Black Viper

by Christopher Speight

  “Hello?” Timothy answered.

  “Hey. You busy?” she asked.

  “Not really. Just making some rounds. What’s up?”

  “Well, I was wondering if you wanted to keep me company for about an hour?”

  Timothy was speechless.

  “Really? I thought you said before–––”

  “I know what I said before. Do you want what I’m offering or not?”

  “I’m on my way,” he said, before hanging up.

  By the time he got to her apartment, Carla was lying naked in her bed. Roughly an hour later, she was ushering Timothy out the front door. She didn’t want to cuddle. She didn’t want to talk. She’d gotten what she wanted. Now, she just wanted him to leave. Although he was disappointed, Timothy didn’t argue. He was just happy that she’d allowed him into her bed. As soon as he left, Carla lay back in her bed and cried her eyes out. More and more the severity of her situation was beginning to hit her. While the tears flowed down the side of her face, Carla made another decision. She reached onto her nightstand and picked up her cell phone. If she was going down, she was not going down alone.

  60

  “Bailed out? What the hell are you talking about? How in the hell was she able to get bail? She killed my damn husband, and you mean to tell me that this murdering slut is out of jail? Who in the hell bailed that slut out of jail? How the hell did this happen?”

  Marie’s breathing was heavy as she continued to rant. Frank, Amber, Deputy Chief Clark, Hughes, Phillips, and Timothy Jordan, all knew that she was going through a very traumatic time, so they let her have her moment. She was pacing back and forth across the floor so hard that she had begun to wear a groove in the carpet. When no one answered her, Marie stopped in her tracks. She looked around the room and made eye contact with everyone there. Her head stopped moving when her eyes landed on Timothy Jordan. Slowly and with a purpose, she walked up to him. Her head tilted back as she looked up into his eyes.

  “Was it you? Did you bail that murderer out?” she asked, tears now dancing in the corner of her eyes.

  “Me? No. I had nothing to do with her getting out of jail. But to be honest with you, I just don’t think she did it.”

  Marie looked at him like he’d lost his mind.

  “Are you insane? Apparently, you haven’t seen the video! I have, and that’s her!”

  “Come on Captain. How do we know that the video wasn’t altered?”

  “Well, we don’t, which is why we have the techies working on it now! If it’s been altered, in any way, they’ll discover it!”

  “Okay, Captain Snyder. Calm down. I know you’re upset about this, but we need to make sure this is right. The last thing we want is for some slick-assed lawyer to get her off on a technicality.”

  “What technicality, Chief? We have her dead to rights! Video doesn’t lie,” Amber said.

  “Davis, you know as well as I do that nothing is always wrapped up in a neat little bow. Things go wrong. Let’s just hope that the techies find that video to be authentic. Then we’ll have her ass.”

  Their meeting was abruptly interrupted by the loud ringing of someone’s cell phone. All eyes landed on Timothy Jordan as he reached into his pocket and pulled his out. He was just about to press the answer button when Phillips snatched it out of his hand and did it for him. He then pressed the speaker function on the phone and motioned for Timothy to answer it.

  “Hello?” he said, sheepishly.

  Being a trained officer, Carla immediately picked up on the fact that she was on speaker.

  “Okay, since you have me on speaker, I have to assume that other people are present. I’m going to make this short and sweet. I want to come in tomorrow and make a statement.”

  Surprised looks filled the room. Did Carla want to come in to confess to the crime?

  “Carla, this is Detective Amber Davis. Are you sure you want to do that? Maybe you should talk to your lawyer first.”

  “Screw my lawyer! I have something to say! I’ll be in tomorrow at nine a.m.!”

  Without saying another word, Officer Carla Johnson hung up the phone. In her mind, there was no need for her to carry on a long conversation. When it all went down, she was going to make sure that her head wasn’t the only one on the chopping block.

  61

  After being sexually satisfied and finishing off another bottle of wine, it still took Carla nearly an hour to fall asleep. She may as well have stayed awake because she tossed and turned all night thinking about what she had to face the following day. Jail time was inevitable, but she wouldn’t be the only one doing time. The plan had seemed to be fool proof, but now that she’d been caught on video there was nothing stopping her from becoming the only sacrificial lamb.

  By the time her alarm went off, Carla had tossed and turned so much that her sheets were on the floor. Feeling like she’d only been asleep for twenty minutes, Carla sat upright in her bed. With a yawn, she reached over and hit the snooze button on her cell phone. Afterward, she immediately fell back in her bed. Eight minutes later, it went off again. This time she rolled off the side of her queen-sized mattress and stood up. She stared at her beeping cell phone for ten seconds before silencing the alarm on it.

  Carla then jumped in the shower. When she got out, she took her time getting dressed. When she finished, she sat down on the edge of her bed and texted her lawyer.

  I need you to meet me at the police station at nine o’ clock. I’m ready to make a deal with the D.A.

  After doing that, she shut down all her social media accounts. Carla looked at the time and saw that she had roughly an hour before she had to be at the precinct. She figured that she had just enough time to scramble herself a couple of eggs and fry some sausage. After doing so, she sat down at her kitchen table and enjoyed what she figured would be her last free meal. Thinking about what she had gotten herself into, Carla wanted to kick her own ass. For as long as she could count, she’d always been consumed by the almighty dollar. When the opportunity presented itself to earn a cool twenty-five thousand dollars to commit cold blooded murder, she jumped at the chance.

  While other cadets at the academy looked forward to fighting crime and making the city safe for civilians, Carla joined for one reason only. To do drug busts and pocket the cash hoarded by drug dealers. She was a dirty cop in every sense of the word, and now her lack of morals was coming back to haunt her.

  After finishing her meal, Carla got up to prepare for her day of reckoning. She walked into her bedroom and headed for her closet. She thought about wearing her uniform to the precinct but decided that if this were going to be her last day of freedom, she would dress like the diva she felt she was.

  Reaching into her closet, Carla took hold of a black wrap around dress that she’d been saving for a special occasion. Unfortunately, this was as close as she was going to come to that affair. She laid the dress on her bed, went to the bathroom, and jumped in the shower. She knew that she didn’t have that much time, so she quickly washed, got out, and got dressed. After that, Carla applied a generous amount of make-up to her face and let her hair hang to her shoulders. After applying her lip gloss, she took a deep breath and headed for her front door.

  As she approached the door, the severity of her situation finally hit her. Tears welled up in her eyes. When she reached the front door, her hand trembled as she reached down and grabbed the knob. Carla’s head turned and she took one last look at her apartment. She then opened the door and headed for the elevator. She didn’t even bother to lock the door. What was the use?

  As she trudged toward the elevator, each step felt heavier than the last. Normally, it seemed like the elevator would take forever to get to the first floor. Not today, though. It got there in what Carla felt was record time. She shook her head as she made her way through the lobby and into the crisp air. Carla took her time. When she finally reached her car, she could barely breathe. Her legs felt like cement. She opened the door and got into her vehicle. After clos
ing the door, Carla took another deep breath and leaned back against the head rest. She closed her eyes and said a short prayer.

  “Lord, please forgive me for all of my sins.”

  “That’s the good thing about God. He forgives almost anything,” a cold, steely voice said from behind her.

  Carla’s eyes snapped opened the exact moment that a gun was being pressed against the back of her head.

  “Tell him I said hello,” was the last thing Carla heard before a bullet entered the back of her head and crashed through her skull. She slumped forward onto the steering wheel as her blood splattered against the windshield. The horn began to blow before her head was violently snatched back. She was then slung unceremoniously onto the passenger’s seat. Her eyes were open, but they would never again focus on anything other than the afterlife.

  62

  Detective Franklin Stone sat at a table in Starbucks, staring down into his coffee. It had been two weeks since Officer Carla Johnson had been murdered. The fact that it had taken place in her car was giving Frank some sleepless nights. Carla was a trained police officer. It would have taken someone with a high level of skill to get the drop on her like that.

  “You okay over there, partner?” Amber asked, biting into a chocolate doughnut.

  “I guess. Just thinking about the Carla Johnson murder.”

  “What about it?” she asked callously.

  Frank looked up at her.

  “What? Am I supposed to feel sorry for her? I’m sorry, Frank, but that’s not easy for me. She killed our captain’s husband and the messed up part about it is that we don’t even know why.”

  “That’s what I mean, Amber. No one kills without a motive. There has to be some reason that Carla killed Donald Snyder.”

  “I agree, but I think the explanation died with her.”

  “You may be right. But that doesn’t stop me from wondering.”

  “Me neither,” Amber admitted. “But it doesn’t look like we’re ever going to find out, so––

  Amber let the sentence remained unfinished as she shrugged her shoulders.

  “Well, if Captain Snyder has anything to say about it, we will. She’s dispatched every available detective to the case.”

  “Really? Why?”

  Amber was surprised. Had it been her, she wouldn’t have given two shits about a woman who had killed her husband.

  “Simple. She feels that if we find out who murdered Carla, it will lead to finding out why Donald was killed.”

  Amber stared at Frank for a few seconds. She then took a deep breath and let her chin rest in the crevice of her thumb and forefinger.

  “Let me ask you something Frank. You haven’t given any thought to the possibility that Carla and Donald were having an affair? And that’s why she killed him? Maybe he tried to break it off with her, and she was too far gone to let go of him.”

  “Yes, I’ve thought about it once or twice, but it just doesn’t fit. Carla was in her twenties. What could she possibly see in a man nearly twice her age?”

  “Hmmm. Good point, partner.”

  The two of them then sat quietly for around ten seconds before Amber once again broke the silence.

  “Were you surprised that Captain Snyder didn’t attend the funeral?” she asked.

  Frank thought on for a few ticks before saying, “No, not really. I mean, I do believe that she’s going to do everything in her power to find out who killed Carla but attending the funeral of a woman who killed her husband was probably too much to ask.”

  “Yeah, I guess so. Concerning Carla’s murder, though, I am surprised that no one saw anything, especially since it was in broad daylight.”

  “That’s what bothers me. Someone should have seen something. But then again, maybe someone did and just doesn’t want to get involved.”

  “You know how it is, Frank. No one ever wants to get involved but get pissed off when it happens to them and other people won’t get involved.”

  “Yep, that’s the way it usually goes,” he said, before pausing a brief second and then continuing. “Amber, I don’t know if you’ve thought about this, but we have another problem on our hands.”

  Amber’s face scrunched up. She had no idea what Frank was talking about.

  “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

  “We still have two other murders that remain unsolved. If you remember, we thought that Donald’s murder was tied to those because we believed that the killer was targeting interracial marriages and mixed couples. But now that we know Donald’s murder had nothing to do with the other two, we still have a killer on the loose.”

  Amber closed her eyes and rubbed her head. With everything that had been going on, she hadn’t even thought about that.

  “Damn, Frank, you’re right. We’d better get back on that before two more bodies pop up.”

  “You’re right.”

  Frank reached into his pocket and pulled out a few crumpled-up bills. After that, the two detectives got up to leave when they were approached by a tall, burly looking man with a square jaw and thick beard. He placed a hand on Frank’s shoulder and smiled at him warmly.

  “Frank! How the hell are you?” he asked.

  Frank took one look at the man and broke into a large smile. He hadn’t seen him in quite some time, but the two of them had always been pretty good friends.

  “Well as I live and breathe, if it isn’t Jarvis Green! How the hell are you?”

  “Doing good man. I just got back in town.”

  “Work?”

  “Nah man. I needed a vacation. That last case I was on wore me out. Hey, you’re not about to leave, are you? Have a quick cup of joe with me.”

  “Well, since my partner didn’t have the courtesy to introduce me, I guess I just have to do it myself,” Amber said, sticking out her hand. “I’m Amber Davis.”

  “Jarvis Green. Nice to meet you.”

  Amber cut her eyes at Frank, who had an embarrassed look on his face.

  “Sorry about that Amber,” he said, sheepishly.

  Amber was about to respond when her cell phone buzzed. She looked at the screen and rolled her eyes.

  “Give me the keys Frank. I’ll take this in the car.”

  “New boyfriend?” Frank asked.

  “Please. It’s Roger’s annoying behind.”

  As Frank and Jarvis sat down, Amber scurried toward the exit. She had no idea what her ex wanted but, unless it had something to do with her son, she was sure that it was some nonsense.

  “So, how’s it been going, my friend?” Jarvis asked Frank.

  “Not too good lately, man. I know you’ve heard about what happened to Captain Snyder.”

  “No. Like I said, I’ve been out of town for the last couple of weeks. After she––never mind. Like I said, I’ve been lounging on a beach in Miami. What happened?”

  Frank raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know what Jarvis had to say, but something. In his gut told him that he needed to hear it. He let it slide . . . for the moment.

  “Well, for starters, her husband was murdered in their living room.”

  “Murdered? Donald Snyder was murdered?”

  “Yes, he was. Apparently, Captain Snyder came home and found him dead on the couch. From the look of it, he’d been strangled from behind with some type of wire.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “That’s not all. We thought we’d nabbed the killer. An Officer Timothy Jordan.”

  “Wait, hold up. You guys thought a police officer killed you captain’s husband? What made you guys think that?”

  Frank went on to tell Jarvis about the altercation between Donald Snyder and Timothy at the restaurant. He then told him about how Timothy was conspicuously the first person to arrive on the scene after Donald was found dead, saying that he was going to Marie and Donald’s house to apologize to him for the argument. Frank punctuated the story by informing Jarvis that Timothy’s wallet was found outside the window of the home, although the officer had previously stated t
hat he had not searched the perimeter.

  “I see. That does make him look guilty.”

  Frank held up his hand.

  “Hold up, my friend. It gets better . . . or worse depending on how you look at it.”

  Jarvis leaned forward. Frank’s story was fascinating to him.

  “When we brought him in for questioning, he maintained his innocence. We really didn’t have anything other than the wallet to charge him on, so we had to let him go because, quite frankly, that’s not enough to hold him on.”

  “So, the killer is still out there?” Jarvis asked.

  Frank took a deep breath, as he slowly shook his head.

  “It turns out that the killer was a cop. On a hunch, I went back to the house to look around. While doing so, I noticed a picture sitting on the mantel that looked different from the rest of them. Well, it turns out that the frame holding the picture had a miniature camera in the bottom of it. Apparently, Donald didn’t trust what was going on in his own home and kept video surveillance on it.”

  “How do you know that he was the one doing that?”

  “Because the video was attached to his cell phone.”

  “Jesus,” Jarvis said, rubbing his head.

  Frank thought his reaction was on the strange side, but he continued with the story.

  “Now, here’s the part that broke the case wide open. After finding the picture, I was about to go back to the precinct and see what the techie could do with it. We already had Donald’s phone so all we had to do was go through the phone and see if it was connected to the video. But before I could even get in my car to leave, I heard a woman calling me and running toward my car from across the street. She told me that she has something important to show me. I tried to blow her off, but she said that it’s important. There was something in her voice that told me she was telling the truth, so I followed into her house. She proceeded to show me footage from her security camera. The first thing she showed me is someone sneaking around the side of Marie’s house. I’ll give you one guess what they were doing.”