09

DETECTIVE GOMEZ

*I laughed as Hallé and Michael swirled and gyrated to the voice of the leather jacket clad man belting out his own unique deep tone version of Marvin Gaye's Let's get it on. The man threw himself off the stage as his finale move as Hallé and Michael took a seat; She really seemed to make him happy.

Not long after, a dark skinned young woman took the stage; she stood still for some time and you could feel the immediate attraction of the audience to the young performer, it shimmered almost as bright as her metallic gold leather dress underneath the direct duress of the stage lights.

Her mask brightened the look even more with its sequined golden material; then finally the tense silence of the room broke as the seductive beat of Hallé's "Scorned" began to fill the room. This was obviously the cue she was waiting for, I realized as the young performer crooned out the fierce intro "They say a woman scorned is a dangerous one,that's not me; baby I've always been dangerous" before fully belting into the song, and Hallé nearly screamed as she jumped up to get closer to the stage, pulling Solange with her.

Hallé loved getting to experience new talents like this- incognito. She's put many on the map this way and that's why many seemed to frequent this dingy karaoke joint, hoping to run into whatever angel that connected them to Hallé, none ever assuming it was really just her.

I shook my head at having to go through such antics just to enjoy yourself on a weekend, fame was truly a double edged sword and I was thankful I didn't have to directly deal with the effects. I swung my head towards Michael almost instinctively, wanting to pull him into a conversation now that the girls were away. I doubt they'd be thrilled to hear my opinion on their antics; but when I caught his eye, he was busy staring in Hallé and Solange's direction with a very far off look.

This was about the third time I'd caught him out of it like this, and I'd just put it off to stress given the industry he's in; and I chose to just give him space until he came to me like always; when he's under stress it never bids well to push him...but I was way too worried now and I was about to ask when Hallé and Solange returned buzzing and gushing; effectively distracting me.*

*Then the scene changed, I was in their home now, and I already knew what it was; what I was about to see, but I couldn't even move, couldn't force my eyes open.

I stood frozen, completely useless as I watched Michael walk down the stairs like he was looking for something, then I saw the shadowy figure approach, quick and lithe; soundless and I watched it wrap its arms round Michael's throat using the belt as a tool. I watched the belt squeeze out every last bit of oxygen from his lungs until his body jumped to the ground and I screamed*

I woke up in a cold sweat, panting heavily; *Not again*. I had been having these dreams since Michael was gone and it never mattered how it started because it always ended back in that house, watching him die.

Well the beginning never mattered till now. That wasn't just a dream, it was a memory; one he had been to busy to remember. What was Michael hiding? Why didn't he do something? Why did he just let it go?

He shook his head and was going to reach for the glass of water on his desk when he heard a loud pounding noise from downstairs and instead reached for his gun in the desk drawer.

He slowly made his way downstairs holding the gun behind his back while he slightly opened the front door only to find the mailman standing in front of him, utterly soaked;

*he hadn't even noticed it was raining*.

By the looks of it he didn't expect the rain either and Luiz wondered how long he'd been standing outside his door.

He discreetly tucked the gun into his work jeans and opened the door wider with an apologetic look "Sorry, can't be too careful right now. I hope you haven't been waiting out here too long".

The man just looked grateful that he didn't have to keep on knocking "No not really, the rain just came down all of a sudden when I was 'bout two houses down, just thought I should at least be done with this street before I head on home and deliver the rest of 'em tomorrow; So you just need to sign here and I'll be out of this rain". He replied handing me a medium sized rectangular box and a brown envelope with his clipboard and pen ontop of both.

I signed the sheet, told him good bye and to go carefully, locked the door and sat down on the couch just staring at both items wondering who could have sent me well...anything. It couldn't be a coincidence.

That thought alone made me tear through the brown packaging of the rectangular box and ripped it open. I actually had to hold back my shock at the medium sized rectangular frame holding a photo of the night I was just dreaming about *with all of us clad in leather*; I flipped the frame over to see a note taped to it "The photo came; thought you could use a copy- Love, Hallé".

I shook my head in disbelief, *why is she being so nice*. I grabbed the envelope *next*, and I figured it was another "guilt-gift" from Hallé, only to be nicely surprised when I poured out its contents on my coffee table; *photos*, Wow that's a thing today.

Only as I flipped them over, I realized these were completely different; they were pictures of Solange in a hoodie getting out of her car, Solange in a coffee shop waiting, Solange and *oh fuck*...the neighbor kid meeting up and then finally Solange sliding over a similar brown envelope to the kid.

*What the hell is going on, is she paying him off?*

I grabbed the envelope again, looking for any more photos that could confirm my suspicion or an idea as to who sent this as it had no return address, when I felt what I was sure to be a contact card.

I pulled it out, letting the envelope fall to the ground. It turned out to be a makeshift contact card cut out of a plain white cardboard paper with nothing but a phone number and a simple "call me" written on the front, but it was the name at the bottom, written tiny enough that a less meticulous eye might have missed it that really took me out-

*Pastor Brown*.

.....................................

MOLLY

I flipped over backwards landing at the edge of the mat as my aunt aimed a roundhouse kick towards me; She hadn't landed the hit but the force surrounding it was enough to knock the air out of me.

I panted scrambling to get myself grounded but didn't disarray her as she jumped forward again but I caught the movement just in time and disarmed her with a front knee strike to her torso knocking the wind out of her, landing her flat on the mat.

I let out a high pitched "Yes" before falling to the ground myself.

My aunt was harder on the self defense lessons and sparring than my parents were and that's saying a lot; due to every member of my family being involved in a form of law enforcement, they took it upon themselves to make sure each and everyone took self defense classes and learnt fighting skills, then with me being the current youngest I was pushed even harder.

I had to be better than them and because I was an only child, my parents felt much more comfortable knowing I could protect myself to an optimum.

Meanwhile my aunt pushed harder because she saw herself in me, my thirst for justice rivaled hers but I doubt anyone could rival her ambition; becoming the chief of police at twenty nine after being a special agent for a few years.

Yet as I watched her lay on her back laughing at my antics; I only saw my aunt and the woman who made me push myself the extra mile. I truly adored her; she was part of the reasons why I was currently so involved in Hallé's case, justice needed to be served at any cost.

I was quite lost in thought and didn't notice that my aunt had walked over to me with an outstretched arm, "Are you okay?" she asked pulling me to my feet, I nodded my head in reply "Yeah, I was just thinking about the Michael case and I think Luis and I are really about to close it".

She frowned "I don't want you working too hard", I raised an eyebrow in disbelief "Really? I'd never expect that coming from you". She rolled her eyes "I'm serious, Luis shouldn't be working you so hard".

I let out a dramatic sigh "I promise, it's fine. Now if you'd excuse me I'll be in my room getting ready, Luiz and I have an interview today".

"Yeah, yeah but you both should hurry up and close this case so ya'll can finally take a break"

"Of course" I replied giving her a kiss and rushing towards my room.

*I can't wait to see how this plays out*

.....................................

DETECTIVE GOMEZ

I rang the doorbell for the third time; at this point I was ready to breakdown the front door with my excitement.

Thankfully the chief swung it open before it got to that, and *wow* only she could make sweating look this good; I was about to tell her that I'd coming over a lot more on the weekends if she'd always open the door in those sports bra and yoga pants, but she beat me to it.

"Now if anything that comes out of that mouth is remotely sexual instead of a "hello" or a "good morning" I will have your ass reported to internal affairs for verbal sexual harassment, you're already disturbing my Saturday so you really don't want to push me"

*Damn* "Alright, alright I'm just here to pick Shadow up"

"I'm not even going to get into how contriversially racist that sounds coming from a latino man to a dark skinned African American girl, but I really just hope that whatever that Pastor gives you can finally close this case" she replied frowning with her arms crossed.

I nodded in response "Chief, just from the few pictures I received I know he knows enough to finally give this case some clarity, now can you please get *Molly*"

She rolled her eyes "I've got some eggs on the stove so you can go on up and get her by yourself; she's in the guest room, so you just knock, come back and wait for her to come down"

"Yeah, I got it" I replied closing the door behind me and walking up the stairs to get Shadow.

As I got closer to the guest room I heard a powerful soulful voice booming out the lyrics to Hallé's "Scorned".

By the time I got in front of the room the music playing in the background had stopped being overshadowed with what I assumed to have been Shadow's voice and I could hear Hallé's voice gasp out the closing monologue "*They say a woman scorned is a dangerous one,that's not me; baby I've always been dangerous *" before I broke out of the shock that slowed my movements and knocked on the door.

"Shadow, its Luiz. Just wanted to let you know I'm around and I'll be waiting for you downstairs"; I didn't bother to wait for her reply as I walked away, wow I didn't know the girl could sing, like that; then again how would that ever come up.

Yet as I walked to the living room I couldn't help but wonder *then why does it feel like I've heard her voice before*.

......................................

"So you didn't even need to leverage him?" Shadow asked as we stepped out of the elevator towards the hotel room booked in Pastor Brown's name.

"Nope" I replied rapping on the room door, Shadow let out a snort at my response "Well that can't be good" and I was just about to say I agree with her when the door open and we were graced with the presence of Pastor Brown.

"Good day Pastor, may Shadow and I come in?"

He opened the door wider in response "Of course, I mean I did invite you here; come on take a seat", he said gesturing towards the couches to the right of his twin bed.

"Thank you Pastor, now I'd like for us to just get straight to the point, I've already wasted a lot of good time on this case and apart from the pictures of what I assume is Solange paying off the neighbor kid what else can you tell us?"

Pastor Brown sighed as he took a seat on the bed "Well firstly please call me Joshua and to explain further what you saw was Solange paying off the kid with my money from a cheque I wrote her"

Shadow jumped at his reply "Woah wait, why would you do that? What are the both of you trying to cover up?"

Joshua shook his head at her accusations "No its nothing like that, you see when Michael and Hallé met she introduced him to Solange especially just like he did with you detective but that's where it all went wrong; she fell for him, which is why she started hanging out more and more with you three and of course Hallé didn't mind. Her sister, no matter all their arguments is actually the only person she really talks to"

I rubbed in my temples "Okay, okay so where do you come into this?"

He squinted at me before replying "I was getting to that, anyways so one day Hallé overheard Solange trying to tell her mum about the man she'd fallen for and she burst into the conversation, so she deflected and told them she had fallen for *you*"

*Huh,I knew she was trying to set us up, Michael just thought I was jumping to conclusions*

Shadow stood up and started pacing "So how does this connect to the case, don't tell me she slept with him, and how do you even know this anyways"

"Again, I was getting to that. Please sit down and let me finish; so of course Hallé immediately believed her sister and the hangouts got even more regular, but Michael of course had no clue and really only saw her as Hallé's sister well that is until Hallé's very recent tour. You remember Michael couldn't come along because he was sick and you had to help out with a case in a neighbouring town; so of course Solange stepped in and that's when it all went downhill, the cosy house, a drunken night and a very foolish mistake by the both of them- they slept together. So Solange first came to me when she knew she had fallen for Michael, crying, sobbing, and I told her right then to remove herself from the situation, so when she told me about what happened I said she had to tell her sister or I would; but then she had something on me"

My overwhelming curiosity literally had me on the edge of my seat "What? It can't be cheating, I mean you're not married"

I watched him blush at my words and then sigh "*Exactly*, I'm gay and she's the only one who knows. I had made the mistake of having my boyfriend over at my office and that was the day Solange had come over to tell me about her and Michael and I wasn't expecting anyone...but she just burst in and.."

At his words I saw Shadow grow somber, "And she threatened to out you if you told anyone"

I scrunched up my eyebrows "I don't understand...there's a young officer I work with ironic enough his name is Josh, that's besides the point, I mean I *know* he's gay and generally it seems to be fine, I mean there have been some very dumb fucks who tried to say or do some shit but they were quickly put in their place. I mean this is 2019".

Joshua laughed in response to my rambling "Does this young officer named *Josh* happen to be a middle aged black Pastor in charge of a church with a majorly black congregation?"

This time I let out a sigh "I'm sorry, I meant no offense Joshua; but I mean how have you managed to keep this a secret for so long?"

"Son, I've been gay for practically as long as I've lived here, trust me I know how to get around and keep people out of my business and my personal life and decisions are not what I came here to talk about".

I nodded "Alright, so the pictures how did you get them?"

"Well after her threat, I realized that she was a more cutthroat than I imagined. So I got in contact with a PI through my boyfriend and started having her followed for a while, more for leverage than anything else. Then it seemed that she'd decided to stay away from him so I called him off but she came back again about two weeks later and she told me that she was pregnant, and that she told him and he said they needed to come clean; she was very frantic but I calmed her down and told her to tell Michael to give her some time, this was about a month before his death. Anyways after she came to me, I put the PI on her again and it seemed Michael was adamant on telling Hallé, he was ready to take care of the baby but it was her she loved".

Shadow gasped "He wanted the baby not her, so she killed him because she was afraid that Hallé would get both Michael and the baby and she'd be cast aside and isolated"

I scrunched my face up at the grim theory "But what is she planning to do when she starts showing? Wouldn't Hallé figure it out?"

Joshua went beetroot red at my inquiry "Yes, so she's going to blame it on me. You know we're both adults and in her words *Your

church would be more forgiving of the child out of wedlock story than a homosexual Pastor who has been lying about his sexuality*".

I grimaced at his words "I knew there was always something off about her but this is horrible"

*God...Michael, I should have known; he should have just told me...The way I've been treating Hallé*

I sighed "Okay, now even if I believe you about all this. We still need more proof before we can bring her in. The kid will probably give us everything but according to Hallé and the receptionist at the motel Solange never left the room. Your PI wouldn't happen to know anything about that?"

He shook his head "No but go talk to that receptionist again, I'm pretty sure she's been paid off"

I released a calming breath at his words, it seemed I'd finally be able to get a good night's sleep sooner than I thought.