Hero

Chapter Fifteen

Big Mike stood across the street from Adelle’s apartment complex staring up at her window. He remembered when Tonya used to lean out that window and call down to him whenever he would ring the doorbell for her to come out and play. Most of the time, she couldn’t come out. Mrs. Smith had her studying all the time. But sometimes she’d come trotting out dragging that rusted old red bike with the yellow banana seat behind her. Then they’d go riding together through the neighborhood, not coming home until the streetlights came on. He’d been in love with Tonya even then.

He was debating whether or not he should call her. The nurse had said Adelle was all right and Tonya might get pissed at him for scaring her. He hadn’t meant to lose his temper and curse at her, but something about her tone of voice rubbed him the wrong way. That other nurse was in there too, so he guessed that if there was anything wrong the two of them could probably handle it and he hadn’t seen anyone else enter the house. He was probably just over-reacting. He looked down at his cell phone. Tonya’s number was still cued up. Then he looked back up at the apartment. Something just felt wrong.

“What’s goin’ on, Big Mike?” That was his right hand man, Tracy. Tracy had retreated from the impromptu gathering on the street and was reclining against one of the cars parked at the curb. “You look like you seen a ghost or somethin’.”

“No ghosts here. But I heard some screamin’. You hear anything?”

“’Zat why you went up to Mrs. Smith’s place?”

“Yeah.”

“You sure she didn’t just have the TV on too loud?”

“Fuck if I know. That didn’t sound like no TV though.”

“So what was it?”

Mike told him quickly, leaving nothing out. Tracy’s features turned grim. Now he was looking up at the apartment window, which had suddenly gone dark.

“So what time is it, like nine o’clock or something?”

Mike checked the time on his cell phone.

“Nine forty-seven.”

“I remember seeing that other nurse show up,” Tracy said. “She hasn’t left, either.”

“I know.”

“You think it takes two nurses to take care of Mrs. Smith? That don’t sound right to me.”

“No shit.”

“And it took awhile for the one nurse to show up at the door?”

“Yeah. And during the time I was knockin’ I didn’t hear shit until she asked who it was.”

“Well shit, maybe she was asleep or somethin’.”

“Yo, Mike, maybe that other nurse is that other one’s girlfriend or somethin’.” This came from Reggie White, one of the other crew members who was now joining in on the conversation. Reggie was the joker of the group, but Mike wasn’t in the mood for jokes this evening.

“Fuck that shit, I know what I saw, and I know what I heard. Somethin’s fucked up in there.”

Tracy appeared to understand the seriousness of the situation.

“Maybe you should call Tonya.”

That settled it. Mike pressed the speed dial for Tonya’s number and put the phone to his ear.

“Hi, this is Tonya Brown and I can’t get to the phone, please leave me a message and I’ll call you back.”

Shit. “’Sup baby girl, Big Mike here. It’s Thursday night, ‘bout ten till ten, and I think you need to get over to your mom’s as soon as you can to check on her. I heard some weird noises comin’ out of her apartment, but the nurse said your moms was just havin’ nightmares. It didn’t feel right to me, and the nurse—that African mommy—wouldn’t answer the door at first. When she finally did, she told me she was gonna call the police. Anyway, you should probably get over here as soon as you can.”

Mike folded the phone up and placed it back in the front pockets of his baggy jeans. His gaze was still directed at the dark window of Mrs. Smith’s apartment.

“Maybe we should call the police?” Reggie suggested.

“Man, you stuck on stupid. You out of your damn mind?” Mike said. “It’ll take them all night just to get over here and when they do the first thing they’re going to do is put us face down on the sidewalk and search us for drugs. By the time they finally got around to checking on Mrs. Smith she could be dead and who do you think they’d try to pin it on?”

“True dat. It’s fucked up. Fuckin’ bitch ass cops. So then what do we do?”

“We can go up to the apartment and check,” Tracy said. “You know, listen at the front door?”

That was a good idea. Mike moved away from the car he was leaning against.

“Let’s do it.”

The three of them headed across the street and silently ascended the steps to the building. When they reached the apartment, Mike motioned for silence. They padded across the front walkway to the front door like cats stalking prey. Mike positioned himself at one side of the door, Tracy on the other. Reggie stood by the wall, near the window.

Mike leaned his ear towards the front door.

Silence on the other end.

He locked eyes with Tracy for a moment.

They both heard the sound at the same time. Mike almost reached for his gun, as did Tracy. Behind them, at the window, Reggie whispered, “Somebody’s movin’ around in there.”

Mike motioned for Reggie to keep silent and strained to hear the sound coming from the apartment. It was hard to tell what it was, but he could tell Tracy heard it too. It almost sounded like running water from the bathroom.

“Maybe that nurse is just takin’ a shower,” Tracy whispered.

Mike nodded. That was a possibility, and he had to admit that the more he listened, the more he could discern the sound. It was definitely the sound of running water. Probably the shower. Faint, but unmistakable.

They remained on the stoop of the apartment for nearly fifteen minutes, silently listening for any unusual sounds. After ten minutes the shower turned off. There was silence for a minute, then what sounded like movement from deep inside the apartment. Probably the bathroom, Mike thought. Maybe the nurse is taking a shower.

Mike motioned for Reggie and Tracy to follow him and they stole quietly back down the stairs.

Once they were on the street Mike saw that the informal party was breaking up. Reggie’s girl Britney was waiting for him and Mike nodded. “Make sure she gets home.” Reggie nodded and darted off to join Britney.

“Whatcha wanna do?” Tracy asked.

Mike looked up at the apartment.

“I’m gonna wait out here for awhile and keep my cell phone on.”

“You think Tonya will call you back?”

“I hope so.”

“You still worried?”

“I don’t know.” That was the honest truth. Mike didn’t know whether he should be worried now. When he was talking to Natsinet through the door he’d had a bad feeling in his gut, but after being away from the problem and listening to what was going on inside…well, that changed everything. He hadn’t heard anything unusual, and they hadn’t seen that other nurse come back out. Maybe Reggie was right and the two nurses had a thing going on. Maybe she was simply at the apartment to help out. He hadn’t seen anybody exit the building, although he supposed it was possible that she’d exited the building from the rear and walked around the end of the block to her car if she’d parked it around the corner—parking spaces along the curb on this end of the street were slim. If that was the case, he wouldn’t have seen the second nurse leave.

“You want me to stay?”

“Nah, go on. You got some rounds to make anyway.”

“You got that, right. See you back at your crib ‘round two?”

“Alright.” They tapped fists and Tracy melted away into the night.

“That nurse was kinda fine. We should have busted in there and pulled a train on her ass.”

“Go home, Tracy.”

“I’m just sayin’. She was kinda fine though, better than these crackwhores.”

Tracy’s voice trailed off as he disappeared around the corner.

Big Mike remained on the street, leaning against his parked car, watching Adelle Smith’s apartment. He remained there long after everybody else had left.