JETSON
"Young, I need you in my office stat"
I hadn't even made it to my office before the Sergeant exited his, spotting me as I made my way to the back and ushering me over. I nodded, a loud yawn escaping from my mouth and I followed up with a sip of my red bull. After the weekend off I was expecting to be well rested, but it was just the opposite. I spent most of my time going through detail after detail for the wedding that was scheduled for the end of the summer. Natalie had been wrecking my brain about it, and I was actually glad to be back at the office.
"What's up Serg?" I greeted him, dragging myself into his office.
"Did you and Nunez follow up on Solomon's last phone calls the night of his disappearance?" He asked, in a tone that told me he knew something that I didn't.
"Yeahhh, I believe Nunez said he was going to do it. Why?"
Randal raised his eyebrow, next pressing play on the his computer to play the audio file.
"Solomon, I know you're at that whore house with those nasty women, and I'm showing up tonight. How dare you leave out in the middle of our conversation to go be with that little girl, you will rot in hell for this, and I'm going to make sure of it"
The call came to an end, and I was sure that it was Mrs. Jones on other side of the voicemail.
"How the hell did we miss that?" I asked, scratching the back of my neck.
"You tell me, because at this moment you and Nunez have been chasing two women who probably don't have shit to do with it, whereas our biggest suspect is at home. Go pick her up, and bring her down here. Now"
"Sir, with all due respect I highly doubt Mrs. Jones killed her husband. You saw the tapes, the last person he was with was Lucky"
"You don't know that" he argued, "All we know, is that this Lucky and Isis are no where to be found, and we have Mrs. Jones on tape threatening her husband. She lied and said she didn't know anyone that he knew, but she knew about that house. As far as I'm concerned, it could be a big conspiracy. Pick her up"
I reluctantly turned away, and knew that Mrs. Jones couldn't of been the culprit to the case. The way she looked when we told her that her husband was dead was true pain, but Serg wouldn't understand that. Granted I saw my fair share of sneaky criminals, however I didn't see that in Mrs. Jones. Either way I didn't have a say, and strolled over to my partner to let him know the news.
"You hear the good news huh? We have to bring in a grieving wife, just when I thought this job couldn't get harder" Nunez said before I could say anything.
"Tell me about it, and I thought you did a thorough job looking through those tapes. How did you miss that?" I asked as we made our way out of the precent.
"I don't know man, between my wife and my five kids it must've gotten lost in all the shit I have to hear everyday. Otherwise, I would've loved for this to be a open and close case"
"So you think she did it?"
By this time we were climbing into the patrol car, and I was finishing off the last of my red bull. Nunez took the honor of driving, and I was glad to be in the passenger seat for once.
"I don't think anything Young, I go by what the clues tell me. If she's guilty, we shall see. They usually break" Nunez shrugged, "But how was your weekend with the soon to be Mrs.?"
"Horrible" I chuckled, and Nunez tittered along.
"You sure that's the one man, every time I hear a story it's not a pleasant one" he narrow his brows.
"Nah, nah she's the one" I assured him, "She's just difficult. And spoiled as hell, I can deal with it. Turns out her brother is getting cheated on, so we actually didn't have to stay for dinner and that was great"
Nunez stopped at the red light and looked at me in astonishment, "Woww, finally a woman gets caught doing something dirty"
"It's not a woman" I said giving him a knowing look and he caught on.
"Ohhh okay, got cha. Well, I guess marriage is marriage, they're married right?"
"Not for long, Natalie's family is already getting together the divorce papers. They don't play, her parents are hardcore"
Nunez shook his head.
"Well, get ready for that" he told me and I gave him a perplexed look.
"Ah come on, don't tell me you've never thought about cheating on Natalie. You're what, 21? You have your whole life ahead of you and you're already getting ready to settle down"
"Nah, I haven't" I shook my head, "I always wanted a family. My momma and pop been together for forty years, it's possible to just love one person"
"Yeah but who the hell wants to?" He scoffed, "Tell me, since you've met Natalie you haven't met one woman you'd risk it all for?"
I laughed, however my mind did reach back to a certain woman I met that weekend. It was for a brief second, however something about her was enticing. The designer glasses she wore in the middle of the mall covered the top half of her face, but just from the bottom half I could tell she was stunning. Her hair was jet black and wavy, complimenting her round face and perky cheeks. Just by the stretch of her mouth, her dimples showed and all of that beauty didn't even include her body which needed an introduction itself. That, was probably the first time I've ever looked at a woman in a sexual way since I met Natalie. But that didn't matter, because I would never see her again and I wasn't exactly trying to.
"Nope" I answered, putting emphasis on the P as we pulled up to Mrs. Jones house, "Never have, never will"
"Never say never my friend"
Nunez hopped out of the car and I followed behind, and we both prepared ourselves to see if Mrs. Jones was home, and if so take her in. Nunez gave the door three hard knocks, and I popped in a piece of gum as we waited for her to answer. A few moments passed, and I was actually hoping she wouldn't answer. Unfortunately that wasn't the case, as the cherry wood door screeched open and the screen door followed up afterwards.
"What? Haven't you all done enough?" She snapped, her vision filled with disgrace.
"Ma'am, we're here to bring you down to the district to ask you a few questions" Nunez said cutting straight to the chase.
Mrs. Jones forehead creased and she pushed her short bob behind her ear.
"Excuse me?"
"You lied to us Mrs. Jones, you said you had no knowledge of Mr. Jones place of business or those he may know. If you come down to precent with us we can clear all this up" I added.
"I'm not going anywhere, I just buried my husband and instead of finding his murderer you are here harassing me about details I may have left out"
"Leaving out the fact that you threatened your husband moments before his disappearance isn't minuscule ma'am, and if you refuse to come with us I will bring you with us" Nunez warned her.
We didn't have anything on Mrs. Jones except the tape, but that would definitely be enough to get a warrant for her property. While I didn't necessarily want to take that route, as always Nunez was the aggressor. He had been on the force way longer than I, so his patience was much thinner. Mrs. Jones gave him an evil glare, but didn't fail to grab her purse and come with the two of us.
"Don't touch me" she hissed when Nunez attempted to grab her by the arm.
He clinched his jaw and opened the back of the cop car, "Hop in, this won't be long. If, you have nothing to hide"
"I don't, but best believe my lawyer will be present and I will make it my duty, to see the district gets sued"
"Yeah yeah yeah" Nunez chuckled as he walked around to the driver side and hopped in. I did the same to the passenger side, and we made our way back to the office.
As much as Mrs. Jones didn't want to be there, was just as much that we didn't want to deal with her.
The sergeant took over once we arrived, as he wanted a whack at her himself. That I was grateful for, and sat on the other side of the investigation room.
"Mrs. Jones, is there a reason you left out the argument with you and your husband?" Randal asked, not even bothering to sit down while in the small room.
"I didn't think it mattered" she responded, "What does that have to do with anything anyway. All it does is makes me feel more guilty"
"Is there a reason for you to be guilty?" He asked.
"I should've went in that house that night, but I didn't"
"So you know about the house, ma'am. The house he sold women out of"
"My husband was a good man, I don't know how he got involved with that"
I listened intensely, but was taken away from the conversation once my phone began to ring. I looked down to see Natalie calling, and I picked it up.
"Yeah babe, now is not a good time" I answered, walking into a corner.
"I need you to pick up Mckenzie, she gets out in thirty minutes and I'm stuck at the store. I forgot she has an early dismissal" she said with loud background noise.
"Natalie ~"
"Jetson, I get that your job is important but so is mine. And a part of us getting married means that Mckenzie is apart of your responsibilities too"
I pinched the bridge of my nose, but knew that she was right.
"Fine" I gave in.
Nunez raised his brow, and I gave him a look.
"Tell Serg I'll be back, and if not I'll make up my hours" I told him.
He nodded, and I retrieved my briefcase and jacket before heading out. Mckenzie's school wasn't exactly close to the district, and I had to speed my way through the forty five minute drive. I arrived only about ten minutes late, and spotted her by the front door with her teacher.
"Sorry about that" I apologized as I walked up, extending my hand for Mckenzie to grab it.
I ruffed up her head full of curls and she giggled.
"No problem, have a good day Mckenzie. Oh, and tell Natalie that Mr. Washington's name has been added to the pick up list"
"Mr. Washington?" I repeated, making sure ai heard what I thought I did.
"Yes, that's Mckenzie's birth father right? Natalie wanted to add him a few weeks ago, and it's been approved"
For lack of better words, I gave her an okay and instead of waiting for Mckenzie's small steps to make it down the flight of stairs I picked her up, next buckling her in her booster seat. I was definitely taken back by the news that her teacher had no idea she was revealing for the first time, as Natalie never sat with me and told me about her ex coming back into the picture.
As far as I knew, he had left her pregnant and alone, so it was definitely news to me that he would be given the privilege to reenter Mckenzie's life. With one thing on my mind, I headed back to the house. It was only twelve, but I had no problem waiting the last few hours before Natalie made it home to reveal to me what she had failed to.