Black Viper

by Christopher Speight

  “How bad is it?” Frank asked, reaching for his seat belt.

  “Not sure partner. You know just as much as I know at this point. An African American male was found dead in his car.”

  “Who found him?”

  “His girlfriend.”

  Detective Stone grimaced.

  “I know right? That must be the sickest feeling in the world. I wouldn’t wish that on my own worst enemy.”

  “Hey, didn’t you tell Captain Snyder that I was off today?”

  “Yeah, I did. You think she gave a shit?”

  “I’m going to guess. . . no?”

  “Ding, ding, ding. Give the man a prize, Johnny.”

  The two of them rode in silence for a few minutes before Amber vented to Frank about the way her ex was letting her son run wild. Frank was surprised. Usually, his partner never wanted to talk about her son, so it had to be bothering her in order for her even to bring it up. While listening to her, Frank simply nodded his head. He’d learned a long time ago that when women vented most of the time, all they wanted was for you to listen, not try to solve their problems. Today was no different. Amber didn’t stop ranting until they got to the crime scene.

  5

  The wind blew slightly, causing the yellow police tape to ripple in the breeze. On lookers and innocent bystanders whispered amongst themselves as the gruesome sight sat in plain view for all to see. Sitting on a nearby bench, nervously smoking a cigarette was Victoria. It was the third cigarette she’d smoked since calling the police to inform them that the love of her life had been murdered. Her rational mind told her that smoking while pregnant was unhealthy for her unborn child, but she couldn’t help it due to her circumstances. She needed the nicotine to calm her nerves. The image of her brother’s smug look as they glanced at each other when she went back into her bar stuck vividly in her mind. Victoria didn’t want to think that Saffold despised her relationship to the point that he would mortally wound her boyfriend, but with his racist attitude, she couldn’t rule it out either.

  “You okay, boss lady?” Wendy asked, carrying a coffee mug in her hand. When she got close enough to her, she extended the mug to her boss. “Here. I thought you could use a hot cup of coffee,” she said.

  “Thank you.” Victoria gratefully took the mug from Wendy’s hand and took a sip. As soon as the liquid touched her lips, she knew that Wendy had spiked it with some liquor. She glanced up at her barmaid, who just stood there with a sly smile on her face.

  “Is it okay?” she asked.

  Victoria nodded her approval and took another sip. Although they both knew that there wasn’t a potent enough form of alcohol on the market to take her pain away, she was extremely gratified that someone had tried to subdue her heartache. Had Wendy known that she was expecting, there was no way that she would’ve given her alcohol. But in Victoria’s eyes, what Wendy didn’t know, wouldn’t hurt her.

  “Do you want me to try to get in touch with your brother again?”

  Victoria thought about it briefly before shaking her head. She’d tried no less than five times to get in touch with Saffold but to no avail. She closed her eyes and immediately saw Kevin’s handsome face. The memory was too much for her heart to bear as she burst into tears. Wendy quickly sat down beside her and threw her arm around her boss’s shoulders. She’d been working at the bar for a little over two years and in that time she and her boss had become close. Since she was fresh out of rehab, Wendy desperately needed someone to give her a chance. Her saving grace came in the form of Victoria Baker, who, at the time, needed another barmaid. Victoria could have easily hired one of the other three applicants, but there was just something in Wendy’s eyes that convinced Victoria to give her a chance. As Wendy was doing her best to console Victoria, she noticed two detectives getting out of their car and making their way toward them. She leaned down and whispered into Victoria’s ear.

  “Maybe we should go inside.”

  “Inside? Why?”

  “It looks like the detectives are here.”

  6

  Detectives Franklin Stone and Amber Davis had made this walk time and time again. It was a walk that neither of them ever looked forward to but because of their job description they’d had no choice but to get used to it. Amber took a deep breath as she pulled into the bar’s parking lot and parked.

  “You ready?” Frank asked her.

  “I’m never ready for this,” she said solemnly.

  The two detectives got out and made their way over to Kevin’s car. After pushing up the yellow tape and ducking under it, a tall, muscular, officer with black, curly hair and a neatly trimmed beard greeted them. His skin was the color of milk chocolate. His brown eyes were slightly slanted. Timothy Jordan had been on the force for a little over a year. He was an inquisitive young man well liked on the force despite being a relative newcomer to the precinct.

  “Afternoon, Detectives.”

  “Hey Tim,” they both said in unison.

  “What’s the story here?” Frank asked.

  Officer Jordan shook his head as he reached into his breast pocket and took out his notepad. He calmly flipped through the pages until he came to the information that he was looking for. He stared at it for a few seconds before shaking his head.

  “Gruesome man. Just plain gruesome. Apparently, the victim, a Mr. Kevin Broadnax, was sitting in his car waiting for his girlfriend, a Miss Victoria Baker, when someone got in the back of his car and slit his throat.”

  Frank and Amber followed Jordan over to Kevin’s car.

  “So, what do you think?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure yet,” Frank responded. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of latex gloves. After putting them on, he reached for the door handle. Just before he touched it however, he stopped and backed away.

  “Something wrong, partner?” Amber asked.

  “No. I just want to check something else first.”

  Instead of opening the front door to get a closer look at the victim, Detective Stone decided to open the back door. He and Detective Davis exchanged glances when the door wouldn’t open.

  “It’s locked?” Jordan asked.

  “Yep. That means that the killer probably wasn’t behind the victim when he or she killed him.”

  “Huh?” Jordan was confused. He didn’t understand what a locked door had to do with anything.

  “Tim, do you honestly think that whoever killed this man would be thinking about locking the door after committing a murder in broad daylight?”

  Jordan thought about it and had to concede that it made sense.

  “Damn, I guess that’s why you guys are Detectives and I’m not.”

  “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Tim. No one knows everything when they first become a cop,” Amber told him.

  Jordan watched closely as the two detectives opened the driver’s side door and examined Kevin’s body. Detective Stone looked closely at the victim’s slashed neck, while Detective Davis looked around the car to see if there were any clues for her to pick up. After examining the victim’s fatal wound, Detective Stone glanced down at the edge of the seat. Squinting his eyes, he zeroed in on a single drop of blood.

  “Amber. Look at this,” Frank said, pointing to the droplet. Amber trained her eyes in the direction of where her partner was aiming.

  “I don’t see anything.”

  “Look closer.”

  She leaned down and let her eyes sweep back and forth. It only took her a few seconds to notice the red spot on the fabric.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she asked Frank.

  Jordan looked from one detective to the other.

  “Okay, I’m lost again. Just what the hell are you two thinking?”

  “Whoever killed this man did so from outside of the car,” Frank told him.

  An exasperated frown appeared on the officer’s face. It was frustrating to him that he couldn’t figure things out as quickly as the detectives.

  �
��Okay, Detectives. Please explain to me how you’ve come to that conclusion.”

  “May I?” Amber asked Frank, the senior detective.

  “Please do.”

  “Tim, look at the wound,” she said, pointing to the victim’s neck. “The starting point indicates that someone cut his throat from right to left. It stands to reason that when the blade was taken away from his neck, blood dripped on the seat. Add that to the fact that the back door was locked and voila! His killer sliced his neck from the outside.”

  “Ooooo okay. I get it now,” Timothy said.

  “Tim, did you call in the techies? We’re going to need them to dust this car for fingerprints.”

  “Yeah, I called them about forty-five minutes ago. I don’t know why they haven’t gotten here yet. Do you think I should call them again?”

  “No need,” Frank said. “Here they come now.”

  “Well, let’s get out of their way so they can do their jobs. Tim, fill them in on what happened over here. We need to talk to the victim’s girlfriend,” Amber said.

  “Yes, we do. Where is she?” Frank asked.

  “That’s her sitting over there on that bench. Looks like she’s about to leave though.”

  “No, she’s not. We need to talk to her.”

  As Victoria made hurried steps toward her bar, Frank and Amber walked twice as fast to reach her before she went inside.

  “Hold up a second, miss! We need to talk to you!” Frank yelled.

  Although she wanted her boyfriend’s killer apprehended and brought to justice, Victoria needed a break from talking to the police. She was an emotional wreck and on the verge of having a nervous breakdown.

  “Hey! Didn’t you hear the detective?” Amber yelled. “He said stop!”

  Had it not been for Wendy grabbing her arm, Victoria probably would’ve continued walking. The way she saw it, she had talked to the police once, and now it was time for them to do their jobs. On the other hand, Wendy knew that the best way to get cops to help was to cooperate with them, although she hated talking to them. As Frank and Amber approached her, a frustrated Victoria threw her hands in the air.

  “Oh my God, what now? How many more questions am I going to have to answer?”

  “Miss Baker, you really need to calm down. Now I know that you’ve been through a traumatic experience and may I say that we are very sorry for your loss. But we need to ask you a few questions if we are to get to the bottom of this,” Frank said. He could tell from Victoria’s puffy, red eyes that she’d been crying for quite some time. He had no desire to add to her pain but had a job to do.

  “Miss Baker, you do want us to find who killed your boyfriend, don’t you?” Amber asked with a raised eyebrow.

  Both she and Frank had been on the force long enough to know that the first person to look at in a murder investigation was the significant other.

  “What the hell kind of question is that? Of course, I want my boyfriend’s murderer found!”

  “Then you need to work with us instead of giving us a hard time.”

  “Excuse me?” Victoria said, tears now running down her cheeks. “How in the hell am I giving you a hard time?”

  Wendy put her hands on her hips and glared at Amber. She was thoroughly disgusted by Amber’s snippy attitude. Amber did a double take when she noticed how Wendy was staring at her.

  “Is there a problem?” she asked.

  “I don’t know, is there? You’re treating my boss like she’s done something wrong, and we don’t appreciate it.”

  Amber gave Wendy a hard stare.

  “What is your name?” she asked while taking a notepad from her pocket.

  “Why is that important?”

  “Look, you can either give me your name, or you can go inside and wait until we finish questioning your boss,” Amber said flatly. She wasn’t about to have a pissing contest with this woman.

  “Wendy. My name is Wendy Lomax,” Wendy said after a brief hesitation.

  “Okay. Everyone calm down please,” Frank said, raising his hand. “Once again, Miss Baker, we are sorry for your loss and please understand that no one is saying that you did anything wrong. We just need to ask you a few questions. We will do whatever we can to find out who committed this heinous act, but to do that, we need your help. Anything you can tell us about the incident could quite possibly lead us to find the killer.”

  The look of sincerity in Frank’s eyes seemed to make Victoria feel better. After cutting her eyes at Amber one last time, she led the two detectives into her office. Once they were inside, she plopped down on the sofa and exhaled.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked, sniffling.

  Amber opened her mouth to start the questioning but quickly closed it when Frank held up his hand indicating that he would take the lead. It was clear that Amber didn’t like it as she jammed her pad and pen back into her pocket and crossed her arms. Frank gave her a stern look as he took out his own notepad and pen. Typically, Amber was sympathetic during an interview, but today was different, and Frank felt that he knew why. He made a mental note to talk to her about her behavior later.

  “Where were you when Mr. Broadnax was killed?”

  Wendy’s eyes narrowed into slits. A disgusted laugh escaped her mouth as she shook her head.

  “Really, Detective?”

  “I’m sorry, ma’am, but it’s a question we have to ask.”

  “Whatever,” Wendy said, with a flip of her hand. “Sounds like an accusation to me.”

  “Well it’s not, and please stop trying to tell us how to do our jobs,” Amber chimed in. “The more you interrupt, the longer this is going to take.”

  Wendy let out another disgusted laugh, but remained quiet.

  “Miss Baker? Could you answer my question, please?”

  “I was in here. We were sitting in his car, getting ready to leave when I remembered that I’d left my purse in the bar, so I came back in here to get it. Then when I went and got back in the car, I started talking to him. A few minutes later, I looked at him and saw that he was dead,” Victoria said, starting to cry again.

  “Sooo, it took you how long to discover that he was deceased?” Amber asked. Both Victoria and Wendy shot her a contemptuous glare.

  “Hey, I’m just asking,” Amber said, holding up her hands in surrender.

  “Look, when I got in the car, I had a few things on my mind, so I didn’t look at him when I first got inside.”

  “Miss Baker, did you noticed anything suspicious after discovering the body?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, for instance did you see anybody lingering around? Or did you see anyone running away? Did you see a vehicle driving away? Did you notice a vehicle sitting there that wasn’t there when you went back into the bar?”

  “No, I’m sorry, but I didn’t see any of that.” Victoria said.

  “It’s okay ma’am,” Frank said. He was trying to keep Victoria from losing her composure.

  “Are you feeling nauseated, Miss Baker?” Amber suddenly asked.

  “No,” Victoria said, shaking her head.

  “Are you sure? Because I notice how you keep rubbing your stomach.”

  Frank had noticed the same thing but was going to wait until the end of the interview to bring it up. Victoria’s eyes darted from Frank to Amber.

  “Oh my God, maybe she’s hungry, Detective.”

  “Or maybe she’s pregnant,” Amber blurted out.

  Wendy popped her lips and rolled her eyes. She didn’t know why the detectives were giving Victoria a hard time when she was the victim. She was just about to give them a piece of her mind until she noticed the look of guilt on her boss’s face.

  “Victoria? Are you pregnant?” she asked. Victoria responded by slowly nodding her head slowly. A few seconds later, she burst out crying again.

  “And now my child is going to have to grow up without a father,” she said.

  Frank allowed her a few minutes to compose herse
lf before continuing.

  “Okay, Miss Baker. I just have a few more questions. Did your boyfriend have any enemies that you know of?”

  “Enemies?”

  “Yes, enemies. In other words, is there anyone that you know of who would want your boyfriend dead?”

  No matter how hard she thought about it, only one person kept coming to mind, and that was her brother, Saffold. Both detectives stared at Victoria as she debated in her mind whether to tell the detectives how much her lover and her brother hated each other. But at the end of the day, Saffold was her brother, and she couldn’t betray that bond.

  “No, Detective, I don’t,” she lied. Although the detectives didn’t believe her, they let the matter drop for the time being.

  “If we find out anything, we’ll be in touch. Thank you for your time,” Frank said and motioned for Amber to follow him as he left.

  “So, what do you think?” Amber asked.

  “About what?” Frank responded in a surprised tone.

  “You think she had anything to do with it?”

  “I seriously doubt it. The woman was pregnant. I doubt very seriously if she killed the father of her unborn child. Plus, I feel I can read people pretty good, and the woman I talked to in there was in a great deal of pain.”

  “Maybe,” Amber said, shrugging her shoulders. “She could’ve been acting though.”