by Leila Lacey
As Marcus was talking, Maddox tried to reach inside his door to pop the lock while shouting, “OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR!”
“SIR? STOP!” Seth finally yelled, going to the back of the vehicle.
“What did you say to me?” Maddox stopped while looking at Seth. “Get back over there and cover me.
“STOP, please! Or, I’m calling this in,” Seth warned again.
As the two cops had a standoff, Marcus, Alena, Vanessa and Jeffrey all looked at each other as if trying to figure out what the hell was going on.
Giving in, Maddox walked past Seth, bumping into his shoulder purposely.
Seth walked to the driver’s side door and said, “Sorry about that sir. Our mistake, you can go ahead. Congratulations by the way.”
“Thank You,” Marcus replied still looking confused.
As Seth walked back to the car, he heard Jeffrey hang out the window and shout at him, “Racist ass pig!”
“Jeffrey, get your ignorant ass back in this car! You’d better not get me arrested, especially looking this damn good. I will be big Bertha’s main bitch within twenty-four hours. SIT YOUR ASS DOWN!” Vanessa yelled from the backseat.
As they drove off, Seth climbed into the squad car.
Maddox sat silent for thirty seconds, then he turned to Seth drawing his gun and aiming it his temple, faster than Seth could blink. “You ever disrespect me again, and I will put a bullet in your head and frame the niggers! You got it?”
Seth saw his life flash before his eyes. He felt sure, he was about to take his last breath. If there was one thing Seth had learned in the time he’d been with Maddox, he didn’t say anything he wasn’t willing to follow up on.
There was so many things he hadn’t gotten to do, as a cop. Seth thought when he joined the force, he could be a beacon of hope in his community. Instead, he’d been assigned to ride shotgun with a cop who was worse than any of the crooks he’d seen on the job
He’d never gotten to love a woman the way the driver of that car loved the passenger. He knew the moment he saw them, they were the newlyweds and loved each other immensely. Wanting to make a difference hadn’t meant shit when it came down to it. “Got it,” Seth said turning toward the window.
CHAPTER FOUR
A month after the event…
“How long has it been?” Alena asked her sister Vanessa.
Looking at her watch, Vanessa replied, “Ten minutes from the last time you asked sweetie, so that makes is a total of two hours.”
Alena and her sister sat inside of the police station waiting. The special investigators were supposed to tell them if the cops from the Southdale Texas Police Department who murdered her husband by inflicting fifteen gunshot wounds to his body the month before, would be held responsible in a court of law.
Marcus had been the oldest son to two attorneys. Valedictorian. Captain of the football and basketball teams. He was a volunteer at the local firehouse and although he’d been heavily recruited by several colleges, he then decided he wanted to go to West Point. He wanted to be a Marine one day and fight for his country.
He always planned to marry Alena. Two years after they graduated from their respective colleges before he left for boot camp, he proposed.
Marcus was 6’ foot 5 with chocolate brown skin, dark brown eyes and a body many a cheerleader wanted to know intimately.
Alena Banner is the youngest daughter to two doctors. Her mother is a cardiologist and her father is a Psychiatrist. She was the prom queen, runner up for the valedictorian, cheer leader, basketball and soccer player.
She’d been accepted to five Ivy League schools after graduating from high school. She’d volunteered at the hospital all through high school and worked at a child care center part time.
On the day of his graduation from WestPoint, Marcus had gotten down on one knee and purposed to Alena. Who had emotionally accepted to cheers all around?
Two years later, she’d stood in the bay of the Emergency room and watched him die. Watched as his heart stop beating, watched as he took his last breath. The one person in this world who understood her was completely gone.
Just then, two of the special prosecutors walked into the conference room. “Good Afternoon,” Mr. Hanes said to her, extending his hand.
Alena just looked at his hand not really wanting to touch anyone in law enforcement at this point. “Are they going to be held responsible?”
Taking a deep breath, he opened the file he’d brought with him. “Mrs. Banner, after a very thorough investigation into the shooting of your husband, we have concluded it was a justified shooting.”
“What?” Alena exclaimed in a complete state of shock. Marcus was shot twice in the head, six times in the chest, five times in the legs and twice in his bicep. She stared at him confused, how could his murder be justified?
“Ma’am, we have looked into the incident, our offices have found the officers were justified in their actions. I am so sorry for your loss and the tragedy of this situation.”
Standing abruptly, she yelled at him, “How exactly is this tragic for you? Did you lose your husband? Did you lose your best friend? Did your child’s father die needlessly before he could even be born because of the ignorance of other people? Did you watch the love of your life leave this world bleeding like a stuck pig on a hard metal table? Do you have to have some ass wipe in a tie with a title tell you the men who killed your husband were justified in taking his life? Tell me Mr. Hanes, how terrible is this really for you?”
Squirming in his chair and looking through the pictures in the file of Marcus laying in the middle of the road while Jeffrey was holding his head in his lap waiting for the ambulance which took twenty minutes.
Reaching across the table and slamming the file shut Alena shouted, “LOOK AT ME!”
Mr. Hanes peered up at her.
“My husband was shot fifteen times. He drowned in his own blood and you’re telling me the shooting that took his life is justified? They needed to fill a man who posed no threat because he was unarmed with THAT many holes? Really?”
“Again, ma’am I know this is hard to understand—”
“Oh no, Mr. Hanes I more than understand. My husband is just another dead black guy to you. But I promise you when I am done, he will be the only black man you cannot forget!” She grabbed the doorknob, ripping the door open and walking out of the room while screaming, to one of the officers she bumped into in the hall, “GET OUT OF MY WAY!”
CHAPTER FIVE
Two months after the event…
After the decision, Alena had been in her apartment for a month without leaving. There would be no indictment against the officers who killed her husband.
It’d been three weeks since she discovered she was going to bring a baby into this monstrous world.
Her normally immaculate apartment was completely filthy. With pizza, Chinese food and Ho-Ho wrappings strewn everywhere. Along with other rotting food, there was month old milk cartons and cottage cheese stinking up the refrigerator.
Dishes were stacked a mile high in the kitchen while layer on top of layer of dirt, crumbs and dust covered the hardwood floors.
KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.
Pulling a blanket over her head, Alena attempted to pretend like she didn’t hear the knock at the door. She knew it was one of her friends or family members coming to console her. When all she wanted was to be left alone. Then again, what she wanted was Marcus back.
To be able to tell him she was pregnant with their child and terrified to have it. Afraid to have a reminder everyday of him, of what he would miss, the child’s first steps, first words. Pain overwhelming her again, she pulled the blanket over her head and started to cry…again.
“Alena! Alena this is your momma open the door!” Alena’s mother Tabitha yelled through the door.
“I am here too sweetie, please open the door?” Hazel Banner Marcus’ mother shouted.
Positive they would not go away until they saw her in pers
on, Alena threw her blanket back, angrily wiped away the tears from her eyes and stormed to the door.
Pulling it open, so they could both see and smell the state of things inside of the apartment, she yelled, “WHAT?” She went and sat on her couch, covering herself with her blanket again.
“Well, there is no reason to forget you’re a lady!” Tabitha chided as she walked into the apartment looking around like she just entered a battlefield full of bodies.
“Or to forget where the bathroom is,” Hazel said holding her breath and fanning her face. “Sweetie, if you need soap, I can go out and get you some right now.”
“HAZEL!” Tabitha said in a chastising tone
“What? Can you honestly tell me tears didn’t form in your eyes when you walked in here? I mean the girl hasn’t bathed in a week!”
“Actually, three,” Alena muttered.
“SEE!” Hazel exclaimed while pointing to Alena. She went to the patio door and started opening and closing it to air out the room
“Hazel, you’re not helping,” Tabitha said as she walked over and sat down next to her daughter. Tabitha Horn was nothing if she wasn’t a dignified lady. Her hair grey and silver, pulled back into a bun at the nap of her neck.
She’d always been a proud strong black woman never ashamed of her dark skin or naturally kinky hair. She never had any type of chemical in her hair. She was proud of her naturally kinky coif. The wife of a doctor and a doctor herself, Tabitha personified dignity and strength. There were two things in life she leaned on—God and education. Her motto was, you could never be defenseless if you had an educated mind.
Alena’s parents were bishops in there church for as long as she could remember. Both of them heavily involved in their church. No matter if it was bible study, choir practice or a bake sale, Tabitha and Dr. Luther Horn could always be counted on to do whatever they could for their church.
Lately, Alena started to wonder if anything could crack the armor of a belief in her parent’s God. For her mother it was almost like a blind faith. Something she could not understand at this point in her life. “Momma why are you here?” All she wanted right now was for them both to leave and give her some space.
“I got a feeling you were living like this when you would not open the door for your sister. I wanted to make sure you are okay.” Her mother took her hand and slowly rubbed it.
“I’m fine, Momma. I just need everyone to leave me alone.” She got up off the couch to clean up her house. She hoped if they saw her up and moving around it would motivate them to leave.
“No you are not!” Hazel retorted, “You are far from fine Alena. You have not showered in two weeks and your house is the start of an episode of hoarding, by the way. It proves you are not okay!” Hazel started digging out a small bottle of her $250 an ounce perfume to spray around the room. She’d always been known as a woman who didn’t mince words. She said what she was thinking and didn’t care who liked it.
The only exception to her rules had always been her son… Jeffrey—the exception to every rule for Hazel and she placed that burden on Marcus’ shoulders.
Which was why he’d been out the night he was killed trying to save Jeffrey from getting arrested and violating his parole.
“You have a responsibility to my grandbaby to—” Hazel started to say to her in her tough love tone.
“DON’T! Alena heard her give this tone to everyone but the person who needed it. Which immediately sent Alena from sad to pissed off in two-point-two seconds. “Don’t you dare tell me about my responsibilities! Not you of all people” Alena yelled, her voice cracking as she tried to keep the tears that pooled in her eyes from running down her face. “If YOU had taken responsibility for YOUR son instead of putting the burden on Marcus, he would still be here. MY CHILD would have a chance to meet its father. So, don’t you even think about lecturing me!”
Alena started to pace the living room, unable to sit still anymore. There were so many emotions coursing through her, she sometimes felt like she would explode from the pain.
“Alena baby, God says, ‘get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you, Ephesians 4:31-32’ ” Tabitha quoted as she opened her bible. She always had her bible no matter where she went.
“DON’T! Don’t you dare quote the bible to me momma. Where was your God when Marcus was bleeding to death in the ER? Where was he when he was being shot in the street like a dog from trying to be a good son?” Alena yelled, no longer trying to hold back her pain as she gripped her chest. Alena’s heart was so broken she thought she may die from it.
“Oh! Baby No!” Tabitha exclaimed. Standing up to stand in front of her daughter. “God never puts on us more than we can bear baby. You have to have faith in his grace and his plan for you.” She tried to embrace her daughter, like she could take some of her pain on herself.
Hazel stood silently by the door looking as if she did feel the sting of what Alena just said.
“Who told God I could bare this? WHO? I want to know! Because I can’t’ momma! I can’t and if he thinks I can—he can go to hell!” Alena shouted while running into her bathroom, slamming and locking the door. Leaning against the door then sliding down to the floor sobbing.
Alena laid there on the floor of her bathroom sobbing for the next two hours, finally passing out from exhaustion. When she woke up later, her mother and Hazel were gone.
Her mother had left her bible on Alena’s table with a note on top of it which read:
God will never forsake you baby! Reach for him, lean on him he will get you through. Love, Momma
It struck Alena she’d never seen this bible out of her mother’s possession until today. Reading her word as Tabitha like to phrase it was like keeping herself clean and she’d left her bible with Alena.
As she sat on her couch, staring at the book which was supposed to fix all her problems, she wondered if there was something in there. Anything which could ease this enormous sense of loss and fear she’d been feeling since Marcus had been killed.
Deciding it couldn’t hurt her any more than she already did, Alena grabbed the bible off the table and started to read it. Hoping her mother was right and all she had to do was give God the chance to prove her wrong.
CHAPTER SIX
Two months after the shooting…
“MOM? ARE YOU HOME?” Seth called out to his mother while walking through the front door.
Titan, his parent’s French bulldog stood in the entryway barking a greeting to Seth. As he did to everyone.
“Hey Titan! Where is mom, buddy?”
“Back here, honey!” his mother yelled from her office. When people thought of homemaker, they thought of Melissa Horn. The wife of a retired cop with two children who were cops and one who was a social worker, Melissa raised her children to be in service of their community.
Although Seth, along with his brother Steven had followed their father’s example and became cops, Seth was actually closer to his mother.
“Hi sweetie, how are you today?” Melissa asked.
He leaned down, kissed her on the cheek and gave her a halfhearted smile. “Fine.”
“Are you sure Hun? You look a little constipated, let me get the castor oil. Two teaspoons and you will be flowing like the river Nile.”
“EWWW…Mother No! I am not constipated!” Seth exclaimed. “Have you spoken to Shawn today?”
Seth knew there was going to be no keeping the fact from his mother that he and his brother were fighting. For one thing, they all had Sunday dinner at her house every Sunday and for another, Melissa made sure she spoke to all three of her children at least once every day.
Melissa stopped what she was doing and gave Seth her undivided attention. “No, not yet. Why? Should I have?”
Before Seth could say anything, Titan started to bark again, indicating someone else had entered the house.
“Mom I—” Shawn halted as he walked into his mother’s office. He stopped cold when he realized Seth was there. “—Have you decided to come and cry like a big pussy to mom?” he accused sarcastically while staring at his brother.
“Fuck You!” Seth snapped.
“HEY! I am still sitting here boys!” Melissa yelled, getting up out of the wing backed office chair she sat in. “Sit down!” she instructed both of them.
They both scoffed at the idea of sitting in the same chairs they’d sat in as boys to be chastised for bad grades or bad behavior.
“SIT!” Melissa yelled, giving them her patent, I am about to hit you with the rolled up newspaper look.
They both sat down in front of their mother. Anyone could see the frigid distance between the once close brothers.
“What is going on? And tell me without all the swearing…this is a Christian home,” she warned her sons.
“Captain DeLuca’s retirement celebration is this week,” Shawn explained. “I called Seth to find out if he was going or was he turning his back on the police force as well as the sheriff’s department.”
Melissa and Steven had raised their sons to know and believe every man’s life in this world had value, regardless of their race, religion or financial status. It was the backbone of why the Hale family had generation after generation of cops, firefighters and priests. Shawn was the brother who took the ‘blue brotherhood’ to a whole other level of loyalty.
“I have not turned my back on anything!” Seth yelled. “I wish Uncle John nothing but the best, but I will not go and laugh drink and be merry with murderers. I may not be a sheriff anymore but justice runs through my blood!” He paced in front of the fireplace.
“Murderers? Ohhh…how high and mighty we get a couple of months later when our asses have been pulled out of the fire by the same men you now condemn! If I remember correctly brother, you were the one who fired the kill shot to the back of his head!”