Between Friends

by D.L. Sparks

Genres: African American; African American Urban

Synopsis

Growing up in single-parent homes in Atlanta, Orlando "Trip" Spencer III and Aaron "Ace" Moore were so close that you would've thought they were brothers. Their friendship wasn't without problems, though. Competitive by nature, Trip and Ace had a rivalry not only on the football field, but also when it came to women. Now their differences are complicating things in their work as members of law enforcement. Trip has left Atlanta and moved up the ranks to become a member of the DEA, while Ace is an officer for the Atlanta Police Department. Trip plays by the rules, but Ace believes that structure is what gets cops killed. He plays by his own rules, and runs the streets with an iron fist. When the DEA is called in to investigate a string of murders that appear to be drug-related, Trip is uneasy about the return to his hometown. The investigation takes an astonishing turn when a fellow officer turns out to be the key suspect. Now it's up to Trip to figure out the "who, what and why" and put a stop to the senseless slaughters taking place on the streets of the Dirty South. With Trip in town, Ace knows he has a lot at stake and old friend or not, he refuses to let Trip Spencer jeopardize what he's worked so hard to gain. Will Trip and Ace be able to avoid the collision course they've been on all these years, or will they crash and explode, taking down everyone and everything, including their own careers? There is no telling what can happen when truths are revealed Between Friends.

Release date: April 24, 2012

Publisher: Urban Renaissance

Print pages: 304

Sample

“Come get you from where?”

“Atlantic Station, in front of Fox Sports Grill.”

I sat up a little and craned my neck to look at the clock on the nightstand next to the bed.

It read: 12:50 A.M.

I put my head back down on the pillow and closed my eyes.

“How you end up there?” My voice was still heavy with the four hours of sleep I had managed to get before I got this call.

“Long story. Just come get me.”

“A’ight, I’m on my way.” I tossed my phone onto the bed next to me.

No sooner had I closed my eyes and convinced myself that I had just dreamt that whole conversation, the phone rang again.

I picked it up without opening my eyes. “Spencer.”

“Man, get up and come get me!”

Thirty minutes later my partner, Philip “Big Phil” Porter, was climbing into the passenger seat of my truck. Standing upward of six feet two, and weighing no less than 200 pounds, Phil’s large, muscular frame commanded respect. I wouldn’t want anyone else kicking in doors with me during a bust.

“You wanna tell me what the hell is going on?” I yawned.

He hit the button and let the seat back. “Man, you know that chick I was with earlier?”

“Yeah, the one with the big ass.”

He nodded. “Yeah. She was married!”

All I could do was laugh and shake my head. “How did you find out?”

“When her crazy-ass husband ran up on her car when we were leaving Copeland’s.”

“She wasn’t wearing a ring?”

“No, she was wearing one.”

I looked at him in disbelief. “And you still took her out?”

“She said she got it as a gift for herself.”

“And your dumb ass believed her?” I laughed even harder.

“Come on man, you know women do shit like that all the time. They always on some old independent woman–type stuff.”

“Yeah, it was a gift all right,” I agreed. “A gift from her husband on her wedding day.”

He cut his eyes at me. “Just shut up and take me back to the hotel.”

I looked over at him. “Aw, and you got all dressed up for her and everything.”

“Fuck you,” he said, trying to sound hurt. “She could’ve been the one.”

“Yeah, the one for this area code. I see you managed to get something to eat,” I said, motioning to the white take-out bag on his lap.

He sat up like he’d forgotten he had it. “Oh yeah, I’m always gon’ do that.”

He opened the bag and started going through the Styrofoam container.

“Yo, hold up! Don’t start pulling food out in my truck,” I protested. “I still ain’t got rid of that smell from the Chinese food you spilled the other night.”

“Man, chill out,” he said, shoving a handful of fries into his mouth.

My phone went off; a few seconds later his did the same. He pulled his from his hip and checked the display.

He wiped his hand on his pant leg. “Don’t look like either one of us is getting any rest tonight, partner.”

I checked the rearview, hit the sirens and made a U-turn in the middle of Northside Drive; and headed toward Lee Street, where the text came from.

I pulled the truck to a stop in front of the address we’d been given.

“You got any thing I can change into in the back?” Phil asked.

I nodded. “Yeah.”

I hit the latch and we jumped out. A few moments later I heard him call out, “Yo, you got anything bigger than toddler size back here?”

“Hey, you can go up in here in your Smokey Robinson gear, for all I care.”

“Fuck you.”

He came alongside the truck and tossed me a vest. I watched as he squeezed into a Drug Enforcement Agency T-shirt, which was clearly too small for him. I looked at him and shook my head as he tried his best to make it work. I easily filled out an XL, so I knew Phil was definitely an XXL.

He looked up at me. “What?”

I chuckled. “Nothing.” I turned and headed inside.

The stench inside the tiny house was overwhelming; I couldn’t help but feel nauseated. The linen face mask, which the coroner had given me, was doing nothing to keep the smell of death from penetrating my nose. The front door was destroyed, completely off the hinges. Definitely, whoever had kicked it in had been on a mission.

I scanned the room and counted three bodies in various places, all black males. Two appeared to have been killed execution style; the third showed signs of having been beaten. He was beaten beyond recognition and lying in a puddle of his own blood.

I found the ME in the other room. “What we looking at?”

“The two by the door took a thirty-eight in the back of the head. The other one—blunt-force trauma.”

“Any identification?”

“According to records, the corpse over there is Eddie Tucker.”

“The kingpin?” I asked, surprised.

The Atlanta Police Department officer nodded. “Yeah, shocked us too.”

When I saw all the drug paraphernalia, I damn sure wasn’t expecting to find forwarding addresses or family portraits in the house, but I also wasn’t expecting to find one of the most wanted kingpins in Atlanta and New Orleans either. We’d been tracking him back and forth across the state line for years and could never get a hook in him. Katrina had flushed out a lot of dealers and most were hopping back and forth over the state line into Georgia trying to avoid getting snatched up by us. Eddie was just one of many.

“What time frame are we looking at?”

“According to liver temps, one, maybe two yesterday morning. Got one more in the back bedroom.”

“Who called it in?”

“Anonymous.”

That didn’t surprise me either. “Thanks.”

I made my way past a cluster of detectives and APD officers and headed toward the back of the small apartment. As I entered the already crowded room, my eyes immediately went to the bloodied body on the bed. From what I could tell, it was female.

I clapped my hands together. “All right, guess this is my official welcome home so what else we got?”

The officer standing there started talking. “Twenty-something female, beaten and raped. GSW to the right temple.”

I walked over to the bed and looked down at the girl. The twisted look on her face caused my heart to lurch. Her hair was plastered to the side of her head with dried blood from where the bullet had entered. Blood seeped from the gunshot wound to her ear and pooled on the bed next to her head. I couldn’t help but think about my sister, Trinity. The girl had no business here and she definitely didn’t deserve this.

“We think it’s the same MO?” I asked, scribbling notes in my pad.

Phil nodded as he signed the ME’s report. “It’s definitely the same MO. Robbery, drug related.”

“Damn, man. This is getting out of control.”

“That Four Horsemen bust definitely messed up a lot of dealers’ books. This could be coming from any number of people.”

The millions in drugs and money recently seized during that bust sent the streets into a tailspin. From the small-time dealers to the cats hidden behind gates in their upscale communities, everyone had took a hit, and they were all pissed. Now they were scrambling, trying to regain a stronghold that the bust shook loose.

The increase in stupidity on the streets of Atlanta wasn’t the only thing that earned us our first-class ticket back to my hometown; it was that and the fact that the bust was believed somehow to have ties to the Fulton County Jail.

I walked back out into the living-room, which was now crawling with even more DEA agents and a few APD officers.

“Special Agent Orlando Spencer.”

The voice coming from behind me was all too familiar. I smiled and turned around. “Hello Captain Lewis?”

My former Captain smiled. “I see they called in the Golden Boy, all the way from New Orleans.”

I laughed. “Yeah, something like that.”

We gave each other a courteous handshake.

“They need you in the back, Captain.” An APD officer came up and interrupted our reunion.

He nodded in his direction. “I’ll be right there.” He turned his attention back to me. “Duty calls. It’s good seeing you. Good to have you back in town.”

“Good to be here Captain,” I lied.

He gave me a head nod. “We’ll have to have drinks and catch up, Trip.”

I cracked a smile as he made his way to the back where his attention was needed.

I’d earned the nickname of “Trip,” short for “triple,” by being the third Orlando Spencer in the family. It was something my father started calling me when I was little, and it stuck. As a matter of fact, even in school, teachers rarely called me by my real name. I’ve always been known as Trip Spencer.

In the Tahoe, Phil was now eating the rest of whatever food he had rescued from his failed date. He smiled as I slid into the driver’s seat.

“So that’s your old captain.” He wiped a fake tear from his cheek. “It’s so good to see you two reunited.”

I cranked up the truck. “Shut up and don’t spill no shit on my floor.”

He laughed. “Don’t get mad at me. You the one everyone treating like the second-coming around this camp.”

“Go ’head with that Phil,” I laughed.

He bit into his sandwich. “I’m just sayin’ can I get some love? I’m a special agent too,” he said, pretending to whine.

I just shook my head and looked at him. “How can you eat that?”

He looked at me. “Don’t start with that healthy diet, no-eating-after-midnight bullshit. My grandfather lived to be eighty-three years old and ate whatever he wanted.” He stuffed the last of his sandwich into his mouth and popped the last of his fries in as well.

I shook my head. “Yeah, okay.”

“Stop worrying about my food and let’s go,” he said.

“I just got a text from my informant. We gotta be over off Bankhead in fifteen.”

“Let’s ride.”

Being back in Atlanta opened up a lot of boxes in my mind full of memories that I had long ago packed away—some good, some not so good.

When I initially left this city behind and took the spot with the agency, over six years ago, I had no intention of returning. An opening in the New Orleans DEA office offered me the perfect escape from everything that I had grew to hate about Atlanta. So NOLA’s unfortunate loss of an agent turned into an opportunity for me to leave behind a city full of baggage. But this case had brought me back, once again, and all I could do was hope the baggage in my closet would stop shifting long enough for me to get the job done and retreat back to New Orleans.

I listened as Phil tried to get his CI on the phone. He wanted to see if his confidential informant had any information about what happened tonight. The informant claimed not to know anything about the killings, but he did give us a heads-up on a potential bust. He was hooked up with the informant through an Atlanta undercover he knew who’d been working the case with us the past few months. The UC assured Phil the informant was reliable and set up communications as soon as we touched down. We all agreed that bust was too big, which meant there was entirely too much at stake for no one to be talking.

We pulled into the dark parking lot in front of the Family Dollar on Bankhead and cut the lights on the truck and waited. The dilapidated area in the heart of Atlanta spoke volumes about the state of mind of the people it held in its arms. There were no 401(k) plans or money market accounts for these people, only what the streets had to offer; and we were constantly trying to take that away from them.

After about five minutes I started to get agitated. I wasn’t sure if I was on edge from knowing I was in the same city with Idalis again, or if it was just the intensity of what was going on. But whatever it was, I was ready to get it over with and head back down I-20. I looked at the clock on the dash; it was almost three, and I was officially running on fumes. Our day began almost two days ago and, thanks to napping in the truck when I could and eating drive-through meals, I was hurting for a good eight hours of sleep and a real meal. Not to mention, I still hadn’t made it to see my mother and sister.

I reached up and rubbed the stress knot in my shoulder. “Man, where’s this informant?”

“Calm down,” Phil insisted. “He’ll be here. Give him a minute.”

I let out a sigh and started jabbing the scan button on the radio.

“Seriously, what’s your problem?” my partner asked.

“This city is my damn problem.”

Phil chuckled. “You been back in Atlanta airspace for forty-eight hours and you already tripping?”

“Man, shut up.”

“Why don’t you just go?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, man.”

“I’m just sayin’, I think you’d feel better.”

“Shut up, Phil.”

“Whatever.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “You know what you need?”

I laughed. “No, but I got a feeling you’re about to tell me.”

“A woman. I’m about to find you one.”

I hit the button on the side of the driver’s seat and laid my seat back a little. “Just broke up with one, remember? Plus I don’t need any ho you met on Twitter or desperate married chick that you got trolling around on your Facebook page.”

He laughed. “Some of them women are off the chain on there. You should see some of the pictures that hit my phone, and most of the time without me even asking.”

“I know you, so I believe you.” I laughed.

He laughed too. “Whatever, man. Anyway, that’s the third chick you broke up with in the last year. That’s why you so damn cranky.” He leaned back, causing the passenger seat to strain against his large frame. “That’s exactly why a brother like me is single.”

“No, a brother like you is single ’cause you got a fucked up attitude about women.” I laughed.

“Oh, you got jokes? Man everybody can’t be the ultimate male model like you,” he laughed. “Locs freshly twisted, line-up every week, muscles all buff.”

I busted out laughing. “Yo, partner, you trying to date me now too?”

“Fuck you man, I’m just sayin’,” he said, cracking up.

I reached up and smoothed my goatee. “That disposable attitude you have toward women is gonna get old after a while. You need to ease up and maybe one will stay around long enough to remember how to get to your house.”

“I like it that way.” He grinned. “Don’t have to worry about getting stalked.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“I must be doing something right, ’cause you all tense and my phone is blowing up.”

I chuckled. “Come on, man, it’s blowing up with desperate-ass married women with crazy husbands.”

We both laughed.

I reached up and scratched my temple. “Say what you want. One day you gon’ stumble across the right one and when you lose her”—I looked over at him and smiled—“and your dumb ass probably will lose her, then maybe you’ll understand and we can continue this conversation.”

Phil chuckled. “Please. That’s why I don’t catch feelings. ’Cause when you mess around and catch feelings, it ain’t long before you sitting in an unmarked police truck crying to your partner.”

We both couldn’t help but laugh at that.

I looked up and saw a dude running toward the truck. “Is that your boy?”

“Yeah.” Phil hit the button and the tinted window on the Tahoe hummed downward. “What’s good Darius? What you got?”

“House right around the corner, 1275.”

I asked, “You sure you can cop what we need?”

“Yeah, man,” the informant answered, agitated. “Just be there in five minutes.”

Phil rubbed his goatee. “I’ma call you in four. Answer your cell, slide it in your pocket and keep it on so we can hear everything.” Big Phil slid him a stack of marked hundred-dollar bills. “Don’t fuck this up. No less than six.”

He nodded. “Just show up. I got you.”

“When the bust goes down, we’re gonna have to arrest you too, to make it look legit,” I added.

Darius cut his eyes at me. “Yeah, I hear you.”

This time I hit the button and rolled up the passenger-side window. I didn’t care if he got mad or not. I didn’t like him.

Phil laughed. “Why you gotta do him like that?”

“Something about him I don’t like.”

He shook his head and laughed. “You don’t like nobody.”

I got on the radio and gave the information to the backup that had been strategically placed around the neighborhood. All of them would be within a left or a right turn away when the bust went down.

Exactly four minutes later, Phil dialed the CI. He answered and Phil put his cell on speaker so we could listen to what was going on.

“What’s up, man? What you got for me?” we heard him ask.

“I got six, like you wanted,” the supplier said. “Right here. You got the money?”

“Right here.”

“Cool. Cool,” the supplier said.

There was a brief silence, followed by the sound of chairs being moved around, and then what sounded like a door opening and closing.

I heard Darius ask, “That all of it?”

“Yeah.”

I jumped on the radio. “Units, move in! Units, move in!”

The Tahoe I was driving lurched forward when I hit the gas and bent the corner on two wheels. Phil jumped out, gun drawn running toward the house before I pulled to a complete stop. The other three units screeched to a halt in front of the house.

Murphy was up the front steps ready to blow the door. He yelled out their arrival before kicking in the door. “Search warrant! DEA.”

I sprinted around back and saw two guys facedown on the ground with a knee in their backs being handcuffed.

“Get down! Get down! Let me see your hands,” Phil yelled from inside the house.

It wasn’t long before the informant and two other men were being led out of the house in handcuffs. I walked over to the supplier, grabbed his handcuffs and twisted his hands up behind his back.

“Ahh!” he screamed out.

“Man, shut up,” I barked. “Look, I got a proposition for you.”

“I don’t want to hear shit you have to say,” he spat back.

“Hey, it’s up to you. You can either do a minimum twenty”—I bent down close to his ear—“and that’s federal time, playa, not that revolving door downtown on Rice Street, or you can help me out.”

Phil walked over, smiling. “I suggest you do what my partner says. Somebody called and interrupted his beauty sleep and he’s pissed!”

Phil chuckled at his own joke.

He twisted his body to see Phil more clearly. “Help you how?”

“You give us your supplier, and we never met,” I said.

He turned and scowled at me. “Just like that. You gonna let a brotha go?”

I shrugged. “It’s up to you. You can either help us out or get comfortable at Club Fed.” I asked, “What’s it gonna be?”

He dropped his head. “Look, I usually go through a runner and all I know about his connect is his street name. I ain’t ever met the dude, but I know they call him Geech.”

I smiled. “That’ll work.”

That’s all the text said, but I guess coming from him that was all it needed to say.

Trip and I were inseparable growing up. We had our own set of friends but we always managed to wind up together somehow. From the immature halls of elementary school to fun-fill halls of Booker T. Washington High all the way to the tense halls of Clark Atlanta University, we were two peas in a pod. We helped each other navigate our way through and made sure we made it to the next level together. It wasn’t until that things started to change for us.

I tossed my keys onto the dining-room table; they landed next to a stack of wedding magazines and a box of favors, which my sister had promised to help me put together. I picked up the stack of mail and flipped through the pile. It was mostly bills and junk, so I tossed it back onto the table and kicked my shoes off before grabbing a bottle of water from the refrigerator. It was so hot outside and I had been running in and out of stores all afternoon. I couldn’t wait to peel off my clothes and shower away the layer of sweat that was covering my body.

Once had showered and was comfortable in shorts and a tee, I called my twin sister, India. She and I might have been twins, but that’s definitely where the similarities ended. She didn’t have any kids and I had a son, Cameron, and was about to get married in less than two months. Recently she had moved back in with my mother and was working on her master’s in business.

The music she was blasting, Jill Scott’s Blessed, came across the line before she did. “What’s up, Twin?”

“Can you turn that down please?” I complained.

I heard her mumble something smart before the volume lowered. “You happy now?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“What do you want, Idalis, other than to regulate how loud the music is in my car?” she asked.

“I got a text from Trip earlier, he’s in town.”

“You talked to him yet?”

“No, not yet. I might call him later.”

“Might?” she questioned.

I sucked my teeth. “You heard me, might.”

“Okay, whatever, we still meetin’ tomorrow for lunch?”

“I’ll let you know.”

“What you mean?” she asked, attitude all in her voice.

“I’ll have to see.”

She sucked her teeth. “You mean you have to see if you’re allowed out.”

“Don’t start with me,” I said.

“You’re a loser. Call and let me know. Bye.”

“Bye.” I hung up.

I stood up and made my way to the kitchen with my empty water bottle. It was still early and the house was quiet. Too damn quiet. Cameron was with my mother and I was lost. I was used . . .