Onyx and Sheriff, both shifted uncomfortably as Maxine gave a vivid description of what Devon had done to her. There were disgusted glances in Philippe’s direction, but no one interrupted Maxine while she spoke.
“When I accused Devon of hurting the others, his eyes went wide as saucers. He said those were accidents and necessary levils, but my death would be deliberate.”
“How did you know there were others he had killed?” Sheriff asked suspiciously.
“He killed Lisa and that other girl,” she said.
“No, Lisa was killed by her ex-husband. We found his DNA at the crime scene on the body and all around the place and got the results back this morning,” Sheriff revealed. “The idiot also used his credit card to fly from Chicago to Grand Rapids, caught a bus to Lansing and rented a car to come to Detroit. We determined he must’ve used the custody of her child to get her acquiesce and even after decided to still kill her. We sent the police to arrest him in Chicago.”
“What about her child?” Maxine asked worriedly.
“Most likely the child will be placed in a foster home in Chicago,” Sheriff said obviously.
“So who are the others that were killed?” Philippe asked weakly.
Sheriff took out a file and held up a photo.
Maxine gasped looking at the photo of Carla laid out on the railroad tracks with the necklace on that was representative of Devon’s house. “I just spoke to Carla.”
“She was found this morning,” Devon said. “But we found remnants of another female’s saliva on her genital area.”
Looking at Philippe, she remembered what Anna did and trembled. “You can bet that’s most likely Anna’s.”
Onyx took out a little slender metal pick and came around to Maxine to try to pick the lock of the necklace around her neck.
“You can’t pick it,” Philippe said with confidence. “They’re made specifically never to be taken off and never to rust.”
“Where’s the key?” Onyx demanded.
Maxine could hear anger on the woman’s voice.
Philippe nodded to his personal belonging bag. “There’s a small platinum key on my key ring that should be in my pants.”
Sheriff put on plastic gloves and went through the bag to produce the key ring. Onyx put on plastic gloves to catch the keys Sheriff tossed her way and then moved behind Maxine again.
“I think you need a moment to freshen up, Maxine,” Onyx ordered before giving her cousin a strange look. “Sheriff, I’ll watch her.”
Maxine looked at Philippe in deep concern as the necklace popped off. Onyx dropped the jewelry in the bag with Philippe’s clothes along with the keys.
“It’s fine,” Philippe assured Maxine. “I’ll be fine.”
Following Onyx out of the room, they went three doors down to another room. Onyx took out some medical garments and handed them to her. Another female police officer came in the room carrying an evidence bag.
“What’s going on?” Maxine asked in alarm.
“Well, you have to back up your story, sister.” Onyx took an evidence bag from the female cop. “Put all your clothes and belongings in here. Sheriff needs to put everything in evidence.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Shut down that house of ill repute and burn it to the ground,” Onyx sneered.
“You can’t!” Maxine defended taking off her tiara and handing it to Onyx.
Onyx snatched the diadem angrily. “You’re crazy and delusional, Maxine.”
Maxine remembered Carla’s words. “No, you don’t understand.”
“YOU don’t understand who you’re talking to. That man in there has brainwashed you into believing he’s your master! It’s the twenty-first century, Maxine, and you’re calling him master!” Onyx punched the wall causing the plaster to dent. “I should take a scalpel and make him into a fucking eunuch.”
“I’m not brainwashed, Onyx. I know what I’m talking about and I know Philippe is not my real master. In truth, I’ve really had the control in our relationship the whole time.”
Onyx was barely listening to her and Maxine could see the woman was very much in the midst of a powerful rage gripping her.
“I want to beat that son of a bitch’s ass to a pulp for what he made you endure. And I want to rip open every one of those men who think they can get away with something like that!” Onyx seethed.
“Onyx, that place has been around a long time and no one forced any of those women to be there. They made the mistake of putting someone who was crazy in charge for once and now he’s done this. It’s only one bad apple. You can’t shut the place down.”
Onyx shoved the evidence bag in Maxine’s arms. “Put the clothes in the bag and allow the nurse to give you a rape kit.”
“I wasn’t raped by Philippe.”
“If you don’t do it, I’ll go in there and tell my cousin to charge that racist ass-wipe with accessory to murder, Maxine. Don’t fucking push me. The only reason I’m not slapping your ass around is that I think you’re drugged too.”
“I’m in my right mind,” Maxine defended. “I’m a little overwhelmed by the night I’ve had, but I’m very much in my right mind, Onyx.” She reached down in the shreds of her dress to find the pocket where she had previously had the switchblade at. The two keys she had placed in their earlier in the night were still safely tucked deeply and she put these in the personal bag. “I’m sane enough to remember these.”
“What keys are those too?”
“The bigger one is to the Philippe’s chamber.”
Incredulously, Onyx asked, “They called their whore rooms’ chambers?”
Maxine sighed trying not to get upset at Onyx’s disgusted tone. “And the other was given to me by one of the slaves. When she told me about some girls had died, she slipped me this keys and said she trusted me with this. I trust you and Sheriff with it now. Her name was Carla.”
Onyx went over to the phone and called a number. “Leave the phone on speaker and mute,” she said in the receiver and then put the hospital phone on speaker and mute.
What the hell was Onyx up to?
“Stay here until I return,” Onyx ordered and then turned to the officer in the room. “Have them take a blood samples all over her body, including internally.” Onyx ordered the officer before walking out the room.
The whole night seemed to suddenly overwhelm Maxine and she began to sob deeply as she peeled the blood soaked clothes from her body. A nurse came in holding a box, which Maxine determined was a rape kit.
Taking a deep breath, she sat on the table to prepare for them to take samples from her body. They combed her hair, took some fibers and swabs from around her mouth and then Maxine laid down so the nurse could get swabs from between her legs.
Maxine would give Onyx this, but she wouldn’t allow them to do something unless she knew it was what Philippe wanted.
Did that mean she was brainwashed?
The nurse gave her a very long and uncomfortable internal examination collecting a lot of interior and exterior swabs. Maxine didn’t protest, because she knew what she had told them had been the absolute truth.
When the nurse was combing through her hair to collect specimens, the officer left in the room with them ordered, “Ma’am, we need the ring.”
The ring? The ring Philippe had given her last night had dried blood over it. Maxine wasn’t even sure whose blood it was. Just the idea that once she took this off, there would be nothing to signify she was Philippe’s property gave her a sense of loss.
“Will I get it back?” she asked.
The nurse looked at Maxine strangely and the officer only shrugged.
****
Philippe waited until Maxine was out of the room. Despite the fact he was still very weak, he didn’t let this show until she was gone. She needed him and she would have been more worried if she had known the real pain he was in. Just as the door closed, Philippe threw up in the plastic container by the bed.
S
heriff huffed impatiently and waited until Philippe was cleaning his mouth before he said, “Her story, Philippe, can you tell us anymore?”
Maxine had been as discreet as possible about the organization and he knew if he said any more he would be giving up a lot of important men around Detroit in politics, law and wealthy businesses. He couldn’t take that chance despite what he felt about his father and what had been done with him. There was a code and there was a sense of family honor too.
“She told you everything you needed to know.”
“So you don’t know anything,” Sheriff asked disappointedly. “You know I could haul your ass downtown for impeding a police investigation or maybe even an accessory to a crime.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t know anything,” Philippe said coolly. “I’m just saying you have enough information to get your men over to the address and see what we’ve said is the truth. I suggest you hurry before they try to clean everything up.”
“I already sent units the minute Onyx texted and that was right after I got the call from Maxine.” He turned over some papers on the chart and took out a pen for Philippe to write with. “Now I need the name of the men that were present during this dinner and any other members.”
Philippe knew due to confidentiality laws of the organizations, he couldn’t reveal any names, especially to a black cop filled with animosity just looking for an excuse to blab everything to the nearest media organization.
Sheriff must have read his mind and threatened, “If you don’t give me what I want, I will prosecute Maxine to the full extent of the law.”
“Whatever she did was all self defense and you know it.”
“And you? You had motive. Devon wanted your woman.”
“I was protecting her.”
“I’m sure the lengthy trail will finally reveal that, but by then the jury won’t be convinced and the media will already prosecute you to the public. All the money in the world you think you have won’t be enough to repair your reputation,” Sheriff threatened. “And there’s no telling how miserable I can make her life. Solicitation comes to mind.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing. The organization is older than you or I.”
“Tell me what I want to know or I’ll do my best to make sure you don’t see her for a very long time.”
“Your threats are nothing to me.”
“But they’ll be a hell of a lot to Maxine and you know it. You have no idea what kind of woman she really is. Do you think she’s just in question about this incident? Why do you think she’s familiar with me? You think she hasn’t been in trouble before?” Sheriff nodded to the clipboard. “Save your girl, Philippe and start writing what I want.”
Philippe took the clipboard feeling he might not have a choice, until the door opened and thickly built Italian man stepped in the room.
“Please put that down,” the tall well articulate man ordered Philippe. “I’m Armando Bellini, attorney.”
One could immediately tell this man had dressed in a hurry by the rumpled state of his clothing, yet amazingly he still looked good.
Armando’s sharp green olive eyes shot daggers at Sheriff as he came by the bed holding a leather brief. “My client has nothing to say. He handed Sheriff a card just as Onyx came in the door.
“He didn’t say he wanted a lawyer,” Sheriff protested. “When did he hire you? Between throwing up and writhing in pain?”
“And you’re not a criminal lawyer,” Onyx added.
“You know him?” Sheriff asked his cousin.
Onyx ignored the question and went beside the bed near the phone. “Does it matter?”
“Whatever law I am an expert at anyone can see this officer of the law has no right questioning my client without reading him his rights or asking if he wants a lawyer,” the man said.
“Armando, get to the fucking point as to why you’re here,” Onyx said her tone of voice dripping with boredom and rolling her eyes in annoyance.
The lawyer handed Philippe his card. “I’m here to represent Maxine and Philippe in the interest of the organization that hired me.”
Philippe read the rich linen card: Bellini, Baxter and Cox. In the corner, read Armando Bellini and underneath his name was trust and family matters. Clearly he wasn’t a criminal lawyer, yet how to Onyx know that?
Onyx seemed to know too much.
No doubt his father and the organization had a hand at hiring a very rich and prominent attorney and then offer this man a lot of money to get him up in the middle of the night to get to the hospital.
Armando continued. “I’ve already spoke with certain individuals, including your police chief about keeping this incident under wraps. Your discretion about this matter would be appreciated as well.”
“Or ordered, correct?” Onyx snided.
The lawyer cut his eyes at the minx, but kept speaking to Sheriff. “Right now, you can leave and once Mr. Darkore and Ms. Waters get better, they’ll gladly agree to come to the station and answer all your questions.” He handed an affidavit signed by a top judge in Detroit. “No charges are pending against my clients, nor will they be until they can come to the station within seventy-two hours.”
“Fuck you!” Sheriff bellowed snatching the papers away from Armando.
Onyx sighed as if she knew this was going to happen. “We’ll agree to this if your Mr. Darkore promises to stay away from Ms. Waters during that time.”
“Agreed-“
“No!” Philippe protested at the same time Armando spoke and looked directly at the lawyer. “I need to see her; Be with her.”
“As your lawyer, I think it’s ill advise for you two to-“
Philippe cut Armando up, “Fuck you and my father’s advise because I know he told you that shit!”
“You want to see her for what?” Onyx asked her rage now coming to the surface. “Why Philippe? So you can be with her?”
“She needs me,” Philippe protested.
Onyx cackled. “Needs you? Needs you?” Each time you spoke her voice went higher and higher. “She needed you a long time ago, but you choose to walk away from her, didn’t you? You broke your promise to her because of money.”
“It had nothing to do with the money. I thought it was for the best. I thought I was helping her.”
“Oh, you helped her alright. Your ineptitude put her in the hands of a known pedophile that raped her little girl parts right out of her, huh.”
Philippe felt the sting of the words to his heart. “Get out!” he ordered. “You don’t understand. I made a promise to my mother on her death bed that same day. I swore to fix the relationship with my father and I had to make a choice which to keep. I thought I was helping Maxine when I put her in the charge of my father.”
“I can’t stand to look at you and when she knows the truth, she will feel the same. Your greed allowed you to let your father take care of her? You knew that man wouldn’t take care of her. You knew he wouldn’t put her in the best home, you knew he wouldn’t provide the love and care she really needed. You knew this Philippe as you went along with his plan for your life.”
The pain of her words ripped his gut worse than the poisons tearing through his bloodstream. “I WAS TRYING TO HELP HER!” he bellowed fleetingly.
“Help her now. Help her by staying the fuck away from her…. Forever!” Onyx said. “Because every time you’ve helped her… look where it’s gotten her: Misery and pain. We’re in a fucking hospital. She was raped! Beaten. Almost killed because you were what? Trying to help her? Philippe, be honest. You were being a selfish, greedy bastard by dragging Maxine in that organization. Do her a favor and just let her go. She’ll be happier without you.”
Philippe closed his eyes as a physical and emotional wave of pain hit him hard. Fighting the urge to throw up, he clutched his stomach. The room was silent waiting for his discomfort to pass as the IVs were slowly cleaning his system.
“Should I call the doctor?” Armando questioned Philippe.
; Shaking his head and opening his eyes, he looked at the lawyer and for some reason the man seemed to know the distraught Philippe was feeling.
“My client will stay away from her for the seventy-two hours, but after that you’ll leave them alone; Let them work things out between them,” Armando said.
“You think she’s really going to want to see you after she learns the truth about you, Philippe?” Onyx sneered.
“Shut up!” Philippe growled.
“Why? Because even you don’t want to admit what you’ve done to her? You saved her life; You rescued her from deaths door only to let your father give her over to a couple who should have never been even near a child. She’s going to realize the truth sooner or later, Philippe.”
“I told you I didn’t know until it was too late.”
“Liar! You ignored the truth. You saw the reports. You saw the names. You knew exactly who Gallagher was even back then,” Onyx protested.
Philippe remembered everything now. His brain slowly put together the pieces and how his father kept him so immersed in the family’s business he was able able to concentrate on anything else. The way his father only gave him certain information here and there on the updates. How Ewan constantly told Philippe there was something wrong with him for wanting to know so much about this “child” he had saved. Philippe thought he was going crazy and that it was wrong to want to be involved with her life with his strong attraction.
Philippe believed his father and turned a blind eye on his heart. Maxine!
“I was young, Onyx. I didn’t put two and two together fast enough. My father deliberately kept little to no information from me because he said it was better. It was better I didn’t know everything. I thought something was wrong with me because I wanted to be with her. I wanted to be with her the first moment I laid eyes on her.” He paused. “But I know all her pain and misery was my fault. It didn’t have to do with greed. It had to do with the lust I felt in my heart for her.”
“How old was she when he rescued her?” Sheriff asked.
No one answered him.
Dark Facade (Book Four) (Dark Facade Series) Page 9