Terrence gave Peaches a hug. “Hey girl! How have you been?”
“Oh, I’ve been good. I heard you were working with Beyonce and them. Can a sister get a hook up?”
“Peaches, not now.” Simone sighed.
“What? I wanna be famous too! I got skills just like you!”
Simone rolled her eyes in her head. “I’m sorry Terrance.”
“It’s okay. I forgot how crazy your sister was.” He laughed.
“If you call ambition and drive crazy, then you can drop me off at St. Elizabeth’s right now.”
“Don’t tempt me.” Simone muttered.
“Shut up, heffa.” Peaches chuckled. “For real though, Terrence, I have headshot, right here.” She reached in her bag and pulled out one and handed it to him.
“Wow, is this a blown up picture of in front of one of those velvet backgrounds at a nightclub?” He couldn’t believe what he was looking at.
“It sure is! He did a good job didn’t he? He really captured my essence.”
“Um…yeah. He captured something. I’ll keep this on file, okay?”
“That’s all I’m asking.” She said as she gave him a hug.
“Well ladies. I need to get going.”
“Aww, so soon?” Simone said as she gave him a big friendly hug.
“Yeah, I have a meeting to get to. It was really nice seeing you again. Can we get together soon and finish out talk?”
Simone gave a slightly uncomfortable smile. “Sure.”
Terrence kissed her on the cheek and she escorted him out.
“Girl, he still has it for you!” Peaches flopped down on the sofa and put her feet up.
“I know.” Simone knocked her feet down off the table and sat beside her.
“He just isn’t my type.”
Peaches laughed. “Oh okay. So what is your type? Tall chocolate fine brothers named D-Smooth, maybe?”
Simone blushed. “I just want to see where it leads before I get into anyone else.”
“Or anyone else gets into you.” Peaches laughed.
“You are so nasty! I’m not saying I’m not interested. He’s sweet guy and all.”
“Your loins just burn for another?” Peaches interrupted.
“Something like that.” Simone laughed.
Chapter 10
9 months later…
Neal sat impatiently in the dressing room waiting for Simone and Peaches to finish trying on clothes. Peaches came out first in a shirt that looked two sizes too small and painted on jeans.
“What the hell is that, Peaches?” Neal laughed.
“This shit fly ain’t it?” Peaches said as she primped and danced in the dressing room mirror.
Neal just rolled his eyes. “Simone, are you done?”
Simone stepped out of the dressing room wearing a red spaghetti strap dress that showed off her natural D cup breasts, slender waist and voluptuous hips.
“Damn girl!” Neal said with an ear to ear smile, “I’m gay and I’d do you!”
Simone laughed. “Shut up. Is it too much?”
“No, it is fabulous! He is going to love it.” Neal smiled.
Simone walked over to the mirror. “I hope so. He has been so stressed over the past nine months about all the negative publicity he has gotten over that Ganja robbery and working on his new CD, I thought giving him a nice, quiet dinner would be refreshing.”
“I’m sure he’ll love it.” Neal smiled.
“You sure he didn’t do it?” Peaches looked suspiciously at Simone in her mirror.
“See Peaches, you are starting to sound just like that pain in the ass Detective Rice. He has been in our face ever since.”
“Shit,” Neal replied as he typed on his Blackberry, “He is cute as shit! I would love for him to be in my face or on my face, for that matter.”
“Eeeww.” laughed Peaches.
Simone picked up another dress off the rack next to her dressing room. “No you don’t. He’s a royal pain. I’m just glad Ganja didn’t die, or this would have been a lot worse.”
“He might as well be!” Peaches said as she tugged and pulled on her jeans. “The dude is in a vegetable! It’s a shame too. He was fine as hell!”
“Oh my goodness girl,” Neal laughed, “Do you ever quit? The man is in a coma and you talking about how cute he is!”
Simone raised one eyebrow when she looked at the outfit Peaches had on. “Peaches, what the hell do you have on?” Simone laughed.
“Whatever,” Peaches scoffed, “This store isn’t for shapely girls like me.” She took a deep breath as she unbuttoned her pants and headed back to the dressing room, “You have to be a size negative 0 and below to wear these clothes.”
“Whatever. If you stopped stuffing Entenmanns’s doughnuts down your throat you wouldn’t have a problem.” Neal snickered.
“See, Neal, you need to mind your business. They aren’t Entenmanns, they’re Krispie Kremes.” Peaches laughed. “Get it right.”
“Oh, well, excuse me.” Neal laughed as he stood up and tapped on the door to Simone’s dressing room. “Simone we really have to go. You have a meeting with Roxanne in an hour.”
“Okay, okay,” Simone stepped out of the dressing room with an arm full of dresses, “I can’t decide so I’ll just take them all.”
Neal wiped away a fake tear. “I have taught you well.”
As they headed towards the cashiers, Simone noticed two women standing over near a rack of clothes snickering and laughing in her direction. She just looked at them and continued her strut. She didn’t have time for jealous bitches. They looked like they lived in some ghetto somewhere anyway. I mean, where the hell do you buy pink and blue hair? She just adjusted her five thousand dollar sunglasses with the hand that had her ten thousand dollar diamond bracelets on it and smiled at them.
“Bitch.” One of the women said loud enough so she could hear.
“What the fuck did you say?” Peaches stopped and began to make her way over towards them, but Simone stopped her.
“You heard what I said.” The young woman made her way closer to Simone.
Gesturing to her brick wall body guard to hold on for a minute, Simone removed her sunglasses and took a step closer to the woman. “Look, honey, I really don’t have time for you, today. So why don’t you and your little ghetto fab friend get going, okay?” She started to turn to walk away.
“You may think you and D-Smooth are going to get away with what he did to my brother, but I got something for you.”
Peaches stood in front of the woman. “What? What is it you got for us?”
The woman reached into her purse.
“The bitch got a gun!” Peaches jumped down to the floor knocking over a display.
Neal, embarrassed, went to help up Peaches. “Girl, get up!”
The woman pulled out a letter written to her by her brother, Ganja and handed it to Simone. “My brother gave me this and told me that if anything ever happened to him to go to his lawyer and get a package that would prove Darius was behind it.”
Simone took the letter. “What the hell does this have to do with me?”
“Well, I went to the lawyer’s office and he was gone.”
Simone raised her perfectly arched eyebrow. “What do you mean gone?”
“Simone, do we really have to stand here and listen to this garbage?” Neal interrupted.
“Shh.” Simone motioned to Neal. “I want to hear what she has to say.”
“I mean he was gone!” The woman finished. “The office was cleared out, like he hadn’t even been there!”
“Okay, first, who’s to say he didn’t move? Second, what does any of this have to do with me?”
The woman took a step close to Simone. “It has everything to do with you and your thug boyfriend. Don’t think I‘m giving up on this. I will make sure everyone knows about what D-Smooth did to my brother.”
Simone laughed. “Well sweetie, you go right ahead because he didn’t have anything to d
o with it.” She motioned for her bodyguards to take her out of the store. The woman gave Simone a hateful glare as she jerked her arm away from the body guard and walked out of the store with her friend.
“I swear, why was the store even open to anyone else while we were in here? Manager!” Neal yelled as he walked to the counter.
“Don’t you worry big sis. You know I always got you back.” Peaches said as she patted Simone on the back.
Simone just smiled as she looked down at the folded letter and put it in her purse.
Detective Rice walked into Chief Howard’s office after being summoned. “What’s up Chief?”
Chief Howard looked up from the stack of papers in a folder on his desk. “Sit down, Rice. Why don’t you tell me why you are still wasting department money on the Ganja case?”
“Chief, I know I can close that case.”
The Chief pushed the file in front of Detective Rice. “See that? It says closed! It was ruled a robbery!”
“Chief, I know this was no robbery. I know D-Smooth had something to do with it.”
The Chief leaned back in his chair. “What is it with you and this D-Smooth asshole?”
“Chief, he’s a slickster rapper that thinks he is above the law. All I need is time to prove to this jerk-off that he isn’t!”
“Tell me Rice, what proof do you have that he was involved?”
“None, right now, he’s found a way to keep his hands clean. All I need is more time…”
“More time?” The Chief interrupted. “Are you crazy?” The Chief pounded his hand on the desk, “I have the Mayor in my ass about why this case is still open! What do you suppose I say to him? Oh, well Detective Rice has a feeling. So we decided not to close it.”
“Why would the Mayor care about this…” Rice put his head down in realization. “That asshole! He must have the Mayor in his pocket! Don’t you see it Chief? Am I the only one that sees this dude for what he is? Or does he have you in his pocket too?”
The Chief laughed out loud. “You need to watch it. You have been obsessing about this man for years now, and you never come up with anything concrete; all hunches and suspicions!”
Rice stood up from his chair. “Chief…”
“Shut up! You will not waste any more of the MPD’s resources to harass this man, no matter how guilty you think he is! Until you bring me some hard proof, I don’t want to hear about it again, or you will be suspended! Clear?”
Rice grit his teeth. “Yes.”
“Now, get out of my office and work on one of our current cases.”
Rice turned and walked out the Chief’s office beaten but not defeated. There is no way this asshole is getting off again, Rice thought to his self as he snatched his jacket off the back of his desk chair and headed towards the elevators.
“Whoa! Why the mad dash?” Asked the young policewoman as she jumped out of his way. “What happened?”
“The Chief is what happened.” He could hardly stand still from all the anger and frustration. “He’s an idiot!” He yelled.
The young policewoman pulled him into the stairwell. You would have never thought she was a policewoman if you saw her out of uniform. She stood about five-four, long, curly, brown hair, and dreamy brown eyes. They have been dating for about two and a half years, now. He didn’t usually go for white women, not that he had any issues with it, he was told all the time by his parents that he could and should date whomever his heart desires. “Are you crazy? What happened to get you this wound up? Let me guess, it’s the D-Smooth case.”
“Look don’t you start with me too, Brenda.” He turned to walk away but was pulled back into the stairwell.
“I’m not starting with you, okay?” She reached up and placed a hand on each side of his face. “I believe you. I told you that. I just don’t think you obsessing about this jerk is helping you at all. It has been almost a year and they can’t find any evidence of what you are accusing him of.”
“That doesn’t mean there isn’t any! I just have to find it.”
“I’m just worried about the fact that you are focused on this and this alone. You are practically up all night, and you’re not really eating.” Brenda said with concern.
“He’s not going to get away with what he did.” He held her hands and put them down at her side. “I can’t let it go. He’s going to pay, one way or another.” He turned to walk out of the stairwell.
“Dick, it wasn’t your fault.” Brenda said.
With his back still turned, he just paused and swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’ll see you at home.” He said without looking back at her.
As Detective Rice stood in the crowed elevator, memories of his lost partner and best friend swirled in his mind. He and Tim had been friends since cadet school. They met out on what the academy had named “The Pit” where they both had to ’push’ for being late for formation. They became immediate friends. So, when they graduated the academy they made sure they were assigned to the same department and eventually were able to become partners. They were like brothers, even introduced themselves as that way. Detective Rice was there when Tim got married and when he had his first child.
It was about three years ago he and Tim had had one of their regular arguments about cases they were working on. Tim was in the midst of investigating the purchase and renovation of area near the waterfront in a poor area of DC. Dick was annoyed with Tim because he felt he was obsessed with it. Tim would insist that there was some dirty dealings going on that went all the way up to the head officials of the city. He remembered, it was about two in the morning when his phone rang, waking him from a deep sleep. “Hello?” Dick said in a scratchy, groggy voice.
Tim answered sounding out of breath. “Dick, can you hear me?”
Dick sat up in his bed. “Tim is that you, why are you so out of breath? Where are you?”
“Man, I don’t have time to talk right now. Can you meet me at the statue at Haynes Point?”
“What? Why? Man, what’s going on?” Dick said trying to wake up completely.
“I don’t have time to explain! Just get your ass over here!” Tim hung up.
Dick got up right away and headed over to the statue named “The Awakening” at Haynes Point. From the air it looked like a man coming up out of the ground or grave. He had always hated that statue. It gave him the creeps. Riding up on it at night when the park was closed made him hate it even more. He got out of the car and sat there for a moment waiting for Tim. “Where the hell is he?” He sat and waited an hour and finally got out of his car to see if he saw him. It was cold as shit out, so he didn’t want to stand outside for long. He pulled out his cell phone and called Tim’s cell phone. As it began to ring he heard it off in the distance. “What the hell?” He turned to see the phone lit up and ringing on the ground near the guard rails by the water. His heart began to race and he could feel the fear shoot through his body.
“Tim!” He yelled out with no answer. “Tim!” He could feel the lump in his chest as his gut told him something was seriously wrong. He stood for a moment in the dark park waiting to see his friend peek out from behind a nearby tree and wave to him with no avail. He knew where to look next…he just didn’t want to. He could hear the water hitting against the pier behind him. His breathing was sparse and heavy as he swallowed hard, turned and looked into the dark and murky water to see his partner and best friend of over seventeen years floating face down…dead.
Dick still has nightmares about that night. He is haunted by the cold stare in his once life-loving best friend’s eyes. He would often ask himself, why couldn’t he have gotten there sooner? Why couldn’t he have driven a little faster? He blamed himself for not being there to help him when he needed him. He in turn was determined to finish his partner’s investigation. He never found out whatever it was that he was going to show him. There were no envelopes or packages at the scene. All he had was Tim’s files and notes to guide him.
The coroner did find a water damaged
copy of a schematic in his jacket pocket. Forensics was able to repair the copy enough to see that it was a schematic of a huge complex to be built on the waterfront and “DB” written in the bottom corner. The forensics tech didn’t know who that was, but Dick, he knew; it was the same slippery asshole that was wrapped up everything, but couldn’t be tied to anything…Darius Barnes or D-Smooth to the rest of the world. He pursued the case for months, coming up empty handed when it came to evidence. He knew that Darius killed his partner, but he couldn’t prove it. Every time he saw a new music video, award shows, or talk shows with D-Smooth, he rose to a new level of hate for him. It became his main focus to prove that D-Smooth was the low-life snake that killed his partner. He couldn’t let it go. He wasn’t going to let it go.
Diamond Lives, Platinum Lies Page 8