“He’s alive.”
“Then he’s behind you in this?”
“He is.”
“So you here to take over my bank?”
“No. You keep what’s yours and you keep kickin’ up to André. I’m here to see if you were interested in making more money.”
“Always,” Sherman said, and I explained what I wanted from him. When I finished, Sherman drained his cup and poured himself another.
“Let’s say I’m interested—”
“Let’s.”
“Instead of you having to stay on everybody about André’s money, you wanna work this so they kick up to me and I kick up to you.”
“You’d be a captain,” Wanda said.
Sherman nodded his head. “Like them white boys do it.”
“Exactly,” Wanda said.
“You make money, I make money, and André makes money.”
“It’s just that simple,” Wanda added.
“And you back me with whatever muscle I need to keep guys in line?”
“All you gotta do is ask for my help.”
“Okay, Black, as long as you have my back, I’m in. And I think that you should talk to Howard Owens,” Sherman suggested, but that was already part of our plan. “He’s got influence with the loan sharks and the guys running protection rackets. With the move you’re making, you’re gonna need all the muscle you can get.”
“I plan to.”
“Good.” Sherman sat back in his chair and took another sip of his scotch. “You been to see Bodie?”
“Not yet.”
Bodie Ringling was one of the people that was on my list that I knew I might have to kill, but hoped I wouldn’t because he was a good earner. He had his hands in everything; gambling, numbers, extortion, prostitution and he had the muscle to back him, a lot of it. Even with Whitey and Drew’s people, I had a bigger crew, I really had no desire to fight him.
“They tell me that when he heard about Emmet and Henderson, he said that he ain’t paying you shit and he wish you would try that shit with him. Something about lining all of you up in body bags for everyone to see.”
“You let me worry about Bodie,” I said.
Chapter Eight
When we left Sherman’s, me and Wanda hung out until that afternoon until she said that she was tired. She dropped me off at my place and she went home to sleep. I had been there long enough to sit down and think about going to bed and getting some sleep, before a key hit the lock and Bobby came in with three women. So, I didn’t get any sleep right then, but I did go to bed.
When I woke up, I was alone in bed. I got out of bed and went in the living room. The women were gone and Bobby was lying on the couch watching TV.
“What time is it?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s after six.”
“What happened to the women?”
“I dropped them off and came back.”