Dirty Money Honey

by Nisa Santiago

Yelling and screaming, Rosie put up a good fight as Luther tossed her into the pre-dug grave, which was at least six feet deep. Honey and Luther both watched as she tried to claw her way out to no avail. She’d get at least one foot up before ultimately sliding back down, which no doubt frustrated the frantic Rosie. Honey watched as Rosie exasperated herself, while Luther went and got Pebbles.

  “Rosie, how many pounds would you say you’ve lost these past ten minutes?” Honey joked. “Who knew that Honey could do what Jenny Craig can’t?”

  “Stop it!” Rosie screamed. She couldn’t take any more fat jokes. “You’re a mean, horrible person, and you’re going to hell!”

  “You first!” Honey pulled out her pistol and emptied her clip into Rosie. Her heavy body fell like a sack of potatoes.

  “What about her cat?” Luther asked.

  “We’re not cat killers!” Honey said. “The cat goes with us. We’ll find it a good home.”

  Chapter 16

  Honey and Stephon were in Stephon’s stretch Hummer, headed to her favorite seafood restaurant. She hated that Stephon drove the huge limo around town even when he wasn’t working, because it drew way too much unnecessary attention to them.

  “You believe this muthafucka is pulling me over? I know I ain’t do shit!” Stephon said with his short-fused temper.

  “Baby, just chill. Show them the paperwork and keep it moving.”

  Stephon who was a bit of a hothead instantly exited the vehicle and started to approach the unmarked police car with his hands up, motioning and asking what had he done and why were they pulling him over.

  “Get the fuck up against the car!” the white female detective shouted at him after she exited her car and drew her gun.

  The sight of the officer’s gun made Stephon think twice. “What did I do?”

  The female cop kicked his legs apart and frisked him as Detective Hernandez looked on.“How many passengers are in the car with you?” she asked.

  “Just one, my girl. She’s in the front seat,” Stephon replied while handcuffs were applied to his wrists.

  Detective Hernandez made his way to the front passenger door and opened it.“Ms. Brown, can you please step out of the car?”

  Honey looked shocked and confused.“Officer Hernandez?” she said. “What’s going on?”

  Hernandez had a stern look on his face, and wasn’t as cordial as when he’d interviewed her at police headquarters the other day. He ignored her and spoke with authority.“Turn around and place your hands behind your back.”

  “For what?” Honey knew that he had to tell her why he was placing her under arrest.

  “Honey, you know this cop?”Stephon was still absolutely clueless about Honey’s involvement in the biggest casino robbery in Las Vegas history.

  “Baby, it’s nothing but some bullshit. I’ll explain it to you later,” Honey said. “I know my rights, Hernandez, and you need to tell me why you’re placing me under arrest.”

  “We have probable cause to believe that you were involved in the Bellagio robbery.” Detective Hernandez placed the handcuffs on her.

  “What?” Honey turned and yelled. Instantly her heart began to pound a mile a minute.

  Honey wasn’t sure what Hernandez knew. Or if someone had snitched. But one thing she was sure of, they had done their homework if they knew who Stephon was. Especially considering that she had spent the past year keeping her personal life a secret. So she knew the cops had been following her, but she just didn’t know for how long.

  As Honey shook her head and made her way to the unmarked police car, she also wondered had she somehow slipped up. Her mind was racing non-stop. She sat in the back of the car and she knew that more than ever she had to be super strong at that point and she couldn’t show any cracks in her armor.

  Once Honey was secure inside the back of the police car, the female cop took the handcuffs off Stephon and asked him for his driver’s license and registration.

  Stephon went into his wallet and handed both pieces of identification to the officer. She examined them really quick but she didn’t have to run the information through her computer because they had already done their research on Stephon and they knew that he was clean. The officer handed him back his license and his registration.

  “Stephon, the next time an officer pulls you over, you don’t exit your car like a raving lunatic! You understand me?” The butch-looking cop barked. She adjusted her bulky bulletproof vest.

  Stephon nodded his head once, but it was barely visible to the officer.

  “Do you understand me?” she asked again.

  “I nodded my head yes! What the fuck more you want from me?”

  “Watch your fuckin’ tone! I’m trying to save you from getting your fuckin’ head blown off, which I was two seconds from doing when you exited the car the way you did. Now you have a nice day. You’re free to go,” she said. And then her and Hernandez made their way back to their unmarked car.

  “Where are you taking my girl?” Stephon asked.

  Hernandez turned and told him, “She will have an opportunity to call you later and tell you where she is.”

  Stephon had no idea what the hell had just happened. He was so far from street life, he had never in his life seen the inside of a police station, so he couldn’t make head nor tails of the situation.

  “You know this is some bullshit, right? I had lobster tails and fried shrimp calling my name, and here y’all come with this shit,” Honey said to the cops as they drove. She fidgeted, trying to get comfortable, which was difficult to do with the handcuffs.

  The cops completely “igged” her as they drove, a tactic she was all too familiar with. But she also knew tight handcuffs usually meant that the suspect was guilty and the cops knew it. But if the cuffs weren’t that tight, it was usually a sign that the cops didn’t have rock-solid evidence. The logic was, Why make the cuffs super tight and piss off a suspect that you need on your side?

  When they arrived at the police station, Honey was walked into a different, much larger interrogation room, where Hernandez handcuffed one of her wrists to a chair and then left her alone. Splattered all across a large wall were pictures from multiple crimes—the Bellagio, Harrah’s, Super 8 Motel and the warehouse. An old mug shot of her brother, Chief, blown up to an 8 x 10, along with Delano and Big Meech. And multiple pictures of the front, side, and back entrances of both casinos, as well as pictures of the slain individuals. What wasn’t shocking but still disturbing was a blown up picture of Tee-Tee. Obviously forensics had pulled her dental records off her charred body and connected her to the Bellagio heist.

  Shortly thereafter, Hernandez walked in by himself with a cup of hot coffee and sat down at the table across from Honey.“Ms. Brown, you want anything to eat?” he asked her.

  “No, thank you,” Honey replied.

  “What about to drink? Are you thirsty?”

  “No. No, thank you,” Honey repeated.

  “Honey, when we were here last time I made it clear that I wanted you to give me anything that was odd or that stood out or that was ironic about the crime that you witnessed at the casino, and you drew blanks.”

  Honey nodded her head in agreement.

  “So let me ask you now, is there anything about that crime that you want to tell me?”Honey shook her head no, looking straight at Hernandez as he sipped on his coffee.

  Hernandez then reached inside a manila envelope and pulled out three glossy photographs, duplicates of what was taped on the wall, of the armored truck guards who had been killed, including Brian.

  “Do any of these three men look familiar?” Hernandez asked.

  Honey examined the photos. While she looked at them, she was scrambling her mind, trying to think of how she should handle this.

  “Obviously these are the murdered armored truck
guards,” she said.

  Hernandez drank some more of his coffee before he continued to speak.“Correct. Do you know any of them personally?”

  “Personally? No.”

  Hernandez was persistent. He pushed the pictures back toward Honey. “Take another look, Ms. Brown. Are you sure you don’t know any of these guards on a personal, let’s say, intimate level?”

  She pointed toward Brian’s picture and stated, “We fucked once, but when I found out he was married, that was a wrap.” Honey was emotionless. “As you can see, I moved on.”

  With her ATF training, Honey knew that for Detective Hernandez to pursue that line of questioning, the cops had to have some sort of intel on her and Brian. How did they find out? Honey had no idea? But she did know that had she lied she would have walked herself off a cliff.

  “Oh, so you knew him intimately. Why didn’t you tell me that?”

  “Like I told you before, if you want answers, all you have to do is ask the right questions. You never asked me if I intimately knew any of the guards,” Honey responded.

  Detective Hernandez was furious at her response. He wanted to blow his fucking top. Usually, had this been under different circumstances, he would have snatched the perp up by the collar and roughed them up. But he had to tread lightly with this one. He knew going into the interrogation that Honey was no dummy, but he still felt he was smart enough to outfox her. He thought he had the element of surprise and that Honey would’ve denied knowing Brian.

  “Tell me about your relationship with Brian. Things didn’t go so well, did they?”

  “You tell me how that went. Obviously you’ve done your due diligence.”

  “I don’t like you,” Hernandez replied, after a long stare down.

  “Likewise.”

  “When I slap those silver bracelets on your wrists and charge you with felonious murder, I hope you still have that smug look on your face.”

  “Am I not being charged with a crime? Yet I was dragged down here? What kind of illegal process is this?” Honey refused to back down. “And how are you questioning me without reading me my rights? Anything I say or said wouldn’t be admissible, and you know this. So why are you jeopardizing your case with these weak-ass mind games? Either charge me, or I want a lawyer. Snap! Snap!”

  Hernandez glared at Honey. She was right. He was jeopardizing his case.

  Something about the Mexican theory just didn’t ring true to Hernandez. They’d hit dead lead after dead lead, but the feds were moving full steam ahead. When he got a tip that Honey had had an affair with one of the murdered armored guards, was an employee at the casino, and failed to mention it during her interview, he knew he’d hit pay dirt. He called the assistant district attorney and explained what he’d uncovered, but they didn’t bite. They said his evidence was circumstantial and that he’d better keep his distance from Honey. Though he’d agreed verbally, he had every intention of putting her on the hot seat. He wanted his foot on her throat, until she couldn’t breathe.

  Hernandez hoped that if he let Honey know she was a suspect that eventually the pressure would get to her and she’d begin to overthink things and perhaps make a move that she wouldn’t have made under normal circumstances. He couldn’t quite place his finger on why he felt so strongly about her involvement, but it had to do with the complexity, precision, and execution of the heist. He knew she was connected. He just didn’t know how deep. All he wanted to prove was that Honey and Brian were in collusion together and came up with the master plan to rob the Bellagio, but somehow Brian got double-crossed.

  He looked at Honey, and a smirk came across his face. He sipped more of his lukewarm coffee. He knew that ‘Brian’ was the hot button but he hated the fact that she had just slung the lawyer word.

  Finally Hernandez spoke. “OK,” he said, and he stood up and exited the room.

  “OK, what?” Honey was slightly worried. No one knew about Brian, except Mercedes. Had Mercedes gotten knocked? Had Brian told someone about the heist? Who the fuck is snitching? she thought.

  An hour later the female cop came into the interrogation room and introduced herself to Honey.“Honey, I’m Detective Lynch.”

  “And?”

  “Hernandez likes to beat around the bush and walk people around the block. But, me, I’m a straight shooter. And we both know that you want to get out of here and go and enjoy that seafood dinner that’s waiting on you. So what I need is for you to be straight-up with us so that we can work together at solving this crime and totally eliminating you as a suspect.”

  “So now I’m a suspect? Unreal.” Honey shook her head. “If I’m a suspect, then I’m free to walk the fuck outta here until you officially charge me! Instead, you slam me up against the hood of a car and detain me. So either I’m under arrest, or you can take off these muthafuckin’ handcuffs!”

  “Honey, let’s cut the bullshit. Of course, you’re a suspect. You were fuckin’ the armored guard who got killed in the heist, and you didn’t tell anyone, and you didn’t disclose that information to Detective Hernandez.”

  “Since when does a one-night stand equate to my having my lover killed and the casino robbed? I would say that’s a stretch of anyone’s imagination.”

  “Then why did you hide it if it was a trivial fact? We are conducting a high-profile investigation. You should know better than to withhold information that may or may not be relevant to a case. The fact that you weren’t honest with us puts you number one on our radar.”

  Honey looked at Detective Lynch and rolled her eyes.“Listen, your police problems are your problems. It’s not my job to solve your investigation. Now, for the umpteenth time, “she screamed, “Either arrest my black ass, or turn me loose!”

  Officer Lynch smiled and then said to Honey, “OK, since you want to do this the hard way, you’re free to go but you better keep looking over your shoulder because we’re coming for you.”

  Honey held up her middle finger with her free hand.

  “OK, fuck me. Cute. But help me with one thing before I turn you loose.” Officer Lynch then pulled out a picture of Brian and his family and showed it to her.“You see this young lady right here?” She pointed to the woman in the picture.

  Honey was stone-faced and didn’t say anything or show any emotion.

  “She lost a husband and she has to raise these four young boys on her own. But, more than anything, she needs closure, Honey, and it’s closure that only you can provide. I know that things didn’t go as planned that day at the heist, and you had your own reasons for taking him out. Tell me, Was he down with the heist? Did he change his mind and want to stop it in progress? Now is your time to get anything off your chest. But Honey, this young lady right here, she needs to know the truth. Come clean about your involvement in his murder. She already knows that you were sleeping with her husband, but she wants to know what her husband’s involvement in the Bellagio heist was. When he was murdered, she came to us for answers.”

  Honey leaned forward and took a close look at the family photo. She wanted to implode when she realized who Brian’s wife was. Honey had never seen any pictures of Brian’s wife or his kids. But at that moment she realized that she had seen her before. In fact she had beat her down just a couple weeks back. Brian’s wife was the dark-skinned bleach-blonde chick who was staring Honey down in the bar.

  Fuck! Honey thought to herself.

  Honey had no idea when she’d first met Brian that he was a sloppy cheater. His sloppiness had raised his wife’s radar right from the beginning of their affair. The only thing Honey didn’t know was if Brian had ever told his wife of his plans to knock off the casino.

  Honey held her ground. She didn’t let Detective Lynch sway her.“He had a very beautiful family, and I wish I could help you. But like I told Detective Hernandez, y’all on some different shit, with detaining me and this inte
rrogation. I’m not saying anything or answering anymore questions until my lawyer gets here.”

  Detective Lynch had just given the best performance she could give, but Honey wouldn’t budge. Right now they didn’t even have enough to keep her on a twenty-four-hour hold. Hernandez and Lynch both knew it was a long shot in cracking someone who was involved in such an elaborate and highly sophisticated crime by pulling on her heartstrings. And since they didn’t have any real probable cause to hold her, they unclasped the cuffs and told her she was free to walk out of there.

  In the corridor of the precinct, much to her surprise, Honey laid eyes on Stephon and an unknown white gentleman. They were speaking to an officer at Intake. When Stephon saw Honey, his eyes lit up. He extended his arms, and she walked into a warm embrace.

  “I was so worried about you,” he placed a wet kiss on her lips. “The only thing I thought to do was get an attorney.”

  Honey smiled. “You did the right thing.”

  “Honey, this is Chip Levine. He’s the best there is out here and also one of my clients.”

  “Ms. Brown, nice to meet you.” Chip looked up and saw Detectives Hernandez and Lynch hovering in the background. “Let’s talk outside, shall we?”

  As Stephon, Chip, and Honey made their way through the police station, an irate widow greeted them.

  “Bitch, you was fuckin’ my husband, and now he’s dead because of you!”

  Those words echoed through the quiet police precinct, interrupting the little cipher that Honey, Chip, and Stephon were having.

  “Yeah, that’s right, bitch. I’m talking to your ass, Honey!”

  Finally everyone was able to see a dark-skinned bleach-blonde female emerging from around a bend in the police station and heading straight toward Honey.

  Detectives Hernandez and Lynch had purposely allowed Brian’s widow to leave their desk at the same time that Honey was being released, simply because they wanted to cause a confrontation, just to rattle Honey. The exact reason why Brian’s widow had been called down to the police station.