“Shut up,” Ray growled and abruptly stood to his feet. “Ya don’t know how to spell right, let alone know the meaning of it.”
“Your Honor, I object.” Marcel rose to his feet, smiling. “Could I have a moment to confer with my client?” He pulled up a chair next to Scooter and stretched his arm along the back of it. “Mr. Grice,” he uttered smoothly, running his left hand down the length of his silk tie. “I believe it would be in your best interest to cooperate fully with the court.”
Scooter snatched his head around at A.J. “Is he supposed to be some kinda lawyer?”
A.J. shook his head.
Marcel flashed a condescending smile. “I do believe I was introduced as the one who’ll argue on your behalf.”
“Argue against what?” Scooter shouted.
“Your death,” Marcel replied calmly.
Lesea cried out, “Scooter—”
“Don’t listen to her,” A.J. warned in a dangerously fierce tone. “Why did you kill Valerie?”
“Man, I’m tellin’ you, I don’t know whatcha talkin’ about,” Scooter stuttered.
A.J. stood and walked over to the door and opened it. A few seconds later, Lincoln, Vic’s brother walked inside. After a brief nod, they walked back over to Scooter.
Turning to Lincoln with a proffered hand, A.J. smiled. “Prosecutor Bennett, I’m happy you could join us. This is Tony Grice.” His gaze connected with Scooter’s, who was now on his feet.
Lincoln stilled and his eyes flared when he spotted the huge wet circle on the front of Scooter’s pants. Leaning slightly over toward A.J., he whispered, “Do you think this is going to work?”
A.J. nodded and whispered, “Five more minutes is all I need.” Picking up the folder on the table, he looked at Scooter and made a tsking sound. “Scooter, you made a terrible mess on the floor.”
A.J. shuffled through the folder containing every detail of the conversations he’d documented for the last six weeks. Also, he hoped that if he alleged that Scooter killed Valerie, he’d try and clear himself and possibly offer a piece of information that he normally wouldn’t have otherwise. “From what we’ve discussed, I know you and your team have operated in the big league. I think Prosecutor Bennett’s department would be very interested in learning more about how things really work, as well as why you killed Valerie. Right, Prosecutor Bennett?”
Lincoln smiled. “That’s right.”
A.J. smiled again as he continued to scan over the papers. “You’re running cocaine, crack, and I believe you told me a little money laundering is involved, too. This clinic isn’t the place you’re going to do it. Now, once again, why did you kill Valerie?”
“I-I didn’t kill, Val. Honest to God,” Scooter stammered and half rose from his seat.
Alex calmly walked over and pointed his empty Glock at Scooter’s temple. “Sit down. Court’s still in session.”
Ray was on his feet in an instant. “Man, you and your folks ain’t presented no defense. Guilty as charged. I hereby sentence you to death by lethal injection.” He glanced at K-Mart, again. “Stick him!”
“Guilty?” Scooter cried out, squirming as Marcel and Alex strapped him to the hospital gurney.
K-Mart patted Scooter’s shoulders. “This won’t take long, if I can find a nice big vein.” He tightened a rubber tourniquet around the upper portion of Scooter’s arm. “You’ll be gone in less than three minutes.”
A.J. pulled back a white sheet covering a tray with three syringes laying on it.
Scooter’s eyes grew wide with fear. “W-What you gonna do, man?”
A.J.’s expression was vacant. “You heard the judge. We’re going to carry out his order of execution. Now, let me explain the process to you.” He picked up a syringe and waved it in the air. “This contains sodium pentothal, a real nice drug…it will knock you out fast.” He pointed to the second syringe. “Oh, now this one might hurt a little. It’s called pancuronium, and it makes your muscles contract. But that’s okay.” He half-smiled and shifted his gaze to the third syringe. “Aaah, this one is potassium chloride. It will stop your heart in an instant and will make up for any pain you might feel.” He looked down at Scooter and fingered his moustache with his free hand. “I think this is an excellent payback for killing Valerie. Don’t you?”
“G’on head and take him out here,” Ray bellowed.
A.J. lowered the syringe, inserting the tip of the needle into the catheter attached to the I.V. “Nighty-night.”
“Wait,” Scooter shouted. “I didn’t kill Val.”
A.J. looked up with narrowed his eyes. “Somebody did.”
“I-It wasn’t me. And none of this was never suppose to go this far…I swear to God,” Scooter nervously admitted.
“Don’t bring God up in this.” A.J. sat on the side of the gurney. “Talk to me.”
Because of the restraints, Scooter could only turn his head toward A.J. “Me and Val, w-we was just running for ’em, that’s all.”
“Shut up!” Carmen ordered.
“Running for who?” A.J. asked with limited patience.
“G-Goldberg…” Scooter stammered.
A.J.’s brow lifted slightly and he focused intently on Scooter. “How’s Goldberg involved?”
“S-She da one ya want. Been heading up for a couple of years. Had a smooth gig going, too. Nobody suspected her ’cause she’s a nurse and all. Cops don’t never look at them kind. Just come down hard on a brother working the streets,” he added sarcastically.
“You aren’t in a position to be making wisecracks, Scooter,” A.J. reminded.
“I-I didn’t know nothin’ about her at first. Nobody did. Always stayed in the background. That’s how come she was able to pull it off. Know what I’m saying?”
A.J. shook his head.
Scooter swallowed the lump in his throat. “Man, that’s all I know.”
“Is that why you beat Valerie up?” A.J. asked.
“Had to. Got a call one day for me to do it. Order came down from the big boss. Plus, Val upped and called ’bout that reward.”
“What’s the name of the person heading your drug operation?” A.J. drawled.
“I-I don’t know the real name,” Scooter supplied nervously.
A.J. smiled mirthlessly. “What’s the name you know?”
Scooter hesitated.
A.J. began to slowly push down on the syringe.
“Gotti,” Scooter yelled out at the top of his lungs.
“Have you ever seen Gotti?” A.J. asked.
Before he got an answer, A.J. snatched his head up at the squeaky sound the door hinges made, indicating someone was entering the room.
* * *
Trembling with fear, Vic flung the door open and looked straight ahead. “Baptiste…”
“Scooter, this is a set-up,” Jenkins shouted as she lunged towards Vic.
Primitive instincts took over and without hesitation, A.J. dropped the syringe and dove in front of Vic the second Goldberg pulled a gun from her purse and pointed it in Vic’s direction.
A single shot rang out.
With his body shielding Vic’s, A.J. offered a silent prayer of thanks that the shot had missed its intended target.
* * *
An hour later, Vic and A.J. stood in the interrogation room with their fingers laced together, along with Zach, Agent Doreen Givens, aka Lesea Goldberg, who worked with the DEA.
Agent Givens sat at the table with her fingers hooked in front of her, shaking her head in welcomed relief and exuberance. “Well, Jenkins, you’ve certainly made the department work for our paychecks the last couple of years.” She smiled. “I didn’t ever think I’d ever crack your ring, Gotti.”
“What are you talking about?” Jenkins sarcastically asked. “You don’t have a bit of evidence against me.”
Zach flashed a smile of victory at Agent Givens. “She’s got enough to take you and Scooter down, Jenkins.”
Agent Givens leaned forward and looked directly at Jen
kins. “I have to admit, Gotti, your organization was one of the best I’ve seen.”
Jenkins glared at Vic. “This is your fault.”
Vic flinched, but held her composure and remained silent when she felt A.J. give her hand a tight squeeze.
Zach turned to his officer. “Read Ms. Jenkins her—”
“Allow me, Lieutenant,” Agent Givens offered, a smile curving the corners of her lips. “I’ve waited over two years for this moment.”
Afterward, Agent Givens stepped aside to allow the uniformed Oakland police officer to escort Carmen Jenkins, alias Gotti, out of the room.
Vic released a long sigh of relief and chuckled the moment the door closed. “Zach, remind me to never get on your bad side.” Then she glanced over at Agent Givens. “How were you able to put all of this together?”
“First of all, Mrs. Baptiste,” Agent Givens said, “let me apologize for not doing anything to help you with Valerie that day she came to the clinic. It broke my heart to have to stand back and not come to her aid, but if I’d said or done anything, my cover would have been blown.”
Vic smiled. “I understand.”
Agent Givens smiled back. “But I knew she was in good hands. You’re a wonderful nurse. Our department has been investigating this ring for the last twenty-seven months. They had doctors, nurses, attorneys, just about any professional you can think of distributing drugs, and that’s the reason why it was so hard to crack. You never think people with respected careers would ever be involved in something like this. After the incident at the clinic I knew we were close to cracking this case. It was just a matter of time to see who would try and cover their tracks. In this case, it was Jenkins. She never counted on her car being involved in the hit-and-run with you and Dr. Baptiste. After that, she ordered Scooter to get rid of Valerie.” She shook her head. “I guess he does have some conscience. He told me about the hit. After Valerie stumbled into the clinic, Jenkins was shocked that her orders hadn’t been carried out, and that’s when she ordered me to kill her instead.”
“But how did Valerie know about Jenkins?” A.J. asked, still trying to piece together the maze of information.
“Brother-in-law,” Zach drawled, “Valerie didn’t know that Jenkins was Gotti. Remember that day I told ya I was working on some stuff with the DEA and couldn’t discuss it with ya?”
A.J. nodded as his mind flashed back to that afternoon in his kitchen.
“Well, Valerie mentioned the name Gotti to me,” Zach told A.J. “I’d heard the name once when DEA brought Oakland police on the case. I contacted Agent Givens, and we figured the ringleader had to be located somewhere here in Oakland. The problem was figuring out exactly who Gotti was.”
Agent Givens nodded. “After Lieutenant Tate informed us of this, it was actually his suggestion to stage Valerie’s death, but only if we could guarantee him that she could get into the Witness Protection Program. We pinned our hopes on the fact that if the ringleader found this out, that they’d surface sooner rather than later. Valerie’s in the program now and there are only a handful of people outside of this room that know she’s still alive.”
A.J. chuckled. “But Zach, you didn’t find out about Jenkins’s car until after you decided to fake Valerie’s death, right?”
Zach chuckled and shook his head sideways. “Actually I knew ’bout it before then. Everything you and Baby Girl witnessed that night at the hospital, brother-in-law, was staged. Wouldn’t never thought about faking Valerie’s death until I found out about ya plan to fake a quarantine with Baby Girl here.” His gaze drifted to Vic. “And then y’all decides to up and elope, and Caitlyn ups and wants to host the shower for you, and include Valerie.” He shook his head. “Y’all threw my timing off. We’d planned to stage Valerie’s death the day after I found out you and brother-in-law had eloped.” He chuckled out loud and slipped his thumbs underneath his suspenders. “This here is one time I’m glad my baby talks a lot.” He thrust his chest out proudly. “She keeps me informed.”
Agent Givens nodded. “I’d already been ordered by Jenkins to kill Valerie and had to stall until your shower was over. After Lieutenant Tate told us you planned to surprise Valerie by bringing her children to see her, I couldn’t spoil that reunion. Later that night, we put our plan into action.”
“And Valerie,” Vic said anxiously, her gaze going back and forth between Zach and Agent Givens, “Valerie’s okay, right?”
Agent Givens nodded and smiled. “Mrs. Baptiste, she’s wonderful. It took a lot of courage for her to do what she did.” She glanced between Vic and A.J. “If the two of you hadn’t shown her the support you did, I doubt she would have ever agreed to this plan. But once she knew her babies would be taken care of, she agreed without hesitation.”
Vic extended her hand to Agent Givens. “Thank you so much for helping out Valerie.”
Agent Givens nodded. “Thank you for helping us crack this case,” she replied, winking at Zach, “even if it was a little unorthodox.”
“Well, Zach,” Vic said, after Agent Givens left the room. A long rush of breath escaped from her mouth. “Baptiste and I are in the wrong profession. Maybe we should come to work for you.”
Zach shook his head. “Uh-uh. Right now the only place the two of y’all is going is to a jail cell.”
“What?” Vic exclaimed with her hands on her hips.
“Zach,” A.J. pleaded.
“Nope,” Zach said, shaking his head. “Neither one of y’all is gonna get any pity out of me today.” He looked sternly at both Vic and A.J. “Brother-in-law, I warned ya to stay out of this and let me handle it.” He tossed a sharp look at Vic. “And you. When ya called me all frantic and told me what ya had discovered brother-in-law was up to, I told ya to stay home and don’t move. But do the two of y’all listen to me? Oh no! Maybe if you spend a few hours locked up, you’ll take me seriously next time I tell ya I got the situation under control.”
A.J. chuckled. “Well, Marcel, Ray, Alex, and Lincoln were involved. What about them?”
Zach nodded. “I know, and ya can say hello to em when ya see em. They locked up, too.” He looked over the uniformed police over and cracked a slight smile. “Lock em up.”
A.J. was headed toward the door when he stopped in mid-stride and turned to Vic. “You did remember to feed Harry and Sally, didn’t you?”
Vic chuckled. “Hush, man. I remembered.”
Epilogue
Eighteen months later
“They’re our babies now, right, Honey?” Taylor asked, placing her hand atop Vic’s rounded belly.
Vic nodded with tears of joy. “They’re ours, sweet pea.”
With the court filled with family and friends as witnesses, Vic and A.J. signed the documents making them the legal adopted parents of Brianna and Chloé. After Valerie agreed to the arrangement, Vic and A.J. were more than happy to oblige. For Vic, the feeling was no less different than it was when she became Taylor and Tyler’s adoptive mother months earlier.
“And you love this baby, too, right?” Tyler asked.
Vic nodded happily. “The same way I love the four of you,” she replied, glancing at her four daughters. “Y’all are the babies of my heart, and this one,” she said, rubbing her stomach, “is the baby of my tummy. I love you all the same.”
Ray walked up and placed two small, black velvet boxes on the table. He smiled when Vic opened them and gasped at the tiny tea-cut diamond studs and shrugged. “Well, ya got em in designer labels. Figured it won’t hurt to top it off with a little bling-bling. Can’t have Baptiste women running around raggedy, now.”
Vic clutched both hands against her stomach and panted as a hard contraction made her belly constrict. Everyone sprang into action with their pre-assigned responsibilities. They swiftly exited the courtroom.
A.J. walked back in moments later and carefully assisted Vic out her chair. “Woman, will you come on here?”
Another sharp contraction hit Vic and literally stole her br
eath away. “Baptiste, when this is over,” she panted, “I’m gonna kill you.”
* * *
Vic was asleep fourteen hours later, exhausted from a long labor and the C-section that followed when the baby refused to cooperate. A.J. looked down at Vic and thought he hadn’t seen a more beautiful sight, despite the dark circles under her eyes. Until the day he died, he’d never forget the moment he placed the results of their belated honeymoon inside Vic’s arms.
Walking around the room, A.J. carried his sleeping daughter, who had curly black hair and hazel eyes that he had finally managed to get a glimpse of when he provided her pediatric assessment immediately after birth.
Zach stuck his head in the door. “Brother-in-law,” he whispered softly, “how Baby Girl doing there?”
A.J. glanced over at a sleeping Vic. “Tired. She had a tough time.”
“Hell, I bet she did.” Zach chuckled and nodded at the baby in A.J.’s arms. “Little Mama checked in at ten and some change.” He held his arms out. “Here, let me hold her.” With expert care, he cradled his niece against his chest. “Got a room full of kinfolk that can’t wait to see ya.” Glancing back at A.J., he asked, “Does Valerie know she’s here, yet?”
A.J. nodded. “Agent Givens arranged for me to talk with her a couple of hours ago, and she’s thrilled.”
“Ya know, brother-in-law, Valerie is wise beyond her years. As a parent, she made the ultimate sacrifice.”
A.J. nodded in agreement. Despite being in the Witness Protection Program, Valerie didn’t want to take any chance that her past would somehow come back to haunt her and possibly put Bébé and CeCe in danger. That was the reason he and Vic agreed without hesitation to adopt them. Smiling down at his daughter, he moved in close to Zach. He hated that his brother-in-law had to miss out on the adoption signing, but knew he was across the street at another courthouse for the conclusion of Carmen Jenkins’s trial. “How did it go today?” he whispered softly.
Zach smiled back. “We got her. Jury brought back a guilty verdict, and I don’t believe friend will ever make it out the jailhouse.” He winked. “Seems like me and brother-in-law,” he teased, referring to Marcel, “is the only ones making baby boys in the family.”
When a Man Loves a Woman (Indigo) Page 19