Smooth Operator Read online

  “You know how to move,” Lorenzo said. With quick movements he draped his clothes over the chair next to the small desk in the room. He’d stripped down and wore only silky black underwear.

  Charmaine gazed at the impressive bump straining against the fabric of his briefs. “You know how to impress.”

  “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, girl,” Lorenzo growled.

  “Then bring it,” Charmaine replied.

  In a flash his long legs brought him across the short space between them. Lorenzo yanked open the front hooks of her bra. Charmaine flinched at the rough treatment, but only briefly. She shrugged to allow the straps to fall from her shoulders as her breasts bounced free. Lorenzo groaned and sank to his knees. Charmaine cradled his head in both her hands and looked into his eyes. She murmured softly to him, a string of commands mixed in with lusty bedroom talk. Before long, the big man was under her control. He told her what she wanted to know.

  After thirty minutes of questioning, Charmaine started to fill his mind with false erotic memories. Then she stepped away to examine him again.

  “Since we’re here and you’re so awesomely equipped, why don’t I see if you told the truth,” Charmaine said softly. “I’m gonna have you prove you’re an all night man.”

  ****

  The next morning Charmaine went to the housing development in New Orleans East. Built by a famous actor after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the houses had brought a least this part of the city back to life. Jessi’s friend Diamond lived in one of the neat garden homes with her youngest kid, a two year old baby girl named Indyah. Diamond tried several times to get out of the street life, but minimum wage jobs hadn’t been her style. She and Jessi were careful to keep business at a different location. Charmaine parked in the narrow driveway and got out. The cheerful pale yellow paint of the house gleamed in the sunshine. Charmaine had to step over a tiny tricycle left on the sidewalk. She rang the doorbell and Diamond answered.

  Dressed in leopard print leggings and a big sweatshirt, Diamond grinned at her. “Hey you, c’mon in.” She kissed Charmaine on the cheek and motioned her inside.

  “How’re you doin’ and how is Indyah?” Charmaine said and glanced around. She dropped her purse on the coffee table. The house looked neat enough.

  “I’m fine. The baby is doing great. She’s with her grandmamma today.” Diamond led the way into her small living room. “Jessi, well, she’s gettin’ better. That jail scared her. They got a lot of crazy people in there, girl. Damn, I’m glad we pulled together the money for her bail. It wasn’t all her fault this time, Charmaine.

  Jessi came down the stairs wearing a silky floral robe and fuzzy bunny slippers. She kissed Charmaine on the cheek and padded into the kitchen. “Don’t bother tryin’ ta convince her, girl. Big sister is going to say it was my crazy ass fault no matter what you say. You want some coffee?”

  Charmaine followed Jessi to the kitchen and sat on one of two stools at the small breakfast bar. “Yes, and I want to know if you’re okay.”

  “I’m fine,” Jessi said, and waved a hand without looking at Charmaine.

  Despite her words, Jessi’s hand shook as she picked up two ceramic mugs. Charmaine saw the tremors. When Jessi turned to pick up the glass coffee pot, her swollen right cheek was visible. Charmaine swallowed hard and fought the urge to rush over to her. Jessi didn’t respond well to being babied. Too many years of having to tough out what life threw at her had made her immune to it.

  “How’d that happen to your face?” Charmaine asked.

  “Some fool started ranting and raving, swung on me before I could react. I got her back good though, you can believe that.” Jessi dumped three teaspoons of sugar in her own mug and a generous helping of real cream. She pushed the mug of hot black coffee across the counter to Charmaine.

  “That place is more like a psycho ward than a jail,” Diamond added. She sat on a second stool. She accepted a mug from Jessi and sipped.

  “So tell me about this incident that got you arrested, Jessi.” Charmaine squinted at her.

  “I was working the massage house down off Carrollton. Strictly legit, Charmaine and don’t roll your eyes at me,” Jessi added. “Anyway, this foreign fool starts trying to negotiate. I tells him ‘Bitch, this ain’t the discount store and we don’t run sales’. Then he gets up in my face and tries to lay his hands on me. I don’t know who called the police.”

  “And that’s another thing, Miss Susie has private security. These little disagreements gets handled on the spot, no cops.” Diamond shook her head.

  “Maybe his buddy that came with him got scared. Betcha one thing, that dude knows how we do business in New Orleans now.” Jessi grunted and sipped coffee. She looked at Charmaine. “Let’s save time. I know all your lectures by heart, so save your breath.”

  “No more lectures,” Charmaine said. She frowned and thought about Jessi’s account. Something about the details nagged at her for a few seconds before Jessi’s voice broke into her thoughts.

  “Look, I’m doing okay. I’m going to pay you back for the bail cause I know you ain’t got disposable income to be spending on me. Besides, I got savings.” Jessi pulled out a wad of bills and came around the counter.

  “Don’t worry about…” Charmaine shook her head.

  Jessi grabbed Charmaine’s purse off the coffee table and carefully stuffed the money into a pocket. She snapped it shut. “Don’t flash that around.”

  “Jessi, I don’t need your money,” Charmaine said.

  “Quit lyin’, Char. How’d you know so quick about me being arrested anyway? I told Diamond not to call you.” Jessi glanced at her friend.

  “Wasn’t me,” Diamond said quickly.

  “Never mind. Just be extra careful for the next few days, okay?” Charmaine said. “You, too, Diamond.”

  Jessi gazed at Charmaine for several seconds. “What’s going on?”

  Jessi had psychic ability like Charmaine. She heard voices. It started when she was seven. Diagnosed as schizophrenic, Jessi had been in and out of psychiatric hospitals most of her childhood. Charmaine finally figured out that Jessi could hear the dead. Those who were unsettled wanted to tell their stories. One more reason Jessi started smoking pot and doing drugs when she was thirteen, to make the voices go away. The sisters were more than close. At times they could sense, see and hear one another no matter the distance. But the connection wasn’t consistent, more like a spotty cell phone signal. Silence stretched between them.

  “I’ll tell you later. I promise. You don’t need to know right now,” Charmaine replied finally.

  You be careful,” Jessi said and walked close to Charmaine. Her voice shook as she crossed her arms tightly against her slender body.

  “Scotty is helping me,” Charmaine said.

  Diamond got up and stood between them, her arms on both their shoulders. The three women exchanged hugs.

  ****

  Five days later Keisha sat in the same chair in Charmaine’s home office. But unlike the last time she wasn’t alone. Lorenzo sat next to her. His gaze darted around every few minutes to check his surroundings. Keisha had changed her look. The bright red hair was now a more subdued auburn color. Her rust colored designer sleeveless dress complimented her new hair color and skin. Lorenzo wore a light gray knit cotton shirt tucked into a pair of navy blue slacks. His well shined leather loafers had to be worth at least two hundred dollars. Charmaine was wondering if Keisha had paid for them when he cleared his throat as if to get her attention. Charmaine had allowed Keisha to do most of the talking for the last ten minutes.

  “So you’ve had a chance to check out what I told you. Congrats on getting your sister out of jail. But she’ll be back in if you don’t cooperate,” Keisha said in a crisp, business-like tone.

  Charmaine smiled at Lorenzo, and he grinned back. “I’m a little distracted, with everything going on you understand.”

  “You’ve had a busy week,” Lorenzo murmured with a smug expressio
n.

  “Hmm, yes. Action packed,” Charmaine replied.

  Keisha glanced at Lorenzo sharply and then back to Charmaine. “Time to quit messing around. My husband likes to play poker with his old pals at this seedy dump of a night club once a week. Make it look like he got caught up in a drive-by, an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe a street robbery. That’s it. He was mugged a couple of years ago and he fought back. This time he’s going to lose that fight. Yeah, I like that better. That’s going to be very believable.”

  “Clever plan. Except I’m not going to do it,” Charmaine said.

  “You will,” Keisha shot back.

  Lorenzo sat forward and stared at Charmaine. “Four years ago Diamond’s abusive boyfriend disappeared. He’d broken her oldest kid’s arm, and beat him senseless. The kid is still a cripple. The guy only got a couple of years in jail for it. Diamond lost custody of the kid.”

  “We know where he is, and he ain’t breathin’,” Keisha snapped. “And here’s something even more interesting. Your second step-father went “poof!” back in the day. His family hasn’t seen or heard from him for almost sixteen years. About the same time you and your baby sister ran away from home. With her violent history I’m thinking the police will be very interested in this story, especially one Officer Deon Morehouse. He’s vindictive and mean as hell, still mad at Keisha for reporting that he demanded a blow job during an arrest. She should have kept her mouth shut.”

  “I gotta figure out how to get that crook off the police force. But I’m not going to kill your husband. Do it yourself.” Charmaine stood.

  “Maybe another trip to the infamous Orleans Parish lock-up for little Jessica will convince you. I don’t think she can take another overnight stay, much less a week or a month.” Keisha stood as well and glared at Charmaine.

  “You’ve told me some very colorful stories. You have no evidence, just two overactive imaginations. Go look in the woods off River Road in Chalmette near the Murphy Refinery.” Charmaine watched their expressions go from smug to shock. “The body they dig up will be an older woman named Marian Durocher. She went missing and so did eighty thousand dollars from her bank account. Keisha, you worked as her caregiver but used a different name. Both her kids died years ago, and nobody cared enough to check on her. That’s a real whodunit, huh?”

  Keisha stumbled back and almost fell over the chair. She reached out for Lorenzo, but he’d moved back from her. “How the hell did you… Lorenzo, do something!”

  Lorenzo held up both hands. “Like what?”

  Charmaine wore a razor sharp smile. “So it seems we have a stand-off. No hard evidence on either of us, but enough to make life very unpleasant if the cops start asking questions.”

  “We’ll fix you, bitch. Just wait and see.” Keisha grabbed Lorenzo’s arm and pulled him along behind her as she stomped out of the door.

  Scotty came into the office from the hallway leading to Charmaine’s house. He went to the window and watched Keisha’s red BMW sedan speed off. “Is that the end?”

  “I think so. Keisha is a ruthless black widow, but she’s not stupid.” Charmaine joined Scotty at the window. “I have another problem. Jessi has disappeared.”

  “She’s been pulling those vanishing acts for a good long time.” Scotty let go of the curtain and turned to Charmaine. “But this time something is different, huh?”

  “Something’s very different, and in a bad way. She’s outta control, Scotty.” Charmaine looked at her friend with a worried frown.

  “Then we’ll find her.” Scotty gave Charmaine a big brother type hug.

  “I have a feeling we better find her soon,” she said quietly.

  ****

  Charmaine drove through three stop signs and narrowly missed a slow moving car that pulled out from a driveway. She saw flashing lights from a New Orleans police cruiser behind her. Slowing down she pulled her Chevy Equinox along the curb. Her throat tightened until she gasped with the effort to swallow. When the cop car blew by her and kept going, Charmaine hissed out the breath she’d been holding. She trembled with relief that another poor sucker would get stopped this time. Then she began to shake all over. What if that cop was on the way to the same address Charmaine had?

  “No time, girl. You got no time to freak out,” Charmaine shouted at herself.

  She gulped in three deep breaths, let them out to steady her nerves, and then drove on. Two and a half miles later she turned on the dimly lit street. The GPS on her phone chimed three times. Charmaine pulled up to the house. When she recognized Scotty’s SUV, Charmaine jammed her car into park and jumped out. In seconds she walked quickly up the cement walkway to the front door. When she pressed a lighted button the bell seemed to clang way too loud. A series of clicks and snapping sounds preceded the door inching open. Then it swung wide. Scotty unlocked the storm door covering the solid wood one.

  “Come on in. She’s okay,” he said and smoothly stepped aside to allow Charmaine in. He glanced up and down the street before shutting the door and locking it. “Go down the hall, second bedroom on the left.”

  Charmaine nodded and followed his directions. Jessi lay across a full sized bed that took up most of the tiny room. Diamond sat in a stuffed chair staring at a small television with the sound on mute. She pressed a fist to her mouth when she saw Charmaine. Tears rolled down her face.

  “I did it this time, Charmaine. You can’t keep saving my psycho ass. I killed that dude.” Jessi looked strangely calm. Her voice was steady. She stared at the bedroom wall, her eyes glassy and her expression blank.

  “She’s been like this since we got here. That’s makin’ me more crazy than if she was screaming and bouncin’ off the walls,” Diamond said softly and started crying, a hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs.

  “You need to pull it together. We all gotta think straight. Go get you some water, or coffee, or something,” Charmaine replied, sounding more composed than she felt inside.

  “’Kay,” Diamond said. She swiped at her face and left the bedroom.

  Charmaine gazed at her sister for a few minutes. She tried to coax Jessi into talking, but got nothing. So she headed back to the living room.

  Scotty murmured into the Bluetooth headset looped over his right ear. “Yeah, a quick clean up job. Right, right. Cool. Call me in one hour to check in.”

  “How bad is it?” Charmaine dropped her car keys into the cross-body bag she still wore.

  “Keisha’s husband is dead in a motel room on the West Bank. Jessi was with him. I’d followed her after getting a tip from a buddy. I bribed a motel maid and got in the room. Front was on the bed naked from the waist down with his throat cut wide open. Jessi was so high we couldn’t get her to make any sense. My buddy and me moved fast and got her outta there.” Scotty shook his head. “How the hell did they set that up?”

  “Keisha said she’d deliver some payback. Damn!” Charmaine paced in a circle while raking fingers through her hair. “Damn!”

  “I’m pretty sure we weren’t followed,” Scotty said. He strode to the windows and looked out once again.

  Diamond came in carrying a tray with cans of soda, a tray of cheese and crackers. “Y’all might as well snack. I’m not sure we can get anything delivered in this neighborhood.”

  “Whose house is this?” Charmaine asked and waved away the can of soda Diamond tried to hand her.

  “My cousin. She’s visiting relatives in Atlanta, and I told her I’d check on the place. I’ve got a key. Sure you don’t want something on your stomach?” Diamond said. She picked up a cube of pepper jack cheese and nibbled on it.

  “No way. I’m close to puking from stress as it is,” Charmaine replied and looked away from the tray.

  “At least we got a few hours to take a breath and think about our next move. My other buddy went over to check out the motel,” Scotty said. He was about to go on but his cell phone vibrated. He answered and listened.

  “I’ve got relatives
in Trinidad. We can go there, me, my baby and Jessi.”

  “What in the hell kind of dumb idea is that? You don’t have passports,” Charmaine blurted out. Then she sighed. “I’m sorry, it’s just… I’m losing my grip right now.”

  “It’s okay, Char,” Diamond said. Then she grinned at Charmaine. “But we do have passports. Me and Jessi got ‘em last year. We’ve been talking about a trip to my homeland for almost two years.”

  “Sweetie, I doubt that’s a workable plan now,” Charmaine said as she tucked a braid behind Diamond’s ear.

  Scotty walked over and broke into their conversation. “Right. You probably won’t get out of this neighborhood, much less past airport security. The police are looking for all of us.”

  “Shit,” Diamond hissed and tightly wrapped both arms around her curvy body.

  Charmaine pulled out her cell phone. “I got a text from Keisha.”

  “What’s she sayin’?” Scotty frowned.

  “Gloating,” Charmaine replied through clenched teeth and read the message aloud. “Little sis going 2 jail for murder. Got u bitch lol.” Then the phone rang, this time playing Charmaine’s favorite Jill Scott tune. She hit the green button and put it on speaker. Keisha’s raucous laughter scraped Charmaine’s eardrum.

  “Every one of you is going to prison. Bye-bye-eee,” Keisha sang and hung up.

  “Uh-uh, we can’t let her play us like this,” Diamond burst out. She jumped up and down like a kid having a tantrum while her hands flapped wildly. “Let’s call my brother Jon-Jon and ‘nem. His boys will take her out.”

  “No,” Charmaine said forcefully. She grabbed Diamond by the shoulders forcing her to be still. “We can’t run around doing stupid stuff because we’re in a panic. That’s the best way to make things worse.”

  “Besides, the cops are already looking for Jessi; they’ve got her name and description. By now they know her family and friends, and their friends and relatives.” Scotty strode to the window, peeked out and came back to stand next to Charmaine.

  “I gotta think,” Charmaine said.