“All women are natural born espionage agents.”
E. Cantor
It was minutes away from eleven o’clock. The house was quiet. Hezekiah was asleep and Xavier was at Raymone’s house. Fancy tossed and turned in her bed. Thoughts ran through her mind about George and Hezekiah. Despite what Khalil suggested, she just couldn't get out of her mind what George could have been talking about. She sat up in her bed and then thought about the keys. She put on her robe and went downstairs to Hezekiah's office. She took the keys with her. Maybe they went to something in his office.
Sitting at his desk, she pulled the drawers to his desk out one by one. Nothing hidden. She was about to give up and then pulled out the last drawer, accidentally pulling it off its railing. The drawer and its contents spilled to the floor. She leaned down to pick everything up, but then like one of those spy movies she'd seen one too many of, she got out of the chair and got down on her knees. She started looking at his desk to see if there were any secret compartments, but there were none. Next, she got up and walked over to where the shelves of books were. Maybe there was a hidden compartment somewhere among the rows of books. She pushed books in, aside, and pulled a few out but again there was nothing. For the next few minutes, she stood in the center of the office and looked. Her mind was racing with curiosity.
Finally, she walked back to Hezekiah's desk, sat down in the chair, and proceeded to put the drawer back on its hinges. She pushed the drawer in and it stopped. She pushed harder, but the drawer wouldn't go all the way in. She stuck her hand in the back of the space and felt something hard. She tried pulling whatever it was out, but she couldn't. She opened the middle desk drawer and retrieved a mini flashlight Hezekiah kept inside. Turning it on, she looked to see what was keeping the drawer from going all the way back in. When she did, she saw a small steel box about the size of one of those boxes that holds a new cell phone. How had she missed seeing it? She messed with it until she was able to pull it out. When she pulled it out she saw that it was an unusually small lock box. She picked up the set of keys from off the desk to see if any of the keys would open the box. Bingo, the second key she tried unlocked the box.
Fancy looked inside. Strangely, all the box contained was three keys identical to the keys on the set she had in her possession, a micro SD card and a cell phone. Unlike her set of keys, the keys in the box were labeled. One was labeled SB, one was labeled DC, and the third was labeled POB. Looking at the box again, she flipped it over. Taped to the bottom of it was another key which was a duplicate of the key that unlocked the box. "What are you up to, Hezekiah?" she questioned aloud. She turned on the phone and it was fully charged. It looked like a burner phone, one of those phones shady business guys use to carry out shady deals. She scrolled through the phone Contacts which consisted of a mere five names and numbers. Her eyes bulged when George's name appeared. The other contact was the name of an apartment complex. Under that contact in the address section was the address 3201 River Circle. She did a Google search and it turned out that it was a luxury complex located in downtown Memphis. Why on earth would Hezekiah have the name of a condo on his phone and why George's number? Could this somehow have anything to do with whatever George started to talk to her about. Another contact was Bank of America. Underneath it were two numbers that looked similar to bank account numbers. Under that same contact were the words Safe Box followed by a five digit number. Fancy took a screenshot of it and continued scrolling to the next contact. This one had the initials DG. She did the same thing; took a screenshot of it with her phone. The last contact said P.O.B. In the note section under the contact were the words Post Office followed by a four digit number, which she also took a screenshot of. She then went back and did a screenshot on George's number and the apartment listing.
Next, she took the micro card, inserted it into the appropriate slot on the computer, and waited for it to open. What she saw next caused her to become physically sick to the point she wanted to throw up. Hot tears poured from her eyes and traveled down her cheeks. A wave of nausea formed in the pit of her belly as she saw several sexually explicit pictures of her husband with, of all people, Detria Graham. There were also several short videos of the couple that made Fancy’s head swim.
To see Hezekiah with Detria Graham, was unbearable. The love of her life, the man who's butt she wiped, the man who was the reason she served six years in prison, the man she adored and worshipped. How could he do this to her? And how could he do it with the likes of Detria Graham, the same nasty tramp who was sexing her son!
She nervously scrambled for her cell phone. "Khalil, I need you to come over here now," she cried into the phone.
"Ma, what is it? Something wrong with Dad?" Khalil asked, surprised to hear from his mother at this time of night.
"Your father's okay. Just get here as soon as you can."
"Okay. I'm on the way."
"What's wrong?" Detria asked when Khalil moved her away from underneath the curve of his arm. He jumped up out of the bed and began to hurriedly get dressed.
"I don't know. That was my mom. She needs me at the house now."
"I'll go with you," Detria said.
"No, you stay here. I don't know what's going on and until I find out, then you hang back. I'll call or text you."
He stepped into his shoes, grabbed his keys and wallet off the dresser, and left out of his apartment like he was superman going to rescue a damsel in distress.
He drove as fast as he could. When he arrived about ten minutes later, Khalil used his key to unlock the door to his parents' house and rushed inside.
"Ma, Ma, where are you?" he yelled and dashed toward the bedroom where his father was. He opened the door and saw Hezekiah was asleep. He closed up the door and turned to run upstairs, but he was intercepted by his mother.
"Shhh, quiet," she ordered under her breath. "You don't want to wake your father. Come on," she said and walked to Hezekiah's office.
"What's wrong with you, Ma?"
"I found these in one of your father's suit pockets." She showed him the set of keys as they entered the office.
"Okay, and? Please don't tell me you brought me over here because of some keys." Khalil began to look and sound irritated at his mother.
"This is what one of the keys unlocked." She showed him the lock box. "Inside was this stuff." She showed him the duplicate keys, the cell phone, and the micro card. She continued talking and Khalil continued standing, hands folded, waiting on a valid reason for his mother getting him out of the bed with Detria to bring him here.
"See for yourself. Oh, God, Khalil, I'm so hurt. I don't know what to do."
Khalil walked over and stood behind Fancy who was sitting back in front of the computer. His eyes must have been, had to have been playing tricks on him. Surely he wasn't seeing his father and Detria on a video making love. The video was short but it was followed by three more videos of Hezekiah and Detria in the throes of making love. There were also a dozen or more pictures of the couple too.
"I tried to tell you that little tramp was no good for you. And she's messing with my husband, too. Oh, God, how could Hezekiah do something like this? And why would he keep such disgusting photos and videos?"
Out of nowhere, Khalil slammed a fist down on the oak desk, startling Fancy to the point she let out a yelp as if she'd been struck.
"That son-of-a─....I'm going to kill 'em!" He stormed out of the office.
Fancy jumped up and ran after him. "Khalil, baby, stop." Fancy pulled on his shirttail trying to keep him at bay, but Khalil was no match for her petite, 120 pound frame.
Khalil disregarded her, and burst into his father's room.
Hezekiah woke up to loud noises, hollering and cursing. When he saw Khalil burst into the room, he didn't know what to think. He knew something was seriously wrong, but what? Had something happened to Fancy or Xavier? What reason would Khalil be at the house this time of night and in such a state.
Fancy screamed, cried, and pleaded but to no avail. Khalil dashed over to his father and began choking him. "You lying, cheating, dog. You deserve to die. How could you," he spat and screamed while Fancy pulled and pulled on him.
"Khalil, stop it! Stop it, Khalil! You're going to kill him!" Fancy screamed.
Suddenly, Xavier appeared. With all the commotion, no one heard him enter the house. "What are you doing?" he yelled and charged toward his brother, forcing him off of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah began grunting, shaking his head, and the word no pushed forth out of his mouth. Tears came down his eyes as he continued to say, "Nooo," louder and louder. His eyes bulged as he coughed to regain his breath.
"What's wrong with you? Are you crazy?" Xavier yelled. "Ma," he said looking at his distraught mother. "Are you all right?"
"You're going to pay for hurting my mother. I don't give two cents about that side chick of yours. Tricks like her can be bought a dime a dozen. But you cheated on my mother with her? For how long, Dad?"
Xavier stood by his father's bedside speechless, trying to understand what Khalil could be talking about and what had just went down.
"If it's the last thing I do, I'm going to make you pay. You think lying up in this bed is hard, well you ain't seen nothing yet!" Khalil left out of the room. Xavier ran after his brother, unaware that much like his dad, his skeletons might soon come out of hiding, too.