Gina was so furious with Drew that she wanted to kill him herself. She even talked to her brother, about eliminating Drew, but Mercedes overheard them contemplating and interrupted the conversation. As she walked into Gina's kitchen looking in the refrigerator she said to them, "Mommy and Uncle, save your energy and your money. Killing him is a waste. Eventually, he's going to commit suicide indirectly sooner or later. His lifestyle and actions are going to be the cause of his death. He's too bigheaded, selfish, and the streets are watching. He'll self-destruct one way or another. He'll crumble to the ground." Gina and Stanka looked at Mercedes, astonished, as she looked in the cabinet to grab a glass to pour her some juice. She put her hand on her hip, and about to take a sip of her juice.
"And mommy, I am surprised at you. You've always taught me vengeance isn't ours, and you reap what you sow." She drank from her glass. She slammed the glass on the counter hard as she said casually, "After all, I had considered shooting him myself, but I realized that was just too easy of a way for him to die," Mercedes said shaking her head with a giggle. Gina and Stanka looked at each other as she took another sip of her juice. "The real punishment was cutting all ties with him completely. I'll get the last laugh when the reality hits him in the face." She laughed as she continued. "Whether it's the Feds picking him up and handing him back to back life sentences, once he gets behind prison walls, he'd realize how much he needs me because you see, them other chics, they ain't going to be thinking about him. All they gonna do is run to the next dude with a dollar. So, he'll need me and want me to show him some love, write him a letter, send him a card, some pictures, accept a call. Then I'll leave him for dead, just as he left me for dead. The only difference is I'll be able to fill my life with activities and events to forget about him. He'll have a substantial amount of time to think about me and how he, excuse my language mommy, fucked that up. I know that none of the women he ever had or will have could measure up to me. I feel that that's the best revenge. And if it doesn't play out like that, just wait and see just how Drew will fall victim to the streets, and the drug game will see to it that he dies a slow painful death one way or another. So, just hold your horses and watch what I tell you. His is coming. Just watch and see. Every dog has its day."
Gina didn't know what to say. She was caught up in "the right now." She never analyzed it as Mercedes had. She wasn't sure if Mercedes was only saying this to soothe her, heart or if she really meant what she was saying. Gina got up from the table and walked to her prayer room. She began to pray and ask God to make some sense of this situation.
Months passed, and Drew still stayed on top. Mercedes would sometime hear that he just purchased something new and would wonder to herself, when is his going to come around? How come all the good guys always get caught up? The rotten ones always seem to come out on top. They never get theirs. It always seems like the innocent people die, never that nasty dude. It's always the dude that treated everybody good, the dude that bought all the kids in the neighborhood ice-cream, never the dude who is making crazy money and don't have respect for his own mother, won't give her a dime and will cuss her out, call her everything, but a child of God. Never the cruel nasty dude who doesn't mean anybody any good, the dudes like Drew. I wonder why it is like that. People all around town started hating Drew. He sold his dope so cheap and it was the best dope down south in a while. He kept it flowing, but there were still a lot of jealous and envious people plus, he'd stepped on too many toes. Drew had given some dope to his right hand man Shawn. Shortly after, Shawn wasn't anywhere to be found, leaving Drew in debt of $ 325,000. Drew could've gone into his stash and got the money, but he refused to touch any of his money. He felt like that was hustling backwards. He ended up going to Baltimore, and buying some dope so he could sell it quickly to pay off the Colombians. The dope he brought from B-more was straight garbage and wasn't cheap like the drugs he was getting from the Colombians. He knew that he was supposed to see the Colombians two weeks ago. He'd been ducking their calls, not only was he out of the $ 325,000 that Tank had got him for, but the $ 250,000 that he'd went to Baltimore and brought the garbage with. When he finally told the Colombians he had their money, they told him they were sending someone to pick up the money personally. He knew right then that they were cutting him off. It wasn't the money, and what he was getting from them was considered nothing to them. It was just the principle of how he didn't communicate with them, and that was larceny and he couldn't be a part of their organization anymore. There was only one way out... DEATH!
Drew knew he had to go on the low now until he figured out what to do. He wasn't giving them anything until he acquired another connection some way, somehow. He went into hiding at a house he had purchased in Caroline county that no one knew about. How could somebody with so much knowledge of the game go into hiding forty-five minutes away from Richmond? The Colombians had people everywhere. They knew somebody who worked at the electric company, and they pulled up his recently opened account. They went to his house out in Caroline County. From the woods they watched him for three days. They waited for him to come out of the house to get some wood, for his fireplace. They beat him unmercifully with a baseball bat, shot him in the knees, and dragged him in the house where they tortured him with a blowtorch. He pleaded, he whined and begged like a little girl. "Just please, pleeeeaaassse," he said struggling, looking for a way out of the tub, but there wasn't any. With the gun in his mouth, they finally shot him right there in the bathtub of his own house. If that wasn't enough, they went outside and put him in his newly purchased trash barrel, buck naked, with two concrete cinder blocks at the bottom, and tossed him into the Lake Anna River.
It just so happened that two little girls were missing in that area and they were last seen playing near the river. Search teams were dispatched to the Lake Anna River, and divers found the barrel with the number, 5509, Drew's address on it. They could tell the barrel was recently dropped in the river. The color wasn't completely gone. It was extremely heavy. They called in the bulldozer to bring it up. They were expecting to find the little girls in it, but to no disappointment, it was Drew. The little girls were found unharmed. They had wondered off in the woods. Mercedes was at Gina's house playing spades with her mother, Larry and Cara when there was a knock at the door. Gina looked out of the window. It was the police. She automatically put up her guards and was in fear for her daughter. Taking precaution, she went into the kitchen and told Mercedes to hide because she didn't understand why the police would be at her house. Gina answered the door, cracking it only enough so she could peep through.
"Yes, what is it?" Gina said with an attitude.
"Is Mercedes Jones here?" The officer took his hat off and asked.
"No, but I am her mother. Is there something that I can do for you?" Gina asked in a hostile tone. The officer was very hesitant,
"Well, we're here to inform Mercedes Jones that Andrew Whales is dead and we need her to come downtown to identify the body. She's listed as his next of kin," he stated. Gina simply said with no emotion at all,
"I will let her know when I see her," and she slammed the door right in his face. After she was sure the police was gone, Gina went into the room that Mercedes was hiding in and broke the news to Mercedes. Mercedes's response was,
"I knew that this day would be coming."
Gina, Cara and Larry accompanied Mercedes to identify body. It wasn't as easy as Mercedes had expected it to be. She never cried, but the remorse was all over her face. Even with all the rotten things that Drew had done to her, she still loved him. When she saw that he'd been killed in such a brutal way, she began to have a little compassion in her heart. She felt a little guilty because she remembered the Bible said you can speak life or death into somebody's life, and she had wished death on Drew. She called his mother, who'd never been a mother to him. The mother's simple response was,
"You've always been his family as far as I am concerned, so now the ball is in your court. Whatever arrangements you decide upon, is how he is going to be put away. If it's up to me, the state will just handle it."
Mercedes thought to herself, that the best way to get back at him would be to just leave him there for the state to bury, and not even be acknowledged with funeral services. That would be the best revenge ever, but Mercedes's heart wasn't like that. She immediately thought about all the generous things and pleasant words he'd ever said to her and put the negative out of her mind and heart for just a minute. She simply told herself that it was nothing personal with her; it's just Drew got caught up and couldn't survive "the game." Most can't, most won't, and most don't.
On that note, she called Scott's Funeral home on Brookland Park Boulevard, and started making the funeral arrangements. The next day, she purchased him a suit from Franco's. Cara suggested that she just go to Cavalier on Broad Street and get him a suit, but Mercedes refused to because Drew went to Francos's when he was living, and this was his final appearance. At the last minute, Mercedes decided to do a closed casket funeral. She drew the conclusion that Drew wouldn't want to be remembered with all the make up the funeral home was forced to put on him to cover all the bruises. Mercedes wasn't sure what type of turnout Drew would have for his funeral. He'd turned into such a nasty man. She flooded the funeral home with flowers, as he'd done for her the two and half years that they were together.
The turnout of the funeral was enormous. No one would ever be able to tell that he wasn't a well-liked guy. All the towns and surrounding counties drug dealers showed up. Although it was a funeral, it was a fashion show, a car show and a circus. People rented stretch limousines to roll up in. Most people were there to be nosy. All the girls that he messed with were there falling over the casket, including Rochelle, who was being absolutely as dramatic as possible. Of course, the stripper broads showed up wearing as little as possible. Sandra was there to demonstrate her support and to be there for Mercedes on behalf of Sam. The Colombians sent flowers and a representative to show their respects. The news crews appeared there to do a story on the life and death of the city's kingpin. The Feds were there as well, taking photos of everybody that showed up. After the burial, Mercedes rented the Marriott Grand Ball Room and had a big party for him. She had Gina cater the party, and it was far better than any of the parties he'd ever had for himself. Throughout the whole proceedings Mercedes never shed one tear.
After Sandra witnessed exactly how nicely Mercedes had put Drew away, she developed a great deal of respect for Mercedes. She admired her for the lady that she'd grown up to be. Mercedes and Sandra became loyal friends from that moment on. Sandra had her heart set on Mercedes becoming her daughter-in-law. If Mercedes could show such compassion for Drew after he left her for dead, Sandra was secure that her son was in good hands with Mercedes.
The day after the funeral, Mercedes went to check her P.O. Box. It was mostly junk mail, catalogs and three very important letters. One was from the governor expunging her criminal record. One was her check from the insurance company for Drew's life insurance policy. She had a $ 100,000 policy on him, but since the cause of death was murder, it was considered accidental and it paid double. The final was from a law firm offering her a job as a paralegal/ negotiator for personal injury cases. She sped home and displayed the letter on the refrigerator so that Gina could see it. Once settled at home, she called the law firm to accept the position. She also stopped off to pay the funeral home the money she owed them, as well as pay her mother the money she had loaned her to bury Drew and the money from the kidnapping, which Drew had never paid. He only kept leaving messages telling Mercedes he was on the way to bring the money, but never did. Her mother never stressed her to repay the money, but Mercedes felt obligated. She visited Drew's mother and gave her $ 2,000. She really didn't deserve that, but that's what kind of heart Mercedes had. She gave Cara some money to help towards the down payment of a new car because Cara drove a hoopty. She bought Zurri's kids new beds and gave her some money as well. She invested a great deal of the money, and the remainder of the money she saved, to put down on a condo for herself.
There was no way that she could get either of Drew's houses due to the fact he'd brought them under an alias. The utilities were only in his name. She didn't want the furniture. It was too much of a reminder of Drew and that whole chapter of her life. She gave his mother some of it, and sold the rest. A week later, she found out that the police raided a house over Southside near Belle Meade for illegal cable. They found the guy Shawn in the house. Shaw was high as gas. He was locked up for about six months. He bragged, while in jail, on how he'd stolen so much from Drew and how he had kidnapped Mercedes. A few guys stabbed him up, but he still survived. Sam heard and ordered Tank, who was on the streets by this time, to kill Shawn. When Tank saw exactly how Shawn was living, he felt that he wouldn't put Shawn out of his misery. Shawn was experiencing a part of death on Earth. Shawn's self-esteem had been stripped from him. He had been a big time drug dealer, and was now a junkie, who goes around begging to wash people's cars. Shawn eventually overdosed anyway. Taking everything into consideration, Gina and Sandra gave Mercedes a "Waiting To Exhale Party".
Before Mercedes started her new job, she used some of the money to take a vacation. She wanted to go somewhere very different from the tropical places she'd been going to. She wanted to experience a different type of vacation. She decided to go to the Galapagos Islands. The islands put her in a totally contrast mindset. These islands are located 600 miles from the mainland. They are volcanic islands and range from dense rain forests to stark, and barren terrain. The islands were fascinating. Mercedes did a seven-day cruise visiting two islands a day. Her main purpose was to see the rare flora and fauna: tortoises weighing nearly 600lbs, marine iguanas, frigate birds, boobies, penguins and sea lions. She watched the sea lions swim near the divers. She adored the huge sunflowers. She wished she could've spent more time on the islands, but the time visitors can spend on the islands was regulated by the government. Mercedes was truly not a nature person, but she absolutely was able to appreciate this vacation. She was ready to start a new chapter in her life.