More Money for Good (18 page)

By the grace of God Mrs. Bullock came over a few minutes later. She was worried and tired. I hated to see her with so much stress for her grandson. So much stress about anything. Joyce was with her. They convinced Tavious to stay in the house until we could find out why Saadia printed all the lies about Tavious.

“Call her again,” Rossi said. He had just gotten off the phone with Ganes, who wanted to know why the reporter served Tavious up on a royal platter. He called to tell Rossi he was getting the hell out of town. He didn't want to end up dead next behind her bullshit because there was no telling when she was going to out him.

“She has everyone in hiding,” I let him know. Rossi picked up the camcorder and turned it on as we drove. “Something seriously has to be wrong with a chick who would print a bunch of lies about someone without any cause, man. I mean freakin' serious issues.”

“Just doesn't make any sense,” I tell him. “Here is a woman telling this man she loves him and to do this? This is the type of shit movies are made of. Fuckin' wild and unpredictable people living for themselves. That's all it is.”

Rossi didn't respond. All I heard him say was, “
Ohhh, shit.
” He was looking through the camcorder viewfinder. “Oh . . . oh . . . aww . . . Just fuck me,” he said.

“What?”

“Just fuck me, man,” he repeated.

I slammed on the breaks. “What is it? What the hell are you talking about?”

Rossi handed me the camcorder. “Isn't this our girl?”

I focused in to find out what he was talking about. “Just fuck me too,” I said.

“Yeah, that's what it looks like they're doin',” Rossi said.

“Saadia and the major?” I was speechless.

“In the flesh, brother,” Rossi said.

“I'll be damned.” My eyes couldn't believe what I was seeing. Saadia and the major doing things that only grown people should do. I looked at Rossi. “Saadia and the major?”

“Yup,” he answered.

“Together in the bed?”

“Yup, very much so, if you ask me.”

“What the hell is really going on?” I wanted to know.

When I stopped the car I didn't bother to pull over to the curb. I didn't care that the few cars that had to go around me came with a finger outside the window. To say the least after I finished watching the tape of the major and Saadia doing their dirty little deed, I put the car in drive and pushed down hard on the gas because I couldn't wait to show Ms. Thang her movie and find out what she thought about it.

There was no way I could keep our find from Tavious. When I called him the phone call wasn't about the money or who did the murders, but at least I had something positive to give to him that we were on the right track on finding out what the hell was going on. At first when I told him what we discovered on the camcorder he didn't want to believe it. For some reason he thought he would have picked up on Saadia. But that wasn't the case. Saadia had fooled us all, and we were driving down the street she lived on when we spotted her car pulling out of her driveway.

“Speed up, man, don't let her get out of that driveway,” Rossi said.

I did and right before her car reached the street my car pulled up behind her and I hit the horn hard so that Saadia didn't run into my sweet baby. Her tires screeched and she jumped out the car. She called me an asshole and a few other choice words.

When she saw our faces right after we got out the car her whole demeanor changed and her eyes widened.

“So, imagine running into you today,” I said. She knew damn well why we were paying her a visit.

Saadia gave me and Rossi a quick glancing over and starting walking back to her car. “Move the car or I'm calling the police,” she said.

“Do you believe this shit, man?” Rossi said. We were both standing in her driveway now.

“Well, you better believe it, got-damn it,” she said. “For all I know you two are killers too.”

Saadia was just about in her car. I looked around as quick as I could to see if anyone was looking at me. I grabbed her car door so she couldn't get in the car. “You're not going anywhere,” I told her.

She looked at my hand on the door. “Mr. West Owens, you better not do this,” she said as firm as she could but I could tell she was nervous.

“Ask her if she wants to do this here or inside, West,” Rossi said.

“Do what?” Saadia wanted to know.

“Ask her, West.”

“We need to talk. We can do it out here or inside your house.”

“There isn't a damn thing we need to talk about anyway, so you two can leave.”

I kind of chuckled at her boldness. “Is that right?”

“Yes, it is,” she confirmed.

“Well, that's not what the tape of you licking on the major tells me.”

We had gotten her attention. Her ears popped up like a small puppy hearing an unfamiliar sound.

“So tell us, sweetheart, where do you want to do this?” Rossi asked again.

We followed her into her place after we parked our cars and she still had the nerve to have an attitude.

She put her hand on her hip. “So, what's this about?”

Rossi and I looked at each other at the same time.

“Get real,” I said.

Rossi swiped at his face. “Geez. Fuckin' amnesia isn't going to work today, believe that.”

Saadia looked at our faces, knowing that she didn't have a chance. “Okay, yeah, I wrote the article,” she pushed.

“Duh, we freakin' know that, doll,” Rossi said.

“Why? What the fuck, Saadia? We didn't tell you any of that mess you printed in that paper,” I told her.

“I friggin' know that. I mean did you see a statement of yours in quotes with your name attached?”

“No, but I saw a bunch of bullshit lies. Now I have a friend who is worried about the rest of his life because of the mess that showed up in the paper this morning.”

We came to a point where Rossi and I were just looking at Saadia, waiting for her to tell us the deal. You could have heard a pin drop inside for a least a minute or so.

“Would love to stand here all day and look at you, babe,” Rossi said.

“But that's not going to happen,” I let her know.

Saadia ran her hands through her hair. “Shit, he just wouldn't talk to me. I wanted to talk to him and he didn't want to talk.”

“What?” I asked her.

Rossi said, “Who are we talking about?”

“Tavious, Tavious, got-damn it. He's an asshole who took advantage of me,” she said.

Rossi and I glanced at each other, hoping the other knew what the hell she was talking about. She felt our confusion.

“I fell in love with him, damn it. And he pulls away from me after we had such a connection,” she said.

“Now, I understand you two spent quite a bit of time together but . . . love?” I questioned.

“You have no idea. None whatsoever, West. That man told me his feelings and he gets in trouble and all of a sudden he decides that I can't know where he is. I can't see him. So, yeah, yes, I wrote the article to get him back and the shit hurts, doesn't it?”

“So, you do him because he's protecting himself?” Rossi made clear.

“And because you're hurting 'cause you can't see him? C'mon . . .” I added.

“I know, I know, I'm sorry now. I don't know what got into me. I was up all last night thinking what this was going to do to him. I just haven't had much success with men in my life, relationships period. I'm sorry; will you tell him I'm sorry, West?”

I wasn't feeling Saadia's “woe is me” concert. It would have been a hell of an act for someone else. But we didn't have time to entertain her lies. While she stood in front of us in a puddle of her tears, I held my hand out and asked Rossi to give me the camcorder.

She wiped her eyes and looked at it. “So, you want to put this on tape to show Tavious how sorry I am or something?”

Rossi looked at me, bewildered. “You believe this?”

I chuckled. “Not a chance.”

“Unbelievable,” Rossi mumbled.

I opened the recorder and hit the rewind button.

“Well, what's the camera for?” she wanted to know.

“You'll find out soon enough,” Rossi told her.

I walked over to Saadia and pushed play on the camcorder. It ran for about three seconds.

“Where did you get that?” she screamed. It was the recording of Saadia and our mystery major conjoined and configured in a way that they seemed to enjoy.

“My, my, my,” Rossi purred. “I only look at stuff like this when the little lady goes out to get her hair done. Or, on a real good night, when she's feeling a little freaky too.”

“I don't think I've ever met a real-life porn star,” I let her know.

Rossi asked Saadia, “Can I have your autograph?”

While we sat with Saadia, Mrs. Bullock called us two times. The situation had become hot and she and Joyce were at the house with Tavious. She had already received two phone calls from police letting her know that they were headed to her house to search for Tavious. Her good standing with the APD higher-ups and city council personnel persuaded them to agree not to make a spectacle of her home front, as long as she would bring Tavious in before six in the evening; or they would be forced to put an APB out for him.

There was no time to waste and as nice as it would have been to sit down and hear about all of Saadia and the major's intimate outings and romps, we had to put the pressure on Saadia and find out everything she knew about the major to help keep Tavious from going back to prison.

I sensed Saadia was being protective of the major. The only thing she actually confided to us was that the major hated her parents for naming her Keisha Champaign Majors and was ecstatic when she made major so she could demand to be called it at all times. Saadia conceded that she had been involved with the major and they were only friends. But we weren't buying it.

“Look, it's getting close to twelve o'clock and you haven't really given us anything that we can use to get these murders off Tavious,” Rossi said. He was sitting on her couch, still looking at the camcorder.

“I have a man who in six hours will turn himself in on murder charges that he didn't commit and you seem to be fine with it,” I told her. “I'm just saying all this love you claim you have for Tavious and you're not being up front with us. I can tell you're holding something back. Tell me, where were you going when we pulled up behind you?”

Saadia was getting more and more agitated. “Look, yes, we have been together and for me it was just out of curiosity. I'm tired of you calling me a liar.”

Rossi stood up from the couch. “Well, well, well, looky here,” he said.

Rossi walked over to me and gave me the camera. In a matter of seconds my eyes were focused on the major and yet another woman having what seemed to be the time of their lives in a romantic liaison. I watched as the major and the pretty-looking, petite cutie-pie friend exchanged tender kisses, posing for the camera.

Saadia moved closer to me. I reversed the tape and pushed play so she could see. After she got her bearings and tuned in to understand what was going on, she watched the major and friend just as I had. But her reaction was tightening eyes and clear agitation. Saadia threw the camcorder down when the major said, “This must be love,” and blew a kiss into the camera. That's when Saadia threw down the camcorder and screamed, “Bitch,” over and over again before running out the room and down the hall of her home.

The time on my cell read a quarter past two in the afternoon. We had been sitting on Saadia's couch for nearly forty-five minutes, waiting for her to come out of her room. Her crying and screaming at the walls had ended about five minutes earlier. I thought just maybe she had it all out of her system. Maybe she was ready to come out and tell us what was going on. Soon after, we could hear her talking, but not at the walls. She was having a conversation with someone. I walked down to her room, pressed my ear on her door, and realized that she was on the phone.

“Yes, yes, I know got-damn it,” she said. “Do you always have to tell me about your friggin' fee when I am trying to explain something—my feelings—to you? Yes, I get it, four hundred dollars, you fuckin' tick,” she said. “All I need you to do is help me with my decision. Yes, I know, I know it's the right thing and I should never do something for revenge. But got-damn it, you can dress it up all you like, but what I have for her she'll always remember.”

Then for the first time in nearly an hour, Saadia's room had become completely quiet. From the outside looking in I envisioned her sitting on her bed with her face in her hands. I gave her a few more minutes before I knocked. She answered me on the fourth knock right after I called out her name.

“What is it?”

“Want to or not, Saadia—we need to talk.”

No response.

“Saadia, I know that you must be feeling pretty bad. Especially when someone has done you wrong.”

“West, you don't know anything about me or how I'm feeling, okay? So please, stop analyzing me. I just got off the phone with my shrink. I don't need another.”

I had her talking so I jumped at my chance to engage her because time was ticking. “You're right. You're right. I don't know you at all. The only thing I know is that you and Tavious, although you two haven't spoken in a few days, could really have something special.”

“Yeah, but he didn't show me that he cared,” she slashed.

I paused. I really wanted to just step back and kick her door down because I felt myself becoming quite perturbed. Really, how could he be head over heels in love with her in such a short time? I was furious about the entire situation; besides, I thought she had feelings for the major. I fought like hell to control my leg from kicking it down, but not the tone of my voice, because I had already figured out this had nothing at all to do with Tavious.

“You know what? This is bullshit, Saadia. The writing is on the wall. It's on the wall because your reaction to the major on the recorder shows who you really have feelings for. So stop the crap. I have a friend who has already spent over half his life in prison and more than likely will go back if you continue this game.”

Saadia didn't respond.

I had said all I wanted to say to her. I started to walk back down the hallway to let Rossi know that we were going to have to knock the door down in order for her to talk to us. Just as I got halfway down the hall, I could hear the door unlock and Saadia appears.

I looked back at her but my instincts directed me to keep walking and guide her away from her room, then sit down in the living room in a chair across from Rossi. When Rossi saw Saadia he turned the camcorder off and set it next to him on the couch. Soon she was standing before us, deflated.

“Okay, what do you want to know?”