The Reign of Rain Robinson

by Roy Glenn

  “Too busy to worry about little old me,” Jada said and smiled. “What about Detective Wallace?”

  “I’m not going to go into any detail, and this is the matter that needs to be set in motion.”

  “I understand.”

  “But Detective Wallace is going to have more important issues to deal with on the morning of trial and will be unavailable to testify.”

  “Convenient.”

  “That just leaves the women that were arrested,” Patrick said.

  “Jenna Bobbit, Jadonna Marrin, Moriah Watts and Sheneka Solis.”

  “Each of them gladly accepted our generous buyout and relocation program.”

  “Yes, I know. Jenna and Sheneka are in Nassau with me, where are the other two?”

  “Moriah Watts went back home to New Orleans and Jadonna Marrin is in Boston. I will verify each one’s location before we go back to court.”

  “Sounds like you covered all the bases as usual, Mr. Freeman,” Jada said. “So unless you have something else for us to discuss,” Jada stood up. “I’ll be on my way.”

  Patrick stood up. “I will be in touch as information becomes available, Ms. West,” he said and escorted Jada out.

  When Jada got to the lobby with Mr. Nesmith, she smiled when she saw Chanté approaching.

  “This certainly is a surprise,” Jada said with her arms held out to hug her.

  “How are you, Jada?”

  “Wonderful. What about you, Chanté?” Jada looked at her. “I can tell by the way you’re dressed, that you’re not playing some drug dealer’s gun moll.”

  “No, I’m actually working as a detective, getting assigned a partner, gonna start working cases,” Chanté said.

  “Really, what brought that on?”

  “It was just time for a change,” Chanté said and looked over at Nesmith. “How you doing, Nesmith?”

  “Fine, Ms. Chanté,” he said and continued scanning the lobby for potential threats.

  “How did you know I was here?”

  “I paid a guy to let me know when you go see your lawyer,” Chanté said.

  Jada hugged her again. “It’s good to see you, Chanté.”

  “Have you got a few minutes to talk?” Chanté asked.

  “I have an appointment that I must keep,” Jada said, but she was a little more than curious about what Chanté needed to speak about privately, but definitely had an idea she'd find out soon enough. “So if you don’t mind riding with me, we can talk on the way.”

  “Let’s go,” Chanté said.

  Once again, Jada looped her arm in Nesmith’s, and he escorted the ladies out of the building to the limousine that was idling outside.

  “This you?” Chanté asked as they approached. “What am I saying, of course this is you,” she said as the driver opened the door for the ladies.

  Once they were in her limousine and Jada told the driver where to go, she turned to Chanté with a smile. She was quite sure that Chanté didn’t pay somebody just because she wanted to chitchat and catch up.

  “So,” Jada crossed her leg and placed her hands on her knee. “To what do I owe the visit?”

  “As you noticed, I’m not working undercover anymore, and I’ve been transferred to Lieutenant Sanchez’s narcotics unit.”

  “Is that a good move for you?” Jada asked, but was still curious about the need to speak privately about something they’d discussed publicly.

  “I guess. But what I wanted to tell you is that it’s the unit that Detectives Kirkland and Batista work out of.”

  “I see,” Jada said. That information may be useful at some point, but wasn’t worth a special trip, so there must be more to it and she’d get to it soon.

  “I couldn’t hear everything they were saying, but I overheard Bautista tell Kirk that she’s going after Rain Robinson and that she had an informant inside her organization,” Chanté said and now she had Jada’s undivided attention.

  Chapter Fifteen

  As expected, newly minted Captain, Ed Weather had been having issues with some of his people since being made Captain of Sherman’s crew. That afternoon, he was with his wife, Delicia. After her unwitting involvement in the plot to kill Mike Black and Bobby Ray and blamed him for it and her subsequent infidelity with Jessica Maximus, Ed broke up with her. But seriously, Delicia’s infidelity was the least of his worries.

  With the exception of his right-hand man, King Shabazz who was executed for his loyalty to Ed Weather, his entire crew; JoJo Royal, Terry Hines, Tony Scott, Kurtis Baxter and his cousin, Warwick Barrington had all fallen in with Lyric Skye. Fortunately for Ed, he was in Atlantic City with his other woman, Sidney Zavala while Black, Rain and Nick were hunting down and killing his traitorous crew. Had it not been for his reputation as a standup guy, Black would have surely killed him on sight.

  His reputation, coupled with his determination to restore his good name and put things in order made Sherman believe that Ed Weather was the only choice to succeed him as Captain. Being the well-respected Sherman’s handpicked successor and having Black, Bobby and Rain’s support should have been enough for Ed to have a smooth transition to the Captain’s seat, but that was not to be.

  Believing that his lack of involvement with Lyric Skye and his years of loyal service to Sherman and The Family should have made him the choice to be made Captain, Darius Wilkerson was pushing back against Ed’s rule.

  He and some other people in Sherman’s old crew believed that since it was Ed’s people that were involved with Lyric Skye, that he didn’t deserve to get bumped up to the big chair. Wilkerson was set to accept it for now, and wait for his opportunity and if one didn’t occur, he’d create it. In the meantime, he would gather support for the day when he would make his move.

  Once he was made Captain and realized that he was surrounded by his enemies, Ed knew that there was only one woman that he could trust and that was Delicia. She had been with him from the beginning and she had always had his back. Even though they were separated and involved with other people, whenever Ed needed something done, he knew that he could always count on Delicia to get it done for him.

  Sidney Zavala was fine as hell and the pussy was all that, but he could get good pussy anywhere. What he needed now was Delicia, needed her criminal mind and he needed her at his back, now more than ever.

  “Please believe me when I say that a day hasn’t gone by when I haven’t thought about you, Delicia.”

  “That’s sweet of you to say, Ed Baby, but that’s what you’re supposed to say. But it’s still nice to hear.” Delicia laughed. “Even though you just dropped me, I hoped all that young pussy hadn’t made you forget about everything. That all those years we were together meant as much to you as it did me.”

  “Why you think I’m being so apologetic? I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  “I never stopped loving you.”

  “Really, Ed? Come on, really?”

  “Really.” and he meant it. Ed had fallen in love with Delicia on the day he first saw her. And despite his need to fuck every other woman with a fat ass and big titties, he loved his wife.

  Delicia started to go down the list of women that she knew or had on good authority that Ed Weather was fucking, but then she remembered that wasn’t what she was there for. She was there to reconcile their broken relationship. Besides, bringing up all his dirt would only make Ed bring up that she’d had her share of man or that she was practically living with Jessica Maximus.

  “Believe me when I say, I haven’t been with another woman since I had you in my arms.”

  Delicia laughed. “Bullshit.”

  “Yeah, you’re right, that is bullshit.”

  “I didn’t just meet you, Ed Weather,” Delicia reached between his legs and grabbed a handful of dick. “You like using this anaconda right here too much for that.” And she was hoping that this conversation would end with him shoving that anaconda down her throat.

  “I’ve been with women, Delic
ia, you know that, but none of them compare to you.”

  “That’s nice of you to say, Ed Baby.”

  “They weren’t you, Delicia. You’re the standard that all women had to live up to and none of them ever came close.”

  “Not even that whore, Sidney Zavala?” Delicia asked.

  She couldn’t resist grabbing the low hanging fruit. She knew that they were trying to play nice and get back together, but truth was Ed had busted Delicia’s heart with his open affair with that bitch long before the thing with Bobby ever came up. So even though she loved Ed with all her heart, Delicia needed to hear him disavow that bitch.

  “No, Delicia, especially not Sidney. She was just something to do. She’s not you, never could be you,” Ed said.

  “Is that why you got me meeting you at some fish joint, instead of taking me someplace nice?”

  Ed Weather had set up shop at Paradise Fish and Chicken, mostly because he liked the food. By then, he had heard about the hits at J.R.’s and Conversations and that Carter and Rain got hit at what they thought was a safe house. Ed had been in this game long enough to know that whoever the bandits were, they had hit Rain first and now they were going after her Captain’s, so Ed had beefed up his security.

  There was one man outside Paradise Fish and Chicken wearing a uniform. He was from the security company and his job was to open the door for customers and act as a deterrent to robbery. Ed also had three of his men inside the restaurant in case shit got wild.

  Now that Ed Weather had explained to her why they were meeting there, Delicia was good with it and now she had questions.

  “What do you think is going on, Ed Baby?”

  “I don’t know, and I can’t hear anything from anybody about what’s going on or what we gonna do,” Ed said and that worried him. Just then, one of the employees came out from the back of the restaurant.

  “Phone for you, Ed,” he shouted and went back in the back.

  “I’ll be right back,” he told Delicia, stood up and went to the back to take the call. He wondered who would be calling him on the store phone, but he had a good idea.

  “Hello.”

  “Hello, Ed,” Sidney said.

  “What’s up, Sidney?”

  “Wondering when I’m going to see you?”

  “I’ll call you later.”

  “You promise?”

  “Yeah, I promise.”

  “I know that you’re up there with Delicia.”

  “And?”

  “And I want you to know that I understand you’re doing what you have to do. It just hurts.”

  “I know and I’m sorry, Sidney. I’ll get with you later and will talk about it,” Ed said even though it was the last thing he wanted to do.

  Fuck her, yes. Talk to her about her feelings, not so much.

  “You promise?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re not just saying that to get me off the phone so you can get back to your precious Delicia, are you?”

  “No, Sidney,” Ed said even though he was trying to do just that. “But I do gotta go. There’s a lot going on right now that I gotta deal with, so I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Ed …”

  “What?”

  “I love you.”

  “I know,” Ed said and ended the call.

  Outside of Paradise Fish and Chicken, a black Jeep Grand Cherokee double-parked and two men wearing masks got out carrying automatic weapons. When the security guard saw the men approaching, not being armed, he ran for his life just as they opened up.

  At the first shattering of glass, everybody inside dove for the ground, trying to find cover as the onslaught of bullets continued. Then, just as quickly as it began, it was over. The two masked gunmen returned to their vehicle and drove off.

  When the shooting stopped, the two women that were working the counter stood up, overjoyed to be alive and unharmed.

  When Ed Weather came running out of the back, gun in hand, he was not prepared for what he saw. All of his men, several customers and Delicia were all dead.

  Since several civilians were killed and injured in the shooting, emergency vehicles were at Paradise Fish and Chicken and the police were investigating. Ed Weather was grief stricken over the death of his wife. But despite that, Ed briefly thought about Sidney Zavala and what Delicia’s death meant for them, especially since he was done with Sidney before all this happened, but then he felt bad for thinking it.

  When Bautista heard about it on the radio, she convinced Kirk that they should drop by and they showed up there. After speaking with the officer on the scene, Bautista saw Ed Weather coming out of the back and she went to try to talk to him.

  “Ed Weather,” Bautista said as she approached. “What the fuck,” she said with her arms out. “Who did you guy’s piss off?”

  Ed shook his head because Bautista’s annoying ass was the last thing he needed right now.

  “Detectives. What can I do for you?”

  “Everything and nothing, seems like. You have any idea who hit you today?” Bautista asked.

  “No, detective, I’m sorry, but I don’t.”

  “A lot of dead civilians, Ed,” Kirk said.

  “I know. One of the dead was my wife, Delicia.”

  “Oh,” Kirk said and put his hand on Ed’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Ed. I mean that. Sorry for your loss.”

  “Thanks, Kirk.”

  “So who do you think did this?” Bautista pressed forward. “What’s really going on?”

  Ed Weather looked at her. He didn’t have time for her shit, but since he really didn’t know what was really going on, Ed went back to being grief stricken.

  “I understand that you gotta do this, but my wife is dead,” he looked at Kirk. “So can we do this another time,” Ed Weather said and dabbed his eye.

  “Come on, detective,” Kirk said and pulled Bautista away. “Give the guy a break,” he said as they walked away. “The guy just lost his wife, for Christ sake.”

  Once Kirk and Bautista were gone, Ed Weather dropped the grief stricken act. “Somebody needs to tell me what the fuck is going on.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  While Max and Dan watched videos of naked women dancing and then masturbating − you know, for research purposes − Carmen returned to her office to do some research of her own. Once she noticed that the videos ended with the words, a CTI production, in small print. Which explains why neither Dan, nor the usually detail observant Max missed it.

  He never misses anything, Carmen thought. But I guess there was other details to observe, so she couldn’t be too mad at him.

  Carmen sat down at her desk, got on her computer, and googled CTI. She found that CTI was a video production company, operating across numerous media channels and categories including film, creative advertising, music, social media, journalism, and reality TV to create projects that connect with audiences intellectually and emotionally. They professed to create dynamic motion pictures for some of the world’s most admired companies.

  That made Carmen laugh. “Since when did the world’s most admired companies start producing porn videos?”

  Enough of that bullshit, Carmen thought as she clicked on contact us. What she found was that CTI only had a PO Box at a UPS store. Once she found the address to the store, Carmen grabbed her stuff and headed for the studio. When she got there, Carmen wasn’t surprised to find that Dan and Max were still in there watching videos.

  “I don’t mean to interrupt you boys,” Carmen laughed. “But I’m going to check out a real lead on CTI,” she stuck her head in long enough to say.

  “What lead?”

  “I have an address for a UPS store on West 86th street where CTI has a PO Box. I’m going to check it out.”

  “Okay, Carmen,” Dan said without looking away from the screen. “Keep me posted.”

  “I will,” Carmen said and then she left.

  Dan looked at Max. “What are you waiting for? Go with her,” he said and clicked on
another video. Max gave Dan a dirty look and rushed out to catch up with Carmen.

  “I see you decided to join me,” Carmen said as Max caught up with her.

  “Dan didn’t give me a choice,” Max said, and they got in his car. “So, where to?”

  “UPS store on West 86th.”

  “I’m kinda surprised that Dan didn’t stop you … what am I saying … I’m surprised that he didn’t try to stop you from going,” Max said as he drove.

  “I was too. Especially since everybody,” she glanced at Max, “including you, wants me to back off and go to Paris.”

  “Well, maybe you should consider taking their advice, Carmen. Like I said two people are dead, and you could be too. But I know that you’re not gonna back off, so fuck it, we’re on our way to check out CTI’s P. O. box.”

  “Thanks, Max.”

  “For what?”

  “For always having my back, no matter how stupid or dangerous it might be. You’re always right here for me and I appreciate it,” Carmen said sincerely.

  “Sometimes it’s both,” Max said.

  “What’s both?”

  “Sometimes it’s both dangerous and stupid.”

  “I know,” Carmen dropped her head.

  “But ain’t that what life’s all about, danger and excitement?” Max laughed. “What’s the point of living if you can’t feel alive?”

  “True.”

  “I remember the days when we were stuck doing restaurant review pieces. Major boring shit.”

  “For real.”

  “So, if you insist on being out here playing Batgirl, I guess I got to have your back.” Max paused. “Wait a minute; does Batgirl even have a sidekick?”

  “Batgirl was Batman’s sidekick.”

  “I don’t think you can do Batman,” Max said. “You’re just not built for it,” he said as they arrived at their destination.

  They went in the store and Carmen introduced herself as Carmen Taylor with Channel Four News, to which the excited employee replied, “Oh … My … God. It’s really you. I can’t believe it, the famous Carmen Taylor, the world’s most beautiful woman, in my store,” he said and came from behind the counter.