Sex, Secrets and South Beach (32 page)

B
entley and Sparks ran alongside the gurney
as Dez was wheeled into the emergency room at
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. There was a journalist who was wheeled
in too, hovering between life and death. Throngs of the press were
in tow, anxious to get the scoop on not just a celebrity but one of
their own as well.

"You can't go in there," a nurse told
Bentley as he attempted to follow Dez into an operating
room.

"You don't understand. That's my
girl," he explained, overcome with tears.

"I'm sorry, sir," she told him,
blocking his way. Sparks put his arm around Bentley's shoulder and
led him into the ER waiting area.

"What happened, man?" Bentley asked
his brother.

"I don't know," Sparks answered,
shaking his head. "There was the flash, then gunshots. I saw Dez on
the ground, and then you came up."

"Whoever did this is going to pay!"
Bentley swore through clenched teeth.

"Yeah, but who did it? We ain't got
beef with nobody. We don't owe anybody any money. We ain't got no
gang ties, no mob ties, no drug ties. We busted our asses building
this label. I can't believe that someone was just hating. Not
enough to try and kill us," Sparks exclaimed. "I mean, who were
they aiming at? Was it me? Was it you? Was it Dez?"

"Shit! Was it someone else altogether?
Maybe we were in the wrong place at the wrong time," Bentley
said.

"I don't know...the way it all went
down, it was organized. It was like a professional hit,
man."

The police interviewed Sparks and
Bentley. They repeated the same facts: They had no known enemies.
They weren't involved in anything illegal or shady and couldn't
think of any reason other than jealousy that someone would want to
hurt any of them. Sparks told the police about the case with Dirty
Dan, as well as Ysenia's reporting to the tabloids, and the
stalking incident with a knife-wielding Leilani. The police gave
the standard promise to look into every avenue and follow up on all
leads, but both Sparks and Bentley were skeptical that the case
would be made a priority. They'd seen what happened in cases like
the Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur murders. The authorities
would probably chalk things up to senseless rap violence. The
detectives that interviewed them gave them their business cards and
assured them that they would contact them if any information became
available. Likewise, they asked the brothers to call if they
remembered or heard anything.

"If we were white, they'd already have
a lineup," Bentley raged.

"Maybe, but talking about race isn't
going to help us right now," Sparks told his brother. He knew that
Bentley was upset and afraid for Dez. "I need to call Ginger,
though. She was supposed to get to L.A. a couple of hours ago with
her fiancé."

"I'm going to stay here and wait to
hear about my baby," Bentley replied.

Ginger had already heard
the news when Sparks
reached her by cell
phone.

"We just checked in a little while
ago. I was getting ready to get dressed when we saw it all on
television. Is Dez okay?" Ginger asked, hopeful.

"It doesn't look good," Sparks
admitted. "Get down here quick."

"Okay I'm on my way. Cedars-Sinai,
right?"

"Yeah."

"But, Sparks, who did this?" Ginger
wanted to know.

"We don't know. We already talked to
the police and told them everything we could think of. We told them
about Dirty Dan and Leilani, but they gave us the standard 'don't
call us, we'll call you' routine," he informed her.

"I'll be there in a flash.
I know Dan, and I don't think he has the capacity to kill. And
although Leilani is definitely crazy, I don't know if she's
that
crazy. But I may
have some information that will help," Ginger told him, then hung
up the phone.

In an instant Ginger and her fiancé
were at the hospital.

"This is my fiancé, Dr. Jacques
Pierre," Ginger said to Sparks and Bentley.

"Nice to meet you," Jacques said, and
shook their hands. "I'm going to talk to the doctor and see if I
can get a better handle on the situation," he informed them before
kissing Ginger on the cheek and disappearing down the
corridor.

"How is she?" Ginger asked Sparks as
she greeted him and Bentley with comforting hugs and
kisses.

"She's still in surgery. She lost a
lot of blood. And she was, she was...oh my God!" Bentley broke
down.

"She was eight weeks pregnant. She
lost the baby," Sparks finished. "The doctor just came and told
us."

Ginger burst into
tears.
Why, God?
she prayed.
Please help me to
understand this and trust that You'll make it all
better.

"On the phone you said you might know
something." Sparks got down to business, and Ginger quickly
composed herself.

"Oh my God yes! There was this guy
K.G. Dez used to date him before she met Bentley. When she broke
things off with him, he didn't take it so well. She thought he got
the picture, but he did have her nervous for a while. He was in
some serious denial," Ginger informed them.

"It's a start," Sparks
said.

"My baby, my baby," Bentley said over
and over softly as he sat in a hard plastic chair with his head
buried in his hands.

"Get me Dez's two-way. He paged her a
bunch of times. We can give that information to the police," Ginger
told Sparks.

Sparks handed her the beaded Judith
Leiber bag that Dez had been carrying earlier that night. Then they
called the police. The detective seemed a little more optimistic
about the lead than he had before. He promised them he'd get right
on it.

There had been complications from
Dez's surgery. The bullet had gone through her abdomen and lodged
against a nerve near her spinal column. Removal had been difficult
and highly risky Dez had lost lots of blood due to hemorrhaging,
and having had a transfusion, she was now recovering from the long
surgery in intensive care. She was still unconscious, and both her
heart rate and blood pressure were unstable.

Cards, flowers, and stuffed animals
began pouring into the hospital from hip-hop fans nationwide. MTV
and BET had both interrupted their regular programming with updates
and a marathon of Titanium Records videos, along with all the
videos Dez had ever appeared in. People e-mailed and called the
networks to offer their best wishes for her recovery. Naturally,
Ysenia took the shooting as an opportunity to talk to the sleazy
tabloids and so-called entertainment news programs to milk the
tragedy for all she could.

Two days after the shooting, the
police contacted Sparks via his cell phone. Both Ginger and Bentley
had not left the hospital since the shooting, although Dez was in a
coma and was non-responsive to stimuli.

"Mr. Baker? This is Detective Atkins
of the LAPD."

"Detective, have you found out
anything about this K.G. character?" Sparks crossed his fingers,
and Ginger grabbed his hand and began to pray.

"We followed up on the lead. His name
is Kevin Gilliam. He's a high-level drug dealer who is currently
being held in a pretrial detention center in Detroit facing a
mandatory minimum of twenty-five years to life in a federal
penitentiary. He's charged with murder, trafficking, extortion; you
name it, he was involved. But he wasn't involved in Dez's shooting.
He's been locked up for about three weeks now. And it's highly
unlikely that he could have orchestrated this whole thing from
behind bars. He's facing his own trial right now. Dez probably
isn't his main focus, no matter how smitten he once was. But we're
gonna keep digging. It's a long shot, but if he's involved, we're
gonna find out.

"As for Leilani Hong Thomas, the young
lady that threatened her with a knife, she was working on a
soundstage in Miami that night. Several people have vouched for her
whereabouts. Meanwhile, there's a lab checking out the footage of
the pre-awards show. There has to be something on one of the tapes.
Most of the journalists are cooperating with us."

"Most of them?" Sparks
questioned.

"Well, some of them are taking their
time handing over their footage. They want to be the first to
discover anything. They want the scoop," the detective explained.
"But don't worry. We're going to find something. Whoever did this
wasn't thinking too much. There were a million cameras out there.
There's bound to be something. Just try and be patient. We're going
to get to the bottom of this." Sparks disconnected the
call.

"I don't understand," he told Ginger.
"K.G.'s been locked up for three weeks. He couldn't have been
involved. He's about to go on trial facing a major bid. He's
probably focusing on how to save his own ass, not causing more
trouble for himself right now."

"Think, Sparks!" Ginger
begged. "I mean, is there anyone? Who would want to see
you
dead?"

"I keep telling you, we don't have
beef. Me and B used to be petty thieves when we were younger,
boosters. But we never fucked around with the big boys. I started
DJ'ing before we could get too caught up in the streets. We've been
all about our music ever since. That's on everything."

"This is so crazy," Ginger said. "K.G.
is out. Ysenia wouldn't do it because Dez is her meal ticket. Dan
isn't a killer. I know him. He was probably mad as hell that he had
to pay her all that money from the settlement of the tape, but
killing Dez wouldn't have changed anything. He already paid her,
it's not like he can get his money back. He's probably just glad
that he's not in jail. But I got to ask you, Sparks. Does Leilani
know what went down between you and my sister?"

Sparks looked surprised.

"Yeah, Dez told me," Ginger explained.
"But don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I'm just asking
because Leilani is nuts. There was that whole incident with the
knife. And now that I'm thinking about it, it seems to make
sense."

"Leilani was just being dramatic,"
Sparks replied.

"Stop defending her. She held us at
knifepoint. Do the police know that?"

"Yes, I told them. If it was her, the
police would know something. Besides, if Leilani is behind this,
it's not because of what happened with me and Dez. I never said
anything, and I don't plan to," Sparks swore.

"Well, I don't know. But what's more
important anyway is that Dez make it through this. She's got to
pull through. She can't die!" Ginger began to cry.

"Come on." Sparks hugged her. "Let's
go talk to Bentley and see if anything has improved."

Bentley sat at Dez’s
beside, holding her hand. He
had a blank
expression on his face.

"Is she getting any better?" Ginger
asked.

"No. Nothing has changed," Bentley
replied somberly.

"Well, let's all pray. That's all
that's left to do," Ginger suggested, and they did just
that.

Four days later

J
onathan Baker?" It was Detective Atkins on the
other end of the phone. "I need you to come into
the police station immediately."

"Has there been a crack in the case?"
he asked eagerly.

"I won't go into it over the phone.
Just get here," he instructed before ending the call.

Sparks and Ginger headed to the police
headquarters in Inglewood. Bentley refused to leave Dez's side, but
promised to alert them of any change in her condition. He made them
swear to page him as soon as they knew something.

"Have you found the shooter?" Ginger
asked immediately as Detective Atkins joined them.

"Yes and no," he replied.

"Please, just tell us what's going
on," Sparks interrupted.

"Well, we've found the
perpetrator on film." Detective Atkins popped in a videotape. "This
footage came from
Access Entertainment
Weekly
. Their cameras were directed at
Dez, but from behind her. Take a look into the upper left-hand
corner of the TV screen as I play this. Now, I'm warning you, this
is graphic. You're going to see Dez go down. But you're also going
to see who did it," the detective explained. He played the tape in
slow motion. Ginger began to cry as she watched the footage, but
tried to keep her eyes focused on where the shots were being fired
from. The detective stopped the tape.

"See, right there." He pointed a
ballpoint pen at a shadowy man in the upper left-hand corner of the
screen. He was holding a giant strobe flash with one hand and a
nine-millimeter revolver in the other. Simultaneously, the man
illuminated the extra-bright flash and squeezed the trigger on the
gun.

"Who is it?" Ginger asked, averting
her eyes.

"We don't know yet. We were hoping
that maybe you would recognize him," Detective Atkins
stated.

"I can barely see him. From what I can
see, he looks Chinese or something," Ginger replied. She gave
Sparks a meaningful look. Sparks raised an eyebrow.

Chinese! Nah, it couldn't
be
, Sparks thought.
Could Leilani somehow be behind all of this? Fuck her alibi!
I owe it to Dez to find out. But I don't trust the LAPD. We still
don't know who killed Tupac or Biggie! They probably don't even
care about who did this or why. They're probably only hoping to
solve this crime so they can be on Court TV and write a book or get
a promotion. But I think I have a way to get to the bottom of
this.

"His picture is being blown up and
enhanced and is going out on every station as we speak. Someone
somewhere knows who this guy is, and they're going to tell us,"
Atkins said with confidence.

"Someone knows who did this, all
right, and whoever did will get caught," Sparks said. "Have the
media alert the public that I'm offering a reward of a million
dollars to anyone who can lead us to the identity of this man, his
motives, and his connections. The pieces have all got to fit
together, but if they do, the million is theirs."

"You do realize that our department is
going to get flooded with calls from all kinds of people who just
want the reward money, don't you?" Atkins asked.

"What's your point?" Sparks
asked.

"My point is that we need real leads.
I'm not sending my men on some wild-goose chase."

"Well, do what you gotta
do."

I know I will,
Detective,
Sparks thought. If his
instincts were right and Leilani was connected to Dez's shooting,
he was going to catch her himself and he wasn't going to have to
come off of a dime.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
Ginger asked Sparks once they had left the police
station.

"Leilani?" Sparks replied.

"What are the odds? The crazy girl
shows up at the house, holds us at knifepoint, and then Dez is shot
by an Asian man? Leilani's the only Asian that's got beef with any
of you," Ginger said.

"I just want to know why the police
haven't made the connection. I told them about Leilani...Maybe if I
would have pressed charges, Dez wouldn't–"

Ginger cut him off. "There's no sense
in wondering what might have been. And beating yourself up isn't
going to help us catch Leilani." Ginger patted Sparks on the
shoulder.

"Ginger, I love Dez."

"I know. We all do."

"No. I
love
her. You know this. I would
have gladly taken the bullet for her if I could have." Sparks got
choked up.

"Come on, Sparks. Let's go to the
hospital and check on Dez. We need to let Bentley know what's going
on," Ginger suggested, and they headed back to
Cedars-Sinai.

Breaking news regarding the
awards show shooting of
rapper Dez and
journalist Sheila Rubin: A suspect has been caught on tape. The
perpetrator is described as an Asian man, five seven to five ten,
slight to medium build. What you're looking at now are digitally
enhanced images of this man. Titanium Records has offered a
one-million-dollar reward to any person with information leading to
the arrest and conviction of the shooter.

Leilani sat transfixed in front of the
television smoking an L.

"Good luck, Sparky boy!" she sneered
at the screen. "It serves the bitch right, you know." Leilani
sucked her teeth and grinned mercilessly.

"She just had to go and ruin
everything, didn't she? She had to be greedy. It wasn't enough for
her to be a model. She had to go and be a rapper too. Dez always
had to have all of the attention. And she couldn't just stick with
Bentley. Oh no! She had to go and try and sink her hooks into my
man. I know she's the reason behind our breakup. She poisoned his
mind against me." Leilani had taken to talking out loud to herself
more and more. If she could distinguish the difference between an
internal monologue and an external one, she was far beyond
caring.

"Bitch, bitch, she's such a bitch. She
left me hanging at the party. She put her hands on me. She starred
in that awful Dirty Dan tape. And still, everyone loves Dez. Well,
I've fixed that. Let's see how much the world loves a ghost. How
long will they mourn you, Dez?" Leilani inhaled deeply, coughed a
bit, and then blew a thick haze of smoke into the
atmosphere.

"I told her she didn't want to see me!
I was her friend even when everyone talked about her like she had a
tail. And how did she repay me? With betrayal. And everyone knows
what the punishment for betrayal is. It's death. Benedict Arnold,
Brutus, and all of Caesar's homeys, they paid for their treason
with their lives. It's the law of the streets, always has been,
always will be. Dez had to die." Leilani laughed and laughed until
her sides hurt.

"But, God, someone needs to squash
that roach already. She's hanging on, I'll give her that. But she
can't hang on forever. Not with her injuries. And even if she
lives, the reporters said she'll probably never walk again. Who's
gonna love that body when it's stuck in a wheelchair? Huh? Who's
gonna take care of you when you can't fuck for a living? Huh?
Nobody, that's who!" Leilani got off the couch and danced around
the room.

"Ding-dong, the bitch is almost dead,"
she sang as she skipped about. "I've directed my first
masterpiece!" she screamed.

"I would like to thank God, the
Academy, and, of course, you all the fans, for making this
possible." Leilani blew kisses to an invisible audience seated in
her living room.

"I mean, honestly, this is a classic!
I had the perfect sound track, thanks to Titanium Records. I had an
A-list cast. The set was beautiful. And, of course, there was my
vision. This couldn't help but be a classic. No one believes in
quality anymore. No one has any creativity. Everyone wants to
sample or remake something. There's no originality. Everyone wants
to get paid off of what someone else made. They want the story to
end in ninety minutes or less, with everything neatly wrapped in a
bow. But this is real life. Real life is messy. Real life isn't
fair. Real life is a young starlet gunned down on the biggest night
of her life. Real life keeps right on going and going and
going..."

Leilani watched intently as the
reporter told of the reward and showed footage of the shooter, the
man she hired, setting off a blinding flash and shooting into the
crowd. The journalist had been an accident, but Leilani always
reasoned that accidents happened. She wasn't worried, though. All
Asians looked alike, didn't they? Besides, Ling Bai, her hired
assassin, had boarded a plane to another job the night of the
shooting. Who knew where he was by now?

Hiring Ling Bai hadn't been easy or
cheap. Leilani had to procure his services through her cousin Mike
Hong, a member of a deadly and feared Asian gang in Los Angeles.
But it was well worth the effort and the expense; soon Dez would be
out of the way permanently, and Leilani was going to get away with
murder.

Soon she'd contact Sparks and offer
her sympathy. If she didn't, she might look suspicious. There had
been the incident with the knife, which she truly regretted. She
hadn't been thinking dearly and had lost her cool. But everything
would turn out just fine. Sparks had been a fool to let her go
without pressing charges. Did he actually think she would just
forget about it? He could have gotten a restraining order, and then
she would have gotten in trouble for contacting him. But he just
wanted to make the incident and her disappear, so she got off with
a warning. His haste had made it easier for her to manipulate her
way back into his heart and his life. He'd be weak and vulnerable
and consumed with grief. It would take a while to make him come
around. But Leilani was confident that she could manage it. It
would be the perfect ending....

"Bentley, have you seen the
news?" Ginger asked
him. Bentley was
holding Dez's hand, talking to her softly, as he had been doing
during the entire ordeal.

"Yeah, I saw it. I was just telling my
baby that we were gonna find the person who did this to her. Then
we're going to get married and have a family. So you've got to pull
through, Dez. I want to marry you." Bentley remained optimistic
that if he continued to communicate with her, she would
respond.

"Bro. I know you don't want to leave
her side, but can we talk to you? Ginger and I have a theory of our
own," Sparks said.

"You can say it in front of my baby.
I'm not leaving her. Anything could happen," Bentley said
adamantly.

"Okay. It's fine." Ginger felt for
Bentley. It was obvious through his devotion that he truly loved
Dez. "We can talk here."

Sparks cut right to the chase. "We
think Leilani is behind the shooting."

"Why? We already know she's crazy. But
is she that crazy?" Bentley was doubtful.

"Hell hath no fury like a woman
scorned. Leilani seemed to believe that Dez was the cause of her
and Sparks's breakup."

"That's crazy!" Bentley
roared.

"We know," Ginger replied before
Sparks had a chance to say anything. "But what are the odds that
she's Chinese and the shooter was Asian? Y'all said it yourselves:
y'all ain't got beef with nobody. Who else would want to see any of
you dead?"