Hustle & Heartache

by D. Gamblez

  We all filed out of the room slowly, not really wanting to leave Lyrical alone with Sergeant Mills. I glanced back at the last second and noticed that Lyrical had a wide-eyed expression on her face and she was staring at Sergeant Mills as if she had just met the Grim Reaper himself.

  What the fuck’s wrong with Lyrical? She know the cops ain’t got shit on us or else we’d all be in cuffs right now, so why the fuck she so scared all of a sudden? Sumthin’ ain’t right.

  “Yo, fam...”Raheem whispered after we were back in the waiting room. “You peep the look on Lyrical’s face when that cop chick showed up? I think she know that bitch or sumthin’.”

  “That’s who the fuck she is!”Devonte exclaimed. “I knew I seen that bitch before. She the one who shot and killed that one kid who popped up the police station some years back. I think she got popped, too, though. I think three other ma’fuckas or some shit got popped, too.”

  “Yeah, I remember her from the news after all that stuff went down,” Cherish said, nodding slowly.

  “We gotta do sumthin’, ya’ll,” Coco said, panicking. “She probably tryin’ to catch Lyrical up or some shit. Ya’ll know Lyrical on that morphine and shit.”

  “Fuck this shit, fam!”Raheem said, frustrated at our indecisiveness. I was about to call him back to keep him from doing something rash or stupid or both when Sergeant Mills came running through the lobby with a cellphone in her hand. We all watched as she nearly ran through the double-doors and hopped in her Crown Vic, burning rubber as she hightailed it out of the parking lot.

  “Fuck’s her problem?”Devonte said.

  “Don’t know and don’t give a shit,” Coco said as she took off in the direction of Lyrical’s room. We all followed behind her moments later.

  When we got to Lyrical’s room, her entire demeanor had changed. She was distant and irritable. I’m not sure what Sergeant Mills said to her, but I had a strange feeling that it had nothing to do with the shooting at the club.

  “I just want everybody to leave me alone right now, a’ight?” Lyrical said. “I’ll holla at ya’ll later.”

  I was about to drill her for information on what was ailing her, but then the doctor came in and made us all leave. “Family members only. Visiting hours for non-family members starts at 9:00am,” he had stated flatly. So we left. But I wasn’t deterred one bit, I was gonna find out what was going on with Lyrical, just not today.

  Some weird shit’s goin’ on with Lyrical and this cop bitch. But you bet’s believe I’ma find out. Whatever that cop bitch said or did to you, Lyrical, trust me, I’ma find out. Fuck with my crew, you fuck with me. Simple as that.

  Naomi

  I ran as fast as my legs could take me, nearly stumbling as I pushed past the crowd of onlookers and patrolmen. In addition to the tenants who had been evacuated from the condominium and the crowd of nosy onlookers, at least ten squad cars and two ambulances littered the grounds.

  The Death Dealers had struck again, but this time it was personal. This time, they had hit my home. At least that is what I gathered from Winona’s text message she sent me.

  “Sergeant Naomi Mills of the Gary Police Department. Homicide Unit. I live here,” I spoke hoarsely to the middle-aged Merrillville patrolman who was blocking the entrance to keep people out.

  “Sergeant,” I heard someone say. I turned to see a burly white guy with thinning gray hair, and a gut that I guessed came from lack of exercise, excessive eating of foods high in fat, and frequent visits to the local bar. He stuck out his hand for me to shake it, but I ignored it. He let his arm drop to his side and looked me up and down. “Detective Howard Platt of the Merrillville Police Department. Can’t let you inside right now.”

  “You have to let me inside,” I pleaded. “My daughter’s in there.”

  “I’m sorry, Officer Mills, but I can’t allow you to”—”

  “It’s Sergeant Mills,” I snapped. “Fuck this shit! Move out of my goddamn way!” I shoved the officer blocking the door to the side and grabbed the door handle.

  “Naomi!” I heard the sound of Winona’s voice shouting from somewhere in the distance. I searched the crowd for her face, but it was nearly impossible to spot her as there were too many blue and red lights twirling about obscuring my vision.

  “Over here!” she shouted again, but this time I caught the direction of her voice. She was sitting on the back of an ambulance with a paramedic on either side of her.

  I rushed over to her and was about to inquire about my daughter when I spotted M’kayla asleep on one of the gurneys located in the back of the ambulance. She had her Looney Tunes blanket wrapped tightly around her and her Bugs Bunny plush doll in her arms.

  I was about to wake her so that I could make sure she was not hurt in any way when Winona put a hand on my arm, shaking her head sadly.

  “It’s bad, Naomi,” she said. “I was asleep when I heard someone knocking at my door, and when I opened it, M’kayla was standing there with her Bugs Bunny and her blanket. Before I could ask her what was wrong, she ran into my apartment and climbed in my bed, crying and refusing to come from underneath the covers.”

  She paused because she could see that I was already on the verge of losing my mind, eyes wide with worry.

  “Just tell me, Winona,” a said almost too low for her to hear.

  She took a deep breath and continued. “Not knowing why she was at my door at 3:00 in the morning, I called your home phone to see what was going on, but no one answered. Then I tried your cell, but after the fourth ring went unanswered, I went up to your apartment and found...”

  “What did you find, Winona?” I asked calmly. On the outside, I held my composure like the lawwoman that I am, but on the inside I was panicking beyond control...like the mother that I am.

  “The whole apartment looked like a tornado tore through it. It was total chaos everywhere. Fearing the worst, I ran to your room to see if you were all right. That’s when I found her.”

  “Found who?” I asked. At first, I had no clue as to who she could have found in my apartment at that time of night, but then I remembered why someone actually would be at my place that time of night: my babysitter. “Samantha? Winona, are you talking about Samantha? Winona, please tell me Samantha’s okay.”

  She just stared up at me, her eyes sad and terrified.

  “What happened to her?” I asked lowly, already fearing what I might hear.

  “She was on her back...tied to your bed...a gag in her mouth...her face bashed in and... and blood...blood everywhere. So much blood.”

  “Oh, my God,” I said, my breath catching.

  “I wanted to bolt right then, but I didn’t know if she was still alive or not. I mean, I wouldn’t want someone to leave me like that if I was still alive. So I got closer to the bed, but I could tell right away from the dead stare in her eyes that she was... But then I saw the gag move, and I figured she was alive, but when I removed the gag−for her to get air and maybe tell me who did that to her, I mean, you know−a big furry ball crawled out and lunged at me. It was a rat. A fucking rat, Naomi! Jumped right out of her mouth. I ran out or there like I was on fire, but as I was almost out of the apartment, two guys in ski masks came barging through the door and grabbed me.”

  “What?” I asked. The word came out like a scream with all my surprise behind it.

  “Naomi, I tried to get away, but I was only able to manage some minor kicking and screaming. Either they were high as hell on something or they must frequent the gym quite a bit. I’m talking maybe two, three times a day because they were way too fucking strong. One of them put a knife under my chin and asked me where the tape was.”

  If she did not have my attention in the beginning, she definitely had it now. “You say they asked about a tape?”

  “Yeah, a tape. Hell, I didn’t know what this asshole was talking about, but I sure as shit wasn’t gonna say that I didn’t. I figured they were gonna slit my damn throat if I told them the truth, so I lied instead. To
ld them I had it hidden in my apartment, is what I said. So the one guy, the one with the knife, he grabbed me by my hair and shoved me out into the hall. I didn’t know what the hell I was gonna do, so I started walking slower than a freaking snail. But the guy shoved me again, but way harder this time, so hard that I tripped over my own feet and fell to the floor. I knew it was over then, so that’s when I decided that I was gonna fight back.”

  “What did you do?”

  “Well, I was planning to shove the guy that kept shoving me, and the other one, the one with the knife, I was gonna kick him right in the balls after. Kick him as hard as I can, is what I was gonna do. Then I was gonna haul ass out of there.”

  “Is that how you got away?”

  “No, not exactly. I mean, yeah, I got away, but not right then, I didn’t. Anyway, I shoved the one guy, like I said I was going to, but when I was about to turn and kick the guy with the knife in the nuts, that old guy−you know, the creepy guy that lives down the hall from you? The one with the brown-and-white Shi-Tzu?”

  “Mr. Milton?” I asked after I recollected. If it was Mr. Milton, Walter J. Milton, Winona was not exaggerating; he was creepy as hell. I would always catch him staring at me. At least, I was convinced he was staring at me because his eyes were so creepy they seemed to be following me.

  “Yeah, him, Mr. Milton. Anyways, so as I’m about to turn and kick this asshole in the nuts, right? Mr. Milton comes out to see what all the commotion is about, and that’s when I did kick the guy in the nuts and took off like my entire body was covered in fire ants. That’s how I got all these bruises; I was running so fast that I tripped and fell down the stairs. I knew I was I dead woman if these guys caught me, but when I looked up, the two of them were gone. Relieved that I’d gotten away, but still weary that they might come back, I got up and ran to my apartment and called the police. Then I sent you that text.”

  “I’m so sorry, Winona,” I suddenly cried, hugging her tightly.

  “What the fuck is going on, Naomi?” she struggled, her body racking with sobs.”I can’t stay here anymore. Not after tonight. Not after what I saw. Who does something like that to a 15-year-old girl? There’s nothing in the world that she could’ve done that would bring that kind of brutality down on her. And what about M’kayla? What if she saw all of that? She could be traumatized for life. Hell, I already feel like I am. And I still don’t know how the hell she got out of there without them seeing her. What the fuck is going on, Naomi? Is this the kind of shit that comes with your job now?”

  “Mommy...”My daughter’s voice called out for me as she woke and rubbed her eyes.

  “Oh, baby,” I sobbed, pulling her into my arms. “I’m so sorry, baby. You’re safe now, okay? Mommy’s here.”

  “Mommy...”M’kayla started crying uncontrollably. I knew then that she had seen the entire thing, probably was made to watch it by the killers. A message to me.

  “Is everybody alright?”a gruff voice asked. I turned and saw Lieutenant Hensley standing there with a smug look on his face. To me...all I saw was the devil himself.

  And that is when I lost it.

  Balling up my fist, clenching it until my knuckles were white-hot, I walked right up to Hensley and hit him with every ounce of strength in my body, sending a spray of blood onto the tarmac and possibly breaking his nose. Then I spat in his face.

  Blood dripping from his nose, he looked up at me and smiled.

  “Naomi!”the stern sound of my father’s voice bellowed loudly not a second later. I turned and saw him, the chief-of-police, glowering as he walked over to me. “Get your daughter someplace safe, even if that means away from you. And I want to see you in my office first thing this morning.”

  “But, Daddy, you don’t understand,” I argued. “There’s a tape”—”

  “Not another word,” my father stated firmly before he turned and stomped off.

  I looked at Hensley, and he just raised an eyebrow as if to say “Told you so.”

  Smug motherfucker! I know you’re behind this somehow. I’ll get you. I promise...for me and my daughter. And for Samantha. And every one of the people you’ve ever wronged in your miserable fucking life. I’ll get you, you smug sonofabitch. Just you wait.

  I put my daughter in the car and convinced Winona to go with me. Then I peeled out of the carport to get as far away from Hensley as I possibly could.

  Just you wait.

  I left my daughter with Winona at a motel until I could find someplace more suitable and stable for the three of us. Taking my best friend and daughter to my mother’s house was not an option as she and I were not on speaking terms. She had run out on us when I was only 12 years old, and I have not yet found a way to forgive her for it.

  For some reason, I suspect it was because I chose to live with my father over living with her and the man she left us for, she hated me. I mean, she was the one who left, right, so why was she mad at me for staying in the home I had been born in, the home I was still being brought up in?

  Parents did some pretty fucked up things nowadays, but I was not going to be one of them. I would find a way to give me and my daughter a better life, a happy life. I just had to figure what that way was.

  As I pulled into the GPD parking lot at 6:15 later that morning, I spotted my six-man team waiting for me. Vida, Royce, Oliver, Shonda, Miracle, and JJ, all leaning against JJ’s midnight-blue Dodge Ram, looking as though they were gearing up for a photo shoot to promote a new series about bad-ass cops taking on no-good criminals committing no-good crimes, but looking sexy and cool while doing it.

  In truth, they were all there to support me for whatever was about to go down with me and my father.

  I will admit, I was a little nervous about what my father was going to say to me in the meeting as it was comprised of only him, Foster, Hensley and myself, but when I saw the confidence my team was exuding at that moment, I was more than ready to face the music, whatever genre it turned out to be.

  With the sun slowly rising behind them, and the occasional gust of wind whipping at their clothes, my team looked more like movies stars than they did detectives. “Seriously, guys? The trick is to look like six bad-ass don’t-fuck-with-us detectives, but you guys look like freaking supermodels right now,” I teased.

  “More like sexy, badass ass-kicking models,” Vida smiled.

  “Real talk, my badass model bitch.” Miracle dabbed Vida. “We the shit, huh, JJ?”

  “I don’t know about being the shit.” JJ turned up his nose as if he smelled something foul. “Shit tends to stink.”

  “Thank you for that image, playboy,” Shonda said as she playfully punched JJ in the arm.

  “Guys!” Oliver chided them then looked over to me, his eyes serious. “What’s the plan, Sarge?”he sighed.

  “On the books, do what you usually do. Off the books, we’re still going after the Death Dealers. As far as I’m concerned, nothing’s changed. Hell, if anything, we’re putting boots to the ground and stomping harder than ever. My father may suspend me for a week or two for striking a superior officer, but that’s not stopping us from taking that smug sonofabitch Hensley down. Not only did he trespass on my life when he broke into my apartment, no doubt destroyed my babysitter’s life, and possibly traumatized my daughter and my best friend in the process, but after he didn’t find the tape at my place, he also either broke into my office himself or he had one of his flunkies do it. Me being stupid to leave the damn tape in my office in the top drawer, now he does have the tape; the only real piece of evidence we had that could’ve tied him to the Death Dealers. But regardless of all that, no matter what it takes, that motherfucker’s going down, one way or another. Believe it.”

  My team nodded their agreement. They were truly the best group of people I had ever known, and I would’ve died for any one of them. To me, that was what the true definition of loyalty meant.

  “I know we have to do our jobs, but regardless if she saw anything or not, I really hope she pulls throu
gh,” Oliver said of my babysitter Samantha.

  “Royce and I are gonna head over to the condos for a couple of follow-up questions to see if anybody heard or saw anything other than what was reported last night,” Shonda said.

  “Yeah, you never know, sometimes people remember the oddest things at the oddest times of day,” Royce added as he and Shonda hopped in her unmarked squad car−Chevy Impala SS−and exited the parking lot.

  “I’m gonna roll with Oliver,” Miracle said. “Maybe when Samantha wakes up she’ll have some info on who broke into your spot, and if she does, I wanna be one of the first to hear. Of all the cases I’ve worked, this one goes straight to the heart. We’ll keep you posted, huh?”

  “I hear you, Miracle,” I said. I knew why Miracle was taking this personal; she was the one who had recommended Samantha to me for a babysitting position.

  “How’re you holding up?” Vida asked a couple minutes later as we entered the police station. “I know you haven’t slept yet. I know I wouldn’t have.”

  “I won’t lie, I’m barely keeping it together,” I admitted. “But I’ll be much better when we get the Death Dealers off our streets.”

  “Hey, did you really break Hensley’s nose?”

  “No, but it damn sure wasn’t from lack of trying,” I answered with a hint of a smile. “Still...it felt pretty damn good to knock that smug look off his face, even if only briefly.”

  “Man, I wish I’d have been there for that! Hell, I probably would’ve gotten me a few in, too.”

  “Vida, if you were the one who hit him, you’d have definitely broken his nose, possibly more than that.”

  “Ha! Yeah, true that, boss,” Vida said, holding out her hand for me to dab it.

  “What the hell is that?” I asked. “True that? What kind of teenage lingo is that? And, what, you’re dabbing now, too?”

  “What? Hey, I’m hip,” she said.

  “You just turned 27 a couple months ago. But whatever, I guess.” I smiled, shaking my head as I headed in the direction of Hensley’s office.