by Roy Glenn
“For killing Shy.”
“Get the fuck outta here,” Freeze said and then he thought for a second. “How’d you find out?”
“Wanda called me. She just got to the station.”
“Where’d it happen?”
“I don’t know. Black hung up on Wanda before she could ask him any questions,” Nick told Freeze.
“I’ll call you back.”
Freeze hung up on Nick and called his contact in the department. A female voice answered the call on the second ring. “Property, Sergeant Adams,” she answered.
“What’s up Sergeant Adams? You got a minute for me?” Freeze asked.
“I always got time for you, Boo. What’s up?”
“Something happened to Black tonight. I need to know everything.”
“I’ll call you back.”
“Thank you, baby.” Freeze hung up the phone and looked over his shoulder at the woman laying next to him. He stood up and reached for his pants. Her name was Tanya, he met her several months ago at Impressions. She was there with her man when she happened to run into Freeze at the bar.
“Make it a double this time,” Freeze said to the bartender.
“You look like a man who's had enough and is heading for the door,” the bartender said as he poured.
He handed Freeze the drink. “That obvious?” Freeze drained the glass, “Hit me one more time, then I’m out.”
The bartender handed Freeze the glass and he turned to leave and bumped into Tanya, spilling his drink on the floor. “I'm sorry,” Freeze said quickly and looked Tanya over from head to pumps. She was beautiful.
“No, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was going. And I made you spill your drink.”
“It’s cool. Better the floor then on that beautiful dress.”
“But still, let me buy you another one.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know, but I insist. What were you drinking?”
“I’m drinking Remy XO.”
She looked at Freeze, and then she looked around for her man and smiled. “Remy XO, got it.”
“What’s your name?”
“Tanya. Tanya Price.”
“I’m Freeze,” he said and held out his hand.
Her hands were soft and warm. “Oh, really.”
“Yes, really,” Freeze said to her and smiled.
“That’s really your name; Freeze?” Tanya asked in disbelief. “Like your mama named you that?”
“No my mama didn’t name me that, but that’s what everybody calls me.”
“Well, I wanna know what your name is. I mean it’s only fair, I told you my name. I didn’t tell you my name was Diana, princess of Themyscira, did I?”
“No. But you are a Wonder Woman.”
“Very good. Most guys don’t pick up on that,” Tanya said and stepped next to Freeze at the bar.
Freeze turned back to the bartender, who already had another double waiting for him. “Can I get something for you?”
“Rum and coke, please,” Tanya answered still looking around. “But I told you I would get that.”
“It’s cool,” Freeze said and looked Tanya over. She had a beautiful smile, big pretty eyes and a body the screamed for attention. “I don’t pay for drinks here.”
“So you work here?”
“No, I’m a friend of the family.”
When Freeze handed her the drink, Tanya quickly explained that she was there with somebody and handed Freeze her business card. “Real estate agent.” Freeze put the card in his pocket. “Next time I’m looking to buy some property I’ll give you a call.”
“I was hoping you’d call before that,” Tanya said and walked away. Freeze finally called her a month later and they got together.
Tanya sat up in the bed and watched Freeze get dressed. “I guess you’re leaving?” she asked.
“Yeah, somethings up.” Freeze removed his pistol from under the pillow. “I’ll call you,” he said and walked out of her bedroom.
Tanya got out of bed and follow Freeze to the door. She grabbed his arms before Freeze walked out.
“Will I see you tomorrow?”
“I never make plans that far ahead.”
Freeze left Tanya standing in the doorway and walked down the hall. He passed up the elevator and took the steps down to the ground floor. Freeze really didn’t care too much for riding in elevators because of the surprise ending. You never know who’s on the other side of that door when it opens, Freeze was famous for saying.
As he walked down the steps, his cell rang. He looked at the display before answering. “What’s up Sergeant Adams?”
“Hey, Sweetie. We got him. And you were right, it’s bad.”
“What you got?”
“Word is they found Black at his house kneeling over a woman's body, covered in blood. And they think they got the murder weapon; they’re testing it now.”
“The woman?”
“They think it’s his wife, but she's been beaten pretty badly.”
“Thanks Sergeant Adams. I owe you one.”
“I know. I get off at six, I’ll be home by seven.”
“I’ll see you then,” Freeze said and ended the call. He immediately called Nick back. “Meet me at Cuisine. We got work to do.”
Chapter Five
When Wanda walked in the interrogation room, she saw Black sitting handcuffed to the table. As she sat down at the table next to him, she was shocked to see him covered in blood. “Are you alright, Mike?”
“I’m alright,” Mike said and leaned close to Wanda. “They haven’t charged me yet, but they printed me.”
‘That’s not good,” Wanda whispered, thinking that the police would probably run his prints against every unsolved drug related homicide for the past fifteen years. Wanda sat back in her chair. “I tried to call Bobby, but he’s not answering.”
“Bobby took Pam and the kids on a ten day cruise. He promised her…no business this trip. No cell phone. He said he would check in when he got to Puerto Rico.”
“What happened, Mike?”
“Somebody killed her.” Mike closed his eyes and Wanda reached out and held his hand.
“I’m sorry, Mike,” Wanda said and squeezed his hand a little tighter. It was as if Wanda could feel his pain and her eyes got moist. “I’m so sorry, Mike,” she said and wiped her eyes. “Tell me what happened?”
“I found her on the floor in the kitchen. Somebody beat her and then shot her in the back.”
“What did you do?”
“I held her,” Mike said and looked at Wanda. “I held her until the cops got there.”
“How did the police get there? Did you call them?”
“No.”
“I know this is hard, Mike, but I need you to walk me through the whole thing. Don’t leave anything out.”
“I know the routine, Wanda.” Mike paused. “When Nick and I got back from Miami I called Cassandra—” Mike paused and took a deep breath. It was obvious to Wanda that this wasn’t easy for him. She’d never seen him this way. “I called her to let her know that I was back and that I would be there in about an hour.”
“Was she all right then?”
“As far as I know. I mean if anybody was in the house with her I couldn’t tell it.”
“What time did the flight arrive from Miami?”
“About ten minutes til ten.”
“Do you know the flight number?”
“No.”
“That’s all right, I can find that out. Okay, so Nick dropped you off at the house at what time?”
“I guess it was about eleven.”
“When you got in the house what happened then?”
“The TV was on, but she wasn’t in the living room, so I called for her, and when she didn’t answer I went looking for her. I looked upstairs, checked the bedrooms. Then I called her cell phone because I thought maybe she had gone out. I heard it ringing and followed the sound to the kitchen.”
; “That’s when you found her?”
“Yes. She was laying on the floor. It was obvious she’d been beat-up pretty bad and then they shot her in the back.” Mike dropped his head again but looked up quickly. “Get me outta here, Wanda. I got things to do.”
“I know, Mike. Just cooperate with them and we’ll be outta here,” Wanda said confidently.
Chapter Six
Detectives Goodson and Harris walked into the interrogation room, smiling. Wanda rose to her feet.
“I’m Wanda Moore, attorney for Mr. Black.”
“Ms. Moore, I’m detective Harris and this is detective Goodson.”
“I remember you Detective Harris,” Wanda said and shook the detectives hand. Then she turned to Goodson. “I definitely remember you, detective Goodson,” she said to him without offering her hand. “It was an incident involving a Bruce Matloski, if I’m not mistaken.”
“That’s correct,” Goodson said and pulled out a chair. “That case is still open but were hoping to get some fresh leads.”
Hearing that made Black smile. I definitely had my gloves on for that one. Wanda saw the smile on Black’s face, and she smiled too.
“Shall we get to the reason we’re all here this time,” Harris said and placed one of the crime scene pictures on the table in front of Black. “You wanna tell me what happened here?”
“First of all,” Wanda interrupted. “Would either of you gentlemen like to tell me why my client was finger-printed? Has he been charged with anything?”
“No he hasn’t been charged with any crime. However, Mr. Black was found by the uniformed officers at the scene of a crime, which does make him a suspect,” Harris explained. “Them having him printed, that was a mistake. Overzealous rookie cop. Please accept the apologies of this department,” Harris offered, and Goodson rolled his eyes.
“I’ll accept that for the time being,” Wanda said knowing that once he was released she would move to have those records destroyed as well as any evidence obtained as a result of that action, but now wasn’t the time to bring that up.
“Who is the victim?” Goodson asked.
“She’s my wife, Cassandra Black.”
“We’re gonna need somebody to identify the body,” Goodson said, and Black cringed at the thought of his beautiful wife.
“I’ll take care of that once we’re finished here,” Wanda said.
“Can you tell us what happened here?” Harris asked pointing at the pictures.
“I don’t know what happened. I found her that way.”
For the next forty-five minutes Black told his story of how, when he returned home from a business trip he found his wife beaten and shot to death. They grilled him over and over on key points of his story.
They wanted to know where he’d been and why?
What time the plane landed at JFK?
What time he talked to Shy?
How long did it take to get there?
Who dropped him off at the house?
Each time the detectives tried to ask Black anything that wasn’t in anyway related to Shy’s murder, Wanda would touch Black’s hand.
“Can you explain to me what that has to do with this case?” and for the most part that would keep the detectives on task.
“Let’s go through this again. You say when you got home you couldn’t find her, so you searched the house,” Goodson said.
“That’s right.”
“So you called her cell phone and followed the sound into the kitchen and that’s when you found the body.”
“That’s right.”
“You say you searched the house for her; why didn’t you look in the kitchen?”
“Cassandra rarely goes in the kitchen.”
Harris laughed. “Why is that?”
“She doesn’t cook, so she has no reason to go in there.”
“Sounds a lot like your wife, Goodson,” Harris laughed, but Goodson wasn’t amused.
“When was the last time you spoke to your wife, Mr. Black?” Goodson asked, more to kill the laughter in the room.
“I called her from the airport,” Black answered.
“Why?”
“To tell her I was back and that I was on my way home.”
“What’d you call her from a payphone?”
“No, I told you I called her from a cell phone.”
“What time was that?”
“I don’t know exactly. We got off the phone about ten after ten. I called when we got in the car.”
“No luggage to pick up?”
“No.”
“That would make it about ten, maybe five or ten after.”
“That sounds about right.”
“The officers didn’t find a cell phone on you at the time of your arrest.”
“If you were listening the first time I said it you would know that it wasn’t my phone,” Mike said, becoming increasingly annoyed with answering the same questions asked a different way.
Goodson sat back and smiled.
Harris flipped through the notes he’d been taking. “That’s right, you said that the phone belonged to a Nick Simmons. And he was with you on your trip to Miami, he was the one who dropped you off, right?”
“Right.”
“Did he come inside?” Harris asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause I didn’t invite him.”
“This Nick Simmons, you say he’s a private investigator?”
“Yes.”
“We’re gonna need to talk with him,” Harris said.
Wanda wrote down Nick’s number and handed it to Harris as Captain Keys stuck his head in the door. “I need to see you gentlemen for a minute,” he told the detectives.
“Excuse us for a minute,” Harris said, and he and Goodson followed the captain out of the room.
Wanda turned to Black. “What do you think that’s about?”
“I don’t know, but let’s hope they’re ready to cut me loose. I gotta get out there, find who did this to her. I can’t just sit here,” Mike said and tugged on his handcuffs.
Just then, the detectives came back in the room. Goodson sat down, but Harris stood back with his hands behind his back.
“Now, you say you got off the plane and called your wife to tell her you were on your way. This time of night, not much traffic, what time you get there, quarter to eleven?”
“No, it was later than that.”
“The medical examiner placed the time of death at sometime between ten-thirty and eleven.” Goodson moved closer to Black. “Tell me something,” he said in a more relaxed tone. “How was your relationship with your wife?”
“Fine. I love my wife.”
“No problems? You cheating on her, or she cheating on you maybe.”
Wanda touched Mike on his hand. “What are you getting at, detective?”
“The 911 operator received a call at ten-forty-five from a woman who identified herself as Cassandra Black saying he’s gonna kill me.” Goodson leaned forward so his face was inches from Black’s. “You wanna know who she said was gonna kill her?” Goodson paused a second. “Mike Black. She said Mike Black is gonna kill me. Let me tell you what I think happened. You called your wife, you argued. Then you rushed home, got into it again and that’s when you kicked her ass and shot her in the back when she tried to run.”
Before either Black or Wanda could say anything, Harris stepped forward. “Mr. Black do you own any firearms?”
“Yes.”
“What about a 45 automatic, a Colt?”
“Yes.”
“This your gun?” Harris asked, holding a plastic bag with a gun in it. “It’s registered to you.”
“If it’s registered to me then it must be mine.” Mike looked at the gun. “I keep that gun in the house for protection.” He knew what was coming next.
Goodson stood up and began to unlock the handcuffs from the table. “Stand up, asshole.”
“This is the murder weapon, Black,” Ha
rris said. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Cassandra Black.”
Chapter Seven
“So, what are we doing here?” Nick asked as Freeze drove past The Spot.
“We’re here to talk to Birdie,” Freeze answered and parked his truck down the street.
“What about? You think he got something to do with this?”
“He might.” Freeze said definitely and turned toward Nick. “Night before last, while you and Black were in Mexico, Birdie, Albert and a couple of their boys came looking for me at Cuisine.”
“He came there … looking for you?” Nick asked sarcastically. “He knows you don’t do business there anymore. What’d he want?”
“It never got that far. Shy was there that night. Working the room, playing hostess, you know, going around to every table making sure they were having a good time. I guess she rolled up on Birdie’s table. He must have said some out the way shit to Shy, cause by the time me and Mylo got there, they up in each other’s face and Shy said she don’t know how he get any pussy, as ugly as his ass is. He was about to backhand her when I put my gun to his head. Birdie left, but he told Shy that she would see him again and she wouldn’t like it.”
“You think that he killed her over that shit?” Nick asked, obviously unconvinced.
“Let’s go ask him,” Freeze said and got out of the truck.
The Spot was a small club that was always crowded with Ballers, male and female, along with the usual array of wannabes and hangers on. The last time Nick was there the place was run by Rocky. He used to deal for Chilly, who controlled most of the drugs uptown until Nick killed him. Something about Nick having sex with Chilly’s wife. Rocky ran the club until him and two of his associates were found dead at the red light in front of the club.
After that, Derrick “D-Train” Washington took over The Spot. Birdie took the place over when D Train was found shot to death in his girlfriends bed. The only suspect was his girlfriend, Melinda Brown. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Nick and Freeze made their way through the crowd at The Spot looking for Birdie or one of his crew. Just about everyone in the place knew Freeze and most acknowledged his presence as he passed. They stepped up to the bar.
“Remy XO, and Johnnie Black, both straight up,” Freeze ordered as two of Birdie’s men came up behind them.