by Roy Glenn
Nick quickly got back under the covers. “What do you wanna talk about, Wanda?”
“Us, Nick,” Wanda said just a bit aggravated with Nick for not knowing the obvious. “What are we doing here?”
“Didn’t you ask me that before?”
“I’m serious, Nick,” Wanda frowned.
“Yes,” Nick laughed a little. “I see that.”
“I really need to know what’s going to happen with us next.”
“What do you mean, Wanda?”
“I mean you and I have been in this bed making love all day.”
“I thought you said you left for a couple of hours?”
“Nick.”
“I’m sorry, Wanda, I know what you’re talking about. I know we made love all night.”
“And all day today,” Wanda quickly added.
“And it was great, Wanda.” Nick paused. “I really feel you.” Wanda smiled and took Nick’s hand in hers. “If it’s all right with you, I’d love to do it again.”
Wanda moved closer. “I do too. It was…it was fantastic, that’s what it was. But were friends Nick. I don’t want this to ruin our friendship.”
Nick shook his head. “I can’t speak for you Wanda but making love to you won’t change the way I look at you, or the way I feel about you.”
As far as he was concerned, he would never do anything to change that. Nick wanted to tell her that he knew things wouldn’t because there was so much more that he was feeling. He had waited so long to be with her and now that they were finally together, she was acting like she was ready to call it a one-night stand that they would never mention again or to anybody.
“I understand that Nick. I cherish our friendship and would hate for this to ruin it, that’s all I’m saying,” Wanda said and rolled over. “It was probably just because were both just stressed about what’s happening with Mike.”
Nick got out of bed and walked over to the window. Wanda rolled over and watched him walk. He stood there, peeking out the window for a while, trying to decide what to say. Should he tell her now? Should he tell her now that he was in love with her and run the risk of Wanda saying that she was, you know, flattered, but she wasn’t interested in it being more than what it was, sex. They were friends, and that was the way she wanted to keep it.
Well at least she wants to fuck some more, maybe in time, Nick thought and then knowing that wasn’t what he wanted, Nick said fuck it! “It might have been like that for you, Wanda, it wasn’t like that for me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I mean I’m in love with you Wanda.” Nick turned to Wanda and said. “Don’t you know that? I love you. That’s why I spend all my time with you Wanda cause I love you, and I have been so hooked on everything about you for a long time.” Nick exhaled. “There I said it.”
“You act like it was a problem,” Wanda smiled, and then she started to laugh a little. She knew that laughing in front of a man after he confessed his love for you, was a bad idea so she held it back.
Truth be told, Wanda couldn’t believe her ears. Even though she was feeling Nick, more so now since he made her scream like an animal, and that could even be stretched to include her feeling the same way, but it still caught her off guard.
“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to tell you that,” Nick said and slowly walked back to the bed.
“What stopped you?”
“I didn’t want you to get that look on your face and tell me that you were flattered, but you wanted to stay friends.”
“Come back to bed, Nick,” Wanda said and patted a spot on the bed.
Nick walked around to his side of the bed and got under the covers. Wanda moved next to him and he put his arm around her.
“You don’t have to worry, even though I am flattered, I’m not going to say that. Not when I’ve been feeling you, Nick. All this time that I’ve been spending with you, I thought that’s all you were interested in. I think I started feeling you that night I got you out of jail.”
“I started digging you that night too,” Nick lied and kissed Wanda on the cheek. “How come you never said anything?”
“I didn’t wanna make a fool of myself. Let’s just say I didn’t wanna hear about how flattered you were.”
They both laughed. Nick reached out for Wanda’s face. He kissed her softly and with real passion. Wanda ran her hand across Nick’s chest. “So, now that we found love, what are we gonna do with it?”
“Oh, now you wanna know?” Wanda asked.
“Yeah,” Nick laughed, “Now I wanna know.”
Wanda moved closer. “Take it one day at a time.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Now that Nick and Wanda had confessed their love for one another, Wanda recommended that they get back to the real world. Nick reluctantly turned on his phone and checked his messages, while Wanda called her secretary. “You were right, Freeze been calling,” Nick said.
“He called me too,” Wanda told him as she continued getting her messages from her secretary. Once she had gotten them all, Wanda hung up the phone and checked her home messages. “Damn!” Wanda said and deleted the message. She slammed the phone down and turned to Nick. “Bobby called.”
“What did he say?”
“Where is everybody? He’s in St. Maarten and that they’re all having a great time. It’s really doing a lot for Pam. He’s at sea tomorrow, and he’ll call from the next Island,” Wanda sighed.
“You think he’ll call Freeze?” Nick asked.
“No. He said Pam was looking at him crazy because he was on the phone. Mike said he promised her no phone.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t tell Bobby.”
Now it was Wanda looking crazy at Nick. “Why not?”
“You just said its doing a lot for Pam. Them and the kids are having fun together.”
“And.”
“What’s Bobby gonna do when you tell him that Shy is dead and Black’s in jail accused of the murder?” Nick got out of bed. “He’s gonna make everybody pack their shit and drag them all back here to do what? He’s right where he needs to be. Taking care of his wife.”
“You’re right, that won’t do Pam any good. I don’t know, I’ll ask Mike. I was supposed to go see him this afternoon. He probably thinks I forgot all about him.”
“If you’re still trying to make me feel guilty about how we spent the day,” Nick laid down next to Wanda. “Okay it just worked, now I feel guilty. But I still don’t regret it.” He kissed her.
“I don’t either,” Wanda said and kissed him again. “Oh, I almost forgot, Kirk called me too.”
“Kirk has you’re home number?”
“He called the office,” Wanda said and then she thought, oh, no he’s not jealous. Wanda smiled a satisfied smile.
“What does Kirk want? He’s not on the case, is he?”
“No, he’s not, at least to my knowledge, but called and said he wants to talk to you, and he doesn’t have your number.”
“Me? What does Kirk want with me?”
“He said it’s about Mike.”
Wanda copied down Kirk’s number and handed it to Nick. “Well, if it’s about Black it must be important,” Nick said and dialed the phone.
Kirk answered on the second ring. “Kirk.”
“What’s up, Kirk? This is Nick Simmons. I heard you wanted to talk to me.”
“Yeah, Simmons, I want to talk to you about Black and the murder of his wife.”
“You on the case, Kirk?”
“I stuck my hand in.”
“What do you wanna talk about?”
“Black said that you dropped him off the night of the murder. I just have a few questions. When can we get together?” Kirk asked.
“I could meet you in about an hour,” Nick answered.
“Make it two, I’m right in the middle of something.”
“Two hours it is.”
“I’ll meet you in front of Black’s house in two hours,” Kirk said and hun
g up.
“What does he want?” Wanda asked.
“He wants to meet in two hours to talk about Black.”
“Two hours, huh?” Wanda said very sexily.
“That’s what he said,” Nick said and started to grab his pants.
“Then you’ve got time.”
Nick turned around and saw that Wanda had pulled back the covers and spread her legs. “You’re right. I do have time.”
“I’m always right.”
Two hours later, Nick pulled up in front of Black’s house. Kirk was already there waiting for him. He walked up to Nick’s car and got in. “Hope you don’t mind if we talk in here? It’s hot as hell out there.”
“You want me to turn up the air?”
“Shit…it feels good in here.” Kirk admired the interior. “What model is this?” Kirk asked.
“XLR.”
“Nice,” Kirk said nodding his head. “What’s a heap like this cost, about eighty thousand?”
“Eighty-two.”
“What’s it like to drive something like this?”
“You wanna drive, Kirk?”
“Nah, I’m not that kind of hater. But anyway, I wanted to ask you a few questions about Black.”
“What do you want to know?”
Kirk took out his notes. “Black said that you and him just got back from a trip, where’d you go?”
“Miami. But you already know that,” Nick smiled and reclined his seat. He made himself comfortable while Kirk asked questions that he already had verified as fact. But being the thorough cop, he asked Nick, what business did they have in Miami? What time did they get back here? Did you park at the airport? How long did Black talk to Shy? Did you stop anywhere? How was traffic? What time did you get there? Then he asked, “What was the tone of the conversation?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean did he sound upset, or anxious, did his mood change after he talked to her?”
“No, he was glad to be home. He was cool while he talked to her. They talked about the baby.”
“Wait a minute. What baby?”
“What kind of detective are you? They have a five-month-old baby girl, her name is Michelle.”
“Damn, I didn’t know that. Where’s the kid now?”
“She’s with Bobby’s wife's sister.”
“Where is Bobby? I haven’t seen him around lately.”
“His wife got sick and he’s been taking care of her.” Nick told the detective. Kirk didn’t need to know that Pam had an emotional breakdown after she killed two people. “They're on a cruise right now.”
“What happened when you got to his house?”
“He got out and when inside. I guess that’s when he found her body.”
“You talk to him after that?”
“No. I haven’t talked to him since he got out the car.”
“What’d you do when you left there?”
“I went to the club.”
“You go straight there?”
“Didn’t stop anywhere.”
“Anybody able to verify you were there?”
“Just the whole staff, there might have been a few that didn’t see me.”
“You didn’t hang around the house, make sure everything was okay?”
“No Kirk, I didn’t hang around, I went straight to the club,” Nick said thinking that Kirk was trying to drag him into this. “What are you getting at, Kirk? You think I had something to do with killing Shy?”
“No, I’m just asking questions. Why, did you have something to do with it?”
“No.”
“I didn’t think so,” Kirk said and started to get out of the car, satisfied that if his story checked out, that it couldn’t have been Nick that removed the evidence from the crime scene. “Thanks for talking to me.”
“Kirk,” Nick said quickly, and Kirk turned and faced him. “Black didn’t kill her. He couldn’t. He loved her.”
“I believe you,” Kirk said and paused. “To be honest, I don’t think he killed her.”
“Then why is he in jail?”
“Wasn’t my case.”
“Then what are we doing here?”
“I already told you, I stuck my hand in and pulled out a few—let’s call them inconsistencies that interested me.”
“So, if it’s not your case what are you doing? Trying to make sure that Black gets life?”
“Why does everybody keep asking me that? Look, when I heard the story, it didn’t quite wash for me. So, I got involved.”
“What do you mean, didn’t quite wash?”
“I know you’ll never admit to this but, Black’s killed a lot of people and I’ve never been able to make a case against him. You wanna know why?”
“Tell me why, Kirk.”
“Because he’s a smart killer as killers go. No prints, no shells, no witnesses, nobody talking. That’s the kind of killer Mike Black was in his day. Not the type that the cops catch at the scene, covered in blood with the murder weapon laying around.”
“Yeah, he would have at least got rid of the evidence,” Nick said, and then he thought about it. “That’s why you asked me if I hung around, to get rid of the evidence.”
“Not if your alibi checks out. What about you, you heard anything I need to know?’
“No.” Nick thought about telling Kirk about Birdie. “Like you said, nobody’s talking.”
“You got any idea who would wanna kill her?” Kirk asked.
“No idea. But somebody killed her, and it wasn’t Black.”
“I’ll let you know what I think, I think that whoever killed her set it up to look like Black did it. They set it up to look like Black came home, lost it, and just got caught. The timing it took to pull this off took some planning. If I’m right it was planned to down to the point that even with the inconsistencies I found that without another viable suspect, Black is gonna get life for murdering his wife.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
As soon as Kirk got out of the car, Nick called Freeze. “What’s up, man? Where the fuck you been?”
“I had to take care of something,” Nick told Freeze, thinking about what he had taken such good care of.
“Whatever it was, it must have been real fuckin’ important.”
“Believe me, it was real fuckin’ important.”
“Whatever, Nick. All I’m sayin’ is that with all the shit that’s going on I need to hear from you.”
“Yes, daddy.”
“Fuck you, Nick. Where you at now?”
“In front of Black’s house.”
“What the fuck you doing there?”
“Talking to Kirk.”
“What he want?”
“He wanted to know if after Black went inside, did I wait and take evidence away from there.”
“What? That don’t make no fuckin’ sense. What evidence Kirk talking about? They got the gun.”
“Doesn’t make sense to me either.”
“Fuck Kirk, let him do what he gotta do, I got some shit I need to tell you about.”
“What shit?” Nick asked.
“Meet me at Cuisine in about an hour.”
Nick drove off and looked at the dashboard clock and thought about going back to Wanda’s house and bending her over some piece of furniture, but he called her instead.
“Hello, Wanda.”
“Hi, Nick.”
Nick could tell by the sound of her voice that something was wrong. “What is it?”
“Three men attacked Mike in his cell last night.”
“Is he all right?”
“He is, but they aren’t. One of them is hurt pretty badly. Mike’s in administrative segregation for his protection.”
“It happened last night and you’re just hearing about it now?”
“They left a message with my secretary. Even if she tried to call me, my ringer was off, and my cell was on silent.”
“Oh.”
“How’d it go with Kirk?”
&nb
sp; “He doesn’t think Black did it.”
“Then why is he still in jail?”
“That’s exactly what I asked him,” Nick smiled.
“See how close our minds are?” Wanda mused. “What did he say?”
“He said whoever killed Shy, set it up to make it look like Black killed her. He said he found some, what he calls inconsistencies, but he said unless we find who killed her, Black is going down for this.”
“Well, whatever inconsistencies Kirk found will come out in the discovery phase, so that will help us. What else did Kirk say?”
“Kirk said the set up took planning and timing to pull it off and that means somebody with resources and a reason to want to kill her and make it look like Black did it.”
“Has anybody considered that maybe this has nothing at all to do with Mike?” Wanda asked. “Shy used to do business and I’m sure she made enemies.”
“You’re right, but all I’m saying is Kirk said it took planning, right?”
“Right.”
“Kirk gave me the impression that however it went down it took a lot of planning. The thing with Birdie and Shy happened the night before the murder. That’s not enough time to set anything up, and to me that lets out Birdie. So, we need to stop fuckin’ around with that nigga and find out who really killed Shy.”
At that moment, Birdie and Albert were relaxing in a suite on the boardwalk at the Tropicana Casino Resort, in Atlantic City. Birdie hit the crap tables, while Albert played poker. Their plan was to stay a few days there, have some fun, then go back to New York. They would say that Birdie was in Atlantic City on the night of the murder. When Albert found out what it was all about, he went down there to tell Birdie, and since Birdie didn’t know anything about it, they didn’t see any reason to rush back.
When Albert got the call that Freeze had killed Lonnie and Smiley, he was in the Jacuzzi with a blonde hooker that latched on to him while he was playing poker the night before. She was working the casino that night and saw Albert racking in big pots, so she angled her way to a spot right behind him. She had been there a while before Albert turned around and noticed her.
The woman was absolutely stunning, in that red Badgley Mischka satin cocktail dress. Albert picked up a hundred-dollar chip and put it in her cleavage. “Don’t go anywhere. I won’t be long.” Thirty minutes later, they were at the bar, sharing drinks and making arrangements. Thirty minutes after that they were in his suite.
