“Okay, we have a picture book we would like for you two to look at.” Detective Powell looked up at his partner. “Hey Gary, can you get the book for me?” The man in the wrinkled suit nodded. He then walked out the door to get it.
“Do you recall if he touched anything?”
Mrs. Rogers became nervous. Not only had he touched the glasses, he had touched her. “I remember that he was adamant about remaining in one place. I did offer him a drink or seat, but he declined. He only stood and watched me.”
“Powell,” Gary called out as he returned carrying a thick black book.
“Okay, this is what we call our suspect book. You both can look through it and see if you recognize anything. Some of the people in this book have a history for this type of thing. Just take your time and let me know. I’ll be standing over there,” he said pointing to a group of uniformed officers.
“Why did you lie?” Mr. Rogers asked when Detective Powell was out of earshot.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re safe. I heard these people sometimes come back, and I don’t want to chance that.”
Mr. Rogers felt like she was right. “He didn’t touch you did he?”
“John, please!”
They opened the book together. After reviewing the first page, John Rogers turned to the next page. Mrs. Rogers had no interest in the book. She was hoping the police wouldn’t start searching for prints. John Rogers turned the page again, and then nudged Mrs. Rogers. She looked down to see a photo of the man she had recently had sex with. She now knew that his name was Victor Scott.
“Is something wrong,” Detective Powell said startling them.
“I think so. I remember he made a phone call just before he left.”
“Did you hear anything important?”
“I think so. He was telling someone about a flight tonight.”
“A flight! Do you know where?”
“New York. I’m sure he said New York,” Mrs. Rogers told him.
*****
“Tony, there’s a strange looking man out front for you.”
“All of them look funny. What does he want?”
“These aren’t your regular customers,” Chell said tilting her head.
Tony sighed and stood from behind his desk. He was in his office waiting on Craig to call. “Bring them in,” he told her. Chell disappeared and returned with two men.
“How can I be of service?” Tony asked.
“My name is Mr. Colodon, and this is my personal assistant Train.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Mr. Colodon looked at Chell. “Is she your personal assistant, because what I have to say is strictly business.”
“She’s my sister. Is there a problem?” Tony asked growing agitated.
“No, there’s no problem.” As Mr. Colodon spoke, Train pulled out the P89 and pointed it at Chell. “Hold up,” Tony yelled jumping up.
“I assume you have a lot of love for your sister,” Mr. Colodon said.
“What’s with the gun? We can talk about this! Whatever it is.”
“Let me warn you, Train isn’t just my personal assistant, he’s like my guardian. Right now, you have a problem. Can I sit?” Without any response from Tony, Mr. Colodon took a seat on the couch. “I’m going to be frank with you. I made a down payment on Amanda Sanco’s diamonds. I would think that you know this. Do you know Mr. Ace?”
“Ah shit! I know him but we ain’t rolling together.” Tony started to sweat.
“Well Mr. Ace took a million dollars from me as a down payment. The problem that I now have is that I had to kill him and his brother for trying to deceive me.” Chell gasped placing a hand over her mouth. “Your problem Tony is that Mr. Ace has mentioned your name to me.” Mr. Colodon removed his shades. “So, where are the diamonds?” Train pulled on the action engaging the Ruger.
“My sister doesn’t have anything to do with this!”
“I didn’t say that she did. Do you know where the diamonds are?” Tony looked around his office thinking. He was once the man at the head of his organization, which had changed quickly. “I’m waiting Tony.” Train stepped closer to Chell.
Tony sighed. “I might know who’s got them.”
“Who’s that?”
“There’s this guy named Hitman. He’s like the head man of their group.”
“What does this group do?”
“They do licks, jobs, like the diamonds.”
“Go ahead, explain more…”
“Alright, last week Craig…”
“Who’s Craig?”
“That’s Ace’s brother.” Tony began sweating profusely. “Can I fix a drink?” Tony put his hands down realizing he was holding them up. He then walked to where he had some bottles of liquor. He eyed the two men grabbing a clean cloth and wiping out two glasses. He needed to buy some time. Maybe he could get himself and his sister out of the situation. Tony looked at Chell whose eyes were large with fear. She knew Tony kept a small gun somewhere in the office. She was pleading with him not to do anything stupid. He poured two drinks of Crown Royal debating. With a change of mind, he carried them over to Mr. Colodon.
“Hitman, you were saying,” Mr. Colodon prompted.
“Yeah, um… they’ve been doing things like this for a while. So last week Craig tells me about the diamonds. He was kind of nervous about it being that it was their biggest hit ever. I told him, if he could get the diamonds that I could find a buyer.”
“You wanted to get your hands in?” Mr. Colodon asked.
Tony took a sip of his drink. “I guess. Who wouldn’t?”
“Who all is a part of this group?”
“I don’t know all of the players. All I know is Craig, Ace, and Hitman.” Train took another step towards Chell and put the P89 to her cheek. A small whimper escaped her lips.
“As I was saying? Who all is in this group? I’d rather you lie to me than keep something small to yourself.” Chell started sobbing. “Please Tony, tell them what you know,” she begged.
“There’s seven of them not counting Ace and Craig,” Tony said.
Mr. Colodon smiled. “That’s better Tony. I knew you had a soft spot for your sister. Now how do we find these people? Do you know where they live?”
“I know where Nano stays, and I know where Time and Skillz be at. I don’t know about the rest of them. They meet up when Hitman tells them to.”
“I’m starting to believe you. So how are we going to do this?”
Tony looked at him lost. Mr. Colodon continued, “I need collateral. I said I believed you, but I’m a man of business. I’ll give you the choice of picking. You or your sister?”
*****
“The police will be all over this. There is sixteen million dollars in diamonds missing. There was, I don’t know how much cash in the van. Two of us are dead. We need to start thinking,” Hitman said. “We’ll go to Lendora’s pad. She’s feeding the money through the money machine now.”
“Hitman, no disrespect to you, but I’m about getting the diamonds,” Skillz said.
“Me too,” Time added. The two of them turned to Nano and Tip.
“We did this for the diamonds,” Skillz said trying to tone it down.
“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. Skillz you’re going to drop me and Time off. Tip, can you get somebody to watch over Dice?” Hitman asked.
“Yeah.”
“Alright, in two hours we will meet in Carson City.”
Carson City was what Hitman called his house. “Y’all bring some trash bags. Everybody needs to drive their own whip. Come pick up your bread, then we’ll go get the diamonds.”
“That’s what I’m talking about,” Skillz said. He turned to Time. “Don’t Nique work as a dispatcher?”
“Yeah, she does.”
“Well we need help. She can probably give us the heads up on what’s going on out there. We don’t want to be blind.” Time thought for a minute. He remembered the morning Monique was tripping on him. He knew she
knew about the diamonds. Was it possible that Skillz, Craig, and Ace had something going on and Skillz had killed them? There was too much shit going on and it all seemed to lead back to Skillz. Plus, he was the one that had wanted to cross the group. He decided he needed to talk to Hitman as soon as possible. He turned to Skillz and said, “You’re right.”
*****
“Why aren’t y’all out there looking for them? I would think that would be a top priority,” Cindy said with her arms crossed. “Y’all said there were more people held against their will. So there has to be more than just the two of them.”
“I’m sorry you had to endure that, but many times people don’t survive this type of situation. Usually they would leave no witnesses,” Detective Powell told her. He turned to Mr. Davids. “So, your daughter was here also?”
“Yes she was. She played cards with the woman.”
“You said cards?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have the cards?”
“No they took them.”
“Okay, we’ll dust the place just to see if we can pull any prints, but after that we’re done here. Um… one more thing. Are any of you familiar with the name Craig or Ace?”
Mr. Davids shook his head no. “Not off the top of my head,” Cindy said. “Are those the other kidnappers?”
“We’re not sure yet. We just found their bodies at the Radisson Hotel,” Powell told them.
Chapter 31
“Hey baby,” Tip said trying to appear as normal as possible. “Hey Ma! Where y’all been?” Dice asked. “Nowhere,” Tip replied hoping that was his last question.
“What have y’all got in those bags,” he asked.
“Quit being nosy.” Tip turned to Kizzy. “I really appreciate what you do for us.”
“It’s no problem. I thought I wouldn’t see you until tomorrow. Everything okay?”
“Just fine. Let me get your money.”
Nano headed to the back with two plastic bags. Tip followed him, returned almost immediately, and handed Kizzy a check. “No, this is too much Tip,” she protested.
“Girl shut up and take it. You always come through in the clutch for me. You have never told us no and I like you.”
“This is a thousand dollars! When do you want me to watch him again? Shit, I’ll adopt him!” The laughed and hugged one another. “I can watch him full time for you though,” Kizzy told Tip.
“I’ll let you know, I may need you.”
Kizzy started to gather her things. She then looked down at Dice. “Are you going to come see me?”
“Me and my mom will ride through.”
Tip looked at him with a smile, “Isn’t Kizzy a little too old for you?”
“All I got to do is turn eighteen. She said!” Kizzy furrowed her eyebrows. “That was supposed to be our little secret!” She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. “Bye baby,” she said with a smile and left.
“You look like you might be in love,” Tip teased him.
“Aw Ma,” he said embarrassed. “I’m too young to know what that is.”
“I know that’s right. Come here.” Tip headed to the couch and took a seat. Dice hopped up on the couch beside her. “Tomorrow, I’m going to buy you a go-kart.”
“Quit playing Ma.”
“I’m not playing.”
“You’re for real?”
“Yeah. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to us, and I want to show you. Now, go do your homework.”
“I already did it.”
“Alright, you can go play in your room.”
“What time are you going to get the go-kart?”
“Who knows, it might be here when you get home from school.”
Dice dashed down the hall and disappeared in his room. Tip returned to their bedroom where Nano was preparing to take a shower.
“So what are we going to do with it,” she asked him referring to the $630,000 in cash. “Tomorrow we’ll stash it. They we’ll lay low.”
“What about the diamonds?”
“Hitman and Skillz will try to find them. As I see it, we at least came out with something. Those diamonds are gone babe.”
“What do you think about Craig and Ace?”
“The devil was waiting on them. You’ll never win gambling against him.”
*****
“You didn’t answer your phone. I was thinking something went wrong. Craig and Ace are dead, and the police is going haywire,” Monique said. Time threw a trash bag on the floor containing $315,000. “What’s that?” she asked.
“Didn’t Skillz tell you what was up?” Time walked into the bathroom and closed the door. He wanted to make the phone call to Hitman at that point. He didn’t trust Nique anymore. After two rings, Hitman picked up.
“What’s up?” he asked.
“Today when you were talking about somebody stepping out on the group, I thought I might know what was going on.”
“You know something?” Hitman asked.
“I can’t talk about it right now.”
“Can you come over and talk?”
“Yeah, I can do that.”
“Are you coming now?”
“I’ll be there in 15 minutes. Let me take care of something real quick.” Time disconnected, grabbed a rag, and wiped his face. Looking into the mirror, he thought about the last two days of his life. When Time exited the bathroom, Nique was nowhere in sight. He walked into the front room and found her sitting on the couch crying. Time grabbed the black bag and the keys to the Donk. He then walked to the front door and looked back at her for the last time. There was no coming back after everything that had happened. He’d find a way to stay in his daughter’s life without dealing with Monique. He only wished she was home and not at her grandmother’s, so he could have said good-bye and explained things to her.
Time exited the house, slid into the Chevy, pulled out his cellphone, and called Step. She picked up on the third ring. “What’s up cutie?” she asked as she answered. Time smiled. It felt good when you knew that someone was happy to hear from you. “You,” he replied.
“I see you made it back safely.”
“I did, but everything didn’t go right. I’m good though.”
“Guess who called me?”
“Nique.”
“How did you know?”
“I just do.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“First, I’m going to drop something off to you.”
“What is it?”
“Money to retain a lawyer.”
*****
Lendora was lying across the bed naked when the knock came at the door. “I wonder who that is,” she wondered out loud. Hitman slid out of the bed wondering. He knew it couldn’t have been Time that quickly.
He looked out of the peephole to see Tony from Club Delight. “What is Tony doing here,” he thought. Tony and Craig had been cool. Maybe he knew something. Hitman opened to the door to see a troubled Tony and two people he didn’t know.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“I’m Mr. Colodon; I’m here for the diamonds.” As he said this, the white man with them pulled a gun.
Chapter 32
Detective Graham wore civilian clothes inside Club Delight. People weren’t too fond of cops coming to strip clubs and flashing their badges. He casually walked to the bar surveying the scene and took a seat.
“Can I help you?” Chell asked. She was worrying about Tony and if he would return. “Can I have a beer?” he asked. Chell eyed him suspiciously. “Are you a cop?”
“No I’m not a cop. Why would you ask that?”
“Because cops are the only ones that drink beer in here.” Chell slid a Budweiser since he didn’t specify what kind of beer he wanted. Graham grabbed the beer and took a sip. “Oh yeah, you’re a cop. Why are you here?”
I came to see someone by the name of Luscious. Is she working tonight?”
“What do you want her for?”
“Busi
ness.”
“Is this about those bodies at the hotel?”
“Do you know something about that?”
“This is Tennessee, everybody knows about that.” Chell looked around and then she pointed. “Luscious is over there. You shouldn’t have a problem finding her.”
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