Black Dahlia (19 page)

“Okay, boss, we’ve been working and found a little more information,” Lorenzo said as Raul exited the conference room in his office. He’d been in a meeting with a high-level client on some important security issues his business had been having. Raul told his team that he wanted more information on Thomasina and Rochelle Roberts once he finished his meeting. Lorenzo was waiting on him at the door.

“Tell me what you got,” Raul said as he strode down the hallway to his office.

“Well, Thomasina was born and raised in Houston’s 3rd Ward. From the looks of it, her family was pretty much working class; her father was a mechanic. Her mother was a preschool teacher. She was raised in the church. As she got older she graduated from the local high school, and attended community college. It’s still fuzzy on who could be Rochelle’s father, but we found an original copy of her birth certificate. There was a father’s name placed on the certificate,” Lorenzo said as he pulled out a picture of an old birth certificate. The image was blurry, but Raul was able to make out the name of the father. He stood there stunned. It all began to come together, as Lorenzo told him more about Rochelle’s childhood.

“Apparently she’d had it pretty rough after moving to Chicago,” Lorenzo continued, “Her mother fell ill with Multiple Sclerosis and she’d spent a large portion of her childhood caring for her mother instead of being a kid. Turns out, she was caught shoplifting to get clothes for school and to make a little extra money to support herself and her mother. She was arrested, but was let off easy. Since then, she stayed out of trouble, as far as law enforcement knows. Rochelle finally had to put her mother in a home about eighteen months ago, and within a few months, Thomasina suffered a stroke. She died as a result of the stroke.”

Raul knew this was the woman. He knew he was reading the file of the woman who’d been targeting Mercedes. It must have been the death of her mother that triggered her. He still had questions as to why she fixated on Mercedes, but he fully intended to ask Rochelle those questions.

“What’s her current address?” he barked out the question to Lorenzo.

“Here it is. She’s been leasing a month to month apartment in the same complex as Mercedes.” In that moment, Raul was so grateful he’d insisted on Mercedes staying at his place this summer. This woman was practically living in the same building as Mercedes.

“You go over to see if she’s home. I’m going to call Mercedes,” Raul instructed. Lorenzo was headed out the door before Raul could complete his sentence. He took his cell phone out of the top drawer of his desk and saw he had a voicemail from Mercedes. He hoped she was calling to tell him she was back, safely at his home.

“Hi, Raul, it’s me. I’m just leaving Devyn’s and got a call from Ron Sherman. He needs help with some work files before we start our training tomorrow with the rest of the staff. I’m going to head over to the school. I don’t know how long I’ll be if you want to meet me there or I can just call when I’m on my way back home.” Raul listened to the message over again and a chill ran down his spine. It didn’t feel right. He knew Mercedes was supposed to return to work the following day to begin the training and set up for the new school year, so why was Ron calling her to come in today? Was Ron working with Rochelle to set Mercedes up? Raul asked these questions and more, as he grabbed his keys, his gun out of his office drawer, stuffed it in the back of his waist and headed out the door. Raul was so certain something was amiss that on the way to his car, he called Lorenzo and diverted him to Mercedes’ school instead of Rochelle’s apartment. Raul tried to call Mercedes over and over again, but to no avail. Her phone was either on silent or she wouldn’t or couldn’t answer for some reason. He hoped he wasn’t too late. He immediately pushed those negative thoughts aside, knowing that he had to remain focused in order to help Mercedes.

****

“Ron, are you here?” Mercedes yelled as she entered the dark outer office of the school. The outer office is where the school’s secretary sat, and there was a long bench for parents who were there to meet with the principal or assistant principals. Off to the right was Mercedes’ own office along with the office for the other assistant principals. To the left was the larger principal’s office. Mercedes found it strange that the lights in the outer office were off, but the lights in Ron’s office were on.

“Ron, are you here?” she called again. She pushed through the small swinging door that stopped around mid-thigh, and that separated the parent’s waiting area with the secretary and staff area. She stepped through the doorway and made her way to Ron’s office. She saw him sitting at his desk with an unreadable expression on his face. When he saw her his eyes filled with relief and then worry. Mercedes felt the hairs at the back of her neck stand up.

“Ro-Ron what’s-”

“Hello, Mercedes,” a cold voice welcomed her. Mercedes didn’t even notice the face of the person who the voice belonged to. She was too busy looking down the barrel of the gun that was now pointed at her. When she finally took her eyes off the gun and looked up into the face of the person who held the gun, she was shocked at who was there.

“Roxxy?!” She gasped.

“It’s you? You’re the-”

“Oh, no. Now is not the time for questions. In!” Rochelle insisted, waving the gun in the direction of Ron’s office for Mercedes to step in.

“Sit!” she commanded, pointing at the chair across from Ron’s desk. Mercedes noticed at that time, that Ron’s wrists had been duct taped to his chair.

‘I’m sorry’, he mouthed to her as she looked at him. She knew he was apologizing for being forced to make that call to her. Setting her up.

“Well, look who we have here. The famous Mercedes Holmes, or should I say the Black Dahlia?” Rochelle asked loudly, arms flailing.

“Rochelle, what is this about? Why are you doing this?” Mercedes asked, trying to sound as calm as possible. She knew she had to keep her cool if she wanted to get the answers she needed and to make it out of this alive. She found relief in knowing she had left that message for Raul.

“Why am I doing this? You really want to know, Black Dahlia?”

“Yes, I want to know what I did to you to make you hate me this much,” Mercedes answered honestly. She could see the glossed over look in Roxxy’s eyes. She knew the woman was not dealing with a full deck right now.

“Because you took everything from me!” Roxxy shouted, aggressively pointing the gun at her. Mercedes flinched at the movement of the gun.

“If it wasn’t for you, my life would be so different. Better,” Roxxy screamed.

“I-I don’t understand. What did I do?” Mercedes asked confused.

“You were born!” Roxxy yelled, hysterically.

“If it wasn’t for you, my father would be with me and my mother. I wouldn’t have had to take care of her myself. I would have been able to be a kid, finish school, go to college. But no! You are the reason he wasn’t around so I had to do it all!” Mercedes was still confused. She had no idea what Roxxy was talking about. She stared at Roxxy trying to make sense of what she was saying.

“Your father? I don’t understand. What does your father have to do with me?”

“For an assistant principal of a school, you really are stupid aren’t you? You did a bang up job hiring this one,” she derided Mercedes as she looked over at Ron who sat silently at his desk with a grim face. He too, looked just as confused as Mercedes felt.

“My father, or I should say,
our
father is one Dwayne Holmes, of Pearland, Texas,” Roxxy said as she walked closer to Mercedes, bending so their faces were even with one another. Mercedes looked into Roxxy’s face. She noticed the eye color that mirrored her own, the similar skin complexions, and even the shape of Roxxy’s wider nose—a physical trait Mercedes inherited from her father. Realization began to settle in the pit of Mercedes’ stomach. Roxxy was her sister…her father’s illegitimate daughter. Mercedes had even more questions now. How old was Roxxy? Where had she been? Who was her mother? And most important, why did Roxxy blame her for her father’s absence?

“Roxxy-”

“Rochelle!” she yelled.

“Wha-what?” Mercedes asked.

“My name is Rochelle. I hate that fucking stage name!”

“Okay, Rochelle. I don’t know what you think you know about me, but I had no idea you even existed. If I had known I had a sister I would have sought you out,” she tried to find some sort of connection with the woman.

“Oh is that right?” Rochelle laughed sardonically. “You would have tried to find me? So, what? So, we could be a family? So we could be what? Sisters?”

Mercedes could feel Rochelle’s anger rising. She wanted to keep her calm for as long as possible. “Yes. I would have wanted that. I always wanted a sister. I’m sorry my…our father wasn’t there for you. He should have been-”

“Yes, he should have been! But because of you he wasn’t! He loved my mother, but he told her he couldn’t leave his bitch of a daughter. Even when he found out my mother was pregnant he refused to leave his wife or you. He said he couldn’t scandalize his church like that, so he turned his back on us. He chose you over us. It’s your fault I grew up without a father!” Rochelle yelled and ranted. Mercedes began to realize what Rochelle’s anger was about. She blamed Mercedes for missing out on the life she thought she should have had growing up. Instead of putting her anger at her father’s abandonment on him, she misdirected it at Mercedes, who was just a child herself when their father abandoned Rochelle and her mother. Maybe she could reason with Rochelle.

“Rochelle, I’m so sorry you went through everything you did as a child. If I could change what our father did to you and your mother I would. He is not the perfect father you believe him to be. He’s cheated on my mother for years. He has never been faithful. He may have told your mother he loved her, but he had many women he’s said that to. He only loves himself,” Mercedes told her truthfully. The truth was her father was a selfish man who only cared about himself and his image. He came across as the preacher who was a doting husband and father, but looks could be deceiving. He’d cheated on Mercedes’ mother with many women over the years. He used his position as a pastor to seduce women into confiding in and trusting him before bedding them. Some of those women had even confronted Mercedes’ mother over the years, but her mother refused to abandon her husband, ever the dutiful wife and faithful servant.

“You’re lying!” Rochelle shouted at her. “He loved my mother. She told me. It was you. You’re the reason he stayed. You’re the reason my father never saw me. Never reached out to get to know me. It was you!” Mercedes could feel the woman spiraling out of control. She realized that trying to reason with Rochelle was out of the question. She’d probably spent years blaming Mercedes for something that was beyond her control. Mercedes would not be able to undo a lifetime of rage and anger in a few minutes, and she knew she only had mere minutes left if she didn’t regain control of this situation. Mercedes thought to try another tactic. She’d use the first rule of Capoeira that Raul had taught her; trickery and evasion.

“I’m sorry, Rochelle. You’re right. It was me, I begged him to stay,” she lied to the woman, “I saw him packing to leave one day and I couldn’t let that happen. I needed my father. I didn’t know he had another daughter though,” Mercedes tried to sound sincere as she lied to Rochelle. She hoped confessing to her own selfishness would mollify Rochelle in some way.

“I knew it!” Rochelle said satisfied with Mercedes’ confession. She began pacing back and forth. “I knew it was you. My mother told me it was your fault…” Rochelle continued to ramble to herself, pacing back and forth in the room. Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, Mercedes saw movement. She turned her head slightly, to see Raul standing in the shadow of Ron’s doorway. A wave of relief washed over Mercedes. She knew they weren’t out of the woods yet, but knowing he was there gave her the added confidence that she needed to believe she’d make it out of this alive. Raul nodded his head and put his finger over his lips, signaling for her to keep quiet and not draw attention to his presence. Mercedes turned her face to see Rochelle still pacing and mumbling to herself. Mercedes looked to see Ron, who still sat quietly, his face a mask of alarm and fear. Mercedes refocused her attention on Rochelle. She could see the woman become even more unraveled right before her eyes. She continued to pace and mumble about knowing her father loved her and it was Mercedes’ fault that he left her. Mercedes got the eerie notion Rochelle was gearing herself up to finally end this, and not in the way Mercedes would want it to end either. Raul must have sensed the exact same thing, since once Rochelle paced in the opposite direction again, he made his move. Mercedes didn’t see it coming, but she saw a flash of white in front of her, before she felt strong arms grip her and throw her down to the floor. Something heavy covered her face and body. All she saw was darkness, but she could hear. She heard Rochelle screeching and a male grunting, before the loud “pow” of a gun went off. Mercedes could hear what sounded like someone or something heavy falling to the floor. She tried to maneuver her body to see what was going on, but the body on top of hers wouldn’t budge. Somehow she instinctively knew it wasn’t Raul who covered her. She had come to know the feel and scent of his body on hers and even in a life or death situation such as this, she knew that whoever was on top of her, it wasn’t Raul. It felt like an eternity to Mercedes before the sounds quieted and the body on top of her shifted, easing their weight off her.