Chapter 36: KYENNA - A Street King's Widow

The thing about paperwork was that people underestimated how much of their business they left sitting inside of it. Men could make somebody disappear, change routes overnight, and move money without touching a bank. It was something about putting a stack of contracts, corporate filings, financial statements, or property records in front of their ass, and they would probably throw the whole pile away and tell somebody else to figure it out. That was where I had an advantage. Numbers and paperwork talked to me in my sleep. Paper trails made sense. Once I took the time to recognize what I was looking for, I could sit in one place for hours until something stopped looking right.

I had been at Royal Flush since eight this morning, but I hadn't done a lick of work that had anything to do with the casino. My operations manager had everything under control, and I told my staff not to bother me unless the building was on fire or somebody died. After dealing with Shameek and everything he dropped in my lap about Nikki, I needed something I could actually control. Finding out what the fuck Q had been doing around King distribution gave me that. I had every paper printed from Rah’s office spread across the conference table. I had them organized by who owned the LLC. I kept going back to the text D12 money clears Friday. Once it does, east route is fully funded.

“Why the fuck is the nightclub money funding a distribution route?” I asked myself.

I kind of knew the answer. I just didn’t have enough proof to accuse anybody of shit. My phone was sitting beside me, and for the first time I didn’t have the urge to call Shameek and ask him. I trusted him to know what the streets meant when paperwork stopped making sense to me. Then he told me he killed Nikki. I believed him when he said he wouldn’t hurt me. But believing he wouldn’t hurt me personally and believing I should hand him every secret I found were two completely different things. Nikki found something she wasn’t supposed to have, and she ended up dead. That alone was enough for me to keep my mouth shut until I knew exactly what I was dealing with.

I closed the financial records and opened another folder. It was one of the investigation files from after the murder. I had avoided them for months. I didn’t want to relive the worst night of my life from somebody else’s perspective. Now I didn’t have the luxury of being scared of it. I flipped through the first few pages quickly. Those pages were only the time of dispatch and statements from the officers on duty. Then I found a report from the private security company that monitored our compound. The Kings didn’t rely solely on police when Rah died. Pops had everybody with a badge, camera, or street connection digging for something. According to the report, security pulled footage from several properties along the road leading towards our private road. The majority of it was useless, with bad angles and dark views. There was a still image of two black SUVs. The image was grainy as hell, but the timestamp was less than fifteen minutes before Rah was shot. I stared at it. Underneath the image was a note: Vehicle 1: plate unreadable. Vehicle 2: partial plate obtained from secondary camera. Registration returned to Northline Fleet Services. Vehicle reported leased commercially.

I wrote down Northline Fleet Services. There were several pages behind it documenting attempts to trace who had leased the vehicle. After that, there were just notes saying that Northline refused to release client information without a subpoena. By the time investigators pursued it, the vehicle had already been returned and reassigned.

“How the fuck did everybody just let that go?”

I opened the laptop and searched the company. It was owned by Harrison Mobility Partners. I went to search that, and another company popped up.

“Y’all niggas love an LLC,” I said with an attitude.

I kept going until the structure finally ended. My heart dropped when I saw WR Capital Group as a new investor right before Rah died. His name was doing too much circling. I picked up my phone and dialed Grif.

“Hey, boss lady. What do you need?”

“Can you come to the conference room? Make sure you come alone.”

“On the way.”

Five minutes later, he walked in and closed the door behind him. His eyes went to the papers.

“Sit down,” I told him.

Grif took the chair across from me, and I slid the still image toward him.

“You remember this?”

“Not these specifically. Meek and Pops took over most of the investigation after we turned our statements and security footage over.”

“It says these were pulled from cameras along Rah’s normal route. Two SUVs were in the area shortly before the shooting.”

“Who found it?”

“The private investigator Pops hired.”

“Do you remember anybody working security closer to the compound saying they saw anything unusual?”

He thought about it. “Reggie might.”

“Who the fuck is Reggie?”

“He worked the secondary gate back then. He always had the position closer to the road than the rest of us. I remember him saying something about headlights farther down that night. Nobody could ever prove whether it had anything to do with Rah, though.”

“Where is Reggie now? Strangely, I never knew Reggie, and I know all the security.”

“He moved out of state after all that happened to Rah.”

“And nobody thought that was strange. Can you find him?”

“You think those trucks got something to do with what you found?”

“I don’t know yet. That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

“I can get his number for you.”

“Do that. And don’t tell Meek why I’m asking.”

His eyes came back to mine. “Kyenna–.”

“Grif,” I said.

“Aight.”

When he closed the door, I went back to work, going through everything I had. I had an old capital contribution ledger in front of me that was in Rah’s email. It was sent after his death, so I’m sure he was copied on it and wasn’t supposed to be. It had to be something important on here. My mouth became dry when I ran across the bill-to entity being D12 Entertainment Group for a luxury SUV for the week of Rah’s murder.

“Ain’t no fucking way.”

I stood up from the table and then sat back down. This wasn’t random anymore. A vehicle leased through D12 had been sitting near the road before Rah was murdered. My hands weren’t shaking, but my thoughts were moving too fast. I needed to slow down. A leased SUV near the scene didn’t prove Q was inside it. Maybe somebody else used the vehicle. Shit, maybe the reimbursement had nothing to do with that night. Why was District 12 vehicle anywhere near our compound before Rah was killed? I grabbed my phone, and I scrolled until I got to Averie’s name.

“Ky…slow down and think bitch. Don’t ruin this for Averie until you have proof.”

I promised myself I would go to her if I had something real. This was real enough to scare me, but not enough to destroy her life. Once I said Q’s name and Rah’s murder in the same sentence, she would never be able to unhear it. I needed more. I dialed Lloyd’s number instead.

“Hey, you okay?”

“No…I umm…I think I’m putting the puzzle together and I’m trying to pace myself and not overthink this.”

“I’m glad you called. I was going through a few of Rah’s corporate files that I was about to archive. Weston wasn’t directly represented by me, but his company appeared in several deals connected to the old King entities.”

“I know that already,” I told him.

“Let me finish. There was a restructuring dispute a few months before Rah died. Weston, at least two other investors, and an entity connected to District 12 objected to Rah pulling capital out of the transportation side.”

“You got that in writing?”

“Of course I do.”

“Send it to me, please.”

“Kyenna, you need to get all the context before you jump to conclusions.”

“I’m not stopping, Lloyd. I’m close. Nobody else is giving a damn about this case anymore.”

“I’m not saying stop investigating. I mean stop doing anything else until you give that to law enforcement or somebody who can verify it.”

“And tell them what? Q’s company leased a vehicle that was on the same road? That’s enough for them to ask questions and enough for Q to know I’m looking.”

“Which may be safer than you quietly digging into a man you now suspect participated in your husband’s murder.”

“I don’t suspect him yet.”

“That sentence is bullshit, and you know it,” Lloyd said. “Promise me you won’t confront Q.”

“I’m not confronting anybody today.”

“Today?”

“That’s the best you’re going to get, Lloyd.”

“Damn, you're difficult.”

My head was starting to hurt. I said goodbye to Lloyd and started putting all the papers back into their assigned folders. Grif tapped on the door and walked in.

“Got his number for you.”

“Damn, that was quick.”

“He’s in town with his mama. She’s sick.”

“Why are you looking like you’re holding something back from me?”

“He admitted he left something out of his report because he wasn’t sure what he saw.”

“Okay, well give me his mama’s address so I can go and pay him a visit.”

“Boss lady, you wanna keep this shit from Meek, cool. But I’m not letting you go anywhere to meet an old security guard by yourself. I’m going with you.”

We picked a small diner a little outside of town to meet up and talk. Reggie was already sitting in a booth near the back when I got there. I recognized him once I got closer. He had worked security for the family for years but looked older now. He stood when he saw me.

“Mrs. King,” he greeted.

“Kyenna is fine.”

He nodded and waited for me to sit before taking his seat again.

“Grif said you wanted to ask me about that night,” he said, getting straight to it.

“I do. I’m not trying to drag you back into anything. I just need to know if there was something you remember that never made it into the reports.”

Reggie looked down at his coffee for a second.

“I told them what I could prove.”

“That sounds like there was something you couldn’t.”

“There were two dark SUVs sitting farther down from the gate. I noticed them because they weren’t moving and the lights were off. At first, I figured somebody got lost. It would happen every now and then.”

“How long were they there?”

“Couldn’t really tell you exactly. Long enough for me to notice them.”

“What happened when Rah came through the main gate?”

“I never saw Rah’s car from where I was positioned. But right before everything went left, one of those trucks pulled off. A few minutes later, I heard what sounded like gunfire farther down.”

“And what did the other truck do?”

“Gone by the time we started moving towards it with our guns.”

“Why wasn’t that in your statement?”

“I told investigators there were vehicles down the road. I couldn't give plates, faces, nothing useful. By the time everybody started asking questions, all I had was two black SUVs in the dark. That ain’t much.”

“I really appreciate you meeting me, Reggie, and I hope your mom gets better.”

“Just be careful who you ask questions. It’s not safe when we don’t have a face,” he said.

I nodded and left the diner with less than I wanted but more than I came with.