on each corpse with 100 percent accuracy.
Xavier had been told that the officers then walked Darwin to the processing area after he finished his statement, careful to step around the first officer who had greeted him…and had passed out from seeing the severed head when he sat it on the officer’s desk.
“It was,” He finally said in response to Felicia Jackson’s question to whether it was worth the lives his side had paid to take Carver back from the Choir Boys. He cleared his throat so she would hear him clearly…echoing the words that he had said in a press conference after Darwin’s confession. “The Peacekeeper’s cut through all of the bureaucracy and red tape. They alone did what local, state and national authorities failed to do: They eliminated a dangerous threat in our community who poisoned our people with despair and illegal drugs. And although their operation was without my blessing or consent, I applaud it all the same.”
Felicia nodded, though she never broke eye contact with him.
“I heard the Bishop escaped you. I also heard that he has HIV if not full blown AIDS.”
And it had been the curse of them not acting earlier. Of the 22 women and girls who had been a part of the Bishops’ harem, 20 had tested positive for HIV already. That number had been confirmed by Grace from a source she had within the Atlanta Center for Disease Control.
“He has escaped for now.” Warren squirmed in his seat again. “But his entire support system is gone. Word is that he’s been wounded. He got a slash right across the throat. And another rumor has it that the Black Knights and other local gangs are trying to kill him before we find him. They’ve seen the light of our…the Peacekeeper’s commitment to end their illegal activities by whatever hostile actions they deem necessary. The other gangs are putting the blame squarely on his shoulders. No one wants that light to shine on their doings ever again. It’s just a matter of time before Bishop’s found, just like your Moses.”
Xavier heard voices outside. The neighbors had obviously gotten wind of the Circle visiting their community and had gathered around fences and street corners and front yards for a peek at A House of Chains governing body. Percy Harrison had led one of the volunteer groups in a search for the missing boys. Grace Edwards had been outside with the Peacekeepers trying to keep the mob at bay. Xavier was worried about his Third in Command. She seemed really shaken since the news about the women being inflicted by the Bishop’s HIV, maybe she knew one of the women personally who had been infected—
“There are so many people out there.” Felicia looked past him out of the screened door.
“I apologize for the circus atmosphere, especially now, Ms. Jackson.” He looked at Warren. “Why don’t you look in on Grace…and perhaps give her a hand.”
“I’m sure she’s okay.”
“Why don’t you have a look in on her anyway?”
The two men, who couldn’t be more at the end of the height spectrum, engaged in a brief stare down that the younger man with the gray eyes seems all too happy to break. He exited the small house following Tracy’s path disgusted…and defeated.
Afterwards Xavier found himself counting to ten before saying, “Have I done or said anything to offend you, Ms. Jackson?”
Felicia smiled through her ruby red lipstick again. “That has yet to be seen, Mr. Prince.” With some effort she scooted to the edge of the loveseat avoiding springs that were sticking out along the way. “You know, I didn’t vote for Senator Lavelle in the Democratic Primaries.”
“Excuse me?”
She said, “You know, when he ran for president two years ago…but you were away in jail at that time, I’m sorry. Anyway, I didn’t really like Mr. Lavelle all that much anyway; he’s just so full of himself and arrogant. Anyway, I also didn’t feel that A House in Chains was ready for the type of responsibility it was casting on itself if Lavelle had won the White House. I don’t think you people have enough political experience. A House of Chains has become an organization full of style and preamble, but I think you lack substance…just one old woman’s opinion.”
Yes, you are an old woman full of passion and grit and intelligence. He could grow to her indeed. “It is unfortunate for my House that Lavelle couldn’t garner the support of voters like you, Ms. Jackson. He was narrowly defeated by only a few hundred votes. I respectfully disagree with you on a House in Chains political standing. We were ready to lead. We are leading. A victory for Lavelle would have been victory for all our people, especially in light of the challenges we face now.”
She continued to smile but said nothing to that.
This…discussion had been spirited but fruitless, he had thought. It was time to bet back on point for his visit to this woman’s home in the first place. “Ms. Jackson, if you have any doubts that your grandson will be found alive—“
“I don’t have any doubts whatsoever, Mr. Prince.” She scooped up a pocket sized Bible off of the coffee table. She held it firmly in her right hand for Xavier to glimpse in case he had not seen one before. “My faith rest in a much higher power than Xavier Prince or your House; and that faith also confirms that I will see Moses again, if not in this life, I will be with him again in the next.”
Xavier took his turn at squirming in his seat. He lowered his eyes to the floor and wished for a cigarette of his own. Politics was one thing, but Xavier Prince would not argue someone’s spiritualty, especially in their own home.
“Faith,” He found himself saying…it was within his realm to question his own spiritualty however. Why am I admitting any of this you? You are a stranger to me. “Sometimes I find it difficult to believe.”
She’d chastised him for everything thing else…but as he braced himself for the stern lecture he got another round of her smiles instead. “Then, Xavier Prince, I will have to believe for the both of us.” She said. She saved her chastising for Tracy’s younger boys who were running through the small house again. She let the room regain some semblance of quite again before she spoke. “Share something with me?”
“Of course,”
“Is finding these children more important for their families or for the House in Chains?”
Xavier swallowed hard. He’d lied to Ronald Broward’s widow when he told her that although her husband and father to her two children had died honorably, but had partaken in a rogue operation that he had not sanctioned. He listened as Warren stated the same fabrication just a few minutes earlier. Thomas Pepper was not the only man in this town who could utter the truth. He would do so right now.
“Both,” he admitted to her. “Getting those children back into the loving arms of their families is my first priority of course…but yes, Ms. Jackson, I need them found as well. I haven’t spoken to you about victories since I’ve been in your home. We earned one with the liberation of Carver. A House in Chains needs one over Pandora. After 411 and Deliverance…and now Rapture in its earliest stages, I need our community to see that we can stand toe to toe and blow for blow in this embattled arena with our enemies. I want People of Color to see that we can protect them from all dangers.”
Felicia’s smile remained…and it seemed to gain a little warmth to it. “You spoke about offending me earlier, Mr. Prince, I want you to know that I never find the truth offensive.”
He nodded and pulled the toothpick out of his mouth. “May I ask you a question?”
Felicia spread her arms out as far as they would reach. “The floor, as dirty as it may be, is yours.”
Xavier stole a quick gander at the screened door to make sure no one was walking it as he spoke. “Why don’t you have custody of your grandchildren? Please forgive me for saying this: Your daughter seems…unstable if not vulnerable in her role as a parent.”
“To call my Tracy anything but unstable would be a kindness that she does not deserve, Mr. Prince. She is a crack addict.” She said emphatically. “To answer your question: I did take temporary custody of my grandchildren until my health failed me over the past 18 or so months.”
“I’m sorry, Ms. Jackso
n.”
“No, it is I who should apologize to you. I am another in the line of mothers who have unleashed an ignorant, irresponsible, baby making fool into a Black Community already over burden with them.” She went silent for a moment, gathering herself. Xavier thought he saw tears swell in her eyes. After she collected herself she said: “No mother ever wants to believe that her child is capable of doing wrong. I’ve learned though continuous trial and error to know better.”
Xavier crossed the room to where the older woman was sitting and grabbed her wrinkled hands and gave them a gentle squeeze. If only you could have lived to see this ripe old age, Mother. Oh how I would have treasured our time together. “It pleases me to see how important family is to you, Ms. Jackson. Generations of stronger families would have eliminated the need for a House in Chains. My father believed that.”
Felicia nodded in agreement. “He did at that.” She said. “Isaac Prince was a truly great man. We all miss him.”
Xavier felt an anger rising up in his chest with a suddenness that he couldn’t explain. He let go of the old woman’s hands. “You didn’t know my father.”
“No, I didn’t know him personally, of course, but I did follow him.” Ms. Jackson twisted around in her seat for Xavier to see a chain link tattooed on the nape of her neck. “I believed in him. I