Dollar Bill by Joy Read Free Book Online

Who does the King of Diamonds represent?”
    â€œJulius Caesar,” Klein said as he began holding his mother to comfort her. “The King of Diamonds in a deck of playing cards represents Julius Caesar.”
    The detectives cuffed Dollar’s hands behind his back and began to read him his rights. They pushed and shoved him over to their car. Dollar was scared, but he wasn’t going to let it show. He sucked it up and allowed the detectives to throw him into the back of the car.
    The engine started and Dollar wanted so badly to look back up at his mother and brother who were broken up as they watched him from their apartment window. The car rode off. Even though it could have very well been the last time Dollar ever saw his mother and little brother again, he didn’t look back at them. He didn’t look back.
    Dollar spent a total of fourteen hours and thirteen minutes being interrogated by the detectives. They asked him the same questions over and over again, sometimes switching words around in an attempt to catch him in a lie. Dollar stuck to yes and no answers. He didn’t offer anything extra, which pissed the detectives off.
    In the meantime, Dollar’s fingerprints were being matched to those found on the cell phones in Woody’s Garage. Once the detectives informed Dollar of this major piece of evidence, it was time for Dollar to start talking.
    The detective suspected that Dollar hadn’t pulled off the robbery and killings solo. No way did some young punk with no street respect take Cartel and two of his dudes down alone. The detectives wanted the names of Dollar’s accomplices. If Dollar didn’t tell, he would go down, taking all the heat alone for a triple homicide. He would very well spend the rest of his life in jail. If Dollar did give up the name of the triggerman and any other accomplices, he would go down as an accessory and walk away with a smack on the wrist as a first-time offender; that was the deal.
    Although Tommy was the one who actually pulled the trigger, Dollar still knew that Ral would go down hard as well. Unlike Dollar, Ral wasn’t in a position to be making any type of deal for himself. He had several strikes on his record that would guarantee him time in the slammer.
    To Dollar, it didn’t make sense for all three of them to go down. Besides, he couldn’t see himself snitching on his partners and he especially couldn’t picture Tommy spending the rest of her life in prison. He knew, without a mustard seed of doubt, that if the shoe were on the other foot, both Tommy and Ral would do the same for him.
    Dollar had learned quite a few things about hustling. No matter the nature of the hustle, every hustle has the same rules. One can only get down with people whom they have 100 percent trust in. The clique had to be willing to die for the hustle, do time for the hustle, and Dollar was willing to do just that.

CHAPTER 3
    Murder Was the Case
    Dollar couldn’t look at his mother after initially seeing her as he entered the courtroom in his jailhouse garb. When he first set eyes on her, she smiled at him. Her smile had always been a comfort to Dollar. Like the time he had a solo in the school Thanksgiving program. Dollar was so nervous as he stood on the stage. But when he looked out into the audience and saw his mother smiling at him, he knew that everything was going to be okay. That day, Dollar had a feeling that his mother’s smile wasn’t going to make everything okay.
    Dollar’s mother’s smile quickly faded as tears began to fall from her eyes. Auntie Charlene sat next to her, hugging and comforting her as she wept endlessly. Dollar could see by the harsh look his Auntie Charlene was giving him that if by chance he did get set free, she was going to tear him a new hide no matter how big he was.
    Dollar had to start thinking about things like sunshine and penny candy to keep from breaking down at the sight of his