Grace & Jamaal: Part 4

by D D

Grace unravels the meaning of Ronnie’s actions. She realizes the truth is more unsettling than she imagined. Jamaal and Griggs do what it takes to survive jail.

Realistic 3D

romance

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GRACE & JAMAAL IV THE MAN BEHIND THE BADGE Three months earlier. Slim noticed the black sedan before he noticed the man inside it. It had followed him from a corner store, disappeared at an intersection, then returned two blocks later and stopped across the front of his car. Slim kept one hand near the ignition as the driver approached. The man was dressed in plain clothes. Clean haircut. Dark jacket. Calm face. He flashed a badge. "Turn it off." Slim killed the engine but didn't unlock the door. The officer opened the passenger side anyway and sat down. "Ronnie," he said. Slim looked at him. "I ask?" Ronnie ignored him and placed a thin folder on Slim's lap. Inside were photographs. Choppa loading a van. Griggs outside a warehouse. Jamaal entering an apartment. Slim himself standing beside a stolen vehicle. Then Grace. Slim stopped flipping. The picture showed her leaving Jamaal's place with coffee in one hand. "What she got to do with this?" Ronnie watched him. "How serious are they?" Slim looked up. That was when he understood this wasn't a normal investigation. "You know her?" Ronnie took the photograph back. "I need information on Jamaal. Jobs. Locations. Where he stays. Who he's with." Slim pushed the folder away. "Find somebody else." Ronnie nodded as if he expected the answer. Then he mentioned Slim's mother. Her address. Her work schedule. The church she attended every Sunday. Slim's face changed. "You stay away from her." Ronnie leaned closer. "Then don't make this difficult." Slim stared at him. Ronnie placed several photographs back inside the folder. "And Grace?" "What about her?" "I want to know everything." Slim's jaw tightened. "You ain't investigating Jamaal." Ronnie smiled faintly. "No?" "You investigating her." The smile vanished. For a moment, neither man spoke. Then Ronnie opened the door. "Next time I see you, have something useful." Slim watched him return to the black sedan. For the first time, he understood what kind of trouble had found them. And he knew Jamaal couldn't know. Not yet. * * * The county jail had already changed Jamaal. Three weeks under fluorescent lights had sharpened his face and shortened his patience. The gunshot wound along his side was healing, but every quick movement reminded him of the highway. He remembered Grace screaming. He remembered officers forcing him onto his stomach. And he remembered the stranger from the black sedan. Ronnie. A name Jamaal still couldn't place. During afternoon recreation, Jamaal spotted Griggs across the dayroom. They had barely spoken since their arrests. Griggs looked rough too, with a bruise near his jaw and a cut above one eyebrow. They eventually sat across from each other at a scratched table. "You look terrible," Griggs said. "So do you." "Yeah, but I was handsome before." Jamaal almost smiled. Almost. Griggs leaned closer. "I heard Slim had been meeting that cop before the warehouse." "Ronnie?" Griggs nodded. "He was feeding him information." "We know that." "Not just about jobs." Jamaal looked up. "About Grace." That got his attention. Griggs explained that Slim had started asking questions before everything collapsed. How serious Jamaal was about Grace. Where they stayed. Whether Jamaal planned to leave town. Jamaal's expression darkened. "Why would a cop care about Grace?" "I don't know." Before Griggs could say more, a man approached their table. Two others followed. The first knocked the chessboard to the floor. "You Carter?" Jamaal looked at him. "Yeah." The man swung. Jamaal ducked and drove him backward into another table. The dayroom erupted. Griggs caught the second man with a punch before a third grabbed him from behind. Chairs scraped across concrete. Inmates scattered while others crowded closer to watch. Jamaal landed two hard shots, but pain tore through his healing side. The hesitation cost him. A fist caught him near the ear. He stumbled. Griggs shoved his own attacker away and rushed over. "J!" Jamaal recovered and slammed the man against the wall. Then pepper spray filled the air. Guards stormed the room. "DOWN!" Jamaal immediately raised his hands. He was forced to the floor anyway. Across from him, Griggs was pinned against a table. Cuffs snapped around Jamaal's wrists. Through watering eyes, he watched the men who had attacked them being dragged away. One looked back at him. He wasn't angry. He was smiling. Jamaal understood. That fight had been arranged. * * * Grace sat across from Jamaal's attorney, Danielle Mercer, inside her apartment. Rain tapped against the windows. "Ronnie is my ex-boyfriend," Grace said. Danielle stopped writing. "And Ronnie is the officer connected to Slim?" "Yes." Grace explained what happened on the highway. Ronnie arriving in the black sedan. The way he looked at her. The smile. The things he said afterward. Danielle listened carefully. "Does Jamaal know?" "No." "Good. Don't tell him over a jail phone." Grace frowned. "He deserves to know." "He does. Privately." Danielle closed her notebook. "We also need evidence. Right now, what you have is suspicion." "It's more than suspicion." "To you. Not to a court." After Danielle left, Grace locked the door. Then the deadbolt. Her phone vibrated. Unknown number. YOU STILL LOCK THE DOOR TWICE. Grace stared at the message. Another arrived. HE CAN'T PROTECT YOU FROM IN THERE. Her stomach tightened. She took screenshots and sent them to Danielle. Then the phone rang. Grace declined it. A voicemail appeared moments later. Ronnie's voice. "Grace. Call me." Nothing else. No threat. No confession. But she knew him well enough to hear both. * * * Slim's second meeting with Ronnie happened at an abandoned car wash. Slim handed him an address connected to a small job. Ronnie barely looked at it. "What about Jamaal?" "That's what you getting." "And Grace?" Slim shook his head. "There you go again." Ronnie stepped closer. Slim didn't move. "You still don't understand how this works." "Nah. I understand now." Slim looked him directly in the eyes. "This ain't about the crew." Ronnie's face hardened. "It's about her." "Watch yourself." "She moved on, man." Ronnie grabbed Slim by the shirt and slammed him against the sedan. Slim shoved him away. Ronnie's hand dropped toward his weapon. Both men froze. Slim stared at him. "You crazy." Ronnie straightened his jacket. "Next time, bring me something useful." He drove away. Slim remained beneath the broken lights. After several seconds, he pulled out his phone and opened Jamaal's contact. He almost called. Then he thought about his mother. He locked the screen. Soon, he told himself. He would tell Jamaal soon. He never got the chance. * * * Jamaal spent a day in segregation after the fight. When he was finally allowed to meet with Danielle, he entered the attorney room with his wrists cuffed to a waist chain. She got directly to the point. "Ronald Vance." Jamaal's eyes narrowed. "Ronnie." "You've seen him?" "After I got shot." Danielle hesitated. "He used to date Grace." Jamaal stared at her. "What?" "Years ago." The room went silent. Jamaal leaned back slowly. The cop who had paid Slim. The stranger who had appeared after the shooting. The man who had looked toward Grace before Jamaal was taken away. "Grace knew?" "Not until she saw him on the highway." Jamaal looked down. "So this whole thing..." "We don't know yet." "He used Slim to get to me." "Possibly." "Because of Grace." "That's what we're trying to prove." Jamaal's jaw tightened. "Is she safe?" "She's being careful." "That's not safe." Danielle knew there was no answer that would satisfy him. Jamaal looked toward the door. For the first time, jail felt worse than confinement. Ronnie was outside. Grace was outside. And Jamaal couldn't do anything about either one. * * * Grace found Slim's mother almost by accident. She had gone hoping to ask whether Slim had seemed frightened before his death. Instead, Slim's mother gave her a small grocery bag. "He left this," she said. Inside was an old phone, a silver key and an envelope. "He told me if something happened, give it to Jamaal." Grace stared at the phone. "What did he say?" "That he made a mistake." Grace took everything directly to Danielle. The phone appeared empty until they opened the envelope. Inside were three handwritten words. HE KNOWS EVERYTHING. Below them was a six-digit number. Grace entered it into the phone. A hidden folder unlocked. Eleven audio recordings appeared. Danielle and Grace looked at each other. Grace pressed the first one. Traffic noise. Then Ronnie's voice. "You got something?" Slim answered. "You said you wanted Jamaal." Grace froze. Danielle immediately stopped the recording. "Nobody touches this until we make copies." "That's him." "I know." Grace stared at the phone. Slim had known enough to protect himself. And Ronnie had never known he was being recorded. * * * The recordings didn't free Jamaal. But they changed the case. One captured Ronnie threatening Slim with information about his mother. Another captured him repeatedly asking about Grace. A third was recorded shortly before the warehouse job. Slim sounded nervous. "You said nobody supposed to die." Ronnie answered coldly. "Then tell your friends not to make bad choices." The recording ended shortly afterward. It wasn't proof Ronnie killed Slim. But it was enough to make Danielle start asking questions that people inside the police department didn't want asked. The key led to a small storage locker. Inside were copies of payment receipts, dates of meetings and a notebook in Slim's handwriting. One sentence had been underlined twice. THIS AIN'T ABOUT J. IT'S ABOUT GRACE. Grace stared at the words. Slim had figured Ronnie out. Too late to save himself. Maybe not too late to save Jamaal. * * * Jamaal saw Grace through visitation glass a week later. For several seconds, neither picked up the phone. Grace finally lifted hers. Jamaal did the same. "Hey." She smiled despite herself. "That's all I get?" "You look beautiful." "Better." His expression quickly became serious. "You okay?" "Yes." "Ronnie contact you?" Grace hesitated. That answered the question. Jamaal's hand tightened around the receiver. "Grace." "I'm handling it." "Don't handle him." "He wants me scared." "I want you alive." She looked at him through the glass. Then she told him about Slim's phone. Not everything. Just enough. Jamaal listened quietly. When she finished, he lowered his eyes. "Slim tried to fix it." "Yeah." For a moment, neither spoke. Then Jamaal asked the question Grace had been expecting. "Why didn't you tell me about Ronnie?" She exhaled. "Because I hadn't seen him in years. I thought he was behind me." Jamaal looked away. Grace leaned closer. "We both had things we thought were behind us." He looked back at her. That landed. Grace pressed her palm against the glass. Jamaal placed his hand against the other side. "I need you somewhere safe," he said. "I will be." "Promise." "I promise." A guard called the five-minute warning. Grace kept her hand against the glass. "I love you." Jamaal's expression softened. "I love you too." Neither moved until the phones went dead. * * * Two nights later, Jamaal and Griggs were placed in the same housing unit. Neither believed it was a coincidence. During evening recreation, Jamaal spotted one of the men from the earlier fight near the phones. The man shouldn't have been there. Griggs saw him too. "We need to go," Jamaal said. Before they could reach the cells, two men blocked their path. One pulled a sharpened piece of metal. The attack happened fast. Jamaal twisted away from the blade and grabbed the man's wrist. Griggs tackled the second attacker into a table. A third man rushed in. Jamaal's injured side exploded with pain as he was driven against the wall. Griggs broke free and came toward him. The homemade blade hit the floor. Jamaal kicked it away. "WHERE THE COs AT?" someone shouted. That was when Jamaal noticed the officer station. Empty. For nearly a minute, nobody came. He and Griggs fought back-to-back while inmates scattered around them. Then sirens finally sounded. Officers flooded the unit. Everyone dropped. As Jamaal was handcuffed, he stared toward the empty officer station. Ronnie's reach was bigger than he thought. * * * Investigators outside Ronnie's department eventually received copies of Slim's recordings. Ronnie wasn't arrested. There wasn't enough yet. But people started asking questions. His name appeared in internal reports. His handling of Slim was reviewed. The warehouse operation was reviewed. Even the traffic stop where Jamaal was shot began attracting attention. Ronnie remained on duty. That frightened Grace more than anything. He still had a badge. Still had access. Still knew where she lived. Danielle told Grace to stay somewhere else for a while. This time, Grace listened. Before leaving, she stopped at Jamaal's apartment to collect a few things. The place felt abandoned. She remembered Choppa arguing in the living room. Slim laughing. Griggs making jokes. Jamaal standing in the middle of all of them. Four men. Now two were dead and two were behind bars. Grace walked upstairs. On Jamaal's bed sat a photograph. She stopped. It hadn't been there before. The picture showed Grace and Jamaal on their balcony in Jamaica. Jamaal stood behind her with one arm around her waist. The photograph had been taken from far away. On the back were five words. HE COULDN'T KEEP YOU SAFE. Grace's blood went cold. Her phone rang. Unknown number. She answered. "Ronnie." A quiet laugh. "You always were smart." "You were in here." "No." "You followed us to Jamaica?" Silence. Grace's anger pushed through the fear. "You're scared." "Of Jamaal?" "Of Slim." Ronnie stopped laughing. Grace knew she had found the nerve. "He recorded you." "Be careful, Grace." "He's dead and he's still beating you." The line went silent. Then Ronnie spoke. "You don't understand what you're involved in." "No. I understand now." Grace looked at the photograph. "You did all this because I left you." Ronnie's voice became colder. "You always make bad choices." "You don't get to choose for me." The call ended. Grace stood alone in Jamaal's bedroom. For several seconds, she stared at the phone. Then she forwarded the number and photograph to Danielle. Ronnie wanted her frightened. Instead, he had given her more evidence. * * * Weeks passed. Jamaal and Griggs remained locked up. Their cases moved slowly. Some evidence was challenged because of Ronnie's involvement, but neither man was suddenly innocent. They had committed crimes long before Ronnie entered their lives. Still, the case was no longer simple. Slim's recordings had made sure of that. One afternoon, Jamaal and Griggs sat in adjoining courthouse holding cells waiting for hearings. Griggs tapped the wall. "J." "What?" "When we get out, I'm retiring." Jamaal laughed. "You ain't never had a job to retire from." "Exactly. I'm going out undefeated." Jamaal shook his head. Then Griggs became serious. "You think we getting out?" Jamaal looked through the bars. "I don't know." "What about Grace?" Jamaal didn't answer immediately. "She ain't going nowhere." Griggs smiled. "Man, you really love that girl." "Shut up." Footsteps approached. Their conversation ended. But Jamaal was smiling. * * * That evening, Grace arrived at the temporary apartment Danielle had arranged for her. She locked the door. Once. She stood there for a moment and almost smiled at the small victory. Then her phone vibrated. Unknown number. Grace stared at it. A photograph loaded. Jamaal leaving the courthouse earlier that afternoon in handcuffs. Taken from across the street. Grace's smile disappeared. Beneath the photograph was a message. YOU THINK SLIM WAS MY ONLY EYES? Grace immediately called Danielle. While the phone rang, another message appeared. Ronnie. DON'T WORRY. I'M NOT DONE YET. Grace walked toward the window but didn't open the curtain. Somewhere outside, Ronnie was still free. Still wearing a badge. Still watching. And now Grace understood something she hadn't before. Ronnie hadn't dismantled Jamaal's crew simply because he was jealous. He had built connections. People who listened to him. People who helped him. Maybe even people inside the jail. Ronnie was dangerous on his own. But Grace was beginning to realize he might not be alone. Across the city, Jamaal sat on the edge of his bunk beneath fluorescent lights, unaware of the message Grace had just received. Griggs slept in another unit. Slim and Choppa were gone. And Ronnie was still out there. Waiting. THE END

Grace & Jamaal: Part 4

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