“I was already thinking that. That’s why after Mitch said what he said, I knew we had to get out of there and go find him. Once we do that, the police will have no choice but to free Dad. You can’t be on trial for a murder if the person you’re accused of murdering isn’t dead.”
“Exactly,” Lovie said.
“Omar’s car is still here,” Charity said.
We followed her to his apartment. She knocked on the door. No answer. “That’s okay. I have a key.” Charity pulled out the key and opened the door.
We searched through his small apartment but no one was in sight.
“I know where they may be. Lisa thought she saw him at this hotel.” Charity told us about her lunch date with Lisa.
“That’s the same hotel I ran into Omar at. Remember I told you he was acting nervous.”
Lovie said, “Well, enough with talking. Let’s go.”
We rushed out and hopped in Lovie’s SUV. Our destination was the hotel. Charity kept trying to contact Omar, but all her attempts were unsuccessful. We had to find him. He was the key to our dad’s freedom.
CHAPTER 53
Omar
I saw on my phone that Charity and Lovie had called me several times. I didn’t answer. I didn’t know what to say.
“You need to decide whose side you’re on. Mine or the Joneses,” Dad said.
We were now in his hotel suite. He’d insisted I come with him when he left. He didn’t trust me to come by myself so he had me ride with him. On the way over to the hotel, I contacted Jake and told him I needed to take a quick leave due to a family emergency. He wasn’t too happy to hear that, but he had no choice but to accept it.
“Haven’t I always been loyal?” I asked.
“Until now. How could you let Charity go? You know she was going directly to the police,” he said.
“If she was going to the police, Jake would have called.”
“Maybe she didn’t go to the police, but letting her go was still a mistake.”
“What was I supposed to do? Hold her against her will?”
I stared across the room at him.
“Until I figured out my next move.”
“If you would have stayed away from my apartment like I asked you to, your cover wouldn’t have been blown.”
He went to the bar and poured himself a drink. “I felt like I was caged up. I got tired of being in this hotel room,” he said. “A father should be able to spend time with his son.”
His attempt to use the sympathy card no longer worked. I stood. “Where were you all those times I cried myself to sleep? How about the times I called you and begged you to come get me? The only reason why you want me around is so I can help you out of this mess you’ve gotten yourself in.”
He walked over to me and placed one hand on my shoulder. “Omar, not being there for you is one of the few regrets I have. If I could do it all over again, I would have had you come stay with me.”
“But you didn’t. Do you know I’ve been doing things for Slim?”
“That lowlife who’s not worthy to even shine your shoes?” he said.
“Well, Slim and I came up on the streets together. I owed him. But the only thing with Slim, no matter what you do, you’re never paid in full. You’re forever in his debt.”
“It’s like that with crooks like him.”
Dad had the nerve to talk about Slim, but he was just as slimy.
“Where’s your laptop?” he asked. “I need to leave Shreveport. I thought I was going to be able to stay around to see what happened with Royce. We both need to get out of here.”
“We left my apartment so quick that I didn’t have a chance to pack anything,” I said. “It doesn’t matter, though. You can go, but I’m not going anywhere.”
“My cover is blown. You can’t stay. People will be asking too many questions,” he said.
“I knew faking your death wasn’t going to work,” I said.
“It would have. But no, you couldn’t keep your pants up. You got wrapped up in the Jones web, thinking she really loved you. The only thing Charity loves is money. When she realized you don’t make much on a cop’s salary, she would have left you regardless.”
“Charity’s not like what you described. Yes, she’s spoiled. I can’t deny it, but she’s with me because she loves me, the man; not what I can do for her.”
“I’ve been around Charity all of her life. She grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth. Royce spoiled her. He’s ruined her for other men. You’re not perfect and the more she spent time with you, the more she would have discovered that you aren’t.”
“I’m glad I no longer depend on you for my self-esteem. If I did, I would be feeling worse than I am. I’m feeling bad not because of how Charity made me feel. I feel bad because of how I’ve made her feel. I love her and because of you, I’ve betrayed her. How am I supposed to get her to trust me again?”
“Forget the trick. She’s not worth it.”
Before I knew it, I’d punched him. Years of frustration that was built up, along with animosity regarding his comment about Charity, were all combined in that one punch.
He stumbled to the floor. “Don’t you ever lay your hands on me again. You hear me.” Dad staggered while getting off the floor. He stared at me with cold, black eyes. His hand rubbed his jaw.
“I’m sorry.” I was wrong for hitting my father. He’d made me so upset that I’d hit him before I realized it. “I’ll go get some ice for your face.”
“No time for that. We need to go back to your apartment to get your laptop.”
Thirty minutes later, we were in my apartment. This time I grabbed a suitcase and threw some clothes in it and the most important things, the box full of pictures of Mom and a picture on the side of my bed of Charity. I placed the laptop in its case.
“Son, looks like you have company. I see the whole Jones clan pulling into the parking lot.”
“Hit me,” I say.
“I’m not going to do it,” he insisted.
“I need you to hit me. Hit me hard. I need them to believe you knocked me out.”
“Just don’t answer the door,” he said.
“Charity has a key, remember? Come on. Hurry up. You can go out the back window. There’s a fire escape. Here’s the laptop.” I handed him the bag. “The password to access it is Mom’s name.”
He grabbed the bag from me. “We both need to leave.”
“I can’t. Go. This will buy you enough time to get away.”
“Okay. You asked for it.”
His arm swung back and hit me. I didn’t have to pretend. I fell to the floor.
CHAPTER 54
Lovie
The trip to the hotel was unsuccessful. The hotel staff wouldn’t allow us to look at the guest registry. We went knocking on every door on the seventh floor but without any results.
Charity wanted to wait for Omar back at his apartment in case he returned. I wasn’t letting her go back by herself. All three of us got back in my SUV and drove straight to the hotel.
This time Charity didn’t bother to knock on Omar’s door. She used her key. The apartment was dark. She turned the light on. The place was a mess. It looked like there had been a struggle. Omar was laid out on the floor. Charity ran to his side. “Omar! Omar, wake up.”
Omar moved his head. His eyes barely opened. “Charity, is that you?”
“Yes, baby, I’m here.”
I asked, “Where’s Jason?”
Charity said, “Lovie, he’s hurt. Help me get him up.”
“Move. I’ve got this.” I eased my arm around him and pulled him up.
I led him to the couch. Charity rushed to his side. Hope remained quiet.
Omar rubbed his head. “My dad’s looking for you, Charity. I had to stop him. I couldn’t let him harm you or a
nyone else.”
“I knew you cared,” Charity said. They held each other’s hands.
He might have had Charity fooled, but I didn’t believe anything coming out of his mouth right then. He had a lot of explaining to do.
I stood in front of him. “Where’s Jason?” I asked again.
“I don’t know,” Omar responded.
I bent down and removed the gun I had in my boot. I held the gun and pointed it at Omar. “Let’s try this again. Where’s Jason?”
Charity and Hope gasped. Charity said, “Lovie, put the gun down.”
“I will as soon as he answers my question.”
Hope walked over to me and placed her arm on my shoulder. “He’s not worth it.”
“I’m not going to shoot him.” I paused. “Unless he makes me.” I waved the gun back and forth. “You’ve got one minute. I don’t plan to kill you, but if you don’t answer my questions, I will make sure you will never be able to procreate.” I aimed the gun directly at his crotch.
“I don’t know. I don’t know where my father is,” he insisted.
“See, this is what I don’t understand about you, Omar. You sat here and let my father get locked up for supposedly killing Jason, and all of this time, you knew he wasn’t dead. And you say you love my sister.” I looked at Charity when I said it.
“I do love Charity. I had nothing to do with any of this.”
My forehead cringed. “That’s where you’re lying. Charity’s confided in you. Man, I’ve confided in you. We all trusted you. You could have come to us at any time and shared with us that he was alive.”
Omar’s head fell down. He couldn’t even look me in the face. “Lovie, man, I should have said something. Try to see it from my point of view. I couldn’t betray my father.”
My hand flew up to my forehead. I closed my eyes. “I don’t give a damn about your father. My own father has been in jail suffering and you want me to feel sorry for you.”
I threw the gun down on the chair and ran straight to him. I grabbed him by the collar and jerked him off the couch.
Charity said, “Lovie, don’t. He’s already hurting.”
I felt myself foaming at the mouth. I pushed him back on the couch. “My sister’s the only thing saving you.” I clenched my fist. “I swear I feel like punching you in the face until I get tired.”
Hope grabbed me by the arm. “Calm down, Lovie.”
I needed to. My sisters had only seen me this angry once and that was when I had beaten up Tyler for messing over the both of them. What Omar did was much worse.
“He’s not worth it,” Hope said. “See, Charity, I told you he couldn’t be trusted.”
Charity’s tear-stained face looked directly at us and then at him. “Omar, if you ever cared about me, tell me why you helped him.”
Omar shifted his body to where he was now facing Charity. “I wanted to tell you. But Dad threatened to harm you if I did. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“You’re a cop. You’re supposed to uphold the law,” Hope blurted out.
“Y’all don’t understand. I haven’t been able to rest because of this. I was trying to protect him. Protect y’all.”
Hope’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God. Did you kill Mr. Franklin?”
Omar shook his head. “I swear to you that I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to Mr. Franklin.”
“But your dad did. Do you know he’s killed several people? Several people would still be alive if you had come forth and told us you knew Jason wasn’t dead.”
“In Omar’s defense, we don’t know if Jason had anything to do with any of those other killings,” Charity said.
“Charity, I can’t believe you’re taking up for him.”
“I can,” Hope said as she stood. “It’s like he has her under some type of spell or something.”
“I’m trying to look at things from his point of view,” Charity said.
“Screw his view. All I want to know now is where is Jason?”
Omar looked me in the eyes and responded, “I honestly don’t know.”
“You’re coming with us. I want you to look Mom in the face and tell her what you’ve done.”
I reached for Omar. This time he blocked me.
“No need for that. I’m coming. I owe your family that.”
I walked behind him to make sure he didn’t try to escape. I threw Hope my keys. “You drive. Omar’s sitting in the back with me.”
CHAPTER 55
Lexi
I was still upset with Mitch. He was supposed to be working for Royce and me. However, he acted like he was working for the police. I called all of my kids, but none of them answered their phones. With everything going on, I did not need that type of stress.
I had promised Lovie I wouldn’t drink myself into a drunken state, but I was about to go back on the promise because my nerves were bad. I needed something to calm them and I didn’t smoke. The front door swung open as I was pouring myself a drink.
I turned to face the doorway. I saw my kids and Omar standing before me. “What’s going on?”
Omar looked like he’d lost a fight with Mike Tyson. The right side of his face was swollen and his eyes were puffy. The top part of his shirt was torn.
Lovie spoke out first. “Omar, tell my mother what you know.”
Omar looked bewildered but did as Lovie instructed. I felt my blood pressure rising while listening to Omar tell me how he knew Jason.
Hope shouted, “We don’t have time for this! We need to find Jason!”
I walked up to Omar, pulled back my hand and slapped him. I didn’t care that his face was swollen already. I didn’t care about Charity’s feelings for him. All I knew was that this man had been in my house, had been sleeping with my daughter, and my husband had been in jail for two long months because of Jason. Omar could take the easy way and cooperate with us or he could the hard way, but either way he was going to talk.
Omar rubbed the other side of his face.
“Mom, you didn’t have to hit him so hard.” Charity rubbed his hand and walked him to the couch.
This pissed me off even more. “He’s lucky that’s all I did.” I was too upset to sit down so I paced back and forth in front of them.
Hope said, “We tried to get him to tell us where Jason was, but he wouldn’t so Lovie decided to bring him over here.”
Lovie stood in front of Omar. “Now tell my mother the fairytale story of why you didn’t tell us Uncle Jason was still alive.”
Omar could barely look me in the face. He kept staring at something on the wall instead of looking at me directly. This was bull. He was not going to get off this easy.
“Look at me,” I said. “Look at me when you tell me why you let my husband be in jail for killing someone who isn’t really dead. I said, look at me.”
Omar looked up at me with big, brown, puppy dog eyes. “Mrs. Jones, I am so sorry. I never meant to hurt you or your family. My father left me no choice but to go along with what he was doing,” his voice stuttered as he talked.
I wasn’t buying it. “You had plenty of chances to tell us what was going on. You pretended to help us, but all along, you were plotting against us. You chose to align yourself with the likes of Jason so from this day on, consider yourself an enemy of our family.”
Charity said, “Mom, let’s not go that far. Let’s talk about all of this later on. Right now, let’s concentrate on finding Uncle Jason.”
With hands on my hips and a scowl on my face, I said, “Omar, you need to tell me where Jason is now! Finding him is very important to the freedom of my husband. And if you want us to have some type of empathy when it concerns you and this situation, you will cooperate.”
“Mrs. Jones, I swear to you that I don’t know where he is. He knocked me out and left my apartment becau
se I let Charity go.”
“You should have an idea. Think. Think hard.”
Omar lamented, “He wouldn’t tell me of his plans. He was concerned that I would tell Charity.”
Charity said, “Mom, if Omar was really working with his dad, he never would have let me go. He could have held me hostage, but he didn’t.”
I ignored Charity. I looked at Lovie. “Lovie, check his pockets for his phone. Get Jason’s number off there.”
Lovie did as instructed. He searched Omar’s pocket and located his cell phone. Lovie looked at Omar. “What’s your code? I can’t access it without it.”
Omar responded, “It’s one nine seven five.”
Lovie scrolled through Omar’s phone. He said, “When the call goes through and he picks up, don’t tell him you’re with us. Act like you’re alone.”
Lovie hit the speaker button. We listened to the phone ring. When I thought it was going to voicemail, a voice asked, “Omar, are you okay?”
That really was Jason. My mouth dropped open in disbelief. I would’ve recognized his voice anywhere.
I wanted to say something but willed myself to remain quiet.
Omar said, “Dad, I’m fine. Where are you?”
“I’m back at the hotel. I need you to rent me another car.”
“For what?” Omar asked.
“I’ve got to get out of town.”
“Where will you be going?”
Jason responded, “It’s best that you don’t know. I can’t risk you telling where I’m headed.”
Omar said, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Hurry. If I know anything about those Joneses, they aren’t going to give up on pestering you about my whereabouts.”
The call disconnected.
Jason was correct. We weren’t going to give up; especially now.
CHAPTER 56
Charity
Mom and Lovie wouldn’t stop yelling at Omar. All the back-and-forth bickering made my head feel like it wanted to explode. I yelled, “Stop!”
The Aftermath Page 18