The Golden Lie

by B. M. Hardin

  I never asked how. I didn’t want to know. But I told him that shooting her might not be the best route. It didn’t match Dakota’s profile and maybe strangling her or something would be better.

  And then he, whoever he was, was to leave the front door cracked open, plant Dakota’s watch at the scene, preferably underneath her body and then go back out of the window.

  I knew Dakota. When he came to the house for their little talk, and when he saw her lying there, I was sure that he would touch her. He would try to help her. He would be at the scene, and he would appear to be the only one with a motive. He wanted her to get rid of the baby.

  The watch was to be planted there, just in case he left instead of touching her. Just to guarantee that the police knew that he was there and inside of the house at the time of the murder. Just in case we had to go with Plan B.

  And then Dakota would be charged, hopefully found guilty and then he was supposed to spend the rest of his life in prison.

  I shook my head. I just can’t do this.

  This wasn’t right. I had to stop it.

  With my hands still shaking, I called my brother, Nick.

  He didn’t answer. I hung up and called him again.

  He still didn’t answer.

  “Shit!”

  I looked at my watch. Time was winding down. I contemplated on what to do. I went to Jerome’s number that I’d saved in my phone since the day that he’d called Chanel’s phone. I stared at it. I wanted to press call, but even he couldn’t call off the hit. He was at work.

  I checked the time again. I could call Dakota and keep him from going over, but still, that wouldn’t save Chanel.

  “Ugh!”

  After all this bitch had done to me, here I was, about to save her life. I started up my car and drove like a bat out of hell towards Chanel’s house.

  I tried calling Nick again.

  “Hello?”

  The phone hung up. I called him again and again. But he didn’t answer.

  I was almost there. The clock said 1:25.

  I still had time.

  Jerome hadn’t even made the call to her yet to check the mailbox. He wasn’t supposed to call until 1:30 on his lunch break. Maybe I could catch her while she was outside.

  I turned onto her street and my mouth opened wide to see that police cars were already there. The yellow tape and the Coroners van, indicated that I was too late.

  No! It’s too early! No! We still had time!

  I was almost in shock as I rode by. People were already outside and I saw Jerome step out of the house and hang his head.

  I knew that I couldn’t stop. I knew that I wasn’t even supposed to be there.

  “Oh, my God! What have I done?”

  Slowly, I continued to press the gas and then something caught my eye.

  Wait a minute…is that…

  ***********************

  CHAPTER FIVE

  “Thou Shall not covet another man’s wife…or life.”

  I was numb as I identified my brother’s body.

  He wasn’t supposed to do it. He wasn’t supposed to be there. He wasn’t supposed to die. He was supposed to send someone else. But he hadn’t. And now, he was dead.

  And so was Chevey.

  That’s right. Chevey and Nick were both dead.

  I guess Nick thought that Chevey was Chanel, from behind, and he’d killed her. He shot the wrong twin.

  As the story goes, someone actually did see a man hanging around Chanel and Jerome’s house, who happened to be my brother Nick.

  The neighbor knew that Jerome worked for the police department and called the station. The Police Captain then delivered the message and ordered Jerome to head home and check on his house and his wife.

  In the meantime, Chevey had come to visit Chanel. Chanel decided to run to the store, to pick up something to settle her stomach. Chevey decided to stay at her sister’s house until she got back. From the looks of it, Nick shot Chevey from behind and just as he was following the plan and planting the evidence to put it all on Dakota, before he could get away, Jerome burst through the front door, and shot him in the back. Of course, he had no idea that it was my brother. He’d told me that he’d found one of his boys to do it and that they were going to split the money that I was going to give him. I didn’t give it all to him upfront because I didn’t want anything to look suspicious, but I’d given him $500 just as a deposit for his friend, and he knew that I was good for the rest.

  I wasn’t sure what happened. Maybe the other guy chickened out and Nick felt like he had to do it. And I’m not sure why he’d gone early, instead of our scheduled time, but it had cost him his life.

  Jerome explained that once he was forced to go to home, he knew that he had to come up with another plan. He wasn’t supposed to find Chanel’s body until later that night, but with his Captain knowing where he was going, and that the neighbor had already spotted a man breaking-in, Jerome knew that he would have to do things a little differently. He figured that Chanel would’ve already been dead when he got there and he knew that if the man was still there that he would probably have to kill the intruder. He was sure that the nosey neighbor was probably somewhere watching.

  But last minute, Jerome said that he’d had an idea.

  He said that he’d tried to save our plan. Once he shot Nick, he called for back-up, all while asking Nick who he was. He said while Nick was struggling to breathe, he typed my name on his phone for my brother to see it and then he typed the words “Say Dakota.” Once Nick say it, he said his name: “Dakota.” Even while he was dying, he was still trying to come through for me. We’d always had each other’s back. Even to the very end. Jerome spoke to back-up again and made sure that help was listening when he asked him again. He said: “Who are you? Why are you here?” and Nick said, “Dakota sent me. To kill her.” And those where his very last words.

  Jerome said that he didn’t even notice that it was Chevey dead on the floor until Chanel came through the front door and started screaming.

  Dakota never showed up. Whether it was because he never planned to or because he’d rode by, saw the police, and just kept going like I had. Either way, he didn’t stop. He wasn’t at the scene. But because of Nick’s last words, he didn’t need to be. And later that night, after putting all of the pieces together, the police picked up Dakota.

  I’d waited until the next morning to go identify Nick’s body. I was so torn up that for hours I couldn’t even move.

  Jerome met me outside.

  I was crying uncontrollably. I’d lost my brother and my best friend.

  Nick was so stupid! I told him not to do it! He was supposed to send someone else. And Chevey. She didn’t deserve to die. She was innocent. Now, being mad at her seemed so stupid! She was in a weird position. She hadn’t really done anything wrong. It wasn’t her fault that Dakota felt something for her. At least she’d loved me enough to say no, and I wished that I could’ve seen the good in that.

  “Ma’am we need you to come to the station. We are going to have to ask you a few questions,” Jerome said.

  I didn’t know whether to be mad at him or not. But I felt something. He’d come with the police to pick up Dakota the night before, and stayed afterwards to fill me in on everything. Jerome looked around before he spoke again. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know that he was your brother. We needed another plan. And I just didn’t know.”

  Nick shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place.

  “You could’ve just let him go. You could’ve just said that the intruder got away. Whether it was Nick or not, they wouldn’t have said anything.”

  “I didn’t want to raise questions of my involvement. I had to shoot him. Since everything had gone wrong, I didn’t know if he would talk.”

  “He wouldn’t have. He was my brother. He wouldn’t have said a word about me.”

  “But I didn’t know that at the time Yaya. I was just trying to protect us. Like I promised you I would.
I told you that if we went through with this, no matter what, I would protect you.”

  I didn’t respond to him. I simply headed to my car and then followed Jerome to the police department.

  Of course, he and the lady on the other end of his walkie-talkie had given their statements on Nick’s last words. She’d heard his words loud and clear.

  Nick’s phone, nor Dakota’s watch was found at the scene, so I was sure that Jerome had picked them up. Chanel was at the station when I got there. She was being questioned too. After going through the text messages and discovering the infidelity and pregnancy, they were sure that the woman in the body bag should have been her.

  “Were you aware that your husband was having an affair?” The lady asked once I was in the room.

  I shook my head. “No. Dakota would never cheat on me.”

  She opened a folder. “I’m sorry. But he was. And she’s pregnant.”

  I read over the papers as if I didn’t know and started to cry. My tears were real because I was so overwhelmed.

  “Chanel?”

  “I hear that you two don’t have the best relationship.”

  She must’ve told her that.

  “We don’t. She was jealous of the relationship that I had with her twin and we never could get along because of it. And she’s sleeping with my husband?”

  “Yes. Well, at least she was. They say that they haven’t had sex in a while.”

  “And she’s pregnant?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Is it by your husband? We can’t be sure, but it’s a possibility. A possibility that the two of them often discussed. And from the looks of it, they thought that it was.”

  I cried as though my heart had just been broken. In a way, it had.

  “Mrs. Ramsey, I know that this is a lot to take in. Were you aware that your husband was trying to kill Chanel? And that he asked your brother for help?”

  I shook my head and took a while to answer. “But why?”

  “We assume it’s because of the baby. See. There are messages where he’s begging her to get rid of the baby. But she refused. You see here where he starts to call her names and gets angry when she tells him why she didn’t go through with the abortion. He even threatened her a few times.”

  “To kill her?”

  “No. Not exactly.”

  I stared at the woman as though I was in shock.

  “But she has her own husband. Why would she want mine? How can she be sure that the baby is Dakota’s?”

  “No one can be sure Mrs. Ramsey. But Dakota appeared desperate. Was he desperate enough to have her killed? Apparently. According to your brother. We believe that your husband convinced your brother to kill her, but he killed the wrong twin. We know that your husband owns his own company, bringing in quite a bit of yearly revenue, whereas your brother could never hold down a job. We assume that some type of transaction was set to take place. We’ve found that they’d spoken a few times recently.”

  Really? Even I didn’t know that. Neither of them had bothered to mention it either. Maybe that was something that Nick thought was a good idea. Maybe he knew that he would be the one doing the dirty deed all along.

  “We couldn’t find your brother’s cell phone. When was the last time that you spoke to him?”

  “A few days ago. But I called him yesterday, over and over again. But he never answered. I found that strange. He always answered his phone. Dakota was taking me out of town for our anniversary. And I wanted to know if he could come house sit and watch the dog for us. He’s always been unstable. Living from one baby mama’s house to the next, and I knew that he wouldn’t pass up a chance to be at our house, for a whole week, and make some cash in the process. I was trying to reach him because we were scheduled to leave this morning and I needed an answer. There was one time that I’d thought he’d answered, but I guess he hadn’t. He didn’t answer because he was dead,” I whined at the thought of him being shot while I was calling him, but I also knew that my lie covered all of the recent calls that they probably already knew about from pulling his phone records.

  “Looks pretty convenient that your husband would plan a trip to be out of town around the time that all of this was going to take place. Don’t you think?”

  “No. It was our anniversary. He always went out of his way for our anniversary or for my birthday. Maybe he just wanted to do something special for his wife,” I shook my head.

  The detectives didn’t look convinced.

  “We also found messages on Ms. Chevey Gill’s phone. From your husband. Did you know that he was secretly in love with her?”

  “What? But you just said that he was having an affair and a baby with Chanel,” I played dumb.

  “Yes. But he was infatuated with Ms. Chevey. He texted her numerous times, professing his love for her. He was sending her messages, at least one a day. But in the last week or so, he just stopped. He didn’t text her again. I wonder why that is.”

  Every day? Really Dakota?

  I wondered if he’d stopped because he was thinking about telling me the truth and hoping to work out our marriage.

  This was all screwed up!

  “Maybe Chevey was the real target because she kept turning him down. Maybe he was so obsessed with her and because she didn’t feel the way that he did, he had her killed.”

  I started to shake my head as though I was confused.

  “No. That wouldn’t make sense. If Chevey was the target, then why would he send my brother to Chanel’s house?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he was following her. Maybe he saw an opportunity and took it.”

  “No. No. No! Nick would’ve never hurt Chevey. He knew how much she meant to me.”

  “But he did hurt her. He killed her.”

  “He had to think that she was Chanel.”

  “So, you are saying that he would’ve killed Chanel, but not Chevey?”

  “No. That’s not what I’m saying! I would’ve never thought that he would kill anyone.”

  “Why not? He was a thug. He was a criminal. He was…” I slammed my hands down on the table, and she paused.

  “He was my brother! He was my brother!” I cried as she played the tape, reminding me of Nick’s final words.

  “We know who killed her. We think we know why. The question is, can we take his word for who put him up to it? That’s the question. Could your husband do this Mrs. Ramsey?”

  After a while, I shrugged. “I don’t know. Apparently, I don’t really know my husband at all.”

  After that response, they told me that I could go.

  From the looks of it, they didn’t suspect my involvement. Maybe it was because of the dying remarks of Nick. It was kind of hard to hear or see anything else, when the killer specifically pointed the finger at someone, before taking his last breath. He could’ve said anything. But instead, he told a lie.

  I walked past another room where they were holding my husband. He looked a mess. He looked confused.

  He looked…innocent.

  I didn’t stop to ask questions about him because Jerome said that I would have to play the angry, upset, heartbroken wife. Even when it came time to post his bail, he said that I should get his mother to post it instead of me.

  Looks like Jerome’s remix of a plan to make sure that Dakota went down for the crime, was going to work. But our biggest problem was still there, and she was staring me right in the face.

  Chanel.

  I wondered if they’d mention the text message to Dakota. The one where she supposedly asked him to come over that day. She would know that she hadn’t sent it. That could possibly raise some questions.

  She was crying as I walked past her. I couldn’t help but be a bitch.

  “It should’ve been you. Not Chevey! It should’ve been you!”

  Jerome came from out of nowhere, but he didn’t say anything to me and as Chanel started to cry even harder, she reached for him but he moved and walked away.

  I headed for the exit in tears.


  If Dakota was convicted, he probably wouldn’t spend the rest of his life behind bars like we’d planned. After all, the confession had come from a dying, history law-breaking, killer.

  How much weight would Nick’s words really hold?

  I looked back towards the station, just in time to see Jerome standing there. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he planned on protecting me, us, in any way that he could. And whether I wanted to be or not, we were officially in this---together.

  ~***~

  I opened the door in a hurry.

  The knocking made me think that something else was wrong. I opened it to see that it was my brother Nick’s fourth child’s mother, Ombre.

  “What happened to him?” She looked as though she’d been crying. I tried to comfort her, but she wouldn’t let me.

  “What happened to him?” She repeated.

  “He was shot.”

  “Why?”

  I thought about what I wanted to say. “He was trying to rob someone.”

  She shook her head. “You’re lying! Something went wrong. He was working on something. He was working on something for you. And something went wrong!”

  What? Oh God! What did he tell her?

  “For me?”

  “Yes. I heard him talking on the phone with someone a few days before about doing something for you. When I walked in the room, he hung up the phone.”

  I chose my words carefully. “Oh. He was house sitting for me for a week, while we went on our anniversary trip. He told me that he didn’t want to tell you because he knew that you were going to flip out about it. I even told the police,” I said to her. I could tell by her expression that she thought that I was telling the truth.

  “So, it was your husband? The police think that your husband told him to kill that woman.”

  “To be honest, I don’t know Ombre. I’m still trying to process it all. I didn’t even know that they’d seen each other recently.”