The Case Manager

by Latoya Chandler

  “Candice, are you all right? Did I say too much?” She handed me a napkin.

  Wiping my mouth, I mustered up strength and darted toward the elevator to go back upstairs. “You did just drop several bombs on me, shattering my heart even more.” I shook my head in disbelief. With a fresh round of tears, I crossed my fingers and voiced, “I just hope one of those bombs isn’t exploding right now.”

  As the elevator doors opened, police officers along with hospital staff were running sporadically.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Blackout: Bittersweet

  Nakita

  Walking into Hope House, anger instantly infiltrated through my veins. As I headed toward the staircase, I heard groans like the sound of a rusty hinge. “Aughhhhh.”

  Taking two steps at a time, I heard the groans grow louder and louder.

  “You sick bastards!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, witnessing Anthony power-driving Paul.

  “Join in or shut up,” Anthony shouted as Paul cried for him to stop.

  Only anger and silence followed me at that point. With each passing minute and each second, fury nagged and taunted me to the core. My eyes stared at them, forming an intense gaze. Images of Mr. Frankie, Paul, Ms. Nancy, and Anthony flashed before my eyes, triggering tears to well up. A heightened level of rage pumped through my entire being at an elevated rate. I could see that my glare was starting to make Anthony uncomfortable. He was trying to squirm his way out of Paul’s backside.

  “Not so fast, freaks.” I blacked out, grabbing the metal bat we kept by the door. Without notice, something took control of me, and I began swinging.

  I swung with every ounce of pain, abuse, and mistreatment stacked in each blow. I thrashed as if my life depended on it, each time connecting with the back of Anthony’s head. As his body slumped over Paul’s frame, I continued striking with everything in me. Blood fled their bodies as if it too were trying to get away from them. The more blood I saw, the more I swung.

  Ticktock! Ticktock! Ticktock! Ticktock! The alarm clock sounded. The sound of the alarm clock startled me. It was louder than usual, sending every experience through my head. Memories replayed in my mind repeatedly.

  “Leave me alone!” I screamed as my cries echoed throughout the house. I could feel numbness spread throughout my body as my voice continued to scream. I no longer had control over it. My eyes bled with pain as I collapsed on the floor.

  I was swollen with emotions as fear rose behind my eyes. “Oh, my God. What have I done?”

  “Nakita! No! What have you done?” Candice’s voice cracked.

  “I . . . I don’t know.”

  “About-face. Ms. Jasmine, please don’t bring the kids up here,” the nurse from the hospital begged.

  Kneeling in front of me, Candice cried her eyes out.

  “Listen. Please listen to me, Candice,” I urged. It was painful to see her like that. All I could do was embrace her and allow the torrent of her tears to soak through my bloodstained shirt.

  With her enveloped in my arms, I begged, “Please, Candice, no matter what happens to me, please promise me you will love and care for Adrianna as your own. Love her as you do me. I love you almost more than I love myself. If you don’t do anything else for me, please take care and love my baby. I will rest easy in my grave knowing she has a better life than I ever did. Please promise me, Candice. Please,” I wept.

  “Nakita, baby, I am so sorry it has come to this,” Ms. Jasmine sympathized. “These officers are here, and you have to leave with them. I will help you in every way possible through this process. You are not in this alone.”

  “Officers, officers, please help me. I am a police officer,” Paul cried out from underneath Anthony.

  Hearing his voice, a switch went off, and I saw red. “I missed you? I should have made sure your ass was dead when I had the chance.” I charged toward him as two officers stopped me in my tracks and restrained me.

  “Nakita, please calm down. Do what the officers say. Ms. Jasmine will help us help you. We will do whatever we have to. I put my life on that,” Candice assured as a female officer cuffed me. She read me my rights and walked me out of the room.

  “I am sorry it had to go down like this, girls. I love all of you, but you’re free now. We are free,” I blubbered.

  Walking down the stairs, I was rapidly flooded with an incredible amount of emotions. Tears saturated my countenance the moment I locked eyes with each of my sister-friends. They were the only family I had ever really known. The second I got close to Ms. Jasmine and saw her hand locked with Adrianna’s, I became panic-stricken.

  “Please let me say see you later to my princess,” I pleaded.

  As I kneeled in front of her, she wiped the tears from my eyes, and said, “Don’t cry, Mommy.”

  That struck at my heart, and I wept right before my baby girl, causing her to become upset and cry. Ms. Jasmine picked her up and tried to comfort her as she kicked and screamed, “No, Mommy! No, don’t go,” she wailed as the officer helped me to my feet and walked me to the patrol car.

  “I love all of you,” I threw over my shoulder.

  “Officer, please wait!” Candice yelled, running out of the house toward me. “Nakita, I need you to keep your head up. We’ve been through worse. We can make it through this. There’s no giving up no matter how lonely you feel. We are with you in spirit. Take this photo,” she instructed, placing it inside of my pants pocket. “No matter what, when you feel scared or alone, I need you to remember that every last person in this photo needs you and loves you. I love you and will be with you every step of the way,” she confessed. Then she kissed and embraced me as I whispered in her ear.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Free: The Cost of Freedom

  Candice

  My entire past spooled out before me. Fast-forwarding itself to being at the hospital. Skimming through meeting Alonzo, Mother shipping me off the day we all learned of my pregnancy. Scared to death the moment I arrived at Hope House along with every single thing that transpired there. From the rapes to meeting Nakita and the other girls and having our babies. The attempts to leave, the fear and anxiety. Everything played at a rapid pace, causing everything around to me to appear in a blur. Looking around, I could see the police questioning everyone as one of the nurses pointed in our direction.

  “Excuse me, ma’am, can we ask you a few questions?”

  “Sure. What happened?”

  “Do you know this woman?” he investigated, showing me a picture of Nakita.

  “Yes, I do. Did something happen to her? Where is she?”

  Looking at the picture displayed before me of Nakita looking over her shoulder and exiting the hospital, my eyes widened. With my mouth partially open I could feel my heart beating like a wild animal was trying to escape in my chest. My breathing increased as scenarios emerged from my mind about what Nakita might have done. One thing was for sure, my heart told me it had everything to do with Ms. Nancy.

  “We need to bring this woman in for questioning.”

  “About what? I am sure I can answer any questions for her.”

  “It is important that we speak with Ms. . . .” He paused, looking to me for clarification.

  “Mathews. Ms. Mathews. Now, can you tell me what’s going on or ask me the questions?”

  “Candice, don’t answer anything else,” Jenna interrupted.

  “What? What’s going on? You’re scaring me.”

  “It’s Ms. Nancy, she . . .”

  “She what?”

  “Come over here and sit down.”

  “No, I don’t want to sit down. Now please tell me what is going on, and where is Nakita? You’re freaking me out.”

  “One of the officers asked me all these questions about Nakita.”

  “Questions like what?”

  “If I knew Nakita and if I was aware that she was going to harm Ms. Nancy.”

  “Harm Ms. N . . .” I cut myself short. The residue of the bomb that
I had been in fear of exploding was placed before me.

  “My colleagues are saying two of the nurses had to pull Nakita off Ms. Nancy. Nakita assaulted her, and Ms. Nancy might have had a heart attack during the assault.” She paused. “Ms. Nancy didn’t make it, Candice.”

  “She didn’t make it?” My lip quivered. I didn’t believe I’d wished death on her. I wasn’t sure how’d I felt. I was still processing things. My mind had immediately worried for Nakita. All of this time we had been in fear for our own lives, we’d never imagined taking one. I had to find her. I had no doubt that she needed me as much as I needed her.

  Embracing me, she explained, “No, she didn’t make it is what I was told. Do you know where Nakita might have gone?”

  “Probably looking for me, or to the car,” I recalled, breaking Jenna’s embrace and darting toward the stairwell with her right behind me.

  “Where are you going? Don’t you work here?” I threw over my shoulder, out of breath.

  “My shift ended, and with everything going on, I can’t be here until the investigation is concluded.”

  Stopping in my tracks, I turned to face her and puzzlingly asked, “Investigation? If they’re saying Nakita assaulted her, what do you have to do with any of that?”

  “It was on my shift. I just so happened to leave the room when Nakita came. You see where they are trying to go with this?”

  “This is bullshit. I have to get to Nakita.” I became agitated, taking two to three steps at a time.

  Opening the door to the parking garage, I ran directly into Ms. Jasmine. Instantaneously, my overall day-to-day ability to function came to a screeching halt. I was engulfed by an overwhelming flood of emotion. Waves of fear and anger crashed over me as my eyes landed on Ms. Jasmine. Unable to maintain my ability to stand, I collapsed. She caught me in an embrace, and I broke down completely in her arms.

  “What’s going on, Candice? Talk to me. Is everything all right?”

  Staring at Ms. Jasmine was all that I could manage. Thoughts of Nakita being hurt or something happening to her plagued my mind. Learning of Ms. Nancy’s confession along with my mother pronouncing me dead stung. I tried to talk, but words couldn’t find me when Jenna came up from behind still draped in her nurse scrubs. She informed Ms. Jasmine that she was my sister and that the police had been looking for Nakita for assaulting Ms. Nancy. I thought Ms. Jasmine was going to pass out with me in arms when she began to shake violently while Jenna spoke.

  “Ms. Nancy is dead. They said Nakita killed her, Ms. Jasmine.” My words found me as I blubbered.

  “That’s nonsense. Ms. Nancy was ill. Nakita couldn’t do anything of the sort.” Ms. Jasmine shook her head.

  The moment we got to the van, the girls had fright written all over their faces as if they’d already had an idea about what was going on.

  “What’s going on? Where’s Nakita?” Judith bombarded us as soon as we opened the car door.

  Still in disbelief, my words crawled back up into my throat. I couldn’t respond. My tears confirmed the unexpected look of despair painted across their faces.

  “I’m Jenna, Candice’s sister. We aren’t sure what happened. What we do know is Ms. Nancy didn’t make it, and they think Nakita had something to do with it.”

  In between sniffles, silence took the van hostage as thoughts, scenarios, reasons, questions, and fear had taken all of us hostage.

  As Ms. Jasmine pulled in front of Hope House, an unsettling feeling began welling inside of me the moment I saw the front door ajar. I suggested we go inside and asked the girls to stay with the kids. I had no idea what awaited me on the other side of the door. Whatever it might be, I didn’t need or want the kids to witness any of it.

  “I’ll go with you,” Jenna volunteered, grabbing me by the hand as we exited the vehicle.

  “I will phone the authorities. Candice, please be careful,” Ms. Jasmine implored.

  My heart began to pound at an increasingly rapid pace when we stepped over the threshold. I felt as if I’d entered a house after leaving the gas stove on. The atmosphere was dense and strange.

  “Leave me alone. Oh, my God, what have I done?” we overheard on our way up the stairs.

  “That’s Nakita,” I whispered to Jenna.

  “I have Mace and my pocket knife if we need it,” she confessed as we took three steps at a time.

  “Nakita! No! What have you done?” My voice fluctuated, witnessing Anthony’s and Paul’s bodies lying face down on top of my bed, seemingly lifeless, with blood strewn all over the place.

  Walking closer to Nakita’s bloodstained body, I dropped to my knees and cried hysterically. As she consoled me, I could see her mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear the words that were coming out of her mouth. Looking away from her to find the footsteps that I heard, I saw two officers enter the room. I became frantic, unable to control my tears when I heard Paul crying for help. I was scared half to death because he appeared to be dead when I walked in the room. Using my legs to push me farther back into the corner, I grabbed my knees and rocked back and forth. As everything took place before me, I felt as if I were having an out-of-body experience. None of this appeared to be real.

  As the officers read Nakita her rights, I felt as if I was being stabbed repeatedly. This couldn’t be happening. I rocked harder as my thoughts began badgering me. Would they hurt her because she hurt one of their own? Were they going to protect him?

  “Excuse me, ma’am, we need you to leave the room,” the paramedics inform me.

  “Candice, I am so sorry this has happened. I will be here with you and Nakita every step of the way,” Jenna said, assisting me to my feet.

  “They’re taking her from me,” I grieved, breaking Jenna’s embrace before running down the stairs toward the patrol car.

  Standing in front of her, I didn’t know what to say. I wrapped my arms around her. Words were flying out of my mouth so fast that I had no idea what I was saying.

  Nakita cut me off and whispered in my ear, “I love you too. Ms. Nancy knew all along. I think I blacked out, but we are free, my beautiful sister. We are free. I set us free.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Alone: Lonely and Confused

  Paul

  Blinking slowly, I desperately tried to see what was going on around me. Where was I? My eyes danced back and forth, trying to take in my surroundings. Was I in a hospital? How did I get there? With my thoughts clouding my mind, the events leading up to my confused state played in my mind like a movie.

  “Oh, shit, this crazy bitch has a bat.” Anthony adjusted his body, trying to remove himself from me.

  Unable to see clearly, I heard a cracking sound as Anthony’s body collapsed on top of mine.

  “You nasty bastards!” She struck again.

  I lay there as still as I possibly could. Anthony’s heart was beating rapidly. I had felt it through my back while Nakita rained down blow after blow. Blood was leaving his body, gushing down onto my head, ears, and neck, completely covering any traces of my skin.

  “Nakita! No! What have you done?” I heard as Candice became frantic.

  Listening to them cry and the love exchanged between them was making me feel worse than the predicament I had been in. I too wished I was dead until I heard some of the guys enter the room. After mustering up as much strength as I could and asking for help, everything around me shut down.

  * * *

  “Officer McGivney?” A suited gentleman entered the room, rescuing me from my thoughts.

  “Yes, I am Officer Paul Palmer-McGivney.”

  As another suited gentleman entered the room, he introduced himself. “Hello, Paul. I am Detective Wagner and this is my partner, Detective Ross. We are from—”

  “Internal affairs. I know who you are. Honestly, I am not really up for talking. Can we do this another time?”

  “We just have a few questions if you don’t mind.”

  “All right. Sure, if it’s just a few questions.”

/>   “Would you mind telling us what happened?”

  “I am not really sure what happened. I couldn’t see much. My brother and I were wrestling, and he had me pinned down. That was the last thing I recall happening and now I am here.”

  “You and your brother were wrestling, you say?” Detective Ross chimed in.

  “Yes, we were. If I am not mistaken, that isn’t a crime.”

  “With your pants down? You were wrestling with your pants down?”

  The look of disgust that masked Detective Ross produced visions of the inexplicable position I’d had myself in when officers from my squad had entered the girl’s bedroom. Suddenly my pale skin slowly turned from corpselike white to a shade of ripe strawberries as an internal heater infiltrated my entire being. I couldn’t believe it had happened in front of everybody. I suddenly felt traumatized. My head began to spin. I’d never live this down as long as I lived.

  “I am the victim here. My brother is dead and you’re badgering me,” I deflected.

  “I thought you didn’t remember anything, Mr. Palmer-McGivney?”

  “Look, we are here to help you and need you to be honest with us,” Detective Wagner intervened.

  Even when I tried to think of believable excuses, shame wouldn’t remove itself. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find the right lie. There was no way I would be able to get out of that one. With internal affairs and everyone on the job involved, it’d become a lose-lose situation for me.

  “I cannot take it anymore. I am sorry. I am so sorry. I never wanted to hurt those girls. Anthony said Nancy didn’t mind as long as we didn’t hit them. I only did it to prove I wasn’t gay,” I conceded.

  “All right, slow down and tell us what happened, Officer. Can I call you Paul?” Detective Wagner asked.