by J Peach
“Oh, they will. You’ve been obsessed with Blaze since you met him. Is that why you killed Cornell? You found deeper pockets to dig into and you couldn’t let him ruin that for you? Did he threaten to tell Blaze how you are a psychotic, money hungry bitch? Is that why you killed him? What about D-Boy? It was all through the hood how he robbed a drug house, which apparently belonged to Blaze.
“Next thing you know he’s dead. You couldn’t have him taking what was going to be yours, right? You had to win Blaze over somehow, so you killed him. Then when you found out the woman you let go was talking, you had her killed too.
“These stories can be spent every which way, I don’t know about you but I like my version of the story. I’ll give you a few minutes to think on how you want me to tell them.” He pushed out of his chair, leaving the file but taking the laptop and left out.
That fuckin’ man was crazy. They wouldn’t believe his crazy ass. He didn’t have nothing on me and if he did, he wouldn’t be making threats.
Letting out a heavy sigh, my head fell on the table again and my eyes closed.
***
Four in a half hours later and I was still locked in this fuckin’ room. I had to piss like hell and I was starving.
Hearing the door open, my head shot up.
“Le’Ron, thank God it’s you.”
“How long you been back here?” He looked around the office.
“Hours. Can I please use your phone?” Without hesitation, he gave it to me and I quickly dialed Ebony.
“Hello?” She picked up after the third ring.
“Hey, E, it’s me. Click over.” I quickly said not giving Ebony the chance to start asking me questions.
When I was younger, I used to get in trouble a lot. And in order for me not to get my parents involved, I came up with the code phrase click over meaning: call King. My ass got saved many of days from school with those two words.
She made the call. He answered.
“Peaches, what they sayin’?” It sounded like five people were on the phone asking the same question but it was only Blaze and King.
“Detective Poke got a video but it ain’t me in it. He’s also trying to say I’m obsessed with Blaze and that I killed this Leslie chick, some dude name D-Boy and Hicks because they were getting too close to Blaze, basically. But he saying if I go on record with what he wants me to say about Blaze, then he’ll drop everything on me and I can go.” I quickly explained not really knowing how much time I had on the phone before Poke decided to show up.
“This nigga is a fuckin’ psycho. I’ve been locked in this fuckin’ room for hours and I gotda piss plus I’m hungry as hell,” I complained.
“Peaches, say what he wants you to, i’ight? I’ll deal with it,” Blaze said.
“Okay, I gotda go I don’t know when he’s coming back. Love y’all. Bye.” Not waiting on their reply, I hung up then handed Le’Ron the phone. “Thanks.” Just as he put his phone back into his pocket, Poke walked in. “Can I go to the bathroom, please?” Ignoring my request, he sat down.
“Have you thought about what we talked about?” he asked.
“I’m not lying to help you build your case. If you want to plant evidence against me, then do so because I’m not helping you.” Leaning back in my chair, I crossed my legs. He didn’t have anything. His case was weak.
For one, I didn’t know that Leslie chick, that D-Boy dude or the unknown woman he claimed I killed. I had no ties to them. They were way before Blaze and I got together. I hoped. Besides Cornell and Hicks, who I only met once, Poke couldn’t put anything on me.
However, that video might be a problem, though.
“The video. When was it taken?” I asked, pretending I had no knowledge about the shooting. Whoever wanted Blaze was going through a hell of a lot to get to his black ass.
I didn’t remember seeing a time stamp on the video.
“Le’Ron, please escort Ms. Johnson to the bathroom. Don’t let the pretty face fool you, she’s a killer. So I’d advise you to watch her closely then put her in a cell. Give her time to think about the choices she’s about to make.”
For some reason I didn’t like the way he said that last bit. I knew Poke didn’t play by the books when he offered to get rid of the video. Now I wondered just how dirty he was and how far would he go to get to Blaze?
***
“You saw Blaze walk into D-Boy’s house, then you heard shots fired. After a few more shots, you saw a woman run from the house. You never came forward until now because you were afraid for your life. After you witnessed him kill officer Hicks, he threatened to kill you if you told anyone about what had happened. To make sure you wouldn’t talk he made you kill Cornell and recorded it, which he used as leverage to control you.” He coached with a small voice recorder in his hand.
“That’s all you have to say and I’ll walk you out of here myself. Be smart about this. Is he really worth the trouble of losing your freedom. Peaches, he’s trying to charge you with killing a cop. They’re not going to go easy on you. Somebody has to take the blame for that,” Le’Ron said, pushing the recorder further out toward me. “You saw Blaze—”
“Le’Ron, no matter how many times you repeat that speech I’m not saying it, it’s not true. Y’all supposed to be cool, so why would you want me to go through with this? If they had enough evidence against him, why do I need to lie? Why do they need to spin a story to make it seem like I’ve done something if I hadn’t? If Poke can plant evidence on me, then why the hell can’t he do the same with Blaze? He must don’t have shit and I’m not going to be bullied into doing this bullshit. Now can you find out where the hell my lawyer is?” Irritated wasn’t half of what I felt. I was pissed and if I wasn’t still handcuffed, I probably would’ve slapped the shit out of Le’Ron for even trying to get me to go along with the bullshit.
Detective Poke was really going out of his way to intimidate me. When he told Le’Ron to put me in a cell, he brought me to a closed off wing where they were remodeling the solitary cells. No one was down here beside us.
No matter the tactic, I wasn’t about to lie on Blaze for their dumb ass.
“I suggest you calm down.” Le’Ron suddenly said.
“What—” I started saying but he cut me off.
“I said calm down. Sit down, Ms. Johnson.”
My brows rose in confusion because I was sitting on the cot.
“Ms. Johnson, I’m warning you,” he spoke in a warning tone as if suddenly he was on alert.
“Le’Ron what—” Was all I had managed to get out before his police stick struck across my face, knocking me flat on the bed with its hard blow. Once that stick swung that first time, the hits continued coming. The hits connected hard all over my body. No part was left untouched. He was hitting everywhere and all I could do was scream.
My arms were still handcuffed behind my back, so I couldn’t cover up or fight back.
I tried kicking at Le’Ron, but doing so caused him to grab my leg and snatch me off of the cot and onto the cold hard floor.
My lungs felt like they had lodged in my throat, choking me as Le’Ron kicked harder into my stomach once, twice then a third time before his foot came across my face.
Le’Ron was relentless.
***
“You saw Blaze walk into D-Boy’s house then you heard shots fired. After a few more shots, you saw a woman run from the house…” Le’Ron repeated the same speech.
My left eye was swollen shut, my right eye was swollen too but not as bad.
Breathing hurt like hell and my body ached all over. My head was pounding and my shoulder was in excruciating pain.
Spitting a mouthful of blood by his foot, Le’Ron’s stick slapped across my face again before it was pressed against my neck, causing my head to hit the wall as he cut off my airway.
“Don’t make this harder than what it has to be. Repeat what I say and you can go.”
The veins in my face felt as if they were about to burst f
rom my lack of oxygen.
“You think he’ll keep quiet for you? Blaze will throw yo ass to us if it meant saving himself. Don’t be a dumb bitch.” From the raise of his voice and the added pressure from the stick, I could tell he was getting frustrated. “You saw Blaze…” Moving the stick, he started repeating the lie he wanted me to tell. “Now tell me what happened.”
Closing my eyes, my head rested against the wall as I took one agonizing breath after the other.
“You saw Blaze—”
I hawked a wad of bloody spit into his face, which cut him off. “Fuck you!”
Grabbing my neck, he slammed my head against the wall. He started kicking me in the stomach, causing me to fall over. I began dry heaving.
I felt myself slowly beginning to lose consciousness as Le’Ron abruptly stopped his brutal stomping on my side.
Out of frustration he kicked me hard in my stomach. I don’t know what the fuck he hit when he did that but it caused painful cramps to shoot up my lower abdomen and back.
Wiggling on the floor, I screamed but Le’Ron kicked me again, snapping at me to shut up. I wanted to grab my stomach but the fact I was still handcuffed prevented me from doing anything.
The cramps intensified and I had the violent urge to go to the bathroom. I was in intense pain but I managed to roll over and push myself to my knees but as I did that Le’Ron took the opportunity to kick me again making me fall to the floor.
“Are you ready to tell me your story now?”
“Yes! Just—just stop.” I cried painfully. I was hurting everywhere. Grabbing a hand full of my hair, he yanked my head back.
“What happened?”
God I hated myself. “I—I—I saw,” pausing I took a deep breath before speaking again. “I saw Le’Ron walk into D-Boy’s house.” His fist slammed hard into my swollen eye with his knee following the blow. Letting my head go, the beating started again. This time after the first few hits, I quickly lost consciousness.
Chapter 21
Blaze
“What the fuck you mean she ain’t in yo system? I saw the mothafucka come in the house and take her. Bitch, can you read? What the fuck does that say? Bitch, where the fuck Poke at?” I was about to snatch that buck eyed bitch from behind that fuckin’ desk.
“Blaze, can you let me do my job?”
“What job? They ass ain’t even letting you see her but you her lawyer, though? Bitch, you fired! Get the fuck outda here before I choke the fuck outda you.” I don’t know where the fuck King found that bitch at but her stupid ass wasn’t doing her fuckin’ job. Bitch acted like she was scared to fuckin’ talk. “Can you go find me a smart mothafucka that actually knows how to do they fuckin’ job?”
“Blaze, what’s up? What’s going on? Why are you up here?” Sam asked, coming from the back in a suit.
“Fuck you doing up here?” I asked him.
“Just came to get Berry.”
“You got that nigga off?” That was a stupid question. Of course, he did.
“You already know that answer. What the hell’s going on up here? I heard you all the way in the back?” he questioned.
I snatched the warrant from the lady behind the desk and gave it to Sam.
“Oh, shit! Poke got her? He gon’ try to turn her ass.” That’s what I was thinking.
“Right and Peaches stupid ass don’t fuckin’ listen. This nigga want me so I don’t know how far his dirty ass willing to go to get my black ass. I knew Peaches wasn’t gon’ talk, although I told her stupid ass to say what he wanted.” I then looked over at the dumb ass lawyer. “And this buck eyed bitch saying she ain’t here.” I wasn’t keeping my cool at all, which I normally did. But fuckin’ with these dirty ass cops, shit just wasn’t sitting right with me.
“Is there a problem?” A black male cop approached us.
“Yeah, it is. My girl somewhere in this fuckin’ police station but this bitch keeps telling me she ain’t here when I know her ass is. I was there when yo fuck ass Detective Poke came in the fuckin’ house with a few other dirty ass mothafuckas and took her. Can you find my girl? If not, yo ass can’t fuckin’ help me, then.” I was a few seconds from turning this whole fuckin’ precinct upside down.
“Blaze, calm down. You going to mess around and get yourself arrested. B, go have a seat because you ain’t helping.” Sam instructed as he pointed to the chairs out in the hallway.
I was about knock that mothafucka out too. “Hell n’all! They done had her for damn near thirteen hours and ain’t told me shit. I’mma search this bitch my damn self. If you mothafuckas find Poke’s bitch ass, you find her.”
“Sir, I’m going to need you to calm down.” The officer said.
“And I’mma need y’all to find my fuckin’ girl.” As I said that, King walked in looking just as pissed.
“She ain’t downtown or in county. They don’t have no record of her.” That wired me even more.
“See you bitches playin’ now. When I get to dropping you mothafuckas.”
“Is that a threat?” The officer asked me.
“Boss, it is—” I didn’t get to finish making my promising threat as both King and Sam pushed me out into the hallway. “Let me the fuck go!”
“B, what the fuck is wrong with you? Yo ass gon’ stand in a police station and threaten cops? I’m just as pissed but I ain’t that fuckin’ stupid.” King pushed me into a chair, looking at me like I was crazy.
My hands went to my head, rubbing back and forth. It was stupid, yeah. But I couldn’t shake that nagging feeling of dread. I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. I inhaled deeply trying to get my nerves under control.
“I think…” I took another long pull from the square, before exhaling. “…I think she’s pregnant.”
“Who?” Both King and Sam asked at the same time.
“Peaches. Who else you, stupid mothafuckas? I don’t think she know, though. But how the fuck you not know?” This shit was fuckin’ with me bad.
“Shid, sometimes you don’t, they ass can go for months without knowing themselves. I mean they can still have periods and shit. They attitudes be all fuck’d up but other than that they ass probably don’t know.”
King’s explanation confused me. How he knew all that shit?
“How the fuck do you know?” I asked him.
“My girl got pregnant three times and we ain’t know until she miscarried.” I blew out a breath not tryna think about that shit. “And the cop that want yo ass got her.”
Sam stood up getting our attention. “Y’all stay out here and cool down while I try to find out what’s going on.” With that, he left out.
“I already know her stupid ass ain’t listen. She don’t never fuckin’ listen.” I pulled out another cigarette.
“Would you listen if Peaches told you to do as they said, would you? Peaches ain’t stupid— well she is, but she’s smart too. She thinks shit through from every angle before doing anything. She must of realized they didn’t have nothing. Why else would he make a deal like that?
“Her confession with whatever evidence they done chopped up was probably gon’ nail yo ass. They just needed mouth to facts. She too loyal to repeat shit if its gon’ get you locked up. How far you think this nigga willing to go, though?” King asked. All I could do was shrug because I didn’t know.
“Damn, I wish I knew where that mothafucka lived.” I thought out loud.
“Who?” Detective Poke asked standing at the front doors.
I was about to rush his ass but King jerked me back.
“B, chill.”
I yanked away from him. “Get the fuck off me.”
“Nigga, be smart,” King said before looking at Poke. “Peaches Johnson.”
“I’m on my way to talk to her now. Hopefully she’s ready to talk. You can come and watch.” He offered, which confused me but we followed behind him through the double doors. “On second thought, I don’t need you damaging my case.”
Sam reappeared as Poke was leavi
ng. “Poke. Sam. Peaches’ lawyer.” I introduced.
“She never asked for a lawyer,” he stated.
“I’m sho she did and even if she didn’t, she got one now. Sam, go handle that. Peaches better be with you when you come back out.” I didn’t have to say shit else. That mothafucka was going about getting me the wrong way. Bringing Peaches into this bullshit was the mistake he made. Once I got her back, I was gon’ deal with Poke’s ass.
His family was gon’ be touched and that was his fault.
***
I’ve been trying to keep my cool but that dreadful feeling got thicker. I only had that feeling once before in my life when I was eleven and caught my first body. The feeling was similar but worse, I didn’t know what it was but I knew it was bad. Something was about to happen or happened already, whichever one. I didn’t know but I was hoping it hadn’t happened.
The first time I felt like this was when I killed the nigga that was about to rape my moms. So I knew the fuckin’ nagging I felt was bad as fuck.
Moments later, Sam soon came from the back.
We stood up.
Peaches wasn’t with him.
“Where the fuck she at?” I asked Sam. He just shook his head. “What the fuck do that mean?”
“We don’t know—”
“What the fuck you mean y’all don’t know?” King asked, taking the words right from my mouth.
“I just walked around every cell they have back there but they are all empty. The guard said something happened earlier in the woman’s cell, which called for some of them to be moved.”
“What the fuck happened? Nigga, if you say you don’t know, I’m about to beat yo ass. Don’t come over here with no half assed facts. Find out what the fuck happened and where the fuck she at.” King snapped at Sam.
“Pete?” I called not really sure if it was him or not until he stuck his head back in the door.
“Blaze, what’s up? I knew it’ll be a matter of time before yo black ass was back here.” He joked while shaking up with me.
“N’all, they ass tryin’, though. What happened in the woman’s cell?” I asked him and he blew out a breath.