Two hours after receiving her breakfast, Trenda had a guest. “Oh my God! Are you okay, Mya?” Eli asked after rushing into her room. “I saw a picture of you on the news last night and almost had a coronary!”
Trenda covered the remains of her breakfast with the stainless steel lid and allowed Eli to take her hand and kiss it. “Yeah, I’m okay…just a little headache.”
That was the first time she had seen him in relaxed clothes; both his jeans and blue UC Berkeley T-shirt could stand a little ironing. “Just a little headache?” His eyes gave her the once-over. “I saw your car burning up and you on a gurney! What happened?”
“I still can’t remember much after leaving the hotel to go to my car. They say it’s because of my concussion.”
He carefully caressed the side of her face. “It must be a pretty serious concussion. Usually they just send you home with some Tylenol and codeine and put you on bedrest for a few days.”
She managed a weak smile. “How you know so much, Dr. Teddy Bear?”
He broke eye contact with her. “Well, you know, Meagan being in the medical field…”
She inconspicuously reached under her covers and tucked Baby just under her right butt cheek. “You are one lucky man to have a brainiac like her sharin’ your bed.”
“Not really…she is nothing like you.” The infatuation in his face read like a billboard. “Not even close.”
You have no idea how lucky you are she’s not, she thought after visualizing Gloria’s face. “You are way too sweet to me, baby. Keep that up and I am gonna get spoiled.”
Hovering over her like a cuddly Sasquatch, he took her hand again. “Mya, I don’t like the way things have been going for you; you deserve better.”
“Well, I’m glad somebody does…thanks, Boo.”
“What are you going to do about transportation? Have you contacted your insurance company yet?”
Regretting she hadn’t yet insured the Honda, she shook her head. “No…”
“Do you want me to call them for you?”
Drawing in a deep breath and letting it go, she confessed. “No… I didn’t have time to put insurance on it.”
Head lowered, he shook it slowly. “Oh wow…that is bad.”
“Yeah, I know but shit happens.”
“Does your family know what happened? Do you need to call them?”
The lump on her head began aching with stress. “Yeah, I called and told them I’m okay and there’s no need for them to fly all the way out here from the East Coast.”
He nodded. “Cool…at least they know you are okay—not as okay as I would like you to be, but okay.”
Trenda noticed he seemed to be distracted. He was fidgeting more than normal. “Good thing is I found out this is a county hospital and I don’t have to pay the bill since I don’t have any medical insurance yet.”
Holding her hand a little tighter, he looked at her in silence for a few moments. “Mya, I am leaving Meagan.”
Oh-the-hell-no he didn’t! “What are you talkin’ about? How you gonna do that when she’s your fiancée?”
“I never officially asked her to marry me. We talked about it a few times, but never set a date. She is too busy with school to really be ready for the kind of commitment I want.” He leaned over and kissed Trenda’s stunned lips. “Besides, my heart has found what it has been looking for…”
A bolt of pain shot from the lump on her head through her brain. “Eli, do you really think—”
He caressed the side of her face and gazed into her eyes. “I love you, Mya…and I want you to be with me.”
No less than a thousand thoughts filled her cloudy mind. Ashamedly, most of them were thoughts of how to best take advantage of the man and situation. After all, this was by far not the first time she’d been the recipient of that love line. “Wait… hold up, baby…this ain’t…no…think abo—”
He shook his head. “No…I have thought about this ever since you arrived. This is the first time I have truly felt this happy.” He let go of her hand, went into the large side pocket of his jeans and pulled out an envelope. “I have to get back home and get dressed for work. I will be back to see you as soon as I get off about five-thirty or so. In the meantime, think about what I said; I am very serious, Mya.”
“Eli, we need to really talk about this…I mean, this is pretty damn serious.”
Smiling, he leaned over, laid the envelope on the table and kissed her again. “You will see just how serious I am when you see what’s in the envelope.”
She watched him lay it on the table and hastily leave. A tingle of fear touched her as she reached for the white envelope. What have you done, man?
As soon as he disembarked from his red-eye flight into Newark, New Jersey, Darius got in his Escalade and hurried to the vacation cabin in Avalon. After tossing his bags on the bed, he called his partner. “Hey, wake up! I’m back in town.”
“What the hell? Do you know what time it is?”
Darius checked his watch. “I don’t give a shit that it’s four in the mornin’! You need to get up and get your ass over here to Avalon so we can go over the new plan.”
“What new plan? What the fuck is goin’ on now?”
The calming sound of the waves hitting the beach outside did little to ease the tension Darius now felt. “Just get your ass here… and bring some coffee…”
This was the first time Officer Kain had a loose end he couldn’t tie up. And he did not like the feeling of helplessness.
Nope, not at all.
Forty-Two
The two items inside the envelope both chilled and thrilled Trenda. She could feel her pulse rapidly beating in the bump on the side of her head. Her hand shook as she reached for her unfinished cup of orange juice. “Damn, Eli…damn…”
She picked up Eli’s personal check, made out to Mya Collins, for five-thousand dollars. Along with the check was a short note in some of the neatest handwriting she had ever seen:
Hey, sweetheart! This is just a little something to get you on your feet. I figured you could use this to rent out a chair in a nice salon and do hair, get another car and get a down payment on an apartment. Actually, I would prefer you just move in with me. I have plenty of room. And don’t worry about paying me back; this is a portion of the cash I had put aside for my wedding with Meagan. You have no idea how good it feels to know I have finally found my Queen! I love you, Mya…
Is he for real? She stared at the check. Five grand? The hustler in her went to work calculating how to best take advantage of this windfall. As always, her thoughts went first to turning a profit, then turning the Trick. Just holding the check seemed to ease the pain in her head. Fuck just renting a chair in a salon; I can probably get him to help me find a spot and open up my own shop…
Not once did she think about Eli leaving his longtime girlfriend for her. The lure of fast cash had blinded her as it had for most of her life. She tucked the note and check back in the envelope, set it on the table next to her carafe of ice water and prepared to turn on the TV for the first time since she had arrived.
Although she rarely watched TV at all, as she flipped through the channels, she was drawn to an episode of the Maury show. She paused on the show just as a heavy-set black woman was crying and yelling at a white woman and a tall, slim black man. “I wonder what made her go off,” Trenda said as she sat up in bed, preparing to go to the restroom.
After returning, Trenda climbed back in bed and continued to watch the show. She found out that the man had filed for divorce from the crying woman after reuniting with a former lover he ran into at a high school reunion. Out of nowhere, a shroud of depression descended on her. She remained transfixed on the black woman, now on her knees, crying her eyes out to the asshole of a man in front of her while his white lover looked on unsympathetically.
Anger swelled inside Trenda. “If that muthafucka had done that to me—” Her eyes fell on the envelope on the table next to her. Fake or not, the sound of the wom
an crying and yelling on TV drowned out the sound of the hospital’s PA system summoning various doctors and nurses to various places. It dimmed the great mood she was in after obtaining her ill-gotten gain. More of her father’s words seeped into her mind:
Wise choices are choices that line up with God’s Word. Wise choices are choices that are pleasing to God. Just choose to obey God and His Word and you will make the wise choice every time. God made us—He knows who you are and what you need to be happy and satisfied and blessed. Obeying His wisdom will bring you life, whereas succumbing to the temptations of the devil and your carnal, fleshly desires will bring death and destruction to your spirit, your mind and your body
—GALATIANS 6:8
No longer in the mood to listen to the suffering woman on TV, Trenda picked up the remote. Before she could change the channel, a pair of familiar voices greeted her from the doorway. “Hey, girl!” Lollie said as she ran over to Trenda’s bedside and gave her a hug. “How you doin’? I just got word about what happened!” She looked Trenda over with concerned eyes as she handed Trenda her purse. “Are you okay?”
Before she could answer, Walter walked over and gave her a hug. “It sure is good to see you up and about! You had us worried like crazy!”
Trenda saw something different in both her friends. The way their hands immediately found each other’s as they stood next to one another and the glow that encompassed them, even though they were covered in worry, were sure signs there was a serious chemistry flow between them. Finally, Trenda broke her silence. She set her purse on the bed between her and the bed rail. “Thanks for bringin’ me my purse. I’m cool…just had a lil’ mishap.”
Lollie put her hands on her sexy hips. “Bullshit!” She put her hand to her mouth, spun around and looked over at the hoisted leg of Trenda’s comatose roommate. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Sorry…I didn’t realize you had company.”
Trenda waved her off. “Don’t worry about it; she is out for the count.” She couldn’t help but notice how cute the pair looked in almost identical blue jeans and T-shirts—it was the first time she had ever seen Walter dressed so casually. She gave them a slight grin. “I knew I was right; you two make a cute-ass couple.”
Blushing, Lollie did her best to brush the compliment off. “Anyway…” She rubbed Trenda’s forehead. “So what happened? How long are you gonna be here? I talked to Jeff and he told me to tell you to take all the time off you need. I think they are scared you are gonna sue them.”
“Sue them? For what?”
Walter put his arm around Lollie’s slim waist. “Well, they do have a certain liability since you were injured on the job, on their property.”
Again, the scheming demon on Trenda’s shoulder spoke to her. Hell yeah! I can sue the shit outta the Water’s Edge Hotel! She thought a little deeper about it. But they did do me a big favor by hiring me when I really needed the help… “I’ll have to keep that in mind.”
“So what happened?”
Trenda scoured her memory of the event and came up blank. “The only thing I remember is walking out the hotel to get something out my car, then I wake up here.”
Lollie did a double-take at the TV screen as the news at noon came on. She pointed at the screen and yelled. “Hey! Check that out!”
On the screen, they all listened to the news reporter speak. “We have breaking news! There’s a possible break in last night’s killing in Jack London Square. We have an exclusive interview with the woman that found the victim’s body. More to come when we return.”
Trenda sat up and asked, “Killing? What killing?”
Forty-Three
“You didn’t hear?” Lollie asked as she took turned from the screen back to Trenda. “Have you watched the news at all since you got here?”
“No…I just turned the TV on not too long ago.”
After the dishwashing liquid commercial ended, they watched the TV screen in silence. The dark-haired news reporter spoke. “We here at Channel Two just got word that the woman that discovered the body of homicide victim, Piper Langford, heard her final words.”
Trenda bumped the table next to her bed so hard as she jumped out, the carafe of water flew like a missile and nearly landed on her roommate’s bed. “What did he say her name was?”
A blown-up picture of Piper filled the screen as the reporter continued. Walter watched as Trenda walked closer to the TV, the back of her hospital gown open for the world to see. “Piper Langford…do you know h—”
Trenda silenced him with her hand as she stared intently at the screen. The reporter spoke as a film shot of a woman in shadow—to avoid her identity being known—spoke. “I was on my way to Barnes and Noble, you know, to get a book. I usually take the stairs from the parking garage, you know, to get a little exercise in, you know? And last night, when I got to the top of the stairs, you know, I saw the light was off…I looked down, you know, and saw that lady layin’ on the ground. I bent over, you know, and asked her if she was okay…she wasn’t movin’ at first, you know, then she opened her eyes a little and I heard her mumble some-thin’…I got closer, you know, and saw she was bloody. That’s when I screamed for help…I heard her still mumblin’…to me, it sounded like she said two words; ‘Baltimore…cop…’ I could be wrong, you know, but that’s what it sounded like, ‘Baltimore… cop…’ After that, you know, she just stopped talkin’…I think, you know, that’s when she died…”
Lollie walked up behind Trenda and attempted to tie up her gown. Trenda nearly jumped to the ceiling. “Easy, girl…I’m just tryin’ to close you up.”
Trenda nodded as she tried to calm her rapid heart rate. Oh muthafucka! Piper? Dead? This cannot be happenin’! What the hell was she doing here? “Thanks…thanks, Lollie.” She walked slowly back to her bed and sat down.
Lollie pointed at the screen. “Hey, Walter! That’s that crazy broad that almost ran into us the other day!”
“I’ll be damned! It sure is!” Walter walked over to the bed, bent over and looked into Trenda’s face. “Hey…you okay? Did you know that woman?”
Trenda avoided his eyes and instead focused on the pool of water around the light blue carafe on the floor. “No…I thought it was my friend Piper Stanford…a friend I went to cosmetology school with back in D.C. Did you say y’all saw that woman?”
He glanced back at the TV. “Yeah, she pulled up to my car as Lollie and I were on our way to breakfast. She kept asking if we knew somebody named Brenda or Kendra, or something like that.”
Lollie cocked her head as she looked at Trenda. “Are you okay, honey?”
Trenda, not Brenda…that bitch was here lookin’ for me! A frosting of panic coated Trenda. She picked up the ice pack and put it against the side of her head. “I’m good…just had a little ache from this lump on my head.”
“You need me to go get the nurse?”
Trenda momentarily spaced out as the two words the dead woman spoke peppered her mind. “Baltimore. Cop.” Baltimore cop shot me, is what I bet she was tryin’ to say.
Darius.
If Piper had found me, then it would be a real good bet that Darius could have found me, too…knowin’ how he operates. I would bet anything that he killed Piper…and if he killed her, then anybody else close to me… She looked at her concerned friends. Oh shit!
“Mya?” Walter said as he held her shoulders. “I’m going to go get a nurse. I’ll be right back.”
She grabbed his arm. “No…serious, I’m cool…I’m just kinda groggy from the medication they gave me earlier. I just need to lay down and rest.” The image of both her friends dying at the hands of that bastard Darius tied a huge knot in her stomach. She glanced at the clock on the wall. According to Gloria, that detective is supposed to show up this afternoon…it’s damn near one now.
Lollie went to the bathroom, got a towel and began cleaning up the spilled water. “Jeff told me some folks from corporate are going to come by sometime today. I think it’s probably the hotel law
yers. I heard they already took care of the owner of the truck that was parked next to your car that burned up. They ain’t bull-shittin’ about tryin’ to get this mess squashed.”
Damn! More people comin’ by? “Did Jeff say what time?”
Lollie wiped off the carafe with the damp, white towel and put it back on the table. “No…he just said sometime today.”
Trenda could almost hear the steady tick of time running out. “Okay…I’m gonna try and take a nap before folks start showin’ up. Why don’t you guys stop by later this evening? I could sure go for some Chinese food for dinner.”
Lollie set the wet towel on the tray with the remainder of Trenda’s lunch. “Okay…I called out today after I heard what happened to you.” She gave Trenda a hug. “I told Jeff I had to be off so I could help you out since you have no family here… he was real cool about it. He told me I could take off all week if need be to help you get back on your feet.”
That show of love nearly brought tears to Trenda’s eyes. She was barely able to keep her voice from cracking. “Thanks, Lollie.” She broke from Lollie, reached for Walter and hugged him tight. “Thank you, too.”
Forty-Four
As soon as Lollie and Walter left her room, Trenda sprung from the bed like a Jack-in-the-Box. The same intuition she had counted on all her life—that she ignored before she was almost killed—kicked in. “Hurry the fuck up, Trenda!” she said to herself as she ripped off the hospital gown and poured her clothes on the bed.
After slipping into her wrinkled uniform and black loafers, she pulled back the covers of her bed and put Baby and the envelope from Eli in her purse. Good thing Gloria is honest, she thought as she unfolded the twenty-dollar bill in her pants pocket. Once dressed, she walked to the door, stuck her head out and looked around.
An Indian male nurse was busy in the room across from her checking the pulse of an elderly man. The nurses at the station to her right were busy with phone calls and a line of worried-looking visitors. Trenda looked to her left and spotted the “EXIT” sign mounted to the ceiling at the T-shaped corridor entrance. Aight, let’s do this!
Sins of a Siren Page 23
