Chapter Twenty-nine
Ke’yoko was lying in the bed relaxing while watching TV. She was thinking about what she was going to do while Ja’Rel was out of town for the weekend at the exterminator’s convention he was supposedly attending in Atlanta.
“I thought you went down to the office last night and took the deposit to the bank and set the alarm?” Ja’Rel walked in the bedroom, looked over at Ke’yoko and asked.
“I did go down there and set the alarm, but I forgot to grab the deposit. I thought about it when I got halfway home and I damn sure wasn’t about to turn around and go get it,” Ke’yoko replied.
“Can you go get it and deposit it for me?” he asked as he began grabbing his socks and underwear out of his drawer. “You know I hate havin’ large amounts of money in the safe.”
“Shiiiit, ain’t that what you hired Tamika’s lazy-ass for?” Ke’yoko asked.
“Remember? I told you I had to fire her ass yesterday for comin’ to work late every day, taking two-hour lunch breaks, and forgettin’ to turn in the deposit for like three days in a row. Plus, she was lazy as hell!” Ja’Rel said as he pulled his weekender out of the closet and began packing it.
Ke’yoko did briefly remember Ja’Rel coming home ranting and raving about having to fire Tamika, but she wasn’t paying him any attention while he was talking. “Oh, yeah, well, I’m tired. I don’t feel like leavin’ the house today. Can you have Ka’yah go drop it off at the bank?” Ke’yoko asked as she let out a fake yawn.
“Man, you done got real lazy, too, since you done been pregnant,” Ja’Rel said.
“I’m entitled. Plus, I can’t help that the baby is takin’ all of my energy,” Ke’yoko said.
Ja’Rel grabbed his cell phone and called Ka’yah.
“Wassup, daddy?” Ka’yah answered.
Ja’Rel glanced over at Ke’yoko and prayed she didn’t hear her sister calling him daddy. “Can you do me a favor please?”
“Anything for you,” Ka’yah replied.
“Can you run down to the shop, grab the deposit out the safe, and drop it off at the bank?”
“I can do that. But only if you do me a favor too.”
“And what’s that?” Ja’Rel asked.
“Come spend the night wit’ me.”
“I would do it myself but I’m goin’ out of town.”
“You can leave from my house in the mornin’,” Ka’yah said.
“I can do that.” Ja’Rel nervously glanced back over at Ke’yoko, who was acting as if she was interested in the TV show she was watching.
“Promise?” Ka’yah asked.
“Yep. Yep. And thanks,” Ja’Rel said, before hanging up the phone.
“Is she gon’ go?” Ke’yoko looked away from the TV and asked.
“Yeah, she gon’ run down there,” he answered.
“Good,” Ke’yoko said with a devilish grin.
“I’m about to run and handle some business before I head to the airport. I’ll be back in a few.”
“A’iiiight,” Ke’yoko said quickly before turning her attention back to her TV show.
* * *
Ka’yah walked into the shop and headed straight to the safe. She didn’t have no time to be messing around. She needed to get home and get dinner on before Ja’Rel got over there. She was already running behind because she was busy arguing with Daron about keeping Aiko for the night. She walked into Ja’Rel’s office, walked over to the safe, and put the combination in. She pulled it open and was surprised to see he had a gun in the safe with the deposits.
“Now, why would this nigga have this in the safe? His dumbass know he’s a felon and can’t be around no firearms.” Ka’yah shook her head and grabbed the gun. She examined the gun, rubbing her hand across the cold steel with a silencer. “This a nice-ass gun,” she said pointing it at the wall, pretending like she was shooting at someone. Ka’yah then began posing like one of Charlie’s Angels, before blowing on the barrel of the gun. She began laughing at herself before placing the gun in her purse to take it back to her house to put it in a safe place.
Ka’yah grabbed the money out of the safe, walked out of Ja’Rel’s office, locked the office back up, and headed to the bank to drop the deposits off before hurrying home.
Ka’yah rushed through the door, put her purse on the sofa, and headed straight to the bathroom to take a quick shower. After showering, she threw on a pair of the shortest shorts she could find in her drawer, and a wife beater, and slid her feet into her Coach flip-flops before heading into the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Ka’yah had the music blaring while sipping on some Bartenura. She grabbed her vibrating cell phone and began smiling when she noticed a text from Ja’Rel telling her that he was on his way. She turned her dinner down to a simmer, poured herself another glass of wine, and went and took a seat on the sofa and waited for Ja’Rel’s arrival. Ten minutes later, she heard a knock on the door. She smiled and finished off her last little bit of wine before walking toward the door.
“How come you didn’t use your key,” Ka’yah said with a smile as she answered the door.
Her smile quickly faded when she noticed two detectives and some uniformed officers standing at her front door.
“Ka’yah Cho?” one detective asked, flipping his badge out.
“Yes,” she replied nervously. Ka’yah tried her best to quickly think about what she had done for the detectives to be at her door. The only thing she could think of was all the bad checks she’d been writing.
“You’re under arrest,” he said, stepping in with his entourage behind him.
“Under arrest for what? Writin’ bad checks?” she asked, unfazed because she knew that Ja’Rel would surely get her out on bond.
“No, for the murder of Brian ‘Bo’ Thompson,” the other detective interjected.
“What?” Ka’yah asked, confused. “I ain’t killed nobody!”
“Save it for the judge,” one of the cops said, turning her around and placing handcuffs on her.
“This has to be a mistake! Bo was like a brother to me,” she pleaded.
One of the detectives instructed the officers to look for any evidence. One of the officers went straight to Ka’yah’s purse and pulled out the gun she had gotten out of the safe.
“Well, well, well, look at what we have here,” he said, holding the gun up, showing Ka’yah.
“That’s not mine,” she said quickly.
“Well, who’s is it?”
“It’s not mine,” Ka’yah said and left it at that.
“It was in your purse so that makes it yours,” the officer said with a smirk.
“I swear the gun is not mine,” Ka’yah said as tears began to cloud her vision.
“Take her down to the station,” one of the detectives said.
All the neighbors were outside as they brought Ka’yah out of the house in cuffs and put her in the back of a cruiser. She was so embarrassed she couldn’t even hold her head up. She quickly glanced up as she sat in the back of the police car and watched as Ja’Rel drove by real slow. She called out his name, but he couldn’t hear her. All kinds of thoughts went through Ka’yah’s head as they hauled her down to the police station. For the life of her she couldn’t figure out why of all people to accuse of killing Bo they had chosen her. With no evidence, no eyewitness, no nothing. Ka’yah shook her head, sat back, and couldn’t wait to get to the station so she could make her one phone call.