by Roy Glenn
I started to go home and get back in the bed. Wanda and I had been up late, and I was tired. I started driving in that direction, but somewhere along the way, I decided to ride by Zakiya Phillips’s apartment and have a look around. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I went anyway.
Mrs. Phillips didn’t have a key to her granddaughter’s apartment, so I let myself in. It was a small apartment, but it was very well-furnished. Zakiya seemed to have good taste; a taste for very expensive stuff. Mrs. Phillips didn’t say anything about Zakiya having a job, just that she was a good girl, who had a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in psychology and was about to attend law school. I looked around the apartment and wondered what type of work-study program she was on that would allow her to afford the kind of stuff she had.
I could think of one.
Drugs.
Maybe Mrs. Phillips didn’t know Zakiya like she thought she did. Wouldn’t be the first time the parents were surprised by what their child was really into. I continued to look around for anything that would support my conclusion. If she really was involved with somebody who was involved in the game, maybe there were some clues here that would lead me in the right direction. The only thing I found was a picture that she took at some club, and a business card for a beauty shop.
I took both and left her apartment, and once again decided against going home and getting in the bed. The beauty shop was to be my next stop. I went in the beauty shop to ask if anyone knew Zakiya and could tell me anything about her. While the beauticians told me their stories about what a nice girl Zakiya was, and how they couldn’t imagine why anybody would want to kill her, one of the customers, who was looking at me, but not offering any comment, got up and left.
“Where you going, Dee? You’re next,” one of the beauticians said as she headed for the door.
“I just got to get something from my car. I’ll be right back,” she replied and left the shop.
I asked a few more questions and listened to a few more glowing endorsements about how wonderful Zakiya was, and then I left the shop. Before I made it to my car, the woman stopped me.
“Hey mister.”
“Yes,” I said and walked toward her.
“You want to know about Zakiya?”
“I do. Were you and her friends?”
“Yeah, we were friends. We weren’t real tight or anything like that, but I knew her. We used to hangout, you know, hit the clubs or whatever. I know her better than any of those bitches in there.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“I don’t want any of them gossipy bitches up in my business. Other than them being here when Zakiya got her hair done, ain’t none of them know anything about her.”
“What can you tell me about her?”
“Not much. Like I said, we wasn’t real tight. I’ll tell you what I do know if it will help you find out who killed her. Just not right now. I gotta get back in there before I lose my place. I don’t want to be here all day. Can I meet you sometime later?”
“When they’re finished with your hair, I’ll be right here in that car waiting for you,” I said and pointed at the Caddy.
“You don’t mind waiting?”
“Not if you got something to tell me, I don’t,” I told Dee and got in the car.
I don’t know how long I had been waiting when Dee tapped on the window; probably because I fell asleep as soon as I got comfortable in the car. I motioned for her to come around to the passenger side and she got in.
“So what can you tell me about Zakiya?”
“What you want to know?”
“Did she have a job?” was my first question. I really only had two.
“Yeah, she had a part-time job at Cross County Mall.”
“Do you know where?”
“No. Just that she worked out there.”
“Do you know if she was involved with drugs or anybody that sells drugs?”
“If she did, she never said anything about it. And I can tell you for sure, when you got a baller on the hook, you tell everybody.”
“Even if it ruined her good-girl image?”
Dee laughed when I said good girl. “Zakiya was cool, and I don’t think she was rollin’ with no ballers, but good girl … I don’t think so.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Good girls don’t fuck married men.”
“Do you know who this married man was?”
“No, she never would tell us what his name was or what he did. Just that he was married and had enough paper to take good care of her.”
“But you’re sure it wasn’t a baller?”
“Sure? No. But Zakiya didn’t have no heart for drugs. She never said why she was so against it, but she was. Her feeling that way, I seriously doubt that she would get involved with somebody like that.”
“Thanks for your help.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Go ahead.”
“Why you keep asking me about this drug thing?”
“Cops say her murder was drug related. Her grandmother doesn’t believe it.”
“Neither do I,” Dee said and started to get out of the car.
“Where can I find you if I have any more questions?”
Dee dug around in her purse for some paper and something to write with. She wrote down her number and handed it to me.
“You can call me anytime; whether you got questions or not.”
Chapter 8
I decided to go by Paradise Fish and Chicken. On the way there, I called Wanda’s personal assistant to find out who the manager of Paradise was. She told me that his name was Al Harris, and she offered to call ahead so he would be expecting me.
The place was crowded when I got there, so I took a seat and waited for them to clear the line before I approached the two ladies behind the counter. While I waited I noticed the security cameras behind the counter and another one in the dining area. I wondered if they had a recording.
Once the line was gone, I stepped to the counter. “Hello, ladies. Is Al Harris here?”
“You must be Nick Simmons,” one of the ladies said. She had light, almost blonde braided hair and light eyes, neither of which appeared to be her own.
“That’s right.”
“Al said we should be nice to you,” light eyes said.
“Said we should treat you like we treated Freeze,” the other said.
“How did you treat Freeze?”
“I was scared of him, but Shameka liked him. She thought he was cute,” light eyes said, and Shameka took a playful swing at her.
“Tasheka?”
“What? You was always talking about what a cutie he was.”
“Yeah, but he don’t need to know all that,” Shameka said. “I’ll go get Al for you.”
“So you want something to eat, something to drink?” Tasheka asked. “I guess since we supposed to treat you like Freeze, everything is free. You can have anything you want,” she said with her arms open as Al Harris came rushing out of the back. “Chicken is fresh out the fryer and I just made the lemonade.”
“Lemonade sounds good, but don’t put a lot of ice in it.”
Tasheka smiled at me and went to get the lemonade.
“Mr. Simmons. I’m Al Harris, I’m the manager here,” he said nervously. He was an older gentleman, in his late fifties maybe.
“Call me Nick,” I said and shook his hand.
“What can I do to help you?”
“I wanted to talk to you about the robbery and the people that got shot here.”
“I was in the back, so I didn’t see what happened. I told the police that. Tasheka and Shameka were both working; they can tell you what happened.”
“I notice that you have cameras, do you have a recording of it?”
“Yes, sir. You could look at it in the back or I could make you a copy.”
“Why don’t you go ahead and make me a copy while I talk to the ladies. I’ll look at th
e video after that,” I told Al and he rushed off.
“So tell me what happened.”
“Well, I was working the register and Tasheka was getting the food when they came in.”
“Where were the two people that got killed?” I asked.
“Right where you’re standing,” Tasheka said.
“Go on.”
“They walked straight up here, pulled their guns, and one said give me all the money,” Shameka said.
“The other one stepped up and shot them,” Tasheka added.
“What did they look like?”
“They were both dark-skinned. They both had on baseball hats, dark glasses and black scarves, so I couldn’t see their faces,” Tasheka told me.
“But one of them, the one that shot those people, had dreads,” Shameka said.
“What happened then?”
“I gave them what was in the drawer; which was nothing but a hundred and fifty dollars.”
“Good thing they didn’t go in the back because Al had just come and got the money out the register. They probably woulda killed him too.”
“Did either of the people say or do anything before they shot them?” I asked.
“Nope,” Shameka said. “They was just standing there waiting to make an order. I was getting the money; they didn’t have to kill those people.”
“Could you tell if the two of them were together?”
“No. He came in first. She was in-line behind him,” Tasheka advised.
“You sure?”
“She be in here all the time. I never saw him before.” Tasheka looked at Shameka. “You seen him before?”
“Not that I remember.”
I showed them the picture that Mrs. Phillips gave me. “That her?”
Both ladies looked at the picture. “That’s her,” they both said almost at the same time.
“You ever seen her with anybody?”
“She meets some guy here, but it wasn’t the guy who got killed,” Tasheka said.
“If she was here, he was coming. She always orders the food and be waiting for him at a table,” Shameka told me.
“Did you see him that day?”
The ladies looked at each other. “Nope,” Tasheka said.
“I didn’t see him,” Shameka agreed. “Dag, you ask more questions than the cops, don’t he, Tasheka?”
“He sure does.”
“Maybe I’m more interested than the cops.”
After I thanked the ladies for their help, I went in the back to see what Al had for me. He handed me a disk and had the video cued up to the point where the bandits came in the place, then he left me alone in his office. I watched as it happened just like the ladies said it did. Watching made me wonder about something. I rewound the video and watched it again.
If neither Zakiya, or the other guy did or said anything to provoke them, why did they shoot them?
The bandits were smart enough not to look directly into either camera. Then why risk a murder charge, over a hundred and fifty dollars?
It didn’t make sense.
Not to me anyway.
Could the cops be right, and Mrs. Phillips be wrong about Zakiya? The shooter stepped right up to her and put one in her chest. Then he shot the guy.
I turned off the player and went back in the restaurant. After I thanked everybody for their help, I assured them that I was going to get security up in there soon.
I left the restaurant and drove back to Zakiya’s apartment. On the way there, I called and left a message for Tamia Adams to call me. I wanted to know everything they had on the guy Zakiya was killed with. My thinking was that even though they didn’t come in together, that this whole thing might be about him. But if that was the case, why did he shoot Zakiya first?
I had a lot of questions and hoped I could find answers in her apartment. There was one other thing I had to know about. Who was the man she usually met at Paradise? It was probably the married man that Dee told me she was seeing.
Once I let myself in, I went straight for her computer and went on-line. I searched her Internet history to find her e-mail provider. I hacked the password to her account; a trick my old partner Jett Bronson showed me.
I began reading her e-mails and it wasn’t long before I found an e-mail for somebody with the e-mail address [email protected].
In that e-mail Zakiya and whoever it was made plans to meet at Paradise. I sorted the e-mails by sender and read the next few. It was obvious from reading them that this was definitely the married man she was seeing. I printed the e-mail with the details and turned off the computer. I would take it to Monika to see if maybe she could find out the real name of the user or from where it was sent.
Chapter 9
On the way to Monika’s house, I thought about Jett. When I got to Monika’s apartment, she looked surprised to see me. “I was just thinking about you,” Monika said and shook her head. “Thinking about Jett really.”
“That’s funny. I was just thinking about him on the way over here.”
“You know it’s because of him that I read the paper now.” Monika pointed to the pile of newspapers in the corner. It didn’t matter what country we were in, Jett always read the paper every day. “You never know what’s going on unless you read the paper,” Monika quoted Jett.
They were already the best of friends when I met them, although Jett thought Monika was mean, overbearing at times, and had a tendency to be a pain in the ass. And she held Jett personally responsible for the sins of the white man; they would do anything for each other. He’s the reason why Monika is alive wearing that patch and not dead. She had been shot five times. He was there for Monika. But when Jett called me, I didn’t get there in time. When I finally did get there, Jett fell into my arms. He was dead. I thought about Freeze; another good friend that died in my arms because I wasn’t there for him.
“Nick? You all right?”
“Just thinking about Jett and Freeze. And don’t tell me I need to let that go.”
“I wasn’t gonna. Hold on to that pain; embrace it. We need our pain. I think it makes us stronger.”
“I think so too.” I just hoped we were both right and the pain I felt from their deaths would make me stronger in some way.
“Now, what you need from me?”
“I really need Jett on this,” I said and told Monika what I was into, what I found out, and what I needed her to do. When I told her, she laughed.
“You don’t need Jett for that. You could have used any number of IP-address locators that are available on-line to find out where those e-mails were sent from,” Monika said and opened her laptop.
“I didn’t know that.”
“Pay attention and learn something,” she said and Googled IP-address locator and chose the first one it listed. “This is quick and dirty, but it will get you the information you want.”
“Suppose I wanted to know where it was sent from and who the account belongs to?”
Monika closed her laptop. “That requires a little more work. This is only gonna tell me where the server is and who it belongs to. To get what you want, I’ll have to hack into their system. This is where you need Jett.”
“That’s why I came to you. Can you do it?”
“Of course I can. I may not be as good as Jett, but I have skills too. Give me some time. I’ll call you when I have something.”
Chapter 10
I went back to my apartment and called Kevon. He said that they would pick me up in an hour. While I waited, I had a drink and thought about Freeze. I thought about how I was allowing my rage and guilt to consume me, and the effect it was having on every part of my life. I was drinking a lot more than I should and I knew that it was affecting my relationship with Wanda, if not our sex life.
I’ve been staying in my own apartment more than at the house with her. I was angry and irritable and though I try not to take that anger out on her, there are times when I know I do.
When Black got there, I jumped in th
e back seat of his Cadillac CTS. Black got in the back with me and we were on our way. “Did you take care of Mrs. Phillips?” Black wanted to know.
“I gave her the money and she said to thank you, but if you really wanted to do something for her, you’ll find the guys who did it.”
“Revenge.”
“Yeah.”
“How’d you leave it?”
“I told her that I couldn’t promise her anything, but I’d see what I could do.”
“What do you think?”
“Wouldn’t hurt to ask around; see if anybody knows anything about it.”
“I agree. How much did they hit us for?”
“Couple of hundred.”
“Oh,” he said. I thought Black was going to say that it wasn’t gonna be enough money for him to want to invest any time in. “But I don’t need people thinking that since Freeze is dead that it’s cool to hit our spots, and we don’t do anything.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
Black nodded. “Good.”
I guess I’ll take care of it was the right answer.
“While we’re on the subject, do you actually have a license for being a private investigator?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I was thinking about reviving our old security company.”
“Invulnerable. I haven’t thought about that in a long time.” When Black and Bobby went freelance and started doing jobs on their own, Wanda insisted that the first thing they should do was to start a business to run their money through. The name of their company was Invulnerable Security. Black chose a security company because it would give them a license to carry guns.
“Yeah, neither have I,” Black said. “But Wanda got me thinking about legitimate business opportunities.”
I laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Just trippin’ on how she got us all.”
“Yeah, well, when she’s right she’s right.” Black looked out the window for a while, and I wondered if he was trippin’ on being legit. I knew I was. I was about to ask him when he turned to me. “Anyway … I was thinking about reviving Invulnerable and hiring some people and putting them to work in our cash businesses. You know, make our people feel more secure working there, maybe even provide a deterrent to little bullshit robberies like this. Get somebody to go around and get other businesses to take a guard at their spot. You know how we do it. If that works out, I was thinking that we could expand into private investigations too.”