I Saw Your Profile (24 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Arianna
was sprawled across her living room buried under a
stack of papers when the
howl of the
phone
almost sobered her.

She was still slightly under the influence of
tequila and forgot not to answer. She slowly stood up and shuffled to the end
table where the phone sat in a charger and plopped on the couch next to it.

“Hello,” she said with a raspy voice.

“Miss Singleton?”

“Yes. Who is this?”

“Detective Mitchell. I’m sorry to call so late, but
I tried earlier and didn’t get an answer.”

“What can I do for you?”

“I’m investigating the death of Chauncey Cockfield
and I have some questions for you.”

“Why me?”

“You knew him, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. So?”

“Then, we’d like to ask you some questions, ma’am.”

Arianna found total sobriety. “All right, when?”

“I’ve made arrangements for a Philadelphia detective
to meet with you. Detective Howard. He can see you tomorrow. What time is good
for you?”

She wiped her eyes and sat up straight.
“Seven-thirty.”

“I’ll let him know. Thanks for your cooperation.”

“Detective?”

“Yes,ma’am.”
     
“How did
you get my name?”

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

Arianna called Nicole.

Detective Mitchell already had questioned her about
Chauncey and Arianna.

“I told him about our relationship and how we broke
up,” Nicole said. “He asked me where I was the weekend Chauncey died and I told
him. I tried to call you, but you weren’t answering your phones. Where were
you?”

“Passed out. I had too much to drink.”

“You okay?”

“Just pissed!” Arianna stood up and started pacing
the floor. Her voice got louder.

“Chauncey’s death would’ve been filed in a drawer
with the anotha-nigga-bites-the-dust cases if Janelle hadn’t opened her big ass
mouth. That bitch is about as bright as a damn blackout.”

 
“Not
really. She knew what she was doing,” Nicole said.

 
“She
picks now to get a brain? Where were all these damn smarts when Chauncey was
knocking her ass up and giving her VD?”

“He didn’t have to die for it, though.”

Nicole’s words pricked Arianna’s conscious in its
most vulnerable place. Her voice lost its harshness and some of its volume.

“Where is that coming from? I thought we were past
this?”

 
Nicole
had been upset when Arianna told her the news about Chauncey. She blamed
Arianna for taking revenge instead of leaving Chauncey’s fate in the hands of
God.

A week later, she called Arianna, telling her that
she’d prayed about it and God said it was Chauncey’s time to go. She and
Arianna made up.

Janelle went straight for the murder accusation,
screaming over the phone at Arianna and calling her every expletive her tongue
could spew.

Nicole convinced Janelle to let it go. The three of
them decided not to attend the funeral and vowed to keep Arianna’s trip to L.A.
between them.

Those promises were quickly broken.

Arianna repeated her question when Nicole didn’t
answer immediately.

Nicole sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t mean
for Chauncey to die. It’s just that when you start going off like that it makes
me wonder if you’re even sorry about what happened. The truth is, if you didn’t
set him up, Chauncey would still be alive, and Janelle just told the truth.”

Arianna plodded back to the couch and slumped down.

“I don’t know what you guys want from me,” she said,
her voice devoid of energy. “Yes, if I hadn’t set him up, he’d still be here
whoring his way across the World Wide Web. But I was defending myself, and
Janelle is trying to send me to jail for it. I don’t deserve that.”

“No you don’t deserve that, Arianna. Just tell the
police the truth, and everything will be fine.”

Sleep eluded Arianna most of the night as Chauncey’s
ghost haunted her. His image appeared each time she closed her eyes.

Chauncey’s crumpled body on the hotel room floor,
blood gushing from his head.

Chauncey lying in his cheap casket.

Shortly after midnight, the sandman paid her a brief
visit. She dreamed that Chauncey had risen from the dead. He stood naked at the
foot of her bed cackling that her jail cell would be his revenge.

 
Arianna
awoke from the nightmare dripping in sweat, her heart racing. She dragged
herself to the bathroom and took a shower.

When sleep finally landed on her, it was four in the
morning. Two hours later, her alarm clock was blaring, signaling the hour had
come to wake up Amir.

 
The
detective pulled up in front of her house an hour and a half after that, just
as Akilah’s bus was pulling off.

He was a tall, fine brother with a low haircut.

Arianna invited him in and offered him a cup of
coffee.
 

“So what do you want to know, detective?”

He sipped his coffee. “How well did you know Mr.
Cockfield?”

“We dated for a short time.”

 
“How did
you meet?”

 
“Online.”

 
“Why did
you stop dating him?“

 
“I found
out he was living with another woman.”

 
“Were
you angry?” He took another sip of coffee and peered at her over the cup.

“Sure.”

“What did you do about it?”

“What could I do?”

“Miss Singleton, we have a statement from one of the
women he was seeing that you hatched a plan to pay him back. You’d be doing
yourself a favor by just telling us everything now.”

“I think I’m done talking until I get a lawyer.”

“Innocent people don’t need lawyers, ma’am. If
you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”

Arianna didn’t respond.

The detective finished his coffee and stood up.

“When you’ve contacted your lawyer, I’ll need you to
come down to the station to finish your statement. Can you do that later
today?”

“No. It’s not like I keep a lawyer on hand for these
types of things. I’ll need a few days to retain one.”

“We can’t wait a few days, Ms. Singleton. I’ll give
you until tomorrow.”

Arianna called Kenny. He recommended a lawyer who’d
been in the news a lot for winning high profile cases in Delaware. She caught
him just as he was heading to court. He agreed to see her that afternoon. She
called out sick and drove to Wilmington.

Kenny met Arianna at Joshua Berger’s office. He was
a short, balding Jewish man in his mid-fifties. Her story intrigued him,
particularly since he was recently divorced and had signed up with an online
dating service for Jewish singles.

 
His fee
was high, but the many framed articles about the cases he’d won on his office
wall told her he was worth it.

His first move would be to find out Chauncey’s cause
of death.

“Do you know what this Brenda has told LAPD?” he
asked.

“No. I haven’t talked to her since the police
contacted me.”

 
“What
about Danielle or Daniel? Do you know how to reach her…er him?”

“No. Brenda hired him.”

“So you never saw him or talked to him after you
left California?”

“No.”

“What about Brenda?”

“We talked a couple of times, but I haven’t spoken
to her in a few weeks.”

“She didn’t go to the funeral?”

“No. Well, she didn’t go the wake. I don’t think she
went to the funeral. I never asked.”

“Get in touch with her. Tell her what’s going on and
let her know I’ll be calling her to ask her some questions.”

“They didn’t murder anyone,” Kenny said. “Do you
think they can make a case against them?”

“I won’t know that until I find out what the autopsy
says,” said the lawyer, looking at Arianna. “But audio taping someone without
their knowledge is illegal. So if there is a tape, it can be used against you.”

“I’d like to go with her tomorrow when she gives her
statement,” said Kenny. “Is that Okay?”

“Sure, but I’m the only one who will be allowed in
the room with her.”

“That’s fine. I just want to be there for moral
support.”

Arianna followed Kenny back to his place.

After making love, they lay in each other arms,
glistening with sweat. Their erratic breathing provided the only sound in the
room.

Arianna turned her sweaty back to him, pressing her
butt against his thighs. “I’m scared,” she said.

Kenny turned on his side, wrapping his arms tightly
around her. “So am I. I’m afraid of losing you. You need to get rid of that
tape.”

“I know. I’ll do it tomorrow. I’m afraid for my
kids.”

“What about them?”

“I’m the only parent they’ve got. If I go to jail
for this bullshit, what happens to them?”

“You’re not going to jail.”

“You just said…”

“Forget what I said. A temporary lapse. You made
some bad choices, but you’re not a murderer. Berger is gonna prove that and
everything’s gonna be fine.”

“From your mouth to God’s ears.”

“Oh now you believe in God?”

“I never stopped believing in Him. It’s religion
I’ve got a problem with.”

“Have you been praying?”

“Not really. But I’m about to start.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

“Not
guilty, your honor.”

Arianna spoke the words, but she couldn’t believe
they were falling from her mouth.

How could she – an upstanding citizen and
mother who never so much as bounced a check – be charged with voluntary
manslaughter?

Her nerves were dancing off beat underneath a
fitted pink and black skirt suit, but her placid façade masked her terror.

Joshua
Berger stood next to her in the crowded Los Angeles
courtroom as she responded to the judge’s request for her plea. A week before,
she’d fainted in his office after he told her she’d been indicted.

Kenny caught her as she toppled over her chair and
held her until she regained consciousness.

He wanted to go with her to L.A., but Arianna asked
him to stay with Amir and Akilah. She didn’t want to send them to Connecticut
with her family. Her mother would insist on knowing what was so important they
needed to miss school.

So Kenny obliged.

 
Joshua
took the flight with her to the West Coast, assuring her he’d do everything he
could to prove her innocence.

Brenda’s lawyer made the same assurances. She had
stood in Arianna’s spot in front of the judge moments before and pleaded not
guilty to the same charges.

 
It had
been a week since the grand jury had indicted them.

Their own statements to the police were damaging as
hell, but they had to tell the truth. Their lawyers had warned them how easy it
would be for the cops to verify Janelle’s story.

Arianna quickly realized all the trouble she went
to destroying her hard drive was for nothing.

The police had the emails she’d sent Janelle
bragging about paying back Chauncey.

 
Credit
card records showed they paid for the room where Chauncey’s body was found.

Airline records proved Arianna was in Los Angeles
the day Chauncey died.

The only thing they each left out of their stories
was making the tape. At the time, they thought the illegal recording was their
primary concern.

Their lawyers were sure Arianna and Brenda wouldn’t
be charged. They had self-defense on their side.

They hadn’t counted on a zealous and savvy
prosecutor using the case as his ticket to fame.

Todd Blaine knew the case had the perfect
ingredients
–
Internet romance, love triangles, and murder
– to make headlines.

 
He used
the revenge plot to convince the grand jury Arianna and Brenda had intent to
kill, which was necessary for a voluntary manslaughter charge.

The autopsy showed Chauncey had died from blunt
force trauma to the head. Todd told the grand jury that one or both of them had
pushed Chauncey into the table intentionally.

The judge set bail at two hundred thousand dollars
for Arianna because she lived out of state, and one hundred thousand for
Brenda.

The bail bondsman required them to come up with ten
percent.

Arianna used twenty thousand dollars from the life
insurance money Michael left.

Brenda used her house as collateral to come up with
hers.

In the hallway outside the courtroom, a throng of
reporters was waiting to pounce.

Three of them thrust microphones in Arianna’s face
and two rushed Brenda. The newspaper reporters stood in the background armed
with notebooks and pens while the TV people fired questions like assassins with
machine guns.

“Which one of you actually killed Mr. Cockfield?”

“Was it both of you?”

“How long did you know him?”

“Did you meet online? Which web site?”

“Were you both sleeping with him at the same time?”

“Who met him first?”

Joshua finally interrupted. “Chauncey Cockfield’s
death was an accident. Our clients are innocent of the charges and we plan to
prove it. We have no further comment.”

When
Todd Blaine trotted into the hallway, several of the reporters scurried over to
him.

“Mr.
Blaine, how strong is your case?”

“Was
this a crime of a passion or a calculated murder?”

Todd was
six-feet tall with dark brown hair and movie star good looks. He relished the
attention and gave the reporters the sound bites they craved.

“This is
a love triangle with a twist. All of the parties involved met on the Internet,
the cyberspace meat market of the new millennium. The victim began
relationships with both women and when they discovered his deception –
also via the Internet – they sought revenge. When that didn’t go as
planned, they made him pay – with his life. That’s all I can say at this
time.”

They
fired more questions at him, but the prosecutor turned and walked away with a
swift stride as if he had some place to be in a hurry.

Arianna rolled her eyes. She knew he had tipped off
the media. It was the only thing that would explain the sudden interest in the
death of an unknown black man.

The L. A. Post Standard had only published a brief,
eight lines of microscopic type, when the police found his body. Had he been
found in a run down motel instead of a four-star downtown chain, he wouldn’t
have gotten that much ink.

Arianna’s lawyer escorted her from the courthouse,
shielding her from reporters. Brenda and her lawyer followed.

Joshua Berger flew back East that evening. He was
going to hire an investigator to find Danielle, whom he believed could help
their case by corroborating Arianna’s and Brenda’s claim that the setup was
intended to embarrass Chauncey, not bring him physical harm.

Brenda’s associate had told her Danielle left
California shortly after her night with Chauncey.

Arianna spent the night at Brenda’s commiserating.
They were the lead story on all the local news stations that evening. Arianna
cringed every time she turned the station and saw herself on TV. Brenda cried,
saying she would never sell another property.

Arianna knew it was only the beginning. The story
had just the right amount of sleaze to be picked up nationally.

In the airport the next day, she picked up a local
tabloid
. The headline read:
You’ve Got Bail: Scorned Lovers
Charged in Slaying of Internet Lothario.