Free The Car Bomb (The detroit im dying Trilogy, Book 1) by T.V. LoCicero Page B

thought. Moving cautiously through, he found a stairwell and headed up. A grimy window on a landing above provided just enough light for him to see the dirty, littered steps. As he climbed he began to feel it in his knees and resolved to get back to the Stairmaster.
    At the top of the last flight, he pushed on a door, and it creaked open only with considerable effort. Stepping out into the light on a flat, tarred roof full of cracks and holes, he found no one in sight.
    Then from behind the door, a black man appeared and removed his wrap-arounds.
    “ Didn’t think you’d come.”
    Frank turned to face him, and the two stared at each other.
    “ You don’t look much like your mug shot, but Mr. Peoples, I presume.”
    “ I’m not lookin’ like my driver’s license neither.” He held his license next to his face. “But yeah, that’s me.”
    Frank looked closely first at the license and then at the face, now covered with a heavy beard and framed with budding dreadlocks. “Okay, yeah, so you’re Anthony.”
    “ Were you followed?”
    “ Yeah, but I lost ‘em. Why would I be followed?”
    “ You don’t know these people.”
    “ What people?”
    “ People blew up my family.”
    Frank shook his head. “I can’t imagine how you’re dealing with that, Anthony. So who did it and why?”
    Anthony Peoples gazed hard at Frank before answering. “Look, you gotta understand some things first.”
    “ I’m all ears.”
    “ The first thing is I had nothin’ to do with that robbery at the party store and shootin’ that security guard.”
    “ Right.”
    “ No, this is for real, man. I’m in there that night to buy some beer, and this guy that did the deal walks in. There’s just this one Arab girl behind the counter, and she knew me from the neighborhood. The guy pulls a gun, she gets all scared and confused. And when the shootin’ started with the guard, I hit the floor, then split and just run home. She tells the cops I was with the guy. And the guy, tryin’ to get hisself a plea deal, says, yeah, I was the look out.”
    “ But you’re saying you had nothing to do with it at all.”
    “ Swear to God, man.”
    “ Okay. So what’s this about your cousin being ‘Pretty Rick’?"
    "Rick was my cousin. I grew up with him. But the last five, six years I had nothin’ to do with him. Still, when I got charged, he went the bail and hired me his attorney. Big time guy named Dworkin.”
    “ Sam.”
    “ Yeah, so he says he can get my case to this judge, and he’ll toss it if I give him fifty grand.”
    “ Judge Billy O’Bryan?”
    “ How’d you know?”
    “ I looked it up. But, hold on, you had fifty grand?”
    “ No, man, not even close.”
    “ So why the hell would they think you could come up with it?”
    The black man shrugged. “Probably figured I could get it easy from Rick.”
    Frank shook his head. “I have to tell you, Anthony, this is not making a hell of lot of sense.”
    “ It’s the truth, man.”
    “ Okay, so what happened next?”
    “ So next I went to Gant.”
    Frank was incredulous. “Prentis Gant, the prosecutor?”
    “ Yeah, my wife Nita said, ‘You are nothin’ but innocent. You go to the prosecutor and tell him about this. And so I did.”
    “ And Gant said what?”
    “ And Gant says he’s been tryin’ to get something on these guys for a long time. So we end up gettin’ it all on video tape with Dworkin and the judge.”
    “ Wait, wait, so you got a pay-off with these guys on tape?”
    “ Yeah, but before Gant could do anything, they found out about it. Must be somebody in his office. And they squeezed Gant to drop it.”
    “ Squeezed how?”
    “ I don’t know, but Gant’s wife is Mexican. Half her family’s here, maybe illegally.”
    Frank nodded and stared off for a few seconds before saying, “Okay, so what about the bomb?”
    “ So Gant called me before it happened. He said it’d be good to get my family out of town. Said I had to meet with him that night