“Shit!” he uttered.
“What we gonna do?”
The Kid went into combat mode mentally. The FBI looking for Eshon was a problem. The good news was that Jessica was dead, so what else could link them to Meek or any other crime? The bad news was that Eshon was on the FBI’s radar.
“Brandy gave me a name and a number to call,” she said.
“What’s the name?”
“She said his name was Officer Spielberg. I think he’s the one I spoke with about Jessica at the precinct that day.”
“He’s a city cop? I thought she said it was the feds?”
“I guess he’s workin’ with the feds.”
“Okay, this is what we need to do. You calm down, and you need to call him. It might make you look less suspicious if you reach out to them to talk.”
“Are you serious?”
“It’s no secret that you and Jessica were once best friends. It was inevitable that the feds were going to find out. People are going to talk.”
“And what I’m supposed to say to them?”
“Let me think.”
Eshon was extremely nervous. She wasn’t ready to tangle with the FBI. She wanted to run away as far as possible—leave town like Brandy once suggested. Maybe her friend was right; New York wasn’t a place for them anymore, and it was time for a change.
An hour passed. Kid and Eshon went over the story to tell the officer before they called him. It had to be precise. They wanted to throw the cop off. The Kid wanted Eshon to not repeat verbatim what Brandy had told her—about the fight, and about other things. He wanted her to change her voice to sound purely ghetto and go off on tangents and talk about the many arguments that she had with Jessica.
“Allow the cop to control the conversation. Let him bring you back to corroborate what Brandy said. You can’t let y’all stories sound rehearsed,” The Kid said.
Eshon nodded. She understood.
She took a deep breath and dialed Spielberg’s number. It rang. They both were silent. The Kid looked unflappable for the moment, but he knew it all could go wrong within a heartbeat. Eshon just needed to stay cool and keep to the script.
“This is Officer Spielberg, how can I help you?” Spielberg answered.
Hearing the cop’s voice, Eshon’s heart almost stopped. For a split moment, she went mute, but then collected herself and did what she was told. “Yeah, this is Eshon Williams. I heard you was lookin’ for me?”
“Yes, I’m an officer with the 1st precinct investigating the murder of a Jessica Hernandez. When was the last time you saw her alive?” he asked, surprised.
“Yeah, I heard ’bout that fuckin’ bitch gettin’ murdered and shit like that. She was always a grimy fuckin’ ho,” Eshon proclaimed with contempt.
“I heard y’all used to be friends.”
“Key word, we ‘used’ to be friends. And then I couldn’t stand that bitch. She tried to fuck wit’ my man and I don’t play that shit. Why she gotta go fuck wit’ mines, huh? Bitch, get your own fuckin’ man.”
“And when was the last time you had any contact with her?” he interrupted.
Eshon sucked her teeth and replied, “I don’t fuckin’ remember, like two, maybe three weeks ago. We got into it. I was ready to snatch that bitch bald headed. Like I said, she was a grimy bitch.”
“What about club Sane? You were there with her that night, from my understanding?”
Eshon sighed. “I guess so. I mean, that bitch wanted to make up and become friends wit’ me. I was cool wit’ that bitch, officer. When she moved here from Cali, I befriended that bitch when she had no one. I looked out for that fuckin’ bitch and what this bitch do? She tried to stab me in the fuckin’ back and talk shit ’bout me in the hood. Can you believe that fuckin’ shit? How dare she!”
Quickly, Officer Spielberg saw that he wasn’t getting anywhere with this one. She was all over the place, vilifying Jessica’s name and spewing hatred to him about Jessica like he was her therapist. But he continued with his questions.
“Can you tell me about this new boyfriend of hers?”