Reckoning

by Shakir Rashaan

  “Terri, I wasn’t sure if there was any other trauma that was suffered. She was pretty bruised when we received her before we transferred her to your area.” Kim helped Terri work through her flustered recount, leading her in the right direction until her emotions were better controlled.

  “Yes. There was also some bruising around her vaginal area; we had a rape kit done in case she passed away during the surgery to relieve the pressure from the swelling.”

  The more Terri explained the situation, the angrier I became. I did my best to maintain my temper as much as I could, but I think Sharpe noticed my distress and cut her off to keep her from unwittingly poking a savage beast. “Thank you, Terri. Now, if you could point us to the room where Ms. Ashton is, we’d greatly appreciate it.”

  Her eyes widened when Sharpe mentioned her name, getting excitable all over again. It was the exact reason I didn’t want to mention her name; her face was unmistakable in certain celebrity circles. She fanned herself, almost like she was validated in her thoughts. “Oh, my God, I knew it was her! I remember seeing her at a benefit a couple of weeks ago. I need to call her father; he must be worried sick. I didn’t want to call because I wasn’t sure, but he needs to know.”

  Sharpe and I looked at each other, coming to the same conclusion, despite the fact that it could cause a little more stress to the situation. He approached her so she could be the only one within earshot of what he was about to say. “Terri, we would really like to be the ones to tell Mr. and Mrs. Ashton; the person who did this to her could still be on the loose and could come back to finish the job. We want to have a chance to catch them before it gets that far. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

  From the horrified look on her face, she’d have thought her life was being threatened. She nodded, still unable to speak for a few moments before she finally found her voice. “Yes, officer, I understand. I don’t want any more harm to come to her. I hope you find the person who did this to her. They need to be thrown under the jail.”

  We arrived at the room, careful not to disturb the other patients as we entered. As we approached the bed where she lay, I was overcome with a sense of relief that she had been found safe, though she wasn’t completely out of the woods in her recovery from whatever the hell happened to her. I needed this positive spin; it did as much for my psyche as anything else could have. Sometimes you want to have the feeling that you’re actually winning for a change, and that you’re not always having to be on the other end of a condolence visit to the victim’s family.

  Sharpe must have been thinking the same thing; he dropped his hand on my shoulder to get my attention and shake me from the thoughts in my head. “Feels good to actually find one alive, doesn’t it?”

  “Stop reading my mind, bruh.”

  “Dude, you should know by now that we all still go through the struggle. Just because you’re living the good life in the private sector doesn’t mean you’re still immune to it.” Sharpe gazed down at Kendyl, shaking his head as he blinked away whatever crossed his mind in that moment. “I’m hopeful that we can figure this thing out, Law. For her sake, and our sanity.”

  “Speaking of sanity; any ideas of what you think might have happened to her?”

  Sharpe continued to mull over the question I posed; the silence was deafening to say the least. After a few more moments, he decided to drop his theory and go from there. “Without the rape kit to see if there was actual trauma, I can’t rule out that this was done by someone she knows intimately. I’m not convinced that sirius committed the actual crime, but I have a bad feeling he knows who did it and he’s protecting that person by taking the fall for it.”

  “So, it sounds like we need to lean on him to figure out who he is connected to and figure out the connection to the victim.” I was convinced we needed to leave the room; opining out loud like this with other ears listening in was not good. Thankfully, neither of us had mentioned her name while we were talking. “If we can get a solid connection, this could wrap things up quite nicely.”

  I hoped we would be able to wrap things up without making any more of a mess than we’d already found to begin with. At least the visit we were about to make wouldn’t be as difficult as we originally anticipated. I believed they would be very relieved to know their daughter was alive, but there was no actual way to know how they would react once we told them.

  There was only one way to find out.

  “Oh, thank God! We were worried sick!”

  The Ashtons were Civil Rights Era stalwarts, their names being mentioned in the same breath as the names of King, Abernathy, Lowery, and the like. They were, quite literally, royalty in this city, so to be able to deliver good news to them after all the strife and hardships they’d had to endure over the course of their lives was a feel-good moment for the both of us.

  Mrs. Ashton was able to compose herself after tears of joy and relief flooded her face, while her husband, in true old-school reserve, managed to allow a smile to escape, a tell-tale sign that we had done well by him and his family. We were simply in awe of him to begin with; it gave us a renewed vigor to try and close this case in as little time as possible.

  “You say she’s at Emory University Hospital, detectives?” Mr. Ashton asked. He got a nod from Sharpe, nodding in return before he spoke again. “I don’t know if I can ever thank you enough for letting us know our daughter is safe. Do you have any leads on who might have done this to her?”

  “Well, that’s where we were hoping you would be able to help us with, sir.” I took the lead this time, leaving Sharpe to speak with Mrs. Ashton so we could compare notes once we left the house. “Do you have any idea who would want to harm your daughter? A man of your stature, and your reputation, I would shudder to think anyone would want to launch any sort of reprisal from all the work you’ve done over the years.”

  “Well, son, that’s the reason why we kept both of our daughters out of the spotlight.” He led me into the study, where I couldn’t not notice the pictures he had on the walls of him with various leaders, regardless of ethnicity, telling a tale that, if he chose to have a memoir written or if he chose to write it himself, would be a best-seller in lightning-quick time. “Kendyl and Serena are our only two children, but they are free spirits; especially Kendyl. She always seemed to go against the grain at every possible moment, especially when she did that stint in California when she was doing some acting. She reminds me so much of her mother in that sense; Serena’s mother was a polar opposite, always reserved, never really wanted to rock the boat, and she was willing to leave me to the spotlight and the criticism.”

  Wait a minute, did he just say his current wife?

  I wanted to stand and head around the corner to where Sharpe and Mrs. Ashton were to get an idea of what he was referring to. Serena and Kendyl favored each other so strongly that it never occurred to me to think that they weren’t born from the same couple.

  At that moment, Serena walked through the door. She flinched when she saw me, which threw me off for a moment, but then it dawned on me that she probably had no idea of the latest developments.

  Her father beamed, walking toward his daughter with his arms outstretched. “These fine detectives found your sister! Isn’t that wonderful?!”

  Serena smiled wide, tears falling from her eyes as she embraced her father. “Oh, God, that’s wonderful! Where is she? Is she okay? I want to go see her now!”

  “Slow down, baby, as soon as we’re done talking with the detectives, we’ll go and see about her.” Mr. Ashton caressed his daughter’s face, trying to harness her excitement and keep his own under control at the same time. He directed his attention to me, realizing that he’d almost forgotten I was there. “Forgive me, detective, I neglected to answer your question before Serena came in.”

  A quick glance at Serena gave me an odd vibe. She was ecstatic that her sister had been found, and maybe I was reading into it a little more than I should, but she was a bit too eager to see her sister, almo
st to the point to where she wanted to bolt out of the house. My paranoia was kicking in, suspecting everyone in the interests of closing the case faster. Once I realized what I was doing, I did my best to quell those urges and keep to the matter at hand. “Sir, honestly, there’s no need to speak about those issues right now. The important thing is that you know where you can go and see your daughter and find out if her condition has improved.”

  “You’re right, detective. Daddy, can we go now, please?” She sounded so girly, so teenager-girly that I was convinced it was more of a spoiled brat trying to get her way rather than my original assessment. Considering the financial status of the family, it wouldn’t be too far off. She gave me another look, almost dismissive, like I’d done my job and now I could go on about my business. “Thank you, detective, I’m thrilled that things came to such a positive conclusion.”

  “Well, Ms. Ashton, I’m afraid that’s not entirely accurate, but again, we can discuss that after you’ve reunited with your sister, okay?” I didn’t want to tip my hand too much, but I had to let her know that nothing was over and done. Maybe her obligations to me to find her sister might have been, but there was still an assault and attempted murder to solve.

  The short and intense glances we gave each other were lost on Mr. Ashton. I didn’t expect him to understand the connection between us; all that mattered was that his youngest daughter was safe and sound, which should have been his solitary focus. Still, I had to wonder why she wanted to treat me like I’d grown a third eye and was no longer welcomed in her family’s world.

  “We are at your disposal, detective.” Mr. Ashton walked to where his wife and Sharpe were talking with his daughter tucked under his arm. “I look forward to a resolution to this case also. Janice, we’re going to see Kendyl; the detectives have told me where she’s being cared for.”

  Mrs. Ashton nodded, quietly patting Sharpe’s hand as she rose to her feet. “Thank you so much for the talk, Detective Sharpe, I really needed the distraction. I’m hopeful that the persons are brought to justice.”

  Sharpe was confused over why we were leaving so soon, but one look at Serena under Mr. Ashton’s arm, and he was able to figure it out quickly. From the looks of things, he was able to get more out of her than I was out of her husband. He rose from his seat, extending his hand to Mrs. Ashton and placing his free hand on top of hers as a polite, friendly gesture. “Thank you so much for your time and conversation. We will hopefully have some good news for you in the very near future.”

  Once we were safely inside his car, we headed down the road, on the way back to the precinct before we went our separate ways to handle other cases. Sharpe’s face was a bit contorted; he looked like whatever Mrs. Ashton told him, it was going to make things more complicated.

  “Okay, what did you find out? I can tell something’s up.”

  “Did you know Mrs. Ashton is the second Mrs. Ashton?”

  “What? So, he was telling the truth about that. Hell, she’s been around so long that I thought she was his only wife.”

  “Yeah, she married him when Serena was four years old after Serena’s mother passed away. Kendyl is the second Mrs. Ashton’s daughter, and Serena is her stepdaughter.”

  I stopped my thought process for a moment after hearing that information. I wasn’t sure how I wanted to process it; the way she absolutely insisted that they go and see about her sister, it felt like genuine concern. But I also recognized that blended families could be a tough thing to grow up in. This wasn’t like the Brady Bunch from back in the day; sometimes it worked, sometimes it went horribly wrong.

  Sharpe kept up his intelligence dump. “Come to find out, Kendyl and Serena were fiercely competitive growing up. Serena might have been the trendsetter, but Kendyl managed to one-up her every time, up to and including when they were in college. When Kendyl graduated and headed to Cali for modeling and acting gigs, Serena took it personally, thinking she was the better-looking of the two. Do you think there might be some animosity there?”

  Hearing that piece of information had me wondering whether the scope of my focus was in the wrong place, but it didn’t make sense to me. Serena was the one who came to me trying to find her sister, and there’s nothing that would have suggested that there was any bad blood between them, either.

  “One thing is for certain, Serena hasn’t done anything that would give us the inclination that she would have had anything to do with what happened to her sister. Whatever animosity they might have had, you didn’t see the way she reacted when she found out her sister was alive.”

  “Yeah, you have a point there, but we might need to keep that on the back burner, just in case there is anything that we might have missed. You called it with the hunch on Kendyl even being alive; who knows what else we might be overlooking at the current moment?”

  Sharpe was right, but I didn’t want to think about it too much. The way I figured it, if I took my mind off by focusing on the other case, I would be able to come back to this one with fresher eyes and, hopefully, a way to close this thing out and be done with it. What I needed to do was get something to eat and decompress a bit; the burnout was real.

  FIFTEEN

  “You look like you need a drink, partner.”

  Man, he wasn’t kidding! Having this case go from a missing person’s case to a potential homicide case to an assault case in a matter of a day was worth me taking a couple of shots in the middle of the afternoon. Sure, it wasn’t the best idea on the planet, but I needed to have something to settle the clutter in my mind.

  I was convinced that Kraven still had something to do with her disappearance, and the minute I placed my focus back on that case, I was going to make sure that was the case. He’d been too damned smug and cavalier about it; the other things he got away with in those other cities might have had something to do with it.

  Fuck that! I was going to nail him to the wall!

  I headed over to the bar, grabbing one of the Scotch bottles and a few ice cubes, pouring a shot and downing it before it was over the ice cubes more than a few seconds. Ramesses sat there, observing my actions to figure out the best way to approach the conversation. “From the looks of you inhaling the good shit, I take it things took an unexpected turn.”

  “Kraven met me at the precinct, acting like he was a concerned party to the assault.”

  “I thought it was a murder case?”

  “Yeah, until the person that supposedly confessed to the crime changed his story in the middle of the interrogation and said he thought she was dead, and told us where to find her.” I still had to wrap my mind around that concept. My skeptical brain tried to figure out whether it was money or sex that motivated him to take the hit. “She’s in an induced coma at Emory University Hospital now, and we’re hoping she’ll wake up and at least give us an idea of who did this to her.”

  “Well, hopefully you will get the chance to find that out before she does wake up. The last thing we want is for this to drag out too long. Can you imagine the craziness that would ensue if they found out about her?”

  Ramesses heard his office phone ringing as we were catching up. His face showed concern as it looked like he couldn’t recognize the number. With Taliah gone to a late lunch with Ayanna, the phones transferred in to the offices for us to take them directly. He debated answering it, but decided to go ahead and find out who the unknown caller might be, putting it on speaker so we could both listen in on the call.

  Big mistake. “Kane Alexander, how may I assist you?”

  “You can start by getting your business partner off the heaven investigation.” The voice on the phone was distorted, a dead giveaway that he or she was using a voice changer. “I don’t think it would be in your best interest for you to pursue this any further.”

  Ramesses wasn’t amused, but he never dealt with anything unprepared. The skip tracing software was already activated, as it normally was whenever he took a call. Still, the call was a nuisance, and I could see the irritation rising
to the surface. “And what would you know about my best interest, huh? I’m pretty sure that you know who you’re dealing with, yes?”

  “Yes, we know who we’re dealing with: a rookie investigator and his over-the-hill, washed-up partner.” The person continued to talk, the ego moment getting the best of him the entire time. “Right now, I don’t think you’re in a position to really say too much more, seeing as we can cancel you any time we want to, should the occasion call for it.”

  I’d already triangulated the area where the call was coming from, and I made sure to keep the signal live once this idiot got off the phone so we could find out exactly where he was, wherever he decided to go. Did I forget to mention that my partner was a techie, with all the latest gadgets at our disposal?

  I motioned for Ramesses to keep him talking, if for nothing else but on general principle, so I could get a stronger lock on the burner that he’d planned to throw away. From where the signal was located, it was an easy mark as to where they would go once they were off the phone. I hated predictable losers who thought they got the drop on people; it never worked out for them.

  I guess this one was going to find out the hard way.

  “Okay, let me guess…if I don’t have my partner get off the case, what will you do again?”

  “Mr. Alexander, you’re not taking this seriously. I’d suggest you do; the last thing we’d want to do is soil those pretty bitches of yours. Or maybe we’ll see about your Beloved; isn’t that what you call her, right? Maybe then you might understand the seriousness of the situation, huh?”