Beneath The Surface (7 page)

Harmon hung up the phone and left his desk. When he did, Carmen walked by the desk. Tangela House’s file was still on his desk. “Is it okay if I use the phone,” she asked, to know one in particular. When no one answered or even paid her any attention, Carmen sat down and picked up the phone. While she faked a conversation, Carmen took out her iPhone and took a picture of Tangela’s mug shot. She closed the file. “Thank you,” Carmen said and left the precinct.

Kirk and Richards arrived at the hospital to question Rain Robinson about what they assumed were a series of drug-related robbery/homicides which, that to this
point,
remained unsolved. They were on their way to question her once before, but they arrived just in time to see Rain get shot.

“Miss Robinson,” Kirk said when he walked in the room. “I’m Detective Kirkland and this is Detective Richards. We’d like to ask you some questions.”

“Am I under arrest?” Rain asked defiantly.

“No,” Kirk said.

“Then y’all can get the fuck on,” she said and rolled on her side.

Kirk pulled a chair next to the bed. “I want to talk to you about a series of what we think are drug-related robbery/homicides.”

“Maybe you didn’t hear me. I said unless I’m under arrest, y’all can get the fuck on,” Rain told the detectives without looking at them.

Richards walked around to the other side of the bed and got in Rain’s face. “We can do this any way you want, but you are going to talk to us.”

“Two words: Fuck and you.” She rolled over and looked at Kirk. “You better tell this cracker to get the fuck out my face.”

Kirk laughed. “Pat, why don’t you give me and Miss Robinson a few minutes?”

When Richards left the room, Rain sat up slowly in the bed. “So you’re Kirk, huh?”

“That’s right.”

“People tell me that you’re a right guy.”

“What people would that be?” Kirk asked. He assumed the source was Mike Black. When Black was accused of murdering his wife Cassandra, it was Kirk who took it upon himself to prove that Black didn’t do it.
 
Black felt like he owed Kirk for that.

“Just people.”

“How are you feeling?”

“My chest hurts. I got shot, you know.”

“Can we talk about that?”

“What about it?”

“Why did Bernard Claxton shoot you?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“What’s that?”

“Where’s Blue?”

“He’s dead.”

Rain smiled. That was one less person that she would have to kill when they let her out of the hospital. “How’d he die?” She still needed to know.

“I shot him.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, can you tell me what happened? Why did Blue shoot you?”

“We
was
havin’ an argument and the mutha fucka shot me.”

“What was the argument about?”

“I got robbed that night at the club, and I thought he was involved, so I stepped to him.”

“So your club got robbed and you accused him of being involved, so he shot you; is that what your telling me?”

“That’s what I just said.”

“Do you know a man named Kenneth Rollins? Goes by the name KK Rockwell.”

“Yeah, I know Kay. What about him?”

“He was murdered along with five other men three days ago.” Kirk got a tip that KK Rockwell would be the next target of the drug-related robbery/homicides he was investigating. The bodies were still warm when he got there.

“That’s fucked up for Kay, but I don’t know anything about it,” Rain lied, knowing that she and Nick were responsible for three of those bodies.

“What about James Easely. Goes by the name Jay Easy; you know him?”

Rain laughed a little. “I know that nigga too.”

“He was murdered on the same night. As a matter of fact, they were both murdered on the same night that you got shot.”

“Busy night.” One of the robbers told Rain that Jay Easy had sent them, right before she shot him.

“They found his body in the street.” When Rain caught up with Jay Easy, she shot him in the head.

“What kind of car do you drive, Miss Robinson?” After Rain shot Jay Easy, she pushed his body out of the car.

“Red Lexus.”

“You don’t own a gray Taurus?”

“No. Why?”

“I’ve got witnesses that said a woman matching your description, and a man, were seen leaving the scene of both murders in a late model, gray Taurus. And we found a car matching that description parked outside your club.”

She knew everybody knew her Lexus on sight, so she paid cash for the Taurus. “So you sayin’ I killed them niggas?”

“Did you?”

“No,” Rain smiled at the detective. “But you think I did, don’t you, Kirk?”

“I’m just asking questions, you know, to eliminate you as a suspect.”

“Am I a suspect?”

“I’d like to know where you were when Rollins and Easely were killed.”

“You know where I was. I was at my club getting robbed, and then I got shot by that bitch-ass Blue,” Rain said and Kirk laughed.

“Can you tell me about your relationship to Nick Simmons?”

“You ask a lot of fuckin’ questions.”

“I’m a cop, Miss Robinson; it’s what I do.”

“My daddy told me something once, a long time ago.”

“What’s that?”

“He said, ‘Lorraine, one day a cop is gonna ask you a bunch of questions because they think you committed a crime. But here’s the thing, cops only ask questions when they don’t have anything. If they had something, like evidence, they wouldn’t ask you shit. They’d just fuckin’ arrest you and
be
done with it’.”

“Your father was a smart man,” Kirk said, and knew that she was right. He had nothing to tie Rain to any of the murders. The woman, who saw her leaving the scene of Jay Easy’s murder, couldn’t pick Rain out of a photo array. There were no fingerprints at all in the gray Taurus, and it wasn’t registered in her name. “But you didn’t answer my question.”

“I know Nick.” Rain sat up as best as she could. “He dead too?” she asked, and hoped he’d say no.

“Not that I know of,” Kirk said, and Rain breathed a sigh of relief. “But let’s get back to Rollins and Easely. You asked me if I thought you killed them. Want me to tell you what I think?”

“Go ahead,” Rain said graciously.

“I don’t think you killed Rollins or KK Rockwell, or whatever stupid-ass name he called himself.”

“That’s good to know.”

“I don’t think you killed him because he worked for you. I think all the dealers that these assholes were robbing worked for you. I think you and at least one other person, and I think that person is Nick Simmons, killed the robbers, but not before they told you about Easely. I think you killed
Jay Easy
because you found out that he sent those guys to rob you.

“I think we’re done here.”

“For now.” Kirk stood up. “But we’ll talk again.”

“As long as you leave that cracker in the hallway; his breath sinks,” Rain laughed as the detective left the room.

Black opened his eyes and sat up in bed. He looked around the room and wondered where he was. Then he looked to his side and saw Jackie and Vonda asleep in the bed next to him, and he remembered how he got there.

After putting Carmen in a cab, he also caught one and went to the gambling house that was run by Jackie Washington. When he got there, she was coming out of house. They talked for a while about how things were going, and Jackie told him how much money she had made for him that night; and how things were progressing with the new spot.

Jackie told Black that her Porsche was in the shop and she was waiting for a cab. When her cab arrived, Jackie got in and asked Black if he wanted to share the cab. When they arrived at Vonda’s apartment, Jackie got out and asked if he wanted to come in and share Vonda.

Black shook his head, rolled out of bed, grabbed his clothes, and got out of there. He walked for a while and then caught a cab to his house. On the way, Black thought about Carmen and how good it felt to see her again. The cab pulled up in front of the house in time for Black to see somebody walking toward his door. He told the driver to pass the house, and he got out at the corner. With his gun drawn, Black approached the house. He walked up behind the man and pointed his weapon. “
You lookin’
for somebody?”

“Lookin’ for you, nigga.”

The man turned around. “Leon!” Black shouted, and put away his gun. “What you doin’ here?” he asked and unlocked the door.

“I told you, Mike. I’m looking for you.”

“How’d you know where I lived?”

“Angel told me,” Leon said and made
himself
comfortable.

“Yeah, I saw Angel a couple of weeks ago. She got me to clean up a mess for some cutie with money she was rollin’ with, named Avonte.”

“That sounds like Angel. I don’t know what my little sister
be
doin’ to these woman, but whatever it is, they don’t mind givin’ her their money.”

“Angel is something else. She said something about things not bein’ all good in da’ ville.”

“Had to get out of there for a minute; maybe permanently,” Leon said, and went on to explain that things began to go bad when his cleaner got arrested for FTC violations, in an attempt to get him to roll on the people he worked for. He had already given them Leon’s supplier. “For the time being, he’s standing tall, but ain’t no tellin’ how long that gonna last. So I put together some paper, and was gettin’ ready to lay low for a while. But two niggas hit me at my house. Killed two of my men; and shot Diamond and Pearl.”

“Damn, Leon, I’m sorry. They gonna be all right?”

“I don’t know. I dropped them at a hospital in Jacksonville. But it’s hard gettin’ information.”

“You know who did it?”

“I didn’t get a good look at them, but I got my suspicions. The shit happened so fast. By the time I got my money and got out there, Pearl had been shot and my men were dead. I got Pearl got outta there with Diamond, but she caught one in the back.”

“Damn, man, I’m sorry. You find out who these niggas are, and I’ll kill them.”

“No,” Leon said and looked Black in the eyes. “No, you won’t.” Leon knew that was something that he had to do.

“I hear you. What you gonna do next?”

“Lay low for a minute. The three of us were goin’ to Aruba, but I ain’t feelin’ that now.”

“I got a house in Nassau. I’m goin’ back down there in a day or two,” Black said, and thought about how seeing Carmen may change that timetable. “You could come with me. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want.”