by De'Kari
He noticed that Hedgecock was carrying his phone. He really doesn’t have time for some boyfriend and girlfriend bull shit. Thinking he had girl problems
“You need to see this sir.”
Just like he thought, some bull shit.
“Officer, I don’t have time for no bullshit!” He barked at Hedgecock.
“I assure you, sir, this isn’t bullshit.” Hedgecock shoved the phone into his face. As he stood over Urena, he couldn’t but notice the expensive looking watch with the diamonds around the face.
When Urena looked down he saw a YouTube screen. He was just about to say something when the video began to play.
“Holy Shit!”, was all he could say as he watched in horror.
On the screen was the same video that they had seen in their briefing. Only this video was clearer. A lot clearer. As Lt. Urena watched Officer Horsely die degradingly all over again, “the poor son of a bitch”, he thought to himself.
“We don’t know who uploaded the video, but it’s been up just a couple hours. One of my tech guys found it not too long ago.”
Urena bolted up out his chair. “What the hell do you mean only a couple hours? On the internet that might as well be all year!” He did not want to be the one to take this to the Chief, but there was no time for chain of command on something like this.
He snatched Hedgecock’s phone and headed toward the Chiefs office. He didn’t know how someone had gotten their hands on the video, a better video than their own at that. But, they’d somehow gotten ahold of it and leaked it on the internet. Undoubtedly there was going to be hell to pay. So far, they had been able to keep the police killings under wraps. That was out the window now. The backlash had begun already. Messages and alerts from other sites were popping up and pinging one after another. One message said, “If Black Lives Don’t Matter, Neither Should Cop Lives.”
Urena didn’t notice that Hedgecock was with him until he saw the reflection in the window of an office they were passing.
“Officer, that will be all. I’ll make sure and get your phone back to you.” He didn’t have time to wait on a response.
Hedgecock wanted to argue, but he knew that arguing with a lieutenant, no matter what, he would lose. He turned around and looked to see if anyone had witnessed his embarrassment. Not seeing anyone paying attention to him, he made his way slowly down the hallway, back the way they had just come.
Urena made it to the Chiefs office. Outside her door he readied himself and took a deep breath. He wondered how long it had been since he’d felt nervous while standing outside of someone’s office.
“Come on in!” Chief Vieira called out after he knocked on the door.
The Chief was always so nice, he wandered if she would be nice and cheery after this. He opened the door and walked in.
“Lieutenant Urena, how may I help you today?”
In front of her sat a stack of papers. She looked up from them with a smile on her face as she asked the question.
“Forgive me, ma’am, for breaking protocol by coming directly to you” he nervously began.
She waived her hand to say don’t worry about it while at the same time telling him, “It’s okay, what’s the problem?” She knew there had to be a problem for him to be standing in her office at that moment.
The paper she was holding in her hand she laid face down on her desk. He didn’t need to see the letter she had just finished writing Simpson.
“Well, Ma’am, somehow someone has gotten a copy of the video showing Deputy Horsely being murdered and has posted it on the internet. A bunch of social media sites have picked it up rather via chat rooms or actual clips of the video.” Urena made his way to the desk with the phone in his hand. The video was already playing. “This is spinning into one major cyclone, ma’am.”
She watched the video play and couldn’t help but see all of the alerts and chats that were being sent.
“Dear Lord, help us.” was all she could say.
The decision not to go public about the murders was hers. She was thinking of public safety overall but it wasn’t not going to look that way once this got out.
Meanwhile, throughout the station word was spreading like wild fire blown by gusts of the Santa Anna winds of Southern California. Fearful anticipation of an all-out media frenzy loomed over the heads of everyone. It had been nearly four hours since the leak of the video. Currently, the identity of the source of the leak was priority.
The identity of the person who’d leaked the video may have well been on the top of everyone’s ‘to do list’, but as officer Hedgecock was getting ready to find out, that was the least of their worries.
He sat in the conference room which had been turned into a make shift work area/command center for him and his guys. Hedgecock was fuming over Urena’s disrespect in shutting him out on presenting the footage to the Chief. It was his team that discovered it, God Damn it! He stood up for the fifth time since Urena had returned his phone five minutes ago. The raging waves in his ear were the sound of blood flow from his heart beat. It didn’t allow him to hear his cell phone that was ringing.
Just by chance he happened to glance down it the middle of his tantrum and noticed that the screen was lit up. Reluctantly he snatched it up.
“This is Hedgecock.” He more yelled than spoke into the phone.
“Officer Hedgecock, this is Carla Daniels from KTVU Fox News…”
“Look lady, I ain’t got time for this shit today.” He started to hang up the phone.
Frantically she called out, “You don’t have time for murdered police officers!”
He looked at the phone to check the caller ID, “What did you just say?” He questioned, hoping against all hope that he had heard her wrong.
“Sir, I have it from a reliable source that your department is in conspiracy with other departments to cover up a killing spree that’s targeting law enforcement personnel throughout the Bay Area.” Carla Daniels could not see through the telephone she could she would tell herself that Hedgecock gave the answer away by how big his eyes had gotten and how wide his mouth was open. But even if those were not giveaway signs, his already red face suddenly got two shades darker.
“Listen here lady, any reporter worth their salt would know the difference between a good, news-worthy story and a damn hoax,” he tried to bluff.
That’s what they were taught at the academy. Lie. Deny. Bluff. Cover-up. These were called the four essentials of police work.
“Right you are sir…” her voice was now condescending as she spoke. “And I will have you know that I have been with Fox News going on fifteen years and I definitely know the difference between a good story and a hellavah story. And this is a hellavah story…”
“Look lady…”
“Furthermore, we are running the story at 5 p.m. with Leslie O’Neil and I’m running a follow up on the 6 p.m. segment. Seeing as how you are the officer in charge of the special task force set up to stop the killer or killers, I just wanted to see if you wanted to defend why the police have decided to keep the public in the dark for so long. The public has a right to know.” Carla was far from some rookie. She knew she had a story, but she wasn’t going to reveal her hand.
“Well I…I…Uh….…I….Miss Daniels is it?” He finally blurted out.
“Yes, it is” she sounded like a grade school teacher speaking to one of her students.
“I…I’m…uh…I’ma have to get back with you on this Miss Daniels” all bravado and attitude were gone as he sheepishly uttered the words.
“You do that, Hedgecock,” addressing him just by his last name now. “Just keep in mind that with or without a comment from the police, we are running the story.” She said and hung up the phone
Hedgecock didn’t see her bring her right elbow down and right knee up at the same time with her fist balled as she yelled “Yes!” Nor did he hear her when she yelled to her boss Cynthia. “Run it, Cynthia they’re as guilty as a mothafucka caught in the middle of a b
ank robbery with a gun and a bag of money in his hands, running!”
He did however, see the thousand pieces that went flying everywhere as his iPhone shattered like an egg shell from the force of him violently throwing it against the wall. At the same time yelling “FUUUCK!”
He reached for a bottle of Sky Walk Candy Bomb Energy Drink at the same time someone called out to him, “You alright there Hedgecock?” It was Sgt. Andreatta. Out of the group that was gathered outside of the door, she was the only one brave enough to stick her head inside the door.
Hedgecock looked broken and defeated. The man looked like he’d lost his best friend, wife and dog all in the same day.
He looked at Jaran and took a deep breath, as he exhaled he told her. “Naw, Sarg, I’m not okay. Things aren’t okay. Hell, we’re not okay.”
After his next gulp of the sky walk, the bottle was nearly empty. “Fuck it” he said and finished the bottle. He walked past Sergeant Jaran and the rest of the nosey mothafuckas that were standing behind her. The look on his face told mothafuckas not to bother him.
The Chief needed to know exactly what he was just told! She needed to know it now! This time though, she was going to hear it from him directly. Fuck Urena! And Fuck protocol. If the Chief had a problem with it, fuck her too!
He had a god damn job to do and he was going to do it!
**** N. D. ****
Chapter VIII
Tracy, California
She slowly lifted her head off the floor. Because of a raging headache, it took her nearly a whole two minutes to lift her head a mere five inches. The disgustingly putrid smell assaulting her nostrils told her that the thick sticky fluid covering her face and chest had to be vomit. As trifling and disgusting as this sight may be, it wasn’t the first time she’d awakened to find herself in this position.
In fact, lately she had found herself passed out in a puddle of her own vomit almost every day. Only to wake up, clean up the mess (not worrying about herself), then grabbing a new bottle of alcohol and do it all over again.
Since the tragic day that she’d lost the love of her life She’d been succumbing to the will crushing power of a broken heart. Her heart wasn’t just broken but shattered because her love was pure and true. Her love didn’t run away and leave her abuse and mistreat her. No! Her love had been stolen from her.
Finally, after what seemed like forever she was able to stand and slowly make her way to the bathroom. After peeing for what seemed like a life time, she wiped herself and walked to the sink. The taste of old, stale vomit in her mouth made her want to throw up again. She reached for her toothbrush and Colgate and began brushing her teeth.
Without thinking, she looked into the mirror. Her heart broke into a million fragile, tiny, little pieces when she saw her reflection. For months now, she’d done everything she could not to look at her reflection in the mirror. She didn’t want to see the truth.
At that moment, the truth of reality socked her in the side of her head like a drunk woman beater swinging a Louisville Slugger.
Monique didn’t just give up, she flat out quit! There was no way on God’s green earth that anyone would recognize her. She didn’t even recognize herself.
Her hair was nappy with food and God only knew what else tangled inside of it! Blood shot, red eyes with Safeway sized grocery bags underneath them stared at her from the mirror. Dried vomit was all over her shirt, her face and even in her hair.
Without warning the tears cascaded down her face. The tears were just one more foreign substance added to many already on her once beautiful face. Yes, she was ashamed of herself! But no one knew the pain that she felt.
T’Rida was her everything, he had been her first and only true love. The fights and infidelity that occurred when they were younger was forgivable because they were only children at that time and that’s what children did, act immature. They always had gotten back together because a love like theirs was one for the ages. It was a love for the story books.
The police had stolen a piece of her the day that they killed him. When Voorheeze would call and check up on her, she would fake like everything was okay. She knew that he was going thru it himself, so she put up a front and neva let on that she was really hurting and feeling destroyed.
She picked up the acrylic soap dish and shattered the mirror by slamming the dish into it.
“Arrrgghh!” she yelled as she struck the broken mirror over and over again “you mother fuckers!
Finally, she dropped the dish and stormed out of the bathroom and out of the room with nothing but a filthy t-shirt and even filthier panties on. She hadn’t bathed or showered in almost two weeks. She was that hurt and depressed. If she were able to smell herself she would’ve stormed right back in that bathroom and taken eight or nine bubble baths.
Instead, she marched her filthy ass into the kitchen. The bottom of her feet was so dry and cracked that it sounded like a cat with claws was walking across the marble floor instead of a 38-year-old widow.
She opened the refrigerator and bent down to the bottom shelf looking for a bottle of her pineapple Cîroc. A foul rotten odor invaded her nose.
“Oh, my Gawd! She called out as she forgot about the bottle and began looking for the source of that awful smell.
Five minutes later she still hadn’t found it. She checked everything but came up empty. Her mind was so cloudy from all of the alcohol that she didn’t realized that the smell was actually coming from between her legs. The not bathing on top of the countless times she’d urinated on herself because she was so drunk, created a smell that would put a corpse to shame.
She found a bottle and cracked it open before even closing the door. She guzzled the cool liquid down just like a nigga. The cool, thick, clear vodka burned its way deliciously down her throat to her empty stomach.
She slammed the refrigerator door and made her way to the living room. As she walked, her right ass cheek itched so she scratched it. The material of her panties was so stiff it felt like she was scratching a pair of painter’s overalls.
She sat down on the leather couch in the same exact spot where she always sat. This was her daily routine. A blown-up photo of her and T’Rida was mounted on the wall ten feet in front of her.
The photo itself was a life size picture of her and T’Rida. It was of him proposing to her on stage at club Carsjanae’s the night of his 27th and final birthday. He had been violently gunned down shortly after that night by the Milpitas Police. “They killed my innocent husband”, she told herself.
Her tears raced the alcohol she gulped down her throat trying to see if they would land on the soiled t-shirt faster than the alcohol landed in the pit of her stomach. The race was too close to call. Every day the race would end in a tie as she passed out in a drunken stupor. Today would be no different.
Three hours later, Titas opened the front door. “Hold up, gimmie like five minutes”, he called over his shoulder. Aubrey already knew what was up, so he didn’t say shit.
Titas closed the door behind him and made his way to the living room where he knew she would be.
He could smell her way before he got to the living room. The sight broke his heart and made him want to cry. He dropped his back pack and his book bag right where he stood. Anger rose through his body like mercury in a thermometer held next to fire.
Ready to murder somebody he spun around and went back to the door.
“Brah, Brah we can’t today man.” He told Aubrey once he opened the door.
“Come on T, she’s my mom too. We brothers and we can take care of her together,” Aubrey sincerely told his best friend.
“Naaw, Sauchi, not this time. It’s too bad, cuz.” Titas knew that Aubrey was sincere without even having to look at him. He’d helped Titas before, neva bringing it up afterwards.
But this time shit had just gone too far. They dapped each other up and Aubrey left while Titas headed back into the house.
“Come on, Mama.” He spoke to her unconscious body
as he easily but gently picked her up to take her to the bedroom. She smelled so bad he thought to himself this is not my mother, my protector, my queen. First, he laid her on the bed and then made her a bubble bath. Then he undressed her while holding his nose, so he didn’t puke.
He carried her over to the bath tub and put her in. The bath sponge she had was not going to cut it, so he ran to his bathroom and grabbed his Axe body scrubber. Then he ran back to his mom in less than twenty seconds, so she wouldn’t drown if she happened to tip over. While he was in his bathroom he snatched his Axe Body Wash as well. He was going to need some strong shit for this, not no Strawberry Essence or any other feminine shit. Finally, he began the chore of washing his mother.
Neva once through all her trials and tribulations had he looked down on her, judged her or thought less of her. And he didn't now. He just bathed her and talked to her gently. At one point she opened her eyes, reached her hand up and touched the side of his face.
"Oh Titas, I love you, Baby.", she was still incoherent when she said it.
He didn't give a fuck. All reserve evaporated, and he began to cry.
"Oh my God what's that smell? Titas?" his sister called out from the front room.
"In mom’s room!”, he yelled out. It's not like he could wake her up
“What the hell is that smell?” Na’Shay called back
“Mom!” he answered
“What?” She asked in shock
There was no need to respond she was in the room by then. She could put two and two together he figured, and she did. Once she made it to the bathroom. Titas aka Choppa-T stood up and handed his big sister the body scrubber.
Na’Shay couldn’t believe how black the water was.
“Uh, uh, here…” she started to resist. She loved her mama, but she felt her mama was grown she could take care of herself.
“Not now Shay Shay, I need your help.” He told her as he walked to the door. “Change that water and run her some fresh hot water with some of that girly shit in it while I start on this room and do a good job.”
