No More Tears In The End

“I know the place. Good take-out.”

“Two people were killed.”

“Your employees?”

“No, they were customers. They were standing in line. Apparently the robbers shot them for no reason.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that, but I’ll ask some questions and get back to you.” Tamia took out a business card and wrote her new address and phone number on the back of it. “Memorize that and get rid of it, please.”

I started to go home and get back in the bed. Wanda and I had been up late and I was tired. I started driving in that direction, but somewhere along the way I decided to ride by Zakiya Phillips’s apartment and have a look around. I didn’t know what I was looking for, but I went anyway.

Mrs. Phillips didn’t have a key to her granddaughter’s apartment, so I let myself in. It was a small apartment, but it was very well-furnished. Zakiya seemed to have good taste; a taste for very expensive stuff. Mrs. Phillips didn’t say anything about Zakiya having a job, just that she was a good girl, who had a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a minor in psychology and was about to attend law school. I looked around the apartment and wondered what type of work-study program she was on that would allow her to afford the kind of stuff she had.

I could think of one.

Drugs.

Maybe Mrs. Phillips didn’t know Zakiya like she thought she did. Wouldn’t be the first time the parents were surprised by what their child was really into. I continued to look around for anything that would support my conclusion. If she really was involved with somebody who was involved in the game, maybe there were some clues here that would lead me in the right direction. The only thing I found was a picture that she took at some club, and a business card for a beauty shop.

I took both and left her apartment, and once again decided against goin’ home and gettin’ in the bed. The beauty shop was to be my next stop. I went in the beauty shop to ask if anyone knew Zakiya and could tell me anything about her. While the beauticians told me their stories about what a nice girl Zakiya was, and how they couldn’t imagine why anybody would want to kill her, one of the customers, who was looking at me but not offering any comment, got up and left. “Where you goin’, Dee? You’re next,” one of the beauticians said as she headed for the door.

“I just got to get something from my car. I’ll be right back,” she replied and left the shop.

I asked a few more questions and listened to a few more glowing endorsements about how wonderful Zakiya was, and then I left the shop. Before I made it to my car the woman stopped me.

“Hey mister.”

“Yes,” I said and walked toward her.

“You want to know about Zakiya?”

“I do. Were you and her friends?”

“Yeah, we were friends. We weren’t real tight or anything like that, but I knew her. We used to hangout, you know, hit the clubs or whatever. I know her better than any of those bitches in there.”

“Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“I don’t want any of them gossipy bitches up in my business. Other than them being here when Zakiya got her hair done, ain’t none of them know anything about her.”

“What can you tell me about her?”

“Not much. Like I said, we wasn’t real tight. I’ll tell you what I do know if it will help you find out who killed her. Just not right now. I gotta get back in there before I lose my place. I don’t want to be here all day. Can I meet you sometime later?”

“When they’re finished with your hair, I’ll be right here in that car waiting for you,” I said and pointed at the Caddy.

“You don’t mind waiting?”

“Not if you got something to tell me, I don’t,” I told Dee and got in the car.

I don’t know how long I had been waiting when Dee tapped on the window; probably ’cause I fell asleep as soon as I got comfortable in the car.

I motioned for her to come around to the passenger side and she got in. “So what can you tell me about Zakiya?”

“What you want to know?”

“Did she have a job?” was my first question. I really only had two.

“Yeah, she had a part-time job at Cross County Mall.”