Chapter Four
Sonya was there that evening after Marsha left for her home. She envied her sister for having a husband and children. At thirty, she knew that her biological clock was ticking. But she wasn’t worried, she could always adopt. She had always been careful, knowing that if she ever was to get pregnant, it had to be for a man who could take care of her and her child.
She went up to Jimmy Chang’s sports bar on Holborn Road later that evening. Jimmy, the proprietor and her were good friends. He wanted to know where Mickie was. She told him that he was still around, but things were sort of on hold between them. She got involved in a few domino games. A few of Mickie’s friends greeted her and wanted to know where he was. She gave them the same story she had given Jimmy. She saw a few men eyeing her. She knew that she looked good, being of average height and well rounded. Men were always looking at her lovely facial features. Even some of the women in the sports bar were giving her envious looks because of her well sculptured face and body. And she had legs to die for. Right now she was in too many problems to get into any serious relationships with a man.
She had just returned home, locked up the car and was relaxing on her verandah when her cell phone rang. Mickie was on the line.
“Aren’t you coming to bail me?”
“To do what?” she asked, perplexed.
“Don’t pretend as if you don’t know what has happened to me.”
“You know I’m not going to do it. So why call me? We’re no longer in a relationship.”
“You’re going to regret this. I just want to get out of here and you’re going to see the worst part of me.”
“Go to Delta with a story that I was robbing Chester blind. All of those receipt books have been destroyed and I never gave the customers any receipts. So go ahead and see what you’ll get.”
She had called his bluff.
“Don’t be all that confident. She’ll want to know where you got all that stuff from.”
“You dirty rat. Go on, go to Delta. I won’t bail you and you will never get another cent out of me.”
He ended the call. She wasn’t sure if it was him ending the call or he had run out of call credit.
The next evening when she came from work, Kirk called her. He told her that Mickie had been bailed by his father.
Good for Mickie, she was prepared for him. Wednesday, when she got home from work a car was parked at her gate.
“Why are you pestering me? I gave you more than fifty thousand dollars plus what you took out of my account. Please leave me alone, Mickie, or else I’m going to the police.”
They were on the verandah, arguing.
“I want back my job, managing your taxis.”
“I don’t trust you so how am I going to let you work for me?”
“I used to do those things for you, did I ever rob you?”
“You’re forgetting that you went into my account without my permission.”
“I still want to know how you did it? Did one of your tech savvy friends help you?”
He didn’t answer her.
They were in her living room now.
“We used to be lovers, remember.”
“And you did everything to destroy it. I know you kept other women with me.”
“And you were innocent. I knew that you and Tony Danvers were friends. I heard that Doug Mason used to visit you too.”
Both Doug and Tony were regulars on the party circuit. Doug was in financial management while Tony was an academic. Although she liked both men she had never had an affair with either of them. Doug was in his late twenties and married with two children. As far as she knew Tony was living with his baby mother. She knew that he was in his early thirties.
She laughed and looked him squarely in the eyes.
“I won’t confirm that I ever slept with any of those two guys you just mentioned, but what did you expect me to do? You were hardly around and I wasn’t going to hug up any teddy bear when I wanted a man.”
“So are you sleeping alone these days?”
“You won’t get that opportunity again. So I don’t know why you’re asking.”
He didn’t reply and seemed to be in deep thoughts.
“By the way, who bailed you?”
“What do you care? You refused to do it. If you want to know, it was my father. Sonya, I’m asking you for the last time to give me back my job.”
“And I’ve already told you, no.”
“You’ll hear from me, but I can tell you that it won’t be pretty.”
He turned and walked away.
She watched him go. He went to his car and drove away.
She went to work the next morning. By ten o’clock she had completely forgotten about Mickie. She was having lunch down at Mattis open air restaurant on Eastwood Park Road when her cell phone rang. It was Beulah Anderson. Beulah used to work at the hardware, but had left a year ago.
“Sonya, they shot Carlos, last night. I heard that he’s dead.”
“What! I don’t believe you. Where did it happen?”
“Over in St. Thomas. I heard that he went to rob somebody and they shot him.”
“Thanks, Beulah.”
“I just called you because I tried getting Mickie, but couldn’t. You can tell him about it.”
“I will. Thanks for calling.”
She ended the call. She finished her lunch and went back to work.
After work she tried to get Kirk to find out some more about Carlos’ shooting, but her calls went to voice mail.
She was on the phone to Marsha, Thursday evening when a car pulled up at her gate. She ended the call and went out to see who it was. It was Kirk. She made drinks for both of them and sat on the verandah to talk.
“Mickie left the island last night. I dropped him at the airport. He’s gone to Cayman.”
“What! I don’t believe you. How could he have done that? It was just a week or so ago that they held him at the airport with false papers. He was out on bail. Oh my god, his father will have to pay his bail bond.”
“I asked him about that, but he said he would pay him back as soon as he got some money.”
She refilled their glasses.
“You know that Mickie won’t be doing any such thing.”
He drank some more of his juice.
“I don’t know how he got set up to get into Cayman. I asked
him, but he wouldn’t tell me.”
“I hope he stays down there for as long as possible and don’t come bothering me again.”
Kirk finished his drink and stood up.
“Kirk, you know Carlos, Mickie’s friend. They shot him over in St. Thomas last night. The householder, he was trying to rob, shot him.
“I always warned Mickie about keeping friends with that guy. He had a bad reputation plus I felt that he was on drugs, the erratic ways he used to behave.”
Sonia nodded in agreement with Kirk.
“I get the feeling that Mickie might try for the States again. Cayman is too small for him.”
Sonya shrugged her shoulders as they went through her front gate.
“All I say is good riddance to Mickie.”
Kirk didn’t reply. He simply gave her a hug, went to his car and drove away.
She was at home the next evening when a police car drove up to her gate and stopped. She was on her verandah reading one of the evening papers. She wondered what they wanted. They knocked on the gate. She went out to see what was the matter.
It was the corporal from the station where she had reported her gun missing and two constables.
“Can we come in, Miss?”
She led them on to the verandah.
The corporal came straight to the point.
“You’re Sonya Brown. I have a warrant for your arrest for failure to report your firearm missing.”
Sonya was shocked.
“I don’t want to put these handcuffs on you, so I’ll warn you
to come peacefully with us.”
“Don’t I get to make a phone call?”
“There will be time for that when we reach the station.”
“I will have to lock up the house. I can’t leave it like this.”
“Let my two assistants here help you and then we’ll be on our way.”
Sonya knew that it was a precaution he was taking, in case she tried to escape. But how could she hope to escape from three heavily armed policemen?
***
At the station, she was charged with failure to report her firearm missing. She got to make a phone call to Marsha. Marsha wanted to come to the station that night, but she told her that it would be better to wait until in the morning. She told Marsha to tell Delta what happened to her. She was also to get Lenny Samuels on the case.
So Sonya prepared to spend her first night in jail. She wondered how helpful Lenny would be. He was one of the sharpest young lawyers around. She was also fearful of what Delta would do. That woman was as hard as nails.
She remembered when she started working at Chester’s, Delta was in charge of everything to do with the staff. After employees started leaving, Chester realized that he was losing his best staff, shunted her off to start her own business, a day care center. Sonya could remember her insisting that staff work overtime if they were late in the mornings or returned from lunch late. She absolutely refused to give any time off.
She was suspicious that a secret audit was taking place. She had seen some well dressed guys coming into the premises, mostly in the evenings. She had also been told that Delta had been there a few evenings too. She was taken to the female section of the jail and given a foul smelling mattress to sleep on.
She was bailed on Thursday by Marsha. Two of her aunts, Lyn and Elaine came down, to give support. Lenny told her that they would fine her. He said that a confidential source told him that the gun had been fired twice. The source had also told him that the bullets which killed Chester came from a higher caliber weapon.
She took the week off from work. The court date was set for the next week Friday. There was a shock for her when Kirk told her that Mickie had been held in Cayman for entering the island illegally.
She was fined for failure to report her gun missing. She paid the fine.