Lex grabbed Bobby’s arm and the two men struggled for the gun. Lex forced Bobby’s back against the wall and began banging his hand until Bobby dropped the gun. Lex hit Bobby in the face and then in the stomach. "You think you can beat me old man?" he yelled as he grabbed Bobby and threw him to the floor.
Bobby got to his feet and rushed Lex, and the two men fell to the ground. They wrestled around until Bobby got on top and hit Lex several times in the face. Lex pushed Bobby off him, and got to his feet.
He picked up a lamp and swung it at Bobby, but he missed and Bobby rushed Lex again. The two traded blows until Bobby went down again. Lex stood over Bobby and kicked him. "Come on, get up!" Lex yelled.
Bobby caught Lex’s foot as he tried to kick him, and jerked it. He went down near Bobby’s gun and grabbed it. Lex stood up and pointed the gun at Bobby.
He looked at the barrel of the gun and knew he was about to die. At that moment, he thought about what he was about to die for.
Bobby thought about his wife and his children, and knew that whatever he was doing with Ivillisa Ortiz wasn’t worth losing his family over, and it definitely wasn’t worth dying for. Bobby heard the gunshot but felt no pain. He looked into Lex’s eyes and watched him fall to the floor.
There stood Ivillisa, gun shaking in her hand. Bobby got up and took the gun from Ivillisa. "Took you long enough."
"I had to find where he put his gun," Ivillisa said.
Bobby looked at Lex and pried his gun from Lex’s dead hand. "I’m gettin’ too old for this shit."
Ivillisa threw her arms around Bobby. He kissed her on the forehead and removed her arms from around his neck.
"Come on," Bobby said and took Ivillisa by the hand and led her out of the apartment.
"What about him?" Ivillisa said as she looked down at Lex’s body.
"Don’t worry about him. I’ll call somebody to take care of him. Right now, you need to get out of here."
"Where are we going?" she asked.
"A friend of mine is a doctor. He’ll fix you up and make sure you’re all right."
It wasn’t too long after Bobby and Ivillisa left that Black and Victor got to her building. They didn’t see his car but they went inside anyway.
Victor approached a man in the lobby. He told them which apartment she lived in. When they got to the door and found it cracked open, they went in with guns drawn. They looked around the apartment until Victor found Lex’s body. "In here, Black."
Black went to the door and looked in. "See what I’m sayin’. That could be you dead over fuckin’ around with Sabrina."
"True that, but I prefer to look at it as that being Bo," Victor said and followed Black out of the apartment.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Kirk finally got a break in his case. Earlier in the day, he got a call from Reyes, the head of the CSI team who told Kirk that they found some evidence at one of the murder scenes. Kirk and Richards went back to the precinct to see what he had.
"What you got, Reyes?" Kirk said as soon as he came through the door.
"How are you, detective?" Reyes said.
"Fine."
"I was talking to Richards," Reyes said and laughed.
"You gotta forgive my partner," Richards said and shook hands with Reyes as Kirk took a seat. "He gets so caught up in these things that he sometimes forgets his manners."
"Fuck this, what you got, Reyes," Kirk said.
Reyes handed Kirk a file. "My team found a finger-print at one of your crime scenes that didn’t match any of your bodies."
"One of the shooter’s maybe?" Richards speculated.
"We should be that lucky," Kirk said as he opened the file.
"The prints belong to a woman. Her name is Erika Thompson," Reyes told them.
"Arrest record includes shoplifting, possession with the intent to distribute and solicitation," Kirk said as he read over the file.
"Doesn’t sound like a shooter, but maybe she can tell us something," Richards said.
"Thanks, Reyes. We’ll check it out," Kirk said, and he and Richards left the office.
Within a few hours, one of Kirk’s informants told him where to find her on the street, working a corner.
"That’s her," Richards said as the detectives sat in their car. "What’s your plan? If we rollup on them in this car, they’ll all scatter and we might lose her."
"Why don’t you walk up to her, see if she makes you an offer?"
"Why me?"
"’Cause they’d never believe a good-looking guy like me would be out here tryin’ to buy some pussy. But you, on the other hand," Kirk said and laughed. "You got trick written all over you."
"Fuck you, Kirk. That’s all I gotta say; fuck you," Richards said and got out of the car.
Kirk let Richards get a little ways down the street before he got out of the car. He approached slowly and looked on as Richards walked up to the women on the corner and began talking to Erika Thompson.
"Oh, I got what you want, honey."
"Well let’s go then."
"Hey, hey, slow down. You at least got a car or something?"
"Yeah, come on," Richards said and grabbed her hand.
"It’s gonna cost you," Erika said as he practically dragged her along.
"How much?"
"Head is fifty. It’s a hundred for the whole show."
"That much, huh?"
"You gotta pay for what you want. And I can tell you want this pussy real bad," she said when he got in the car.
"Yeah, and you’re under arrest," Richards said and showed her his badge.
"Damn," Erika said and tried to get out of the car.
"Took you long enough." Kirk got in the back seat and grabbed her. "Where you goin’, honey?"
"This is fucked up. This is fuckin’ entrapment, that’s what this is, entrapment."
"Whatever you say," Richards said as he put the cuffs on her.
When they got to the station and had a female officer search her, they found that she was carrying a small quantity of rock cocaine. After being processed, Erika was taken to an interrogation room where she was left alone for over an hour.
Finally, Kirk and Richards came into the room. They both sat down and began to read Erika’s arrest record to her.
Erika sat quietly and listened. "Okay, so what y’all really want?"
"What do you mean?" Richards asked.
"Like you been tellin’ me, this ain’t my first time at this. I’m in here ’cause y’all want something."
"Okay," Kirk said and stood up. He handed Richards an envelope and Richards laid the pictures out in front of Erika. The look in her eyes told them that she recognized the men in the pictures. "Those three men were murdered last night. Your fingerprints were found at the scene."
"What?" Erika looked at the two detectives. "You think I did that shit?"
"Didn’t you?" Richards asked. "Like you said, we don’t have you sittin’ in here for just some solicitation beef. You killed those men and stole their coke, didn’t you?"
"Oh hell no! I didn’t do that shit. I swear ’for God, I didn’t kill nobody."
Richards looked at Kirk and laughed. "When was the last time we heard that one?"
"Last time we questioned a murder suspect."
"I didn’t kill nobody!" Erika yelled.
"Then how did your prints get there?"
"Okay, okay, look, I was there, but I didn’t kill them niggas."
Richards slid a notepad in front of Erika. "Just go ahead and write down how you killed them and it will go a lot easier for you."
"Oh hell no," Erika said and pushed the pad back at Richards. "I ain’t writing shit ’cause I ain’t kill them niggas."
Kirk got in her face. "Then tell us who did."
"If I tell you what I know, what I get outta it?"
"She wants to deal," Richards said. "I think we should just go ahead and book her for murder.
"What is you sayin’? This shit is crazy. I’m tellin’ you I didn’t kill nobody."