Body of Evidence (Marcus Douglas 2)

“Hello?” he answered as he tapped his Bluetooth device to take the call. The connection was clear for a change.

“This is

Silver. I’m calling with a bit of information I thought you might want to hear,” he said.

“I’m all ears,” Garrett said.

“Abril Arrington, a.k.a., Adina Banks,” Silver began, but Garrett cut him off.

“Hold up. You can add Aerona Carter to her list of aliases. One of my operatives talked to the guy in LA name of Harrison Fuller. She was taking his money, too. She got his bank account password and was dipping to the tune of five grand a month.”

“Busy girl. But her real name is really Aisha Kaufman, and she's wanted for bank fraud in Maryland.”

“Maryland, huh?” Garrett asked. At this point, he was feeling pretty good about the way things were going. He was glad that Silver had stepped up and was apparently trying to do everything he could to make it right.

“Yup, that’s what I was able to dig up,” Silver confirmed. “You might want to talk with a Detective Johnson there, but that’s a small department, so that means, face to face may be your best option.”

“Okay then. Thanks for the lead,” Garrett said, and he tapped the Bluetooth to end the call.

Garrett called Marcus to let him know what he’d found out about Abril Arrington a.k.a. Adina Banks a.k.a. Aerona Carter. “But come to find out that her real name is Aisha Kaufman, and she’s wanted for bank fraud in Maryland.”

“I think you need to get right up there,” Marcus said. That bit of information was certainly welcome news and came at just the right time.

“How’s things going there?”

Marcus turned to Panthea. “Not good. Wade’s alibi was bogus. Mrs. Daniels got there after nine-thirty, not eight-thirty like he said.”

“I knew that muthafucka was shaky. That just about does it for the home team, doesn’t it?”

“You know me, Garrett. I’m at my best in the clutch.” He took Panthea’s hand and kissed it. “I still got a trick or two up my sleeve.”

“Yeah, well, I hope so for her sake, because the ball is on the two yard line and there’s less than a minute to go.”

“You just do what you’re doing and get back to me as soon as you’re done.”

Garrett arrived at BWI airport and set out in his rental car to Annapolis. He arrived at the police department located on Taylor Avenue and found Detective Johnson waiting for him as promised.

Detective Johnson reminded Garrett of Clint Eastwood in his younger days. He was tall, lean with blond hair and blue eyes, and he spoke with a slow southern drawl.

“So, your girl has been passing hot checks down there in Atlanta, too?” Johnson asked. “She really gets around.”

“Yeah, she does, but this time she got the short end of the stick, and I’m not talking a bad check. She had been going by a number of different aliases and had stepped up from writing bad checks.”

“What was she into, Mr. Mason?”

“Tricking men out of their money. Well, I believe one of those men got mad enough to do something about it. The woman you were looking for, Aisha Kaufman, was murdered several months ago in Atlanta,” Garrett told a stunned Detective Johnson.

“No shit.”

“Yes, sir. She basically got rich men to fall in love with her. Then she’d get them involved in some non-existent business and taking them for large sums of money. That is in addition to pulling cash right from under their noses.”

Johnson looked around as if someone might hear his next words.

“Well, I guess there’s no point in keeping this from you. I mean, if she’s dead, she’s dead—nothing much we can get from her on no bank fraud charge.” Johnson reached in his desk drawer and dug around in there for a minute before pulling out a file and handing it to Garrett. “She wasn’t a suspect, just a person of interest. But she was wanted for questioning in connection with two unsolved murders.”

“No shit,” Garrett said and scanned the file.

“Yes, sir. You’ll see it says right there in that file,” Johnson said and pointed at the file. “This Aisha Kaufman was alleged to be involved with both of the victims. One was six years ago in Chicago. Victim’s name was Lamar Winston. There’s a detective Washburn up there that you may want to have a word with. The other murder was ten years ago in Houston. That victims name was Otis Grimes,” Johnson admitted.