LaToya: Episode XVII – Dangerous Mission

I looked in to see Captain Donald the next morning soon after eleven o’clock. I had paid my bill at the Empire Hotel, packed my bag and was now ready for the sixty mile drive to Alexandra, Virginia. Bruce told me Captain Donald was tied up, but he wanted to see me before I left.

“He will probably be here in, say, twenty minutes time,” he said. “Let’s go to my office. I have some interesting news for you.”

When I had sat down, Bruce said, “You were right. Breonna Adams had a record. She served two years for blackmail at the Baltimore City Detention Center in East Eager Street.”

“Do you have the details?”

“Well,” he began. “One of the girls she was working with in a show had a brother who was a convicted felon serving 30 years sentence for murder at the time. His background was pretty bad and Breonna found out about it. This will make the girl look bad for the show managers and she may be fired. Anyway, Breonna threatened to tell the other girls and to report her to the manager unless this girl pay her fifty dollars a week. That was what the girl could afford at the time. The girl paid up and six months later her brother died. The girl then went to the police and Breonna Adams was jailed for two years.”

“A very interesting story,” I said. “I wonder if she was blackmailing LaToya too?”

 “More likely she was blackmailing Eddie Peterson. Maybe she and LaToya were working together to put the bite on Eddie and he iced both of them.”

I shook my head.

“I don’t think it happened that way,” I said. “Breonna’s death was accidental. So was Lamar’s. If your argument is true, why wasn’t LaToya’s death accidental? Why was it so important to get rid of LaToya’s body so no one would ever find it? Naturally, no one will go to the trouble of giving a body a cement overcoat unless it is urgently necessary for the body not to be found. Why should her body disappear completely?”

Bruce stared at me. I knew he hadn’t thought of this angle.

“What you said makes a lot of sense, Emeka,” he said. “They would have easily make her death look like an accident too.”

The phone on his desk rang and he picked up the receiver.

“I’ll be on my way pronto,” he said and hung up. Looking at me he said, “It’s old man Captain Donald. Come with me. I know he will like to see you too.”

Captain Donald was sitting on his desk, smoking a cigarette. He didn’t look as happy as he had been the last night after he had told the reporters and press photographers what a smart guy he was. Today he was scowling, and he stared at me as if I was bad news.

“You certainly started something, Emeka, with your ideas,” he said. “And I will be in a big trouble if mishandle this case.” He waved Bruce out of the room. “Okay, we’ve found LaToya’s body; we’ve killed her murderer, but where does that get us? Even the press can see Dajon Price was hired to kill her, and in a day or so, they will begin to put some pressures on me. Tell you the truth, I’ve got no lead now.”

“I might turn one up in Alexandra,” I said. “I’m off right now.”

“In a way I hope you don’t,” he said. “It won’t get us anywhere. First, we have no jurisdiction in Alexandra, so we can’t send our officers there. Second, I’ve already told you that Commissioner Lawson hates black people. Besides, he isn’t co-operative. Ever since he’s been there, Alexandra has been used as a sanctuary for criminals. You wouldn’t believe a town of more than two hundred thousand residents could be so law-abiding. Fifty  percent of their convictions are traffic offences: broken headlights, speeding, failure to wear seatbelts, failing to use a turn signal, and so on. The rest of them are for pilfering, shoplifting, you know, stuff like that. There hasn’t been one major robbery or murder in Alexandra for five years. Can you believe this? All they had were just small time stuff among the lower working class: mainly black people who can’t afford to buy police protection. So, even if you get a lead, you must be very careful how you use it.”

“Unbelievable!” I said. “I mean I’m surprised that this kind of thing still happen in America. Anyway, if I get direct proof that the guy who hired Dajon Price is in Alexandra, surely we can put pressure on Commissioner Lawson to pass him over to you?”

Captain Donald lifted his shoulders.

“It will depend on who the guy is, how rich he is, and how much protection he can pay,” Captain Donald said. “I don’t really think you will get the evidence. You will be kicked out of the town before that. Are you really sure you want to do this?”

 “Of course I do,” I replied.

 He took a long, deep drag on his cigarette, exhaled  the smoke, and then said, “I’m not kidding, Emeka. Let me tell you a story. Perhaps it will help you to understand how dangerous your mission is:  six months ago, Cornelius Grantham, a private eye resident here, worked on a child custody battle case. The ex-girlfriend of the client he was watching went to Alexandra to meet her new wealthy boyfriend who lives in the town. Long story short, Cornelius followed her and kept after her. Her new boyfriend have a lot of dough. It’s my guess they went to Commissioner Lawson and complained. I wish you could see what they did to Cornelius. He is using a wheelchair now, and he doesn’t know exactly who beat him up. I had to spend almost two hours with him – he doesn’t talk so well now anyway – before I managed to get something from him. According to him, three men cornered him in an alley. It was dark, so he couldn’t see what they looked like. They never gave him the chance to look or talk before they slugged him unconscious. I spoke to Commissioner Lawson about it.  He said he would hunt for the three guys. He assured me that he will have them for me in two weeks. Well, I still haven’t got them, and I know I never will.”

I felt a sudden chill run up my spine as I stared at him.

“And you are afraid that they  will treat me like that, right?”

 Captain Donald smiled grimly.

 “Well, look at it this way,” he said. “If I sent Bruce to snoop their territory, they would do it to him: why not to you, a black man?”

 “Because I represent Baltimore Star,” I said, but with no confidence.

 Captain Donald laughed.

 “Tell that to Commissioner Lawson,” he said. “It might amuse him.”

 “Maybe I should avoid Alexandra.”

 “Please yourself,” Captain Donald said. “I wouldn’t ask you to go there. But I do know you want to get to the bottom of this LaToya story, and I have the feeling that you might find what you need there. But, it’s up to you.”

I laughed loudly, and said, “You sound like Mr. Sessoms. He’s my editor, and only him would order me to go there. In any case, I’ll go there, but I’ll be very careful.”

“You still have the gun I lent you, I believe?” Captain Donald asked, holding out his hand. “Give it back to me.”

 “Why?” I said, smiling.

“Because you will need a permit from Commissioner Lawson to carry a gun in his territory, and if they catch you with one without his permit you’ll spend up to seven months in one of the toughest jails in America.”

I reluctantly handed over the Luger pistol to him.

“I was hoping to use that for my trip to Alexandra,” I said. “If I have this gun with me, then no one would put me in a wheelchair.”

“You are safer without it,” Captain Donald said. “And, you already know that you can’t pull a gun on a police officer.”

He picked up an envelop lying on his desk and tossed it over to me.

“That’s a letter to Nicholas Wilkens, Alexandra’s ex-police captain,” he said. “He is a white guy, but he is a nice guy. He and I used to be old friends. I haven’t seen him  for a long time but, like I said, he is a good man – the kind of man you would like to have as a friend. You might find him very useful. Anyway, he’ll bring you up-to-date on who to see in Alexandra and who to avoid. Go talk to him as soon as you reach Alexandra. He will tell you where to stay and he will basically give you the geography of Alexandra.”

“Thanks a lot,” I said, and put the envelop in my pocket. “I will also go along and see Quentin Powell and find out what he knows about LaToya Young. Any other letters coming about her?”

“Sure,” Captain Donald said. “We have up to a dozen new ones. They don’t mean much, though, because the writers only think they recognized her. None of them is as sure as Quentin seems to be. None of them come from Alexandra anyway. We are interviewing them now, and if we turn up anything, I’ll let you know. As soon as you are settled down in Alexandra, call me and give me your address.” He looked at me thoughtfully and said, “I do hope you stay long enough in Alexandra to get an address.”

“I hope so too,” I said, gently. “Well, I should be going now.”

We shook hands.

“Goodbye, Emeka, and good luck.”

He said it as if he thought I will not achieve anything there.

“Thanks, Captain,” I said and left him.

Bruce was still in his office as I passed, so I put my head around the door.

“I’m off to Alexandra,” I said. “You’ll be praying for me, won’t you?”

 He looked long and seriously at me, while he shook his head.

 “You know, Emeka,” he said, pushing back his chair. “I think your friend Medgar’s got a lot more sense than you have. You may be the brain of the pair, but Medgar’s got the sense. Me? I wouldn’t go to Alexandra if my girlfriend was dying there – if I had a girlfriend, which I don’t at the moment.”

“I take that as a compliment,” I said, grinning. “But I must fly.”

As I walked down the passage to the exit, I told myself that a fearless man like me always have the advantage in a situation like this. And I promised myself that I must do anything in my power to crack this LaToya’s case. It is the key to my getting a permanent resident permit in America by merit.

 

 

 

END OF EPISODE 17

P.S. Stay tuned for Episode 18, which  will be published here next Sunday.