Hood Ornaments

With that the truck started, and they drove off.

Sticks and Dre bullshitted a little bit and Dell fell asleep. When he woke up, they were in a parking garage.

“Jeez, my neck is stiff. Where are we?”

Dre answered, “Downtown Cleveland.”

“Why?” Dell asked in a confused whine that made everyone else chuckle.

“To rest.” Sticks affirmed.

“Besides who would ever think we were in Cleveland?” Dre remarked.

Dell shrugged. It wasn’t his business, and he damn sure needed to sleep in an actual bed. It was then that Sticks handed him a room key.

“Go. Sleep. When you wake up order breakfast and go back to sleep.”

“What about y’all?”

“Oh we gonna do the same… and more. I’ll text you and we can meet up.”

Then Dell saw Jasmine’s truck pull up next to his. She came out along with a woman who could easily be a model for a Hip-Hop video.

Dell smirked.

“Oh aiight. Y’all will text me. Gotcha.”

***

Michael was in the back of the cab with his father and mother, and he felt like he was ten years old. His mother shifted uncomfortably while his father apparently was texting his contacts at the station. You could hear a pin drop until Michael spoke up.

“Just go ahead and ask Mom, Your silence is deafening.”

“Did you know anything about this?”

“Mom, how could I…”

“I mean what do you actually know about this woman?”

“Don’t speak about her like she is an object. I thought you liked her?”

“I do…did Son, but I Love you. I don’t want you getting involved with criminals.”

“Seriously, Mom…”

“Chickie, you are making sweeping generalizations. Stop. This won’t make the situation any better.”

“There shouldn’t be a situation Reg. Honestly.”

There was an uncomfortable lull of silence.

“Can you help her Pop?”

His father signed heavily, “She is up on major charges. The most I can do at this point is try to speed up the booking process, the extradition, and advise her to keep quiet until she gets an attorney back home?”

“Good Lord, Reg. What on earth did she do?”

“She is my client now. So I have to respect her rights.”

“What about our son’s rights?!?!”

The cab pulled around to the back of the police station, and the Chambers family filed out.

“Where the hell do y’all think y’all goin?”

Mrs. Chambers looked offended. Michael acted as if that question didn’t apply to him causing Mr. Chambers to become adamant.

“There is absolutely nothing either of you can do here. Get back in the cab, both of you.” He gave the cabbie cash and an address.

“Michael, I will call you in a few hours.”

***

The only experience Tori had with central booking was what she saw of it on television. It seemed as if in one scene the suspect was fingerprinted, then magically donned the regulation orange jumpsuit for the mugshot; and after the flash of the bulb, the suspect was put into a room a long table and chairs strewn casually about. Of course the suspect was put in the chair with the short leg. Then two, sometimes three detectives, a cop, and a partridge in a pear tree would commence asking the suspect questions. Then after the suspect was just at the point of exhaustion, an attorney swooped in and took the suspect out of the room saying the police had no right to hold the client, and the suspect magically returned to his street clothes. Then the suspect walks out.

In less than ten minutes tops.

In real life, it doesn’t work that way. There were so many people in so many lines. There was so much shouting and laughing and scuffling and door slamming.

It was controlled chaos.

Tori’s head was pounding.

For whatever reason, she knew not to cry.

But she wanted to.

Only because he head was pounding.

That made her sleepy.

Or was it the champagne.

She swayed and an officer caught her by her elbow. Not out of kindness but to drag her to a makeshift desk with a computer and only one chair.

And that was for the officer.

“Name?” The officer asked without looking up.

“Victoria Dionnedrea Watts.”

“Spell Dionnedrea.”

Oh here we go.

Tori then spelled it out for the officer slowly and with disdain.

“Don’t get mad at me, I didn’t name you. Take this print out and go stand in that line.”

Tori glanced at the line and sighed.

This was gonna take forever.

And forever it took. All of the lines were long. The line that Tori didn’t care about was the line to get frisked or searched. As the sign clearly stated on the wall:

All detainees are subject to random strip searches.

Ugh, she thought. I so would not want that job.

And what exactly would I have hidden in my body cavity? A sculpture? I think I would have noticed someone violating me with a weapon. Yeah, I’m tired. Let’s just get this shit over with.

Of course they just frisked Tori and provided her with the bright orange prison jumpsuit. Then she was escorted to an office. A short brown woman with a tiny build and pixie cut offered Tori a seat. She wore a pant suit and had a correction facility name badge clipped to her lapel. Standing behind her was a correctional officer.

“I need to ask you a few questions Ms. Watts.”

Tori sat down, but shook her head. “Not without my lawyer.”

The woman giggled, “First time huh?”

Tori just raised an eyebrow.

“Look Ms. Watts. I don’t give a damn what you did or didn’t do, I just have a few basic questions to ensure your safety while you are here with us. For brevity sake please just answer yes or no.”

Tori sighed.

“Do you have any gang affiliations we should know about?”

“No”

“Religious beliefs?”

“Dietary restrictions?

Tori answered no to all of the questions.

“Ok so since you asked for your attorney, I am assuming you do in fact have one. I can call him for you if you would like.”

“No thank you, ma’am. He is already here.”

The little woman looked somewhat surprised and dejected by Tori’s reply.

“His name?”

“Reginald Chambers.”

“The, Reginald Chambers?” The little woman seemed confused and impressed at the same time. She turned to the guard.

“Paul, escort Ms. Watts to an interrogation room. I’ll summon Mr. Chambers to meet you there.”

Tori got up, and she couldn’t help but thank the woman with a little sarcasm in her voice.

The guard shook his head and took her by the elbow as the little woman picked up the phone and called who she needed to call to get the room and Mr. Chambers.

The guard escorted her down a long white hallway, and at the end of it were several white doors with bars on the tiny windows. He unlocked one of the doors, and Tori walked in. There sat the male detective and Lizette Carlo. Tori sat in a chair as far away from her as possible. She noticed what she could only assume was a two way mirror off in the corner.

“So I am sure you know why you are here. I am Detective Potter. You know Detective Carlo.”

“I don’t know anything. Because before, I thought Lizette was a patron of the arts. Then I thought she was an officer. Now she is a detective. I am sorry Detective Potter, is it? I’m just a little confused.”

As if Tori gave a signal, Carlo got up and began spreading out crime scene photos in front of them.

“Let’s see if we can jog your memory Victoria. Do you remember these men? Do you remember shooting them? Do you remember killing them? Do you have any recollection how these men that you murdered and took away from their families ended up cemented into the foundation of a building?”

Tori sighed, leaned back in the chair, and lowered her head. She was silent for a long period of time before she answered.

“I do remember something.”

Carlo looked at Potter with an expression of disbelief. Potter shrugged slightly and gently put his hand on Tori’s shoulder. Carlo flipped through the file she had placed on the table and pulled out a legal pad and a pen. She pushed them both closer to Tori who just rolled her eyes and looked up at Potter.

“I remember that I asked for my attorney.”

Aggravated and stunned, the detectives gathered up everything and left the interrogation room.

This was gonna be one long ass day.

Reginald Chambers walked through the door of the interrogation room slightly disheveled from lack of rest. He pulled out the chair closest to Tori and set his own file in front of him. Tori’s head was down. She couldn’t look him in the eye. He surmised it was because she was ashamed, embarrassed, and guilty.

At least she looked guilty according to the facts in his file which he was flipping through sticking Post-It notes on some of the pages. This made Tori nervous. And for the first time since she was arrested she thought about Michael.

“Mr. Chambers, is Michael okay?”

Reginald’s face softened somewhat, “He will be fine. Confused, but he’s gonna be fine. Though I must say young lady, for someone who is in as much trouble as you are, you hold up impeccably well.”

Tori sighed so hard she shuddered.

“Cold?” Mr. Chambers asked almost lovingly.

Tori shook her head quickly.

“Hungry?”

She shook her head again.

Reginald reached over and grabbed her hand, “You know you are allowed to speak to me right?”

This caused Tori to chuckle.

“That’s better. First of all let me say, you did a good job with the detectives. Have you done this before?”

Tori looked horrified.

“That was a joke, baby, I’m sorry.”

“S’ok.”

“Here’s what we are gonna do. Start from the beginning…”

Tori told the story. Usually when his clients were talking, Reginald would partially listen. He wasn’t being rude. He was multitasking by coming up with a defense strategy.

At first he was scribbling on a legal pad as she spoke. But once he heard the shakiness in her voice, he stopped and listened intently. He could tell she was ashamed. Not of what she did, but of what was done to her.

He was sickened, shocked, and, oddly enough, proud of her. But he also knew what he thought didn’t matter. She was guilty in the eyes of the law.

A guard knocked and entered.

“You have ten minutes and then…”

Chambers nonchalantly waved him off and he left.

“Victoria, do you need me to call your parents?”

Jesus how much am I going to have to relive today.

She shook her head, “There’s nothing they can do.”

She wasn’t lying.

“I’m not going to get bail on a murder charge.”

Another truth.

They both stood up as he didn’t want the guard to remind him.

“Victoria. I am going to work my ass off for you.”

“But…”

“If you are even thinking about money right now…”

He held his arms out and she hugged him. The tears finally fell.

“Does my son know any of this?”

A sigh.

A whisper.

“Okay baby, I’ll talk to him. I’ll be back soon.”