by Bailey West
“If something doesn’t give soon. You are going to the doctor.”
“Yes, sir,” she rolled her eyes.
“I don’t care about your slick comments as long as you go and get seen.”
“I said okay! I’m sure this will pass. Viruses usually last about seven days.”
I helped her out of the car, and we walked hand in hand to the front door of the building. Count met us at the door and directed us to a room.
“Have a seat. I will be back.”
Averie and I chose seats at the table and waited for Count to return. We waited about ten minutes before the door opened again and in walked Roc and Coco. I gave Roc a bro hug then hugged Coco. They both hugged Averie also. I’d spoken to Roc, but it had been a couple weeks since we’d seen each other. Both of our schedules had been hectic. Countee and Laila came into the room.
“I called you all here for this meeting because I have some information about the shooting,” Countee said.
My heart started to race. I sat up in my chair and waited for Count to continue. He pressed a button, and a pixelated picture appeared on the screen behind him.
“What the heck!” I said as soon as I recognized the face on the screen.
“Who is it?” Roc asked.
“Doug Elson,” I answered.
“Who the hell is Doug Elson?” Coco asked.
“Elson served time with me at Pineville. We got into a little altercation because he and his friend liked to jack people for their commissary purchases. I wasn’t going for it, so I knocked him and his friend out. In turn, they put a hit out on me, and a guy stuck me while I was playing basketball in the yard.
I hadn’t thought much of any of them because they were all transferred from the prison before I left the infirmary. I never talked about the altercation, not even to my father. It was the code not to be a snitch.”
“Elson? Are you sure, Countee? Why?” Averie asked.
“Right, why would he want to shoot me? It’s been years since Pineville, and I never saw him again after I was released from prison.”
“Full disclosure, I got the name from Trell. He found out who did it and passed the information to me. One of my friends has some high-tech facial recognition software. It took a minute for us to find a camera angle that showed his face but once we did, it was fairly simple to run it through the software.”
“Trell?” Coco said and looked at Roc.
Obviously, Roc hadn’t mentioned speaking to Trell to Coco.
“What does Trell have to do with any of this?” Coco asked, “Averie did you know Trell was involved in all of this?”
“I don’t even know who Trell is,” Averie said looking at me.
“Princeton Reginald Elkanah you better open your mouth and tell me what the hell is going on right now!”
“She used your full government,” Countee chuckled before both Averie and Coco shot him a look.
“Word on the streets was that Dontrell, who is my mother’s nephew and my former friend, had something to do with El’s shooting,” Roc started.
“You thought your cousin had something to do with your brother being shot? Averie asked, “What in the Days of Our Lives is going on here?”
“Dontrell and Roc had a huge thing that happened some years ago. El will fill you in, but the bottom line is we haven’t heard or seen him in years. Continue,” Coco said.
“Junebug sent word that Trell wanted to meet up, so we met him,” Roc continued.
“When?”
“Right before El’s welcome home party,” Roc answered.
“Are you kidding me? The nigga that held a gun to your head and the nigga that falsely accused you of stealing called and meeting and you went?” Coco fumed.
“We had to get to the bottom of this, Coco,” I added trying to help Roc out.
“Neither one of those niggas is worth a shit. We should have killed them both,” Coco said.
“Murder is bad, Deyshonda,” Averie said.
“It’s only bad when they are human beings. Neither Junebug or Trell are human they are scum.”
“That’s all over now, Coco. We don’t have anything else to say to Trell,” Roc finished.
“If he found the shooter then he is going to think we owe him something!” Coco continued.
“No, he won’t. I told him in no uncertain terms that the information was never requested, so we won’t consider it a favor. Things will remain the way they always were,” Countee explained.
“So, where is this Elson nigga? We need to roll up on him now,” Roc said.
“I haven’t located him yet. I have my best trackers on it. He may have left the city, but it doesn’t matter because he can’t hide from us. We will find him,” Countee answered.
“I want him alive.”
“Alive?” Roc said.
“Yes, alive. If at all possible.”
“I will see what we can do,” Countee responded.
“I am Gloria Dunford, the wife of the slain police officer, Terry Huntington. My husband was shot during a civil disturbance in the inner city. The protest was due to some injustice that the people in that area suffered and are still suffering. My husband was shot by a man in the crowd who was identified and has since died by lethal injection. He wrote me a letter and apologized for killing my husband and tearing my family apart. I chose to forgive him. Mr. Reginald Elkanah is not responsible for my husband’s death. He was there protesting and trying to help his community. Neither I nor my family has ever held any ill will or harbored any ill feelings towards Mr. Elkanah. I would not be opposed to him being released from prison. He deserves the chance to enjoy the rest of his life as a man free from the burden of paying for a crime he did not commit. Thank you.”
Officer Huntington’s wife’s speech on behalf of my father was both accurate and thoughtful. She folded the piece of paper that she read from and stepped away from the small podium.
“Mr. Elkanah, please step forward.”
My father stepped to the front of the table and answered several questions that each board member had. I couldn’t judge how each person responded to his answers because they wore poker faces. I thought his answers were articulate and honest. We had letters from state and US senators, community activists, and JD. Each letter spoke highly of my father and encouraged the board to grant his parole.
“We will take a break to consider your request. Then we will let you know our decision,” one of the board members said.
Roc and I followed my father and the guard into the same small visiting room where we always met.
“What do you think?” my father asked after the guard closed the door.
“It looked promising. With the added recommendation from the warden, I don’t really see how they can refuse. You’ve paid for a crime that you didn’t commit. It’s time to right the wrong and release you.”
“I’ve got you the house all set up and waiting for you, Pop,” Roc said.
“I’m ready to get out of here and live life as a free man again,” my father said.
“It’s going to be good to have you home. We are going to put you in some classes to get you acclimated to life on the outside. You will need to learn all the new technology and be chauffeured around until you get familiar with all the changes the city had gone through since you’ve been in here.”
“Sounds like a plan,” he replied.
“I know who shot me,” I said after we sat quietly for several minutes.
“What? Who?” my father asked.
“Elson.”
“Elson…Elson…Oh, the kid that you had the situation with at Pineville?”
“Yes.”
“Why? That was years ago, and once I found out who hurt you, I got him transferred out.”
“You did that?”
“Yeah. Once I knew you were my son they had to go. It was either that or kill all of them. There was no way they could roam any prison where I was,” my father explained.
“Did they know
you were my father?”
“No, they didn’t even know why they were being transferred. I had enough influence with the warden to make that happen immediately.”
“I never knew that.”
“What good would it have done for you to know?”
“I don’t know,” I shrugged.
I never really thought about why they all had been transferred out of the prison. I was just glad they were gone.
“Where is Elson now?” my father asked.
“We don’t know. We have to find him, but it won’t take long. Countee has his guys on it,” I responded.
“I can’t believe that scum had the nerve to do that. I guess he didn’t learn to keep his hands to himself the first time. The next lesson won’t be so nice,” my father said.
“Elkanah, they are ready to see you again,” the guard announced after opening the door.
“Here we go,” my father said.
Averie
“So, he’s coming home?” I asked Samuel while using my shoulder to hold the phone to my ear.
“Yes. The board unanimously voted for him to be paroled. They will start working on the paperwork, and he will find out in a few days what his release date is.”
“Babe, that is wonderful news! How do you feel?”
“I feel good. Excited about the future.”
“Me too. Let’s celebrate when we get home tonight.”
“We definitely will.”
“Alright, I love you, and I have a meeting in a few minutes.”
“Love you too.”
A few minutes later, my accountant, Freda walked into my office. I stood to greet her. Liddy had informed me that Freda had called for an appointment which was weird because we usually met once a quarter. We were not due for another meeting for several months.
“Hi, Freda. It’s good to see you.”
“You too, Averie. I have something I need to discuss with you.”
“Please have a seat.”
I pointed to one of the white chairs facing my desk. I sat in the chair next to her. She reached into her briefcase and produced several pieces of paper.
“As you know, I came to you when you were forming your business because I wanted to work with you. I value your business, and I watch it like it’s mine even though I have other associates that actually run the numbers,” Freda explained.
“Yes, I know.”
“I saw something weird with your numbers a few months ago, so I had one of my senior accountants run the numbers again. He came back and said that what I saw was incorrect and that everything was fine. Something in my spirit didn’t feel right, so I finally got around to looking at your account again. Averie, you are hemorrhaging money, and someone is covering it up to make it look like you’re not. Money is being moved from your accounts to other untraceable accounts. At this rate, it’s only a matter of time before you will have to declare bankruptcy and liquidate the firm. I initially scheduled the meeting to tell you to stop your spending until I realized that you weren’t the one doing it and something was really wrong.”
I took the paper from her and examined it. She was right, my accounts should have looked a lot different.
“I don’t understand what is happening, Freda. How does someone have access to my accounts?”
“Typically, this could only happen with your accounting firm, so as of last week, I removed all the other accountant's names from your account. I’m the only one who has access to it until I can figure out what is going on. I wanted to tell you because I do not want to lose your business but I understand that you left your money in my care and this is happening.”
“Is it some type of identity theft? You know like when they get your credit card number and make fake cards to drain your account?”
“I don’t know. It’s going to take me some time to get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, if you need anything, please contact me directly. Do not go through anyone, not even my secretary. I can’t trust anyone with this,” Freda explained.
“Is my account the only account that you’ve had this problem with?”
“Yours is the first that I’ve found but I want to call in another firm to do a full audit on my books, discreetly, but I don’t know who to trust.”
“I know someone who can help you. As a matter of fact, I will call him now.”
“I happen to know a brilliant forensic accountant that can assist you. I would need to see if she is available,” Countee said after hearing Freda’s story.
“I don’t understand why someone would do this. I’ve never had any problems like this before.”
“It sounds like you have someone on the inside,” Countee said.
Countee was already in the area and came by when I called him. Countee, Laila, Freda and I were in my office discussing her situation.
“I would hope that is not the case,” Freda smiled flirtatiously.
I wasn’t sure if Countee caught on, but Laila noticed and slightly rolled her eyes. It was subtle, but I saw it.
“It’s not difficult to persuade someone to do something like this. You have to know their weakness. Weaknesses are not hard to figure out,” Countee nonchalantly said while looking through the paperwork Freda gave him.
“What exactly does Chambers Security do?” Freda asked.
“We provide armed and unarmed security services and expertise to private and public clients. We also offer cybersecurity and investigative services,” Countee answered.
“So if I wanted to add security cameras to my office building, you could do that?”
“My company could, yes.”
“Would you be able to provide me with some options?”
“We could set up a consultation,” Countee said.
“I would like that very much,” Freda smiled.
“In the meantime, I will contact the forensic accountant and get back to you. Is this the number to use to contact you?” Countee said while holding up the card Freda handed him earlier.
“For my office, yes but I will give you my personal cell also, just in case,” Freda smiled.
She was laying it on thick. Laila threw one leg over the other and sat back in her chair. She tapped her foot lightly watching the interaction between Countee and Freda. I hadn’t asked Laila about her and Countee’s relationship outside of work. From watching them, I could tell that they were attracted to each other. I didn’t know if the attraction was recent or from the past. I hoped that Laila didn’t feel intimidated by Freda. Freda was pretty with her Hershey bar colored skin and soft features, but Laila was a bombshell. If it came down to it and there was a fight, Laila would definitely kick her ass.
“I will pass this on to my secretary. We will be in contact Ms. Brooks,” Countee said.
“Freda, please,” she corrected.
“I can show you out,” Laila said standing to her feet.
“Okay,” Freda smiled, oblivious to the tension in the room, “Thank you, Averie and sorry about this mess. We will talk soon.”
“Thank you for telling me in person, Freda.”
Laila opened the office door and stood waiting for Freda to join her. They both left the room.
“Count.”
“What’s up?”
“What’s going on with you and Laila? I don’t think Freda knew how close to death she was.”
“Close to death? Why?”
“Because Laila was about to kill her for flirting with you!”
“Lai…please,” He waved his hand dismissing my statement, “Laila has been around me for years. We were in the military together. She’s not checking for me like that.”
“Count, come on. I’ve seen the way you look at her, and I’ve seen the way she looks at you.”
“She’s my family, Vee. Even if I did consider something with her, it wouldn’t work. We know each other too well.”
“I’m no romance expert, but I’ve heard that it’s better when you are with someone you know and love already. You bypass that awkwa
rd stage of getting to know each other.”
“I don’t know,” Countee shook his head, “I don’t want to risk the relationship we already have trying to make it something else.”
“You don’t think it’s worth a shot?”
Laila returned to my office.
“She’s gone but not before she asked me if you were single,” Laila said looking at Countee after returning to my office.
“What did you tell her?” I asked.
“Always has been. Always will be.”
Samuel
I sat in the chair in the corner of the bedroom trying to figure out if I was seeing things correctly but I knew that I was. I sat in the same spot until it had gotten dark and hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights, so the room was only lit by the full moonlight shining through the open curtain. I held the paper in my hand waiting for Averie to come into the room. We talked about being open and honest with each other. Based on this piece of paper, she hadn’t been open and honest at all. I was trying to keep my temper at bay and really trying not to let my mind wander.
“Hey,” she said when she opened the door to the bedroom. “Why are you sitting in the dark?”
She turned on the lights in the room then walked over to me to kiss me. She reached my chair, and I held up the piece of paper. She froze. I tilted my head waiting for her to speak.
“Where did you get that from?” she finally spoke.
“Where did you get it from?” I returned. “When did you get it? Is it yours?”
She looked like she was going to be sick, but I couldn’t concern myself with that. I needed answers. She sat down on the bench at the foot of the bed and faced me.
“Well?”
“I got it from the doctor. About a week ago. I went because I was still feeling sick and I told you I would. So, yes, it’s mine.”
“Vee, you’re pregnant?”
She nodded her head.
“When were you going to tell me?”
She shrugged her shoulders as she looked out the window into the night’s sky.
“I need for you to open your mouth and explain to me what the hell is going on. You are pregnant with my child, correct?”
