Page 132 of 4 Corinthians

“Anyway,” I said, not giving him the satisfaction of knowing he was. “What did you find?”

“The teachers weren’t lying,” Nine replied. “The cameras at the school don’t go back that far.” He typed something on his keyboard, then pointed to the monitors that lined the wall behind me. “Last year the school was bought, sold, and bought again.” I turned around to look at what he was talking about. “Money ain’t really my thing, so you’re going to have to figure out what exactly all this shit is.” I stood, walked closer to the screens, and tried to figure out exactly what I was looking at. Their finances were fucked. They were overspending on staff, undercutting departments to pay others. They were basically robbing Peter to pay Paul until another school bought them out.

“I’ll get to that shit in a minute,” I said, waving him off. “You couldn’t find any footage near the back of the field?”

“Now you know better than that,” Nine chuckled and shook his head. “I hacked a few security cameras from the businesses and houses around the school. It took me a few minutes because there wasn’t shit there at first. I had to go back damn near two weeks to find something, but this is what I came up with.” He pointed to the screens, and I turned to watch what he had.

A white Charger was the first thing I noticed. I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my thighs and my hands balled up in front of my mouth. “Did you get the plates for the Charger?” I asked Nine.

“Working on it now; Gift should be calling me back soon,” he replied. Gift Blackmon is a detective in the local police department. He also has a sister who is in the FBI; she reports to Trey. Nine didn’t know that part, though.

“Alright,” I said, nodding. I kept watching the video; Nine had done a good job of piecing together the man's movements. He parked his car a few blocks from the school, walked through the neighborhood, eventually went into a house, and came out the back. He crossed the yard and went to the fence that separated the school. A woman walked out towards the fence. I knew it was Ms. Campbell without even seeing her face. She opened the gate, hugged the man, and left.

“He stands there, literally not doing shit for almost thirty minutes, then the ball appears,” Nine said. He fast-forwarded the video until the ball rolled in front of the man. He picked it up, and Judah came running into view. He stayed away; his body language was hesitant. He eventually took the ball and ran away. The man stood there a few minutes, then turned and walked away. He followed the same route he had taken to get to the school. When he got to the car, he pulled his fitted off, threw it in the car, then got in. I didn’t see his face clearly until he rolled the window down. “That’s all I got, like I said I’m waiting for Gift to call me back. Whoever it was did a good job of keeping his head down and out of view.”

“So that shit didn’t happen the day his teacher and PE teacher said something?” I asked, looking at the screen. “Why the fuck were they acting like it happened that morning?”

“That’s something you gotta ask Judah,” Nine replied. “He’s the only one who can tell you because didn’t shit else happen after that. Judah never went that far out; as a matter of fact, he wasn’t even allowed to play with the other kids during gym if they were outside.”

My face twisted. “What?” I questioned him. “What the fuck do you mean my son doesn’t play with other kids?”

“Every video shows the same shit. Judah's class comes out with the PE teacher; he lets him play at first, then his teacher comes out. She says something to the teacher, and then Judah has to sit down.” He pulled up another video and showed me different days, all with the same shit happening.

“Yeah, me and Judah about to have a real ass conversation,” I said, nodding. I wasn’t mad at my boy, but I wanted answers. Why was he being singled out? Shit wasn’t making sense because he never said anything. Every day I asked him how school was, he always said fine. Ms. Campbell never sent any notes home or messages on the school app. All his grades looked good. Yet, he was in trouble every time he went to gym? Nah, something wasn’t right.

I stood, adjusted my pants on my hips, then wiped my hand over my mouth.

“What you about to do?” Nine asked.

“I’m going back to the warehouse,” I replied. “The nigga in that video.” I pointed to the monitors behind me. “He’s already there, been there for a few days.”

“Wait, what? You know who that is?”

“Yeah, that’s Orlando the fuck ass sensei,” I chuckled. “He had the pleasure of dealing with Judah’s mama. Now he about to deal with his daddy.”

***

I debated going to the warehouse first, then seeing my family, but something told me to see them first. I called Cori on the way to the shop to make sure they were still there, and she said they were at her grandparents’ house. I did a U-turn in the middle of the street and headed that way instead. Now I was sitting in the driveway trying to get myself together before I walked into their house. I was never one to be disrespectful to the DeCortes. Not after all they’d been through.

The front door opened, and Cori stepped onto the porch. It started raining when I pulled up, but I could still see her clearly through my windshield. I turned off my car, opened the door, and got out. She didn’t wait for me to cross the lawn; she took off running to me. The second she was close enough, I snatched her off her feet and held her close. I buried my face into her neck, and her nails racked through my hair.

“Damn, I missed you,” I told her. I kissed her shoulder, then lifted my face. She smiled at me as a raindrop slowly rolled down her face. “You missed me?”

“Yes,” she didn’t hesitate to answer. Her smile dropped as her eyes searched mine. “What’s wrong?”

“I need to talk to you about something,” I told her, then set her on her feet. I guided her around the car and opened the door for her to get in. After she was situated, I closed the door, rounded the car, and got back into the driver’s seat. I wiped my hands over my face and sat back in my seat. “When I went to pick up Judah the other day, his teacher pulled me into the hallway with the PE teacher.”

“Okay,” she slowly replied. I could already see the wheels in her mind starting to turn. She was facing all the worst possibilities for this story ending because she knew the dark side of life. She turned and looked at the house. Her breathing became labored. I reached across the car, cupped her chin, and made her look at me.

“Breathe, Cori,” I calmly told her. “Take a deep breath for me.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Do it again.” She did, and after a few seconds she opened her eyes. “Nobody touched Judah, nobody hurt him physically.”

“Then what happened to my baby?” she asked. She was concerned but also angry, which was understandable. “Because I know that look, Uri. Something happened to him.”

“The PE teacher said he opened the gate for a strange man at the school. Judah insisted he didn’t do it. I believed him. No questions asked, I believed him. I had asked for the security camera footage to see what really happened. They said there wasn’t any. That the cameras didn’t record in that area or some bullshit. I hit up Nine and asked him to get the footage so I could see for myself.”

“And he did.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “He got it, but it took him a few days to find the video.”