Forty-Five

Nico didn’t know about Jasmine’s SoHo apartment. He also didn’t know exactly how much time she had been spending away from the house they shared together. So it was easy to see how he found it strange that she had supposedly gone out with Simone, and at close to seven-thirty in the morning, she still hadn’t come back.

What’s up with the snitch?—That was Mia’s text to Nico, which actually woke him up and made him realize that Jasmine still wasn’t home.

Nico didn’t respond to it. He didn’t need another lengthy lecture or a bunch of texts from her re-explaining why she was so sure that Jasmine was snitching.

Nico had his own brain, and he had a plan for how he was going to set up Jasmine and test her to see if she was snitching. If she failed, he was going to make her life a hell she had never imagined she could experience. He was going to first murder both of her parents before killing her.

Nico couldn’t wait around for Jasmine to come home because he had moves to make. He was going to go see BJ in the hospital, and after that, if he hadn’t heard from or seen her, then he would call her and find out where she had been all night long.

***

While Nico was on his way to Jamaica Hospital to see BJ, Jasmine was on the elevator heading to her apartment. When she unlocked her door and walked in, the loft was very quiet, and although it was still early in the morning, she initially thought that Homicide wasn’t there. But when she walked into her bedroom, she found him sleeping in her bed. Jasmine was surprised to see him there, because he always fell asleep in the living room watching sports.

“Babe, wake up. Baby, I have to tell you something,” Jasmine said while she shook Homicide.

Homicide opened his eyes and saw Jasmine looking at him, but it took him a few seconds to figure out where he was and to get his bearings.

“Wake up, baby. I need you. I fucked up big time,” Jasmine said.

“What’s up? What happened?” Homicide asked, his voice hoarse.

“I got stopped by the Bridge and Tunnel police when I was coming back from City Island with Simone. Something was wrong with my E-ZPass, so the officer comes to my window and he smelled liquor on my breath. So he’s like, ‘Get out the car,’ and was asking me, had I been drinking and all that shit. Simone gets out of the car, and I stay in the car with the doors locked and the windows up, and I’m like, ‘Nah, fuck that! I ain’t getting out.’ And I was talking mad shit because I was drunk, so it was the liquor talking for me. So, anyway, the next thing you know is, he calls other officers, and other cops come and they force me out. I was trying to tell them that I’m a C.I. and was asking them to call and check me out, so they can let me go. And I was just talking real loud and—”

“And where was Simone when all this was going on?”

“She was standing right there.”

Homicide thought for a moment, and then he sat up in the bed. “Where Simone live at?”

“In Queens.”

“Queens?” Homicide said under his breath. “We have to go see her right now before she starts talking.” He scooted himself out of the bed and put on the same jeans and shirt he was wearing the day before.

Jasmine was happy that Homicide got it without having to explain anything.

“She got the biggest mouth, and I just hope she went straight home and went to sleep and didn’t start calling and texting nobody.” Jasmine knew it was do-or-die for her if Simone told anyone what had happened.

Homicide got his gun off the dresser and put it in his waistband and told Jasmine he was ready to roll. The two of them left the apartment and made their way down to the parking lot and got into his Denali, headed to Queens. Jasmine drove, since she knew the way there.

When they reached Simone’s block, Homicide told Jasmine to walk to the apartment and call Simone to come open the door, and when she opened the door, stall her for a moment and he would approach and take it from there.

Jasmine took in all of the instructions and exited Homicide’s truck. She walked four houses down to Simone’s house and called her while standing on her steps. Simone picked up on the second ring.

“Oh, my God! Simone, you are not going to believe what they put me through,” she said into the phone.

“You okay?” Simone asked.

“Yeah, I’m good. I’m gonna kill you for getting me that drunk off them Henny Coladas.”

Simone laughed. “You was talking so much shit, and I was trying to get your attention so I could tell you to shut the hell up.”

“Simone, I’m outside your door. They just released me. I have to shit, and my stomach is killing me, so you was closer and I figured I would just stop by you real quick, instead of driving all the way to Long Island.”

“Oh! I didn’t hear the bell.”

“I didn’t ring it.”

“Okay, I’m coming right now.”

Within thirty seconds Simone was at the door in her short silk pajamas. “So you gonna come and blow up my bathroom?” She laughed.

“Who you dressed all sexy for?” Jasmine asked, trying to stall.

“This ain’t sexy. What are you talking about?”

Jasmine just looked at her with a suspicious look. “Let me find out.”

“You ain’t gonna find out nothing. But hurry up. Come in, so I can close this door.”

Jasmine couldn’t stall anymore without looking suspicious, so she walked in, not wanting to turn to see where Homicide was.

As soon as Simone tried to close the door, Homicide sprang to the door like an alley cat and stuck his foot in the base to prevent it from closing.

“Who is this?” Simone said with an attitude. She wasn’t sure what was going on, and initially she thought it was her landlord who had stuck his foot in the door.

Homicide then grabbed the doorknob and pushed open the door.

As soon as Simone saw Homicide’s beard she started to scream.

Homicide grabbed her and repeatedly slapped her in the face until she fell to the ground. “Shut the fuck up!” he said through clenched teeth. “Don’t open your fuckin’ mouth!”

He pulled out his gun and pointed it at Simone, who remembered it from Ish’s house. She was sure it was the same gun. Simone immediately remembered the voice as being the same voice from the home invasion at Ish’s house. She also peeped how calm Jasmine was. She knew Jasmine was in on whatever was going down.

“Please just don’t hurt me. Please. Jasmine, you don’t have to do this. I swear, you don’t. You know how long we go back, Jasmine, and you know I wouldn’t say nothing to nobody. Jasmine, I won’t hurt you. You know that, Jasmine.”

Jasmine kept quiet.

“I told you to shut the fuck up!” Homicide punched Simone squarely in the face, and she dropped to the ground like a rag doll. He then dragged her by her hair into the living room.

Jasmine knew what was about to happen and couldn’t watch.

Simone tried to put up a fight, but Homicide kicked her in the ribs the same way he had at Ish’s house. Simone immediately clutched her stomach in pain and doubled over on the ground.

Homicide grabbed one of the cushions from the couch and placed it over Simone’s head and mashed her head to the floor, suffocating her. Simone was trying to free herself, and she put up the best struggle she could, but her screams were muffled by the cushion.

Homicide knew the cushion would also muffle the gun blast.

BLAOW!

One gun blast from Homicide’s gun sent a bullet right through Simone’s head and blood splattering on the floor. Simone’s body went limp. When Homicide removed the pillow from Simone’s face, it was clear that she was dead. Her eyes were wide open, but there was no life in her body.

Jasmine walked into the living room, and it was so eerie to her. Simone’s eyes were still open, and it looked like she was staring at her. She couldn’t help but tremble at the sight of her dead friend.

“Go find some bleach, and see if you can find some gloves,” Homicide instructed.

Jasmine went to her kitchen and found plastic gloves that Simone used to wash dishes, and then she looked in the cabinets and found Clorox, and she brought it for Homicide.

“Get me some water too,” he told her.

Jasmine ran and got a large glass of water, and then she ran into the bathroom and grabbed the first two towels she saw. She knew what Homicide wanted to do.

With the bleach, water, and towels, Jasmine and Homicide took about fifteen minutes and wiped down Simone’s apartment. They made sure to wipe all of the doorknobs and surface areas clean of any fingerprints. Once the apartment was wiped clean, Homicide poured bleach all over the couch cushion. Then he looked around to make sure there were no security cameras anywhere.

Jasmine saw Simone’s phone on the floor and picked it up. She started to go through her text messages and noticed no recent BBM messages or text messages. Then she looked at her call log and saw that Simone had called her on-again, off-again lover Carlos at five o’clock in the morning and spoke to him for half an hour, and also spoke to him again at seven in the morning.

Homicide asked, “We good?”

“We have to make one more stop.” Jasmine showed him the phone.

Homicide nodded and then he and Jasmine left the apartment. They made sure all of the lights were off, all of the shades and blinds were drawn closed, and the door was locked. As they walked back to Homicide’s truck, he looked at all the houses in close proximity to Simone’s, checking for security cameras. He didn’t see any cameras that could have captured him and Jasmine going to or exiting Simone’s apartment.

Jasmine and Homicide then headed to Carlos’ apartment, and a similar murder scene played itself out, with Carlos also losing his life.

“Dead witnesses are the best witnesses,” Homicide joked.

Jasmine was way too distraught to make light of the deaths of her two friends.

When it was all said and done, it took weeks before Simone’s and Carlos’ bodies were found inside their apartments. Jasmine cried her eyes out daily over the loss of her best female friend.

When the story hit the news, police investigators theorized that there must have been some kind of love triangle gone bad. Although they couldn’t link Ish to the deaths of Carlos and Simone since he had the best alibi in the world being in jail, Ish’s name still emerged as the main person of interest.