“Thank you, for clearing that up for me,” I said even though I still had no clue what she was talking about.
After the meeting was over, instead of rushing off to her next appointment, Meka came and sat down next to me.
“Mind if I ask you a question?” Meka asked.
“Not at all.” I thought she was about to ask where the money came from, but I was wrong.
“Did you really understand my explanation of derivatives?”
“To be honest with you, no, I didn’t. You might as well be speaking Latin.”
“I didn’t think so. But if I’m going to continue working for you, I think it’s important that you understand what I’m doing on your behalf.”
“I agree.”
“That means that you have to understand what I’m talking about so you can make informed decisions about your company’s future. Not just going along with what Meka says because she sounds good saying it.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. The question is what are we going to do about that, Meka?”
“If you like, and your schedule permits, we could spend some time together and I could explain some of the basics of business investing.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea. Naturally, you can present a bill for your time,” I said, wanting to, as Wanda would say, at least give the appearance of professionalism.
Meka looked at her watch. “Look at the time. I have less than an hour to make it to a lunch meeting.” Meka got up and gathered her papers. “But any time you want to get together and talk finance, just give me a call,” she said and handed me another one of her cards.
“I’ll do that.”
Chapter 20
After Meka left, Wanda said she had a client coming and needed to prepare for it. Bobby, who had been talking to Wanda while I was talking to Meka, stood up to leave. “What you gonna do now, Mike?”
“Why; what you got up?”
“I was thinking about rollin’ by Cuisine for lunch and then going by Cynt’s.”
“You go ahead, Bob. I got something I need to do.”
“Does that something have anything to do with Meka Brazil?”
“No. Just some loose ends I need to tie up.”
I didn’t like keeping things from Bobby, but like Angelo, he thought leaving Vinnelli alone was the best thing for all of us. I didn’t need him knowing that killing Vinnelli was back on top of my list of things to do. So him ridin’ with me where I was going wasn’t about to happen.
My next stop was the apartment of Monika Wynn. She used to work with Nick while they were in the army and for awhile after they got out and were playing private detective. She helped Jackie uncover what Mylo and Masters were up to.
“You want me to go in with you, boss?” Kevon asked me when we arrived at her apartment.
“You relax, Kevon. I got this one.”
Kevon got out of the car and stood by the door while I went inside and rang the bell. It didn’t take Monika long to answer. “Well hello, Mr. Black. This really is a surprise.”
“Hello Monika. I need to talk to you about something,” I said and wondered if I was interrupting her or if maybe she was expecting somebody else. She was wearing a Knicks throwback jersey, and as far as I could tell nothing else. Nick said his old partner Jett Bronson used to call her lips, tits, and hips.
She was definitely all those things.
Monika had a patch over her right eye. While they were investigating Chilly and that whole synthetic crack nonsense, she got shot five times; two shots in the chest, and two to the head. One hit her above the left ear. She caught the other one in her eye. They weren’t able to save her eye. The other one was in her hand.
“Mind if I come in?”