by Kiki Swinson
“Nah, fuck that! You gotta go with me. You won’t fuck around and call the cops on me,” I said, and then I pushed him in front of me.
“No, I promise I won’t call the cops,” he pleaded.
“I know you ain’t, now walk faster before you get one of these bullets in the back,” I threatened him. I was serious as hell. The way I was feeling, I’d shoot anyone who got in my way of finding my family. It didn’t matter if they were dead or alive. I just needed to find them.
The guy picked up his pace and headed toward the elevator. I crossed my fingers and prayed that no one was on the elevator when the doors opened. I was able to exhale after the doors opened and saw that no one was inside. I immediately nudged him in the back and said, “What are you waiting for? Get on.” He stumbled into the elevator, finally catching his balance while the doors were closing. I pressed the button for the third floor and waited while the elevator moved.
“Don’t try to do anything stupid when we get off this elevator. All I wanna do is see who’s inside of Room Three-Eighteen. So as soon as we get to the door I want you to open it. But before you do that, I wanna stand outside the door very quietly and see if I can hear any movement.”
“Lady, I don’t wanna get hurt.”
“And you won’t if you do everything I tell you to.”
“Well, will you please tell me what’s going on?” he begged.
“I’m sorry but I can’t get into that right now. Just do what I tell you to do and you’ll be fine,” I replied, as anguish washed over me. But simultaneously I wondered if I was about to go to war with Matt and the niggas he brought with him from Virginia. I finally shoved my phone down into my pocket as the elevator door opened. I took a deep breath and exhaled. “Let’s go,” I instructed him, and nudged him in the back once more.
He walked off the elevator and I followed him. There wasn’t a soul visible in that hallway. But I looked up and down the hallway twice just to make sure my eyes and ears weren’t deceiving me. It was completely silent. With my heart still racing painfully in my chest, I tiptoed behind the Indian guy as he led the way.
Please. Please. Please. Let this whole thing go right, I was chanting in my head. It didn’t help that my mind raced with a million thoughts about how this situation was going to go down. Too bad I couldn’t tell the Indian guy that he might get murked in the crossfire. I figured he’d be all right if his life was right with his maker. He walked ahead of me while I tailed him closely.
“Remember what I told you to do. And don’t try to be a hero,” I uttered quietly.
“Yes, of course,” he replied. It was barely audible.
Shaking like a leaf, the Indian guy walked a total of ten steps and then stopped in front of Room 318. It was on the left side of the hallway. I grabbed his arm and motioned for him to stand still while I listened for any movement in the room. Then I took my eyes off the door and looked down each end of the hallway. I noticed that there were two exits on the floor. One for the elevator and the other one was the staircase. I looked at the Indian guy and asked him how many guests were staying on this floor. After he told me that there was only one guest, I asked him if the other guests were a couple and he confirmed that they were a white young couple from Pennsylvania.
“A’ight, well, get close to the door and slide the key in the lock real slow,” I instructed him in a whisper-like tone as I moved away from the door. I stood alongside the wall just in case someone was inside the room and they started firing shots at the door.
“If someone is in there, act like you opened the wrong door,” I continued whispering.
I watched as he slid the key card inside the lock slowly and pulled it out. After the green light flashed he pushed the door in very carefully. “Hello, I’m here to fix the thermostat,” he yelled out. I swear, I was about to jump out of my fucking skin when he made that loud outburst. I didn’t tell him to announce himself until he saw someone. Fucking idiot! That shit wasn’t a part of the plan. He was supposed to open the door and remain quiet. But no! This crazy-ass cat yelled out like he was the fucking handyman. I almost lost all my composure. I rushed down behind him and rammed the barrel of my gun directly into his spine. “What the fuck are you doing?” I huffed as we stood in the foyer of the room.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. No one is here,” he spoke quietly as he pointed to the lights being shut off all over the room. I stood there for a second to take it all in. Was he right? I asked myself. Couple of seconds after hearing no noise or movement, I pushed the Indian guy farther into the room. As he walked toward the main area where the bed was, I checked the closet and bathroom to make sure I wasn’t walking into a trap. Once I realized that everything was clear, we moved into the main area. The moment we walked onto the open floor, the Indian guy stopped in his tracks, causing me to stumble into him. “What the fuck are you doing?” I snapped. Before he could open his mouth, I peered over his shoulders and saw a man lying facedown on white sheets soaked in his blood. I looked at his shoes first and that’s when I knew that it was Derek’s lifeless body lying on the bed. Horror and rage shot through me like lightning as I took off toward my dead husband.
Once I was within arm’s reach of Derek’s body I realized that Matt had hog-tied him, laid a pillow over his head, and shot him point-blank. Derek hadn’t had a fighting chance. My heart was broken looking down at my husband. I stood there and cried like a baby while I watched my man lie in his own blood. My body felt weak while my legs began to buckle. I thought I was going to be strong, but my body proved otherwise.
My legs finally gave out and I collapsed back onto the chair next to the bed and my gun fell to the floor. That’s when the Indian guy made a run for it. “I’m calling the cops!” he yelled as he fled on foot.
Hearing the word cops made me gather my senses. I knew I couldn’t be there when the cops came, so I got up on my feet and searched around on the bed for my baby. I pulled every sheet and pillow off the bed but there was still no sign of my son anywhere. I crawled down onto the floor and looked under the bed, and there was still no sign of my baby. “Where the fuck is my baby?!” I screamed as I dragged myself back up on my feet. I picked my gun up off the floor after I stood up. Once I felt like I could stand up completely, I looked into the nearby closet once again and then back into the bathroom, but there was no sign of him. I swear, it felt like my heart was about to be ripped out of my chest. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out where my baby could be. I knew I couldn’t stand in that room any longer if I didn’t want to get arrested for holding the hotel clerk hostage so I got out as soon as I could.
Instead of taking the elevator down to the first floor, I took the staircase, hoping I could get out of the hotel before the police got there. Unfortunately for me, that didn’t happen. As soon as I entered onto the first floor, I saw five cops rushing toward the elevator. “Oh my God! If they catch me with this gun, I’m leaving out of here in handcuffs,” I said aloud, but only for me to hear it. Lauren, you can’t let that happen, I thought to myself. So without hesitation, I slid back into the staircase and took the stairs down to the basement floor. I had no idea where I was going. But I knew I had to get as far away from the cops as I possibly could.
I damn near tripped going down the steps to get to the bottom floor. There was a door to my right. The sign on it read PARKING GARAGE, so I opened it and went through it. I closed the door behind me very quietly to avoid being heard just in case the cops decided to take the flight of stairs going up to the third floor.
My heart was pounding like I had run miles and miles at top speed. It beat so hard that I could even feel it throbbing in my throat. Sweat poured down the sides of my face while I quickly managed to maneuver my way through a few tight spots behind parked cars that allowed me to avoid being seen on the garage surveillance cameras. It took me about three minutes to get out of there and back on the streets without being detected and that was all that mattered.
Out of breath, I flagged down a
taxi and instructed the driver to take me to my apartment. En route, my heart and mind raced with uncertainty. I had no fucking idea what I was going to do next. But I knew I needed to go back to my apartment, get a few things, and leave before the cops got there. After they ran the surveillance footage back from the hotel cameras, they were going to find out who I was and it would be matter of time before they came kicking down my fucking apartment door. “Come on, Lauren, think,” I mumbled to myself.
“You say something?” the female taxi cabdriver asked.
“No, I’m talking to myself,” I said, brushing her off.
“You don’t look too good. Are you all right?” she wondered aloud as she looked at me through her rearview mirror.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just please get me to my apartment as soon as you can,” I begged.
“Honey, if you are having man problems, you better get rid of him,” she advised me in a casual but friendly manner.
“Ma’am, listen, I appreciate the advice. But right now is not the time for it,” I brushed her off once again.
“Okay, I get the picture. You don’t have to tell me twice. I know how to close my mouth,” she commented, and turned her attention toward the cars in front of her.
While I watched the female cabdriver dip in and out of traffic, my head swirled with a mixture of anger, heartbreak, and betrayal. I mumbled to myself because the thoughts going through my head were just too much to keep inside. Confusion was the biggest thing for me at that moment. How could he? How the fuck could he shoot Derek in cold blood like that? Matt killed my husband execution-style. What the hell did Derek do to warrant that type of execution? Was it because Matt believed he was a fucking threat? I couldn’t answer that question but I was going to sure as hell find out after I finally tracked that motherfucker down.
I tried to focus on what was before me and what I needed to do to find out where Matt was. I knew that if I found him, I’d find my baby. The thought of my baby pained me. Not knowing where he was became unfathomable to me. How was it that Derek’s body was lying in a pool of his own blood and our baby was nowhere to be found? Had Matt really killed my son? Or had he taken my baby with him? I swore, I wished I knew the answers to those questions because it was killing me inside not knowing.
The drive to my apartment took thirty minutes. When the cabdriver pulled up in front of the building, she told me my fare was thirty-two dollars, so I handed her two fifty-dollar bills and asked her to wait for me. “I sure will, honey. But if you ain’t out here before your hundred dollars runs out, I’m gonna have to leave you here,” she warned me.
“Don’t worry, I will be back in five minutes,” I assured her, and got out of the car.
My doorman opened the door for me, “Ms. Lauren, put a smile on that beautiful face,” he said as he held the door open for me.
I ignored him of course and headed up to my apartment. The moment I walked through the door, I made a beeline to my bedroom. I grabbed my Louis Vuitton travel bag and stuffed it with every piece of clothing I could get in it. I threw a few toiletries into the bag as well as a pair of comfortable sneakers. Once I saw that I gathered all I could carry, I grabbed Derek’s checkbook from his desk in our home office. I figured the only way I could get some money was to write a check to myself from his account. I also knew that if I didn’t hurry up and get to the bank, the cops would shut down his account. Now, I couldn’t let that happen until I took care of my business first. Shit, I needed every dime I could get because deep down in my heart I knew I was going to have to take a trip back to Virginia. Matt wasn’t built to live in this city. He’d gone back to a place he was all too familiar with—I knew that for sure. And I was going to meet him there on his home turf. I just had to make sure that he didn’t see me coming. Catching him off guard would be the best way to take him down. Because I knew I would be able to go toe to toe with him. He lived for that type of shit. That’s why when I went after him, I’d have to do it right. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about him ever again.
5
WHERE IS MY BABY?
Like I had asked, the female cabdriver was still awaiting my return when I walked out of my apartment building. She saw me struggling with my travel bag and jumped out of the car to help me. “I got this, sweetie. Just climb in the backseat and I’ll handle the rest,” she said.
Immediately after I sat down in the backseat, she handed me my LV bag and closed the back door right after. “Where are you headed to now?” she asked.
“Take me by Bank of America.”
“Is that your final stop?”
“No, all I need to do is run in there for a moment. I will be right back.”
“You know that I have to keep the meter running?”
“Yes, I know.”
“All right, sounds good to me,” she commented, and sped away from a building.
Thankfully, Bank of America was only a few blocks away. I don’t know how I did it, but I mustered up enough strength to walk inside the bank and cash a $1,500 check I wrote to myself, but of course I forged Derek’s name on the signature line. I wanted to write a larger amount on the check but I knew if I did, there was a chance the bank would try to call Derek’s phone to get the approval to release the funds to me. Having that happen would be too risky, so I settled for the next best thing.
“May I help you?” the young Caucasian woman asked me. I swear she looked like the UK singer Adele. She looked like her fucking twin. Her strong similarities caught me off guard. She smiled at me. I smiled back even though I was still on edge. I needed to cash this check or I’d be in another fucking jam. “I wanna cash this check,” I told her as I placed the check down on the counter in front of her. I had to play it cool. Act relaxed.
“Do you bank with us?” she asked me.
“No, I don’t.”
“Since you don’t have an account with us, I will have to charge you a fee to cash this check.”
“That’s no problem.” I told her. “Here’s my ID,” I continued, and handed it to her.
She took it, looked at it, and then she looked at me. I almost had a fucking heart attack when she looked over my ID thoroughly. “Has anyone told you that you look like the singer Adele?” I asked her. I figured I needed to say something to distract her just a bit. Get her mind off my ID and more on cashing the damn check.
She smiled at me again. “Yes, I get that all the time,” she replied.
“You could probably make a lot of money acting as her body double,” I suggested, trying to carry on a brief conversation.
“That would be great. Anything that would take me away from this place,” she commented, and then she chuckled while she hit the computer keys. A few seconds later she wrote on the front of the check, pulled out her cash drawer, counted the money on the counter in front of me, and then handed it to me. “Here you go, one thousand five hundred dollars.”
After I took the money into my hands, I felt a huge burden off my shoulders. I almost wished that I’d written the check for more money. But then again, I figured, why press my luck? Besides, I now had money to leave town to go after Matt’s ass. This was only a small victory, but at least it was one. I thanked the teller for her assistance and made my way back out of the bank.
As soon as I got back inside the cab I instructed the cabdriver to take me to the Asian bus station on Forty-Second Street.
“As you wish,” she replied, and pulled back into the road.
I decided to take the Chinese bus down south to Virginia because it was less risky to travel on the Asian charter bus. The Asian folks who ran the bus transit business never asked you for ID. All they wanted was for you to tell them where you wanted to go and hand over the money to complete the process to print you a ticket. So it was that easy to get out of town undetected. This way was perfect because I didn’t want the authorities in New York to know where I was headed.
While we were driving across town, I thought about my baby boy, how I was going to move on with my li
fe without Derek. And then all of a sudden, I thought about his cell phone and the fact that I didn’t bother to search for it after I got inside the hotel room. So, out of curiosity, I pulled my cell phone from my pocket, zeroed in on the GPS tracker, and noticed the signal was completely gone. That led me to believe that the cops must’ve found it and turned the phone off.
A sharp pain shot through my heart. Did I just get a reality check or what? Was Derek really dead? Was he really gone out of my life forever? He didn’t deserve to die like that. And I didn’t know what Matt had done with my baby, but I knew I would soon find out, whether it killed me or not. It would be revealed to me.
“We’re here,” the cabdriver announced.
He looked out the window and saw a ton of people boarding another bus with the marquee saying that it was heading to DC. So when I realized that that wasn’t the bus I was going to be traveling on, I paid the driver an extra twenty dollars for being my chauffeur for the past hour or so.
“You take care of yourself, you hear?” she said.
“Yes, I hear you,” I replied, giving her a half smile.
“Need some help carrying your bag?”
“No, I’m good. The ticket booth is only a few feet away.”
“Okay, well, you be safe,” she mentioned.
“I will. And thanks,” I replied, and walked away.
I got in line to purchase my ticket and watched the cab as it sped off into the congested city streets. There were about eleven people in front of me so it didn’t take that long to get my ticket. I shoved it down into my purse and sat down on a nearby row of metal seats. I watched as men, women, and children walked throughout this little waiting area. And when I saw this young lady carrying a baby girl who looked to be at least one year old, I thought about my baby.
I began to wonder if he was still alive. Because why wasn’t I able to find his body? Unless Matt dumped the body in a nearby Dumpster. Oh my God! Just the thought of my baby being thrown into a garbage Dumpster made me sick to my stomach. I mean, how fucking wicked could someone be? Matt knew he fucked up when he took my family from me. So I knew that finding him wasn’t going to be easy. It was definitely going to be a daunting task, but I was up for it. But my quest for revenge weighed on me far heavier than thinking about the task itself. That was what I needed to focus on.