TAJ
“Sorry, baby,” I said.
“Can we talk?”
“Taj, it’s been a long day. I had to fire my assistant manager today and I just want to go home and soak my feet.”
“A friend of mine is dead.”
“Who?” she asked, with a puzzled look on her face.
“Deandre. After our argument the other night, I went over to his apartment and found him dead.”
“Come on inside.” Leandra and I walked back inside the salon and sat down on the brown leather sofa in the waiting area. “Are you okay?”
“As well as could be expected, I guess, just a little freaked out from seeing him lying there like that.”
“What happened?”
“I went over to talk to him. I saw that his door was open. I went in and there was Deandre lying on the floor in a pool of blood.”
“My God, Taj. Did you call the police?”
“Yeah, they asked me a few questions and then let me go.”
“Deandre’s throat was slashed.”
“Jesus.”
“Knowing Deandre, it could have been anybody. He wasn’t exactly liked by a lot of people and he pissed off a lot of people.”
Leandra shook her head. “What is this world coming to?”
“They found a video camera stashed on the entertainment center.”
“What was he doing?”
“Ain’t no telling. I didn’t say nothing to the cops, but he was into some pretty heavy shit.”
“Is he the guy you worked with on the movies?”
“No, no, not at all. Deandre would do shit like install cameras in the toilets of public women’s bathrooms. I told him that if he kept on, it would catch up with him; now he’s dead.”
“Yeah, but Taj, that doesn’t give anyone the right to take his life. Doesn’t matter what someone did.” Lee was right. I didn’t agree with most of the sadistic shit he did, but he didn’t deserve to be killed like that—even if Deandre was a weirdo. “I hope they catch whoever did it and fillet his ass.”
“Don’t think like that.” Leandra caressed my forearm. She had no idea how much I needed that, to feel her touch.
“I miss you and I want you back.”
“Taj, it’s not that easy.”
“I love you and I want you back in my life.”
“I can’t be with someone who lies to me, who keeps secrets. You know how messed up I was when I found out about Emjay and Shariece.”
“I quit doing porn.”
“What?”
“I went to Jimi and quit.” Leandra sighed, folding her arms at her chest. “I thought you would be cool about me quitting.”
“I don’t think it even matters at this point. The fact remains is that you lied to me; you told me you were a fashion photographer when what you really do is fuck guys for money? I mean, if I hadn’t have found that script on the table, were you ever going to tell me?”
“Of course I was, but how do you tell your girlfriend that you do porn for a living? I was afraid of losing you.”
“Look, I’m sorry about Deandre; my condolences go out to you, Taj, but I can’t do this right now. I need some time to clear my head. Can you understand that?”
“I’m sorry for lying to you, for hurting you.” I felt disappointment weighing down on my shoulders like a ten-ton elephant. As I struggled to get back into Leandra’s good graces, I got a call from Detective Newburn. “Detective, hello.”
“Mr. Bowman, I’m calling to let you know that we have a suspect in the murder case of Deandre Jackson.”
“You do? Who is it?”
“We have a Ms. Shariece Mills in custody.”
“Wait, hold up, did you say Shariece Mills?”
Leandra cut me a startled look when she heard me say Shariece’s name. “What’s going on?”
“Yes, do you know Ms. Mills?” the detective asked.
“She’s my girlfriend’s best friend.”
“Can the two of you come down to the station?” Detective Newburn asked.
“Yeah, give us twenty minutes.” With a feeling of disbelief, I ended the call.
“What is it? What about Shariece?”
“They just arrested her for Deandre’s murder.”
“What?” Leandra said.
“Detective Newburn wants to talk to us down at the station.” My head was spinning as it tried to process the news I had gotten from the detective.
“There’s no way. There’s no way Shariece could have done this. She’s capable of a lot of things, but murder sure as hell ain’t one of them.”
“How do you know what she’s capable of?” I asked.
“Excuse me?”
“You think just because ya’ll go shopping and get manicures, you know her?”
“She didn’t do this, Taj. There has to be an explanation.”
* * *
I drove like hell, hoping that I wouldn’t get stopped for speeding. I wasn’t what you would call a fan of the police or police stations being that I’d spent my fair share in jail.
“You think she killed Deandre, don’t you?”
I didn’t want to fight. I was curious to know what the detective had found out. “Let’s just see what Detective Newburn has to say.”
Leandra and I walked through the tinted, double-glass doors. This Mexican cop was sitting at the desk behind plated glass. Torres, his name tag read.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“We’re here to see Detective Newburn. My name is Taj Bowman.” Speedy Gonzalez looked at us suspiciously. He probably thought we were in a gang. Some of us work for a damn living; we don’t all hang out on liquor store corners. If it was up to cops, there would be no lawyers, no courts or judges. They would take us out to the woods and blow our brains out, no questions asked. Just because Dude is Mexican don’t mean shit.
“I’ll let him know you’re here; have a seat,” Speedy said. He kept his eyes glued on me and Leandra as he yapped on the phone.
Five minutes hadn’t even passed before Detective Newburn reared his shiny, bald head. “Mr. Bowman, thank you for coming down.”
“What happened to Shariece? Where is she?” Leandra asked in a panicked tone.
“Detective, this is Shariece’s best friend, Leandra Fox.”
“Mrs. Fox.”
“It’s Ms. I’m not married. What is going on with Shariece?”
“Come to my office. We can talk there.” The anticipation was killing me. When we got to Detective Newburn’s office, he shut the door behind us like he had a deep-seeded secret he was itching to let me and Leandra in on. “We brought Ms. Mills here last night to ask her a few questions about her whereabouts on the night Mr. Jackson was killed and what her connection was with him. She didn’t want to come clean at first, but she did tell me that she did go to Mr. Jackson’s apartment the same night he was killed.”
“What? Did she tell you why she was there?” Leandra asked.
“She claims that Mr. Jackson was blackmailing her, that apparently he had a video of her and another student having sex.”
“My God, are you serious?”
Detective Newburn sat on the edge of his desk in front of us with his arms folded at his chest. “She says that Mr. Jackson would give her the video if he had sex with her.”
“Of course he did,” Leandra said.
“She went to his apartment to talk to him about giving her the copy of the video, but claims that she had no intention of having sex with Deandre.”
“Do you believe her?” I asked.
“Well, there was a video on the handy-cam we found at Mr. Jackson’s apartment that shows that they argued, and there was a scuffle between Shariece and Deandre. We see her cutting Deandre and then the video goes to static. I guess there was no more memory left on the camera.”
“Damn,” I said.
“I don’t believe it,” Leandra said. “I don’t believe she did this.”
“Leandra, baby, they have her on video.”
“I don’t give a damn what they have. I know Shariece. She wouldn’t hurt a gnat. Hell, one time when I tried to kill a fly that had gotten in the kitchen, she kept hollering at me not to kill it. She let the window up to let the fly out. No, Shariece didn’t do this.”
“Well, Ms. Fox, she’s the only prime suspect we have right now.” Leandra had grown teary-eyed to the news of Shariece being accused of killing Deandre.
“There’s something else,” said Detective Newburn. “We were going through Mr. Jackson’s belongings and found two thousand VHS tapes and hundreds of flash drives in a locked desk drawer. Many of them were of women in public restrooms. Apparently, he had lipstick cameras in the toilets of the stalls.”
Leandra looked at me and I at her. “Anyone could have killed him. Maybe somebody’s husband or boyfriend found out about the tapes and killed him. You said it yourself, Taj. Anybody could have killed him. Something like that, I would want him dead too.”
“Ms. Fox, I don’t think you understand. We have Ms. Mills’ prints on the murder weapon.”
“I want to see her,” Leandra demanded.
“What?”
“I want her to tell me to my face that she did this.”
“Baby, are you sure. I mean, you’re upset.”
“I have to see Shariece.”
“She’s in D-Unit. I will show you the way,” Detective Newburn said. Just as I was about to talk Leandra out of seeing Shariece, Speedy burst into the office and whispered something to the detective under his breath. He was short for a cop. “Okay, thanks for letting me know.” Speedy exited the office, paying me and Leandra no mind. “Her boyfriend is here.”
“Emjay? Emjay is here?” Leandra asked.
“You know Ms. Mills’ boyfriend as well?”
“He’s my son.”