Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Neo

The silence filled the night as I sat still in Uncle's ‘new' black SUV and waited for some action. Neeky was behind the wheel while Uncle drove shotgun. The last few days had proven to be uneventful, yet informative. Word from the Kings was that Rusty Cock would be in town tonight, where he was meeting a prominent politician at home.

Last night we met with Uncle's Kings on Morrison Street in Spanish Town, the capital of St. Catherine. Uncle named the men the Kingston Kings, but they controlled more than just Kingston. It seemed that these men originated from several parishes but resided mainly in the old capital. Uncle's intention was to clean up the crime in the city to make it safe again, especially for women. However, Jamaicans saw men like Uncle as Dons, gang leaders, and crime bosses.

Men such as Uncle Robert were the common enemy of the politicians who wanted their bad men to rule the city. They pretended they were fighting crime, when they were the perpetrators. Take for instance Rusty Cock and the man he was going to meet. This politician worked in the Ministry of National Security as the assistant to the Minister of Security.

"Look," Neeky whispered, drawing my attention to the gate of the single-story family unit in Cherry Gardens.

We were parked two gates down in front of a house whose owner had been paid earlier that day to overlook the SUV. The kings had done their research to see who the supporters were of the affiliated political party, and had found that Mr. Myers was not. Mr. Myers strongly believed that the political man was sleeping with his wife. At the end of the street another vehicle with three of uncle's men waited for instructions.

The gate was silver and gold, and the short driveway led to a carport with a white door. The verandah had silver gratings or iron bars, known as ‘grills'. These were the typical protection for Jamaican houses. The outside lights were turned off, and the verandah was shrouded in darkness. We could make out a light on in the living room through the slits between the blades if the redwood window.

Apparently, the gate was electronically operated as it opened to allow a white Toyota motor car to enter. The garage door yawned and swallowed the car as we watched the door closed. When I checked the time that the car entered, it was twelve minutes after midnight. We weren't sure who were in the car, so we decided to wait and see if there was any activity on the property.

For fifteen minutes we waited and was about to drive off when the car which had entered pulled out. The outside lights suddenly came on after the car disappeared down the street, and a man in his mid-sixties came outside to smoke. Uncle sent the signal to the other team which would follow the car. In the meantime, we kept a watch on the man with the cigarette. After putting out the first cigarette, he spoke on his cell phone for about three minutes before lighting another.

He was there about another eight minutes before heading back inside. We waited about another five minutes before driving off. The Kings were on the Toyota's tail and updated us where they were.

Uncle put the phone on speaker mode when contacting the Kings. "What the location"

"They heading to Riverton City."

"Be careful," he told them. "You know the area well enough to be cautious."

"Yes, Boss."

"Keep us updated." He then hung up the call and turned to me. "Something's going down."

I didn't know Jamaica well, and this new place Uncle was talking about he'd never mentioned before. "Where is this Riverton City?"

"It's the city dump, but many people choose to live there. They have made it a community."

I scrunched my face in confusion. "They live in the dump?"

"Well, technically, they live in houses in the area that was designated for the disposal of garbage. This way, they have easy access to whatever is disposed of."

"But why?" I knew I sounded stupid for asking, but it took me a while to process this information.

"People live off some of the things that are thrown away. Clothing, food, furniture … some of it is pretty decent."

As we drove towards the Riverton City community, I was struck with how desperate people must be to live this way. Neeky who had been silent this whole time, snuck a look at me in the rear-view mirror. I couldn't read her eyes, but they must have been judging me for my reaction. I turned away to look out the window and remembered one of the reasons my brother loved coming here. He mentioned giving free health care and food to the less fortunate. He also helped to build a school, and a health care center during his travels.

This made me feel so useless all these years. I spent my youth having fun and chasing women, while my brother lived to serve others. My parents were no different as lately they spent a great amount of time with the foundation my mother founded in my brother's name. It was a well-deserved honor that I wished I had given more attention to.

"You're pretty quiet back there," Uncle pointed out.

I glanced in the mirror and made eye contact with Neeky. Her eyes were soft as she looked at me and I knew she wasn't judging me.

"I wanna make a difference, like Nino."

"You will," Uncle declared. "But now, you smell that?"

I almost gagged from the stench of which I couldn't relate. "What the hell is that?"

"Welcome to Riverton City, my boy."

"Is this the way it smells?" I asked. Neeky smiled and nodded, staring at me through the rearview mirror. "All the time?" She nodded a second time.

The Toyota sped past us in the opposite direction, leaving smoke and dust behind. The kings checked in to give directions to where they had followed the vehicle earlier. Neeky and I had to cover our noses from the stench of rotten animal flesh, sewage water and age-old rotting garbage that hadn't been decayed yet.

We passed a few young men on the road, one group played dominos in front of a small shop, while another group leaned against a wall smoking weed. They paid us little mind as we cruised down the street. We bypassed the houses and headed into the disposal area where the heart of the stench was. I was baffled how people could reside in the condition and not fall sick.

"Over there," uncle pointed to the Kings vehicle parked in the shadows.

Our vehicle came to a halt a few feet away and we alighted. The Kings walked over and spoke to Uncle while I tried to get some fresh air, only to inhale a ball of rottenness I had never smelled before. It made me gag and I wanted to bring back up food I'd eaten a week ago in Italy.

Neeky was not doing well either. She was bent over to one side dry hurling and holding her stomach. This concerned me and I went over to see if she was alright.

"I'm fine," she panted. "The stink is too much."

"Neo!" Uncle called and we both rushed over to where he stood. "They dumped a body over there."

"What?" I was shocked. "Should we call the police?"

"Not yet. This is not a community that likes law enforcement. I'll have my policeman buddy take care of it."

Neeky got a flashlight from the SUV, while I turned on the camera on my cell phone. We followed the Kings over to where they saw Rusty's men dump what seemed to be a corpse. The body was partially wrapped in a rug and tossed on a pile of garbage. One of the Kings walked over, covering his nose with a red bandana, and nudged it with his foot. I also walked over and saw that the body was that of a woman.

"Shit!" Uncle said behind me. "That's his mother-in-law!"

I turned to my uncle. "Whose mother-in-law?"

"The politician."

"Wow, she's young and beautiful."

I was about to take some pictures when I changed my mind. I wasn't sure what the procedure was for such happenings in Jamaica, so I wanted to be certain before doing anything. It wasn't like I was that same dumb young fool I was when my parents went missing. I'd learned my lesson and grown up a lot since then.

"Uncle, should we take some pictures?"

"Not in Jamaica. Where you come from is completely different from here."

"It's evidence."

"And you're not the police. How will you prove you didn't dump the body here?"

"You've got a point, that's why you're my favorite uncle."

Uncle came closer, resting a hand on my shoulder with a chuckle. "I'm your only uncle, idiot. Seriously though, they get this phone, and its evidence against you. They won't investigate further." He turned to the men and Neeky. "Let's head out. We need to get some rest and then the real work starts."