Dominic Lorenzo
1:25pm
'I'm happy to be alive, I'm happy to be who I'am.' ~ Michael Jackson
"So you telling me that you and shorty from the party was fighting over a damn album a few days ago?" Amaru questioned as I reloaded my pistol.
Me and him are in the gun range of the department, we usually come here when we don't have any work to do at the time.
"Yeah man, shorty gonna claim that she had it first 'cause I wasn't there when she saw it. Ain't that some shit." I set the paper on the hook and pressed the button for it to move back to where I wanted it.
He laughed, "Man why you out here fighting with a hoochie over a record? A Prince album at that. For one, who still buys albums, and for two, who even listens to Prince anymore?" he snickered expecting a reaction out of me at his last comment knowing that I hate when he talks trash about Prince.
I rolled my eyes at him before aiming my gun at the practice paper firing two bullets at the head. I fixed the huge headphones that where on my ears before firing the rest of the round in my pistol.
I put the headphones around my neck as I looked over at Amaru's paper noticing that he mostly had head shots and a few body shots.
He smirked, "Ya know, you can learn alot from me if you just ask.'' he cockly spoke as he held up the hole filled paper.
My paper finally came back, I took it off of the hook and smiled as I looked over a Amaru.
"Aye," I got Amaru's attention as I showed him the paper that where full of head shots and not one hole that was anywhere else. "Maybe you need lessons from me son, not vise versa."
He smacked his lips, "You just lucky that's all." he protested, "Let's get back to the situation that happened with you a two days ago. So you where at the record store funna buy the new Prince album right? And all of a sudden, your arguing with the same girl from the party. What was her name, Robin?" he asked as I nodded.
"Okay, so this Robin honey that you've already encountered with even before the party, was at the same place you were at, at the same time, trying to get the same thing? Now that's what I call faith my brotha. You betta bag that honey before I do, I might have to ask her friend for that number." he announced
I smacked my lips, "You can have her 'cuz I most definitely don't want someone like her in my life. Her attitude is so...ugly."
Her snickered, "Are you really standing here talking about someone else's attitude Dom? How you gonna judge someone and you don't even know them? That's why you don't have any females flocking to you now." he noted.
"Just because I don't discuss my sex life with you, doesn't mean I don't get mine.''
"I mean yeah. We live next door to each other and I haven't seen one female come in or out of your apartment since," he paused, looking around the area before whispering in my ear, "Donna."
I mentally rolled my eyes, "What I tell you about speaking her name around me?"
"I'm sorry man but you gonna have to get over what she did to you sometime." he pointed out.
"Step off of that Amaru."
He held his hands up in defense before walking towards someone else engaging in a conversation, I sighed as I began to reload my gun. I'm some what surprised he brought up my old relationship with my ex, especially since I asked him to never bring her up when he's around me.
Me and Donna met while I was in police training four years ago, when I first saw her at a Policemen Banquet, I could tell she was the "uppity, wanted the finer things in life" kind of woman, but that didn't stop for trying to get with her. Sure, she was hard to get but I liked that in a woman, she tested my abilities as in hard far I would go to get what I wanted. We dated for almost three years before I decided I wanted to propose to her. That obviously didn't work out for a couple of reasons.
A tap of my shoulder took me out of my thoughts as I turned around to see Peaches with a blank look on her face, "Dom, Chief wants you and at his office now." I simply nodded as I was about to walk pass her but Peaches said my name.
"You okay Dominic? You seem out of it today." a hint of concern was plastered on her face as she waited for my answer.
I half smiled, "Yeah I'm good Peach, just thinking about a few things."
"Good 'cuz you known if someone was messing with you I would open up a fresh can of whoop-ass and that's the truth.'' she sounded so serious that it made me bust out laughing.
"That's the problem with you now, you always have to resolve to beating somebody's ass first and ask questions later. " I said as we both walked up the steps to the main area of the department.
She gasped, "Now I know you wellin, when have you ever seen me fight someone for no reason?" she questioned
"Remember the time we when me, you and Amaru were at that upscale restaurant downtown two years ago and when you went to go to the bathroom, you thought one of the workers where following you around because they thought you where gonna steal one of there customs towels?" I began to laugh at the memory as I clearly remembering me and Amaru having to break Peaches away from the waitress that she claimed was following her around.
"It's not like I hit the girl," she defended, "It wasn't that big of a deal."
"They almost called the cops on us, we where lucky they just banned us from going inside the place.'' I walked Peaches back to her desk.
She sat down in her chair before speaking again, "You had to admit, that whole situation was hilarious. They way Amaru was arguing with the manager, defending me was funny. " she pointed out.
"Shouldn't you always defend your girl? Amaru was just doing his job as your man. " I joked as I made my way to Chief's door.
I turned around to see Peaches glaring at me sticking her middle finger my way. I laughed lowly before knocking on the door of his office waiting for my confirmation to come in.
~~~
"We got a 911 call from a worker at the gallery that has the morning shift, and she says she usually comes in and sees her co-worker, Thomas waiting for her by his desk so be can leave. When she didn't see him, she went towards the elevator on the main floor and saw him tied up to a chair with duct tape over his mouth knocked out." A first responder explained to me and Amaru as we made our way to the crime scene.
"That's the worker over there." he pointed to a woman that was sitting on a bench being asked questions by Roger and Zeke.
"Thank you, we can take it from there." we both shook the man's hand before he walked away.
While the woman was being questioned, me and Amaru went over to where the crime scene was. Right in front of the silver door elevator was an old wooden chair with spots of blood it, the rusty rope laying beside it. I took two pairs of gloves out of my pocket handing one over to Amaru before I bent down and picked up the heavy rope.
"You notice the similarity in the ropes that the CMB usually uses when they do these attempted robberies?" I asked Amaru, "Yeah man," he said, "Its even got the same spray paint on it like the last hit they did, black and blue." he voiced as he huffed. I stepped closer to the elevator door to see small spots of a white substance splattered over the door and around the chair.
I rubbed the unidentified substance between my gloved thumb and index finger. It felt almost crystal like, now it was obvious who did this hit.
"Cocaine." I stood back up before throwing my gloves into a near by garbage can before rubbing the back of my neck in frustration pushing my glasses back up to my face.
"Why does the department want to act so clueless to this shit man? It's obviously that it's Nino and his damn goons doing these bullshit ass heist at these downtown art galleries, the evidence is all here from the rope to the left behind coke that they leave behind Every. Time."Amaru hissed in anger before scratching his bald head.
I honestly didn't have a answer to his question because I was wondering the same thing. For the past few months, this group of dope dealers have been robbing these upscale art galleries in the downtown area but nothing was found missing in any of the gallery's. The CMB has been having the NYPD on a cat and mouse chase and I know they where loving every second of it.
"What y'all find out over here?" Roger walked up to us
"The same exact evidence that was found at the last three crime scenes. The rope...the coke...the same exact shit." I frowned
"God damnit. I'm tired of going through this shit over and over again, these cops know we have all of the evidence to snag them but are to afraid to do so, and the witnesses are to scared to say anything. It's either some of the police are in on this scam and don't want there hush money to get taken away from them or its just that the witnesses are to scared to come out and say what they saw. It's a loose loose situation." Roger voiced
"Aye man, I'm about to head over to the hospital where the victim is Rog, you ready to roll?'' Zeke asked
Roger simply nodded his head before walking away with a some-what disappointed look on his face not waiting for Zeke.
"Wassup with him?'' Zeke questioned looking clueless
"Oh you know, the regular stuff, he just feels like the police department isn't putting any effort into making sure the CMB is where they belong...in jail. Just like how the rest of us feels. Nothing major." Amaru replied sarcastically
"Are you saying that I don't feel the same way? You think I'm here to have fun of sum? I wouldn't be here if I didn't care about getting them bastards off of the streets and from them tearing down our community with this cocaine bs. So I do feel how y'all feel.'' Zeke protested before glaring at Amaru, waking away.
Amaru tried to go after him but before he could, I grabbed onto his arm to prevent him from doing so. He snatched his arm away from my soft grip. We walked out into the crisp cool air outside and stood out in front of the building.
"Who does that busta think he is talking to me like I'm one of these lame ass niggas out here on these streets?'' he fumed as he pulled out a cigarette and lighter from his vest pocket.
"I mean he just asked a question, you didn't have to go off on him like that. I don't know what the problem is between you two'' I mentioned. If you haven't noticed, Amaru and Zeke don't like each other, maybe even close to hate for some reason. I really want to know why but then don't want to at the same time.
He took a drag from his cig before replying, "It's more than that. I just don't like how he walks around the department thinking he runs the operation." Amaru continued to complain as I started to put my mind on some other things like me and my brother going down to N.C for Thanksgiving coming up.
Every year, me and my younger brother Sean go down to visit our family in North Carolina and after a few days, our little sister, Denise comes to New York with us and she stays at my place for a few weeks. I honestly can't wait to see my mom and sister because I haven't seen them since March. My mom has been getting on me about not coming to see her, but she knows that I be working. She be tripping sometimes, but I would never tell her that.
"You heard me?" Amaru asked breaking me from my thoughts.
"Yup."
"You ready to head back to the department and work on this paper work?'' Amaru waved over a cab
"Got nothing else better to do.'' I replied before we both made it inside of the cab to work another day on this 'unsolvable' case. At least that's what it seems like to me.