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Prologue

Jamaica Estates, Queens

It was Christmas Day, and the swanky house at the end of the block in Jahts The home represented affluence at its finest with a Mercedes Benz and a Lexus parked in the driveway A marked squad car pulled up to the place and came to a stop Two officers clihbor who stood outside the front door waiting for the police to arrive The Johnsons were a pleasant and social couple, and every Christhbors and faifts It had been a routine of theirs for ten years But today, their house sat in silence and was absent of any cheerful activity The entire place looked bleak and alhts

“Sohbor lady told them

“When was the last time you heard from them?” asked the senior cop

“Two days ago But every Christmas, this place is lit up with fa The Johnsons are that kind of couple—always giving and having folks over for a good time They always open their doors to everyone,” she said

She filled them in on the couple Malik was a corporate lawyer and Liasha ran a successful online business as an SEO consultant and web designer

“Okay, we’ll check it out,” said the partner

One of the officers jiggled the doorknob and found the door to be open Seeing that, the neighbor immediately became worried The cops slowly entered the hoainst their holstered weapons, and they started to call out the residents’ naht away, the officers noticed the disturbance inside The ho veterans on the force, they instantly kneas a home invasion

They carefully went through the house, and each room was the same—items wildly scattered everywhere, furniture turned over, and cabinets and drawers open and looking ruh Inside the master bedrooed and bound on their king size bed in their underwear, and they had both been shot in the head at close range Their bodies were stiffened by their violent deaths and were reaching rigorthat they had been dead for a couple of hours now The officers gazed at the scene in wide-eyed horror

“Shit! Call it in,” said the senior cop

When the neighbor heard about the tragedy, she immediately burst into tears She couldn’t believe it Not the Johnsons—and not on Christhastly h the affluent community, and their faic news that thrust everyone into profound grief over the horrific hbors

Chapter One

A shirtless Butch Brown sang a slurred rendition of “Jingle Bells” and danced around the project apart He took another healthy swig from the half-finished bottle of Hennessy he clutched and continued to sing

“laughin’ all za wayyy—ha ha ha! It’s Christmas in Brooklyn!” he continued

Butch was a forty-year-old alcoholic and a part-time mechanic He was a skinnyred hair He consumed most of his meals from liquor bottles

He staggered to theand peered outside at the projects on a sunny, but cold Christmas afternoon He was already full-blown drunk, and it was only 1 pm But a drunk Butch was a friendly Butch It hen he was sober that everyone had to worry He becary, and no one liked to be around hio crazy and lay hands on his girls, including his wife, Bernice At tiot so bad that the cops were called to the aparth everyone knew he should be in rehab, they would encourage him to drink or buy him a bottle because a sober Butch was unbearable in the household

“Look at Daddy He’s actin’ all exalting and everything,” Butch’s seventeen-year-old daughter Claire said with a giggle She sat on the couch with an English textbook in her hands, staring and laughing at her father, who had distracted her fro with his drunken antics

“Daddy, you knohat you are right now? Jolly and inebriated But that’s fine—we need soitation too,” she added

Exalting? Contehter, Chanel, thought to herself She gave Claire a peculiar look Claire was known to use big words wrong, but no one in the fa of the words she used Claire was heading to college in the fall, and everyone was proud of her