Dead End Pt. 5

Part Five Of The Series!

Darius turns around and looks at him. “Meet us there at eight o’clock” Ray shouted. Darius nods his head yes and turns back around. Ray rolls the window back up and drives away. Darius continues to walk up to the front entrance and goes inside. He looks around the lobby and approaches the front desk. The manager comes out from the back and stands behind the front desk. “I would like a room” says Darius. The manager bends down and hands him a room key. “Any baggage sir” asked the manager. “No” replied Darius. He walks up the elevator door and presses the up button. The doors slide open and three people walk out. Darius puts his hands in between both sides of the door to prevent it from closing and gets in. Then he presses the next elevator button up to the third floor. A moment later the elevator lands on the third floor and gets off and looks at the number on his room key and follows it down the hall. When he finds his room he slides a card through the panel on the door knob and opens the door and walks into the room. He takes his coat off and throws down on the bed and sits down. He clenches his back and gets up and feels all the way down his back and takes the .38 special revolver out and sits down again holding the it in his right hand. He lifts it higher and stares at it the same way he did before and opens the barrel. As he looks at it he sees all six barrels loaded with bullets. He closes it shut and puts it under the pillow on the bed. Then he gets up again and walks up to the window and looks out of it. As he looks on he sees a big view of the city of Harlem. He glances down at the window seal and sees the remote to the TV. He bends down and grabs it and presses the power button and turns the TV on and sits back on the and flips through all the channels. When he stops at one channel he watches a 70’s movie with men in afros fighting Kung Fu style and shooting off guns with louder sound effects. When he sees the next gun battle in the movie he leans back and grabs the .38 special revolver out from under the pillow and aims it at the TV in amusement. He laughs and mimics all the action he sees in the movie. Back on the street Ray continues to drive with Tyrone sitting in the passenger seat this time. “I never thought I would see the day when our boy Darius would coming up like he’s uptight” says Tyrone. “Why, what did he say” asked Ray. “That boy started preaching to me at the basketball court like he was the pastor on Sunday talking about have we felt that what we do is wrong” replied Tyrone angrily. “I don’t know who he’s judging, people like us pay his bills” said Ray as he turns the wheel down to the next street. “I know he’s a lawyer and everything but I hope he doesn’t tell anybody about what he saw last night” says Tyrone. “You think it’s something we should be worried about” asked Ray. “It shouldn’t be, he was talking to me pretty chill” replied Tyrone. Ray steps on the brake and pulls over in front of a parking meter. “He wouldn’t be able to say nothing if somebody paid him off and hired him as their own lawyer but I know he’s not going to say nothing” says Ray. Tyrone pulls out a loaded clip and opens the glove compartment and puts it in there. “I know he’s not going to say anything, I just worried for a second cause he started talking to me like a child” he said. “Speaking of a child he’s not so innocent either, I heard before he went to college he got that girl at the party pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption” says Ray as he expresses his emotions with his index finger. “That’s why I was mad when he started talking to me like that thinking he’s all high and mighty” replied Tyrone. Ray takes the key out of the ignition and looks at Tyrone. “I just hope that we don’t end up getting worried about him and me being the one to take him out” he said. “Let’s cool

out right now and see how things go down tonight” says Tyrone. Ray puts the key back in the ignition and drives off. Later on in the afternoon back at Darius’ hotel room he sleeps on the bed with the TV on. Now he begins to open his eyes slowly and wake up. The light of the TV flashes in his eyes. He leans up and feels around the bed for the remote and picks it up from the covers and turns the TV off as he yawns. The sun shines brighter in the room. He gets up out of bed and sits on the edge of it. He rubs his eyes to clear the sleepy blurriness out and shakes his head. With the sun shining brighter through the room it gets his attention and he turns around on the bed and looks out the window from that view of the room. Staring out the sunny city of Harlem he flashes back to the story of Chris walking down the street of the city of Queens at that convenient store robbery in deep thought. He turns his head back to the wall in the room and stands up from off the bed and grabs his coat and leaves the room. He follows his way through the same direction in the hall way which leads him back to the elevator. He pushes the down button and it lights up. A Hispanic teenage girl waits behind him in anticipation for the elevator door to open. Both sides of the door slide open and he steps in and pushes the door open button for her. She steps in as well and stands next to him. He looks at her back and forth sideways and puts both of his hands in both pockets of his coat. She looks at him and cracks a smile in a friendly greet. Darius presses the button to the lobby and she presses the button for the second floor. He steps back and leans up against the wall and sizes her up looking at her body from different angles. The elevator stops and the door slides open. She gets out and an African American couple walks by her and gets on the elevator standing next to Darius holding hands. They both laugh and kiss each other. Darius turns his attention to them and sizes them up as well and sees an engagement ring on both their fingers. The elevator stops again and the doors slide open on the lobby floor. They both walk ahead of him and get out the elevator first. Then he steps out into the lobby and walks out of the building. A few minutes later he walks up the stairs of the subway station and sits down on the bench and waits for the train to pull up on the track. He sees a newspaper on the ground unattended. People walk by and step on it over and over. He gets up and grabs it off the ground and sits back down on the bench. He opens it up and at the bottom of the page he sees a black and white picture of Chris with an article below. Above it reads a headline that says “Main suspect in an odd grocery store double homicide and robbery”. Darius skips to that section of the newspaper and reads that article below that headline. It reads “Murder suspect is a one armed man with the identity only to be known as his first name to be Chris was spotted running down an alley only seconds after the shooting occurred”. “What looked like to be a routine corner store robbery turned out to be a double homicide robbery but with two local convicted thugs in the neighborhood in which they were located in the basement of the store at the time of the robbery”. “After the incident NYPD officers found the two of them shot to death in the basement and the clerk upstairs only injured”. The rest of the article carries on and Darius crumbles it up and throws it back down on the ground. His train pulls up on the track. He gets up and waits in line with the passengers and boards the train. Afterwards it stops at the subway station in the city of Queens. He gets off the train and walks down the sidewalk and waits for a taxi to pass by. He sees a yellow cab up ahead and he waves his hand in the air to signal it. It pulls over and he gets in the backseat. The taxi driver stops at Darius’ requested location which is more into the city of Queens in front of a neighborhood. Darius pays him and gets out. Darius plays the image back in his head of Chris’ situation and retraces the steps of the area by looking around at the whole neighborhood until he sees this corner store with yellow tape across it that says “Police Line Do Not Cross”.  He stands there and stares at it for a moment and walks across the street to it. When gets up close to it he tries to look inside through the cracks of the window and all he can see is all the items in the store wrapped up in plastic and a marked crime scene behind the cash register. As he tries to peak in to see in deeper he sees a reflection of a NYPD squad car from the window of the shop. He backs up from the building as he sees the squad car coming closer and walks down the street the other way in attempt to act casual. When the squad car finally passes him both officers look at him and speed up a little faster to get ahead of traffic and then they all lose sight of each other. Darius looks up at the sky and sees the day getting darker as the sun starts to go down.

When he loses complete sight of that squad car that drove by him he turns around and walks back to the condemned store and walks around the corner of it into its alley way. When he looks down the alley way he remembers that other image in his head of Chris running down there and tucking that gun away. Now all he can see down that alley way is a dark path with nothing but two homeless people standing by a fire lit barrel near the dumpster with their hands over the fire. The next breathe Darius takes is a chill mist that he can see clearly. All of a sudden he feels his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. He reaches in and answers it. “Hello” asked Darius. On the other line Tyrone stands in a warehouse with a group of people behind him socializing along with Ray as their host. “Where you at” asked Tyrone. “I just took a subway down to Queens” replied Darius. “What are you doing down there” asked Tyrone. “It’s just this new case I’m working on but I’ll take another train back there soon and don’t worry I’ll be there for eight o’clock” explained Darius. “Alright just this time try to enjoy yourself and don’t judge anybody here” ordered Tyrone. “It doesn’t have to be about all that just take it as me trying to spark up a conversation at that time” says Darius. In the warehouse one of the women there walks up to Tyrone and hands him a bottle champagne. In that same hand holding the champagne bottle he lifts his sleeve up and wipes his nose. “Maybe you should take the next train ride over cause you don’t want to keep everybody waiting” suggested Tyrone. “Okay I will” said Darius as he hangs up the phone. Tyrone puts his phone down on the table behind him and opens the champagne bottle. Darius turns his head and gives one more look at the corner store and walks on in search for another taxi. He walks a couple blocks up where there’s more traffic in the street and more people outside. He waits on the curb of the sidewalk and waits. The front part of the traffic of cars begins to move ahead and another set of cars pull up and stop at the red light. Darius sees a few yellow taxi cabs at the end of the line and walks in the middle of the street in between cars and gets in the backseat of the closest taxi cab he walks by. The cab driver drops him off at the same subway station and Darius waits for another train going to Harlem. Later on in the night at eight o’clock Darius exits the subway station walking down the stairs and into the street. Across the street from the subway station he sees Ray waiting in the same Escalade they were driving in earlier. Darius waits for the all the cars to drive by in the road and walks across the street and gets in the Escalade with Ray. They drive back to the ware house and enter the building. “Follow me” says Ray. They walk up two flights of stairs. Darius looks all around at the surroundings in the building and sees graffiti all over the walls. When they make it up to the second flight of stairs they walk past a hallway with young men and women dancing with drinks in their hand to hip hop music playing out loud with party lights flashing in the room. Darius follows Ray up to Tyrone who’s sitting in an office chair slightly isolated from the party. He and Darius high five each other while he rocks in the chair. “Welcome to my palace” says Ray. He and Tyrone both look at Darius and grin. “Another party Ray” asked Darius. “Nothing wrong with celebrating a little success” replied Ray. “As you saw all those young cats in the hall, those are our employees” says Tyrone. He grabs the bottle of champagne off the table and takes a couple of sips. “You know what, let’s bring them in here so you can acquainted” Ray said to Darius. Tyrone gets up out of the chair and shouts out “Hey yo cut the music”! Everybody at the party walks up to Ray, Tyrone, and Darius. Ray wraps his arm around Darius. “This is our old friend back in Cali and here’s to pay us all a visit” announced Ray. “Dig this, he’s a lawyer” shouted Tyrone. Everybody in the crowd laughs. Ray snaps his finger and they instantly stop laughing. “Give the man some respect and show him a good time” demanded Ray. Everybody cheers and claps. The music turns back on and everybody dances on that side of the room. Tyrone and Ray push Darius into the dancing crowd and he mingles in and dances with everybody. Behind Darius is a young thug who’s staring at the gun in Darius’ back pocket. “Yo he’s five-o” yelled out the thug. Everybody stops dancing and looks at Darius. The thug whips out a 9mm pistol and points it at Darius. He puts his hands up and steps back slowly from the young thug. Ray rushes through the crowd and grabs the 9mm out of his hand and punches him in the face which knocks him down to the floor. “Everybody back up” yelled Ray.  Everybody stops dancing and looks at Ray and Darius with the music still playing in the background.  Darius looks down at the thug and holds out his hand to help

him back up.  “I’m sorry; they gave me this gun for my protection” he says to him.  The thug gets up without taking Darius’ hand.  Ray shoves him aside and mutters “What’s wrong with you”? Tyrone squeezes by everybody in the crowd and grabs the thug by his shirt and shouts out “Somebody get him out of here”!  Two more people at the party snatch the thug and drag him out the door.  Ray puts his hand on Darius’ shoulder and whispers to him “Sorry about this”.  Darius wipes sweat off his forehead and steps out of the crowd of people. The next day at his hotel, he sits on his bed staring at the wall and says to himself under his breathe “I can’t stay here”. In the gym of the bureau Danny works out with 25 pound dumbbells in each hand.  He lies down on the stool and bench presses them in a pattern one at a time taking in air up through his nose and breathing it out of his mouth. More agents walk in the gym wearing workout gear with the FBI company logo on their shirts.  Danny continues in his pattern with the dumbbells and glances at each agent that walks by him.  All the agents in the gym gather around in a circle and whisper to each other.  Danny bench presses each of the dumbbells one more time and puts them down and gets up off the stool.  He cools down and takes a deep breath.  All the agents standing in the circle giggle to each other.  Danny stops and looks at them.  They all turn their heads to him quickly and look back at each other and giggle again.  Danny sighs and waves them off. Behind them is a crate with boxing gloves.  Danny walks towards them and they all spread out from the circle. Danny grabs a pair of red boxing gloves and puts them on and walks on the other side of the gym up to a punching bag. He raises his fist and forms them into a southpaw boxing stance.  On the opposite side of the gym right before the other agents use the workout equipment they stop and all turn their attention to Danny.  He throws a jab with his right hand and follows up with a quick jab with his left hand.  He stops and sets the punching bag straight from wiggling and starts over from the same stance.  He holds still in that position and a step back a meter from the punching bag and throws another jab from his right hand with more pressure making the punching bag swing in the air.  The agents gather around and watch him while whispering into each other’s ear once again. Then Danny hits it with an upper cut with his left hand which slows the punching bag down from swinging in the air.  The agents all nod their heads in an impressed acknowledgement.  Danny turns around and looks at them.  They all respond by spreading out like before and picking up the closest weight lifting equipment near them.  Danny turns back around to the punching bag and this time executes combinations by hitting two jabs with his right hand and with his left hand at the same time. He speeds it up and throws a left hook to the upper part of the punching bag and follows up with a right hook down lower. The agents put all the workout equipment that their holding down and watch him again. Danny takes off the gloves and throws them on the floor. He sets the punching bag straight again and holds it still with both hands. Two of the agents shrug their shoulders and watch him in confusion. Danny knee strikes the punching bag three times. The doors to the gym open and director Stevenson walks in and calls out “Johnson”!  Danny stops and turns his attention to Stevenson. All of the agents pick the workout equipment back up and carry on. “We need you to fill in for this case, come with me” says Stevenson. Danny walks towards him and grabs a black adidas on his way out of the gym. They both go upstairs to the conference room and sit at the table. “What’s this about” asks Danny.  “Agent Wilson has a family emergency and he was assigned to this case and now we need all the help we can get” replies Stevenson.  “What’s the case” asks Danny.  “There’s this Russian gang smuggling illegal narcotic pills but we don’t know what they are pacifically but all we know is that their dangerous and if you want to get cute, mostly likely armed” explains Stevenson. Danny leans back in his chair and raises his eyebrows.  “What was Wilson assigned to do” He asks. “He was supposed to wear a wire and two other agents listen in on it in a van no more than a block away and when it’s time to move in he would make the signal” replies Stevenson. Danny leans back forward in his chair and frowns. “How dangerous are these guys, because I’m not trying to get my head blown off by the Russian mob” he asks angrily. “Between you and me I wouldn’t have picked you as a replacement if you were the one to get your head blown off” says Stevenson. “Well I guess if people can shoot at me through doors during a raid then I shouldn’t complain” says Danny.  “This a good opportunity, you never really had an assignment like this and who’s to say if you

were to score this one and get yourself a promotion” says Stevenson enthusiastically.  “Then I guess I have nothing to lose” says Danny uninterestingly. Stevenson stands up and walks towards the door. “I don’t like it either kid but that’s the way it is” he says. Danny stands up and looks at Stevenson as he puts his hand on the door knob and opens it. “I’ll do it” Danny shouts out. Stevenson turns around and gives him two thumbs up with his hands as he smiles. Back in downtown Los Angeles Rochelle drives her Range Rover downtown and stops at a Coffee Shop.  When she walks in there is two people in line in front of her.  A moment later, they hand her a cup of coffee with two napkins wrapped around it.  “Thank You” she says to them. Then she exits out the front the door and walks pass Lucas and a woman walking with him and near miss bumping into each other. Lucas grabs the door and holds it open for the woman to walk in ahead of him.  Before he gets into the shop, he glances at Rochelle for second.  She gets back in her car and drives off putting her cup of coffee in the cup holder in the car.  She pulls into the driveway of the house and goes inside and sees Darius standing near the kitchen table with his foot on the chair.  “Hey baby” she called out. He looks at her and waves his hand. She walks into the kitchen and stands next to him.  “What are doing” she asks. He is wearing black cowboy boots and tucks a small recording device into the boot on the foot that is standing on the chair. He looks up at her and rolls both of his pant sleeves down and takes his foot off the chair.  “I just have to do a quick assignment tonight and I’m required to wear a wire” he explains to her.  “Is it going to be a dangerous one” she asks.  “No I just have to get a recording of the conversations” he replied. “Okay just be careful” she says.  He walks towards the door and grabs a black leather jacket off the coat rack on his way out.  He drives to a secluded area with one cabin in plain sight and parks behind two other cars near it. He gets out of the car and knocks on the door of the cabin. A man opens the door.  Danny raises his head up.  “I’m here for the exchange” he says.  The man steps aside and lets him in. Inside the cabin is a bar counter lined up with glass mugs and two other men sitting at a table in front of the fireplace playing cards.  Danny whistles to get their attention. They both turn their heads and look at him. “Are you the guy” asked the man sitting on the right side of the card table.  “Yeah like I just told your doorman, I’m here for the exchange” replied Danny.  The door attendant steps toward Danny.  “Is it just you” he asked. “Well I’m a little early but the rest of the guys will be here in a couple minutes” says Danny. “Just take a seat and have a drink, I want to finish this game anyway” The man at the card table told him.  Danny sits at the bar counter and the door attendant goes back to standing by the door.  In a white van down the road of the cabin, two FBI agents listen in wearing headphones.  Danny looks around behind the bar counter.  “What do you have to drink” he asks. “Whatever we have is on the bottom shelf behind the counter” says the second card player. “I’ll look behind there in a minute” insisted Danny.  The door attendant rolls up his sleeve on his left arm and checks the time on his watch.  “It’s been a couple minutes, where are they” he asks Danny.  “This isn’t like them so they must be running late” replied Danny.  The second card player puts his stack of cards down and looks at Danny and asks him out loud “Are you going to have a drink or do I have to pour it for you”?  Danny turns around and looks back at him.  “You said it was behind the counter” He asked him back. Then he gets up and walks behind the bar counter and sees a few half-filled alcohol bottles in the bottom shelf.  Danny kneels down and sorts through the bottles.  The door attendant tries to look down pass the counter to see Danny and starts to look on in suspicion.  “Do you guys have any ice” asked Danny.  “You don’t need ice for those kinds of drinks” says the first card player sitting on the right side of the table.  Danny kneels down lower and discretely puts an earpiece in his left ear.  The door attendant steps closer back towards Danny’s direction. “What are you doing”?  He asks angrily. Danny stands up straight.  “I’m just trying to pick out a good drink” says Danny.  He reaches down and quickly snatches one of the bottles and puts it on the counter. The door attendant looks at him with his blinking up and down. Danny walks back around and sits back on the bar stool in front of the counter and pours him a drink into one of the glass mugs.  The door attendant walks out from behind the bar counter and stands close next to Danny.  “Looking at something” Danny asks him.  “Who are you” the door attendant asked him in response.  Danny ignores him, picks up the mug, and takes a sip.  In the van, one of the

agents says “Let us know when to move in”.  Danny hears it in his earpiece.  “You need to back up because you’re making me nervous” Danny says to the door attendant.  The two men at the table both look at them.  The door attendant looks back at them.  “I don’t feel good about this one and this guy isn’t checking out too good” he says to them.  “Maybe you need to have a drink too” says the second card player.  “You got to be kidding me right know, his people still didn’t show up yet” yelled the door attendant.  Danny gets up and looks at him with squinty eyes.  “I don’t like the way you’ve been coming at me pal” says Danny firmly.  He picks up the glass mug and smashes it over the door attendant’s head with shattered glass and spilled alcohol scattered everywhere as he falls to the floor.  Danny grabs him back up and jabs him twice in the jaw his right fist.  The agents in the van yell out “All agents move in”!  Both the card players stand up.  “You guys need to control your boy’s temper” says Danny. Both of the card players pull out 9mm pistols.  Danny puts his hands up.  “Whoa, Whoa, don’t set me up like this” he exclaimed.  “Why did you hit him” asked the first card player in confusion.  “He was making me nervous and for all we know he could be a cop” yelled Danny.  The second card player points his gun at Danny.  “That’s my sister’s nephew” he says.  Danny points down at the door attendant’s laid out body.  “Either way that’s not how you do business” replied Danny. Under the card table he sees a button switch attached to a small panel. They both point their guns at him.  Danny puts his hands back up.  The windows in front of the bar counter bashes open.  All three of them look out it and see flashlights attached to 12 gauge shot guns and snapback hats that say FBI on it.