Crime Heights - JUX: A Brooklyn Story

By Ernesto Peguero

 One thing Nesto knows is "The Jux" can always go down. It's the infamous 90's and all options are on deck. With his team around him who's closer than family, losing is not an option. Will Nesto come out on top in this game of chances? Or will he become another brother lost to the system?

In "Crime Heights - JUX, A Brooklyn Story" Peg

• Language: English
• Publisher: NEW VUE PUBLISHING
• Release date: Nov 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9780578329369

Book preview

Prologue

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t was a hot and sticky summer August day. The sounds of summer were present all around as Nesto and Ajaya played on the block. The open fire hydrant gushed water non-stop through the streets gutter. The tic tic tic as a rope hit the ground can be heard as the girls played double dutch in the building’s front court yard. The boys were playing basketball with a cut out milk crate tied to the fence as a hoop.

Reagan was the President, and George Bush senior was Vice President, campaigning for his own run for President. It’s 1988 and the wave of crack had ravaged the city, made it more unsafe than ever. The sound of machine gun fire at night made it feel like some form of militarized war zone. The crime rate was so high that police wouldn’t even come if someone called about a simple assault or domestic issue. Literally thousands of crack vials littered the streets of Brooklyn, and for that matter most African American urban neighborhoods in the United States. 

Even though the crack cocaine situation was crazy the children didn’t know any different. So they played without a care in the world as only children can. With a loud POP POP POP POP the innocence was ripped from those playing outside that day. As the two gunmen ran toward Nostrand Avenue, the kids turned and saw the black man laying on the floor with blood and brain matter leaking from the holes in his head. Everyone knew he wouldn’t be saved by any doctors in Kings County hospital today. He was dead, dead.

Ness is 10 years old, Jay is 13.

Chapter 1

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hree men dressed as construction workers go into a grate leading underground on West 49th street in midtown Manhattan. They've been planning this for two months; two blocks south is West 47th Street; more diamonds move through this block than anywhere in the world, all shapes and sizes. Once they are below the street's surface, they remove their orange construction vest and their outer layer of clothing. All three are now completely dressed in black . Almost in unison, they pull a black ski mask over their heads. Vaughn, a slim dark-skinned man pulls out an illuminated compass from his pocket and directs the three-person team forward using hand signals. Nesto, half black half Puerto Rican with a stocky build, pulls at a grate in the ground, revealing a staircase that leads even deeper into the city. Vaughn goes down first, immediately heading south. After three hundred feet, they slow their pace, the third member of the group and also the youngest Town, tall and lanky with a golden brown complexion, removes a black light from his cargo pants and shines it against the wall as they move through the tunnel. Suddenly an X appears on the wall illuminated by the black light, and all three immediately stop. Vaughn removes the C4 charge from his cargo pants and affixes it to the wall. Vaughn then inserts a .38 shell-sized detonator pin, which has a plastic box attached to it that facilitates remote detention. The three then turn and walk back in the direction in which they came. Vaughn takes the remote detonator from his pocket, squeezing it three times, turning his back, and kneeling away from the coming explosion. With a boom sounding more like a thud than like the bang in the movies, dust shoots through the tunnel. The three men enter 2741 West 47th Street through a hole blown through the northwest sub-basement wall. Vaughn again uses the compass to guide them in a south-south easterly direction; passing the boiler room, they reach the service elevator. Town presses the button that summons the elevator while Nesto takes his backpack off and removes the blow torch. Every detail has been researched thoroughly; Nesto knows that the elevator was manufactured by Simons in 1947 and handles a maximum weight capacity of 2,000 LBS. and has broken down twice in the last three years.

The elevator doors open; as they enter, Nesto pulls the welder's goggles over his eyes and begins to adjust the two valves on the back of the blow torch. Using a welder's striker that resembles a huge safety pin, Nesto ignites the blow torch adjusting the knobs until the flame is blue orange. He kneels on the floor and begins to cut a three by three square-foot section of the floor in the rear of the elevator. As the elevator rises, sparks fly all over. Town and Vaughn face opposite corners in an effort to avoid the sparks from hitting their faces. Even though they all wore ski masks, Nesto’s was the only one that provided protection from the sparks produced by the blow torch.

The elevator stops on the 23rd floor; Town has already attached a climbing cord to the top of the elevator and begins lowering himself through the hole that Nesto cut in the floor at the rear of the elevator. Vaughn begins to dismantle the control panel of the elevator with a power screwdriver. Town uses a large magnet to make the door on the floor below open; he remained hanging under the elevator waiting for the signal from above. Vaughn disconnects the power rendering the elevator inoperable. Nesto and Vaughn also lower themselves through the hole in the elevator floor. At the same time, while the three men are hanging under an elevator twenty-two stories up, a car bomb is being detonated three blocks south. As the I-phone on Nesto’s hip vibrates, signaling that the diversion is going as planned, he taps both Vaughn and Town twice on their shoulders to signal that phase two of the plan is about to begin.

After swinging back and forth to gain momentum, the three men leap onto the 22nd floor. Vaughn begins to disengage the lock on the front door of Stern and Stern Diamonds; a precious stone wholesaler. It took them seventy seconds to gain access into the outer office. The safe was located in the left office, the door was easily kicked in. The three stood face to face with a large ten-foot tall Eagle brand safe. Vaughn begins to drill into the left side of the safe with a six-inch diamond core bit. Nesto and Town just wait. At the time they entered the offices of Stern and Stern Nesto initiated the stopwatch function on his watch. Checking it he sees fifty-six seconds has elapsed since entry. He knew they had already triggered the alarm; however, both the main and service elevator had been rendered inoperable.The only way to reach them now was the stairs. The security guard Bruce who is forty-three years old and fifty pounds overweight, was spotted entering the South-Bronx strip club Badda Bing at eleven o'clock and exiting at three in the morning heading directly to work. Running up twenty-two flights of stairs in his condition would take at least fifteen minutes. If he surprised them it would be to his detriment. Nesto was equipped with his Sig Sauer 9mm in hand. However this turned out he and his friends would not be sitting in a midtown precinct this morning because of any fake ass rent-a-cop.

By five minutes and forty-five seconds Vaughn had drilled through the side of the safe. He drilled at a specific height which is the level of the shelf-in the safe on which the most valuable stones were kept. Town stuck a hose that was attached to a hi-powered dust buster into the hole in the safe. When he withdrew it from the hole, he emptied the contents that were retrieved and stuck the hose back into the side of the safe. By the time they stood back in front of the elevator shaft, they had removed approximately fourteen million dollars worth of diamonds from the safe, and the operation took a little over eight minutes from entry to exit.

The three of them attached friction eight repelling devices to the climbing cords hanging from the elevator and began to descend the twenty-plus stories. They back tracked and exited through the same grate in the street through which they had entered. They all jumped into a Con Edison utility vehicle and drove east on West 49th Street until they reached the FDR Drive. There they exited the truck and quickly rounded the corner.The men then entered an awaiting 760iL BMW driven by a twenty-nine year old woman with the a face like Halle Berry and the body of Selma Hayek named Ajaya who happened to be Nesto’s older sister. Once the doors were closed, she smoothly entered the light early morning traffic, heading south.

So what's up brothers, I don't know how y'all keep talking me into this shit; y’all never get enough.

Stop playing, Jay; you know you’re our good luck charm. We respected your wishes not to go in anymore, but what else can you think of that you can come up on millions in under a half-hour. Stupid question, huh? said Town.

What seems stupid to me is when you have everything you want, but you still continue risking your life for some money when you're already straight. Are you trying to tell me that that makes sense? Ajaya replied.

I don't know about y’all; I do this shit for the rush, the guak's a bonus, feel me? Vaughn cut in.

What are we supposed to do, normal life barbecues and ball games? Nesto said.

Everyone laughed, knowing he was quoting a line Deniro said in heat, his favorite movie.

Ajaya laughed but inside, she wondered if her brother would share the same fate as Deniro's character? All she could do was shake her head; when would Nesto grow up? He was smart. He didn't realize that there was so much more he could do with his life besides rob and steal. But here she was driving the getaway car with a .380 Beretta under her skirt tucked into her stockings. At least I have a real job, she thought to herself. I'm trying to change.

They rode the FDR Drive all the way to the Brooklyn Bridge and finally crossed it entering Brooklyn. Ajaya made the first right after crossing the bridge, leading them into the Brooklyn Heights area. She pulled in front of her Brownstone which she purchased six years earlier. The financing of this home in this exclusive neighborhood was definitely a question that only a few people had the information necessary to answer, and they were all present in the car. She let the men out and proceeded down the block until she reached the garage she rented from a neighbor. Damn, parking in New York's a bitch! As Ajaya walks in the house and takes off her coat; she spots her brothers in her T.V. room playing the 50 cent video game,  Bulletproof.

Yall need to grow up" says Ajaya.

None of your friends think so Nesto retorts.

Nobody said my friends were brainiacs, plus Amoy ain’t ever mess with none of y’all, and she's my best friend.

Yea, we figured her out; she's gay, gotta be, said Town laughing.

You’re really full of yourself; if a girl doesn't go for that bullshit game or that gaudy ass Rolex, she's gay, nigga please!.

You're mad at me ‘cause I look like I belong in a Sean John add, plus I’m young rich and mother fucking dangerous! Town replied.

Yea...., yea..., yea..., let's handle this business, Ajaya said.

She unfolded a black velvet cloth and spread it across the coffee table. Vaughn put the paper bag that contained the diamonds on the coffee table as well.

Ajaya knew that all the stones on the shelf they'd hit were supposed to be of at least VS2 quality or better. She reminded herself to keep in mind the four C’s; cut, color, carat, and clarity. She emptied the contents of the paper bag onto the velvet cloth. The diamonds were all wrapped individually with blue wax paper and then wrapped in an outer layer of white wax paper with the four C's notated on it. As she opened the wrapping on a large diamond, the light sparkled off of it; all she could think of was the old saying about a diamond being a girl’s best friend and smiled.

Ajaya estimated the retail and wholesale values separately on two calculators. It took her two hours to come up with the figures and double-check them. Fourteen million retail, five million wholesale. The fence that she dealt with had explained beforehand that if she could have the stones delivered to his associate in Europe, he could