by Teri Woods
Gena made her way into the building and located the visitation desk. A heavyset guard seated behind the reception desk peered up at her over his glasses.
“May I help you, miss?” the guard asked.
“Yes, I’m here for visitation,” Gena told him.
“Inmate’s name?” the guard asked.
“Johnson,” Gena told him. “His name is Tyrik Johnson.”
The guard looked up the name on his list and lifted the telephone.
“Visitation for Johnson, Tyrik, inmate number one-zero-nine-two-five-two.” The guard peered back up at Gena. “You have your driver’s license, miss?”
Gena lifted her Chanel bag onto the counter and pulled out her wallet. She opened her billfold, pulled out her driver’s license, and handed it to the guard. The guard took the license and typed Gena’s information into his computer. When he finished typing her information, he handed the license back to her and nodded toward the hall.
“Visitation room’s around the corner,” he told her. “You know how to get there?”
Gena nodded. “I know where it is.”
The guard nodded. “If you get turned around, just follow the signs posted on the walls.”
Gena nodded and headed off toward the visitation room. She had been here before to visit two of her ex-boyfriends, and even a couple of her cousins. She knew her way to the room by heart.
“Who are you here to see?” another guard asked, as soon as she walked through the door into the visitation room.
“Tyrik Johnson,” Gena told him.
The guard nodded as he checked his list. “All right, in here, you’re gonna need a locker and you’ll have to remove all your jewelry. Your pockets need to be empty, no gum, and any money you want to carry inside needs to be contained in a plastic see-thru bag. Carry nothing on you through security except your key to your locker, do you understand?”
He talked so fast, had she been a new jack at the whole process, she’da been assed out. She nodded and took the key from the guard. When she was finished signing in, she waited in the sign-in area until the number the guard had given her was called for search; nothing major, a walk through the metal detector, mouth check, and hand scan.
“Take booth number six.”
Gena nodded and headed into the visitation room. As she passed the other booths, she could hear babies crying, women shedding tears, other women talking dirty, while others were cursing and shouting at the persons whom they had came to visit. She found her booth, seated herself on the tiny bench seat, and waited.
Tyrik walked into the room wearing a bright orange, county-issued jumpsuit. His hair was still neatly trimmed, as was his goatee. He smiled uncontrollably when he saw Gena seated in the booth. He grabbed the phone and seated himself in the booth opposite Gena.
“Hey, baby girl!” Rik told her.
“Hey, Rik!” Gena said enthusiastically. “Man, I didn’t even know you were locked up. You all right?”
“I’m good,” Rik told her. “How about you, how have you been?”
“I’m doing good,” Gena told him. “Just getting everything back on track.”
Rik nodded. “I heard that. I just can’t tell you how good it feels to see you again.”
“It feels good to see you, too,” Gena told him. “So what are they saying?”
Rik shook his head. “They not saying anything good, mama, that’s for damn sure. They hitting us with the whole enchilada. Conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, and conspiracy to carry out a continuing criminal enterprise. They hittin’ us with a conspiracy to manufacture crack cocaine too. They definitely tryin’ to roof a nigga in this muthafucka. They got a confidential informant and they got tapes, supposed to be a lot of tapes. They ain’t saying what they got on the tapes though, or at least not yet.”
Gena lowered her head and leaned her head on the palm of her hand. “So what is the lawyer saying?”
“He’s saying that it looks pretty bad, you know. What the fuck can he say, Gena? Shit, only thing I know right now is that we might find out something at the discovery hearing. He thinks that we might be able to figure out who the informant is after discovery. I just wish I knew who the snake muthafucka was . . .”
“So what happens then?” Gena asked. “Even if you find out who it is, will that help you?”
Will that help? Will that help? Is she nuts? I’ll dead that nigga before anyone can blink or even think of a trial. Will that help? But of course Rik didn’t respond like that; he knew the mice were listening in the walls.
“Well, we can discredit the witness, and shit like that,” Rik explained. “But other than that who knows . . .”
Gena shook her head again and wiped at her eyes as she pretended to be tired. She didn’t want Rik to see her upset at his misfortune.
“Don’t you be tripping over me. You be happy, Gena. I’ll handle this. You just worry about Gena, you hear me?”
Gena nodded.
“So, what’s this I hear about you having a new man?” Rik asked with a smile.
Gena nodded.
“That’s good,” Rik told her. “I was so happy to hear that. I’m glad that you’re finding happiness again, Gena. You deserve to be happy. Quadir would want you to be happy.”
“Who told you? Veronica?”
“Yeah, she claim she having my baby, you know?”
“Oh yeah, congratulations, big papa.”
“Man, don’t congratulate me till the blood test comes back. Shit, I don’t know, Gena, I don’t know.”
“I don’t know neither, Rik.” Gena looked up and peered into Tyrik’s eyes. “I just don’t . . .”
“Hey, I know Qua, he was my nigga, for real, all day strong,” Rik told her. “That boy loved you more than anyone else in this world. He loved you with everything that he had. You were his whole world, and making you happy was something he wanted to do for you at all times. Trust me, he would want you to be happy.”
“Sometimes it’s so hard to go on. I miss him so much, Rik. I still lie in my bed and cry for him. We were supposed to be together forever. It’s so hard to live life without him.”
“Gena, listen to me. You have to go on. You have to keep on going. It’s your love for Quadir that keeps him alive. You have to live life for the both of you now. Your happiness is his happiness, your joy is his joy. Qua is a part of you from now on, and you carry him with you wherever you go. Be happy, baby, live life to the fullest for both of you. The world can be a cruel place, full of trickery; it took away the person who you were supposed to spend the rest of your life with. Life tricked you, so I understand how you must still feel and I don’t blame you. But you must find a little bit of happiness out here and take whatever good this life allows you to have, and run with it. So you run with it, Gena. Take whatever is given you, make a new life for yourself, and be happy.”
“I’ll try, Rik, I’ll try. What about you, what about bail?”
“Man, that fuckin’ judge said two-million-dollar bail and I thought I would die. I knew then I’d sit for a minute.”
“Why? I don’t understand why you don’t post it.”
“’Cause the Feds ain’t like the state. In the state, if you get a two-million-dollar bond, you have to get a bail bondsman to get you out, and they’ll charge you about two hundred grand. In the Feds you put up the bond money, and you get it back when I show up for trial and stuff.”
“Oh!” Gena said, surprised. “Well, do you have it to put up?”
Rik shook his head, not answering that question over the phone.
“Do you want it?” Gena asked.
Rik peered into Gena’s eyes. “What do you mean, Gena?”
“Don’t answer a question with a question, Rik,” Gena said nervously. “Do you want the money so that you can get out on bond?”
“Two million dollars?” Rik asked. “Gena, how are you going to get two million dollars?”
“Do you want the money, Rik?” Gena asked again.
“
And this new boyfriend of yours is going to just give you two million dollars to give to my lawyers, so that I can get out on bond?”
“Do you want the money?” Gena asked him again.
Rik thought about what Gena was asking. Do I want the money? What the fuck would that shit look like if she walks up to my lawyers with two million dollars? It’d be a mess and the Feds would be all over my ass if I made that bail. I definitely don’t want that. So far, they had left his baby momma and his houses alone. He really wanted to keep it that way. He wanted them knowing as little as possible about his money, about his family life, about his business. He had to think seriously before he took her up on her offer, and now for the second part of her question.
Rik leaned back against the glass booth and contemplated Gena’s offer. I do want out of here, bad, but where she even getting this money from? Her new boyfriend? Nah, I ain’t buyin’ that. Niggas with that kind of bread to throw around were rare, and he’d know the nigga. The only one he knew personally had been his nigga Quadir. Qua had the paper to do shit like that . . .
Rik dropped his telephone when the thought hit him.
“Rik, are you all right?” Gena asked.
Rik nodded. He was still in shock. Gena done found Quadir’s stash. That explains it all; the new car, the clothes, the jewelry, everything. Why didn’t I see that! How could I have been so stupid! Gena’s sitting on the most incredible meal tickets, and keeping that shit on the low low.
“Rik, what’s the matter?” Gena asked.
Rik shook his head. “No, nothing, I’m okay.”
“So, what’s up, baby?” Gena asked. “Do you want to get out on bond or what?”
“Gena, I appreciate the offer, I really do,” Rik told her. “But it’s a lot more complicated than that. I have to think about what these people will think if I plunk down a two-million-dollar bond.”
“It’s not your money, so why would they trip with you?” Gena asked.
“Yeah, but they would think that it was my money,” Rik explained. “Who would put up two million dollars for someone else? And if they didn’t think that it was my money, they would want to know whose money it was, and where they got it from. Do you really want them asking those kinds of questions, Gena? Think about it.”
Gena lowered her head and nodded. She knew that he was right.
“I don’t want to pull you into this mess, Gena,” Rik told her. “I care about you and I would never want you to do anything for me that could hurt you. I want you to stay as far away from this mess as possible. I don’t want them looking at you in any way possible, understand?”
Gena nodded. She certainly didn’t want that kind of heat. Too many questions would be asked, and they were questions that she definitely wouldn’t be able to answer. Naw, fuck that, Rik is right.
“Rik,” Gena said as she rose from the bench, “you can call me whenever you want, okay?”
Rik nodded and smiled good-bye to her.
Gena placed the phone down on the counter, turned, and walked out of the visitation room with eyes watching her from inside the walls. Something inside her told her that she had just made one of the biggest mistakes of her life. She felt as though she should never have come to this place.
BUGGED OUT
Detective Ellington hit the rewind button on the tape, and once again replayed the conversation during Gena and Rik’s visit.
“She is definitely offering him the two million dollars.” Detective Dick Davis nodded.
Detective Barrientes nodded. “I agree. It’s an offer.”
“So, we are all in agreement, that little miss Gena has her dead man’s money?” Detective Ratzinger asked.
The detectives arrayed around the room all nodded in agreement.
“So what’s our next move?” Detective Barrientes asked.
“We can’t grab her, because technically she didn’t say that she had the money,” Detective Ratzinger told them.
“You think we should squeeze her?” Dick Davis asked.
“Or how about we put twenty-four-hour surveillance on her, until she leads us to the money?” Detective Barrientes offered.
“Maybe we should do both,” Detective Ratzinger suggested.
“I have another idea,” Detective Ellington told them.
“What’s that?” Ratzinger asked.
Letoya Ellington walked to the window and peered out across the downtown skyline. She folded her arms as her thoughts began to formulate. “I say we use our CI on her. They know each other well. Let’s get her to confide in him on tape, saying that she has the money, and then we can really squeeze her. We bring her in, I play the big sister role, Davis plays the hammer, and one of us will get it out of her.”
Detective Ratzinger nodded. He liked the idea. Besides, getting her on tape was something that they could take to a grand jury if necessary. And they just might do that if she refused to give up the money. They could charge her with money laundering, or profiting from an illicit trade. He would have someone from the DA’s office look it up. He knew that living off drug money was illegal, even if you weren’t the one that sold the drugs. He was certain that they could find plenty of things to charge her with, and find plenty of statutes under which to seize that money. Again, he nodded his consent.
“Let’s run with it, Letoya,” Detective Ratzinger told her. “Get your informant up to speed. See what he knows about the money, and about this Gena girl. And then tell him what we need.”
Letoya nodded. “He’s in the next room. I’ll see what I can get out of him.”
“Need some help?” Dick Davis asked.
Detective Ellington paused and thought about the offer for several moments. She had already established herself as a hardass with the CI. Maybe she could bring in Dickie Davis to play the good cop.
“Yeah, Dick, maybe I could use a little help,” she told him. “Feel up to playing the nice, sympathetic cop today?”
“Why do I always have to play the good guy?” Dick asked, following Letoya out of the room.
“Maybe because you look all nice and sweet and young,” Letoya told him. She turned and squeezed Detective Davis’s cheek. “And you look seventeen, Dickie. Who’s going to be intimidated by someone who looks like the kid who carries out their groceries to the car?”
Detective Ellington strolled into the room where Rasun was seated and waiting for her. Dickie Davis closed the door behind them.
“Rasun, this is Detective Davis, my partner,” Letoya told her informant. “Detective Davis, this is the young man who’s been helping us out with the investigation.”
Detective Davis and Rasun exchanged handshakes.
“So, Rasun, the reason that I had them bring you over today is that I had a few questions for you,” Detective Ellington told him.
“I don’t think that I want to answer any more of your questions,” Rasun told her.
“And why is that?” Detective Ellington asked.
“Because you people are all snakes!” Rasun said venomously.
Detective Ellington laughed at him.
“Why do you say that?” Dickie Davis asked.
“I’m still in jail, ain’t I?” Rasun asked. “What the fuck did I do all of this shit for, if I was gonna go to jail anyway!”
“Rasun, we did it to protect you,” Detective Ellington explained. “If we had left you on the streets, and rounded up everyone else, then they would have figured out that you’ve been helping us.”
“And what about now?” Rasun asked. “Why am I still in there? Why didn’t the judge give me bond?”
“You are bonded out, Rasun,” Detective Ellington told him. “You’ve been released into our custody. We’re just waiting for the right time to kick you back out on the street. We are trying to be really careful and make sure that you’re safe.”
Rasun shook his head. “Man, I don’t want to be locked up anymore.”
“Okay,” Detective Ellington told him. “Some of the others that we arrested are sta
rting to make bond. We’ll kick you out with some of them. We’ll just say that your attorney got the judge to reduce your bond, and then he posted it and had you released into his custody.”
“Will that work, Rasun?” Dickie Davis asked.
Rasun looked down and nodded.
“I have some questions for you, Rasun,” Dickie Davis told him. “But before I ask them, I need to know that you’re still part of the team. Detective Ellington tells me that you’ve been a real asset to her investigation, and that they are thinking about going before the United States district attorney and getting you a really sweet deal so that you won’t have to go to jail, and so that your mother’s house will not be touched. Are you still down for that deal, Rasun?”
Rasun rolled his eyes and nodded as he sat uncomfortably in his chair. Everything about prison was uncomfortable, everything.
“Good, good man,” Dickie Davis said, with a pat on the shoulder.
“Did you know Quadir Richards?” Detective Ellington asked him.
Rasun nodded. “Of course.”
“How well did you know him?” Dickie Davis asked.
“He was my homie,” Rasun admitted.
“How did he die?” Detective Davis asked.
“He was killed in a drive-by outside of a club on New Year’s Eve,” Rasun told them. “Y’all the police. You should be telling me. Damn, don’t y’all know how the fuck he died?”
Letoya nodded. “Okay, we won’t insult your intelligence. Was your boy a baller?”
Rasun nodded.
“A big-time baller?” Dickie Davis asked with a smile.
“Is there any other kind?” Rasun asked, looking at Detective Davis like he was stupid.
“So Qua was a baller, huh?” Detective Ellington asked with a smile. “That is what the homies call him, isn’t it? Qua?”
Rasun nodded.
“So, Qua must have had some major chips stacked up then?” Detective Davis asked.
