He leaned back, closed his eyes and smiled. “No problem…no problem at all.”
They both turned around at the sound of the bedroom opening. Lollie stepped out wearing her skirt. She combed her hair with her fingers and gave them a shy smile. “Sorry for busting in on you guys.” She looked at Walter. “I don’t always go around flashing strangers.”
He stood and offered her his hand. “My name is Walter. Now that we are no longer strangers, you have nothing to be sorry for.”
Trenda observed the way Walter and Lollie smiled and locked eyes. She also noticed how long he held her hand after shaking it. She folded her arms over her chest and grinned. Looks like a love connection startin’ up. “Watch out, Lollie; looks like he’s ready for another peek!”
Lollie blushed as Walter released her hand. “Did anybody ever tell you, you are crazy?” She picked her purse off of the coffee table. “I have to get going. I’ll call you later.”
Walter’s eyes lingered on Lollie. “It was nice to meet you, Lollie, even under the ‘special circumstances.’”
Once again, their eyes synchronized. She smiled. “Same here…”
Trenda walked her to the door. “I’ll call you once the orientation is over.”
“Okay, do that. My shift starts at three. I’ll be waitin’.” She looked over Trenda’s shoulder. “Bye, you two!”
Trenda closed the door, turned and walked over to Walter. “What do you think of my friend?”
He tried to look uninterested. “She’s cool.”
Trenda glanced at the lump next to his zipper. “I’m glad you think so. I’ll be right back.” Trenda entered the bedroom, stripped and got in the shower. Her nipples perked up. Walter and Lollie…
Twenty-Two
Two days later, Piper paused in the courtyard of the University of Maryland and answered her cell phone. “Hello?”
“Hello, Ms. Langford, this is Hank Martin. Are you free to talk?”
Piper took a seat next to the fountains in front of the Tawes Fine Arts Building. “Yes. What’s going on?”
“I have a bit of good news for you. I think I found Ms. Fuqua.”
Piper set her purse down and a sinister grin covered her face. “You did? Where?”
“I found her staying at the Hotel Oakland. It appears she is staying in a room paid for by someone by the name of Walter Secrease. It’s booked for two weeks. I’d like to email you a few photos I took of her to verify it’s her. Do you have access to the internet right now?”
It sounds like she found a new dick to suck by the name of Walter. Piper angrily unzipped her bag and pulled out her laptop. “Yes, I can use the wireless connection here at school.”
“Great! I’ll send them right now.”
Piper chewed her thumbnail as she waited for the laptop to boot up. “Okay, I’m booted up. Give me a second.”
“Take your time.”
A mixture of pain, lust and rage blanketed her mind as she zoomed in on the five pictures of Trenda on her screen. One of the pictures showed Trenda in front of a restaurant, seemingly looking directly at the camera. Piper dug her fingernails into the palm of her clenched right hand. “Yes…that is definitely her.”
“I was surprised at how many people I spoke with recognized her picture; I think her unusually green eyes stuck with them.”
“I bet they did. I’m glad you found her.”
“Very good! I can transfer you over to Nancy to complete this investigation. Thank you for choosing Dickerson.”
“Wait! I want you to keep your eye on her until I get there.”
“Well, that will incur extra expenses.”
“I don’t give a damn! You have the number of my credit card; I want you to keep your eye on her until I get there.”
“Okay, when will you be arriving?”
“I’m going to book a flight to Oakland as soon as I get home. I hope to be there in a day or so. Stay on clock, Hank.”
“I’ll do that. If anything changes, I’ll give you a call.”
“You do that.” She hung up, put away her laptop and hurried to her next class.
“Are you sure you can’t stay these last two weeks and complete your finals, Piper?”
Piper shook her head as she handed him her last assignment. “No, I have an emergency situation to take care of.”
He scratched his stringy, gray hair. “That’s a shame…you are so close to getting your degree.”
“I know. Maybe I’ll return next year and finish.”
“But this program is very exclusive. The waiting list is already two years long.”
Piper thought about the past few days since her fight with Trenda. A mixture of fury, heartbreak and insanity fueled her bipolar condition. She pushed her thick glasses up the bridge of her nose. “Well, I guess this fucking degree will have to wait then, won’t it, professor?”
He adjusted his wire-frame glasses and gave her a nervous, nicotine-stained, toothy smile. “I see…if it’s because of your ‘incident’…”
She glared at him and took a step toward him. “That’s none of your goddamned business!”
His eyes bulged. “I meant you no harm, Piper. I simply meant that—”
The image of Trenda sucking Darius’s dick filled her head. She pointed at him. “I don’t need your sympathy…I don’t need a damn thing from you or anybody else!”
He recalled hearing about her violent history, took a few slow steps away from Piper and opened the door to his office. “I think it’s time for you to leave, Ms. Langford.”
She took her time leaving. Stopping at the threshold, she looked back into his scared face. “I’ll see you when I get back.” Outside, in the last grayish light of the cloudy late Friday afternoon, she removed her cell phone from her backpack and called Johns Hopkins Hospital. “Hi, Mom.”
“How are you, sweetheart?”
“I’m fine. I just wanted to let you know I’m going to be out of town for a few days…a few of my sorority sisters are going to celebrate spring break in San Francisco.”
Her mother put down the patient’s chart she was reading. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be going that far so soon. You’re still healing, honey.”
Piper rubbed the small knot on the back of her head, under her layered haircut, as she crossed the student parking lot. “I’m fine, Mom.”
“You may feel fine, but I still think it’s too soon. You have suffered a serious concussion. Your eyesight hasn’t even returned to normal yet.”
Piper rolled her eyes. Damn, Mom, I fucking know that. “It’s okay, I’m getting used to my glasses. My headaches are even getting better.”
“Piper, you need to rest. Why don’t you come stay with me and your father for a few days instead? We can go do some serious summer clothes shopping.”
Piper removed her keys and opened the door of her Range Rover. “No, I really want to get away for a while. Besides, you and Dad are way too busy these days.”
“That may be true, but we are never too busy for our baby.”
Her right eye twitched with agitation. She longed for the day her parents stopped treating her like a toddler. “Mom, I’m going to San Francisco. I’ll give you a call once I get there.”
Her mother paused. “Okay, but your father isn’t going to be too happy.”
“Mom, it’s only gonna be a few days…it’s not like I’m moving there.”
“He may need to have you here as the police investigate your case. You know he has every cop in the city working on it.”
Piper put the keys in the ignition, sat back, closed her eyes and exhaled loudly. “I know…I hear from them almost every friggin’ day. It seems they aren’t getting anywhere.”
“These things take time. And the more accessible you are the better. You never know when they may catch that little whore, Trenda, and need you to identify her.”
These fucking dumb cops have no idea she is on the West Coast, Mother. “She could be anywhere. If they do catc
h her, I’m sure they can find a way to hold her until I can make a positive ID.”
“Why are you so hell-bent on going to California? Did you meet a boy there?”
Piper almost laughed out loud. If you only knew I haven’t been with a man in over ten years, you would have a stroke. “No, Mother. I did not meet a boy there. I just want to get away from all this crap for a while.”
Her mother sighed. “Well, if you just have to go, at least promise you will call me once a day so I can know you’re okay.”
Piper started the engine and turned on the wipers. She’d made it to the car just as a spring shower erupted. “Okay, I’ll call.”
“When are you leaving?”
“In a couple of days. I have a few things to take care of first.”
“Don’t forget to pack your medicine and eye drops.”
Piper felt her blood pressure building. “Mother, I am…I know what I need. Talk to you later.” She folded her phone closed, tossed it on the passenger seat and turned up the speed of her windshield wipers. “I swear she gets on my last nerve sometimes.” Back at her apartment, she went to her desk and found the sheet of paper she had gotten from Tyrone with Trenda’s information on it. She dialed the number.
“Hello?”
She picked up the picture of her and Trenda celebrating Trenda’s birthday last year at a popular local Mexican food restaurant. She recalled how she ate Trenda out for hours that night. “Eric?”
“Yes, that’s me. Is this you, Piper?”
“Yes. I just got off the phone with a private investigator I hired to find Trenda. He found her still in Oakland. I’m going to book my flight there tonight.”
Tyrone put down his hamburger and swallowed the French fry in his mouth. “When are you leaving?”
She scowled at the picture, then placed it back on the table, face down. “I’m hoping to leave in a day or two. The sooner the better.”
He folded his hamburger in a napkin and tossed it back into the bag with his fries. “Piper, can I call you right back? I need to make a quick call.”
“Whatever. I have things to do.”
He listened to her hang up on him. “What a bitch!” He then picked up his food, walked past the life-sized cardboard image of a Burger King and called Darius. “Yo, Piper is getting ready to book a flight to Oakland.”
Darius watched as Griff’s workers mounted a set of expensive chrome rims onto his Escalade. “Did she say when she was leaving?”
“She didn’t. But she did tell me she hired a P.I. that found Trenda in Oakland. I told her I was gonna call her back in a minute.”
Darius walked across the oil-stained floor and exited the garage. He flipped up the collar of his leather jacket in an attempt to ward off the chilly breeze and last gasp of the short spring shower. “Call her back and tell her you might be going to Oakland, too, lookin’ for Trenda. See if she’ll give you all her travel info.”
“Man, I really don’t feel like talkin’ to her crazy ass again…she sounds like she is ready to snap.”
“You want this shit over, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but…you don’t know how twisted this Piper chick is. She is literally out her damn mind.”
Darius spit the toothpick out of his mouth into a dirty puddle of rainwater. “Do I need to remind you of what will happen if Internal Affairs finds Trenda before we do?”
Tyrone hesitated, then exhaled loudly. “Okay, okay. Lemme call her back. I’ll hit you up later.”
“Cool.” Darius disconnected and tucked the phone into the pocket of his jacket. Don’t get soft on me now, partner. We are in way too deep for you to pussy-out now. He walked back into the garage just as Griff’s men lowered his Escalade from the lift and checked the tightness of the lug nuts on his new rims. He looked at Griff as he opened the door and got into the vehicle. “Your boys do good work; you need to give ’em a raise.”
Griff glared at him in silence and gnawed on the butt of his cigar. He then turned, pressed a button on the wall and the roll-up door began opening. He stood to the side as Darius reversed and saluted Griff on his way out. Griff removed his cigar and spat in his direction. “You gonna get yours, crooked muthafucka.”
Darius, fueled by adrenaline, sped across the wet, four-lane Harbor Tunnel Thruway, en route to the Baltimore Harbor area. He needed to relieve some stress so he could think clearly and plan his next move. In a particularly insalubrious neighborhood, he soon spotted the solution to his stress relief issue. She ain’t half as good as Trenda, but what the fuck. He removed the portable red siren light from his glove box, plugged it in and placed it on the dash. He then slowly rolled up to the curb behind a pair of big booty females strolling down the sidewalk, sharing a large, red-and-white umbrella. He tapped the horn and both women stopped and looked at the shiny Escalade. He lowered the passenger window. “Good evening, ladies.”
Both women frowned and shook their heads. The dark-skinned woman in the long black wig leaned over. “What you want? We ain’t doin’ nothin’.”
Darius quickly scanned the area. Satisfied the coast was clear, he turned his attention to the slim woman with the gold front teeth. “C’mon now, Cherry, you know I’m just checkin’ on you.”
She rolled her eyes and chewed her gum faster. “Uh-huh, sure you are.”
He waved her to the side. “I need to speak to your friend, Constance.”
Reluctantly, Constance the “Cum Catcher,” as she was known in the streets, exhaled cigarette smoke, bent over, swiped her shoulder-length blonde hair behind her back and looked into the window. “Yeah, what do you want with me?”
Darius looked into her blue eyes. “I need to ask you a few questions.” He patted the empty passenger seat. “C’mon…take a ride with me.”
She furrowed her brow and pulled at the hem of her lime-green micro miniskirt. “Why are you fuckin’ with me? All I’m doin’ is walkin’ down the street with my friend. Is that a crime, now?”
He gave her a serious look. “No it’s not, but I bet if I was to search you, I’d find a joint or weed seed on you. You know it would look real bad if your probation officer found out about that, wouldn’t it?”
Constance looked over at Cherry and grimaced. “I had better go. Even though I’m clean, I’m sure ‘Officer Friendly’ here would magically find some contraband on me.”
Cherry stepped back from the car and adjusted her extremely short, bright yellow shorts. “Yeah, you right. He is good at that trick.”
Constance flicked her half-smoked cigarette into the street, tucked her pack of Newport cigarettes into her thigh-high black boots, opened the door and got inside. “So, what do you want to talk to me about?”
He removed the beacon from the dashboard and put it back in the glove compartment. “I’ll tell you in a minute. We’re gonna go someplace private and talk.”
Constance sat back and crossed her arms over her huge tits. “Oh, I see you are taking me to the ‘Lighthouse.’”
He grinned and sped off. “I see you have a good memory.” Twenty minutes later, he unlocked the gate at the “Lighthouse” and pulled around back. He unzipped his pants, looked over and watched Constance remove a red scrunchie from her small black purse and tie her hair back into a ponytail. He stopped her before she bent over into his lap. “You used to run with Trenda…she ever say anything going to California?”
She cocked her head. “What?”
“I said, did Trenda ever say anything to you about going to California or mention having any friends or relatives there?”
“No…why are you asking me anyway?”
Darius grabbed her by the back of the neck. “Look, bitch, I know you and her were tight. I busted both of you together a couple of times for possession on one of her drug runs. Don’t fuckin’ play with me.”
Fear replaced her boldness as she read the anger in his glare. “Owww! That hurts!”
His dick swelled once he saw her cockiness evaporate. He kept his grip on her neck. “Th
e pain stops when you tell me what I wanna know. Now, answer my fuckin’ question.”
He added pressure to his grip. She winced. “No…she never told me anything about going to California or anywhere else.”
He held her neck and read her face for signs she was lying. Satisfied, he eased off the pressure and pushed her head into his lap. “Make yourself useful.”
The feel of her lips on his swollen head made him lean back in his seat with pleasure. Normally, a blowjob would put him in a good mood, but as he fucked Constance in the throat, a sense of doom shadowed him. The thought of getting fired, or worse, going to jail, fueled his thrust. He ignored Constance’s gags and forced his knob deeper into her mouth. The image of his cute but boring-in-bed wife taking half his shit made him pump harder with frustration. Seconds later, he shuddered and squirted thick, sticky woo juice down the Cum Catcher’s throat. She gulped it all down and sucked out the residue.
He released her head and she sprung up, gasping for air. She grimaced and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Can we go now?”
He looked into her face and watched the blood slowly leave her flushed face. He put away his sperm worm and zipped up. “Sure can.”
He started the car, turned on the headlights and drove out to the street. After locking the gate, he drove a few blocks and stopped at the corner bus stop. She stopped applying her red lipstick and looked at him. “Why are you stopping?”
He put the car in “park,” reached into his pocket, pulled out some cash and tucked a five-dollar bill into her bra. “This is where you get off. I gotta go.”
She glared at him. “This is fucked up!” She got out, slammed the door and walked away.
Before he pulled off, his phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and answered. “What’s the latest?”
“I just got off the phone with Piper. She is flying out to Oakland tomorrow afternoon.”
Fuck! That crazy bitch is movin’ fast! “Okay, good lookin’ out. I’m gonna go home and see if I arrange to get there around the same time.”
“What you gonna tell ya wife? You know Beverly ain’t gonna be happy with you just up and flyin’ across country.”
Sins of a Siren Page 13
