The Cost of Vengeance

by Glenn, Roy

  “And your captain let you work alone?”

  “Nah, he tried to stick me with some broad that just got her shield and I told him that I was thinking about taking all of the six months of vacation I got accumulated, and he changed his mind.”

  “Sounds like gender bias to me, Kirk,” Sanchez said and shook his finger at me as we approached the first of the three bodies.

  “Not gender bias, Gene; I don’t have the patience to train no wet-behind-the-ears chick that just got her shield. I’m still training Richards and we’ve been partners for six years.”

  “What she look like?”

  “Oh, she’s hot. And I hear she was a good cop on the street,” I said and knelt down next to the body. “I just ain’t the guy to get her feet wet with.”

  “If you want my opinion, and I notice that you haven’t asked for it, I think you’re the perfect guy to bust her cherry. You’re a good cop, Kirk, and a better detective then most of the guys in that unit.”

  I looked at the body and got up. “That’s the same line of shit the captain ran on me. But you see she ain’t here, right?”

  “You’re a piece of work this morning,” Sanchez said and laughed.

  “It’s early and I haven’t had my coffee yet.” I looked at the other two bodies. “Any ID on this one?” I asked as we walked to the next body.

  “Nope. Not on that one either,” Sanchez said as I took a look at the second body and moved on to the third. “Only one with any ID is her.”

  I looked at her laying there dead, with the gun still in her hand, and shook my head. “Who was she?”

  “Driver’s license says she’s Kenyatta Damson. Got a couple of arrests a few years back for possession with intent. Been off the grind for a while though.”

  I looked at Sanchez. “You guys didn’t know about this spot?”

  “No, I’m ashamed to say. And from what I’ve gotten from the few that have said something, she controlled the building.”

  I looked at the crowd. “Anybody see what happened?”

  “Are you kidding?”

  “Uni’s canvas the building yet?”

  “In progress. They’re going door-to-door, but so far nobody is talking.”

  “Evidence techs done with the scene?”

  “They’re finished. They saved the bodies for you.”

  “Okay, let’s get them outta here,” I said, and they tagged and bagged the bodies. Once they were gone, I looked at the crowd again and walked over to three uniforms that weren’t doing anything. “Come with me.”

  “Yes, sir,” they said and followed me back to the crowd.

  I walked slowly along the tape line. “Get him,” I said, and one of the officers went and got him.

  “What you fuckin’ wit’ me for? I ain’t do shit,” he protested.

  I picked out two more and told the officers to keep them separated, and I would talk to them the later. “Okay folks!” I shouted. “Anybody who lives here can go back inside,” I said and the rest of the officers went about dispersing the crowd. As the building residences made there way back to the building, I looked them over carefully. I saw an older man shaking his head as he walked, and then he made eye contact with me. I caught up with him.

  “Excuse me, sir. Did you see what happened here tonight?” I asked as we walked.

  “No, sir, I didn’t see nothing,” he said louder than he needed to. Then he whispered. “Two thirteen.” And kept walking.

  I let the rest walk by and get in the building before I moved. Just as I was about to go up to apartment 213 to hear what the man had to say, an officer rushed up to us. “Excuse me, detectives, but we found another body,” he said excitedly.

  “Where?” Sanchez asked.

  “In a vacant apartment on the third floor.”

  “Call the techs back and tell them we got another one, Gene.” Sanchez pulled out his radio and got them to turn around, as we followed the officer to the third floor.

  “Who found the body?” I asked along the way, then up the stairs.

  “I did,” the officer said. “We were going door-to-door and that one wasn’t completely shut. I gave it a little shove and shined my light in there. Body is in the living room.”

  “Anybody go in there?” Sanchez asked.

  “No, sir. I left my partner to watch the door and I came to find you.”

  “Good man,” Sanchez said and I shook my head. He might as well have patted the kid on the head and gave him a treat.

  “See if you can get an ETA on the evidence techs,” I said as we got closer to the apartment. I borrowed the kid’s flashlight and shined it in the apartment. “Another woman, Gene,” I said and Sanchez looked in.

  “You think this one is connected with the others?” he asked.

  “Hard to say.”

  “Lieutenant Reyes says he’s on his way up now,” the officer said, and we waited outside the apartment so the crime scene wouldn’t be distributed.

  I waited until Reyes’s team got finished doing their job, before Sanchez and I went in. “What you got, Reyes?”

  “Black female; shot once in the head at point blank range. Judging from the angle of the entry wound, either the shooter was very tall, or the victim was on her knees,” Reyes said.

  “Executed,” Sanchez said. “I guess that answers our question about whether they’re related,” he said.

  “Maybe,” I said.

  “Maybe, but not necessarily, lieutenant,” Reyes said. “And I’m going purely on the state of rigor in the body. I’d say this one was shot a good seven hours before the ones outside. But give me some time and I’ll have a timeline for you; though she was definitely shot first.”

  “Thanks, Reyes,” I said and left the apartment to let them bag and tag her.

  I went downstairs and knocked on the door of apartment 213. When the door opened, the man hurried us in and scanned the hall to see if anybody had seen us come in. He quickly closed the door and locked it. I looked around the room and noticed the chair sitting next to the window. I motioned for Sanchez and he walked over to the window and looked out. “I’m Detective Kirkland,” I began.

  “I don’t need to know all that. I know y’all the cops.”

  I laughed a little. “Okay, sir, just tell us what you saw?”

  “The killers; they rolled up in a black van, jumped out, and started shooting.”

  “You were sitting here by the window when it happened?” Sanchez asked.

  “I was watching television.”

  “You always up this late?” I asked.

  “I don’t get in from work ’til three. I always watch a little TV before I go to bed. I had been here about an hour when they come. Kenyatta and them other two, shot back, and the rest of them scattered.”

  “You know what it was about?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

  “What’s it always about, officer: drugs. That girl and her thugs been regulatin’ this buildin’ for years. People coming and goin’, buying they dope all hours of the day and night.”

  “How long have they been setup here?” Sanchez needed to know since this spot wasn’t on his radar.

  “Shit, about two, maybe three years,” he said. “Now y’all got to go. You been in here just long enough for me to tell you I ain’t see nothing.” He started walking toward the door.

  “Okay, sir, we’re going; but did you get a look at any of the shooters, or can you tell me what kind of van it was?”

  “They was Black and so was the van, and that’s all I could see from here. Now y’all got to go,” he said and opened the door. Once we were out in the hall he stuck his head out. “Like I told you outside, officer, I ain’t see nothing,” he said loudly and slammed the door.

  Sanchez and I walked away from apartment 213 in silence, and went down the steps. There were still the three guys from the crowd that I picked out, to talk to. I chose the three of them because, unlike most of the crowd who looked like they had just grabbed something to w
ear to run out and see the show, these three were dressed like they had been out all night doing business. They looked like dope boyz—pure and simple. Some call it profiling; I call it my job.

  When I got outside, they had the three of them in separate cars. Sanchez and I got in the car on either side, with the first one. “You wanna tell me what happened out here tonight?”

  “No.”

  “Look, we can do this anyway you want; but you are going to tell me what happened.”

  “No I ain’t. I got the right to remain silent,” he said with a smug look on his face like he had the world by the tail.

  “That’s only if you were under arrest, which you’re not. Right now, I have all the rights. And I got the right to kick your fuckin’ ass, and then I’ll arrest you for resisting arrest,” I said.

  “Yeah, but you ain’t gonna do that, ’cause I’ll sue your ass for police brutally.”

  “You were injured while resisting arrest; wasn’t he lieutenant?”

  “That’s how my report will read,” Sanchez said.

  “Or maybe I’ll just shoot you in the back and say you were trying to escape.”

  “You just tryin’ ta’ scare me.”

  “Look, I know you were with them when the shooting started.”

  “Who told you that?”

  “I did,” Sanchez said. “We had you, asshole, under surveillance for months. We know all about Kenyatta Damson and the whole crew of you. You take a good picture.”

  “What I get if I tell you what you wanna know?”

  “I already told you: you get to get out of this car alive and with no broken bones,” I said.

  “All right. I don’t know who them niggas was, but they rolled up on us and just started shooting. Blade was out front; he got cut down ’fore he got his gun out. Kenyatta and Fraz shot back but they were outgunned. Them niggas was bustin’ with AKs or some heavy shit like that.”

  “And the rest of you ran for cover,” Sanchez said and got out of the car.

  “I took—yeah, we just ran,” he said and dropped his head before he admitted that he was involved in the shooting.

  “Thanks,” I said and got out of the car. We ran the same game on the other two and they told us the same story. I had the officers take them in, book them for loitering, and then let them go. At least we would have their prints and mug shots.

  After Sanchez and I left the crime scene, he rode with me while I grabbed something to eat and some coffee, and then we headed back to the precinct. I wanted to get a look at the file he had on Kenyatta Damson and he not only wanted, but needed, to find out how this woman was running an operation like she was, and nobody in his unit knew anything about it. He didn’t say it, but I knew he had to be thinking that someone in his unit might be dirty.

  While Sanchez wandered around the unit chewin’ ass, I dug into her file. Under the circumstances, I wasn’t expecting to find much. When Sanchez got done with his tirade, he came back in his office, sat down in front of me, and took a deep breath. “Was it good for you?”

  “It was better for me than it was for them,” Sanchez said and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. “What about you; you find anything?”

  “Nothing current. You got any idea who was supplying this woman?” When Sanchez didn’t answer, I figured he didn’t. “What about Lorenzo Copeland; says he’s a known associate. Got anything current on him?”

  Sanchez looked at me and then he looked out in the unit. He stood up. “Come on, Kirk, let’s go get some coffee.”

  “Got some,” I said and held up my cup.

  “Coffee’s better across the street. Come on,” Sanchez said and walked out of the office.

  Now I’m a little slow sometimes, but it was obvious that he wanted to talk, and not in there. So I tossed my coffee in trash and followed him.

  Sanchez walked across the street to the deli and went in. Since he wasn’t talking, I saw no point in going in with him. “I take mine black.” I leaned against a car and waited for him to come out.

  “So, what are we talking about?” I asked when he handed me the cup.

  “Lorenzo Copeland.”

  “What about him?”

  “Lorenzo Copeland is serving a life sentence for murder.”

  “Okay,” I said and waited for the other shoe to drop.

  “He murdered Officer Mike McDill,” Sanchez said and leaned on the car next to me.

  “He was one of your guys, wasn’t he?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, Gene, spill it.”

  “What I’m about to tell you goes no further.”

  “It’s just me, you, and the car.”

  “About six months before it happened, McDill and his partner, Brown, busted a dealer named Bryce Tyler, one of Copeland’s people, for possession. He gives up everybody and we start building a case against Copeland. We get a warrant to search his apartment on Tyler’s word that Copeland is holding big weight. The dope was right where he said it would be, and they go to arrest Copeland and another character, whose name escapes me for the moment. The way I get it is that McDill hit Copeland in the face, and Copeland swung back. Brown pulls out his club and hits Copeland in the shin and he drops to his knees. Then both of them start hittin’ Copeland with their clubs and kickin’ him. Copeland grabbed McDill’s gun and shot him. Then Brown pulls his gun and shoots Copeland. The bullet hit him in the arm and he dropped the gun. When I got in there it was a free for all, my guys were kickin’ and hittin’ him with them clubs until I yelled, ‘That’s enough!’ after that, Copeland blacked out.”

  “What happened, Gene?”

  “We closed ranks.”

  “The Blue wall.”

  “McDill had a wife and three kids. So everybody’s statement left out the part about McDill hitting Copeland; and him and Brown beating him before he shot McDill,” Sanchez said and dropped his head.

  “What about the other guy?”

  “He was one of the star witnesses for the prosecution. He didn’t want any part of the murder charge, so he rolled on Lorenzo and did it quick. When he got on the stand he told the same story: Copeland grabbed McDill’s gun and killed him.”

  “What’s happened to him and Tyler?”

  “Tyler had a deal; so he testified in the murder trial against Copeland, and now he’s in witness protection. The other guy, I think his name was Chris Beck, he copped to possession and got five years.”

  “DA must have wanted Copeland bad for them to give Tyler witness protection.”

  “Copeland comes from a long line of drug dealers. His uncles, cousins—all dealers. DA thought if he could flip Copeland that he could get his suppliers.”

  “Fuckin’ DA.”

  “What can I say; it was an election year.”

  “Anything else you wanna tell me?”

  “On my sainted mother, that’s the whole story,” Sanchez said and crossed himself.

  “Okay, but that doesn’t explain why you guys don’t have anything on this woman?”

  “No, Kirk, it doesn’t. But I got some ideas about that.”

  “Like what?” I had to ask.

  “Give me a couple of days and ask me that again,” Sanchez said and sipped his coffee.

  Just then I got a text from Reyes saying that he had ID’s on this morning’s victims. “That was Reyes,” I said and started walking back across the street toward the building.

  “Mind if I tag along?” Sanchez said and I stopped.

  “I hate to ask this, Gene, we go back a long way, but I gotta. What’s your interest here?”

  “Let’s get out of the street,” Sanchez said and I had to agree. When we were back on the sidewalk, Sanchez stopped and faced me. “I know you’re thinking, just like I am, that the only way for this to be going on is for somebody blue to be taking green. This is my house, my guys; I need to get on top of it.”

  “This is the part I don’t like. You’re not here to cover this up, are you?”

  “I know you go
tta ask, but a cop’s family getting his pension is one thing, covering for dirty cops is something else.”

  “Good enough for me. Let’s go,” I said and went into the building.

  “Right behind—partner.”

  When we talked to Reyes and he gave us the names and rap sheets of the other three bodies. Robert King and Bernard “Blade” Bradshaw both had long records for possession and firearms violations, but the one that bothered me was the woman that was found in the vacant apartment. Her name was Shantia Lewis. All we had on her was a shoplifting charge and that was eight years old. We got her last known address from the DMV and headed over there.

  What we found when we got there was police tape. “See if you can find out what happened here,” I said to Sanchez and got out of the car. I went under the tape and walked toward the house. As I got closer, I could see the chalk outline and the bloodstain on the pavement.

  When I got back in the car, Sanchez had the rundown. “Her name was LeSean Wooden. Her and Lewis were roommates. Witnesses say that after they heard the shots, they saw three people lead Lewis away at gunpoint, and drive off in an old Chevy Nova.”

  “She got a record?”

  “Bad checks,” Sanchez said.

  “So what do we have? We got two women: one gets dropped here and the other is taken by three people to the drug house, and they kill her there. A few hours later, three people, and I’m thinking that we’re talking about the same three people, get dropped at the drug house.”

  “They take Lewis there; question her. She does or doesn’t tell them what they want to know and they kill her. Their people come after them, and in retaliation, they kill Damson, King, and Bradshaw.”

  “I’m willing to go along with the first part: Damson and her people kill Wooden and kidnap and kill Lewis, but there’s more to it. What was this about? And who are our shooters?”

  “We don’t have a lot to go on.”

  I started the car and drove off. “Maybe I’m trying to read too much into this.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I mean this could be the same as every other day, dope dealers fighting for turf, bullshit.”

  “If what the old man says is true, that’s been a good spot for them for years.”

  “I need to know who was supplying Damson, and who would want to take over that spot,” I said and headed for the station to dig a little deeper.