“As far as we can tell.”
“But yet she has bruises on her that look like they’re at least a week old as well as burn marks that have almost entirely healed?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out myself. Maybe Simmons had been sneaking into the apartment and torturing her for a couple of weeks and no one noticed? Maybe that’s why he started torturing Rachael Williams? Maybe she caught him in the act?”
“Uh-huh. So then Tonya comes home and he starts beating her up too, but somehow the nurse manages to wake up after being choked unconscious and beaten half to death by a guy who outweighs her by more than a hundred and fifty pounds, stabs him twice in the abdomen and in the process accidentally stabs Tonya Brown in the chest, then gets shot accidentally by Adelle Smith who is lying on the floor and can barely move? Yeah, something definitely does not sound right about that story. Too much accidental shit going on there. I suggest you wait until one of the other victims wakes up before putting that garbage in a report.”
“That nurse, Natsinet Zenawi, has already corroborated most of the story.”
Detective Swinson rubbed his balding scalp and shook his head, squinting an eye at his partner before turning to look back at Detective Hendrix.
“I’d wait to hear what Mrs. Smith has to say about it before turning that report in. You’re right. Something just doesn’t fit. When Tonya Brown wakes up from surgery she might be able to piece together a little more of the story.”
“You don’t buy any of this shit do you?” Detective Carl Hendrix asked.
“Not a single word.”
“I hate to say this after all she’s gone through, getting beaten and choked unconscious, then getting shot and waking up in the hospital with a permanent limp if she’s lucky and isn’t stuck in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.”
“What are you thinking, Carl?”
“I think Miss Zenawi is hiding something. Either she’s the victim she appears to be and she’s just in shock so her story isn’t making sense, or she’s somehow involved. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was fucking that drug dealer and they tortured Rachael Williams and Adelle Smith together.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time something like that has happened,” Detective Swinson added, “You know…a boyfriend and girlfriend team torturing and killing, even raping. There’ve been serial killers whose wives and girlfriends were in on it with them. This could be one of those deals.”
“But then why would she stab him?” Detective Lennon asked.
“Maybe she didn’t. Maybe it was Tonya Brown who stabbed him and then Natsinet took the knife from her and stabbed her in retaliation. Maybe she got jealous. Maybe Tonya Brown and Big Mike were having some kind of affair and so she stabbed them both in a jealous rage.”
“That
“It makes a lot more sense than her story, actually.”
“We’ll have to see what the lab comes back with on the fingerprints.”
“Do you know what will happen to that neighborhood if we don’t get this all figured out and soon?”
Brian huffed. “Riots and lawsuits and protesters marching on City Hall, Civil Rights leaders giving speeches about how the Philly P.D. is dragging its feet on the case because she’s Black. Conspiracy theorists will claim that we beat her up ourselves because of her protests against police brutality thirty-five years ago and are trying to cover it up and frame an innocent drug dealer.”
“Don’t kid yourself, Brian,” Hendrix said. ”They’ll blame it all on us even if we do solve the case.”
The nurse came back into the room.
“Mike Simmons is awake. He’s still pretty out of it. He just had a pretty large blood transfusion, but he asked to speak to you.”
The detectives all turned to look at one another, stunned.
“He asked to speak to the police?” Lennon asked.
“He insisted, actually. Adelle Smith is awake as well.”
“Can she talk?”
“Her speech is still impaired from the stroke. She speaks really slowly and her words are a little slurred…but yeah, she can talk.”
Detective Hendrix turned to the other two detectives.
“You two take Simmons. I want to hear what Mrs. Smith has to say before I join you. We might just get out of this okay after all.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Adelle shook her head in exasperation. She was once again in a hospital. Yet, despite her ordeal, she felt better this time than she had the last time she’d been here after suffering that stroke. At least now she could talk again.
“What’s your name young man?”
Her voice was weak. Her speech sluggish. The detective had to lean in close to hear her.
“Detective Hendrix, Carl Hendrix.”
“Are you Black?”
“My mother was Italian, but yes, I’m Black.”
“That’s good to hear. I was afraid you were going to say no.”
Adelle looked away from the detective and out the window at the sun dappling through the sheer curtains.
“I didn’t think I was going to see the sun too many more times.”
Adelle turned back to the detective.
“Did I get her?”
“What?”
“Is Tonya okay? Did I shoot the right one?”
“You mean you were trying to shoot your nurse?”
“Who the hell else do you think I was aiming at? Did I get her?”
Detective Hendrix’s eyebrows raised. He pulled out his notepad and pen and leaned forward.
“I think maybe you should tell me exactly what happened in that apartment.”
“You’re saying it was the nurse who did all this? That pretty skinny little thing in there that you tried to strangle to death?”
Detectives Swinson and Lennon looked at each other and almost laughed, shaking their heads as if sharing a private joke.
“She stabbed me twice. She killed that other nurse and chopped her up. She admitted it to me when I was trying to get Mrs. Smith out of the house. She’d been abusing Mrs. Smith too. Is she alright? Did I save her?”
Lennon replied. “Who? Mrs. Smith? She’s fine. One of the other detectives is in her room with her right now. She’s telling him all about how it was you who killed that nurse. It was
“Tonya got stabbed? Is she okay?”
Mike tried to sit up in bed, but he was still too weak. He winced as pain lanced through his abdomen then collapsed back onto the bed. The two detectives looked at each other. His reactions were all wrong. He wasn’t acting at all like a guilty man.
“Relax before you bust your stitches,” Detective Swinson said. “Tonya Brown is in surgery right now, but the doctors think she’s going to be okay. The knife punctured a lung but it missed her heart.”
“Good. That’s good. I don’t know what I’d do if she didn’t make it.”
Detective Swinson rolled his eyes and shook his head. “Do you really think we’re buying this act of yours? This bullshit about that nurse being some kind of psycho when we both know what you are, a criminal, a drug
