Push Comes To Shove Part 24

CHAPTER 16.

Crutchfield stepped off the elevator in a busy precinct.

"Good morning." A beautiful uniformed officer stood at the automatic coffeemaker. "Ford has been calling you since my s.h.i.+ft began. You two got a thing going on?"

He couldn't keep eye-to-eye contact with this woman because her silicone b.o.o.bs were magnets. "Did you know that your left t.i.t is bigger than the right?" He strolled off to his desk, leaving her looking from one breast to the other.

He kicked his feet up on a dented metal desk and placed the phone to his ear. "What do you want, pillow-biter?"

Ford sat atop a lab stool with his legs crossed. "Hey, you asked for my a.s.sistance. I haven't been calling you to chitchat."

"h.e.l.l, it's only been two days. I didn't expect to hear from you for a week."

"Well, I'm good at what I do. Literally. I cracked the code to your mystery watch."

"Give me what you got."

"Oh no, this is much too good to talk about over the phone. You should come visit me."

"I'll be there in five minutes." He hung up and dashed to the elevator.

"I see you took the liberty of cleaning yourself up." Squeeze came in with a breakfast tray. "The outfit fits you well."

Kitchie turned away from the window. "You've never liked GP from the time we were all in job corps. Why would you even give your money to someone you don't care for?"

"I always cared for you, though." He set the tray at the foot of the bed. "Come have a seat." He patted a spot on the bed next to himself.

Kitchie was hesitant but figured she should comply in case there was any chance of her walking away from this with her life.

He admired her beauty as he always had. "I'll tell you what: If you answer just one of my questions honestly, I'll answer one of yours."

"You first." She avoided his probing gaze.

He took a large gulp of air and let it out slowly. "I was the popular one. Me, n.o.body else. It was me who had all the girls. I'm the one who sent you expensive gifts. You couldn't even p.r.o.nounce half the s.h.i.+t I bought for you. GP was a n.o.body; ain't much changed." He fell into thought. "I let him borrow money for bus fare to take you to a free movie. Why did you choose him over me? What did I do wrong?"

"It's not that you did anything wrong. You're just not GP. He's the apple of my eye. From the time that I was a little girl, I fantasized about the man I'd spend my life with. The moment I saw GP, I knew it was him." She looked him square in the eyes for the first time. "When you get your money, you're still going to kill me, aren't you?"

"You don't kidnap people and give them back. That script only happens in books and movies." He reached out to touch her but she withdrew. "Didn't you just hear me say I care about you? I can't hurt you...Hector's gonna do it."

"All because I chose GP?"

"At this stage of the game, that isn't a factor. This falls under the categories of business and my favorite-self-preservation."

He placed the tray of food between them. "You should eat something." He lifted the lid to each dish as he called it out. "An omelet with cheese...b.u.t.termilk biscuits...turkey bacon-bet you didn't think I would remember that. And for the main dish." He lifted the stainless-steel lid to reveal a cell phone. "Call GP. I want my f.u.c.king cash or you won't be the only Patterson to die."

"Homeboy, f.u.c.k this s.h.i.+t." Jewels yawned. "We've been out here all night, like we were hustling crack on the block. Motherf.u.c.kers are on their way to work. Let's go check out the new apartment, the group home, and my crib again. If she still hasn't shown her face, then it's time you file a missing person report."

The pay phone rang.

GP was overwhelmed with an instant sickness. He let the phone ring twice before bracing himself and easing the receiver to his ear. "h.e.l.lo."

"Missing something?"

His heart dropped. He began to shake as if he had Parkinson's disease. "Squeeze, where is Kitchie?" His words were slow and deliberate.

"She's in real good hands." Squeeze looked at Kitchie, who had Hector's huge hand clamped around her mouth. "Where the f.u.c.k is my cash?"

"Let me speak to my wife."

"Business first; play later."

Jewels was pacing, driving a fist into the palm of a hand.

"I just gave you twenty grand. I-"

"You thought I wouldn't find out it was counterfeit? You tried to play me; I did you a f.u.c.king favor. Your games is gonna cost you more than you're willing to lose." He winked at Kitchie.

"I don't know anything about counterfeit money." GP's nerves were blowing fuses by the dozens.

"Too bad you don't. This phone will ring again tomorrow evening at six. Have two hundred thousand cash or you'll never see this pretty b.i.t.c.h again."

"I'll have it. Please just let me hear her voice."

Squeeze put the phone to her ear and Hector removed his hand.

"He's gonna kill me, GP." Her voice had been stripped of its fire and strength.

"That's enough." Squeeze disconnected the call.

"Kitchie!" The phone went dead. GP tapped it against his palm, then stuck it to his ear again. "Kitchie!" This time there was a dial tone.

Jewels watched a single tear roll down his face. "Well, what's going on?"

"That money you got from Conrad was fake. Squeeze wants two hundred grand by six tomorrow evening or he's gonna kill Kitchie."

She sighed as grief overcame her. "He kidnapped her; he's gonna kill her whether he gets the money or not. There's no doubt about it."

"I'm not gonna risk not trying. There's always that chance."

"I say we kill him first."

"We'll have to find him, which we don't have the time to risk. Six o'clock tomorrow will be here in seconds."

"I know a couple of home invasions we can do, but I don't know if we'll come off with that type of money. Homeboy, it's your call. What you wanna do?"

"If something is wrong, Jewels, and I have the ability to take action, then I will. I gotta do what I gotta do," GP said with conviction. "When push comes to shove, I steal. I know where we can get all the money in one shot." He strolled a few feet away and held the door of the costume shop open. "I got an idea. You down?"

Squeeze turned the phone's power off. "Hector, give us some privacy."

Within seconds Hector was gone.

Squeeze shoved Kitchie on the bed and pounced on top of her, pinning her beneath his weight.

"Get the h.e.l.l off me! f.u.c.ker!" She struggled beneath him. "What is wrong with you?"

"Should've gave me this p.u.s.s.y a long time ago." He freed her supple b.r.e.a.s.t.s from her blouse with one tug. He fumbled with the fastening of her hip-hugger jeans.

"Squeeze...you...b.a.s.t.a.r.d." She bit his chest and drove her tiny fists into his solid back.

He yanked her jeans and thong past her hips. "I wouldn't like it if you didn't make it rough, challenging."

She kicked but to no avail. "f.u.c.k you, you foul b.a.s.t.a.r.d." She clawed at his face, then spit. "Take it, then. Take the AIDS that comes with it."

He laughed. "You're lying. You don't sound convincing. Long as I've been trying to get in your panties, I wouldn't stop anyway."

She struggled.

He used his foot to push her jeans and thong down to her ankles. "This is all the fight you got in you. Fight me, dammit. Resist me!" He clamped a hand around her neck while undoing his own pants. "I finally get to see if it's as tight as I thought."

"Please get off of me."

Her punches were equivalent to mosquito bites.

"Don't do this to me."

His laugh is sickening, she thought.

"That's it, Kitchie. Fight me harder. Make me come back for seconds." He pried her legs open with his.

Tears ran into her ears. She was becoming exhausted.

"Don't give up so easy." He held his p.e.n.i.s and pointed it at home base. "Make it fun for me."

She twisted and turned beneath him, exerting the remainder of her energy. Bile formed in her throat when she felt his p.e.n.i.s push into her v.u.l.v.a halves. "No! Please, G.o.d, don't let this happen to me."

The forensic lab was a little colder than normal. Crutchfield walked up to Ford at a computer workstation. "You got me here; this had better be good."

"Take a look." He turned the screen in Crutchfield's direction.

Crutchfield leaned in to study the screen. "It's a bunch of lines on a layout of the city."

"The lines you see are of the route the watch traveled on April third."

"The day j.a.p Silex was last seen."

"Correct." Ford poked his ink pen at the screen. "This is the starting point from which the watch began recording its course."

"Can you narrow the starting point down to an address?"

"GPS narrows things down to inches." Ford pointed to a pocket folder. "I already took it upon myself to do so." He traced the lines on the computer. "It started here, stopped here, and this is where the watch is now. Whether there's an arm attached to it is something you'll have to figure out."

Crutchfield opened the folder. The starting point address corresponded with the high-rise Squeeze lived in. The second address was situated in a rural area just outside of the city limits. The watch was signaling from the same general area that they had unearthed Hector's goldfish, Pablo.

"I swear, if I didn't know that you were under all that plastic and makeup, I wouldn't recognize you." GP looked at Jewels's reflection in a seven-foot mirror.

"I'm not with all this dress-up bulls.h.i.+t, homeboy. Let's just rob the place and get it over with."

"No guns. I mean it. We don't want this to come back and haunt us. The disguises stay." He spun around with his arms out. "How do I look?"

"Old. Like you're about to die any minute."

"Good. We'll use these hookups to get the money." He pulled out a ski mask and two automatic-styled water guns from a paper bag. "We'll use this stuff to pull off the first part of the plan. Where's the camera?"

"Right there." She pointed to a nylon case that sat on the shelf of her closet.

"Take it down. Make sure it works."

"GP, this s.h.i.+t better work or we won't have no other choice but to murder this motherf.u.c.ker, Squeeze."

"It'll work. I'll prove it to you first thing in the morning."

The camera flashed and the instant film eased out of the front. "You satisfied? Can I take this s.h.i.+t off my face now, old man?"

Crime scene investigators hoisted j.a.p's remains from a shallow grave. Crutchfield and Detective Thomas watched as a technician placed a piece of gum in an evidence bag.

Thomas thumped the b.u.t.t of his Marlboro. "Whose DNA you think we'll find on the gum?"

"Hector's. Put out an APB on him and Squeeze." Crutchfield ducked under the yellow crime-scene tape. "If Johnnie Cochran were alive, not even he could beat this case." He moved toward his car.

Thomas was still standing on the opposite side of the tape. "Hey, Crutchfield, where are you going? We have a lot of work to do yet."

"To break the news to Miles. This is the part of the job that separates the men from the little girls."

After a thoughtful sigh, Thomas ducked under the tape. "Wait up."

The last week of school had finally arrived. The children were waiting at the bus stop, at 6:45 a.m., ready to be hauled away for the day. Tameka and Kesha Stevens did what they do best-brag and hurt feelings.

"I hope you don't come back to school...Put it this way," Kesha said, "when school starts over, your wardrobe does, too."

"Everybody ain't got it like y'all," a girl wearing last year's jeans said, with her shoulders hunched and head hung low.

"I know that's right." Tameka slapped hands with her sister.

"That's right, bow down to the divas that's much greater than you."