Sheriff Harrison watched Julie leave the diner with the others. It was a brisk night, and she was bundled up in a long quilted coat and boots. Idaho winters were known to be brutal. They were long, white, and cold—twenty degrees or less on a daily basis, and blizzards were common.
Julie climbed into Mark’s 2002 Ford Focus, and they drove off. The sheriff decided to follow them.
*
Cristal walked into her sparsely furnished room. All she had was a mattress, a wobbly table, a couple of chairs, and a small arsenal of weapons hidden for her protection. Just because she was in a different place didn’t mean the threats to her life weren’t still out there looking for her. She was a wanted woman by two deadly organizations, and she knew she would be forever looking over her shoulders. She went from being the hunter to being the hunted.
After working at the diner, she spent time at home reading a book, training her body, fortifying her place from top to bottom, and taking a long-needed shower. She lived in a simple town, so she adjusted into simple living. She didn’t go out to any clubs, take long walks around the neighborhood, or shop at the local malls. The less exposure for her in public places, the better. She barely spoke to her neighbors, and she did her best to avoid law enforcement. She wasn’t a fugitive from the law, but she moved like she was.
Over the years, Cristal went through many names, many alter egos, and many risky situations. To say that it was an exhausting way to live would be an understatement. Living a normal life was so foreign to her. Once or twice a month she called Daniel for the one-sided phone calls. She had to be spontaneous. If anyone was tracking him, she wanted to throw them off. She always used different pre-paid phones, and her location was always different.
She dialed Daniel from a private number, and after three rings, he picked up.
“Hello?” he answered.
She remained silent.
Immediately, Daniel knew who was calling. “Hey,” he said, his voice sounding a bit keyed-up. “How you been?” he asked, like he was going to get a response. Sometimes he would completely forget and catch himself. “I know you don’t talk, or can’t talk, but I miss you so much. Me, I’m doing fine. When I finish Hopkins, I am going for my PhD. But you probably don’t want to hear the boring stuff. You remember how we used to talk all through the night and how you would love my body massages? Damn, being with you was so much fun.”
Cristal sank herself into the bed in the dark, silent room and just listened, her 9mm close by. It was satisfying to hear his voice again. She managed to smile and almost lost herself with him just talking. She felt as long as she remained quiet, it gave nothing away. This was the only good thing in her life, just listening to him.
“I will always love you,” he proclaimed. She wanted to tell him that she felt the same way.
Fourteen
Tracking down the boyfriend wasn’t that difficult. First, she checked the vicinity of Johnson C. Smith University, where he’d graduated from, and got word that he was now at Johns Hopkins University for his master’s. It turned out that he lived in a small apartment a short walk away from the heartbeat of Baltimore.
Aoki was in town and went to work. She knew by now that Cristal would be far gone from Daniel and living a new life under a different name, having been trained to keep a low profile and cover her tracks. The United States was a big place, but Aoki was hell-bent on finding her, even if it took tracking her down from state to state. Aoki came up with a better idea, though; one she knew would bring Cristal out of hiding and right to her.
She became Daniel’s shadow; wherever he went, Aoki was there. From work, to school, to his apartment, she was there stalking him. Daniel had no idea he was being watched.
Within a week, she knew almost everything about him. He lived a quiet life. His routine was basic, and his appearance unassuming. He didn’t own a car, so he walked everywhere or used public transportation. Anywhere outside of Maryland, he used a cab. He was uncomplicated, making him an easy target for Aoki.
He didn’t go out, didn’t do nightclubs, didn’t travel, and he had a very small circle of friends he would socialize with, which was mostly other medical students. He enjoyed his espresso and muffins at the nearby Starbucks. If he wasn’t at work or school, he spent most of his time at home reading and studying. He owned one television, and it was rarely on. When it was, he watched CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, or FOX to keep up with politics. He didn’t have a girlfriend and didn’t seem interested in a new love. He seemed content with his life.
Aoki was watching him, and he was a boring person to watch. Knowing his schedule like the back of her hand, she implemented her plan, which was to kidnap him and use him as bait to reel in the bigger fish. Watching him around the clock was the tedious part, but now the heat was about to turn up. She waited until she knew he would be away from home long enough for her to break in and bug his apartment with small cameras in critical areas.
Once inside, Aoki looked around his apartment and couldn’t find anything even remotely interesting. No porno, nude pictures, or vices whatsoever. This guy was a real snooze button. Once the cameras were installed, she linked the footage to her smartphone.
*
Daniel entered his dark apartment and turned on the lights. He was tired; it had been a long day at work and then school, and he simply wanted to get some sleep. He placed his book bag in a nearby chair, pulled off his coat, tossed it on the couch, and went into the bedroom. The lights went on, and suddenly his world went dark.
Aoki was waiting in the shadows, poised by the door in all black. The moment Daniel came into her view, she thrust a syringe of etorphine into his neck, causing his vision to quickly blur and his legs to go rubbery. He could no longer hold up the weight of his upper body. Seconds after the opioid was pumped into his flesh, he collapsed on the floor. Now he was in Aoki’s hands.
Ice cold water to the face jolted him awake. He shrieked and looked around his surroundings frantically. He tried to move, but he was tightly bound to a steel chair, restrained by rope and handcuffs. Another shocker to him was, he was in his underwear. So many questions flooded his mind. The room he was in was cement, dim, and cold. It was eerie all around. Daniel was terrified.
“Yuh speak to her, don’t you?” Aoki said.
“What?” Daniel said. “Speak to who?”
When Aoki made herself visible to him, he looked at her in terror. He had no idea who this woman was. He’d never seen her before. What did she want with him? It had to be a misunderstanding. She had the wrong man. His worried gaze stayed glued to her every movement, or tried to. She taunted him by circling him slowly and leisurely touching him—her hand on his shoulder, grabbing the back of his head, her manicured nails digging into his arm. He constantly fidgeted and cringed.
“Yuh afraid of me?” she asked.
“I don’t know who you are.”
Aoki stood over Daniel in her red bottom pumps and her sleek and sexy black jumpsuit, but she had ill-will written all over her. She stared at Daniel and fed off his fear. The man was literally trembling in the chair. She laughed. It was exhilarating for her to see him terrified. He wasn’t a man, he was a victim, and there was only one use for him. She stared at him like he was prey. It would have been easy to torture him to extract something, but she knew he didn’t know anything about Cristal.
“What is this? Why am I here?” he asked.
Aoki extracted the cell phone from his clothing on the floor and held it up. He was still clueless.
“When was de las’ time yuh talk to yuh girlfriend?” she asked, her thick accent almost incoherent to him.
“Girlfriend?”
“Cristal.”
“Cristal? Who is Cristal? You mean, Beatrice? She’s dead!”
“Yuh lie!” she hollered.
“It’s not a lie!”
“She calls and she simply listen to yuh.”
<
br /> Beatrice had never spoken a word on the phone, and he never knew where she was or when she would call him. Daniel was stunned by the information this woman knew. He swallowed hard, panic consuming every part of his body. He had no idea where she was holding him. There was no help, no rescue party for him. He did not want his life to end like this.
Aoki stared at him, and her chilling look made him want to pee in his underpants. Cristal had him caught up, and now his future looked bleak.
The fun was just beginning. Aoki wanted to play games with Cristal, and that started by fucking around with her man and her mind. She wondered how Cristal would react when she couldn’t hear Daniel’s voice any longer. What would go through her head? Would she come for him? Whatever Cristal would do, Aoki was going to be ready for her.
Yes, the fun had just started. Now it was time for everyone to sit back, strap themselves in, and enjoy the ride.
Fifteen
Lisa cursed the bumper-to-bumper traffic on I-95 South. Brake lights extended for miles because of a three-car accident six miles ahead. She hated sitting in traffic. She wanted to get where she was going and handle her business, but it looked like she would be sitting in traffic for another hour.
“Fuckin’ people need to learn how to fuckin’ drive! Fuck!”
It was a cold day, and the heater was on blast. Lisa’s seven-year-old daughter, Alice, was strapped securely in her car seat in the backseat. Alice was growing up fast and looking more and more like her father every day. She was sleeping, thank God. Lisa was tired of listening to her complain. Between that and the thick traffic, she felt like she was going crazy.
Lisa’s sanity felt like it was on thin ice. She was going to break soon if she didn’t get what she wanted. AZ wasn’t answering his cell phone, and it was maddening to her. She hated the drive from New York to Maryland, but what she had to say to Alice’s father couldn’t be said over the phone. Besides, he wasn’t fucking picking up, so she wanted to confront him in person and see how he was living.
How dare he move to Maryland, far away from his firstborn, to go play Mike Brady with that bitch? Wendy—what kind of name was Wendy? It sounded like a shady bitch’s name. Lisa wanted to get to AZ’s early before his wife came home. She didn’t want Wendy putting her two cents in her business.
Lisa was living the good life because of AZ. She lived in a three-bedroom apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and rent was three thousand a month. She drove around in a two-year-old Honda CRV bought brand-new, and received nearly ten thousand dollars a month in child support. Her clothes and furniture were always up-to-date, but it still wasn’t enough for her.
AZ could never give her enough, especially when he had a mini-mansion in Maryland, nicer cars, and was there for his wife and sons. He needed to be in Alice’s life more. Hers too. But how could that happen when he was living nearly two hundred miles away?
It burned her up inside how good he was living with that bitch and her kids. No bitch from Baltimore should be living an extravagant life with her man—oops! her baby’s father. How dare he put a bitch on and give her the good life? Wendy wasn’t from Brooklyn, she was from Maryland. In Lisa’s world, you looked out for your own first. Second, she was in law enforcement. Though she wasn’t a cop, she was a prosecutor, and Lisa considered that to be sleeping with the enemy.
Lisa was going to be a nagging pain in AZ’s side until their daughter turned eighteen. Even after Alice’s eighteenth birthday, she didn’t plan to leave him alone. This time she wanted a house. She was tired of living in the condo. Alice was a growing girl and needed a backyard, grass, her own playground. Lisa was tired of Brooklyn. She wanted to experience living in the suburbs, either Queens or Long Island. Lisa found the perfect house on the market in St. Albans, Queens. It had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a garage, a backyard, and a front yard, and was listed for $500,000. AZ had to get her this house, or else!
*
Lisa’s Honda CRV came to a stop in front of the mini-mansion. She took a deep breath and then frowned. The sight of the lavish home made her angry. The place was impeccable, looking like the cover of a real estate magazine showing off lavish homes. This was how she wanted to live, and she was determined to get her house. If Wendy had a home like this, then she deserved one, too.
She got out of the car and unstrapped Alice. They marched toward the large and beautifully designed entry doors. She balled her fist and banged on the front door with force like she was the police. She saw AZ’s truck in the driveway, but no other car. She was hoping Wendy wasn’t home, but she was ready for her, though, if she wanted to try and come in between them.
It was no secret that Wendy and Lisa couldn’t stand each other. They’d met a handful of times, and each time there was yelling and cursing at each other. AZ desperately tried to keep the peace between the two, but it was impossible.
It was a windy day, cold and cloudy, with Christmas right around the corner. Lisa wondered what AZ was going to buy his daughter. She expected something in the price range of five thousand dollars or more. Alice wanted diamond earrings and the new Jordans.
Standing in her new boots that came with a price tag of six hundred dollars and her hair done up perfectly from a costly salon, Lisa held Alice’s hand in hers as she waited for the front door to open.
Lisa had coached her daughter into giving her daddy the sad face, the drooping eyes, and the pouting lips. She was coaching Alice on how to get what she wanted in life. It started with having her daddy spoil her, and as she grew older, it would be how to get men to buy her whatever she wanted. Alice was too young to know about sex, but she wasn’t too young to know about the finer things in life and where they came from.
The day Lisa spread her legs for AZ, she knew he was her meal ticket. AZ was a fledging drug dealer at the time, but she saw ambition in his eyes and refused to let him go without some kind of perpetual profit from him. When she found out she was pregnant with his child, she jumped for joy.
The front door opened, and AZ appeared in front of her and his daughter.
Lisa quickly blurted out, “I was calling your phone. Why didn’t you fuckin’ answer?”
AZ was taken aback by their presence. “Lisa, now is not a good time for you to be here.”
“Nigga, please. I came here because of your daughter. When was the last time you saw her, huh? I drove from New York in traffic and you is not about to turn me around, nigga!” She marched inside. There was no way she was going to stand outside or leave until she got what she had come for.
AZ sighed with frustration. Lisa was an aneurysm waiting to happen.
“Where’s your wife?”
“She’s not home.”
“Good. Because I don’t need that bitch in our conversation.”
AZ managed to smile down at his daughter, and Alice smiled back. She was always happy to see her daddy. Alice’s puffy pigtails and big brown eyes made her adorable. The fact that she was a spitting image of him made her irresistible.
“Hey, beautiful,” he said to her.
“Hi, Daddy.”
“C’mere.”
AZ lowered himself to the floor, propping himself down on one knee and opened his arms, and Alice ran into his arms. He hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
“You are looking prettier and prettier every day,” he said.
Alice smiled brightly.
It’s what Lisa wanted to see—AZ loving his daughter affectionately and treating her first in his life.
AZ picked up his little girl and swung her around in the air, and she laughed and giggled.
“We need to talk, AZ, fo’ real this time,” Lisa said, shattering his brief moment with his daughter.
AZ knew that when Lisa wanted to talk about something, there was always drama, jealousy, or money attached to it. “What, Lisa?” he asked dryly.
Already, he was bracing
himself for what she had to say. He knew she wanted something—how big, he didn’t know yet. He stopped playing with his daughter and placed her small feet back onto the floor.
“Your daughter needs a bigger place to live. We need a house.”
“What?”
“Look how you living with your other two kids and that bitch. You don’t think Alice wants to live like this too?”
“What’s wrong with the condo you have now? It’s spacious enough.”
“It’s too small, and Alice needs a backyard. What, you don’t think your daughter deserves to live in a house too? Nigga, she’s your firstborn, and she should always get the best.”
AZ shook his head left to right, sighing in disbelief. “I give her the best, from ten thousand dollars a month in child support, and taking care of you too. Alice doesn’t want for anything. You’re just being fuckin’ greedy!”
“Whatever your two kids have here with that bitch, she needs to have too. And you can afford a house for her.”
“You mean for you.”
“I’m not even tryin’ to argue wit’ you, AZ. I came here to talk civilly and shit, not fight.”
“How much is this house?” he asked, knowing she had one already picked out.
“Five hundred thousand,” she answered coolly.
“You must be out your rabbit-ass fuckin’ mind! You seriously think I’m gonna pay that much for a house? For you?”
“It’s for your family,” she argued heatedly. “For your fuckin’ daughter!”
“She’s fine, Lisa. Stop using her as an excuse. She already has everything she needs. My daughter is not a justification for your greed.”
The two started to argue, with Alice standing right there, which wasn’t anything new. Alice stood to the side, her eyes revealing sadness and ache. She rarely saw her daddy, and when she did, he was always arguing with her mommy.
Killer Dolls, Part 3 Page 9
