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  Beneath the Surface

  Roy Glenn

  Escapism Entertainment

  1038-5 Dunn Avenue

  # 30

  Jacksonville, FL 32218

  Copyright © 2010 by Roy Glenn

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  ISBN-10: 0982731639

  ISBN-13: 9780982731635

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locals are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Also by

  Roy Glenn

  Three the Hard Way

  Commit to Violence

  Killing Them Softly; An Erotic Tale of Murder

  The Cost of Vengeance

  Coming Soon . . .

  Out of Control

  Going Down; An Erotic Tale of Murder

  The Mike Black Saga Book Two

  Chapter One

  Two Weeks Ago

  Mack Ashford and Floyd Summers rolled slowly down a street in Jacksonville Beach, Florida, and parked the car in front of a house. “What now?” Mack asked.

  “We wait,” Floyd said and checked his weapon.

  Mack turned around and got the pump out of the backseat and loaded it. “This better turn out to be something. And I ain’t talkin’ ’bout no couple of grand. There better be some real fuckin’ money in this bitch.”

  “Relax, nigga. Kiexiza said this nigga got a safe in his office and she saw stacks of paper in there.”

  “Safe? Nigga, you ain’t say nothin’ ’bout no damn safe. How the fuck we gettin’ in?”

  Floyd reached in his shirt pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “I got the combination.”

  Mack took out a gun and put the barrel in Floyd’s eye. “It better not be wrong. Not after we done drove all the way down here from Atlanta. I better go back with something or I guarantee you, I’ll be drivin’ back alone.”

  “Relax, nigga. Like I said, Kiexiza told me this nigga got paper in there.”

  Mack eased his gun away from Floyd’s eye. “Come on, let’s go.”

  Inside the house, Leon Copeland got in bed as he did every night with Diamond and Pearl. He met them both ten years ago at a strip club when he first got to Jacksonville. The tittie twins, as Nina Thomas became fond of calling them, were doing an act together and caught his eye. They left the club together that night and have been together since.

  Leon had come to Jacksonville from New York after his good friend Mike Black went to war with André Harmon. Those days, they both worked for André. Leon sold drugs while Black was his enforcer.

  When Vickie Payne died in Black’s apartment, smoking uncut cocaine, it caused his attitude to change. He began to see cocaine as death and heroin as slow death. He became totally opposed to selling death to his own people. When André met his untimely demise at Black’s hands, he took over and moved quickly to get out of the drug business.

  With André dead, Black set up a meeting where he announced that he was getting out of the drug business, and that he wouldn’t let anyone sell in his neighborhood. That started at a war between Black and what was left of André’s organization. With Black killing everybody who sold drugs, Leon made the decision not to take Black on like everybody else, and to move his program to Jacksonville, with Black’s blessing and support.

  Mack and Floyd stood outside of the front door and looked at each other. Then Floyd set himself, kicked in the door, and rushed inside. In the bedroom, Pearl heard the noise and got out of bed.

  As Mack and Floyd moved through the house, two of Leon’s men came into the living room. Mack raised the pump and fired; he hit one of Leon’s men in the chest. The other man fired back, but then he was hit by a shot to the head from Floyd.

  Hearing the shooting, Leon and Diamond got out of bed while Pearl grabbed her forty-five, and rushed out of the room.

  “Pearl!” Leon yelled. But Pearl was gone.

  Pearl ran down the hallway and could see the two men lying dead on the floor, and Mack and Floyd moving toward the office. Pearl opened fire and they hit the floor by the couch.

  Back in the bedroom, Leon and Diamond had armed themselves. Pearl emptied her clip and turned to head back in the bedroom. While Leon went to the office to protect his money, Diamond came out of the bedroom carrying a Mac-10 and threw Pearl a gun.

  Pearl caught the gun, spun around, and fired wildly at Mack and Floyd. They fired back at Pearl and hit her with two shots to the chest as Diamond looked on.

  Pearl went down hard.

  “Mutha fucka!” Diamond yelled and opened fire as tears rolled down her cheeks.

  Leon came out of the office with a briefcase in one hand, and an AK in the other. When he saw Pearl lying on the floor, he began spraying the room as Mack and Floyd took cover. When Diamond’s weapon was empty, Leon tossed her his gun and she kept firing. He checked Pearl’s pulse and she was still alive.

  Leon threw the briefcase toward the back door as Diamond began to move in that direction. He grabbed Pearl by the hand, lifted her up, and threw her over his shoulder. Leon reached for the 45mm in his waist and fired as he made his way to the back door. Once Leon was out, Diamond picked up the briefcase and turned to run. When she turned, Diamond caught one in the back, but was still able to make it to the car. Once they made it to the car and got in, Leon drove off.

  Leon had driven for a while thinking about Pearl being shot in the backseat, when he turned to Diamond. “You all right?” But Diamond didn’t answer. “Diamond,” he said and shook her. That’s when he saw the blood. “Hold on, Diamond—please. I can’t lose both of you,” Leon said to her.

  He drove as fast as he could to the nearest hospital. When they arrived, Leon ran inside. “I need help outside!”

  A nurse approached him. “What’s wrong?”

  “Two people have been shot!” Leon yelled and led the nurse to the car, along with a team with stretchers.

  She checked both Diamond and Pearl. “I have code blues,” she said, indicating that the patients required immediate resuscitation.

  Leon looked on with a heavy heart as they took Diamond and Pearl out of the car, and wheeled them inside. As soon as they were in and he was confident that they would be taken care of, Leon got back in the car and drove away.

  Chapter Two

  New York City, Last Night

  Carmen Taylor prepared to go on the air with her story about the opening of an art exhibit at a local gallery. They had already shot the footage of the exhibition. All that was left was for Carmen to do her on-camera work and call it a night.

  Carmen, along with her producer and cameraman, stood outside of the gallery on 18th Street. They wanted to shoot the intro and closing of the piece from there.

  “Okay, Carmen, we go in three, two, one,” her producer, Dan said.

  “There’s a new voice in the world of art. And you know what? It’s right here in Manhattan,” Carmen said over the sound of police sirens.

  “Cut it,” Dan said. “Let’s try it again after they pass.”

  However, the car didn’t pass. It stopped right in front of the gallery. Max, Carmen’s cameraman, immediately raised his camera and began shooting as two uniformed officers exited their unit and quickly rushed inside.

  “Something’s going on in there,” Dan said and started for the door, and Max rushed off behind him.

  When a second cruiser pulled up at the gallery, two more uniforms jumped out and headed for the door.

  “Sorry sir. I can’t let you in there,” the unifor
m said when Dan tried to get back inside.

  “Can you tell me what’s going on inside, officer?” Dan asked as Max raised his camera.

  “There’s been an incident inside, sir. That’s all I can say. Now I need for you to step back, please,” the officer instructed, and he and his partner began to establish a perimeter.

  “What’s goin’ on?” Carmen asked when Dan and Max joined her at the news van.

  “He said there’s been an incident,” Max said, sarcastically mocking the officer. “No shit.”

  Once the officers had established their perimeter, Carmen looked at her crew. “I’ll find out what’s goin’ on in there,” she said and approached one of the officers.

  “I bet he won’t tell her anything either,” Dan said.

  Max glanced at the young, black officer and how he was staring at Carmen as she approached him. “Ten bucks says he tells her everything he knows and proposes marriage,” he said and laughed.

  “You’re on. Get some shots of her talking to him.”

  “Excuse me, officer,” Carmen said.

  “Yes ma’am,” he said and glanced at Carmen’s press credentials.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Cedric Carlson, ma’am.”

  “Hi, Cedric, I’m Carmen Taylor,” she said and extended her hand.

  “Pleasure to meet you,” Cedric said with a smile.

  “Can you tell me what’s going on inside?”

  “Ma’am, I’m not at liberty to say. Now you need to move back.”

  “Okay; just tell me what’s going on and I’ll go.”

  “I really can’t say.”

  “Off the record,” Carmen pleaded.

  Cedric looked around and leaned forward. “Off the record, a woman was found dead inside. That’s all I know.”

  Just then, another car arrived at the scene and two more men got out and crossed the police perimeter. “Detectives,” Cedric said as Detective Jack Harmon and his partner, Diane Mitchell went inside.

  For Detective Harmon, a decorated homicide detective, this was his first case since returning from suspension. He was under investigation for use of excessive force on a murder suspect. The charges were dropped, but not before Jack ran up a huge legal bill.

  “Was she murdered?” Carmen asked.

  “That hasn’t been established yet.” Cedric looked around and then leaned closer to Carmen. “But off the record, the strap from her purse was wrapped around her neck.”

  “Thank you, Cedric. If you find out anything else, would you please let me know?”

  “I’ll do what I can,” Cedric promised and watched Carmen walk back to her colleagues.

  “What’s going on in there, Carmen?” Dan asked.

  “Officer Cedric Carlson was nice enough to tell me that a woman’s body was found inside with the strap from her purse wrapped around her neck—off the record, of course.”

  Max held out his hand and Dan pulled a ten out of his pocket. “Did he propose marriage?” Dan mumbled.

  “What?” Carmen asked.

  “Nothing,” Dan said and handed Max the ten. “I need to call this in,” he said and walked away dialing his cell phone.

  Inside the gallery the detectives approached the crime scene. “What you got, Frank?” Detective Mitchell asked one of the uniforms.

  “You’re gonna love this one, Diane,” he said and escorted the detective into the room. “Black female; found lying on that desk with her skirt gathered around waist, her blouse opened, and the strap from her purse was wrapped around her neck.”

  Detective Harmon put on his gloves and leaned over the body. “Any ID on her?”

  “I checked the purse,” the officer said and pointed to where the purse was found.

  “And?” Detective Mitchell asked.

  “No ID, but there’s a thousand in cash and a small quantity of what appears to be cocaine.”

  “So much for robbery,” Detective Harmon said to his partner. Then he turned to the officer. “Who found the body?”

  The officer checked his notes. “The body was found by the gallery director; name is Aneisha Perry. I got her in one of the other offices.”

  “Go ahead and start talking to the rest of the guests; see if anybody saw anything. And I saw a news crew outside. Make sure you talk to them too,” Detective Harmon said.

  “Yes sir.”

  “Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll have caught the killer on tape,” Detective Mitchell said and laughed a little.

  “Yeah, how often does that happen?”

  “I’m thinking never,” Detective Mitchell said. She put on her gloves and took a closer look at the body. “Victim’s not wearing a bra or panties.”

  “There’s bruising on her thighs, Diane,” Detective Harmon said and let his partner take a look, “which may indicate that she was raped.”

  “Was she raped and strangled, or was this just rough sex that went way too far?” Detective Mitchell asked.

  “My money’s on rape and murder.”

  Meanwhile, back at the news van, Dan was rapping up his call to Louis Carr, the news managing editor. “Well?” Max asked.

  “Louis says we’ll go live during the 11 o’clock news.”

  “Yes,” Carmen said and high-fived Max.

  “He said we should gather as much information as possible for the story, but to wait for the crime reporter, brief him, and he’ll do the story.”

  “What? This should be my story, Dan. This is not right, Dan, and you know it.”

  “I know. It should be your story; but Louis said he wants Steven to do the story.”

  “I do all the work and then Steven waltz’s in and gets all the credit. This sucks,” Carmen said disappointedly. Carmen felt like this was her opportunity to do some serious reporting; especially since she was the only reporter on the scene.

  When the crime reporter, Steven McCain called for some background on the murder, Carmen told him what she’d learned. Then he asked for directions to the gallery. Carmen smiled and gave him the wrong address.

  Once the crime scene technicians arrived, the detectives left the building. “Here they come,” Carmen said and grabbed her mike, and Max raised the camera. “Detectives, detectives; can you tell me what happened inside?”

  Detective Mitchell stopped in front of the camera while Jack kept walking. “An unidentified woman was found dead. That’s the only comment I can make right now.”

  “Was she murdered?”

  “No comment at this time,” Detective Mitchell said and walked away to join her partner.

  Dan looked at his watch. If they were going to make their mark, the crime reporter would have to get there soon. “Where is he?”

  “Maybe he got lost,” Carmen said and winked at Max.

  “Sneaky bitch,” Max whispered.

  “Your mama.”

  “Yeah, she was. That’s why pop used to kick her ass,” Max mused, while Dan broke out his cell phone.

  While he talked, Max got shots of the crime scene techs wheeling out the body. “Okay, Louis said you can do the story.”

  “Yes,” Carmen said and once again high-fived Max.

  “But you leave out the purse strap stuff.”

  “Why?” both Carmen and Max said at the same time.

  “Because its uncorroborated.”

  “Come on, Dan. I could quote a police source.”

  “Louis says no. We go with the detective’s statement and that’s all, Carmen,” Dan insisted.

  “All right,” Carmen said sounding a little disappointed, but at the same time knowing that this could be her big break. After all the film was edited and the piece was ready, it was time to go live.

  “Okay, Carmen, we go in three, two, one,” Dan counted.

  “This is Carmen Taylor reporting live from the 18th Street art gallery, where tonight the body of an unidentified woman was found dead. Foul play is suspected.”

  Chapter Three

  New York City, Present Day.
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  Mike Black got undressed and then stepped into the shower. While he let the water beat down on his body, he thought about the last twenty-four hours and how his world had changed.

  He had just come from burying another old friend: One of his top lieutenants, Kenny Lucas had been murdered along with two of his men, after leaving a nightclub.

  He was now in business with Oleg Mushnikov, an ex-KGB operative with ties to the Izmaylovskaya mob, in exchange for leaving Jada West alone. “And that’s another thing. What do I do with Jada West?” Black said aloud as he showered.

  Black got out of the shower and dried himself off. He went in the bedroom and looked at the clock. It was 5:40 and he had only twenty minutes to be ready when the limo came to pick him up for dinner. “I’m having dinner with Marcus Douglas tonight. Wanna join me?” Wanda had asked him earlier that day at Kenny’s funeral.

  “Marcus Douglas,” Black said and thought for a second. “Ain’t he the guy you were gonna get to defend me for killin’ Cassandra?”

  “That’s him. He’s moving to New York from Atlanta and opening a practice here.”

  “What brought that on?”

  “He said that he needed a change, but he didn’t really go into any details. I guess I’ll find out tonight.”

  “I don’t think so, Wanda. You two have a good time.”

  “That’s the thing. It won’t be just the two of us. He’s bringing somebody with him. Somebody you know.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “Carmen Taylor.”

  “Carmen Taylor,” Black said, and a rush of memories that he hadn’t thought about in years raced through his mind. “What time?”

  Wanda smiled a devilish smile. “I’ll send a car for you at six.”