by Stacy-Deanne
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.” He huffed and puffed holding his waist.
“Are you related to her or—”
“No.” He exhaled into his hand. “I saved her.”
“Saved her?” The nurse readied her pen to write. “What happened?”
****
“Mr. Wild?” A tall black man with caramel-brown skin and a pretty-boy smile approached Jonathan in the waiting room forty minutes later. “I’m Detective Emory Fitts.” He extended his large hand, his clothes hanging loose on his slender body. “Nice to meet you.”
Jonathan looked him over as he shook his hand.
A speck of white forced itself from Emory’s honey-brown eyes. “I work with Dee Quarter.”
Jonathan tingled at the sound of Dee’s name. “I didn’t kidnap her like she says.”
Emory’s low-cut hairline rose from his narrow forehead. “The young lady you saved is nineteen-year-old Candra Martel.”
Jonathan watched a woman get a soda from the vending machine. “Will she be all right?”
“I’m glad to say she will be.”
Jonathan exhaled.
Emory sat in the orange chair beside Jonathan. “She was stabbed over ten times.”
“What?”
“That’s why she was bleeding so much.” Emory clasped his hands, his sterling silver bracelet sliding on his wrist. “She was leaving her boyfriend’s house and the man you saw her with abducted her.” The creases in Emory’s cheeks flattened. “He took her to the woods and tried to kill her. She somehow fought back and ran. She’d been running for about ten minutes when you came across her.”
“Jesus.”
Emory leaned forward. “I’m investigating the Dania Shorter case. Heard of her?”
“It’s been all over the local news. She was the eighteen-year-old who was brutally murdered by that maniac.” Jonathan rubbed his buzz cut. “What does this have to do with tonight?”
“The prime suspect in Dania’s murder is Ro Chavis. Candra’s incident seems very similar to what happened to Dania. Dania was abducted in the same area Candra was and we speculate she was taken to the same woods where Chavis killed Dania. Chavis claims they went on a date and the murder happened after they parted ways.” Emory tapped his foot. “I gave him the benefit of the doubt until people said they saw Dania in Ro’s car hours after he claimed he dropped her off at home. Top that off with him not having a solid alibi for where he was during the time Dania was attacked, I knew he was lying.”
“You think this guy tried to kill Candra?”
Emory nodded. “If we can link him to Candra, it will be hard for him to deny that he’s not the same man who killed Dania. I showed Candra Ro’s picture.” He took out his phone. “But she can’t be sure of what he looked like. She says it was too dark, she was scared and things happened too fast. I’m hoping you can help.” Emory switched his phone to a photo of a white man with a hard, square face and protruding forehead.
“My god.” Jonathan grabbed the phone. “That’s the man Candra was running from.”
“That’s Ro Chavis.” Emory closed his eyes and a light smile appeared. “Mr. Wild, you have no idea how important you’ve just become to this case.”
****
“Ooh.” Detective Dee Quarter dropped her fork, her stomach turning from the medium-rare beef tenderloin swimming in blood on her plate. “Goodness.” She held her thighs, fighting nausea.
“Are you all right?” Winston Lewis chewed duck breast across the table.
They sat on the terrace of her favorite restaurant because Dee loved watching the movements of the city while eating but nothing took her mind off the horrific murder scene she’d examined a few hours earlier.
“Is your stomach upset or something?” Winston handed Dee her wineglass. “Maybe this will settle your stomach.”
“I’m fine.” She cleared her throat. “What was I saying?”
“You were talking about the Keng family.”
“Winston, it was awful. I hadn’t seen a crime scene that gruesome in a long time.”
Winston’s royal-blue eyes twinkled underneath the lights that brightened the night air. “The entire family was killed?”
“Yes, Normand, Tabitha and their sixteen-year-old daughter Faith.” Dee sighed, propping her elbow on the table. “All shot to death multiple times in their beds while they were sleeping.” She nibbled on her fingernail. “We found no clues at all but it seemed like they were ambushed.”
Winston chewed, his eyes widening.
“Brutal crimes like this rarely happen in Little Korea.” Dee chewed the mushy green beans. “Normand ran a grocery store and Tabitha stayed at home. They were Jehovah’s Witnesses. Nothing out of the ordinary. Mr. Keng was shot so badly he was nearly decapitated.”
“Dee.” Winston touched his stomach.
“I’m sorry.” She chuckled, her long wavy weave blowing in the soft breeze. “Tonight is supposed to be about us and I’m bringing up work.”
“Sometimes you got to leave it at the station.” He winked. “Take a lesson from me.”
She faked a smile and cut into the beef, when she looked up, her eyes met Winston’s magnetic gaze.
“What is it?”
She slid her fork through the wine sauce. “He keeps calling.”
“Jonathan?” He sat back, his gorgeous face contorting. “I told you to change your number.”
“I’m not letting him run my life. He thinks he won’t go to prison but I’m not stopping until his ass is locked up.” Dee caught the gaze of the pointy-faced white woman at the next table. “Jonathan’s gotten away with things for too long and it ends now.”
He nodded with tight lips. “Let me end it then you won’t need the courts.”
“The last thing I need is you assaulting him again and making things worse.” She took his hand. “I love that you want to protect me but this is my battle, babe. I need to be the one who fights it.”
He kissed her hand, his lips forming a frisky smile. “Let’s go to your place. Isn’t Lydia still out of town visiting Cam?”
She nodded, grinning.
“Then we’ll be alone.”
“Detective Lewis. ” Dee looked at him from underneath her lashes. “You wouldn’t be trying to take advantage of me, would you?”
He grabbed her from the table and gave her a passionate kiss that weakened her knees. “What do you think?”