by Jauwel
“Ok, so Paul Erikson was the first victim. He was stabbed to death in an alleyway with a broken bottle. The medical examiner said he had defensive wounds as though he was fighting the guy off, until he got the best of him and cut his throat. There was an ‘E’ left on the wall written in blood.” Larry read the information from the file.
“I remember when I first met Paul. I think it was about a year ago now, that I got a call from Crystal Harris, his girlfriend at the time. She called in a domestic; she wanted Paul removed because they had gotten into a fight after he was caught cheating. Initially, I thought it could have been one of the boyfriends or husbands of the women he was cheating with until we got the next murder victim, Tim Rogers.” Razon reasoned while reviewing pictures of the completely burned body and part of the house that was burned down.
“Yeah,” Larry cut in, picking up the file for Tim Rogers. “Tim Rogers was last seen in a gay club, Club Diesel, a hot spot in the gay community. We questioned the bartender who said he saw Rogers talking to a guy for a long time, but when asked to give a description all he said was, and I quote, ‘a hot ass buffed black guy’. Rogers was found in his home bound to the bed and burned to death. Any evidence of any sexual activity was destroyed in the fire. The letter ‘R’ was written in blood at the front door, which wouldn’t have been found if the fire department hadn’t responded quickly to the call before the entire house burned down.”
“Yeah, I remember Tim Rogers had an altercation with a straight guy. The guy didn’t hold back telling him how he felt about that.” Razon said as Larry looked at the pictures seeing how badly Tim Rogers had been beaten and said, “Damn!” When Larry didn’t hear Razon say anything, he turned around to see Razon looking at the body of Sheila Thompson. He was aware that Razon knew Sheila as a result of answering a couple of calls about her being followed or harassed.
“Sheila Thompson–strangled, beaten then stabbed to death.” Razon said sadly. “The suspect left a ‘T’ on the bathroom wall next to the mirror.” Larry watched Razon with a saddened heart.
He knew he had been concerned about her safety due to her occupation; she was a dancer at the strip club, Paradise. Oftentimes, men assumed she wanted to do more than dance, so they made aggressive sexual advances toward her. Although she declined, it didn’t prevent most of them from harassing her. Razon had given her the mace from his police belt, even though it was the police department’s property. He would rather risk getting in trouble for giving it to her than for Sheila not to have anything to protect herself. After a while, Razon cleared his throat in an attempt to keep his emotions from surfacing.
“Today, we have Jorge Ortiz, a local Mexican restaurant owner who was tied to a chair and beaten to death. The assailant left an ‘O’ on the floor in front of him.” Razon picked up the whiteboard marker and wrote the letters E, R, T, O then put the top back on the marker. “It’s clear that the letters are from the first letter in each victim’s last name, but why? What is he trying to tell me? These letters have to mean something. Maybe they spell out something. It kind of looks like it could be ‘rot’ maybe ‘rotted’.” Razon continued to toss around word ideas aloud as Larry watched. “Maybe it could be ‘route’?” Razon sighed deeply. “I don’t know.”
“Look Ra, I hate to say it but we might just have to wait for more letters.” Larry said, swinging his hand in the direction of the whiteboard.
“I don’t want to have to wait for this guy to kill again before we get more clues. I don’t want to lose anyone else to this asshole. All of the victims are people I’ve worked with or tried to help. They had already been through enough hell then they were victimized again, and I wasn’t there to help.” Razon took another breath and rubbed his hand across his forehead, taking another look at the board. “Look man, why don’t you get outta here; I got this.” Razon suggested to Larry. “It’s been a long day and you need to get home. I’ll stay here for a while and try to figure out what this guy is trying to say.”
“Ra, you sure?” Larry asked, “I don’t wanna leave you like this.” Razon could see that his friend needed the rest; his face and eyes looked drained.
“Yeah old man, get outta here. I need to stay away from the house for a while so me and Lisa can cool off some. I’ll call you if something comes up. Maybe we can tackle this again in the morning. You might come in with a fresh pair of eyes and see something I don’t.” Razon speculated then bid goodbye to his friend as he exited the room.
He had a lot to think about, especially the argument he had with Lisa. Although he needed to focus more on what was going on before this guy had the opportunity to strike again, he didn’t want Lisa to go home and possibly lose her too. No matter what happened between the two of them, he would make sure she was safe. He was determined he would be relentless until he found the assailant, even if it was the last thing he ever did.
Chapter 15
It had been a long time since Smoove had gotten together with all the members of 10th Mob to discuss strategy and to silence some of the rumors that had been circulating since Lance had been doing his own investigation of Smoove. He and Dink handpicked and recruited certain members that Smoove thought would be key elements in the new 10th Mob that he was trying to build. Smoove, Dink, and the other Mob members met in an abandoned warehouse that was once used as an auto detailing shop owned by some Latinos. It was rumored they were shut down by the cops for illegal operations, so there were still a few cars in the warehouse that were badly in need of repairs. The warehouse had been looted a couple of times. Thus, anything of value was already gone. The shells of a few cars were sporadically placed throughout the warehouse, creating constant chatter regarding what could be done with the remaining vehicles.
Smoove stood in a room full of people that looked up to him for guidance as well as protection, all of whom would do anything he asked of them. Mostly males, a few females waited for Smoove to inform them why he had summoned them. With the exception of Lance and Tae, everyone else was in the crowd.
“Look,” Smoove spoke loudly, getting the attention of everyone in the room. “I don’t want to be here long. I want to talk about some changes that are gonna be made and answer some of your questions. Just know, if it’s not something I don’t want to cover, then it’s none of your damn business. I’ll let certain people know what they need to and I don’t wanna hear no fucking side chatter about it. All of you were called here because you’re lieutenants in a particular area of the Mob–solid and strong niggas that I can trust to get shit done. But if I find out I can’t trust you or you’re a weak link, I will personally terminate dat ass.” Smoove stood tall in front of the crowd, with a firm face. Although Lance was his boy and had been for a long time, after all the things that had been going on, he didn’t think Lance was fit to share the throne with him. “I know most of you have been overly worried about our lil nigga, Tae. Even though you may have heard otherwise, I’m doing everything I can to get him out.”
“But he has been in there a long time…” A girl’s voice shouted out from the crowd. Smoove didn’t like to be challenged and he didn’t like to be interrupted. He quickly put his hand up to silence her and moved through the crowd to see who was talking. When he spotted the 15-year-old girl, he smiled and stood in her face.
Members of the 10th Mob moved aside; they knew how unbalanced Smoove’s temper could be, so the last thing they wanted to do was be on the other side of his fist. Smoove looked at her small body standing before him and smiled. She quickly looked down at the floor, praying for mercy, realizing that voicing her opinion at that time may not have been in her best interest. Without saying a word, Smoove forcefully slapped her across the face. The young girl grabbed her face, wanting to scream out in pain, but comprehended she had to appear to be as tough as possible. If there was any indication of weakness in any member of 10th Mob, they would quickly be eliminated.
“Say one mo mutha fuckin thing while I’m talking and I’ll pull your teeth outta your mouth, on
e by one.” He calmly smiled in the girl’s face as she shook her head no. “Anybody else got anything they wanna say before we continue!” Smoove yelled in anger. No one decided to speak out, not because they didn’t have questions, but from fear of how Smoove would react. “You already know Dink. He’ll be making a lot of major moves for us so we can get some extra money in our pocket and continue to take over the street. So get ready to push some new shit on the block. I’m counting every penny, so make sure you keep your shit tight. Last but not least, we got some extra shit we need to resolve. We’re gonna have a lot of heat coming down on us from dat bitch ass cop nigga Parker, but we gonna take care of him. I’m gonna snatch up a few loyal soldiers to put in some work for me; trust that you’ll be rewarded accordingly.” He concluded.
Glancing around the room at the young faces eager to make more money and prove themselves to him, Smoove felt like the king on his throne and he didn’t intend to let anyone knock him off. He wanted to be able to take care of Lance himself. It seemed like the only resolution was to take Lance out in order for him to continue as planned. Smoove had to be careful; it wasn’t easy to catch Lance off-guard; he always tried to be a couple steps ahead of everyone. Hence, now it was time for Smoove to do some dirty work and take care of Lance. He wanted to make sure he talked to Dink privately because he knew he had some news for him. Smoove quickly ended the meeting, telling everyone not to make any moves until they got further instructions from him and that he was the only person they should talk to about the meeting. If any of the other Mob members were not in attendance, it was for a reason. Therefore, he didn’t want them talking to anyone about what was said there. Knowing they didn’t need to stay in one place for too long, the group quickly dispersed.
“Yo, I think that nigga Lance was at my house.” Dink said to Smoove once he was alone with him. “I found one of them nasty ass dreads in my house. Lance cool peoples but I need him to cut that shit out his head and keep his shit clean like mine.” Dink said as he rubbed his hand across his freshly cut hair. Smoove knew Dink meant it as a joke, but he wasn’t interested in Lance’s hair, he wanted to know why he was at Dink’s house if he wasn’t visiting Dink.
“You need to talk to your sister.” Smoove whispered sternly.
“Destiny? Why? I thought you didn’t want her to know that we know Lance be at da crib?” Dink looked confused. Normally, Smoove didn’t like to explain himself, but he realized he needed to handle the situation carefully. Dink loved his sister and even though she was older, he was the one taking care of her.
“I think he might have tried to bully her into telling him something.” Smoove said as he rubbed his chin. “Matter of fact, what do you think about me talking to her alone? Maybe she’ll tell me things she won’t tell you.”
“True.” Dink agreed, nodding his head against his better judgment. Taking care of Destiny wasn’t an easy job. She was extremely high maintenance, spending most of her time at the mall buying everything she put her hands on if Dink let her. Dink realized Smoove would be the next boss due to the moves he was making with other organizations and groups. Even though he already had an idea of how Smoove would ‘talk’ to Destiny, what could he do? He needed to make sure Destiny was provided for even if it meant making sure Smoove was happy. Dink had plans of his own, but understood this was a stepping stone to making his way to the top, so he would have to step aside so Smoove could have his way.
Chapter 16
Theresa Bradley was out for a night on the town when he first saw her, watching the show-stopping performance she gave on the dance floor, he knew she would be perfect. Theresa was a creature of habit to the point that you could set a clock to her punctuality; he had observed every step she made. If she said she was going to be somewhere, she was there without question. She was not the type of woman that broke promises. If she couldn’t commit to something, she didn’t make a promise. The thin-framed, cocoa brown-skinned beauty could have easily been a model but appeared to occupy a corporate position. Neat business suit with a laptop bag secured on her shoulder and a cell phone in her hand, she looked as if she was planning her day. Hurriedly, she jumped into a waiting cab and rode off into the city, maybe to a business meeting he imagined. He wasn’t worried about how he would track her down, he knew exactly where she’d be and would make sure his eyes were on her. Little did she know, he had other plans for her–plans that could make her a very happy woman or cost her, her life if she didn’t follow his rules.
During his free time, he followed her. He knew every minute of her schedule as if he planned it himself, but he didn’t want to seem obvious. He waited almost thirty minutes after Theresa arrived at the Better Body Gym before he walked in the door. He knew that he still had an hour before she left for her next appointment. Better Body Gym was open twenty-four hours with a rotating staff, most of whom were busy assisting others in getting the body they wanted to achieve rather than keep an eye on every person that walked in the door. There were very few personal trainers, and at this time of day, there were over thirty people on treadmills, exercise bikes, and working out with free weights, trying to workout before heading back to work after their lunch break.
He wanted to make sure there were lots of people so his being there wouldn’t be a factor. When he entered, he could see that Theresa had already begun her work out on the treadmill, and would be there for another few minutes before she moved to the area where she would work on her abs. Next, she would move to the free weights. She didn’t need a personal trainer or a workout partner; she was dedicated to the workout regimen she had created. Besides, she didn’t have time to exercise with anyone, she had appointments to get to.
Since he knew time was limited, he quickly took his gym bag into the men’s locker room and changed into a tank top, basketball shorts, and cross-trainer sneakers. Just as he exited the locker room, he saw that she had already began her crunches on a purple mat designated for the corner of the gym.
Gazing around the gym, he went over to the weight area, which was already overpopulated with muscle bound men who were only working out to get the attention of the women on the treadmill. He began to warm his body up with some push-ups and crunches. All the while, he kept his eyes on her, watching every move she made. He wasn’t sure why she came to work on her body, she was perfect to him just the way she was. Before long, she came over to the free weights. Mostly only men were in the weight area. However, there were a couple of women who were serious about their workout, so they came to lift weights in the gym. Even though his muscles ached after what he’d done to Jorge Ortiz, he needed to release some mental distress, especially after his conversations with Dennis Parker.
“Excuse me,” her sweet voice echoed in his ear. He turned around to look at her. “Are you still using this area?” She asked, indicating that she wanted to work out with the weights in the mirror and he was blocking her view.
“No, not at all.” He smiled and quickly moved out of her way and to another area close by where she was still within his eyesight. Theresa couldn’t help but smile at him as they continued to silently flirt with their eyes. She watched as his muscular arms pulled his body up on the bar over his head. Every inch of his body looked as if it was chiseled by Greek gods, even his sweat was tempting her to watch him. She tried to snap herself out of it, but couldn’t help looking at him. She had seen him somewhere, but wasn’t sure where. His light, caramel skin with tattoos across his back and arms were a conversation piece alone, not to mention his stormy grey eyes that were mysterious yet intriguing. She did her best to turn away and complete her routine when she caught a glimpse of the scar on the side of his face right next to his eye. Theresa couldn’t deny that the scar on his face made him look even sexier to her. Maybe it was because he looked like a bad boy and she looked like the good girl that wasn’t supposed to be attracted to someone like him. Whatever it was, she acknowledged to herself how much she liked adventurous bad boys.
He noticed her watching him and dec
ided to go over and introduce himself. What better way than to use the same line she used on him, “Excuse me,” he smiled, displaying his neatly trimmed goatee. “Are you still using this area?”
“No, not at all.” She returned his smile, realizing what he was doing. “Hi, I’m Theresa.” She extended her hand for him to shake, which he politely did. Typically, she made up names for herself, because she wanted to be extra careful, especially after seeing all the murders on the news. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something about him made her feel comfortable enough to tell him her real name. Anyway, it was just honest flirting. She wouldn’t mind him being her eye candy when she came to work out; maybe a little conversation wouldn’t hurt either.
He held onto her hand, even after they had finished their greeting and realized he was getting lost looking at her, which gave him time to think of what he wanted to say to her. “I’m sorry for staring,” he laughed shyly. “You’re just so beautiful.” Her high cheek bones and mocha complexion gave her an exotic appearance which was interesting to him. “I’m sorry, I’m Rajahn.” Normally, he used a name from his past. Jamal was the name he was most comfortable with but not this time. Even though he was still getting used to his name, he wanted to see how open he could be with her, and if she would accept the type of person he was. His name felt like butter rolling off his lips, which created a since of completion that he had learned something about who he really was. Rajahn was ready to share his name with the world, but not yet because he still had some things he needed to learn about himself. It had been a long time since he paid attention to anything other than the work he was doing, and he needed to complete what he was doing before he could live happily ever after.