Deafening Silence

Needless to say , we didn't find Lockjohn that night...we entered every hospital in that area, in which he might've gone...Every emergency room and not a trace of Malik Lockjohn was found. I was right about him escaping in a car...The police found a car with the backseat full of blood..and the driver, a West Philly player named Rudy Lubbers, with the back of his head blown out..in an alley in
Southwest Philly. Apparently this was payback from Lockjohn for helping him escape from certain death...What a real nice guy to work for. The dead man on my block was identified as Eric Wayne Alexander...a low level Southwest Philly player, who was known to be handy with a gun.

The police were now dilligently searching for Lockjohn for weapons violations and as a suspect in two murders...He could face going back to prison to finish out the last remaining years of his original sentence. I'm sure Agent Cotton and
Sissy Van Buren wanted to talk to me too, but I didn't have time.. This guy could pop up and kill everybody I knew just to draw me out..I had heard he was that crazy and ruthless..

We searched high and low for him until daybreak, but no sign of him..He was
as good as gone. The streets were abuzz the next day...People were talking about how Lockjohn had finnally bitten off more than he could chew and how somebody had shot him...People were saying that he was dead in the days that would come with no sightings of him..I knew better though.

Chess ,Chris and Fathead offered thier help and Smooth trippled the muscle at the card game and near the homes of my friends like Mable, Clerow, Sean,Cock Robbins et al, Not to mention that cops and FBI agents were swarming the area looking for him.

I got my wife Sepia and we left town for about two weeks. Chess and Chris kept me abreast of everything. We returned and I even started going to work again..
yet always on the lookout for him. In the back of my mind...I realized that he had gotten through all of my elaborate defenses and had dis-armed three of my four helpers...He could have very well of killed all of us...The only thing that had saved me was I had a wild card..A wild card he hadn't counted on...Smooth, sitting in the back of my car that gave me the advantage.

He was good...I was lucky to have wounded him...Next time, I might not be as lucky. Agent Cotton had so much as told me so.. So I started planning how to get the drop on him. Gus told me that he moved from place to place and that he never holed up in one place for long. Fathead said that he tossed a lot of money around and usually got low level guys with no connections to the major players to help him. He gathered information by use of intimidation. He was a frightening man..His power was his murderous reputation and fear..Well ,he was facing a man who didn't fear him and wasn't impressed by his rep. Me!
I didn't know why I didn't fear him..I had every reason to be afraid..He was the smartest guy I had ever met and the slipperiest too...Yet I sensed that my defiance of him , kind of made him fear me too! I liked that!

Big Nasty and I rousted a player named Cooley Dan who told us he'd seen Lockjohn a few nights before and had gotten him a Doctor that would tend to his wound.
Albert,Eddie,Smooth and I found the Doctor the next day who by some miracle was still alive ....and he told us that the wound was major...but that he couldn't talk Lockjohn into going to the hospital..He removed the bullet and fragments, and tried to bandage it up but that he feared infection if Lockjohn didn't get some serious medical attention. Lockjohn was afraid to go to a hospital. I'll bet he was.

Six weeks went by and there was no other sighting of Malik Lockjohn. Some folks felt safe....but people who knew like Chess, Chris, Fathead, Agent Cotton and Sissy Van Buren knew better. I knew better myself.

Usually People were running from Lockjohn..Not trying to find him.. I drove by Sepia's job to pick her up one afternoon and she had a letter with her...she looked mortified.

'What's wrong Sepia?" I asked.

'Kevin..He was here..He was at my job" she said.

"Who?"I asked.

"Lockjohn!" she said.

"You saw him??" I asked.

"No..but this letter was on my desk , when I came to work and it was addressed
to you." she said. "I read it....I hope you didn't mind" she added

I opened it up and read it, I smiled....No..In this case I didn't mind...I thought.

"You won the first round...but the second round will be mine...Nice woman you got there...Would be a shame if something happened to her...be seein you around , dead man..Tell Marvin Gaye, Biggie, Tupac and Micheal Jackson that I was always a big fan when you see em"

I smiled..He had a sense of humor..and I had a surprise for him that he wouldn't find so humorous...I drove Sepia to Sean Jackson's house...where she would be safe..at least for now. I got on my Black berry and made a few calls...Then I headed to where I knew Lockjohn would be.. I was in his head and I was thinking the way he would...Where is the last place I would expect him?? That's
exactly where he would be. This was the reason why so many others had failed to elude him and had lost their lives..They just couldn't think like him or out think him. Our little game of Cat and Mouse was about to come to a conclusion..or so I thought.

I parked my car three blocks away. Then I crept down the street...I met Smooth
at the corner and passed him a key. I motioned for him to be quiet and then I walked quietly towards my house. As I suspected ...the door was open...but I didn't attempt to walk in...I spun around and pulled my revolver and ducked as
the first three shots shattered my front window...I rolled and fired at the slinking figure that moved so catlike..He began to run....I saw another man and heard the click of a pistol...Didn't matter...I heard three more shots and heard the man fall to the ground...Smooth had entered the back with my key and taken him out...

Now I ran down the street after Lockjohn..He turned and before he could get off
a shot....I fired my gun...the bullet whizzed right through his shirt...I saw a look of utter terror on his face...He did something he had never done before...He dropped his weapon and ran.... He couldn't believe that I had out thought him.
I felt an adrenalin rush like I had never felt before as I chased him and fired over his head..

I didn't fire again, but I continued running after him...Sure enough..there was a car waiting for him...but there would be no quick escape tonight...I had that covered too...Clerow had a gun on the man and had him facedown on the street.
That was the second call I made. Lockjohn looked back..He was utterly stunned!
He went in his pocket and pulled out another gun..a smaller one and fired..I ducked behind a wall and fired back at him... Smooth ducked behind a car and fired on him too. He was now confused..He turned both ways and took off running again..Shooting over his shoulder as he ran..Smooth and I both fired at him as he continued to run for all he was worth.
Lockjohn turned and ran down an ajoining block...and into the night...I wasn't sure if I had hit him..but I could see that he had a slight limp and that he was a
bit slower than he had been the last time we tangled..... He had escaped me again..I had nearly killed him again..He had failed again..This was a first for him.

Smooth and Clerow ran up to me....

"You get him boss?" asked Clerow...

"No...he got away...that guy is fast and good. He got to my wife's job and he got
in my house..." I said.

"Don't worry about the cat in your house...I got people coming by...we'll get rid of the body." said Smooth.

"Where's your guy Clerow?" I said.

"He's tied up over there." laughed Clerow.

"Let's talk to him.." laughed Smooth

Indeed...right now he needed to be more afraid of us than he did Lockjohn.

"I'll tell you anything you wanna know man...just don't hurt me." He said.

Clerow ,Smooth and I looked at each other.....That went easy enough... They stayed with him while I went to search the adjoining blocks for Lockjohn. There was no sign of him. Damn, he was smooth...I worried for the first time...You know what they say...The third time is the charm.
But for whom? That's what worried me.

(To Be Continued.....)