"June 16, 2002 twelve-- yeah, that's it, baby." "Feelin' it now." "Come on." "Ten, king, queen, minus three... man, kid over here mumblin' to himself like Mr. Magoo." "He's my half-brother Terrance." "He cool, man." "I thought he was homeless." "Man, forget all that, alright?" "Just hit me." "ah." "Bang, you busted." "Dang, alright... hold up." "Yo, t, man, gimme ten." "Naw, forget it, man." "We out." "Come on, man." "We wanna run with the big dogs, we gotta bring it." "You bring it, all right." "You just keep giving it all away." "Are you watchin' the game?" "I was just on a roll." "I just need to get it back." "Hey, boy, you wanna ante up or take your half-ass brother on home?" "twenty." "Deal me in." "What's up with this fool?" "Naw, he just playin'." "I said deal me in." "Yo, t, what you doing?" "It's called doubling' down." "Hit me." "Man, T, you can't double down on no 17." "You gonna bust." "Another ten says I beat every hand here." "it's your money, fool." "I thought I said hit me." "twenty-one." "What you got?" "Damn." "Damn!" "Man, that was luck." "Nine times out of ten, you would've bust on that same hand, chump." "Nine times out of ten, but there's 52 cards in the deck, and you already burnt 11 out of 12 face cards, plus all your tens and aces." "Leaving even odds, I get a four or lower." "And I thank you for that." "By the way, name's terrance." "How you like my chump change now?" "yo, let me see that." "Boss, guy over there says he's the father of a terrance carter." "Teenage gunshot victim, back in '02." "He wants to see if he could get his son's personal effects "for keepsake."" "Five years after the fact?" "Claims he hadn't seen the boy since he was a baby." "On the outs with the mother." "Asked if he could get his son's wallet, said he "needed" his social security number." "Scumbag's trying to commit fraud." "Pull the kid's social." "Already on it." "Sir, I'm afraid we can't release any evidence or personal effects until an investigation's been closed." "I'm sorry." "So how's that investigation going?" "Five years now, ain't it?" "Bullet was never matched to any other case, registered gun or otherwise." "So what, case closed?" "There were people on that block who know damn well who shot your son, mr." "Carter." "Unfortunately, none are willing to cooperate with the police." "So that's how it is, now, huh?" "Just... chalk it up to the neighborhood?" "Didn't say that." "So what then?" "It's my son's fault he got shot?" "That's it?" "Sure there's enough blame to go around." " What?" " Mr. Carter, if you know anyone, anyone who might talk to us, we'd always appreciate any help." "Yeah, right." "Otherwise, y'all just done looking." "Maybe we should look again." "Starting with the rock that slug just crawled out from under." "Turns out terrance carter's social security number's still in use." "Used to open three different charge accounts since his death." "So either he's still alive and kicking... or somebody already beat dad to the punch." "±¾×ÖÄ"½ö¹©Ñ§Ï°½"Á÷£¬ÑÏ½ûÓÃÓÚÉÌÒµÓÃÍ¾" "=ÆÆÀÃÐÜ×ÖÄ"×é=- ·­Òë:" "Ð£¶Ô:" "Ê±¼äÖá:abbiemcgee" "?" "Oh, yeah, sorry, man." "Just got ... caught up with this thing." "Blonde or brunette?" "I wish." "Some pain-in-the-ass ada." "Let me guess:" "The redheaded nutcracker with the nice set of pins?" "Nah, just some dinosaur prepping an old robbery in west." "Original theory on terrance carter?" "Kid caught a random bullet on a rooftop in north philly five years ago." "Not so random." "Find all kind of spent shells up on those rooftops." "Thugs and bangers going up there to test out their nines, .22s, you name it." "So some punk taking target practice drops a kid with an unlucky stray." "We know why terrance was up there?" "Drugs, guns, escape-- could've been just about anything on that block." "That's 29th street turf-- no evidence of gang affiliation?" "Not really, just this." "Looks like a name and number." ""Sam 678-9235"?" "Phone number came back to nothing." "No kid named sam, witness or suspect." "Statement from the kid's mother was less than helpful." "Welfare mom, nowhere dad, kid had no chance." "No witnesses, no leads, no big surprise on that block." "Social security number on terrance carter was first used to open an account shortly after he died." "Peco?" "Philadelphia electric." "Same address given for terrance carter." "Residence of the mother, cheryl carter." "So mom just steals her dead kid's social?" "Probably figured he wasn't using it." "Parents like that, who needs enemies?" "Nerve of that man." "Trying to come in and collect on terrance." "When it comes to picking the bones of your dead son, you got gerald beat." "Excuse me?" "Only took you a week after your son's murder to steal his social security number." "Funeral wiped me out." "They cut me off, turned off all my utilities." "You collected on the victim's comp fund for burial expenses." "Barely covered a pine box." "Terrance's father never chipped in?" "Not a dime." "Not worth a damn as a husband or a father." "You don't know how tough it was, raising that boy on my own." "Terrance get into trouble?" "Boy was nothing but a daydreamer." "Told him... if he wasn't gonna go to school, he needed to find a way to earn." "How?" "He was only 14." "I had two jobs when I was his age." "And school... didn't get me nothing but pregnant." "Legal dropout age is 16." "Oh, you gonna lecture me now?" "What was terrance doing up on that roof when he got shot?" "Told the police, he'd started hanging out up there with michael." "Michael?" "His half-brother." "They grew up on the same block." "But michael's mama, she didn't raise him right." "Uh-huh." "What were they doing up there?" "Playing the fool, skipping school, trying to duck me." "High or low, t?" "High." "Face card." "Next." "Low-- two, three or four." "Come on, man." "I got this cold." "You hear from dad?" "No." "You?" "My mama got a letter, from inside." "Asked how big I was." "Said he wanted to catch up." "He said that?" "Called me his "main man."" "Please." "He just tryin' to get back with my moms." "He ask about me?" "Yeah." "Yeah, you know... forget it." "Don't matter." "What's up with that bird man anyway?" "Got all them locks on his birds." "Crazy fool's got twice as many locks on the apartment." "Heard he got a safe full of cash, too." "How them birds always know to come back?" "Man, forget the birds." "Focus on the deck." "Naw, man." "We done practicing." "I got it." "Hey, hey, hey, hey." "No more small-time." "We gonna hustle a man's game, roll in with a shot caller." "Now, come on." "Finish the deck, T." "Six cards left in the deck." "A deuce, a pair of eights, a jack, 2 ks." "Damn, man." "We about to get rich." "Or die trying." "Terrance was counting cards?" "Some stupid corner hustle, up to no good." "Only way to make money counting cards is playing blackjack." "Takes a real computer upstairs to bring down the house." "Terrance was real good with numbers." "What do you think he meant by "roll in with a shot caller," hustling some card game?" "Don't know, but michael was always trying to suck my boy into it." "Just like I told the do-nothing police back then." "That kind of attitude makes you friends." "Didn't matter then to y'all, just like I know it won't now." "Finish up with that head shrink yet?" "What?" "First the boss, now you?" "I just want to know if I'm rollin' with a nut job." "One more session," "I'll be certified." "That our guy?" "How'd you get the horse, michael?" "Grow up in a war zone, this how you end up." "Another casualty of the neighborhood, just like your dead half-brother." "About time y'all cared." "You with terrance the night he got shot?" "I was home." "Only took another year for a bullet to catch up to me." "Tryin' to tell these kids what happens you run on the streets, don't get your head on straight." "Terrance's mother seems to think you know who shot him." "Y'all need to consider the source." "She never liked me 'cause of my moms." "So what were you doing up on that roof with terrance, talking some big card hustle?" "We were just looking for an angle to play." "Stake our claim." "What kind of angle?" "Setting a real good example for these kids." "Keeping your mouth shut about your brother's murder?" "Five years now." "That's real brave." "And for what?" "Hmm?" "Lot of good it did you." "There was only one card game that mattered." "But you ain't hear it from me." "An underground card game?" "Where?" "Big fat ray'S." "Knew if I could get t in on that game, we could do some serious damage." "How?" "You were just a couple of kids." "So how I got the idea to set up the meet with delonte." "Knew if we rolled in with him, nobody'd mess with us." "Delonte?" "King." "Banging thug." "Shot caller in the 29th street crew." "Turned out delonte had other plans for terrance." "no disrespect, yo." "Just got a proposition for your man£¬ here is all." "Huh." "Michael, my half-brother terrance." "Ready to go to work." "Don't need no more corner boys slinging for me, man." "Talking about big fat ray's game." "You get us in the door, we can run the table." "Y'all get half our cut." "I'm good with all kinds of numbers." "Like the code on your door there." "Say what?" "Punk must have seen me punch in the code over my shoulder before, like they do at them atms." "Hold up, chill." "How'd you get that combo, young'un?" "That lock?" "Got about 3,000 combinations." "Take ten minutes to crack it cold, but your man here made it easy." "Say what?" "Ten numbers on the keypad." "But there's two to each button, so it's really just a five-digit pin." "So?" "So it cuts it in half, some 1,600 possible numbers." "And since that 29th street ink gave me the first two digits," "I figure there's only a couple hundred left now by looking at the keypad I saw the five/six, seven/eight buttons were worn down by fingerprints." "Which makes sense, it's a 'sixers town." "So 29-76, got one number left, figure I got a one in five shot." "Guess I just guessed right." "How'd you get that last number?" "what?" "Your shirt, fool." "The number." "All right, young'un." "Know about the safe bolted into a floor." "You got to get in and out, quick." "Keypad lock or combo, we can get it done in under ten minutes." "Was I talking to you?" "Yeah, we could do it." "Let's line it up." "All right." "Next week, then." "But... you get caught... try to cross me?" "You don't wanna know me." "Delonte used you for break-ins?" "Not me." "Just terrance." "Couple weeks later, t was dead." "You think delonte took him out." "So terrance could never finger him." "My boy t was special, you know." "It's like a blessing and a curse around here." "A curse?" "Soon as people find out you got something, they want a piece of you." "Where's this, uh, delonte now?" "He upstate on stick-up he did." "Just know, boy like that don't snitch." "And he ain't afraid of doin' no time either." "Even the devil makes deals." "Maybe... but he always get his in the end." "So, off the painkillers yet?" "Been off." "Wound's almost healed up." "You haven't been sleeping much." "That obvious, huh?" "Any nightmares?" "Last session." "Might as well go out with a bang, right?" "So to speak." "Um... the other night... yeah." "?" "They were wheeling me into the er, lights everywhere, voices." "How'd you feel?" "How did I feel?" "Um... scared," "I guess." "They were badgering me, asking me questions." "Questions like what?" "I-I can't remember." "Try." ""Is there anyone to call?"" ""Who do you want us to call?"" "Something like that." "Was there?" "Was there what?" "Anyone to call, lilly?" "When you're in a situation like that, you ask yourself these things, take inventory of your life." "What you've done, whom you've loved." "That's what your nightmare's telling you." "That photo's gotta be what, 15 years old?" "Your daughter, jessica, she's not a little girl anymore, is she?" "You didn't answer the question." "No prom, graduation, wedding photos... just wonder why." "You two still even talk anymore?" "Maybe not." "That's why you fix other people's problems." "'Cause you can't fix your own?" "That's impressive." "Too bad you can't see yourself the way you see me." "Oh, I, uh... my time's up." "The nightmares won't end, lilly." "Until you can do that." "Sit down." "Remember him, delonte?" "Another dead clocker off the block?" "Terrance carter, five years back." "Wasn't a clocker, but he sure was good with numbers." "Kid you thought might be good at cracking combinations." "That code scribbled on his hand mean something to you?" "I can't help you." "You used him for break-ins." "Did I now?" "Who told you that?" "No sweat off your back, take terrance out of the picture after a job." "Leaving no one to flip on you." "Sorry, fellas." "We done playin' footsie?" "Co says you're the alpha dog on this cell block." "Makes sense, with half your crew locked up in here." "I get anything I want on the inside." "Really?" "Don'tsee nothing about conjugal visitation." "Don't nobody get that." "See my baby mama through the glass once a month." "Saying we might be able to pull some string you play this right." "So pull." "Give us something about the break-ins, and maybe you get to put your jack in a box." "Glaze that ham with some real honey." "I used that punk once for a break-in, but it didn't work out." "All the more reason to fear him snitching." "Please." "Kid was all brains ... and no balls." "You ask me, wasn't no pot shot took him out, either." "Check in there for the safe." "Go, go." "what you doing?" "Where's the safe?" "who's there?" "What the hell?" "?" "you hit the bird man's apartment." "Crazy ol' coot came home blasting." "Was terrance hit?" "No, just wet his pants." "Didn't grab nothing but some stupid notebook." "But the bird man got a good look at his face." "So?" "So, kid got shot up on that roof, right?" "You're saying it's the bird man?" "He always up there." "Figured he caught up to the little man one day." "Took him out." "Had an uncle used to race birds." "He's kinda plump for a homing pigeon." "Oscar's a rock pigeon." "Fell out a nest into the gutter when he was a baby." "Nursed him back to health." "I need to talk to you about a break-in, augustine." "Your apartment." "Few years back." "Shots fired." "Remember that?" "Some punks broke into my place." "Had to protect myself." "Only you never reported it." "911's a joke on this block." "Boys got what was coming to 'em." "Unfortunately, one of 'em got shot." "Right up here on the roof of this building." "14-year-old terrance carter." "Bullet from a nine." "We check your apartment, we gonna find that weapon?" "Search away." "I didn't kill that boy." "The code written on his hand... mean anything to you?" "Nope." "But he didn't talk much about his personal life." "You talked to terrance?" "When?" "Right up here on this roof." "Under much different circumstances." "Sick of you damn kids..." " wait, wait, wait." " Trying to steal from me again?" "I was just trying to bring back what belonged to you." "Who did this?" "I was just messin' around." "I didn't mean to screw it up." "How'd you do this?" "When?" "Don't know." "Just ... get caught up in stuff, lose track of time." "Sorry." "So that model airplane in your apartment-- that some kind of hobby?" "Some kind of career." "You make planes with numbers?" "It's called design." "It's all about numbers." "How you learn about all that stuff?" "Planes, birds, flying." "Try the public library." "Sounds boring." "the more I know about flight, the less I know." "Gotta have a passion for it." "But you wouldn't know anything about that." "Why's that?" "It would require you to use your brain for something other than trying to rip people off." "That one bird in the red cage... how come he don't ever get out?" "Lost his will to fly." "It's a bird, ain't it?" "So you're not only a thief, you're a know-it-all pain-in-the-ass, too?" "'Sup, t?" "Let's go." "Race 'em." "Every thursday from the basketball courts." "Race what?" "The babies." "Flight training." "You'd probably think it was boring." "Kid was special." "Raw mathematical ability, off the charts." "He show up for the races?" "And the math and flight lessons." "Tried to challenge him, show him there's a world outside this block." "Till the inevitable happened." "What's that?" "Some con showed up in his life." "Some con?" "Claimed he was his father." "Gerald carter?" "Came to see his son?" "All I know is, few days after dad shows up," "I wake up to feed my birds, and they'd found that boy's body." "Right over there." "Have you heard about miralax?" "Got a real selective memory, gerald." "Coming in here with that tale-of-woe bs about not getting to see your son." "Look, I came back around, but my ex didn't know." "Court said I owed child support, alimony, all that nonsense." "Nonsense?" "See?" "I knew the boy's mom would flip out she knew I contacted him." "So, why lie to us, unless you had something else to hide?" "Me and the law, on a need-to-know basis." "Ain't about to change now." "So, you hadn't seen your son in years." "All of sudden, you pop up in his life." "Couple days later, he's dead." "Bad coincidence." "Even worse, you split again." "Didn't even stick around to bury him." "maybe I wasn't the best father but terrance was my blood." "Came back 'cause I had to give it another try." "Four basic forces of physics at work in flight." "Lift versus gravity;" "thrust versus drag, bernoulli's principle... if you say so, boss." "I didn't say so." "It's a fact." "Flight is a delicate balance of math and physics." "The larger the wing... the greater the lift." "Wing aspect ratio." "got that." "Really?" "where'd you get that?" "Public library." "that the formula you used to design that plane in your apartment?" "I used to be an engineer." "Big firm." "Long time ago." "How you end up back here?" "well, I wanted to rethink the way we design planes, but they didn't, so I left." "Rethink?" "Birds have flexible wings." "Took us thousands of years to approximate what they just come by naturally." "Go ahead." "Let her rip." "For real?" "Go on." "It's what they're born to do." "there are things which seem incredible to most men who've never studied mathematics." "Never thought about birds like that." ""We're all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."" "Who said that?" "Oscar wilde." "Oscar, huh?" "Terrence." "dad?" "Michael told me i might find you here." "Didn't mention how big you went and got." "I was hoping we could talk a bit." "Maybe catch me up on some things, son." "Keep your eye on the stars, kid." "Come on, baby," "So, baby, you be good." "?" "that bird man wasn't his father." "I was." "You had a problem with augustine." "Grown man hanging out with my boy, acting white?" "couldn't figure out his angle." "That's no surprise." "You're not that bright." "But your son-- he was special." "Least one of 'em anyway." "So that was your angle." "You figured out what terrance could do" "Michael told you he could count cards." "Never heard nothing about that." "Just glad we got to spend some time together." "A couple days later, he winds up dead." "Yeah, you're father of the year." "Don't need to justify nothing to y'all." "He was my son." "You're nothing but a lowlife con." "I grew up around shiftless fools like you, expect something for nothing." "Who you think you are, man?" "I'm the guy who goes around cleaning up all your mess." "Screwed up families and sons you don't even deserve." "At least my boy understood." "Never forget your people, where you came from." "What's that supposed to mean?" "I wouldn't expect a couple of black cops to understand that." "go ahead." "Take a swing." "I could use the money." "Just a matter of time before we sort this out, gerald." "terrance went to the library, right?" "The number written on his hand." "Could be some sort of reference number." "What, like a book?" "I'm not sure if it's dewey decimal, but ... it could be a date." ""Six, seven, 89." "Sam."" "I'm thinking ... newspaper, magazine, some sort of periodical?" "23-five." "Page number?" "Terrance looked something up, but he wasn't writing any book reports." "Well, it's worth a shot." "Hit the library, dewey." "S-a-m-- san antonio mercury news." "That's got to be it, right?" "Your call, bro." "Okay, june, '89." "oh." "that's the reason ..." "I did not make it through college." "Yeah, college blows, dude." "June 7, 1989, page 23." "Plane crash outside of dallas." "Take a look." "Uh, civilian plane, down in flames, killed five people." "Keep going." ""Mechanical malfunction attributed "to a flaw in the airplane's design." "Aeronautical firm named in the lawsuit."" "And one particular engineer." "Augustine bennett." "Talk about a career-killer." "And terrance found out." "You're a proud man, augustine." "Once a top-flight aeronautical engineer." "But you screwed up." "Big time." "Plane you designed back in the '80s went down." "All five passengers died." "And everyone blamed you." "To get to that level and fail so publicly must have been devastating." "You had to walk away, to bury it." "But all those years later, along comes this precocious 14-year-old boy." "A whiz kid." "And you let him in, and he digs up the one thing you buried." "Confronts you." "You can't handle it 'cause now you're a just a liar." "Right?" "You'd have to be perfect, you know." "A man in my position." "Because if you mess up, people die." "And you lose everything." "Augustine, did you shoot terrance up on that roof?" "He was caught in the middle." "Being dragged down by people who didn't have his best interests at heart." "Where you been?" "You haven't showed up for class all week." "Back in the game, huh?" "Got to make it out." "On way how." "Like your old man?" "Bumming around this block." "Dice and card games till you wind up in jail or shot?" "What you want from me?" "To start trying to use your brain for something else." "Create something for once in your life." "Or you want to wind up some loser, kicking 'round here till you drop." "What, like you?" "When you planning on telling me?" "You know, about the plane?" "The one that crashed?" "You're just like the rest of 'em." "And now look at you." "You can barely leave the building." "Listen to you." "Never even been off the block." "At least I tried." "Don't worry about me." "Do the math, smart guy." "They got a formula for young black males round here, how long you'll live." "Guess we'll see." "You're done wasting my time." "You're going to have to decide what you're going to do with your life." "Already did." "Got a game to play." "Forced him to choose that night." "Between you and the streets." "Terrance was dead before dawn." "Some big card game, huh?" "Big fat ray's?" "Think delonte told a big fat lie." "How about a hand of blackjack, delonte?" "Name your stakes." "Nah, I don't gamble." "That's right." "You cheat... and lie." "Told us you dropped terrance after the break-in." "But blackjack was your game and terrance could count cards." "Whatever." "Conjugal visitation's off the table." "Count on five more years of making love to a sock." "Try not to strip all the bark off the wood." "Nothing new." "I'm a man." "That's right." "Keep acting the big man." "Like you still run the game." "Tough to call the shots after you're transferred to a supermax facility." "You'd be in solitary, lockdown 23 hours a day." "Kind of like veal." "Except for that one hour where they let you walk around that little concrete-walled pen." "Just in case you forgot you're in a zoo." "No need to be talking no supermax." "But I throw you a bone, you got to give me something." "Sorry, that's all that's on the table." "I brought the kid to fat ray's game." "To count cards." "I was the player." "Kid was the spotter." "He'd watch the deck." "I'd watch the kid." "He'd signal you?" "The count was low, he'd cross his arm." "The deck was high, he'd touch his chin." "Simple." "I would've cut him in, too." "But what?" "Little man didn't stick to the plan." "keep it coming, ray." "15" "double it up." "hit me." "and 5 makes 20." "busted." "well, that leaves you, D." "Taking a beatdown tonight, ray." "Give me another one." "?" "I'm fixing to bring down the house." "That's my boy right here." "I've been watching you do your thing." "Smooth." "Smooth." "Say me and you take a little trip this weekend?" "Father, son, atlantic city." "What about michael?" "Nah, just me and you." "The tables won't know what hit 'em." "Nah, I got school." "Don't worry about that." "Hey." "You're my main man." "Do your thing, boy." "Bring it, big man." "hit me." "25." "Busted." "he cost me a lot of bank." "He punk'd you." "That was unacceptable." "Think what you want." "I ain't shoot that kid." "Right, why would you do that when all you had to do was order the hit?" "You got somebody to testify to that?" "I didn't think so." "His half-brother was at the card game, hanging with the 29th street crew bangers." "Michael." "Kid was a wannabe." "Still had to prove himself." "So you used michael to track down terrance to kill him." "Michael knew the score." "He wants to take it into his own hands, so be it." "Son of a bitch." "But that ain't on me." "I didn't pulled that trigger." "Oh, yeah... there's not a whole lot of natural light at supermax." "We'll be sure to send you a postcard, and let you know what season it is." "Hey, what's up?" "We had a deal." "" "You got somebody to testify to that?" "Didn't think so." "It's a real shame, how you got caught up in the game, michael." "Had to do delonte's bidding." "Prove yourself." "thug life." "29th street crew." "That's just how it is out there." "You got to choose." "Choose what?" "Play or pray." "It was about survival." "Terrance made his choice, that night at the card game." "Wound up getting him killed." "What were you doing there, michael?" "Terrance was your blood." "But delonte... was your new family." "We know he told you to go after terrance, and you knew where to find him." "Gang pretends it's your family." "You know?" "Guess you found out the hard way it's all ... a bunch of bull." "After I caught one in the back, wound up whizzing in a bag... guess they had no use for me no more." "None of them cared." "Never did." "Except T." "He was my brother." "But he should've kept going." "Never looked back." "You know, I found him the one place we always went to as kids." "The roof." "Now why'd he go there?" "He came back for me." "Time to fly, little buddy." "Why'd you do it, t?" "You messed up bad." "Mike, listen... how we gonna get delonte's money back?" "We can'T." "We're not." "Screw delonte." "What?" "Screw dad." "Screw all of 'em." "Oh, you mean screw me, too." "Nah, don't you see?" "They ain't gonna do nothin' but let you down." "I don't get it, man..." "I always tried to look out for you." "I know, that's why I'm telling you we got to get the hell out of here, mike." "And go where?" "And do what?" "I'm not worried." "We're smarter than all of 'em." "See, that's 'cause you got something special." "Everybody see that." "But this is all I got." "These four blocks." "That's not true." "But if we stay here, going this way... we'll die here." "It's where we at now, T." "You had a choice." "But now you left me with none." "Just come with me, mike." "Let's get out of here." "Just come with me." "you shouldn't have come back, T." "Don't do this, mike." "I'm sorry, T." "You're my brother." "See, you special." "Don't do this, mike." "Me?" "I'm a nobody."