Introduction To Hard 2 Da Kore (Hard2daKore Book 1) (24 page)

“Nooo silly I’m looking for Detective Johnson, do you know him?” I answered. “That depends, is it business or pleasure? He asked?” Reggie always had a little bit of jerk in him. I can see why Jackie dumped him. I shot him a dirty look and never answered his question. I guess he got the hint. “Straight down the hall. He answered. “Hey, and tell Jackie I asked about her ok?” He asked. “Ok, sure will and thanks. Good seeing you again Reggie.” Yeah, right. I thought to myself we’ll laugh about your simple ass tonight. It’s been ten years since she dumped you. Get over it bud. I approached a young lady sitting at a desk typing. “Can I help you miss?” She asked.

“No thank you, I see who I’m looking for.” I said as I walked over to Detective Johnson’s desk. He was more attractive than I realized. “Excuse me, Detective Johnson?” I said “Yes.” He stated without ever looking up. “I brought you some lunch.” I said in a sexy voice. “Oh, Ms. Truesdale, how can I help you?” He asked, seeming somewhat startled. “You can call me Tracy.” I said. “Well, then you can call me Devon, please have a seat.” He said earnestly. I thanked him and then sat in the chair across from him. “I know that you are a busy man so I don’t want to waste too much of your time, but I wondering if you had any leads on my boyfriend’s Sadique’s death yet?” “Yes, Sadique Parr?” He asked as he stared sadly at me. “How are you doing Ms. Trues, I’m sorry Tracy? How have you been holding up?” He asked sincerely.

“I’m making it. Some good news from you might cheer me up a little though. Do you have anything yet?” I asked. “The ballistics test should be back in the morning.” He answered. His tone became quite impersonal. “I also have a couple of question I need answered if you don’t mind?” He said. “Ok, that’s why I’m here.” I said. “We know Mr. Parr was last seen with a perp we’ve been watching for months. We think he may have knowledge of the crime, but we don’t want to bring him in for questioning yet without any substantial evidence. He’s kind of a major player and we don’t want to bring him in and rattle any bigger fish.” He said.

“Why wouldn’t you and what makes you think there are other players or bigger fish?” I asked. “Ms. Truesdale, I’m sorry, Tracy I really can’t go into any details right now.” He explained. “O.k, give me a name? Maybe it would ring a bell.” I asked him. “Tracy, now you know I can’t do that either. Especially to you, you’re a reporter if you didn’t know.” He chuckled. “You need let us handle this matter before you wind up getting yourself in trouble. From the information that we have from our informants and our officers under cover these are very dangerous people. Now I shouldn’t even be sharing this type of information with you, but we suspect that Sadique took some drugs and money that didn’t belong to him, and someone wanted their stuff back. This is completely off the record too Tracy.

“Ok, off the record. You can’t be serious?” I asked. “What makes you think its drug related?” I added, knowing that it was but I can’t let him know that I know. “We’re almost positive it had something to do with drugs.”Det. Johnson gave me a look of skepticism, as if I had to know about Sadique’s drug dealing. “Tracy, how well would you say you knew Sadique? Did you ever question how he made a living?” Det Johnson was beginning to work my nerves. I just spent the last couple of days beating myself up, asking myself some of the same questions. I was never the one to allow anyone to beat me up emotionally. “Det Johnson,
SHUT THE
FUCK UP AND TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK YOU KNOW
!” Is what I wanted to scream.

“No Detective.” I answered. I need to keep a good rapore with him, but I don’t want him to think I’m crazy as hell either or even a suspect. I know how these cops think. “I didn’t mean to offend you Tracy, let me start over. My informants revealed that Sadique should have delivered a street value of 2 1/2 million dollars worth of coke to a client of his, but the drugs never made it to its final destination. Did you know we also found ten thousand dollars in cash stuffed in his underwear? So whoever killed him didn’t do it for money.” He revealed to me. “So you don’t think it was a message of some sort?

I asked puzzled. We believe Sadique’s own people killed him and the ten thousand in cash, we think it was a present from his killers to pay for his funeral expense or something. It’s almost like saying, yeah we killed you, and here’s some money to take along with you.” He said “What’s makes you think that?” I asked? “There was a note attached to the cash.” He whispered. “What did it say?” I asked. “It said,
THIS IS TO HELP YOU BURY THIS BITCH ASS NIGGA…..BOO.”

“Well who do you think they were talking about when they said Boo, me, Carmen, who?” I asked.

Detective Johnson ignored my question as he shuffled through some papers. “How can you know so much and haven’t arrested anyone?” I asked. “It’s not that simple Tracy. One of our agents has been working under cover with this particular organization for quite a few years. Chasing these guys are like chasing ghosts. We’ve worked too hard to start arresting people without probable cause because there’s not enough evidence yet, so we can’t risk messing up our whole operation for just one bust.”

I knew what he was going to say, but I’m glad he didn’t. It was evident that Det. Johnson was not a fan of Sadique and could care less about finding his killer. Detective Johnson seemed to have bigger fish to fry. Sadique was just the tip of the iceberg. We both got quite for a minute. “You’re a pretty determined young lady.” He stated. I did a little home work on you myself, turns out you’re one of the best news writers around town. A few of the guys around here mentioned that they’ve worked with you. And besides, your boss Jerome is an old frat brother of mine. He told me that I would be seeing you again. It’s funny we never met.” He added.

“I’m going to have to get to the bottom of this detective, so are you friend or foe? Since you know so much about me, then you should know how serious I am and how I gets down for my profession.” I said. Detective Johnson stared at me silently. “The name is Cee.” He whispered. “And from what we know he was Sadique’s partner, sometimes, we think. My informant mentioned that name the other day.” I told him. “Oh, so now you have informants also? What else did she tell you?” He asked. “What makes you think it’s a she? I asked. Because, besides Cee, it seems that he only hung around women. I have his cell records and documentation of most of his travel arrangements, even matchbooks from different hotels and restaurants receipts.” I told him. I’ll turn them over to you and anything else you need but you have to agree to let me in.” I negotiated. “Can I ask you a personal question?” He asked looking seriously concerned.

“Sure, shoot.” I replied. “Why would a woman like you, of your caliber get involved in something like this, you’re a beautiful ambitious woman. You’re lucky you didn’t meet the same fate as your dog and your boyfriend.” “These people are very dangerous and they cover their tracks pretty well. I don’t think they would come after you because I don’t think they don’t work that way, but if you go digging your nose in places it don’t belong, well who knows? They always seem to manage to stay a few steps ahead of us, and if they wanted you dead they could’ve easily gotten you when they got your dog. They did it right under your nose while you were sleeping on the couch Tracy. Don’t you know that? They can probably get you at any time as long as you’re visible. I think the best thing for you right now is to be invisible, like they are.

We get word from time to time that they’ve set up shop some where, but by the time we can get a warrant their gone. I think that a beautiful woman like you should just go home Tracy, mourn Sadique death and move on. I’ll contact you if I have anything else, I promise.” Det. Johnson said compassionately. “Ok.” I said as I got up from my chair. “I’ll let you do your job.” I could tell he knew I was lying. “One more thing before you leave Tracy, stay away from Carmen she’s up to her neck in this shit, don’t let her fool you.”He added. “What is that suppose to mean?” I responded to the comment that he made. “Well, we know that for a fact that either Sadique, or Cee could be the father of her baby. “What? The both of them? That little lying, sneaky.. ”The entire station house must have noticed my reaction, because everyone was now looking at us. “I even baby sat for that bitch.” I mumbled to myself. “We know Cee took a blood test a few weeks ago but we don’t think Sadique knew about them messing around.” He explained.

“Can you get a warrant for his DNA and see if it matched with any of the blood stains in my apartment or on Sadique’s clothes? Maybe the baby could be the motive. The results could help prove motive and could be matched to the other blood samples as well.” I speculated. For someone who doesn’t know anything about being a Detective, you sure do know a lot.” He chuckled. I never waited for an answer, I could see that we were off to a good start but he wasn’t going to give me any more information, at least not today. I walked into the station more confused and curious than before. Who is this big organization he kept mentioning? He never mentioned a name. Were they a local gang like Bloods or Crips? No, that’s not Sadique’s kind of crowd and definitely not his fortae. I found pictures in the house with several rap artists, but it was clear the cameraman’s focus was on the women in the picture.  My mind went back to the group of young thugs that argued with Rome. One of them knows something, I can feel it.

Carmen knows them too. Something isn’t right I told myself. If this guy Cee and Sadique were friends, why would they both be sleeping with Carmen? Was Sadique’s death tied to Carmen? Why weren’t the cops questioning Carmen? Did Carmen work with these people too? I thought to muself. “You wanna think out loud?” Detective Johnson interrupted my thoughts. “Are they going to bring her in for questioning?” I asked. “I have nothing on her so I can’t but she is under heavy surveillance and we don’t want to scare her off either.”

“Maybe I can help you get to her?” I offered. “What makes you think she’ll help you after the ass kicking I heard you gave her?” He chuckled. “How did you know about that?” I asked. “She’s under surveilence, duh.” He joked. “Well as sneaky as she is, she does feel bad. Even whores have a conscience and I intend to play on that. She’s not that bright of a light bulb, and she’s underestimated how smart I am. She’s going to run out of money soon, so she’ll most likely run to Cee. Carmen is a paper chaser and probably has Sadique’s replacement lined up already.

I’m gonna try to patch things up with her so I can get closer to the truth. Think about what I said Detective, with or without your help I’m going to find out what happened.” I told him determinedly. “I’ll think about it but I can’t make any promises.” He said. “I’ll settle for that for now. You’ll be hearing from and seeing me again.” I teased as I began to walk way from him. “I’m looking forward to that.” He responded. “Good day Tracy.” He said as he continued to work on his computer. Before I could leave the building Jackie was calling me on the phone.

“Hello?” I answered. “Hey girl what’s up?” She asked. “Nothing, I’m just leaving the police station now, are we still meeting tonight?” I asked her. Jackie said she already spoke with Rome and her cousin and that seven o’clock was fine for everyone. I told her I was on my way home to straighten up and fix a quick meal before they arrived. “Don’t make a fuss over food.” Jackie stated. “I have that covered.”

“Girl you’re the best bestie.” I told her. “Love you, and I’ll see you in a couple of hours.” I said, and we both hung up. The truth was that I had already cleaned up, and was planning to order some Chinese food for us all. I wanted a chance to go home, relax for a minute and before everyone arrived. I felt like if I could just smoke I could deal with anything. I smoked before I went to bed, when I woke up, and for any other reason I could find. I hadn’t stopped since the day I learned of Sadique’s death. During the drive home I was thinking about how I was going to handle Carmen when the time comes. Maybe I should wear a wire. Okay maybe that was a tad bit much but at least I could record our conversations.

I need to compile a list of questions for her. With the information I just learned today I now realize that I underestimated Carmen. I pulled into my parking space and nearly ran smack into Paul. Not realizing it was me who nearly hit him he yelled, “Wow lady can you please watch where the hell you going?!” Then in an instant he looked like he wanted to take it back after noticing who I was. “Oohhh I am so sorry Ms. Tracy I didn’t know that was you!” He said. “Since when did you get moved to the garage?” I asked him. “Oh please forgive me?” He pleaded. “It’s ok.” I told him. “But you better watch your mouth I could have been someone else, beside it’s my fault so I’m the sorry one right now.”

“How have you been?” He asked me. “Sorry to hear about your loss.” “Thanks.” I responded. “Where have you been I thought maybe you met a honey with some money and quit.” I joked. “Nah I wish.” He said. “To be honest though, the building manager thought it would be a good idea if my type is not seen as much by the residents. You know young black men make white people with money nervous.” “Especially when the police come around and start asking me questions.” He added. “Asking you question like what?” I asked him as I finally got out of the car.

“Some detectives were here the other day they wanted to know if Sadique or you had company over recently. They showed me pictures of this one cat, but I didn’t recognize him. Besides, if I did, I wouldn’t tell them anyway. Honestly though.” He whispered. “I would often see him with guys that I didn’t know, but I knew that they were trouble.” He whispered. “Why would you say that?” I asked him. He looked around to see if anyone was looking. “Would you like to come up stairs?” I asked him. “Personally I can’t do that, but between me and you, and this is as far as this can go, but I know you’re being followed.” He was on a roll so I didn’t interrupt him. “One of the same guys I’ve seen Sadique with, followed you this morning.” He told me.