After Freeze took his taste, they came away with $48,000. When Travis handed her $16,000 she was hooked. Sixteen thousand dollars just to drive a car, something she loved doing anyway, Shit! This is it! Who knew that money would lead her here? She had killed somebody, and Ronnie was dead.
Ronnie, Jackie thought. It was only now that she understood where Ronnie’s head was after he shot that armored truck driver. But what else could I do?
That was the question she continued to ask herself. If she hadn’t shot the man, Freeze would be dead. Then either she or Travis would’ve killed him anyway or been killed in the gunfight that would follow. She did the right thing, the only thing that she could do in those circumstances. But it was still the wrong thing. She never was overly religious, but she believed in God. She’d been taught the Ten Commandments in Sunday school. Thou shall not kill-or was it thou shall not murder? She wasn’t sure, so she spent hours at her computer, researching the Commandments.
She found two versions of the Ten Commandments given in the Bible, the first in Exodus 20, and the second in Deuteronomy 5. It appeared that the preferred use was the version in Exodus. It was in Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia she found online that Jackie found the actual translation: "You shall not murder." It was there that she found that the Hebrew Bible makes a distinction between murdering and killing, and explicitly notes that murder is always a heinous sin, while killing is sometimes necessary, and in some cases, just in the eyes of God. Jackie thought that somehow she had found absolution for her crime at this Web site, and tried to get some much-needed sleep.
Jackie rolled over in bed, closer to Travis. They had been sleeping together since the night Ronnie was killed. Neither one of them wanted to be alone, and each needed the other’s support. Eventually, they began having sex, and eventually, Jackie began to invite her old playmates home to play.
She looked over at the woman lying on the other side of Travis. Her name was Vonda, and she had become their playmate of choice. She was drop dead gorgeous, had a body that was to die for and her sexual skills were extraordinary. Jackie first met her at Cynt’s. Vonda was there with a guy who was boring her to tears. He had brought her there as a showpiece, a good luck charm, if you will, while he played poker. While she stood behind him looking distracted and ready to go, Jackie couldn’t take her eyes off this red-bone brick house. She was just that damn fine.
Vonda was five feet eleven inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, with pretty brown eyes and curly hair that hung down the middle of her back. When the guy sent her to the bar to get him a drink, Jackie cashed herself out of the game and went after her. Jackie gave Vonda her cell number, and eventually they hooked up for drinks. Jackie seduced her that same night.
It wasn’t too long after that, that Jackie introduced Vonda to Travis. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he was enjoying it. He commented once that they should have been doing this all along. At first, it was a way to keep his mind off Me’shelle, the woman he loved. Travis missed Me’shelle. Even though he felt that she had used him to get what she wanted and let him go, he still believed that on some level Me’shelle still loved him too.
As for Jackie, she was willing to go along with part of that-the part about Me’shelle using Travis and dumping him. "But, Travis, if she really loved you, she wouldn’t do you the way she did," Jackie told him. "The bitch just foul, and that’s all there is to it."
She had considered having Me’shelle killed. Even went as far as to ask Freeze to do it, but he told her that she needed to get over it. After that, she thought about doing it herself. I could walk right up on that bitch and blow her brains out.
But that was then. Now Jackie knew that she was no killer. She was a chemist, and a damn good one. That life seemed far away now too. Right now, she was a part-time gambler, part-time robber with a job to run in a couple of hours.
It would be Vonda’s first time doing a job with Travis and Jackie. They were going to hit a jewelry store. Vonda would hit the display cases while Travis forced the manager to open the safe. This would beJackie’s first time calling the job, which meant that she was responsible for the safety and security of the team. It was a position that she lobbied Travis long and hard for. Now Jackie wondered if she was up to the challenge. But in her heart, she knew that when the time came, she would do her job.
Chapter Sixteen
Detectives Kirkland and Richards arrived in the briefing room for their assignment with the DEA.
"Gentlemen, this is Detectives Kirkland and Richards. They are on loan to us from the NYPD homicide division." Once Agent DeFrancisco introduced them to the agents involved in the operation, he turned things over to the agent in charge, Pete Vinnelli, who started the briefing.
"All right, gentlemen, settle down and let’s get to business. Our objective is Mike Black. We have information that he is a major player in the drug traffic in this city, and has been for years." Detective Kirkland immediately raised his hand. "Detective?" agent Vinnelli said.
"Can you share the source of that information?"
"Oh, agent DeFrancisco failed to mention that the detective has been investigating Mr. Black for years and doesn’t believe that Mr. Black has any involvement in drug traffic. He thinks we’re wasting our time here," agent Vinnelli said, not hiding his contempt for Kirk and his involvement in this operation. The other agents looked at Kirk, and the grumbles began.
"Settle down, gentlemen. I’m sure that despite his personal opinion about the objective, the detective will give us one hundred percent. Besides, I think that his involvement will give this operation a certain objectivity, as I’m sure the detective will be quite vocal if anything we do doesn’t pass the sniff test. And I want this operation run by the book. Are we all clear on this? That means no shortcuts, no slip-ups. I don’t want this asshole to wiggle out of this because we fucked up," Vinnelli said to everyone before turning his attention back to Kirk.
"Now, to answer your question, detective, no, I can’t share the source of the information. What I can tell you is that a meeting was held at a club in the Bahamas yesterday. That meeting was between a couple of middlemen from a Peruvian drug cartel and DEA agent Roman Patterson. The meeting was held at a club called Black’s Paradise, and it is owned, as the name indicates, by Mike Black."
"Was Black present at this meeting?" Kirk asked.
"No, but his wife, Cassandra Black, a.k.a. Cassandra Sims, a.k.a. Shy was present at the meeting. At that meeting, agent Patterson was murdered, along with one of the middlemen that Patterson was able to kill before he was murdered. Now, your job here, detective, is to detail for us everything you know about him and his operation. Where he does business and who he does it with. And I wanna know right here, right now, if we can count on you, detective."
"You got something you’re tryin’ to say to me, agent Vinnelli?"
"My office, detective."
Kirk got up and followed Vinnelli to the door. Richards got up too. "Where are you goin’?"
"He’s my partner. You got something to say, you say it to both of us," Richards said defiantly.
Vinnelli took a deep breath and opened the door to the briefing room. "By all means, detective. Why don’t you join us." Kirk and Richards walked out of the briefing room and Vinnelli followed them out, slamming the door behind him. He led them across the hall to his office and slammed that door as well.
Vinnelli stood face to face with Kirk. "I’m gonna lay it on the line for you, detective. I don’t want you here. I believe your presence here compromises the success of this operation."