It's the day after my wonderful performance and as soon as everyone is up and moving, we are greeted with Green and Fowler knocking on the door. Bobby had turn Sophie run and get him something to cover his dog bites; she presented him with Mom's robe. As soon I saw Fowler, I could tell this trip wouldn't be a good one. Fowler tries to tell Bobby he found his hair on one of the contract killers.
"Fake." I coughed, Fowler sent me a glare
"You know when I'll know you got my hair off a dead body, right? When I hear the jailhouse doors close behind me, girls." Bobby says
"Fine, tell me what they told you. You think they were hired to kill Evelyn?" Green asked
"Wait, Green, how do you go from petty thug to contract killer?" Angel asks "And if they were professional shooters, like you say, they'd have never told us who they were working for. Even if they got one hell of an ass whooping."
"You think you pretty cute huh? Everybody thinks their cute until I bust them in the mouth." Fowler tells Angel as he walks toward him.
"You gonna bust me in my mouth?" Angel says as he gets up. I know I need to deflate this situation. Before Fowler gets to Angel I step in front of him
"You need to cool your jets McFlower Power and back away from my brother. You don't have any evidence so if you're done asking questions; you need to get the hell out my momma's house." I tell him, looking directly at him. I can feel Angel's anger from behind me. Before someone can say anything else, Green grabs Fowler back.
"Stop. Look, Bobby, if you got something, you give it to me. And if I can, I will run with it. Don't take on Detroit by your damn self. You keep knocking on the devil's door long enough, somebodys gonna answer you."
When Green and Fowler leave, I go upstairs to get dressed. When I come down stairs, I hear Angel and Sophie fighting with Bobby antagonizing as usual. I'm standing by the stairs listening to them.
"She's so La Vida Loca." Bobby says
"Shut up, Bobby. Don't start with that crap." Sophie says
"Don't go there please." Adds Angel
"You said this time was gonna be different." Sophie says getting teary eyed.
"Ay, mami you're breaking mi corazon." Bobby says and Jack and I smirk. Sophie walks away
"I thought you were a tough guy." I tell Angel and he glares at me. I put my hands up in defense and miserably fail at trying to keep the smirk off my face
"You know, it's a real shame that little Jackie and Superstar are the only ones down to ride." Bobby says as he grabs his coat "Tell your big sister goodbye guys. Let's go." He says and exits the house
I'm walking beside Jack "Bye Angelique." I tell him and walk toward the open door with Jack trailing behind him
"She's addicted to what Angel's dick did." Jack says and we both laugh as we leave the house.
We get to the killer's house and we search their shit. We find guns and a camera. We take everything back to mom's house and around the time we arrive Jerry shows up.
"Look how y'all doing mama's house." Jerry says and I feel bad because I know she would be pissed if she saw it now.
"Hey Sophie, why don't you make yourself useful and clean some of this shit up?" I say
"Fuck you Dyonne." She says
"Hey, Bobby. That's mom and her lawyer, he said he only met her once." Jack says and Bobby and I crowd around the camera.
"Where the hell you been?" Bobby asks Angel as he walks in
"Following up on some new leads." He answers looking at Jerry and I know I can't possibly be the only one to see that look thrown at Jerry.
Bobby asks Jerry if he wants to come and Jerry says someone needs to look out for us clowns and I guess he was right. We break into the house and Jack finds the lawyer's computer.
"I found his calendar. You don't think "EM" stands for Evelyn Mercer, do you?" Jack asks
"Good job." Bobby says
"He met with her before she died." Angel says and everyone looks at me. Before I can respond I hear someone screaming from outside.
"Angel!"
"Your girlfriend's here." Bobby says
"She's crazy, man." Angel says
"Well, go shut her up then." Jack says
"Angel! Angel, come out! I see you in the window!" She is doing all that screaming and honking the horn. This bitch is gonna get us caught.
"Y'all come with me. This bitch is crazy." Angel says and we exit the house
"There's robbers in the house!" She is screaming.
Angel walks to her and starts to drag her away. She pulls herself from him and stops with her back to me and Angel facing me.
"Let me go! Your ass is gonna get arrested!" She says
"Sophie shut up and stop screaming." Angel tells her, but she won't stop. She begins to scream and cuss him out in Spanish. I've so had enough of her shit.
"Hey Sophie!" I yell and she turns around
"What Dyonne?" I don't reply I just punch her dead in her face and Angel catches her before she falls.
"Why the hell did you do that?" Angel asks me
"The bitch wouldn't shut up so I knocked her out so you could put her in the car." I tell him "No need to thank me." I smirk at him
I turn around and see Bobby hitting the lawyer in his stomach and ask him questions. I hear the man say he had a "social" relationship with mom. I walk over to Bobby, Jack, and Jerry.
"Wait, you were the guy mom was seeing?" I ask him and he nods his head
"You knew she was seeing someone?" Jerry asks
"Yep. She tried to "sneak out" at night and be back before I notice. I didn't know it was him. I'm not stupid; I mean I did the same thing when you guys were living in the house. " I say
Bobby apologizes to the man and we walk up to Angel with the knocked out-Sophie in his arms.
"What happened to her?" Bobby asks
"Your little sister happened." Angel answers angrily and all eyes are on me. I try to look as innocent as possible
"What? She kept screaming and I didn't want the cops to come so I thought it would be easier to knock her out. I mean I did a good thing." I say and look around. "See, no cops."
"Uh huh. All that and you finally got to get her good." Jack says
"Hell yea. God that felt wonderful." I say, knowing the charade is over. Everyone but Angel laughs and we head back home.
The next day, everyone is up and I know that if someone was to walk into the house they would see the weirdest sight in front of them. Bobby is on the toilet, Jack is in the shower, and I'm standing at the mirror applying my facial mask wearing a tank top and boy shorts. I'm used to it, I grew up in a house with four brothers and one bathroom, you do the math.
"I don't understand why your impatience asses couldn't wait until I was done." I say
"You take forever and you just said we are impatient. Where are you clothes?" Bobby says and I roll my eyes
"I'm wearing them smart ass."
"Where's the rest of it?"
"I don't go out like this. These are what I sleep in." I respond. Angel comes in and I can't help but think that this is getting ridiculous. We are like having a bathroom party.
"I gotta ask you a question." Angel tells Bobby
"What's up?" Bobby asks
"You know me and Sophie did a lot of making up last night." Angel says
"Ah, she woke up from the nap she was taking." I say fake sweetly. Angel just ignores me as Bobby and Jack laugh
"But it seems I got some rust on the tools down here. Dyonne, you might wanna turn around because your brother could some serious damage." Angel says arrogantly
"If someone could find it." I mumble, but they don't hear me
"Ask the cockologist in the shower." Bobby tells Angel
"How would I know?" Jack asks
"You're the expert." Bobby says
Jack sticks his head out the shower curtain and looks over Angel's "tools"
"Rug burn. You're gonna live." Jack tell him
"You know, Jerry ain't been straight up with us about that redevelopment project." Angel says and I frown. What in the hell does that mean, I think. "He got involved with some bad people and basically he is broke."
"You think this has something to do with what happened to Mom?" Bobby asks
"No, but it's something to look into. I need y'all to down and visit this city official named Douglas." Angel says
"Why don't you tell me what you know Angel?" Bobby asks
"I know you need to stay your ass on that porcelain. This is gonna require a little finesse and you have a reputation of being a hot head." Angel says
"I wrote the fucking book on finesse." Bobby says as start to wipe my mask off my face
"Wait for me to wipe my ass, Angel. I'm coming with you." Bobby says "Get me fucking toilet paper, Jack." It's no use because Angel is already gone.
Bobby is pissed, but we go to check out Douglas anyway. We had busted the window on his car and doused the inside with gasoline. We are always trying to set some shit on fire. I guess Jerry was right when he said we were destructive.
"Councilman Douglas. My name is Bobby Mercer. I believe you know my brother, Jeremiah?" Bobby says as the councilman walks toward his car. "You got his business shut down, right?"
"This is not the proper venue for an appeal." Is all the councilman says as he walks and enters his car. We all smirk at each other and once the councilman closes his door, Bobby nods for me to get the gas tank. I start pouring gas from the back of the car to the front.
"Now I gotta light your ass on fire! All I wanted was a name. You gonna be a black gingerbread man now." Bobby says as I finish pouring the gas. Jack is by the councilman's window lighting a cig and I go to stand by him.
"That's ok. I'll have my little brother here suck your burning dick." Bobby says and Jack and I cringe with the thought "Roll down the window."
"Victor. Victor Sweet." The councilman says
We get a call from Angel telling us we need to get to the bowling alley. I'm hella confused because I thought we were trying to figure out who set mom up. Not have a damn birthday party.
"What's going on, Angel?" Bobby asks
"Was the councilman helpful?" Angel asks, I know he is dodging the question
"Yep, he was a real public servant." I say sarcastically
"You remember a punk named Victor Sweet?" Bobby asks
"I remember a Malcolm Sweet." Angels says
"Victor was his nephew. Apparently, he got sick of the ass whoopings and sunk his uncle into the river. He owns everything now." Bobby says
"Bobby, word around town is that Jerry owes a lot of people money." Angel says
"What are you talking about?" Bobby asks
"You recognize that dude over there with the fathead?" Angel asks. I turn and recognize the dude as a friend of Jerry's
"Yea, that's Evander Pearson. He used to be all right."
"He's working for a guy named Victor." Angel says and I connect the dots. I just don't understand how Jerry got mixed up with them. I refuse to believe he had anything to do with Mom's death though. I know we have to be missing something.
"Holy shit." I hear Jack say and I turn around to Jerry walking over to Evan and giving him an envelope.
"I found out Jerry got a big insurance check for Mom's death." Angel says
"No." I say "He couldn't have been involved. There is no way in hell."
"It's staring you in the face." Angel tells me, but I just shake my head
"We're gonna deal with Jerry later. Come on." Bobby says and leads us toward Evan. I don't want to do this. We are at a bowling alley; I mean there are children here. But Bobby is already gone.
"It's nice to see you guys, but we were just leaving." Evan says
"You ain't going nowhere. What were you talking to Jerry about?" Bobby says
"Nothing. Just saying hello." Evan says and I don't this isn't gonna end ok.
"I hear you're Victor Sweet's boy now. He's treating you like a house nigger." Bobby says
"Bobby!" I hiss at him
"You been gone a long time, fellas. Things have changed, just ask Dyonne." Evan says, and I immediately tense up. Jack looks at me, but I shake my head telling him now isn't the time for this.
"What's in the envelope?" Bobby asks
"What envelope?" Evan tries to act stupid
"You wanna play that fucking game with me right now?" Bobby says and all by brothers take a step forward
"Y'all gonna do this here?" Evan asks
"Right here. Right now." Bobby says with his hand on his gun. I look at Evan's daughter on his side she looks so scared right now. I wonder how much of her father's world has she seen. Does she have nightmares? I refuse to be any part of that. I step around from behind Bobby and walk up to Evan.
"Evan. Please don't do this. Your family is here and I can't control my brothers. I don't want anyone hurt. Just give me the envelope." I plead with him. He stares at me like he's thinking "Don't let your children be exposed to this and get dragged in."
He hands the envelope to me and I immediately give it to Bobby because I don't even want to touch it. I turn back to Evan.
"Thank you." I walk out with my brothers feeling the weight of everything that's happened today.
We are sitting in the car outside of Jerry's house. Jack is in the backseat with me and my head is in his lap as he combs his fingers though my hair.
"I aint playing no more. I'm gonna go in there and find out whats up." Bobby says as he tries to leave the car, but Angel pulls him back
"Stop Bobby. His family is in there." Jack says
"Our nieces and sister-in-law." I add
"You need to calm down." Angel says
"Oh, I'm calm. He thinks I don't know what the fuck is going on." Bobby says and I roll my eyes at him because he really is a hot head. Angel calls Jerry and tells him to meet us at mom's house in the morning. Angel goes to start the car, but stops when Bobby asks a dreaded question.
"What the hell did Evan mean by 'just ask Dyonne'?" Bobby asks and I tense up again
"Nothing." I say
"Bullshit. Tell me the truth." Bobby says and him and Angel turn in their seats to face me.
I sigh "I remember when we would sneak off in the middle of the night to play hockey. I remember when Jackie and I would walk around the neighborhood just to let blow some steam off. I used to could go for morning jogs to the park and back. You can't do that now."
"Why?" Bobby asks
"Why? Because everything's just gone to shit. The neighborhoods aren't the same anymore. You can't just walk around your neighborhood without getting harassed. The parks and schools are full of drug dealers. I see more and more people from my graduating class getting killed in the streets. That's why I carry a gun everywhere. After my friend's attack, I refuse to become another dead Detroit statistic. I'm a psychology major so I know the rising deaths in black females in Detroit. Victor Sweet has fucked everything up." I finish, and everyone knows I'm not just talking about the neighborhood anymore, but mom's death
"If it's so bad, why was Mom still here?" Jack asks and I have to chuckle. I roll over so I'm on my back and I can face him
"There are tons of reasons. One we didn't have anywhere to go. Another was that her grandchildren and family are here. Plus, mom was always a Saint and she still wanted to help more kids out of the foster care system and into homes. She was actually asking me how I would feel if she brought a kid into the house." I say and I know they were shocked
"Mom wanted more kids?" Angel asks and I nod
"I thought it was a wonderful idea. I mean, I wouldn't be the youngest anymore." They laugh a little
"Dyonne, you have to know Jerry might have had something to do with mom's murder right?" Bobby asks and the atmosphere goes right back to being serious
"No Bobby." I say as I sit up straight looking at him in the face "I don't have to know that and neither should you. Any of you. He's our brother and he wouldn't do that." I pissed now
"Being broke, mom's insurance, and paying…" Angel adds but I cut him
"I know what happened. I was there goddamnit. I know something is missing. I know you guys are gonna do whatever tomorrow, but you better not fight. I hate to see you fight." I whisper the last part as I look out the window, signaling to them the end of discussion. A tear runs down my cheek as Angel starts the car. I feel Jack grab my hand and I give it a squeeze. I have such a bad feeling about tomorrow. I pray to God that Mom is watching us.