“Jada West,” Kirk said casually.
Dawkins exhaled, walked over and leaned on the truck shoulder to shoulder next to Kirk. “What about Jada West?”
“Tell me about you and Jada West.”
Dawkins looked deeply into Kirk’s intense eyes while she contemplated her answer. “Truth?”
“Truth.”
“The truth goes both ways now, detective,” Dawkins said. “Fair enough?”
Kirk chuckled, because he knew she wanted to talk about Mike Black. “Fair enough.”
“Truth was, I’ve come to like Jada West personally. At this point, I consider her to be a friend of mine. But I’m a cop, detective, and I’m a good cop; my record speaks for itself.”
“It does. Near as I can tell, you’re a good, and more importantly, an honest cop.”
Dawkins smiled. “Thank you for acknowledging that.”
“You’re welcome. You were saying?”
“I’m saying that I did my job. But you said you wanted to know the truth, so here’s the truth. Even though I knew exactly what she was doing, Jada West was smart enough not to do anything in my presence that I could make a case on.” Dawkins laughed a little. “I had no evidence to prove that Jada West was anything other than a shopaholic party girl.”
“Couldn’t make a case?”
“And I was sitting right next to her and I couldn’t get anyone to say a word about her and that was before she fell in love with the other big elephant in the room.”
“Huh?” Kirk looked at her confused. “Who are you talking about?”
“Mike Black.” She paused. “Oh, you didn’t know?” Dawkins laughed. “And you call yourself a detective.”
“I am a detective,” Kirk said. “But I didn’t know that.”
Dawkins laughed. “Jada fell in love with that man the first time she saw him.”
“No shit.”
“No shit. So now, let’s talk about you and Mike Black.”
“What about him?” Kirk asked, but since he knew what she wanted to know, because it’s what everybody wants to know, why not just tell her what she wants to know. “He didn’t do it. A fact proven by the fact that she is alive, therefore, he couldn’t have killed her.”
“True. But you didn’t know that at the time, but we’ll pass that for now.” She paused at smiled. “The word is that they arrested Black at the crime scene … blood on his hands … right next to the gun … and the body. They’re talking slam dunk and here you come.”
“But you see, that’s why he couldn’t have done it.”
“Why is that?”
“Because Mike Black is smart enough not to kill his wife … in his kitchen …
with his registered firearm … and get caught bloody by a couple of rookies kneeling over the body. That just wasn’t the type of killer Mike Black was. And I’m a cop, a good, honest cop, so yeah, I could have done nothing and let Black go to jail for all the murders that I was sure he committed but couldn’t prove.”
“But you just couldn’t do it.”
“No, detective, I couldn’t. So, I did my job.”
“The homicide cop had to solve a homicide.”
“But that’s not what you wanted to know, is it Detective Dawkins?”