by Jauwel
“Now, now, I need you two to play nice.” Tae heard Black say, standing in front of the only exit Tae could escape through. Tae took a minute to put it all together. Since everyone knew that you couldn’t bribe an officer like they showed in the movies, Tae realized the altercation at the end of the hallway was a distraction to get Officer McKall out of the way and keep him occupied. They wouldn’t mess with Cotton, so he knew he was safe, but he needed to get out of there before the situation was too much to handle. Tae was known for creating escape plans which worked for him on the streets. Now he had to figure out how to get out of this situation.
“So this is how you do?” Tae smiled as he formulated his course of action. “You send your bitch in here to do your dirty work. You can’t come at me straight.” Between Tariq and Black, Tae surmised his biggest problem would be Black. He had to do something before Solomon entered also. Therefore, he decided to throw Black off his game by intimidating him. “Oh, I see,” Tae smiled. “He’s that nigga and you da bitch, huh.” By the look on Black’s face, his plan was working.
Before Tae could utter another word, Black balled up his face and rushed toward him. Fortunately, Tae moved out of the way before he could hit him, causing Black to run into the table. At that point, Tae had a clear view of the door and started running for it as he heard Black yell to Tariq, “Get dat mutha fucka!” As Tariq lunged toward Tae, he quickly moved to the left, around the table and away from Tariq. The one thing Tae was good at was escaping a tight situation. Thus far, this was the most tense situation he had ever been in. Just as quickly as Tae moved around the folding table, Tariq followed him, almost getting close enough to put his hands on him, but Tae’s quick maneuver shook him off.
Tae got tired of Tariq chasing him around the table and figured it was time for him to get out of there. With an unobscured view of his escape route, Tae ducked and moved out of the way of both Tariq and Black and bolted for the door. Running at full speed like a track star, he took a quick peek back to see how close they were to him and ran right into Solomon, who was blocking the doorway. Tae bounced off his chest, stumbling backwards into Black, who put a strong grip on his arm and pulled him down. Solomon hastily walked over and punched Tae in the face with his strong fist. Tae felt like his face was going to crack in half with that one blow.
“Grab dat nigga.” Black instructed Tariq and Solomon, who both held Tae by an arm. “Stretch his ass out.” Black continued to bark out orders as they laid Tae face first across the folding table and bent him over in front of Black. Recognizing what Black had in mind for Tae, they knew there wasn’t much time before the guard came back.
“We don’t have time for this, Black.” Tariq pleaded with him, knowing if he got in trouble again, he would have more time added onto his sentence.
“Stretch his ass out!” Black yelled at Tariq, who immediately began to follow Black’s instructions, joining Solomon in laying Tae across the table for Black’s enjoyment. No matter how much Tae struggled, there was no chance he would get away this time. “I always knew I was gonna make you my bitch.” Black taunted Tae, whispering in his ear.
“Fuck you, wit yo bitch ass!” Tae yelled as he continued to struggle to break free and make another attempt for the doorway.
“That’s exactly what I’ma do,” Black retorted, unbuckling his pants. “I’ma fuck yo bitch ass.” He laughed because he could tell Tae was running out of ideas, as most of them did. They might try to fight, but at the end of the day, they had no other choice than to give in to what he wanted them to do. Continuing to struggle, Tae did his best to escape his perilous circumstance when he heard something that made him smile.
“I’m just saying, I don’t think the young boy locked the door.” Cotton said in his booming voice to the officers following him with guns in hand. “You know you don’t want just anyone coming in here taking what they want, do you?” Cotton continued to talk.
The officers were nonverbal as they followed Cotton up the hallway. Smiling, Tae knew it was no accident that Cotton was coming; he knew Cotton figured something was up.
Knowing he wouldn’t be able to do what he wanted to Tae, Black quickly buckled his pants back up and told Tariq and Solomon to let Tae go just as the officers and Cotton turned the corner.
“What’s going on here?” One officer asked as he and the other guard raised their guns, prepared to fire.
“They were just helping me clean up.” Tae spoke up, quickly glancing at Tariq, who looked as if he was shaking in his boots. Then he looked at Solomon, who barely spoke. He simply nodded his head in agreement. Black was the only one whose face was distorted with fury and arms folded across his chest, looking as though he was prepared for war. Not wanting to get shot with rubber bullets again, he maintained his composure. All he could do was walk quietly toward the door, whispering to Tae, “I’ll get you later.” Though Tae paid him no attention, he left uncertain as to what to expect from Black’s sneakiness in the coming days. However, he undoubtedly comprehended that he had to be ready whenever Black decided to strike again.
Chapter 13
Although she knew it wasn’t going to be an easy transition, Lisa had to admit to herself that the longer she stayed, the deeper she fell in love with Razon. This was not the way things needed to be; she had a responsibility to her position as well as to the officers that looked to her for undistracted guidance. Although a sweet and beautiful person, she had to acknowledge that Razon was a distraction. But the longer she was away from him, the more she missed him. She could feel his kisses all over her body and could still taste the sweetness from his lips on hers. There was no way she could deny it any longer, she was in love with him.
It wasn’t long before her daydreams of loving Razon was interrupted by his voice speaking on his cell phone. He came into the house and slammed his keys on the table by the door.
“So you mean to tell me that you don’t know where my father is!?” Razon yelled. “Then what in the hell am I paying you for! My father loves to use every credit card in his wallet, so you can’t tell me there’s no trace of him! Find him! Do not, and I repeat DO NOT call me unless you’re telling me where my father is or the next person they’ll be looking for is you!” Razon pushed the button on his phone to end the call, but was shocked to look up and see Lisa watching him. After the conversation he’d just had on the phone, she realized it may not be the best time to talk to him, but she didn’t have a choice. Without hesitation, he walked over to her with a huge smile on his face and gave her the most passionate kiss he had ever given her. Normally, that was enough to make her smile, but when he pulled away, he could see that she wasn’t smiling and had a distraught expression on her face.
“What’s wrong beautiful?” Razon asked with his award winning smile. He knew he had not been there for her as much as he would have liked to, but searching for his father, watching his back from 10th Mob, the insane nightmares that he had been having, and the murder crime scenes with messages intended for him was enough to keep him busy. Lisa didn’t utter a word, she folded her arms across her chest and walked back in the room. Like a lovesick puppy, Razon followed her, knowing he would have to make things right. And if the night worked in his favor, he knew exactly what to do to make her feel better.
“I want you to take me home.” She said, turning around and looking him directly in the eyes. She knew if she didn’t say it now, she might not say anything which would only make matters worst for her. Razon simply smiled and shrugged his shoulders.
“Sure, I’ll take you to your house so you can pick up a few items or you can just let me buy you all new things. Name it and it’s yours. You know money’s not an object.” Razon continued to smile. At least one thing in his life was going right. For that reason, he wanted to make sure she was happy.
“No, Razon…ahh…” She took a deep sigh, knowing the conversation was going to be a difficult one. “I want you to take home, to stay. Look, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, but it’s pa
st time for me to get back to reality.”
“Back to reality?” Razon laughed. “You want to go back to your house, in the middle of everything that’s going on…you want to go home…to stay away from me? You need to get back to reality? I thought this was our reality.” Razon folded his arms across his chest as he looked at her with a baffled expression, also noticing that she couldn’t look him in the eyes. Maybe he needed to take this situation a little more seriously. “I love you Lisa, you know that, and I know you love me too. I know because I can feel it, you may not say it but I feel it. And if you think I’m going to let you go back to your place, where I can’t protect you, then you must have lost your mind. My father is missing and I know the murderer has him just to hold it against me. I will not lose another person to this animal.”
“Razon, I can protect myself.” Lisa was trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, but to be honest, her patience was wearing thin. “Like I said, I appreciate all you’ve done for me, but I can’t continue to stay here. I have a department to run and a life to get back to. You do remember that I’m your captain, right?”
“No! No, I’m not taking you back to your house. You’re not leaving.” Razon’s mind was made up and his answer was final. He didn’t want to hear another word from her unless it was to tell him how much she loved him and that he was right and she needed to stay there with him.
“You can’t make me stay; you can’t keep me locked in this house away from the world!” Lisa raised her voice, but she knew he wasn’t listening to her anyway. “Razon, this is not about you and me. I have a whole department that I need to keep organized. I have a job to do, remember?” She did love him, but she couldn’t continue to watch him spiral out of control. She had to get back to her office so she could help him properly. She could see the changes he was going through, and the nightmares were getting worst. Although he hadn’t told her he was having nightmares, he talked in his sleep and sometimes screamed out. She didn’t blame him for what he was going through. Too often, she had seen the exact meltdown happen with far too many good cops, so she didn’t want Razon to fall into that category. At this point, there was no way she would tell him she planned to set him up with the department shrink, since he would never seek the help he needed on his own.
Before either of them could say another word, Razon’s phone buzzed in his hand, he looked at her as he answered. “Yeah,” he said with a slight attitude. “Alright, I’ll be right there.” Razon sighed deeply then hung up the phone.
“Was that…” She started to say but Razon cut her off.
“Yeah, that was Larry…we got another body.” She hung her head down, sad to hear there was another killing that had a bloody message for Razon.
“Razon, I…” She tried to say, but he cut her off again.
“Yeah I know, you need to get back to reality, right. Well this is my reality. I don’t wanna get a call in the middle of the night telling me you’ve been hurt; I can’t go through that again.” Razon stated as he turned his back to her. She realized this was hard on him. Therefore, she wanted to hold him and tell him everything was going to be alright, but she honestly didn’t believe that was true. Lisa knew he wouldn’t be able to focus until he heard something about his father’s whereabouts. She put her small hand on his arm to comfort him, but he quickly shrugged her off. “I gotta go.” He said as he started to walk out the door then stopped but didn’t turn around to look at her. “Since you want to leave, fine, go. If you want this to be strictly business and get back to the reality that doesn’t involve me, then fine. I’ll be back to take you home, Captain Coleman. So have your shit ready, Captain.”
“Razon,” she tried to explain but he wasn’t listening. “It’s not what you think; it doesn’t have to be like this.” She couldn’t let him walk out the door like that, especially since Larry called and he would be investigating a crime scene that was designed for him. He didn’t need the extra pressure; but what could she do.
“This?” Razon turned around and looked at her; she could see the pain in his eyes. “What exactly is ‘this’? What are we doing here? I’ve done nothing but love you. I never hurt you and I never lied to you. I’m completely dedicated to you. All I ask is that you love me back. But you’re so fucked up from shit other people have done to you, you can’t see a good man standing right in your face.” Razon felt the tears well up in the corners of his eyes, but he wouldn’t let her see one tear drop.
“Razon, you are a good man, but…” Lisa hesitated.
“But? But what? Because you’re my boss, I’m not allowed to have strong feelings for you? I’m so tired of this job dictating what we can and can’t do with our feelings. I love you. Tell me you love me.” Razon said with a firm voice, walking back over to where she was standing. “I love you. All you have to do is tell me you love me and I’ll do the rest. I just want to hear you say it.” He waited for her to respond, but she remained silent. Razon sighed deeply. “You’re right, whatever ‘this’ is, it’s not gonna work unless you can be real with me. I have to go.” Lisa heard the door slam behind him as he walked out the front door. This was not what she wanted, but she thought it may be for the best.
Chapter 14
Razon didn’t waste any time getting to Jorge Ortiz’s restaurant because he was more than sure there would be another message from the killer. Razon had come to the conclusion that all the murders that were reported to the department were directed toward him. A few people had been harassing him to make some type of arrest, since not long ago, he was considered to be the golden child for the police department. No one cut him any slack because each crime scene provided him with clues. Yet, he still hadn’t gathered enough information on the murderer to make an arrest. Even if it was the wrong person, people in the community would rather see the police do something rather than nothing at all. By now, many people had heard what happened to Jorge Ortiz, so they stood around the perimeter the police had created to protect the crime scene and began yelling at them to do something.
“When y’all gonna arrest somebody?” An elderly lady yelled from the crowd. “People dying out here.” Although many of the officers tried to keep their composure, all eyes were on Razon as he walked out of the restaurant taking a deep breath. The crowd started to get restless as officers tried to hold them back from invading the crime scene. All Razon could manage to do was walk over to Larry, hoping to get a little help with his sanity.
“Yo, young buck,” Larry greeted as soon as he saw Razon. “You look like shit. What’s going on with you kid?”
“Man, this shit is driving me crazy.” Razon shook his head, looking down at his cell phone of a picture he had taken of the latest clue that was left for him, which was simply the letter ‘O’ on the floor in front of the chair where Jorge Ortiz was tied and beaten to death. “All of these damn letters have to spell out something. Maybe if we take another look at all the photos, they’ll tell us what he’s trying to spell out and how many other people he may have on his list.” Razon said, listening to the voices in the background.
“Don’t listen to them.” Larry tried to comfort his longtime friend and partner. “We’re doing all we can to bring this guy in.”
“No, it’s not ok.” Razon exhaled audibly while shaking his head. “There’s more that can be done. They’re right. People are out here dying and I’m fucking around with Lisa. What the fuck was I thinking?”
Razon and Larry continued to gather all the information that was left at the crime scene, hoping the killer left some clues as to who he was before someone else got hurt or worst.
“Whoa!” Larry looked at him puzzled. He had never heard Razon even remotely indicate that what he felt for Captain Coleman was nothing short of love. “Trouble in paradise, Ra?” He asked while jumping in the passenger seat of Razon’s car to return to the police station to see if they could put some of the clues together. Once in the car, Razon decided to tell his partner what was going on with Lisa.
“Man, I d
on’t know what to think.” Razon began. “One minute, everything is perfect and the next, she wants to go home and get back to reality. And I still don’t know what the fuck that’s supposed to mean. I don’t know how to feel right now. We just had a fight because she said she wanted to move back home. Doesn’t she know I can’t protect her while she’s at home? I still haven’t heard anything from my pops and…” Razon explained, but took a deep breath right before he stopped himself from telling Larry about the crazy dreams he’d been having. He already thought he was crazy, there was no way he wanted other people to look at him like he was crazy too, especially not his partner and best friend. He would just have to figure things out on his own, but he knew he needed to answer Larry before he started to question him too much. “And I’m getting really worried about where he might be. Something in my gut is telling me this guy has him and it’s fucking with me.”
“Look Ra, we’re gonna find this guy and your pops. Cap will come around, just give her a little time. You know how she is. She doesn’t make any decision without completely analyzing everything.” Larry tried to reassure him, but he knew how Razon was, he would worry until the issues were resolved.
The bullpen in the police department was busy as usual. Criminals were being brought in by blue shirt officers while others were interviewed at individual officers’ desks. The yelling, screaming, and clicking of computer keyboards was not something he wanted to hear right now. He needed to get to a place where he could think and he and Larry could sit and analyze the clues and see if they could figure something out. They went to the back room that they used as a conference room. Razon knew it would be the best place for them to work.
They placed the pictures of each crime scene along with the clues that the killer had left underneath each picture, taping them to the whiteboard in the back of the room. Larry took each of the manila file folders that contained witness and police reports as well as evidence from the crime scene technicians from all the murders and slammed them down on the long, rectangle table.