by Falicia Love
Eavesdropping on the message, Detective Moore smiled and wrote down Jeryca’s information. She wasn’t going to allow Detective Rone to botch another case against Dana Crisp. After she got into her office, she sat down at her desk and dialed Jeryca’s number.
She introduced herself as Detective Moore and explained that she was handling a few of Rone’s cases, as he was swamped with other cases.
Jeryca wasn’t quite sure if she should talk to the detective, but she couldn’t waste time trying to figure out if the woman was on the up-and-up. She explained everything to Detective Moore. They agreed to meet and discuss everything in person. Jeryca’s better judgment was telling her not to do it, but she had to do something, and if she had to give up everything for her sister, she would.
After getting off the phone with the detective, Jeryca made one last phone call to her attorney in Miami. She asked him to draw up ownership transfer papers to her condo, and to do a title change for her car. The condo and one of the cars were in her name, and she was going to give it all to Shirley and Pam, to make sure they were secure. She also had $250,000 transferred into an account for Shirley and a hundred grand transferred into an account for Pam. It came from her personal nest egg that she had been saving up for months.
The $300,000 Orlando was gathering to pay Pam’s ransom would never make it to the kidnappers’ hands, if Jeryca could help it.
* * *
After meeting with Detective Moore, Jeryca felt somewhat relieved. She hadn’t given Detective Moore all the info on Dana Crisp, but she promised she would if they helped her save her sister. She wrote a very detailed letter, explaining everything that had transpired and who played what part and gave descriptive information about Debra’s death. The only one of the girls who wasn’t implicated in anything was Stephanie. Jeryca decided that enough backstabbing and snitching had occurred between them, and the only reason she was snitching on Dana was because of Farrah. She wasn’t going to let her get away with that. She just hoped that Farrah was at peace, and would forgive her for the part she played in the entire mess. Jeryca realized that since the day they devised the plan to rob Thad and gain a wealth that wasn’t theirs, nothing but bad things had happened to them and the ones they loved.
The following day, Jeryca was notified that the time for the drop had changed, and she was advised that if they brought the police Pam was dead. Once all the changes were discussed, Jeryca immediately got off the phone and called Detective Moore. She still hadn’t told Orlando about the deal she had made with the detective.
Detective Moore wasn’t in at the time, so Jeryca left her a message, telling her about all the changes. She knew that Detective Moore had placed a tracker on her rental, and would be able to find them easily.
As the time neared to go and make the drop, Jeryca was beginning to feel uneasiness. Detective Moore hadn’t called her back as of yet, and she didn’t want to walk into a bad situation.
Orlando walked into the room where Jeryca was sitting. “Come on, bae, we got to get a move on. They told us not to be late.”
Jeryca sighed and nodded. She wasn’t sure what she was about to walk into, but she was as ready as she would ever be. They checked out of the hotel, got into their rental, and headed down the interstate. They jumped off at exit 321 and turned on Fairway Road. They followed the instructions to the letter and found their destination with no problem.
As they entered the location, Jeryca heard a rumbling sound from behind her.
“Bae, watch—” said Orlando.
Before she could utter one word, she and Orlando were both knocked unconscious. When she came to it was like déjà vu. She and Orlando were tied to some chairs, and there were two masked men standing in front of them with shotguns.
Chapter Twenty
“Hey, Brittany, how are you doing?” Dana asked quietly when Brittany picked up the phone.
“Dana! Where the hell have you been?” Brittany yelled, causing Stephanie to look at her curiously.
“That doesn’t matter. Can you and Stephanie meet me at the Lakeshore address, please? I have something I need to talk to you about. I have decided to deal with my situation on my own, and I really hope you will understand. I hate being a burden on anyone and after hearing that Detective Rone is my father—”
“Detective Rone is what?” Brittany yelled.
“Yes. He told me that, from the first time he saw me, he knew there was something familiar about me. At first, he thought he was attracted to me in a romantic way, but he soon learned that I was his daughter. He met my mom years before I was born, but they couldn’t seem to get along, and after he left for college, my mother seemed to have disappeared. He asked if he could be a part of my life now and get to know me as a father should, so I agreed, and I have been staying at his home, doing just that. However, the time away allowed me to focus on my situation more, and I decided that I have to start doing things on my own, so I did just that.”
“Wait a minute, Dana, we called Detective Rone, and he told us he hadn’t seen you. We were worried like crazy,” Brittany stated.
“I told him not to tell anyone where I was until I told him it was okay,” Dana answered.
“Wow, Dana, that’s crazy. How are you feeling?” Brittany asked.
“I’m good now, thanks. However, I would really like it if you all could meet me around seven this evening. I had put a few things in motion a few weeks ago, and I need to let you and Steph in on it,” Dana replied.
“Yes, we can do that,” Brittany agreed.
“Thanks. I got to go, and I will see you soon,” Dana replied.
* * *
As Dana was wheeled into the abandoned house on Lakeshore Drive, she could hear Jeryca telling Brittany that she wasn’t afraid of none of them, and if they hurt one hair on Pam’s head, she was going to make sure they paid dearly.
“I don’t know what the hell you are talking about! Who the fuck took Pam?” Brittany asked.
She also heard Brittany asking Stephanie where Dana was. “I don’t know, Brittany, but she should’ve been here by now,” Stephanie answered.
As Dana was rolled into the back den area where everyone was waiting for her, she heard Brittany and Stephanie muttering, “What the fuck?”
Thad stood behind Dana, smiling. He placed his hand on her shoulder and looked at Stephanie and Brittany. “We have called a truce for this occasion. Don’t worry. You can go back to hating me tomorrow, but tonight, I got a personal score to settle with Orlando here. You see, Orlando, I know that you and this bitch were responsible for my brother’s death, and you will both pay dearly with your lives. Chris, bring Pam in here now!” Thad ordered.
“Man, are you seriously going to do this?” Chris asked.
“Nigga, just go do what I fucking said,” Thad ordered angrily.
“I will go with him and help him bring her in here,” Stephanie said, as she glanced at Chris.
As the two left to get Pam, Dana asked to be wheeled over so that she could sit face-to-face with Jeryca. She wanted to see the expression on Jeryca’s face when she saw what the fire had done. Thad pushed Dana in front of Jeryca, still tied to her seat next to Orlando. Orlando looked over at Thad, as he stood next to Jeryca with hatred in his eyes.
“What’s that look supposed to mean, nigga? You don’t scare me at all. Never have. You got my brother killed, and now it’s your turn to watch someone you love die.”
“What do you mean, ‘watch someone I love die’?” Orlando asked.
“Shit, I know you ain’t no fool. You know exactly what I mean! I see how much you love Jeryca, and she loves you as well. Hell, that bitch showered you with loyalty and respect by shitting on me. I put her in the position to be who she is now, and she stabbed me and everyone here in the back. Man, look at what she did to Dana!” Thad said calmly.
“Dana, what are you doing with Thad and what is going on with Pam?” Brittany asked agitatedly.
“Shit, I ran into Thad a few weeks back when
I went to visit Travis and Shirley. She called me and said that he had been asking for me. When we got there, Thad and Chris were there. We didn’t talk at first, but after running into him a second time, I decided to confront him on a few things. Once we talked, we realized we had a few problems in common to take care of,” Dana explained.
“Who is ‘we’?” Brittany asked.
“The first time I met with Thad, I was with Stephanie. I had an appointment, and Stephanie sat with me for a little while, but then she explained that she had to make a quick run. When she didn’t come right back, I called my cousin to pick me up,” Dana said.
“Who is your cousin?” Brittany asked.
Dana looked at Brittany and smiled. “Emily is my cousin. Detective Emily Jackson.”
Everyone stood quiet for a minute, and then a voice came from the doorway. “Yeah, I am Dana’s cousin, and when I learned that someone had tried to kill her, I asked to be on the case. No one knew that Dana was my cousin, so I was allowed to work on it, and I worked hard to track this bitch down. When I went to my sister’s wedding in Tennessee, I saw Zack’s ass, and I knew it was my chance to get the information I needed to find Jeryca. I got my brothers to scoop his ass up, and after we got Jeryca and Orlando’s location, we devised this plan to kidnap Pam and get Jeryca’s ass back here so Dana could repay her for what she did to her. The day I picked Dana up from her appointment, we went to the bar and who was there, asking Dana a thousand and one questions about Keith? Yep, you got it, good ol’ Thad here. Dana refused to talk to him at first, but I pulled up on him the next day to make sure he wasn’t trying to hurt my cousin. I convinced her to at least hear him out, and I assured her that if he was up to anything, I would be there to protect her. The two of them finally talked and found out they both had an itch to scratch with these two. Oh, and Chris was very helpful to us in kidnapping Pam,” Emily confessed.
“But, Dana, why didn’t you let us in on it?” Brittany asked.
“I knew the bills were eating your pockets up and you had so much on your mind, I didn’t want to burden you with any of this. Britt, I appreciate everything you do for me, but I needed to do this for me,” Dana explained.
Orlando sat quietly, listening to Emily talk until Brittany interrupted them. “Why the hell haven’t Chris and Stephanie gotten back yet?”
Dana looked around toward Brittany and Jeryca and started laughing. “Well, it looks like you might have a problem on your hands. Bitch, you will never touch my sister with them deformed hands of yours! I guess you thought I was going to feel sorry for what I did but I’m not. You can kill—”
Before she could finish her statement, Dana rammed her knife in Jeryca’s gut. She smiled at Jeryca as she twisted the knife to the left and right, looking Jeryca in her eyes as the life slipped slowly from her. Blood started dripping from her mouth as she moaned and coughed. Dana smiled and drove the knife deeper into her gut until Jeryca was silent.
Orlando yelled and fought against the ropes that held him in his chair. He began to scream once he realized that Jeryca was dead. Thad smiled. “Don’t worry, brother, you will soon join her.” He pulled out a .45 revolver and shot Orlando in the head.
Just then, Detective Moore and the task squad rushed into the abandoned house with their guns drawn, screaming that they were in the house. Upon entering the front room, they saw Thad standing over Orlando’s dead body, with a gun pointed downward.
“Drop the gun now! Do what we said. Drop the gun and get on the floor!” Detective Moore yelled.
Thad began to smile. He had lost the only person who meant anything to him: his brother, Toby. Sergio was after him, and almost all his money had been spent. Thad decided that he wasn’t going to sit behind bars waiting for a death sentence. As he turned to face Detective Moore, he lifted the gun, and before he could spin completely around, the officers opened fire on him. He died instantly.
Dana, Brittany, and Emily were arrested and placed in separate police cars. Before they were taken out of the house, Dana watched the officers go to Jeryca’s body, and she felt a moment of satisfaction. She had gotten her revenge on the person responsible for her now-gross appearance. She smiled all the way to her police car.
Brittany sat in the back of her police car angry and disappointed. She never imagined that she would be in need of legal representation. However, she knew deep down that they were going to catch up with her sooner or later. As she glanced over to where Dana was, she was shocked to see that she was smiling. Brittany shook her head. “That bitch is crazy!” she said to herself.
Emily Jackson held her head down as she contemplated suicide herself. She knew deep down that Jeryca deserved to die, but she couldn’t believe that Detective Moore found them that quick. Someone had to have dimed them out, but who? She cringed at the sight of Pam Mebane being wheeled out the house on a stretcher. The police had found her in the basement of the abandoned house. She knew that Pam would be affected for the rest of her life by what they did, and for that alone, Emily felt remorse.
* * *
Stephanie and Chris rode down 85-South heading toward Atlanta, Georgia. She smiled as she glanced over at Chris, who was counting a wad of money.
“Girl, you used your head on that power move. They never knew what was happening.” Chris laughed.
“They all got what they deserved. They were murderers and needed to pay for their crime. I wish I could’ve seen the look on Brittany’s face when the police busted in the house,” Stephanie replied.
“Girl, I knew you were a trap queen. I love you. I honestly do. After I bumped into you at the mall, I didn’t think you were ever going to speak to me again. Then when you called me and suggested we work together to remove ourselves from the grasp of Thad and Dana, I was more than willing. I know I did you wrong and God knows I regretted every day how I treated you,” Chris explained.
As Stephanie turned off at exit 240, Chris looked at her oddly. Stephanie glanced over at him and laughed. “Why are you looking at me like that? Look at the gas hand. We need to gas up before we’re sitting on the side of the road.”
When they pulled into the service station beside the gas pump, Stephanie got out and leaned back into the car. “Do you want a drink or something?”
Chris leaned his head back against the headrest and shook his head. He looked content and happy. Stephanie shut the door and walked into the store to pay for the gas. She walked slowly down the aisle looking at the chips and grabbed a bag of spicy Doritos and two Sprites. She placed the items on the counter. “Do you have a restroom I can use?”
“Yes, it’s located at the back to the right,” the cashier said, pointing.
After Stephanie paid for her items and used the bathroom, she placed the items in her car and pumped her gas. She got back into the car and looked over at Chris. His eyes were closed, and his head was tilted to the side. Stephanie smiled and pulled off. Five minutes later as she was pulling back onto the ramp, she heard a noise in the seat behind her.
She stopped quickly and glanced behind her, and out from the darkness, Deondre popped up.
“Damn, bae, don’t scare me like that! You could’ve given me a signal that you were in here!” Stephanie yelled, holding her chest.
“My fault, girl! Calm down.” Deondre laughed.
“So it’s done?” Stephanie asked, glancing at Chris’s still body.
“Yeah, I choked his ass out! I think his neck broke, ’cause I felt something pop. Come on, drive down to the exit and we will toss his ass out near the river,” Deondre said as he sat back and lit a blunt. “Damn, this nigga got that fire!” he said, coughing and holding the blunt up that he took from Chris after he killed him.
Stephanie smiled as she drove down the interstate. After they threw Chris’s body into the river, she and Deondre drove off and headed back up to Connecticut. They had a small apartment that Deondre had found for them a few weeks earlier.
Stephanie was happy to be out from under Dana’s and Brittany’s
thumbs. She couldn’t believe that Dana would’ve stooped so low for revenge that she was willing to kill a child. She was going to check on Pam at a later date, but at that moment she was going to be content with finally being on her own.
* * *
After Dana’s arrest, Detective Rone was investigated and subsequently fired, then brought up on charges himself. He was charged with mishandling evidence and received seven years’ probation for his part in the cover-up. Detective Rone still had connections in the Bureau, and he was going to contact them as soon as he could. Maybe if he pulled enough strings, he could get Dana and her girls out of the fix they were in. Besides, he had covered up a lot more than just his own discretions. A few people inside and out of the force owed him a few favors, and he was going to call on them.
Brittany was a better attorney than she was a defendant. After only an hour of interrogation, she confessed to the murder of Debra Fuller. Although she didn’t snitch on Dana or Minx, the detectives found enough evidence against them to charge them as well. Deondre was never considered a suspect.
Dana and Brittany each were facing twenty years in prison for the murder of Jeryca Mebane. Even though Dana was the one who actually killed Jeryca, Brittany was an accessory to it and was looking at the same sentence as Dana. Dana didn’t know how she was going to get herself out of her current fix, but she had to do something. As she sat back in her cell, her brain started pushing at a thousand miles per hour.
Emily was the only one who was facing two lessor charges of kidnapping and obstructing and delaying an officer. She was of course stripped of her title and was just a regular civilian like everyone else, although she was given special treatment.