Reckoning

by Shakir Rashaan

  “You always knew when I was having trouble cracking cases, Sherrie. I miss that about you, about us.”

  “Yes, but you have two women in your life now who can fill that void for you.”

  “Yeah, but I’m stuck in this room until they release me. I can’t be any good to anyone laid up like this.”

  “Dom, baby, listen to me; you’ll be fine, you’ve handled cases tougher than this, including my case. I have faith that you will be able to do what is necessary in the end.”

  She was right; I was stressing out over cases that didn’t hold a candle to the ones that had a higher degree of difficulty. I was pressing more than I should have, and I knew the reason why; I simply didn’t want to admit it to myself. I couldn’t believe that I allowed someone to have that much power over my psyche, but I did, and I needed to find a way to break her hold over me.

  “You know you can’t trust Simone; she’s proven herself to be a bit psychotic, especially after killing me over some perceived slight she had against us. Do you think for one moment that she won’t flip on you and try to get a reduced sentence out of it?”

  “She won’t get away with whatever she thinks she’s getting away with, baby. She knows if she crosses me that it means big problems for her.”

  “Like what, more time in prison? That’s not going to faze her one bit.” Her voice felt like it was trying to draw me in, make me a part of her world. Her words were soothing, with a hint of edginess to make me feel like I was alive. “Please make sure that you bury her deeper once you’ve found out the truth behind her supposedly helping you in this case, D. I don’t think you realize how deep her problems with you run. She’s always been fixated on you; even in college it was on the borderline of creepy. She lives to see you squirm, my love. Don’t let her think she has the upper hand.”

  “But, how do I get her to crack, baby? She’s always tried to stay two steps ahead of me.”

  “Dominic, she’s always tried to make you believe that, but I know my man better than that.” She was convinced of everything she was saying to me, and it gave me the most serene feeling. I couldn’t believe I was hearing these things, but my mind went back to the woman in the hotel, the one who told me that Sherrie was having second thoughts about us before she was killed. “You were always the best at what you did, and you still are. Look past the false arrogance that makes her think she’s better or smarter than you, and you’ll have what you need to make her crack and tell you everything you need to know. I believe in you, baby; I always have, and I always will.”

  “I love you, Sherrie. I never stopped loving you.” The tears I felt while inside of my hallucinogenic dream as they made their way down my cheeks were real, and my emotions were high. I felt the need to say what I wanted to say while I felt I had her attention, whether it was real or imagined. “I wish there was a way to have saved you before she killed you.”

  “We’ll be together again, my love. In the next life, we’ll get it right, and no one will stand in our way. Until then, make the best of this life, and do what you were born to do. Now, get up and take care of business. I’ll be watching over you, always, until the time comes for us to be together again.”

  Leave it to Sherrie to know how to help me when I least expected it. I really wished I wasn’t on the powerful narcotics that I was under, but I had a feeling that it wouldn’t take long before things would get back to normal. Even in death, she still had a profound effect on me, and I’d love her forever for that.

  And even in my dream state, my ex-wife gave me what I needed to gain the advantage over Simone.

  “How are you holding up, bruh?”

  I still had a protective brace over my bruised ribs as I walked up the hallway to check on Ty. He had gotten beat up pretty bad, and I’d hoped that he made it out of his condo in one piece. I was still unconscious when the paramedics had gotten to me, according to what I was told, and despite my questions about him, in my diminished state, I probably wouldn’t have heard that he made it through and was going to be okay.

  Ty gave a weak smile, trying to get through his own pains as he gave me the once-over.

  “Obviously, not as well as you are, man. Already on your feet in less than a day? I need to figure out how you heal so quickly so I can be like you. This hospital food is fucking with my normal diet.”

  “I wish I could come up with the formula for you, but you know me, I’m part stubborn as hell, too.” I put up a good front for him, but if I was honest, I should have kept my ass in bed and taken it easy. “How in the world did he get past your system?”

  Ty shook his head, realizing that he had to explain the whole ordeal. “He caught me slipping while I was coming out of Lenox Square. He followed me home, and in hindsight I should have seen him coming a mile away, but I was on the phone with this girl and she was trying to swing by, and that was a wrap.”

  “So, he forced you into the house?”

  “Yeah, he came at me fast and hard, hit me and dropped me on the ground. He dragged me inside, trying to find out what I knew about him, what I’d dug up on him. When I told him that I didn’t know who the fuck he was, he swore I was lying and tried to beat the information out of me.” Ty continued to recount what he could remember. “My phone went off while he was punching me, and he saw your name pop up, so that’s when he told me to call you and get you to come over, or he would kill me.”

  If I didn’t want to put this guy in the ground before, I was absolutely focused on making sure that happened now. I no longer cared about whether he went to prison for his crimes; my only concern was making him suffer for what he had managed to try to do, and in Jason’s and Tori’s cases, what he already did.

  “Listen, I need you to heal up as best you can. I have the information you were able to dig up to help me take care of things and find the bastard. You have my word I’ll make him pay for what he’s done.”

  “Bruh, you know I already know what you plan to do. That son of a bitch tried to kill me and he already killed two people who were close to you. You don’t need my permission, and you certainly don’t owe me anything. We’ve been friends too long for all of that.” Ty raised his arm to tap fists with mine, a smile spreading across his face as one of the nurses walked in to do her check. The smirk on her face let me know he’d been working on her ever since he got in here. “Besides, if I hadn’t had what happened to me happen, I wouldn’t have met Valencia. So, in a really warped way, I should thank you for getting me put in here. She’s been worth going through the pain while she helps me get better.”

  Yeah, he needed help to get better, all right. The shape on Valencia made it worth staying in here at least another week, just to make sure that the wounds healed properly.

  I headed out the door to prepare to get discharged. “Don’t hurt yourself too bad while you’re recuperating, bruh. I’m sure you want to get back to what you do best soon. And I’m sure Valencia won’t mind administering private home care once you leave.”

  “You got that right.” Ty continued to admire the international flavor that had his attention. “Can you do me a favor, though? When you catch ol’ boy, don’t bother making him suffer. Put him out of his misery.”

  TWENTY-TWO

  I walked through the door of the prison like a man possessed.

  I wasn’t alone, either; by the looks of the faces of the people watching as I moved through the building, they’d have thought I was of some importance. I wasn’t, but that’s none of their business.

  I made the phone call to have Sarge meet us in the reception area of the building as soon as possible. It was my final heads-up and courtesy to him, and a rather ironic one at that. He was a good man, at least in my eyes, but his arrogance did him in. It wasn’t something I would take pleasure in, but there was no other choice in the matter anymore. It was up to me to show him the error of his ways, whether he wanted me to or not.

  The unfortunate part of all of this was that there was only one way that this was going to end.
I couldn’t do this alone, and I recognized that, which is why I made the connections I did to make this all happen. If I was going to have a high-ranking member of the Department of Corrections removed from his position, I had to have a few people who had more clout than he did.

  “Are you certain about these allegations, Detective Law?” one of the persons walking with me asked. “He’s been one of our more distinguished employees, despite the issues he had before leaving Fulton County PD.”

  “Ms. Altmore, I wouldn’t have asked you to accompany me down here if I wasn’t absolutely certain about the allegations I’m levying against him.” The recording was compelling, but it wasn’t quite enough to bring formal charges against him, that much I was already aware of. I had to put him on the spot, whether he liked it or not. “I realize he is one of your more valued employees, which makes this especially hard to deal with. I was one of his former subordinates; I realize the difficulties I’m dealing with.”

  There’s always been this thing about the “thin, blue line” that we’re supposed to never cross, but to be honest, I’d never really subscribed to that theory. Yes, I had no issues sticking up for my brothers in blue if the situation called for that to occur, but if there was some issue, or it looked like there was something shady going on, I was not going to look the other way. It didn’t endear me to a lot of officers during my years in various precincts, although it did put me squarely in the crosshairs of Internal Affairs for recruitment purposes. In hindsight, it might be the root cause of why I had been catching so much flak from former coworkers and current officers whenever I came into contact.

  It might have also explained why Sarge was so flippant in his concern for what I was capable of doing to him professionally. In his mind, no one would back me up since I wasn’t exactly ever one of them, and now that I was in the private sector, that reality was even more pronounced. If I was honest with myself, I had to look in the mirror to find the blame for all the friction I continued to encounter. Whether or not I would be able to change that perception would be a matter of time and consistency.

  That also had everything to do with the entourage walking with me, too.

  The other people that were in the group making its way to Sarge’s office were the attorneys who represented the Legal Services division, along with two officers who were there for detainment purposes, should the attorneys deem a necessity for such an action to occur. That explained the way everyone moved out of the way or tried to stay busy to keep from drawing attention to themselves. This was the extraction group, and whomever they were coming to extract, they made sure they did everything they could to not be the focus of the extraction.

  This was the first phase of my plan; the next phase required the presence of the defense attorney who represented Simone. His presence was necessary so he could witness the testimony of his client and advise her of her rights, which as a prisoner, she truly didn’t have very many. Combine what she knew in one instance with the information that could help me place a dangerous man behind bars, and she had no choice but to cooperate. The other choice was life in a super-max prison, relocated out of Georgia, where she wouldn’t be able to harm anyone else again.

  I wasn’t stupid; I might have been prepared to perform one hellish interrogation, but the criminal law degree hanging in my office compelled me to make sure this would be as righteous a maneuver as it needed to be. Before I was done with her, two things were going to happen: the first thing was that she would give me everything, every piece of information she was privy to, including the person who put this whole mess together; the second thing was that her attorney would have no choice but to advise her that she would give me everything, especially when she committed a murder while incarcerated.

  Even when she did give me everything, she was still going to get upgraded and relocated. She’s a high-risk prisoner now, and those would have to be dealt with in a different manner altogether.

  Look, I never said this would have a happy ending for her; I only said everything I was doing would result in a righteous arrest and conviction.

  She could wait, though; I had a bigger fish to catch and kill.

  Sarge had already been summoned to the reception area, and he didn’t look pleased about it at all. The expression on his face and the look he gave me could have melted lead. “I see you decided to try to bury me after all, huh? Well, I won’t go down alone, that’s for fucking sure.”

  “Now, now, there’s no need for that type of language, especially around the ladies, sir.” I did my best to maintain some decorum while dealing with the delicate nature of this meeting. He was willing to drudge up my past transgressions, and I was ready for every one of them. “There’s also no need to drag this out any longer than it has to; these people are here because I have leveled some serious charges against you.”

  “Yes, I read the list; you’re stretching, Law. That’s disappointing, too; I thought I taught you better than that.” Sarge was insistent on trying to push my buttons to get me to crack, but what he forgot was that we were both seasoned veterans, and I was no longer one of his subordinates. “What proof do you have that I did any of what you’re alleging me of doing?”

  “I believe that might be where I come in.” Simone walked up with an armed guard on her heels, shackled from wrist to ankle in chains and cuffs. “Considering I know I’m not going anywhere anytime soon, I would say I have information that might put you in a rather negative light, Assistant Warden Lynch.”

  His eyes narrowed upon seeing Simone, and even more irritated once her attorney stood by her side. He couldn’t stop laughing, almost like the joke was on us. “You really have got to be kidding me right now. You’re going to believe the word of a junkie convict over me?”

  “I think you have me mixed up with some of the other inmates you’ve been fucking the past few months, dude.” Simone smirked, dropping some information that even I wasn’t aware of. The shocked expression on Sarge’s face was enough to lend credibility to her impromptu claims. “Yeah, the thing you did to set that girl up in my cell is the least of your problems, I would think.”

  “This bitch is lying on some major league levels! I want my attorney here, now!” Sarge bellowed, causing the officers to take a flanking stance. He scoffed at them, almost like he was insulted that they were trying to detain him. “She has nothing on me, period. It’s her word against mine, and I promise you it won’t hold up in court.”

  “I guess it depends on the information that she has in her possession that might incriminate you, Warden Lynch.” I looked at Ms. Altmore, and I wasn’t sure if things would get better or worse than this moving forward, but one thing was for sure; it was about to get entertaining quickly. “I guess we’ll have to see what happens in court to know the final answer on that, Sarge. Now, if you would allow these gentlemen to escort you off the premises, it will help move things along smoothly.”

  “Let me tell you a story, and I think you’re gonna love how this one turns out, Dom.”

  Simone had all but ignored her attorney’s advice to shut up and not say anything, even as the Legal Services attorneys pretty much said the same thing to her. For some reason, she felt the need to stick it to me one last time. I guess she needed to get her sadistic rocks off and purge her soul at the same time, but I wasn’t exactly in the mood for her smug attitude. I had aces in the hole that she knew nothing about, thanks to some unexpected information that was texted to me by Ty from his hospital bed.

  If she wanted to play high-stakes poker with her life, I was more than willing to oblige her.

  “So, tell me, Simone, how am I going to enjoy how this story turns out, huh? It’s bad enough you hid a murder from me; what other well-kept secrets do you think you have that you might enjoy torturing me with?” I didn’t mind the games this time around; I wanted to see how much information she was willing to tell me of her own volition. “I’m sure we all would love to hear about this.”

  “You’re a little fuller of yourself
than usual, D. You must think you know something that I don’t.”

  I played the first weak card in my hand, to see if she’d bite. “I might have something up my sleeve, Simone. Maybe I should start with the fact that I know Kacie was your cellmate. Does that open you up a little bit?”

  A slow clap came from her hands as she cocked her head to the side to acknowledge my response. “Well, damn, I guess you’re not all brawn after all. Yes, D, she was my cellmate, so what of it? Oh, let me guess, you think I murdered her, don’t you?”

  “I don’t think, Simone; I know you did.” I followed up my weak card with a stronger card to make her sweat a little bit. “According to the assistant warden, she was found in your cell, her neck broken, and it happened after bed check that night. There was no one else in the cell or around the cell at the estimated time of the murder, and your cells are under camera surveillance. Care to explain?”

  I watched her face turn desperate in a second, almost like she wanted to beat Sarge to the punch when it came to turning state’s evidence. “She was planted in my cell, and the bitch decided she wanted the top bunk, like she was supposed to be some special bitch or something. One night in particular, she called herself saying she had special permission or some shit, and she’d only been here for a freaking week.”

  I leaned back in the chair across from her, watching the proverbial noose lowering around her neck. She was playing into my hands and she was smiling all the way.

  “About another week into it, Lynch comes to me during my work detail and he has this proposition for me, saying he would be able to make things easier for me after I did this thing for him.” Simone tried to gauge my facial expressions, realizing that I was all into every word she was saying. That’s what I wanted her to think. “Then, I get this guest out of the blue that wants to talk to me. At first, I didn’t know what to trust, but as the conversation continued during that first meeting, I began to see the bigger picture, and I was down for the cause immediately.”