Philadelphia (3 page)

Ramon immediately shot up, and as he did, Billie plunged the shears up and into the underside of his chin. The tip of the shears tore through the skin and into his mouth, puncturing Ramon's tongue.

Billie jumped up from her knees to avoid the blood that was now spewing from Ramon's groin and neck. She dropped his penis, grabbed her purse, pulled out a hunting knife, and slit Ramon's throat.

He was rendered silent. He struggled to try to stop the bleeding from his neck with one hand as he pulled the shears from his chin with the other. His attempts were useless. After a few moments of struggling, he went into shock and passed out from the loss of blood.

Billie took out some baby wipes from her purse, picked up Ramon's penis, washed off any trace of fingerprints, and then did the same with the pruning shears.

“Unlucky for you, you only did seven years. If you did fifteen, I wouldn't have found you today in the files of released criminals. There's your payback for past crimes, motherfucker.” Billie calmly walked out of the house and back to her car a satisfied woman.

When Billie promised her mother that someone would pay for her father's death, this was what she meant. It just took her twenty years to realize it.

Detective Walter Peterson stood over the bloody body with his notepad in hand. “Jesus. They chopped his dick off. That's some coldhearted shit.” He scribbled a few notes. “We need to find out if this guy had any girlfriends, or who his exes are,” he said to his new partner, D'Angelo Martin.

“Maybe one who works at a flower shop.” D'Angelo nodded to the pruning shears on the bed.

“Did we dust for prints on these?” Walter asked the forensics guy.

“Yeah, came back clean,” he answered.

“Figures.”

“You know this is the third guy in the last two months who's been released then murdered,” D'Angelo said to Walter.

“I was thinking the same thing. We need to start looking at the similarities between them,” Walter answered.

Walter liked his new partner. He was skeptical at first because the kid had just been promoted to detective, but Walter had to remind himself that he was once in the same position as D'Angelo. When Walter got promoted to detective, he was paired with Detective Jerrod Jefferson.

Walter and Jerrod had gotten back in the car bloody and bruised. From that point on, Jerrod changed his attitude toward the rookie detective. Walter had stepped up and shown that he was a man and Jerrod respected that. Their relationship became strong, and they stayed partners until Jerrod retired last month.

Now Walter was the veteran mentoring the rookie. His approach was going to be different than his old partner's. There would be no fighting with his partner to prove his manhood. Walter was going to make sure this partnership started off much smoother.

“Any cameras in the area?” Walter asked one of the officers on the scene. “That might give us a look at who did this.”

“No, sir. Checked with all the businesses. No one has security cameras.”

“Anyone see anything?” Walter asked.

“We're in the process of interviewing neighbors. Nothing yet.”

Walter flipped through his notepad, hoping that a magic answer might appear. “You got anything?” he asked D'Angelo.

“I could almost guarantee this guy is connected to the other two.”

Walter nodded in agreement. “Get back to us after you finish up the interviews.”

“Will do, Detective,” the officer responded.

D'Angelo handed the officer his card.

“All right, let's get back to the station and start putting these pieces together,” Walter said.

“Let's do it.” D'Angelo followed Walter out of the house.

There was a crowd gathered around the police tape roping off the entrance to the house. Walter saw officers questioning people in the crowd, but he wasn't hopeful that anyone would give them information. There was a code in the hood that was rarely broken: even if you know something, don't tell the police shit.

Walter ducked under the tape and held it for D'Angelo as the crowd moved out of their way.

“Yo, what happened?” one of the girls from the beauty salon asked.

“You tell me,” Walter answered and kept walking to the car.

 

 

“So we got three bodies, all released from lockup, and within days they are murdered. Seems like too much of a coincidence. What's the connection?” D'Angelo said as Walter drove them back to the station.

“They're all grimy-ass dudes.” Both men chuckled at Walter's little joke.

Walter pulled the car into their parking space in front of the station. D'Angelo's cell phone rang.

“Detective Martin,” he answered the call.

Walter could hear a male voice on the other end of the phone, but couldn't make out what he was saying.

“Hold on, Officer Greene.” D'Angelo pulled out his notepad and raised his eyebrows at Walter. “Okay, go on.”

D'Angelo jotted down notes as Officer Greene spoke. When the officer finished, D'Angelo said, “Great work, Greene. If we need anything else, I'll get back to you.” D'Angelo hung up the phone.

He turned to his partner and said, “We got a partial description of a woman who was seen leaving the victim's house last night.” D'Angelo's voice was laced with optimism.

“Let me see.” Walter took the notepad from D'Angelo and read the description.

When he was finished, he handed the notepad back to D'Angelo. “I'll meet you inside.”

“Okay. This is good, right?” D'Angelo was surprised that his partner didn't seem more excited about the potential break in the case.

Walter simply nodded.

As soon as D'Angelo stepped out of the car and shut the door, Walter took out his cell phone and made a call.

Billie walked into her office with a bounce to her step. She was always in a good mood the morning after a kill. She sat down at her desk with a big smile on her face, ready to start a new case and put someone behind bars. Her energy level was high considering she'd barely slept the night before.

After she left Ramon's house Billie couldn't calm down. She was so high with adrenaline she contemplated finding a corner boy and slicing his throat, but after some thought, she decided to go straight home instead. She wasn't about to chance getting pulled over by the police and questioned about why she was out so late or why she had blood on her clothes.

As she was lying in bed thinking about her latest kill, she found her hand sliding between her legs. Her vagina was already wet as her fingers started to slowly rub her clit. She spread her lips and plunged two fingers deep inside and gave herself a nice finger fucking. Her rhythm started slow and sped up as she became more and more turned on. It didn't take long for her to have a monster orgasm.

In her post-orgasm haze, she told herself that it wasn't the killing that she enjoyed, but the justice that she was serving. She was ridding the world of evil and keeping her city safe. She was a public servant doing bad to do good. She needed to do this because it frightened her that she was enjoying killing so much. She was struggling with the fact that she might be becoming one of the same people she was so hell-bent on punishing. She made sure to remind herself that it was all for the good of society.

Thinking about the previous night got Billie so excited she couldn't sit at her desk any longer. She walked down the hall to the office pantry to get some hot herbal tea.

“Hey, Billie.” Kevin walked up behind her as she was steeping the tea bag.

“Shit!” His sudden appearance startled Billie, causing her to spill a little of her tea.

“Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you.” Kevin grabbed some napkins and handed one to Billie.

“No worries. It's my fault.” Billie smiled as she and Kevin wiped the counter dry.

“You're in a better mood than yesterday,” Kevin said.

“I had a good night.” Billie smirked and threw the wet napkin in the trash.

“You spend it with that boring-ass cop?” Kevin rolled his eyes.

“For your information, he is a detective, and what I did is none of your business.”

“Well, whatever you did, it put you in a better mood than winning our case did.”

“How can I be happy after winning a case when I know that in a few years whoever I put behind bars will probably be back on the streets?”

“You're bringing justice and punishing them for their crimes.”

“In my opinion, they never get punished enough when lawyers get involved.” Billie frowned. This was an argument she and Kevin had after almost every case. She couldn't understand why he was so satisfied when those scumbags always got much less than what they deserved from a weak judicial system.

“If I won as many cases as you did, I'd be happy.” Kevin shrugged his shoulders. “Hey, you hear about that homicide over in Fairhill? Guy got his dick chopped off.”

Billie smiled. “He must have deserved it.” She sipped her tea. “Nice talking with you, Kevin.” She walked back to her office, proud of the work she had done the previous night and the fact that it had already hit the newswire. She couldn't wait to get back to her desk and read the online articles about the murder. She was definitely making a statement with this latest kill.

Billie's phone was ringing as she entered her office.

“This is Billie,” she answered as set her mug on her desk.

“Where were you last night?”

“Good morning to you too, Walter.” Billie and Walter had been casually hooking up for six months.

“Good morning, Billie. Now, where were you last night?” Walter asked.

“I was home.”

“I called you. Why didn't you answer?”

“I saw your messages. I was just about to call you. I was so wiped out from my case yesterday. I went straight home, shut off my phones, and went to sleep.” Billie wished she had a better excuse, but it was the best she could do in the moment. She had seen Walter's call come in but let it go to voice mail. She'd had a more important date with Ramon to attend to. Besides, Walter wasn't her boyfriend; he was just a guy she liked hanging out with. She didn't owe him anything.

“We were supposed to have dinner last night.” Some anger was evident in Walter's voice.

“I forgot.” Billie matched the anger in Walter's voice with some of her own.

“You forgot? You really know how to make a guy feel special.”

“Look, I'm only human. I had a case on my mind, I fell asleep; I forgot. Don't take it so personally.”

“You'd rather have your case rock you to sleep than me. How am I not supposed to take something like that personally?”

She huffed out a sigh. “How many times do I have to tell you? Work comes first.”

“We need to talk.”

“So talk,” Billie said.

“Not on the phone. In person.”

“Lunch?” Billie suggested.

“No. Tonight. My place.”

“All right. Tonight,” Billie agreed.

“Don't forget, Billie.” Walter hung up.

Billie was surprised by Walter's reaction. He was usually calm and would jump at the chance to have lunch with her. Something was different.