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"I’ve got pictures in my jacket pocket of her at Jake’s party."
Felicia stood up and walked toward me. I was smiling, enjoying the view until she put the gun to my head. "Don’t even think about doing anything stupid. I don’t mind killing you."
"Believe me, that wasn’t what I was thinking about." Felicia carefully removed the pictures from my pocket and returned to her spot.
She rested the gun on the table and glanced at one of the pictures. "LaShawn. I knew the girl was wild, but damn." She glanced at the rest and put them down.
I made note of the fact that even though she had only glanced at them, Felicia knew it was LaShawn and not Pamela right away. "She died two weeks ago under the same circumstances as Pamela. Pamela had Jake’s card on her when the police found her body."
"How do you know that?"
"The police told me."
"You’re working with the police?"
"Unofficially. I guess you can say that. My guess is they weren’t getting away with linking Pamela to Jake so they threw me the bone."
"Why you?"
"Other than Mrs. Childers being my client, I know a little something about the people involved in this."
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
"How long were you a cop?"
"Four years. Why?"
"You’ve heard of Mike Black?"
"Vicious Black."
There it is again. Why does every woman say his name like that?
"Who hasn’t heard of him?"
"He’s an old associate. Reggie owes him a favor too."
"So you used to run with Vicious Black, huh?"
"Yes," I said, with a newfound sense of pride. "But not for the last ten years."
"Why not?"
"Joined the army."
"So now you’re a private investigator and the police have been feeding you information." Felicia stood up again. I was hoping she was coming to take the cuffs off. They were starting to hurt, but she picked up the gun, walked toward the window, and looked out. "I didn’t think the police had anything." She turned around and came back toward me. It produced the same response as it did the first time. She stood before me and raised the gun. "How do I know I can trust you? I mean how do I know that whoever killed Pamela didn’t send you?"
"Then you do think she was murdered?"
"I know she was murdered. Pamela didn’t do drugs."
"But that’s not why you think she was murdered. Why’d you leave before the cops came?"
"Other than that innocent look in those brown eyes. Tell me why I should trust you?"
"I can’t think of any right now, but if I had to come up with something," I paused to give it the desired effect. "First of all, I wouldn’t have come here alone. I wouldn’t have let you take me without any resistance. And if I had come here to kill you, I would have just blasted you at the door."
Felicia smiled at me for the first time. She had a pretty smile. Then she laughed a little, but I guess it wasn’t enough to make her take the cuffs off. She simply returned to her spot and put the gun down. I was happy for that much.