Private Deceptions

by Glenn, Roy

  "These are great, Nick!" Jett said, louder than he needed to, as he handed them to me. "Check them out. They’re lightweight, only 550 grams. They are powered by a single 1.5-volt AA alkaline battery. Their design is great for helicopter pilots flying night missions. But you should be able to carry out search operations under low light conditions."

  Time to see if he was right.

  It was a big house. I hopped the fence and walked around the house looking around for any security. "I hope they don’t have no dogs out here." Which was a great time to think of it because I hate dogs.

  I got a few shots of the house. It was surrounded on all sides by trees. The long driveway led to a big garage and more trees behind it. There were six cars in there.

  I walked back to the house surprised that there was nobody patrolling the grounds. The alarm system was nothing fancy. I disabled it and was inside in two minutes.

  "Nice set up. These drug dealers sure know how to live," I said.

  With my night vision goggles on, I walked around the house planting listening devices and taking pictures of the entire house. Timing myself as I moved from room to room, until I reached the master bedroom. I checked the closets. The really big one was hers naturally. I can’t really think of a word to describe her wardrobe, but both expensive and extensive came to mind.

  I put a listening device behind a picture of her and Chilly next to the bed. "What did she see in him?"

  The curtain was opened so I looked out of the bedroom window at the trees over the garage. I bugged the phones before returning to the car and waited. It was one thirty-four when she drove up in a white Porsche.

  I put the goggles back on.

  What was I doing?

  She stopped to open the gate. I watched as she opened the car door and her leg appeared. First one, then the other. Her outfit matched the car. I wondered if she coordinated her outfits with which car she was going to drive.

  After awhile, lights began coming on inside the house. She immediately closed the curtain in the front room. Ten minutes later, the downstairs light went out. I wanted to see her one more time, and then I would go. I got out of the car and went over the fence again, heading for the garage. But I was too slow. The bedroom curtain closed just as I walked up. I turned in time to see headlights stopped at the gate. I ran behind the garage and made my way back to the car. There were now four cars other than hers parked in the driveway. A sound check of each room let me know that there were eight, maybe nine people in the house other than Mrs. Childers. She was still upstairs alone. I sat there for the next ninety minutes listening and trying to place voices with names. Picking up on Chilly was easy. He was the loudest, and did most of the talking. "I don’t think I like him."

  Chilly announced that he was going to bed, and awhile after that most of the people left. I got pictures of each of the players as they came out of the house. The lights stayed on downstairs, but I didn’t hear Chilly’s mouth. I switched to their bedroom.

  "Gee, you sleep?"

  "No. Just watching TV."

  "What you watching?"

  "Forensic Files."

  "That shit again. Forensic Files, The System, Cold Case Files, all that Court TV shit. Why you always watchin’ that shit?"

  "So I can figure out how to kill you. And do you always have to turn on every light in the room?"

  "I gotta see."

  "I know, but why every light? All you need is one."

  "Yeah, well, you’ll be a’ight."

  I heard Mrs. Childers mumble something under her breath. But I couldn’t make it out.

  "I thought you were coming to the club tonight, Gee?"

  "I just didn’t feel like being bothered with all of those people."

  "So where you been?"

  "I went by Chéz."

  "What y’all do?"

  "Nothing."

  "Chésará didn’t have nothing to do on a Friday night? That ain’t possible. What y’all do, Gee?"

  "I told you, we didn’t do anything. We just talked."

  "She’s good at that. ‘Bout all she good for is talk."

  Followed by more mumbling from Mrs. Childers.

  "I want you to do something for me tomorrow."

  "I have plans for tomorrow."

  "Well cancel them. This shit is important."

  "And what I have to do isn’t?"

  "Nope. Just more of your usual bullshit."

  "It’s your usual shit that’s bullshit," she whispered.

  "What you say?"

  "Nothing, Chilly. What do you want me to do?"

  "You just be dressed and ready to go by eleven."

  "Yes, your majesty."

  "That’s right. I’m the King here. Your ass be forgettin’ that shit sometimes."

  There was a long silence. Then, "Stop!"

  "You the one that needs to stop."

  "Stop it, Chilly. I’m tired."

  "Come on, now."

  "No, I said I was tired. — Ouch! — You’re hurting me."

  "Stop fightin’ me. — Come on now."

  "All right, all right. Go ahead."

  There was more silence. Followed by a few minutes of Chilly grunting like an animal. Mrs. Childers made no sound. I imagined her lying under him, eyes closed, wishing it were over. Then, "The least you could do is move, Gee."

  She didn’t answer.

  "Ahhh!"

  I started my car and went home. I was sure now. I don’t like him.

  * * *

  Chapter Three

  Friday, July 10: 7:04 AM

  I called Jett and told him to meet me at Monika’s house so I could tell them about the case. When I got there, I laid it all out for them. I left out the part about me listening while Chilly forced himself on Mrs. Childers. "Come on now, Nick," Monika said. "We ain’t no real private investigators. This is just a cover. What you know about finding somebody anyway?"

  "It’s no different then them skip trace jobs we did," I said, pleading my case.

  "Sounds like fun to me," Jett said. "Besides, Monika, what else do we have to do?"

  "Shut up, gray boy," Monika said, rolling her eyes at Jett. "You got a weird sense of what’s fun." Monika frowned at me. "What are you gonna do now?"

  "I wanna go back to Jake’s apartment and have another shot at his computer. And I could use some help."

  "I’ll go with you, Nick," Jett said, enthusiastically. Which saved me the trouble of having to convince him. "Come on, Monika, it will be a blast. Do something different for a change."

  "Let’s go, Jett. I want to get finished at Jake’s in time to pick up a tail on Chilly around eleven."

  As we started out the door, Monika said, "Y’all wait up."

  "Thought you weren’t interested?" I said smiling at her.

  "I’m not. That don’t mean I’m not part of this team," she said grabbing her bag and joining us at the door. "Somebody has to keep you two fools out of trouble."

  On the way to Jake’s I filled them in on the rest of what happened there the night before. "Any idea who hit you or what they hit you with?" Monika asked.

  "Don’t know who it was, but I’m pretty sure it was the butt of a gun. Heavy caliber, forty five maybe."

  "You know what this Chilly guy carries?" Jett asked.

  "No, but I can find out. I’ll ask Mrs. Childers."

  "You got a picture?" Monika asked.

  "No."

  "You don’t have a picture of the guy you’re looking for? How do you expect to find him?"

  "Oh, him."

  I handed Monika the picture of Jake and Chésará at the party. Both Monika and Jett looked at me like I was crazy. I thought they wanted a picture of Mrs. Childers.

  "Not bad. That the client, Nick?" Jett commented as he dissected the picture with his eyes.

  "No, that’s the client’s sister."

  "What does the client look like?"

  "An older version of her."

  "What’s her name?"

  "Chésa
rá."

  "Wouldn’t mine tailin’ her. If you know what I mean."

  "See, that’s why I’m here," Monika said, as we arrived at Jake’s. "Nick already got his nose up ones ass. Now you dyin’ to get your head up the sister’s ass."

  "Calm down, Monika."

  "This is a serious matter. These people are drug dealers, and if they are involved, they’re not gonna think twice about killin’ you for stickin’ your nose in their business."

  "I was thinkin’ more about stickin’ other parts of my anatomy in her," Jett said, still looking at the picture of Chésará.

  Once we got to the door, I went to work on the lock. "Don’t you have a key?"

  "No, Monika. I don’t have a key." I replied, as I opened the door and went inside.

  "That is breaking and entering. Now we’re about to tamper with evidence in what may be a crime scene. How much she payin’ us?"

  "Ten thousand, to get us started. There’s more if we need it. Money is not an issue."

  "Still, I don’t like the way this is goin’ already."

  "Tell you what, Monika," Jett said, as he prepared to hack into Jake’s files. "If shit gets too thick, we’ll let you blow up the building."

  "Very funny, Jett." She looked around. "This place is cleaner than my house."

  "Yeah, Mrs. Childers said he’s kind of anal like that."

  While Jett worked on the computer, Monika and I searched the apartment again. "I’ll have it in no time, this is pretty simple stuff. Just hack into this password file and — damn! It’s encrypted."

  "Pretty simple stuff," Monika said.

  "Yeah, he’ll have it in no time."

  Monika looked in the bedroom, while I went through his file cabinets and the mail. Ten minutes or so had gone by when I heard Monika say, "Well now, what do we have here?"

  "What you got?"

  "Safe."

  "Where?" I asked, joining her in the bedroom.

  "In the closet under this box. Guess you missed this, huh, Nick?" Monika started digging in her bag for something.

  "What are you looking for?"

  "What do you think I’m lookin’ for? Something to get this safe open."

  "Jett, come open this safe, before she slaps some C-4 on it."

  "Na, C-4 would be too messy for a small safe," Jett said, while he wrote a program to decrypt the file.

  Monika gave us the customary rolling of her eyes and attached a small device to the safe. "Bet I have this safe open before you get the password."

  "You’re on," Jett yelled.

  "Beat ya. Ha, ha."

  "That wasn’t fair."

  "Fair? What you white folks know about fair?" Monika asked.

  They were fun to work with. Although Jett thinks Monika is mean, overbearing at times, and has a tendency to be a pain in the ass. And she holds Jett personally responsible for the sins of the white man; they would do anything for each other. That’s why we’re alive today. On our final mission, Monika fell on approach to the objective. Her ankle was broken and she couldn’t continue. She wanted us to leave her, but Jett refused. While the three of us had a philosophical debate over the need to follow orders and proceed to the objective, the objective blew up. Jett got on the radio and tried in vain to raise any member of our unit. They were all dead. Jett’s loyalty to Monika saved our lives.

  Monika handed me some papers from the safe to go through while she examined the rest of the contents. She opened a box that had a large envelope in it. It contained pictures and three videotapes. "Hey, Nick."

  "Yeah."

  "Who’s that in the picture?" she asked, pointing at the picture next to the bed.

  "I guess that’s his girlfriend, Lisa Ellison."

  "Then who is this?"

  Monika handed me the pictures. "Damn. When Mrs. Childers said he was anal, I didn’t think this is what she was talkin’ about."

  Monika laughed. "Looks pretty anal to me."

  All of the pictures were of Jake having sex with the mystery woman. In an interesting variety of positions. "I’m willin’ to bet these tapes are more of the same."

  "Got it!" Jett yelled.

  I took one of the less intense pictures of Jake and the woman, and joined Jett at the computer. "What’s in those files, Jett?"

  "You did say this guy was a chemist. Formulas, looks like. And each doc. file has a corresponding spreadsheet. I’ll make a copy and show it to a chemist Monika knows."

  "You done, Monika?"

  "Just about. I need to take pictures of some of these papers. They look like formulas too. If we can find out what he was working on, maybe we can find out what happened to him."

  "Very good. Nancy fuckin’ Drew here."

  "Fuck you, Jett."

  "Two things prevent that," Jett said, as we left the apartment and headed for the car. "Good taste, being one of them."

  "What’s the other, Jett?" I asked, expecting another snappy come back.

  "It would be too much like fuckin’ my sister."

  It was eleven thirty when we arrived at the Childers residence. We were late, but so were they. We parked the car down the street to the sound of Chilly yelling. "I ain’t gonna call you no more, Gee! Get your ass down here right now so we can go!"

  "Go without me, then!" Mrs. Childers screamed back.

  "You just get your ass down here, right now."

  "You set this up, Nick?" Jett asked.

  I nodded, trying to hear the argument.

  "Not bad work. A little staticy, but not bad. You set up cameras too?"

  "No, but I got pictures of each room."

  "We need to go over those pictures. It will make it easier to complete the set up."

  "No time now. I gotta follow them. Find out what was so important that she had to go with him."

  "Get your head out her ass, Nick," Monika said. "You go with Jett. I’ll follow the happy couple."

  I started to insist that I had to go, but she was right. The sooner we could go over the pictures, the sooner we’d have the place covered.

  When Mrs. Childers came to open the gate, we got out, and Monika took off behind the Childers. Me and Jett went back to the office to develop the film. "How’d you get in, Nick?"

  "Simple alarm and cheese ball locks."

  For the next hour I went over the set up of the house with Jett. Once he was satisfied with my review of the set up of the house, he prepared to implement his plan to maximize coverage. "Where are you going?" Jett asked.

  "To see Lisa Ellison. Then I thought I’d talk to the sister."

  "Not without me, you’re not."

  "Jett, you heard what Monika said, and she was right. I know these people, some of them I probably know personally. They will kill us for involving ourselves in their business."

  "Come on, Nick. We can handle them."

  "I know you’re a tough guy and all, Jett. But we are out-numbered and out-gunned." The way I left Black. "We need to be a step ahead of them all the way," I said, as I armed myself. I did know these people, and when the guns started coming out, I wasn’t about to be the last one to pull his. "We need to stay on task. So, I’ll go talk to the sister. And you get your head out that woman’s ass and set up the surveillance."

  * * *

  Chapter Four

  "So you and your partner are strung out on these women," Wanda said.

  "I wasn’t strung out on her, Wanda. I thought she was a very attractive woman, but I think strung out is a little strong." Maybe it was, maybe it wasn’t. But one thing was certain; I was very interested in Mrs. Gabrielle Childers. More interested than I’ve been in any other woman in a long time.

  "Okay, Nick, whatever you want to call it."

  "Wanda, I —"

  "Anyway, Nick. You left Jett, and you were on your way to talk to Lisa Ellison."

  "Yeah, but I was thinkin’ that we were gettin’ ready to go up against Chilly and his crew. Other than Mrs. Childers’ feeling, I had no other reason to suspect him. That wasn’t good eno
ugh. If I was gonna play private investigator, it was time I started investigating. I had to consider the possibility that Chilly wasn’t involved. I still thought covering the house was a good idea, just in case he was."

  "That was a good idea. So where did you go after that?"

  "To see the sister."

  "What’s her name?"

  "Chésará Rollins."

  Chésará lived on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. None of that suburb shit for her. When I arrived at her building, a doorman met me. He announced my arrival and asked Miss Rollins permission to send me up. She consented to see me and I was on my way.

  She opened the door wearing a blue silk robe, "Hello, Mr. Simmons." And as near as I could tell, nothing on under it. "So you’re Gee’s private detective. I’ve been expecting you."

  "Can I come in?"

  "Of course. Please make yourself at home."

  "Thank you, Miss Rollins. I’ll try not to take up a lot of your time. I just have a few questions to ask you."

  "I’m all yours," she said, locking her arm in mine and leading me into the living room. She led me to the couch and sat next to me. "Tell me what I can do to help." She looked a lot like her sister. Only her look was soft and playful. Not the hard edge her sister had. Jett would be losin’ his mind right about now. As a matter of fact, I was having a hard time maintaining my composure, and her hand on my thigh wasn’t helping.

  "When was the last time you saw your brother, Miss Rollins?"

  "The week before last. He was on his way to Gee’s house."

  "He come by here often?"

  "Often enough. Maybe once or twice a week."

  "Jake like to travel much?"

  "Jake, no. He never went anywhere. Unless you call goin’ to Jersey traveling."

  "Has he ever been gone this long before without you or your sister hearing from him?"

  "No. Like I said, Jake is over here at least once or twice a week, and he calls just about everyday. I think Gee is right, that bastard she calls a husband had something to do with it."

  "What makes you say that?"