by K Elliott
Sheree said, “Hi” She was with a black woman and they both carried handbags.
Brian didn’t even speak. He looked past Sheree and saw one of the finest black women he’d seen in years. She wore a blue jean outfit and low heels. Her tight blue jean jacket was short and it stopped at her waist. Brian guessed her measurements to be 34-25-40. Her skin was dark, smooth and looked soft.
Sheree smiled and said, “I can assure you, she’s cool. Can we come in?”
“Oh, shit.” Brian stepped aside. “Come in.”
The women entered the room, stopped in the middle of the living room floor, and looked around. It was a nice suite.
Brian closed the door then walked up to the black woman. “I have to check the contents of your handbag and pat-search you.” She removed a tuft of hair from over her right eye. “Business is business.” She handed her handbag to him.
Brian set the leather bag on the floor, then took a step closer to her. “Lift your arms.” When she did, he began feeling on her sleeves. His hands moved to her shoulders, armpits and then her jacket pockets.
Sheree looked on. She was embarrassed for her friend and hadn’t expected Brian not to trust her. Brian said, “Take your jacket off.”
She removed her jacket and passed it to Sheree.
Brian stood there, studying her shape. Even her toes were well-pedicured and pretty, as evidenced by the open-toed leather shoes. “Turn around,” he said, and when she did he wanted to grip her perfectly protruding ass. But he didn’t even pat-search her again. He simply said, “Everything is fine.” When she turned to face him again, he picked her handbag up and gave it to her without searching it.
Sheree said, “Brian, this is Janele. She has the information you want about one of the robbers.”
Brian reached out to shake her hand. When she gave it to him, he brought her hand up to his mouth, then sniffed it. A lovely fragrance. “I would kiss your hand, but I don’t know where the hell it’s been.”
She smiled as she snatched her hand from his. “You’re crazy.”
“Ladies, have a seat.” And out of the blue he said, “Janele, you married?”
That caught her off guard. She sat on the sofa with Sheree and said, “I’m a single parent trying to make a living, which means I would rather stay on the subject of business.”
Brian said, “Sheree, I need a favor. My associate is in Room 403. He was coming down in about ten minutes. Make sure he stays put. Get him to explain to you what Godsend does and how it operates. I’ve already told him that I’m hiring you. You can return in an hour if you want. Janelle and I need to discuss some things, and none of it concerns business.”
17
When Sheree left, Brian sat on the sofa with Janelle. He kicked his shoes off and propped his feet on the maple-finished coffee table. “Son or daughter?” Her legs were crossed at the knees and her arms were folded below her C-cup breasts. “I have a daughter and she’s three.”
“My daughter is four. Her mother died in a car accident less than three months ago. You’re a beautiful woman. Why are you a single parent?”
She looked at him and said, “My daughter’s father was killed in a robbery a year ago.” She thought Brian was handsome and confident, but that still wasn’t enough for her. She believed he had money but she needed something more. “I’m sorry to hear about your daughter’s mom.”
“And I’m sorry about your loss.” He licked his lips and said, “Don’t worry about the money; if you have proof of one of the guys who robbed Tibetzu a few weeks ago, you’ll leave here tonight with two hundred grand. But I want to make sure you don’t have to keep putting yourself at risk just to take care of your child or get ahead.”
“And how are you supposed to do that?”
He shrugged. “Why don’t you help me figure that out? What are you looking for in a man?” “I never said I was looking for a man.”
“Oh. You into women?”
“No, but I wasn’t necessarily looking for a man. And you’re into crime yourself. You’re putting yourself at risk. So if you’re thinking we should see each other because we’re both single parents, am I supposed to start over again when you get killed like my last boyfriend?’ You don’t want a woman who puts herself at risk, and I don’t want a man who puts himself at risk.”
Brian said, “Now I really like you.” He smiled. “The answer to your question is yes. If I’m killed you’re supposed to start over. That’s what humans do; take the loss and start over. You got something better to do?”
She smiled and looked away. “How old are you?”
She said, “Twenty-eight. I live in Sacramento with my older sister, and I have a bachelor’s degree in business. That should answer most of your questions.” She smiled again, an action that made her look even more beautiful. “Now I have a few questions for you.”
He said, “Thirty-three and I live in Knoxville, Tennessee, with my daughter. Right now my sister is keeping her. Uh, let’s see...I’m only a high school graduate with eighteen months of technical college.”
“Two of my questions were answered,” she said. “We’re more than two thousand miles apart. I don’t see that working. Speaking of working, what exactly do you do for a living?”
“I’m a private eye. We’ll leave it at that for now. And eventually you’ll either move to Tennessee or I’ll move to California. Next question.”
“A private eye who can afford to pay $200,000 for some information about a robbery? You’re probably a drug dealer with more keys that a locksmith. I’ll never date a drug dealer again.”
He looked her in the eyes and said, “Never sold drugs, never did drugs, never even hung out with a drug dealer. I’m an unlicensed private eye who takes cases that the cops have given up on. I get results because I break laws and rules. Clients pay seventy-five grand per case, and I solve a case in three to four weeks. The Tibetzu robbery is a personal case. I was there with my daughter and her grandfather. One of the robbers even pat-searched her.”
“Wow.” She looked away. “One of the guys you’re looking for lives in Fresno. He’s a black guy named Terron Martin, age twenty-three.”
Brian sat in front of his laptop at a table in the living room area of his suite. Janele sat in a chair next to him as he tapped at the keyboard. He said, “A robber with a goddamn Facebook page. Amazing.”
“Off, as you’ll see, his Facebook page has nothing to do with robbing. You’ll find an updated photo of him. That’s what you want, right?” Brian was viewing Terron’s Facebook page now. The young man had a low Mohawk hairstyle and this made Brian smile.
Janelle said, “You say the robbers al wore black nylon head gear and black bandanas to cover most of their faces?”
“Everything they had on was black. Their SUV was even black.”
“Then why do you want a recent photo of Terron? Most of his face was covered in the robbery.”
He ignored the question then pushed the laptop closer to her. “You say you uploaded a conversation of Terron’s. Let me hear his voice. He may be one of the guys who made threats during the robbery. Take me to your Website.”
She said, “It’s not a Website of mine. I use cloud computing.” She tapped at the keys like a proficient typist.
“How would you know Terron and why would you have a recorded conversation of his? You live in Sacramento. That’s about, what, 150 to 200 miles away from Fresno, right?’
“My daughter’s father’s name was Tavares. He was a drug dealer, prescription drugs only. Terron used to sell for him. After maybe a year, Terron thought Tavaris wasn’t paying him enough.” Janelle downloaded some audio. “You’re about to hear them discuss the matter in our Sacramento home but then it turns into an argument and almost escalates into something worse.”
“And why was the conversation being recorded? I assume that’s your work?”
“Well, Terron didn’t know I was there. I only started recording them after I first heard Terron raise his voice. I didn�
�t trust him, and I used to tell Tavaris that all the time. I thought something bad was going to happen that day. Tavaris was killed and robbed a week later, but I can’t prove it was Terron who did it.”
Brian said, “Let me hear the recording.”
Terron said, “I’m bringing you a steady six stacks a month but making just fifteen hundred for myself. “ Tavaris laughed. “What am I supposed to pay you, half?”
“At lease twenty-five hundred. You got a super connection at two different hospitals, and I know you gettin deep discounts. Shit, I’m doing al the street work and hand-to-hand drop-offs. Plus, I know you got four or five more flunkies working for you in other cities. An extra stack won’t hurt you. I can keep Fresno on lock for you.”
Tavaris said, “Selling six grand worth of prescription drugs a month ain’t keeping big-ass Fresno on lock. You act like I’m making millions and paying you pennies.”
“I got three partners I can hook up with. We can pull off some robbery jobs and split the shit four ways; I’ll still make more money in a crew than this rent money you paying me.”
“Yeah? Bank robberies are going out of style. You and your partners plan on robbing some drug dealer or something? Should I take that as a threat?” Terron said, “A threat? You’re taking shit too far. I’m considering hotels and upscale restaurants.”
Tavaris said, “Most people pay with credit cards these days, so you’re back to square one.”
“Not if we shake the customers down, too. We could take wallets, purses, jewelry. What you’re paying me every month I could make in ten minutes.” Tavaris said, “Off, good luck with your full-time jack moves 'cause I can’t afford to pay you more.”
19
Nearly a week later, Brian and Echo took the elevator to the tenth floor of a 20-story apartment building in Fresno. They wore black sneakers and black
windbreaker suits with jeans underneath. They stepped off the elevator and Apartment 10-B was in their direct line of sight. It was 8:53 p.m. when Brian knocked on the door.
Several seconds later a young male voice said, “Who is it?”
Brian knew they were now being watched through the peephole in the door. “David Evans of Rack Mount Records. I’d like to speak with Terron Martin.”
A sixteen-year-old kid opened the door, and he was on a cell phone talking to his girlfriend. He said to Brian, “He ain’t here. What, y’all got a record deal for him? He’s better than Pac.”
“Yes, we’d like to offer him a deal. Any idea when he might be in?”
The kid shrugged. “He’s on the roof with his boys. They probably up there rappin right now. I’ll go get him for twenty dollars.” Echo said, “We know where he’s at now. We’re going to get him for free.”
“Off, I’m the one who told you where he is; make sure I’m in his first video.”
“We got you,” Brian said as he and Echo headed for the elevator again. It took nearly a minute for the car to arrive. They stepped on and when the doors closed Echo said, “I still said we shoulda burnt his ass at the studio Tuesday night.”
Brian shook his head. “Wrong place, wrong time. We need him to lead us to the rest of his crew. He can’t do that if he gets shot coming out of a studio. We might have gotten lucky if he’s up there entertaining his robbery crew.”
On the rooftop, Big Elk lay comfortably reclined on a multicolored lawn chair, a cold bottle of Corona sitting next to him on the black tile. L Dizzy stood at the far side of the roof with a bottle of beer in his hand. He was looking down twenty stories into a dark alley, an area where hundreds of bottles had been tossed this year alone. He looked over at the adjacent apartment building twenty-five feet away, then smiled at a line he’d just heard Terron rapping.
Terron, also known as T-Wrecks, pretended his beer bottle was a microphone, and Demon Straight waited for his chance to spit a rhyme. They were near the center of the rooftop, facing one another with a massive ventilating unit between the two rappers.
“...plus I’m internal...deeper than bin Laden’s journal...an infidel jumpin into Hell’s inferno.” Terron lowered the bottle to his side and listened as Demon Straight cut in.
Brian and Echo quietly eased through an old metal door and crept toward the bigger guy in the lawn chair, their silenced handguns drawn and moving from one man to the next.
Big Elk, in the lawn chair, was the first to notice the gunmen, but in the short span of five seconds the whole crew was on point.
When the rapping suddenly stopped, Brian said, “I’m sure everybody on this roof is strapped, but if you’re brave enough to go for it, I’mma open your ass up.” Echo didn’t like the numbers, so he walked up to L Dizzy and said, “Why you so close to the ledge? You thinking about jumping?”
“Nah.”
Echo stepped around him and glanced down. Lots of windows were glowing but otherwise the alley was dark and devoid of any functioning street lamps. Echo backed up, lined himself directly in front of L Dizzy, then shot the man in the chest. Echo rushed him with a forceful kick to the midsection, sending him plummeting twenty stories to his death.
20
Brian would rather have gotten some answers before killing the man, but it was no time to question Echo’s judgment. Brian pressed the silencer against Big Elk’s neck and said, “Sit up and grab your ankles. I know you’re a big fella, but do it anyway.” When the man sat up on the lawn chair, Brian removed a black handgun from Big Elk’s rear waistband.
Echo walked up to the ventilating unit, which was blowing warm air, and said, “Rappers, huh?” He looked at Terron and his Mohawk hairstyle. “Terron Martin, your ass is in a lot of trouble. You ever been to Tibetzu in Bakersville?”
Terron shook his head. “Never even heard of it.”
“My man got robbed there a few weeks ago. The robbers had on black wave caps and pulled bandanas up to their noses. One of them had a Mohawk that the wave cap couldn’t even flatten.” He smiled at Terron.
He shook his head again. “I’m tryin to jump a rap career off; I don’t do no robbing.”
“Took my man’s wallet and watch and even pat-searched his little daughter. You wouldn’t believe the things me and him would do for his daughter.” Terron said, “A lot of people got Mohawks.”
Brian caught up with Echo but kept the tip of the silencer against Big Elk’s lower back. “The FBI got me some enhanced photos of the robbers. Can’t make out any identities, but I got a good image of the watch one of them were wearing. The man with the Mohawk had a G-Shock wristwatch.”
Terron said, “I don’t own that kind of watch.”
Brian said, “Show me your watch.”
Terron hesitated then showed Brian the face of a Serani wristwatch. “That’s the one you took from my daughter’s grandfather. Take it off.”
Echo was out of patience now. There was a body in the alley, and they were wasting too much time here. He put a silencer against the side of Big Elk’s head and pulled the trigger.
Brian jumped back and looked at Echo. Demon Straight took a big step back and said, “I can get you all your shit back and a whole lot more. Tell me what I gotta do to make sure me and Terron stay alive. We hit Tibetzu but we didn’t hurt nobody.”
Echo said, “I’mma give you a break. See that apartment building over there? If you can run and jump over there like they did in the Matrix, I’ll let you live.” Demon Straight said, “Man, I can’t make that jump.”
“You had your chance.” Echo aimed at him.
“Wait. Please. Hold up. I’ll try.”
Echo lowered the gun and said to Brian, “Now he’s what you cal a hardcore rapper.”
Demon Straight backed up to get a good running start.
Brian retrieved the Serani watch from Terron and said, “You wanna jump or get shot?”
“You got to shoot me; I can’t jump like that.”
Demon Straight was pepping himself up and stalling at the same time.
Brian shot Terron in the head.
&n
bsp; Demon Straight heard the shot, then took off at full speed. He reached the ledge and hurled himself toward the adjacent building. He was airborne for a few seconds and actually reached the other building—seventeen stories down—as his body smashed through a bedroom window. As they hurried for the elevator, Brian began thinking about Janelle. He told Echo, “When we leave Fresno, I’mma catch a flight to Sacramento and hang out with Janele tomorrow. You and I need a week off before we start the next case.”
Echo said, “I’m catching a flight to San Bernardino. I need to see Sheree again. That white girl was a porn star in my suite.”
Godsend: Blasphemy Out West
Written by
K. Elliott
CHAPTER 1
ECHO WAS LEAVING the upper-class neighborhood of Cedar View in San Diego, California. He was driving Shree Lockhart's Mercedes and had just interviewed a witness for the new cold case he and Brian were working on. As he neared a stop sign and slowed the vehicle he could see a Toyota Camry in his rearview mirror, and it didn't appear to be slowing down. Echo was about to cruise past the stop sign to avoid the accident, but two cars were only seconds from the intersection. He brought the Mercedes to a smooth stop and braced himself for the fender-bender.
The Camry banged into the read end of the Mercedes at about 10 miles per hour. Not a serious wreck, but airbags deployed and bumper damage was evident.
Echo threw the Benz in park, leaned away from the annoying airbag, and got out of the vehicle. Beautiful trees, spaciously organized and planted many years ago, helped create a picturesque view with the help of homes in the background ranging from $800,000 to $1.7 million in value.
A forty-year-old man got out of the Camry and met Echo at the rear end of the Mercedes.
Echo wore a dark brown suit with a black and brown tie. He was concealing a handgun beneath his sport coat.