"Run that back" Rakim points at the screen with narrowed eyes.
Symere does what he tells him and rewinds for thirty seconds.
"Here?"
"Yes, that's enough."
Symere presses play and they watch the part again.
"Did you know at that time that this was illegal?"
Symere cringes a little bit while hearing his own voice on the tape. He hates how it sounds.
For the second time, he watches how Jordan opens his watery eyes and asks him to stop the interview.
Out of the corner of his eye, Symere can see Rakim shaking his head and muttering something under his breath before he reaches over to grab the remote out of Symere's hand to pause the recording.
"I don't believe him."
Symere turns his head to his friend. "What do you mean?" he asks him confused.
"I don't believe anything he says. Watch his body language. He's completely relaxed the whole time and suddenly when hearing Bourne's name he turns stiff and acts sad. This shit is so fake, I can't even watch it" Rakim rants and presses the red button to turn off the TV.
The smaller one doesn't know what to respond. To him, Jordan's reaction seemed genuine. Maybe it was different to see it on a screen than being there when it happened.
Symere follows Rakim with his eyes as he walks over to his chair and sits down with a loud sigh.
"Look, don't get me wrong. I know you tried your best, Sy, but you were way too gentle with Carter. I mean he was saying inappropriate things to you the whole time and you just took it. You shouldn't have broken it off just because he asked for it" Rakim says and looks at Symere with a serious expression while playing with one of his braids.
"I can't force him to talk if he doesn't want to."
"I know but you need to be more persistent. You're too nice."
Symere can't help but feel a little bit hurt when he hears the criticism. He was still disappointed in himself for not getting more out of Jordan and hearing now that he didn't do a good job from Rakim as well, makes him insecure.
Sometimes he hates how sensitive he is. Rakim wasn't even being mean with his words.
"How was your talk with the neighbor who made the call?" he asks him.
Rakim runs his hand over his face frustratedly. "Useless. Don't even ask. That guy couldn't stop crying for a minute."
"Come on, he's obviously still in shock over the death. It hasn't even been two days" Symere tries to defend him softly.
"Yeah, but shit like this is wasting our time. We need a confession from Carter. And honestly, we shouldn't be letting too many days pass now. He's probably already in contact with his attorneys."
Symere wants to make up for his mistake. "Let me call him. I'm gonna try and convince him to do another interview tomorrow. With both of us" he promises.
Right after the words leave his mouth, he already regrets the offer. Rakim's temper and Jordan's provoking attitude in one room? That won't go well.
But it's too late. "Alright. Go call him right now" Rakim nods.
Symere leaves and closes the door to Rakim's room quietly behind himself.
On the way to his own office, he stops in the cafeteria to buy himself a coffee. He's busy scraping some coins together to pay when he hears a snarky voice behind himself that's just too familiar.
"What's up, Woods? How's your case going?" Rich snickered.
Since they both started working at this department, Rich had left no opportunity to create some sort of competition between himself and Symere.
The smaller one doesn't even know why this dude is so obsessed with being better than him but he stopped caring a long time ago. He can't really take him seriously anyways since he and his patrol partner Dexter weren't even near the level Symere and Rakim were on.
Rich must've caught somewhere that they weren't making any progress with Bourne's murder and now he had to rub that into his opponents face.
"I heard you messed up the interrogation. What's even to mess up? It's clear he's the one who did it. Every five year old kid would've got a confession out of him by now" Rich teases.
Any other day he would've easily shot back but Symere doesn't have the energy to deal with Rich today.
It's not like he's scared of him. Rich is just all bark and no bite. He once even ran away from Symere which made him the joke of the whole department for a while.
Symere pays for his coffee and ignores the remarks. He goes into his room and takes a sip before he grabs the telephone on his desk and enters the number of the prison.
After twenty seconds, he hears a prerecorded robotic voice on the other end of the line.
"This is the United States Penitentiary Atlanta. Press 1 if you want to connect to the prison warden. Press 2 if you want to connect to an inmate-"
Symere doesn't wait for the voice to end the sentence and presses 2.
Upbeat music is being played and he rolls his eyes annoyed because he knows the waiting loop can take some while.
To his surprise, it doesn't even take a minute until a man answers the call.
"George Trent from the United States Penitentiary. Hello?"
"Good morning, Sir. My name is Officer Symere Woods from the Zone 6 Police Department. I would like to talk to an inmate that's involved in one of our cases."
"Sure, what's his name?"
"Jordan Carter"
"Wait a minute." Symere can hear some paper rustling noises on the mans side.
"He's new, right?" the prison employee asks.
"Yes. He got there two days ago."
"Found his file...Damn. Good luck" the man murmurs. He must be looking at the pictures from the crime scene.
"I'm connecting you to him now. Have a good day."
"Thank you. You too" Symere says before the call gets interrupted and he's being put in a waiting loop again.
They really need to change the music, he thinks to himself. It's way too happy.
Suddenly it stops and Symere hears someone heavily breathing into the speaker.
"Jordan?" he asks.
"Hey, Symere."
Jordan sounds distressed and his voice is shaking. Did he cry?
"Is everything okay?" Symere is worried.
"Yeah. Uhm, woke up from a bad dream, that's all" he brushes it off. "Why did you call?"
Not even a slick line today? Symere didn't expect Jordan to be as calm and straight to the point as he is right now.
"I wanted to ask you if you'd be up for another interview. Maybe tomorrow?"
His question is met with silence.
He is about to ask if Jordan is still there but after fifteen seconds he finally replies.
"Okay."
Symere is a little bit surprised because he didn't think he was going to agree.
"Oh, great!" Symere has to stop himself from sounding too excited. "We will visit you around noon, if that's okay with you?" he suggests.
"We?" Jordan asks warily.
Nervously biting his lip because he's sure that Jordan will decline if he finds out that Rakim will be there too, he tries to come up with the best way to swerve around telling him but then decides to just say the truth.
"My colleague has to be there too."
Silence again.
"Hm."
"So...?" Symere drags tensely.
Jordan is taking a deep breath. "Whatever. See you tomorrow" he responds glumly and hangs up without saying anything else.
Confused about the fact that Jordan just approved the interview and about the weird mood he was in during the call, Symere stares at the telephone in his hand for a second before he places it back.
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"Take a seat" Rakim offers Mr. and Mrs. Carter to sit down on the couch later that day.
"Can I bring you something to drink?" Symere asks but they both decline and he sits down next to Rakim.
Symere finds that the Carter's are pretty cold. They didn't smile once since he greeted them and guided the pair over to Rakim's office but Symere can't blame them. No parent would be happy if they had to talk about their child that just murdered another person.
But what weirds him out, is the fact that they don't appear to be sad either. It's like they don't give a fuck at all.
"Can I smoke in here?" Mr. Carter asks and takes out a cigarette. He's a tall and handsome man in his fifties with a deep voice.
Rakim shakes his head. "No, sorry."
The man huffs and puts the cigarette back. Symere can't see much similarity between him and his son. But Jordan is for sure the spitting image of his mother. She's beautiful.
Rakim clears his throat now. "First of all, thank you for coming. I know it must be hard to speak out against your own son-"
"Ha!" Mr. Carter lets out sarcastically.
"He's not our son" Mrs. Carter adds sternly.
"What?" Symere asks confused. Rakim looks just as lost.
"That...monster is not our son. I refuse to acknowledge that" Mr. Carter crosses his arms.
"You don't have a good relationship" Rakim summarizes.
"We haven't talked to Jordan in years" Mrs. Carter clears up. "Ever since he's been with that guy, it only went downhill. Now look what happened. I don't want to say we expected this but we were not surprised either when we heard about it."
"Can you elaborate on that?" Symere questions, wanting to understand the dynamics between them and their son a little bit more.
Mr. Carter sighs. "Jordan used to be such a good kid. He was the best in his basketball team, thanks to me always training him. He probably would've been a NBA star by now if he didn't have to turn into..."
"Into what?"
"A faggot."
"Don't say that word, Michael!" Mrs. Carter scolds him whispering.
Now Symere kind of understands why Jordan and the Carter's don't get along. Dealing with homophobic parents is hard. He knows that too well.
"Uhm. When did he meet Mr. Bourne for the first time?" Rakim wants to know.
"Pi'erre? I think his name first popped up when Jordan was around sixteen. Yeah. He used to tell us that he's some friend from school" Jordan's mother speaks up again.
"Do you know how they met?"
"Jordan never told us. But I suppose it was during one of his model jobs. He got scouted by some agency and did a few little campaigns here and there over the summer. Pi'erre was a photographer, we found out later when we googled him."
"We don't know if they were dating already at that time. But it wouldn't surprise me to be honest" Mr. Carter says, scrunching up his face in disgust.
"Did you know about Pi'erre being six years older than your so- oh sorry, Jordan?" Rakim digs deeper.
"No. Like I said, we thought he was just some classmate. We met Pi'erre for the first time in person at Jordan's eighteenth birthday."
"Yeah. That's where they dropped the bomb. They're in a relationship and want to move in together."
"And you didn't approve of that" Rakim follows up.
"Of course not!" Mr. Carter is getting agitated. "Not only was he a god damn male but he was also way too old for him."
"What happened after he told you about his plans?" Symere asks.
"We had a big fight when all the guests left. Told him that he has to either stop seeing this guy or leave."
"He packed all his things and left without a word" Mrs. Carter ends.
Rakim is still writing everything down. "Have you had any contact to him after that?"
"I didn't. My wife tried to call and visit him a few times in the beginning but Jordan very obviously doesn't want to see us. He never answered her calls or opened the door once."
"Okay...so the last time you saw him or heard from Jordan was two years ago?"
"Correct." Mr. Carter nods.
"How would you describe Jordan?" Rakim continues to ask.
"Before or after he met the guy?"
"Both."
"He used to be a good kid, like I said. Always had a big smile on his face. Popular with the girls. Many friends. Good in school too. Only A's and B's" Mrs. Carter remembers.
"Honestly, I don't think the fact he changed has necessarily something to do with meeting Pi'erre. Jordan just got into puberty and turned into a moody teenager. Nothing out the ordinary."
"Well, the only thing I noticed, was that he stopped bringing girls home. But we used to think that's because he wanted to have some privacy, you know? Before that, he always talked about everything with us openly and he definitely became more reclusive with time. But we thought it's normal. Kids don't like to talk about their first time and stuff with their parents."
"His coming out was a big surprise to us. We would've never expected that. It was a shock to say the least. And that's when he really changed. He didn't understand us at all. Didn't even try. We only wanted the best for him. Being in a relationship with a man is not...normal. But he never listened. Jordan just cut us out of his life overnight. His own parents." Mrs. Carter shakes her head.
"And what did you think about Pi'erre?" Symere asks curiously.
Mr. Carter thinks. "Well, we only met him once at Jordan's birthday so there's not much I can say about him. Nothing special. Just a regular college guy in his twenties. I don't remember talking to him."
"Thank you. Can you tell us the names of a few of his friends he used to go to highschool with? We would be done for now after that" Rakim requests finally.
"Sure. Let me think...there was Rubi Rose, she's his ex girlfriend. Jeffery Williams...who else?" Mr. Carter asks directed at his wife.
"Stokeley Goulbourne, Jahseh something, I forgot his last name. Yeah those are the ones he hung around the most. Jordan had a lot of friends and switched his group every week so we didn't really keep up with all of them."
"Okay. Thank you very much, that was very helpful. We'll call you if we need more information."
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Would you read it if I would turn this into some sort of series after this short story is finished? With Uzi & Carti as a duo instead of Uzi & Rocky and a new case for each chapter with different rappers involved. It would be more lighthearted and not really follow a storyline for the playboiuzi ship tbh. Just them going through all types of challenges together and slowly realizing they like each other