Both Sides of the Fence 4: Bad Blood (11 page)

 

 

I pulled up to the house that I grew up in and evolved in. I placed the car in park, turned the ignition off, and then secured the emergency brake. I looked in the mirror. I liked what I saw. I was a big girl now. My past was behind me and I was looking forward to my future, my destiny. I was so glad that Antoinette had spilled the beans about my past with women. She actually did me a favor. I didn’t like the way that it was done, but hey, it was over now and I couldn’t knock that. Now Troy and I could officially move forward.

“Let me get in this house.” I opened the door of my car and stepped out. I parked in front of the house instead of the driveway, because that was filled with four cars already: one was my parents’, one was Alex’s, my grandmother’s on my father’s side, and I didn’t recognize the fourth one. I walked around the front of my car and up to the waist-high wooden fence that encased part of my parents’ front yard. Even this front yard had memories. I found one of my father’s pair of underwear in the bushes underneath her and my father’s bedroom-window after school and gave them to her. I was only five, but I knew that something was wrong with my father’s underwear being in the bushes. I inquired to my mother about it after I handed them to her but I never got the answer to it because she dismissed me quickly with, “Young lady, your homework is waiting on you.”

I laughed to myself as I placed my key in the front door and made my way inside of the house. There was no place like home.

I heard talking in the living room and made my way toward there. It was only a few steps from the door so it didn’t take me long to get there.

“Good evening, everyone.” I was concerned but not overly so until my I saw my mother, Brittany, and grandmother dabbing the corners of their eyes with tissue. The first thing I thought was that somebody had died. Fear instantly set in as I made my way across the room and next to Alex. I noticed pictures of my sister, Diana, spread out across the coffee table. That made me extremely curious.

“What’s going on?” I asked no one in particular. My father had his head down and I couldn’t see his face, but I knew that something was deeply wrong because he rarely got emotional out in the open.

“When was the last time you saw or spoke to Diana?” My father’s head popped up out of nowhere.

“I . . . I, um . . .” I stammered as I quickly racked my brain trying to recall the last time I spoke to, texted, or saw her. I drew a blank. “I don’t remember.” It was amazing how much attention and detail we didn’t pay to the ones close to us. Times like these showed that the proof was in the pudding. Everyone was about themselves most of the time. I couldn’t even remember the last thing she had on or the last time that I told her that I loved her.

“What is going on?” I said with a little more agitation in my voice. I hated evasiveness. Get to the point and spit it out.

“They . . . they found your sister’s car and boyfriend dead on the inside of the car,” my grandmother said as she consoled my mother. “Your sister is nowhere to be found.” My mother let out a sob as she lay over into my grandmother’s arms and cried freely.

I felt her pain. Tears started to form at the corners of my eyes as well. The thought of my sister being missing and possibly dead was a bit overwhelming to think about it.

“Do they know how long she’s been missing?” I, again, threw the question out there to no one in particular.

“We would have to say a day or two,” a very dark-skinned guy said. He was in the room the whole time, but I truly didn’t pay him any mind until now.

“Who are you?” I said with a little more attitude than what was called for. He caught me off guard. Normally my parents would have introduced him but under the present circumstances they weren’t in the meet-and-greet mood. Understandably so.

“I’m Detective Holmes. I was assigned to the case this morning. We found the car Sunday night. It appeared to have been cold for twenty-four to thirty-six hours when it was discovered by a patrolling police vehicle. It was found in a highly unpopulated and popular hiding spot for illegal activities. Do you know if your sister was involved in any unusual behavior; drugs, prostitution, you know things like that?”

“What!” I immediately got offended. My voice escalated causing everyone to look at me. I felt my pressure rising and the old Ashley resurfacing. “Did you call my sister a drugging whore?”

“Ashley!” my mother said as she looked at me in shock.

“Calm down. That’s not what he said. You are overreacting. Let him finish.”

“I’m sorry, but that is what it sounded like to me.” I sat back in the chair, crossed my legs, folded my arms against my chest, and zipped my lips closed. I kept my eyes on the detective the whole time though. I knew what I heard.

“So does anyone in this room have any correspondence with Diana that can determine her last whereabouts before she became missing? Texts, voicemail, e-mail; anything will do.”

“Well, she did tell me that she was going to the club when I talked to her on Saturday.” My little sister Brittany spoke. She was a quiet girl. The quietest of the family you might say. She was very patient and always even tempered. Everyone looked at her as she spoke.

“Did she happen to tell you what club it was she was going to?” the detective asked, with notepad in hand, ready to take notes.

“No, she didn’t say.” Brittany looked disappointed as she spoke.

“Okay,” the detective said as he nodded his head and then proceeded to write on his pad.

“Have y’all found her cell phone?” Alex asked. I sat up in curiosity of the answer.

“The phone has yet to be recovered. In events of foul play, it is likely that the device has been destroyed. But we can still retrieve pertinent information through the person’s cell phone coverage provider. I have her number and I called it in as soon as I found it in the phone of the deceased in the car. I am waiting for a subpoena to come back so that we can review records of her texts and hopefully voicemails.”

“Why is this happening to us?” My mother burst out into a loud cry.

It hurt my heart to see her like this. Our family had been through a considerable amount of obstacles and this was not a needed or wanted addition to our memories.

 

 

Damn! My mother is wilding out,
I thought as I looked at my mother in awe. I had never really witnessed my mother get this emotional. I mean I had observed her in an emotional state before, but not to this degree. You would have thought that we had the funeral and she was staring down at my sister’s cold corpse. Now don’t get it twisted, I was highly concerned about my sisters whereabouts too.

I then looked at my twin sister Ashley, who looked like she was about to blow a gasket any minute. I hadn’t seen her this mad in a minute.

“Ash. Ash.” I patted her on her leg to get her attention. She was somewhere else.

“What?” she asked and turned her head quickly in my direction.

“You okay?” I asked as I leaned back a little. Her chest was heaving up and down. I didn’t know what to expect from any one of the women in my family. My grandmother and Brittany were the calmest ladies in the room.

“Yeah, I’m a little agitated. This guy is asking for it.” She turned to look at him and then back at me. He looked like he was ready to go.

There was a lot of emotion in the room. Even my father was a little distraught at the moment. It had me wondering what was going on. I couldn’t fathom someone snatching and killing my little sister. You saw this in the news all the time but you never ever thought that it could happen to someone in your family and you never knew how to respond to such a shocking and devastating event.

“So what can we expect to happen in the next couple of hours or days?” I asked the detective.

“Frankly, this is too early in the case to tell. We have to interview her friends, college roommates, professors, and anyone in contact with her recently. Time is of the essence and from the looks of it we are two days behind.”

My mother moaned loudly again and everyone turned their attention toward her for a moment.

“What are the odds of finding my daughter alive?” my father asked, turning the attention back toward the detective. He had the look of a desperate father on his face. One that was hoping to get a good response. A glimmer of hope. I had to say that I was anticipating the same.

“Mr. Black, right now it is fifty-fifty. The rest of this week I will be very busy handling interviews and calls. There is plenty of investigating to do. This has been a busy season for us down at the precinct. Young ladies being murdered is on the rise.”

That information made my mother yelp again. My father lowered his head again.

“Sir, that is information you could have kept to yourself,” Ashley said with a mean mug on her face. “How in the hell is that helping the situation right now?”

“Ash, calm down. It’s all right. He is giving it to us straight,” I said as I tried to calm her down by rubbing her back. It didn’t help that the detective had a red shirt on because Ashley was like a bull seeing red right now. She was ready to charge right now.

“Well, lie to me then next time, mutha—” she said and then I quickly covered her mouth before the rest could get out.

“Ash, let’s go get some water for Mom.” I quickly got up and pulled her right along with me until we were in the kitchen.

“Did you hear him in there? He was so insensitive. How was he gonna be talking about murdered girls and shit? Miss me with that shit,” she said as she pulled out a chair and sat down at the table.

I walked to the refrigerator and pulled out two bottles of water. I sat down across from her and then slid a bottle of water her way. She really needed to cool down. She was cursing like a sailor and it wasn’t like her as of late to be doing such. I needed her to calm down before we went back into the other room. Mom and Dad didn’t need any added tension in the room.

“Ash, he was being honest. I heard about some of what he was saying recently.” The thought of the three chicks being murdered and me being in the precinct a few days earlier flashed through my mind. It was not the best image I needed right now.

“Honest,” she said and then she huffed in frustration. “His ass was being morbid. There’s no hope; that is what he was saying on the sly.” She banged on the table and startled me in the process.

“Ashley, that is not true. There is hope. We are going to find Diana alive and well. We will, I promise.” I reached over and grabbed her by the hand.

“You think so?” She looked at me in the eyes. A few tears fell down her face as she stared at me. The anger was a front for the pain that she was feeling. She was trying to be tough as usual but she was holding up the front as good as she thought she could.

“Yes, we have God and faith. That is all we need,” I said sincerely.

“She’s alive. I can feel it,” she said as she perked up a bit. A small smile came across her face.

“I know she is too,” I said as I smiled too. Our family had been through some great stumbling blocks and made it through. This too would pass. “Besides she has some James Parks in her, too.” I laughed lightly. She did as well.

“Yeah, we are survivors.” She nodded her head.

“Are you ready to go back in there?” I asked her.

“Yes.”

“Are you going to behave?” I said teasing her.

“I promise.” She put her hand over heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die.” She laughed lightly again.

“Okay, let’s get back in there,” I said as I got up from the table and waited for her to do the same. We walked back to the other room but before we both could sit back down the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” I said as I exited the room and made my way to the front door.

 

 

I stood at the door and waited for someone to answer. I was curious as to what was going on because there were so many cars parked in the driveway. I had my shopping bags in hand. Mainly, my Motherhood Maternity bag. I wanted to gush about the fact that I was expecting. I couldn’t wait until Mrs. Black found out about the baby, which would be her first grandchild. I knew she was going to be excited as I was. I was finally going to have a mother and a father again. All I had to do was murder a couple of chicks and, voila, I was pregnant and about to have some in-laws. Life was grand.

The front door popped open and my baby daddy was standing there with all of his finesse oozing out of his pores. He had on a nice shirt and tie set that made him look so dashing. Damn, I was a lucky girl. Shit, looking at him for these brief seconds I could still feel his dick like he was inside of me right now. I wanted to ride him again. I had to. I was waiting for the next opportunity to do so.

“Hey, Jazz,” he greeted me. He looked a little down in the face.

“Hey, baby dad . . . boy. Baby boy,” I said catching my slip-up for the like the millionth time. I was going to have to get my shit together before he thought I was crazy or something. “How is everything?”

“Okay, but it could be better,” he said as he stepped back and let me in the house. “Everybody is in the living room.”

“Okay.” I smiled at him as I took my jacket off and handed it to him. He looked at my ass on the sly. I smiled at him letting him know that I had seen him. Then I made my way into the living room.

As soon as I got there, there was a depressed-looking crowd who filled the seats of the nice furniture. It made me even more curious. I walked over and sat next to Ashley with my interest bubbling.

“Girl, you okay? I came as soon as I could.” I looked at her with concern and then looked around the room again really quickly. There was a suit-and-tie type of guy sitting across the room. He had a serious look on his face.

“Jazz, my sister Diana is missing. She been missing since Saturday.”

“Really? Oh my goodness. I’m so sorry to hear that. I can’t believe that.” Concern filled my voice. I couldn’t imagine have a missing family member. With all the things going on right now in this city, I knew they were thinking the worst. Who wouldn’t?

“Yes, girl. We all are shook right now. The detective over there is in charge of the case. We are praying and hoping for the best possible turnout. We have hope.” She smiled. It was a light one. One that was filled with optimism and some doubt. A natural response to this type of situation.

“Yes, girl. She probably ran off or something. These young girls are something else. She’s probably snuggled up with her boyfriend somewhere.” I tried to sound reassuring.

“He’s dead. They found him dead in his car,” she said with as her eyes began to water up.

“Really?” I covered my mouth is shock. That wasn’t a good piece of information to know. He was dead and her sister was missing. That sounded like an open-and-shut case of murder and kidnapping or, worse, murder/ murder. “Oh no.”

“Yes, girl. That was my first response too.” She shook her head. I looked around the room once again and it was still kind of quiet. Ashley and I had been talking in a hushed tone the whole time, trying not to disturb anyone or the situation.

“Mr. and Mrs. Black, I don’t want to take up anymore of your time. I have to get back to the station and work the case. Time is of the essence. If you hear of anything please feel free to contact me,” the detective said as he rose from his chair and walked over to where they were. He shook Mr. Black’s hand and then turned to make his way to the door. Mr. Black followed him.

“Mona, let’s get you upstairs and into bed for a few. I am staying over to help you with the house and the kids,” Ashley’s grandmother said as she helped Mrs. Black up from the chair and across the room. Mrs. Black was a strong woman but right now she was a blubbering mess. She didn’t fight nor did she argue. She sobbed and walked toward the steps. They both disappeared up the steps out of sight. It made me feel some type of way to be in the house with such a sad scene going on.

“Girl, you want to see the shirts I got from Motherhood Maternity?” I perked up and asked Ashley.

“You went shopping already?” she asked. She seemed shocked by the gesture. I almost went off on her like I did the chick at the store earlier but I didn’t. I held my tongue and thought before I spoke.

“Yeah, girl. No time like the present.” I was almost bouncing in the chair.

“You pregnant?” Alex startled me as he came back into the room. He had a sandwich on a plate. It looked good.

“Yes.” I beamed brightly. I was like a Mrs. Sunshine right now.

He looked at me strangely before he went and sat down on a chair near where we were sitting.

“Something wrong, Alex?” I asked him.

“Well . . .” He paused. “Oh, never mind.” He waved his hand. “It’s nothing.”

“Go ahead and say it. You surprised, right?” I looked at him confirming the look he gave me.

“Well, uh. Yeah. I never really saw you with anyone. You know, a guy.”

I was a little pissed at the statement but I let it slide because he was right. I really wanted to tell him he was the daddy, but that would be out of line at the moment for me. Besides his younger sister and brother, Brittany and Li’l Shawn, was in the room, but she was on some type of game thingy and he was on his phone. They were paying us no mind whatsoever. It was hush-hush news at the moment.

“I keep my business pretty private, Alex, if you must know. But yeah, I have a bun in the oven and the baby daddy and I are happy with our soon-to-be bundle of joy.” I rubbed my stomach and smiled.

“Well, that is good to hear. I am happy for you.” He smiled and then he pulled half of his sandwich off of his plate and took a bit. He moaned in satisfaction.

“Alex, you have a good-looking sandwich going on over there.”

“Yes, it is good.” He smiled. “You want a piece?”

“Sure, why not.” I got up and made my way over to where he was. I picked up the other half of the sandwich and made my way back to my seat.

Ashley looked at me and then smiled. “Girl, you are really extra with the baby stuff.”

“Shoot, I’m hungry. I’m eating for two you know.” I laughed.

“Yes, that is true. But you better watch your figure because you may be eating for two but end up wearing clothes for three. Slow your roll, chick. You got plenty of time for all of that. Right now I need you to help me do some digging to find my sister. I can’t leave her fate in the hands of some bumbling cops.”

“Girl, I got you. I’m going wherever you are.” I spoke earnestly.

“Glad to hear that because we have a lot of work to do.”

“What work are you going to be doing?” Mr. Black asked as he entered the room again. He was a fine man himself and if his wife wasn’t the feisty one I heard about I would have tried to get a baby out of him first. He has some good genes; then again he wasn’t really their father but looking at Li’l Shawn I could tell he had some strong genes.

“Oh nothing, Dad. I was going to do some investigating myself.” Ashley looked at her father with a little fear on her face. He didn’t have a nasty look on his face but one of total seriousness.

“I need you kids to stay out of this. Let the police do their job. I don’t want y’all messing this up. Promise me that you will stay out of this.” He looked at all of us in the face. He made me nervous.

“Yes, sir,” we all said in unison.

“Good, because I want my daughter back here safe and sound. I don’t want anything happening to any of you in the process. We have enough to deal with now. I’m going upstairs to check on your mother. Lock up before you all leave. Li’l Shawn, I need you to take out the trash; and, Britt, load up the dishwasher for me.”

They both followed the instructions that were given while Ashley, Alex, and I sat in the living room in silence. The look on Ashley’s face said that she said okay to him, but she was still going to do things her way anyway. She was headstrong and talking to her sometimes was like talking to a brick. I thought her father knew that as well because he came back into the room once more.

“I mean it, Ashley. Stay out of it.” He looked at her intently.

“I will,” she assured him.

As soon as he left the room she said, “Meet me tomorrow so I can go over a plan with Troy in the room for advice.” She whispered it as she looked at me and then at Alex. We both nodded our heads in agreement.

We left the house about an hour and a half later and went our separate ways.