Baltimore Chronicles (10 page)

“You and I both fucking know Anthony is fucking Ashley, and that is the only reason why he assigned this to her incompetent ass,” Tiphani said with passion in her words. She was up in the mayor's face, showing him that she wasn't about to back the fuck down. This was her last chance, and she needed this to work. She had to get on this case, and she would do anything to make it happen.

“But you think threatening me will work in your favor?” Mayor Steele said, trying to act like he would let her reveal their lewd love affair.

“Oh, Mr. Mayor, all you would have to do is try me. Either you have Anthony call me no later than nine o'clock tonight and tell me that by some miraculous act of God I am now assigned to the case, or I will be all over the media tomorrow morning, and your chances at being governor and mayor, for that matter, will be over,” Tiphani said. She turned and began walking away. It was her way of letting the mayor know exactly who the fuck he was dealing with when it came to her. The same way they had trained her to be a shrewd, relentless bitch in the courtroom was the same way she'd turn on them and use it against them. Tiphani was a woman possessed, and she was hell bent on revenge right about now.

“Tiphani, wait!” Mayor Steele called at her back.

She stopped in her tracks, but did not immediately turn around. She waited a few seconds and then heard his footsteps approaching her. Tiphani turned around slowly, her face like a stone statue, hiding the real pain she was in.

“What is it, Mr. Mayor? How is it that I can help you?” she asked sarcastically, her voice cracking slightly.

Mayor Steele swallowed hard. He thought about all the times Tiphani had fucked him with a strap-on dildo and had him live out his fantasy of dressing like a woman during sex. He thought about how it would look in the papers, and what his little stuffy-ass wife would think. The images swarmed in his mind like a mini tornado, whipping his ass into submission.

“Tiphani, don't do this. You and I both know that a judge would never allow you to go on trial against the man you are currently in the process of divorcing. I know you are the best attorney we have, but keeping you off the case gives us our best chance at a conviction,” Mayor Steele said in his smoothest, softest voice. The only thing he needed to do was get on his knees and it would have been outright begging.

“Yes, you're right, I am the best attorney you have, and no judge would allow me on a case with such a conflict of interest. But your best chance of a conviction is with me on the case. I can guarantee that. So, if you don't want the press to run front page stories about how the mayor loves women's clothes and strap-ons, you will find a judge and convince him that there is no conflict of interest and my divorce will not be admissible during trial.” Tiphani knew she had the mayor in the palm of her hand, and she wasn't about to back down. Her life depended on it.

With his final attempt at changing Tiphani's mind failing tremendously, the mayor was backed into a corner: Risk bad press from losing a case, or risk even worse press for being outed as a sexual pervert. He chose the lesser of two evils in his mind.

“You are on the case. Get your shit together and bring your A game. I don't want to hear any excuses,” he said with a worried look on his face. “Oh yeah, and get those divorce papers filed immediately,” he continued, turning and rushing out of the building so fast that Tiphani couldn't even respond.

She smiled. Fuck it. If Derek wanted to play hardball with her, she would play the game. The only difference is she intended to win. Now she would officially be a part of Derek Fuller's downfall.

The Italian restaurant in Bowie, Maryland was Scar's favorite meeting spot. It was far enough away from the prying eyes of Baltimore to make it easy for Scar to conduct business undetected, but close enough that it didn't take up his entire day getting there. The layout was perfect for Scar to be able to see everyone coming and going, and at the same time give him the privacy that he needed.

As he sat with his eyes on the door and his back to the wall, he thought back to the first meeting he had there. Scar had come with his brother after Derek got his promotion to head the Narcotics Unit. From that point on, whenever they needed to exchange information and just catch up, this was the place they met. For obvious reasons, they had to be as low profile as possible. Being seen together would have been bad for business.

Thinking back, Scar couldn't believe all the ups and downs of his relationship with his brother. As he reminisced about the chain of events of their lives, Scar started to tear up a little. They had such a strong bond. They were a team, and nothing could keep them apart, not even the sheisty workers at the orphanage; but now they were so far apart nothing was going to bring them back together.

All because of some bitch,
Scar thought to himself. With that thought, Scar immediately started obsessing over Tiphani. Yeah, he loved to fuck her and she would freak him whenever and wherever he wanted, but there were plenty of fish in the sea. Pussy was easy to come by, but having the brotherly bond that Scar and Derek had was sacred. Maybe if he took care of Tiphani, he could get his relationship with his brother back.

That's it. It's time to put this bitch to sleep,
Scar thought as he started to hatch a plan to take out Tiphani. It would be perfect. Tiphani would be out of the way, Derek would get his kids back, and he and Scar could become the biggest players in all of Baltimore. He would also start planning a way to get Derek to become the next Chief of Police.

Just as scar was daydreaming about his future with his brother, the current police chief walked through the front door of the restaurant. Scar watched as Chief Hill stood and scanned the dining room, looking for the person he was there to meet. Instead of sitting at a table, the chief went to the bathroom.

What is this mu'fucka doing? Did he see me?
Scar thought as he watched the chief enter the bathroom.

Thirty seconds later, Chief Hill exited the bathroom and sat down in the same booth as Scar.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Scar asked Chief Hill.

“Making sure we aren't being watched, and taking a leak,” Chief Hill calmly said as he looked at the menu.

Derek wasn't the only one Scar would meet at the restaurant. Chief Hill was also one of Scar's insiders on the police force, and a frequent guest at the restaurant. They first started doing business together when Scar was just a young buck coming up in the game. Their careers had been linked and on the rise ever since. At first Scar just paid him to stay out of jail, but as his street cred and power grew, the amount of his payouts also grew, and he started asking for favors from the officer.

“What's so important that you needed to see me?” Scar started in immediately.

“Relax. Let me order first,” Chief Hill said as he turned to get the waitress's attention.

“I ain't got time for bullshit. I got a business to run. The fuck is it you want?” Scar asked, his impatience obviously increasing.

Chief Hill just ignored Scar's last comment and called the waitress over. When she arrived, he ordered his meal and tried his best to chat her up. The poor girl just wanted to take his order and leave, but seeing as Scar always tipped her so well, she had to stay and endure Chief Hill's weak-ass game.

“Would you stop embarrassing yaself? Yo game is weak,” Scar said to Chief Hill as he turned to the waitress.

“Thank you, Lita. Just get my corny-ass friend his meal.” With that, Scar handed Lita a twenty for her patience with Chief Hill and she walked away.

“Why do you always have to try and one up me? I was just having some fun. Is it so bad that I find the waitress attractive?” The chief defended himself.

“If you want pussy, go to a strip club. Shit, I own a few. Just let me know and I'll hook you up. Right now is not the time, though. There is some business that needs to be attended to,” Scar said as he tried to move past the chit chat and get down to why he was there.

Chief Hill had reached out to Scar the day after Officer Archie was found strung up in front of Rodriguez's house. Scar knew that Derek was staying there, and he wanted to send a message to his brother. He also wanted the news to get wind of Archie being a dirty cop, so he planted twenty thousand dollars in Archie's pockets.

Scar was well aware of the power of the press, and knew how to manipulate them to his advantage. He was the master at anonymous phone calls to the newspapers, or making sure that TV news crews happened to be in the right place at the right time. He believed the saying that even bad press is good press. It was one thing he learned from studying the Mafia boss John Gotti.

Scar was feeling good that his message was being heard after his disposal of Officer Archie. The papers and TV all covered the story, with little hints about Archie possibly being a dirty cop. Derek's name was dragged into the story as well; although, with his newfound plan of reconciliation, Scar was kind of regretting that aspect of the story. So, when Scar received the urgent message from Chief Hill to meet him at the usual spot, he was not happy. His plan was to kill Archie, set him up, and then lay low for a while. Meeting the Chief of Police for an urgent meeting was not laying low.

“Shit don't seem too urgent the way you actin' right now. If you here to shake me down for some cash, you're sadly mistaken, niggah.” When Scar called Chief Hill “niggah,” you know his anger was about to redline.

“Okay, okay. Let's start over. It is urgent, and we need to discuss the matter of Officer Archie.”

“I heard about that. I had nothing to do with that unfortunate event,” Scar said with a knowing grin spreading across his face.

“I'm not here to ask if you had anything to do with it. I'm here to discuss the calls made by Officer Archie to you and Detective Fuller,” Chief Hill clarified, knowing full well that Scar had everything to do with Archie's murder.

Scar's grin disappeared. He wasn't expecting to hear that. He had no idea what the chief was talking about. “Fuck you mean?” Scar asked.

Chief Hill now knew he had Scar's full attention. It was time to get down to a serious discussion and figure out how much he could trust Scar—if at all.

“I mean that there was a cell phone found at the crime scene. You know, the crime scene you had nothing to do with,” he said sarcastically. “Well, on that cell phone there were two calls placed earlier in the evening. The first was to you; the last was to Detective Fuller. Do you know anything about that?”

The chief looked directly at Scar to see if he could read any of his body language. Scar stayed calm, but you could see in his eyes that his mind was working to sort out the information just given to him.

“So you say. How do I know you ain't lying?” Scar's first instinct was not to trust anyone. He figured this must be some sort of scam to get him to pay up.

“Why would I lie about this? The detectives on the case already know the last call was to Detective Fuller because when I recalled the number, the idiot was standing right there and answered his phone. They are having a harder time tracking your number, but it is only a matter of time before they figure it out.”

“How the fuck he get my number?” Scar said out loud, more to himself than to the chief. “If this is true, so what? It ain't no thang. You just make sure they don't find out it's my number, and we all good,” Scar said, trying to act nonchalant and put a positive spin on a fucked up situation. At the same time, he was basically telling Chief Hill to fix the mess.

“It isn't that simple. There is about to be a huge investigation into Detective Fuller, his unit, and the whole department. The bad press from this has gotten the mayor determined to put someone behind bars. There's an election coming up, and the mayor wants heads to roll. He is not about to lose because he looks soft on crime and his police force is completely corrupt,” Chief Hill said, trying to explain the seriousness of the situation to Scar.

“A'ight, give me some time to figure some shit out. In the meantime, you keep an eye on the detectives and make sure they don't find out it's my number.”

“You don't understand. We don't have time. The investigation is going full steam ahead. Once the mayor heard about the phone call to Detective Fuller and the ten thousand dollars in officer Archie's pocket, he is determined to close this case in a hurry,” the chief stressed, reiterating the dire situation they were about to find themselves in.

“Hold up, hold up. Did you say ten thousand dollars?” Scar asked.

“Yes. Ten thousand dollars in his front pocket. The news is going to go crazy once they find out that a cop was walking around with that amount of cash.”

“There was twenty thousand when we left. You tryin' to tell me that ten thousand just happen to went missing?” Scar said. This time it was his turn to stare and try to figure out body language. He was certain that Chief Hill was not telling the truth and probably stole the money himself.

“It doesn't matter. Ten, twenty, thirty…it's all the same. It was a lot of money for a cop to be holding. The main thing is I'm not about to let any of this somehow be directed back to me, so I need to know why Archie called you, and what kind of business you had with him.” Now Chief Hill was getting visibly agitated.

Their actions were starting to attract a bit of attention, not what either of them wanted or needed. Most people just ignored them, not wanting to get involved in other people's business, but there was one person there who was very interested in what was going on. Scar's shadow was back, and paying full attention to the pair and their reactions. Although not close enough to hear, the shadow was still able to tell by the men's body language that the conversation was not an easy one.

After following Scar to the restaurant, the shadow was surprised, pleased, and intrigued by the fact that Chief Hill was there to meet with Scar. If only there was a way to be able to hear what they were saying. The shadow contemplated trying to get closer, but thought it best to stay away and not risk being spotted.

“We had no business. The only time I spoke to that niggah was when I was telling him to say his prayers before he was about to meet his maker. You best not be trying to pin anything on me. We're in this together,” Scar said, letting Chief Hill know that if he went down, they both did.

“I know that we are in this together. I'm just saying don't try and fuck with me. We need to stick together. The investigation is moving forward, and Detective Fuller is about to go down. I just need to know what kind of business dealings you had with Officer Archie. I don't want any surprises coming at me during this investigation. The more I know, the easier it will be for me to steer the investigation.”

“Away from you. You didn't finish the last sentence. Steer the investigation away from you. That's what you meant to say. You need to make sure you aren't involved. I hear what you're saying. You came here to warn me. Well, let me tell you something. However I go, you go. Got it?” Scar warned.

“That's not what I meant. I came here to make sure we are on the same page. I am going to personally get involved with this case, and I need to know everything you know,” Chief Hill said, trying to defuse the escalating argument.

“I've told you everything I know, which is nothing. Somehow you stole ten grand from me, and that pig Archie somehow had my number in his phone. That about sums it up. Let's agree to stay away from each other for a while.” With that, Scar stood, preparing to leave.

“Agreed. One last bit of information: I wouldn't trust that bitch D.A. you been fuckin'. Word is the mayor had a little sit down with her, and now she is on the warpath to clear her name. Watch your back,” Chief Hill warned as he turned to the food that was just arriving at the table. “Won't you stay and eat with me?” he asked Scar sarcastically.

Scar was furious. Not only did he now have the chief to worry about, but he needed to keep his eye on Tiphani. To make matters even worse, his brother's head was now on the chopping block, and he didn't know if he could trust his own henchmen. If the chief was telling the truth, Scar didn't know who he could trust. He was becoming a solitary man, alone on an island, with no one to trust. Scar now knew that he needed to look out for himself and that his fantasy of reconciling with his brother was already not going to happen. The way it was starting to look to Scar, he was going to have to start playing everyone to make sure that he came out on top.

“Seems you already do most things solo. Eating alone won't hurt you,” Scar said and walked straight out of the restaurant.

The shadow was dying to know what was said between the two men, but could only guess. Maybe with a little more time and trailing Scar, the answer would reveal itself. But for now, the shadow would just have to sit back and stay out of sight, orchestrating the downfall of Scar Johnson and Detective Fuller.