Child Of God (4) Michelle would be coming soon so Tamara ended her prayer and began preparing dinner. She was determined to make a difference in her small town and uncovering the puppet master of the drug problems would be the first one to go down. When Michelle arrived at Tamara’s home she saw two beautiful little girls playing with Barbie dolls on the front porch. She wasn’t sure which one was Destiny but her curiosity would be satisfied as soon as she got out of the car. “Hello, you must be Michelle,” a little girl with long puffy ponytails said while greeting her at the top step. She extended her little hand to assist her. “I’m Briana and this is my little cousin Destiny,” she said while fluttering around in a childlike game. “I see you met my babies,” Michelle heard Tamara holler from inside, “Come right on in.” She was impressed, Tamara’s home was a mixture of the old and the new even though it was under construction. “You have a lovely home,” she told her host. The two went back and forth on pleasantries until Tamara saw a envelope peeking out from Michelle’s briefcase. “Got any good news about the case,” Tamara asked. Their efforts had yielded a lot of information, Junior was well known in the hood and the rumor was that even though he was in the throws of death he was still a heavy addict. There was a Black man by the name of Kilo from the South Side that still went to hang out with Junior in Mountain Valley (a large area in the country practically owned by the sheriff). It would be essential to gain Kilo’s trust and make a proposition that would yield info on the night Monique was killed. “Junior and his daddy have had their hand in every piece of shady business in the county, they even own four convenience stores in the South Side,” Michelle said while handing Tamara handfuls of paper trails and alias’s for property. She said she’d just left an informant. Michelle dictated everyone word on her lap top and then asked him to sign it. The evidence was tremendous, so far the sheriff had been able to hold the town hostage because he owned so much of the property. Not even Michelle questioned his integrity, as he went about throwing his foreknowledge and accomplishments before everyone’s eyes. His friend Jack Harris, an infamous attorney in the area, had been waist deep in the drugs and prostitution scandal. Delores Lackey, another mover and shaker in the town worked as a criminal defense lawyer, Michelle suspected her for years, she was also handling a large part of the cocaine that made it into the young men hands that stood on the street. “Many of the clerks are actually family members to these major players so they know everything that is going on in the town,” Michelle said. “I’ve worked in this office for more than five years and never knew that in laws were planted in the system to keep those bastards one step ahead of me.” Her informant had not been close enough to the inside of the operation to merit a full scale operation and both ladies knew the federal government would need to get involved. “We still need to talk to Kilo, gotta find out his role in the operation because right now what he knows is priceless,” Tamara told her friend. Arresting him would be too obvious, it would alarm too many people so Tamara would have to take that part. The two seemed interlocked in thought as they poured over ways to get close to Kilo. We wear the mask “A woman only needs to have love in her eyes” Chapter twelve Tamara found out that Kilo hung out at a pool hall downtown, she heard he was a quiet man maybe 6’3 with a scar on the side of his face. Turns out the nick name had nothing to do with drugs, in school Kevin Otis aka Kilo had been a model student. His favorite subject was math, especially breaking down measurements and doing large mathematical problems in his head faster than others could do with a calculator. He’d gotten a full scholarship to Duke University with the goal of becoming a chemist. Things were going great until his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. When Kilo came back home to help take care of his five younger siblings he ran into an old classmate, Junior who promised he could make his financial burdens disappear. Junior had done just that, he created a monster. Now Kilo was equipped with his own personal lab and his only job would be making X pills and cooking up the heroin and cocaine for an entire county. A mug shot of him looked more meek than thuggish, Tamara could actually image Kilo creating medicine that could cure some of the worlds diseases but he had chosen the street. “There’s something about being a pastors wife God,” she said to herself. “I always want to believe you for the breakthrough and I can see this young man doing so much for the body of Christ.” She’d mended ties with her parents over the break up and sent Briana with them on their cruise . The trip was only mentioned after being scolded for leaving but Tamara felt safe that her daughter was out of harms way. Tamara put on her sexiest outfit, it had taken forever to push past the mountains of church clothes to find something that looked loose. “Fish net stockings, and I can turn this shirt into a dress,” Tamara said throwing things around her room. Her array of high heels made her laugh, “Saints and sinners alike love some high heel shoes,” she said. After teasing her hair, which she copied off a picture of Little Kim she got online, Tamara made her way to the pool hall. She checked her makeup for the last time, the neon lights of the bar seemed to glare in her face. As a church girl she’d dabbled in partying and sex out of wedlock but her father always told her that you run the streets for your time and then the streets run you. Her hands were sweating, her bravery almost fleeting. “Pull yourself together, you are here for such a time as this and you will fight,” she told her self while looking in her rear view mirror. Tamara grabbed her purse and gave her big booty walk into the bar. The fog of smoke and dim lights made her feel as if she stepped into another realm. This was the place they preached about, the dens of sin and she could see the spiritual brokenness in those full of libations. Twisted or propped upon the bar women dressed much like her looked for more men to buy them more drinks. The men full of moral abandon looked on lustfully, their mouths intent on broken promises. It wouldn’t take long for her to see Kilo, it wouldn’t take long for Kilo to see her. Though Tamara felt out of place some of the old school music along with the glass wine helped her to understand the atmosphere. There it didn’t matter if who you were and everyone was free to fill up on their twisted pleasure without worrying about who saw them at the bar. Recklessness was in the mist of the pastors wife and she felt her self balancing the competition for righteous in the religious circle or resigning with a personal walk while allowing her life to effect who they would consider heathens. God mattered most of among those he advised in his word, “Do not be overly wicked nor righteous.” It was a fine line for Tamara, the veil of spiritual tradition and dedication could also result in a drastic fall. “Can I buy the pretty woman a drink?” a strong radio like voice breathed across Tamara’s shoulder. When she turned around she saw her bait, she didn’t even have to wave or wink. Reflection or refraction “Come too far to turn back now” Chapter thirteen Kilo smelled like a million bucks, he looked like a million bucks too Tamara thought. His seductive eyes were attached to flowing eyelashes that would make it easy to play this con, almost sinful though for the soon to be divorcee to be trying that get close to a sexy man. He prettied up his profession, by day he worked as a pharmacy salesman and at night he admitted to playing pool and places a couple of bets. The scariest thing to Tamara was if she did not already know so much about this smooth talker she would have been envy enough to believe. A couple glasses of wine and a few lies was what made the bar a den of sin Tamara contemplated while pretending as if she was falling head over hills in love with Kilos game. She couldn’t help but think that someone should be lobbying for men to present criminal background checks and two personal relationship references before being allowed to step to a diva. “What do you do honey dip?” he asked while letting his lashes dance in a alluring manner. She’d already told Kilo her name was Andrea and she moved back to live and take care of my ailing aunt. Tamara (aka Andrea) also told this supposedly 9 to 5 worker that her brother was killed in a liquor house many years ago in another small town like this. He wanted to run with the boys and sell a little weed, drink and get a new woman every night but he didn’t understand that sometimes a man is require to defend his words. “Every since then I have worked as a counselor for at risk teens. “What an admirable profession,” Kilo said. “So let me ask you then pretty church girl; what brought you here tonight. “Isn’t this one of the places you warn the teen about,” he teased. “And you might of thought to make sure I didn’t know who you were before you jumped up with a false name.” “Excuse me,” Tamara interrupted. “Nah you straight pretty mama, I used to read your stories in the newspaper all of the times and would recognize that face in any crowd,” he said while looking her dead in her eyes.” “I thought you went to live in Georgia with your life time soul mate and was doing real well for yourself,” Kilo asked The conversation had now switched placing the her in the hot seat. “I guess the bigger question Tamara is what do you want from me?” Kilo asked in an almost threatening way. Her first instinct was to gather her things and get out as fast as she could out. “I’m not going to hurt you, you don’t have to go…See you’ve aroused my curiosity,” he said to calm her fears. Tamara could see she’d under estimated Kilo’s intelligence, misread his thug life for mis-education. “I‘m trying to find out about my cousins murder and I heard you might know someone who knows something about it,” she said glaring right back at him with a passionate truth.” Monique and T.J. had lived together for years so in her eyes Monique was a common law cousin. “I knew Monique baby girl and I hate that happened but you know that drill right or should I just plead the fifth to make it more plain.” he responded quickly. She explained that as a reporter what ever he told her as a source was confidential so if Kilo knew something he could still tell her off the record. “Off the record baby girl your grown I know but your too little to dance in my head cause there is a lot of darkness on this side, Kilo said. Tamara immediately stood up clutching her purse and jacket nodded before exiting the bar. When she got to her car she saw Kilo running toward her. With the distance between them she had time to get in and at least locked the door but for some reason Tamara knew that this was God’s journey and no harm would come to her. “Okay look I thought about it and it might be best I answer your questions than you running around alerting people who would have no problem hurting you or your aunt,” Kilo said as he got more than five steps away. “Besides I’ve always loved talking to a pretty woman, always been certain it would be a pretty woman that won my soul to Christ.” “By any means necessary, right my brother,” Tamara answered back with a smile. The two sat in her car for hours; her hands began to cramp but the information from this man, who was now in too deep, fueled her to write down Kilo’s every word. It turned out that his confession came from the fact that his life style had also lost him countless loves ones to addiction. Kilo admitted the substances that he handled and inhaled had saturated his system. “I watched my little brother die too”….“He had an overdose on some Ecstasy pills I made, stole a batch I messed up,“ Kilo told Tamara as if he felt a need to acknowledge he was not a hard shell. “Its just your dealing with some heavy players and what you now know about Monique’s murder is enough to get you killed.” When the ($#!%) hit’s the fan “”Scratch a lie find a thief” Chapter thirteen Tamara learned that Kilo’s loyalty was not foundational, what he did for Junior was keeping the operation going. His relationship to the sheriff even tainted, it seemed his butter scotch skin came from a mixture of his mothers love and the sheriffs seed. “Yeah, nobody knows because my mother asked me to keep it to myself.” It seemed the sheriff as a young boy was no law abiding citizen, instead he helped run his father moon shining business. He sat gins up all over the Appalachian Mountains and played errand boy for his father by delivering the white lightning to the South Side. “That’s when he met my mother and she was forced to accept his advancements,” Kilo said. He and some friends grabbed up the man his mother was in love with and carried him in the woods Kilo said. “He was never the same again when he came out those woods,” he muttered shaking his head as if there was a distaste in revisiting the memory.. “See I know how it happened but he doesn’t know that.” Kilo said as he grew up his father as sheriff garnished that same control over any man that looked at his mother. “She got to the point where she knew it was best to just keep to her self,” Kilo told the spry reporter as if her knack for asking questions might also produce answers to his deepest contemplations. “So all of your siblings are by the sheriff,” Tamara asked almost whimpering away from the very question she asked. Kilo said there were four including him and yes they all had the same father but he was the only one who knew about the circumstances that brought them to be. It was too much for Tamara, her pen stopped dead silent and she understood that mans estimations of another man can be different from how God sees us. Pain seemed to seep from his words searching for validation. Was he wrong for selling and manufacturing drugs, yes. And he felt he had no other choice so he disassociated himself from the effects of an infectious drugs that had done to his community. Who was she to judge this man; that’s why she admired Michelle but Tamara could not see past learning the testimony of each villain, searching for the opportunity for another Damascus moment. No one would have ever thought of Paul as a passionate apostle of Christ, before as Saul he praised and participated in the stoning of Christians. Simon the rowdy fisherman certainly pulled his weight and protected his own yet he would become meek to his Master as Peter and the rock upon which Christ chose to build his church. Tamara had taught Bible study every since she was nine years old, somewhat a buff of scripture but only for the purpose of sharing and not judging because hers was a quest to understand each character. She knew they had been chosen out of the millions of people in that time to show the revelations of man and the deliverance of Christ. It seemed more to her that Kilo was tired, tired of being in the game but he knew that drug dealers don’t retire. Instead they take up space in a penitentiary for 20 years or give up their lives to pasture in the cemetery’s across the world in the ’bad ass’ sections. Maybe Kilo’s testimony was all she would need, Junior was too risky and it would be safe to talk to the secret son. There had been several deals where dear ole Dad got over on Kilo and he was scorned. But would Michelle grant him immunity, could he walk from behind a veil of darkness or had the exposure been too damning to his soul. He agreed to meet with Michelle out of town and give up the entire operation if she agreed to his conditions of absolution. When Tamara called Michelle promised Kilo that he could walk away with intense probation for five years and he approved. For both women their journey seemed self fulfilling, somewhere in between the frustration of things they could not fix God was showing them a lit path. Game on “You wanna be a baller, shot caller” Chapter fourteen “The picturious sky turned dark almost like it was mourning the lost of a love one,“ those were his exact words Tamar relayed to Michelle. “It was the night that Monique was murdered he was describing.” They found out that she was lured to a closed gas station the sheriff owned to give her the hush money. When she got there Kilo said it was apparent she was in need of a fix. She stumbled in not even noticing the unusual set up of the garage. “If she would’ve thought of her threats and disposition she would known to run but like a mouse intent on getting some cheese she couldn’t pass up free money.” Kilo said his stepbrother was bragging about binding her arms and legs while his faithful friends, D.T Merch and Sam Thomas, hoisted her up in the air by sticking a hook in her back. The three danced around at one of the sat up houses and said they dumped her like the trash she was. From what Kilo could gather both Junior and Monique shared an intense drug addiction so their relationship at first was a match made in heaven.
Copyright © 2009 Bridgett Nesbit |