughter and so was Kirk.
"I’m sorry, but would you mind tellin’ me what my motive is for doing this?"
"See, I told you he was going to ask you that," Kirk said and dropped his head.
"I’m not out there fightin’ over corners with these kids," Black said. "They play it a little too hard for me. They have no honor or loyalty; shootin’ each other over bullshit. Why would I even be involved with these guys?"
After that Richards cracked a smile. "I was kinda hoping that you could tell us," he finally said. "Since they think it’s all about you, I just thought I’d ask."
"It is not about me, believe that," Black told them that night.
The detectives le
ft this latest murder scene to allow the evidence techs to do their job. On the way down the steps Sanchez told Kirk and Richards about the suspected alliance between Black, Stark and Angelo Collette. "But it’s only a rumor."
"Sometimes rumors are based on fact," Richards said.
"Stark is a regular visitor at Cuisine. And him and Black seem very chummy," Sanchez said.
"But, Collette, that’s the one that concerns me," Kirk said. "Him and Black are old friends and he’s been trying to get a foothold in this part of the Bronx for years."
"Correct," Sanchez said. "Now, for the really big money, do you know who the last player he had in the game was?"
"Who?" Richards asked.
"One Cassandra Sims."
"Black’s wife?" Richards questioned.
