The Room Where It Happened

by Jason Letts

  She found a page for the training camp in Aurora, and it even had some pictures up from the events now that it had concluded. Lawrence was in a couple of them, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have come back to town to kill Kim because she wasn’t selling his drugs. Maybe the cash in her apartment was his.

  In a rush because she felt like she was trying his patience, she hit upon a Facebook page for the event that had a livestream from the very day that Kim had been killed. The title couldn’t have made it any clearer. It was called, Lawrence Asper Turns in Blazing 400m. She breathed a sigh of relief as she watched the video of his powerful body and strong legs pumping down the track. Her eyes kept going to his groin and what was tucked into those little shorts.

  She found him back on the dance floor, and they picked up where they left off, but by the end of the song he’d pulled her up against him and took a long, hard kiss. Although others around them were still dancing, they’d basically stopped moving except for their mouths and tongues.

  The next thing Tera knew they pulled apart and he tapped her backside in the direction of the door. It felt cooler outside, but she was still feeling warm and tingly everywhere. They didn’t hold hands and he didn’t put his arm around her as they crossed over to the hotel. Her heels made it hard for her to keep up, but it wasn’t like he was going to be able to get started without her.

  He slipped a card into the slot to open the hotel room door, and she stepped into the dark room following his mesmerizing smile illuminated by the lights in the hall. They barely had a second to flick on a lamp and shut the door before they were on each other again. His strong embrace felt so good, and she ran her fingers through his gelled hair and along his back, brushing against his thighs.

  Lawrence’s clothes slipped off one article after another. He was using his fingers to touch her between her legs. She mouthed his earlobe and undid his belt. The next thing she knew he had picked her up and tossed her on the bed before climbing on top of her.

  “Yes,” she said as he grunted. Her dress was bunched up around her waist as his naked body covered her. He was big, almost too big, filling her up as he slid in and out of her. He gripped her breasts for more leverage, rising up and thrusting harder over and over. Tera opened her mouth wide but no sound came out. It was just a drumbeat of ecstasy inside her head.

  She felt a shudder as he came that set her off, and she dissolved into bliss.

  CHAPTER 4

  The next morning started much the same way the previous one had ended, a torrent of activity in bed that varied only in the positions they engaged in. Lawrence seemed to particularly enjoy being behind her during sex, leaving her clutching the bed sheets and blankets with her arms stretched out in front of her. The only shame about it was that it made it difficult to look at the beautiful body that was pounding against her.

  They ordered breakfast into their room, munching on muffins and drinking juice barely clothed and with the TV on by the corner of the room with the sound so low that they couldn’t hear it hardly at all. Mostly Tera just didn’t want to move and was content to hang out and talk about whatever with him. She was conscious that eventually the time would come to get up, get dressed, and do something, but that time was definitely not now.

  “The thing about some of these trials,” he said, “is that even if you don’t win, being there is enough. Yeah, it’d be great to go to the Olympics or even the U.S. Championships, but sooner or later everybody peaks and falls off and has to find something else to do. That’s why at college getting into these races and getting in with the coaches makes such a big difference. I want to be captain as a senior, because that is such a short jump to assistant coach. Head coaches even for smaller sports pull in six figures and basically are set for life. That’s how you get out of the rough neighborhoods for good, and then you can build a pipeline for all of the young talent that comes after you.”

  “Wow, that sounds great,” Tera said in a bit of a daze. It wasn’t often that she heard people share complex schemes for uplifting the community and creating a respectable life. Usually young guys had dreams about rapping or a big basketball contract, but Lawrence was going with what he had and getting closer to achieving it than any of them.

  She wasn’t under any illusions about what was going on between them, but if he kept talking about creating opportunities for some of the hard-pressed youth it was going to get to her heart. As it was, she knew full well despite what they’d been doing they were not in a relationship, and if she wasn’t around tonight some other girl would take her place without him giving it a second thought.

  The question was if he was what she wanted to fight for, and at least looking ahead to a future like his was a lot more appealing than the last guy she’d slept with, who was trying to get his cousin to code an app for something or other. Right now the memory of having Lawrence inside of her had an addictive quality to it that made it hard to think about anything else.

  “What about you? I’ll admit I didn’t notice you back in the day. Not many people end up wanting to be a cop, you know?”

  It was promising that he cared enough to at least ask her questions about herself once in a while, and Tera attempted to straighten out her thoughts enough to come up with something that could stand up to his vision.

  “I kept a low profile back then, but I always cared about what was happening around us and the conditions we were living in. I know a lot of people blame cops for how things are or resent them for what they do. Some cross the line on purpose and some make honest mistakes. But the way I see it having that power of the badge can actually put me in a position to make things better, although sometimes I wish it came with a little more power.

  “Take what’s going on with Kim. You know how it is when a family gets some attention and suddenly everybody’s losing everything for nothing. That’s why I’m doing everything I can to keep the case moving, even though I don’t have the authority to and would be in deep trouble if anyone found out. We’ve got to keep the good parts of our community together or it’s never going to get stronger.”

  Lawrence laughed and gave her a furtive grin. It made her think she’d pulled it off.

  “I love it. You’re working it from the inside to do things your way,” he said. And she let herself drift toward him so that her head came to rest against his bare arm and chest. “So you gonna catch the one who did it or what?”

  Tera pursed her lips. She didn’t what would happen if she couldn’t find something to get more attention for Kim’s case.

  “I’m going to try,” she said, although with Lawrence checked off her short list of potential suspects her other options were limited. “Kim can’t be another statistic buried in a cold case file. She just can’t. If you happen to know anything, that could really help.”

  She could hear him sigh.

  “I wish I did. Somebody needs to get them. It ain’t right and that’s not how it should’ve ended for her,” he said, and for a moment Tera thought how Kim probably would’ve been in her place right now if she’d been alive. It was making all of this pleasure seem bittersweet, and the only way to shake off the guilt was to get back to work on it. Every day that passed made it less likely that she’d achieve her goal.

  “That reminds me. I should get going,” she said, knowing if anything more was going to happen between them that this was going to be a big moment. Appearing clingy or asking for anything was a quick way to get kicked to the curb. At the same time, if he screwed up she was fully capable of finding another man, but the fact of the matter was she wanted more and hoped he did too.

  “Yeah, I’ve got some guys to meet up with for a workout,” he said.

  But what she could do was give him something to miss, and that involved getting up first and slipping her dress back on in full view of him. Of course, her body wasn’t the only thing she had going for her.

  “Better drink some protein before that workout. Seemed like you were getting worn out there by the end,” she said w
ith a playfully dismissive air and a shake of the head as she adjusted the fabric around her hips. Lawrence put his fist over his mouth to stifle a laugh. Her shoes on and bag in hand, she went for the door.

  “We’ll see about that. I’ll hit you up later,” he said, which was enough for her to break into a grin as soon as she was in the hall.

  It wasn’t until she saw her reflection in the closing elevator doors that she realized how much of a mess her hair was, but her eyes were all sparkles. Whatever else happened, she’d gotten hers.

  And despite the exertion, it did imbue her with some more energy to get out and make some progress on Kim’s case, so that the next time she got together with Lawrence she could let him know how much closer she was to bagging the bad guy. And right now she was banking on the other name Kendra had given her paying off, that of Wayne Chechy.

  After she’d returned to her apartment, showered, and changed into jeans and a t-shirt, she plopped on her old Goodwill couch and started looking him up. Chechy was someone she’d never heard of before, and her first guess was that he wasn’t from their area, at least not originally. He was non-existent on social media, and Tera wondered if she’d have to go back to Kendra to find a way to get a hold of him.

  Instead, she picked up Kim’s phone and did some more snooping around. Kim was terrible at labeling her contacts, and in many cases she didn’t ever bother to use people’s names in her texts, but now that she knew more about Lawrence and was able to sort out the history of texts Kim had with him, she was able to pick out another chain of messages that she had a good feeling were from Chechy.

  About ninety percent of the messages were explicit sexting, which was going on all throughout when she’d been seeing Lawrence. Evidently Kim and Lawrence did have a pretty open understanding about what they were doing. But some other parts of her conversations with Chechy stood out. A number of times he said that he’d call her, but the history on her phone showed that he never did. Another player getting her hopes up. He also sent photos of being at a restaurant watching baseball games every weekend, sometimes inviting Kim to join him there, though the pictures never had himself in them.

  It took some digging, but she managed to deduce from other photos that the place he liked to frequent was the Black Sox Bar & Grill, a sports bar in Hyde Park, a neighborhood not far away closer to the waterfront. The afternoon had a full slate of baseball games scheduled, and she was ready to make contact with her next suspect.

  Most suspicious about the texts with Chechy were that they stopped completely right when Kim died, while quite a few other people continued to send texts or place calls to her in the days following. Some still did more than a week later and even after the funeral. It was the best sign she’d had that someone knew something had happened.

  She stuck with the t-shirt and jeans as she headed out the door and hopped in her car, a beat-up little Civic, realizing after her conversation with Kendra that approaching people in her uniform wasn’t going to set the right tone. She was learning quickly why detectives wore suits.

  She reached the grill on the corner beside rows of shops stretching in each direction. It had a lot of outdoor seating with big umbrellas jutting up from the tables. Enough TV’s were visible to allow people to watch every game at once.

  The problem was that she still had no idea what Wayne Chechy looked like, and she had to swallow her reluctance and approach different tables asking for him.

  “Excuse me. Are you Wayne Chechy?” she asked a guy seated by himself to watch the games. The man looked at her like she was an idiot and shook his head. She repeated the process five more times with the same result.

  “What do you want?” came a voice from behind her as the sting from the latest failed attempt set in.

  She twisted around to see a guy on the buff side with short curly hair and a single earring. He was seated next to a woman with long brown hair that was so voluminous it made it difficult to tell what she was wearing. But she had been the one who’d called out, not him, and she didn’t look at all happy about it.

  “Are you Wayne Chechy?” Tera asked him, but she could barely get the words out before the other woman started snapping.

  “He’s nobody to you, so you can just get out of here,” she said, and Wayne held up his hand to her with a bitter look.

  “I don’t even know her. Relax and eat your chicken sandwich,” he said, turning back to Tera with the tiniest nod. “What is it?”

  She took a deep breath, wondering if for the first time she was looking at Kim’s killer. Based on how he looked, she wouldn’t put it past him to pull the trigger on somebody.

  “I wanted to ask you about Kim Parkinson. She was shot and killed last week and I’m trying to find out from anybody what might’ve happened.”

  “That dirty slut,” Chechy’s companion said, not exactly under her breath. He didn’t react at all to Tera bringing up Kim.

  “And who’s asking?” He shifted his eyes to her.

  “My name’s Tera and I am…‌or was a friend of hers. She mentioned you shortly before it happened.”

  He popped a fry in his mouth and leaned back in his seat. The sound of some cheering came from some of the other tables, but he curled his lip.

  “I guess that’s fair. I did know her for a while. And as a matter of fact I do have an idea what happened to her.”

  “What is it?” Tera asked, not able to help herself from getting excited. He tilted his head forward to look more intently at her.

  “Do you know why Chicago is called the windy city?” he asked, immediately deflating Tera’s hopes that she was going to get a helpful answer, but she had no choice but to play along.

  “I know that one. It’s not because of the breeze. It’s because of the long-winded politicians.”

  “Wrong. It’s because of the draft from the bullets. What killed Kim is that this is a BS place to live where any one of us can get straight up shot dead at any time. That’s what it’s like here, kill or be killed.”

  Tera pursed her lips, feeling like the last thing she’d wanted was to get a weird lecture about the place that she lived when she was expecting to hear something crucial about her friend’s death. It was time to push the issue a little more with him.The temptation hit to reach into her pocket for her badge, but instead she kept her voice down as more cheers about the game erupted.

  “Wayne, what bothers me is that your texts with her stopped suddenly as soon as she was killed, as if you knew what had happened to her. Can you explain that?”

  He looked at her hard, visibly on the defensive and aware of what she was getting at.

  “I didn’t know nothing,” he said, scowling. “We’d parted ways. I was done with her. That was right after I’d met Meghan.”

  “Lucky for you,” the girl said to him. “She didn’t seem all that different before and after she died.”

  The conversation was making Tera aggravated, between his shady answers and her nasty insults, but she wasn’t sure what to do next. If this had been an official investigation and he seemed like a real suspect, she’d bring him in for questioning on the record, but all by herself, unarmed, and trying to figure this out on her own didn’t accommodate that.

  “Can you tell me where you were last Sunday night?” she asked him.

  “I don’t need to tell you anything,” he said, but his companion evidently thought otherwise.

  “He was with me at my place,” she said with a smirk. Meghan hadn’t been able to resist getting in a taunt, but that look was about to be wiped off her face.

  “And where’s that?” Tera asked. Meghan brushed her hair back, giving Tera the finger in the process.

  “It’s right where the sun don’t shine, which is where you can stick it, by the way. I think you can run along before we call the police about your harassment.”

  “I’ll save you the trouble,” Tera said, pulling her badge out of her pocket and holding it in her hand. “Let’s give answering my question another try. My
partner is two tables away and there’s another squad car full of cops around the corner. We can either do this the easy way where you get to stay here and keep having lunch, or we can take you in for questioning now. All I want is a look at your driver’s licenses.”

  Livid, Wayne looked at Meghan like he was about to strangle her, and she mouthed something nasty at him. What concerned Tera was what would happen after this conversation ended when she’d need to find him again.

  “Your time is up,” Tera said firmly, putting her badge back in her pocket and raising a hand as if she were about to signal to someone. Within about three seconds the licenses were sliding across the table in her direction, and she snapped a picture of them with her phone. They both were issued from the state of Illinois with addresses in the city. She dropped them back on the table when she was done.

  “That it then?” Wayne asked. His hands were on the arms of the chair like he was about to bolt or make a move on her, probably the latter.

  “For now. We’ll be watching you,” she said, backing out of the seating area in a way that allowed her to keep an eye on him in case he pulled a gun on her or anything crazy. But she made it out of sight and continued down the street feeling the rush of adrenaline that sometimes came with police work when she was playing it tough.

  Her heart was beating hard and she was imagining what she would’ve done if he’d gotten up to fight her. It would’ve been far from the first fight she’d been in.

  Wayne had done her a favor making it as plain as day that something had been going on, but she needed to find out what, not to mention actually connect him to the room where it happened. The fingerprints would help with that, and now she could look into whether Wayne and the woman he was with were actually at her apartment, or if that was a lie.

  She’d have a lot to do the next day before she went into work in the late afternoon, but there was still plenty of time left today to enjoy her accomplishments. Tera cooked paella and brought it to her mother. They were halfway through the meal when her phone buzzed, and she nearly fell out of her seat trying to get her phone to see who it was.