And Therein Lies the Truth
Chapter 2
Thursday finally arrived, and Monica and Lonnie met as planned at the trailer. Lonnie had arrived first. And when Monica got out of her car and looked at him, they both knew that the other knew about Virgil.
Monica ran up the steps to the porch and threw her arms around Lonnie. He held on to her for several minutes and then he spoke. "Are you okay at the house?"
Monica kissed his cheek and said "He hasn't said one word to me about it. But then, he isn't really speaking to Althea, either. The whole thing is so tense, LJ. But I'm afraid to say anything."
Lonnie didn't speak, he just looked at Monica. He was worried about her staying in Virgil's house. He was also worried about her, because he knew she was worried about him.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"I'm fine, hon. Don't worry."
"What did he say to you, LJ? And don't tell me 'nothing'."
Lonnie waited a second, and finally relayed the conversation he and Virgil had on Monday.
"That's what I thought. Here. I brought you something." Monica handed Lonnie the computer print outs on the city's ethics policy, including her highlights of where she thought Virgil would go.
Lonnie read them and handed them back. "I appreciate what you did, Monica. But this isn't your fight. It's mine. Let me handle it."
"The hell it's not! You're not in this mess because you're dating yourself. You're in it because you're seeing me. We're a team, LJ. Let me help you."
Between Virgil and the kidnap cases, Lonnie's nerves were shot. He was in no mood for Monica's attitude or her superwoman routine. "Look. Everybody on a team has their position. The one you're trying to take isn't for you. I'm telling you to leave it alone."
Monica was officially angry. She put her hands on her hips, jerked her neck and rolled her eyes. "You're telling me?"
Lonnie didn't backdown. "Yeah. I'm telling you. Everything in life isn't a math equation for you to solve. And I've managed to handle quite a few situations before I knew you, believe it or not!"
Feeling her eyes begin to fill with tears, Monica turned away from Lonnie and faced the driveway. Lonnie read her tears for what they were. Yes, her feelings were hurt, but those tears meant that the girl was pure-d pissed! He let her alone for a few minutes and then he spoke.
"Listen, I know that was harsh. And I'm sorry I made you mad. But I meant what said. I need you to respect that."
"Fine."
"Monica….."
"No, it's fine. So tell me, what do you plan to do?"
Lonnie sat down on the steps. Monica sat down beside of him. He finally looked at her and spoke.
"The charge Virgil is talking about is pretty serious. He would need the Chief's approval and knowing Virgil, they've already discussed it."
Monica sat quietly, but made no response.
"Are you listening?" Lonnie asked.
"Yes. I was just waiting for you to say it was okay for me to speak."
Lonnie ignored her comment. He supposed he deserved it, but he was holding his ground.
"If the Chief doesn't want to go along with it, then Virgil has the option of going over his head, straight to Darnelle. In the meantime, maybe we…."
Monica's head snapped around and she looked at him. "Maybe we should what?"
"Maybe we should hold off on spending time together for a while. Virgil knows where we meet. You live in his house. And you can't move out or that will be a red flag. Until this thing is over, I think we should take it easy."
Monica couldn't believe what she was hearing. It felt like a rock had been thrown at her head. Lonnie knew he had hurt her. He couldn't even look at her, even though he knew he was right. Finally she spoke.
"I guess you know the answer now."
"The answer to what?"
"The answer to what you would do if you found yourself in the Chief's shoes."
Lonnie knew what was coming, but his own feelings of shame and confusion kept him from speaking. Monica spoke for him.
"You'd run."
XXX
Virgil was sitting at his desk, once again tapping his pencil. Sweet had just left after updating him on his talk with Jimmy. But that isn't what Virgil was thinking about. Virgil's mind had wandered back about 20 years. He was thinking of Linda, the cousin he had grown up with and eventually lost to suicide.
He and Linda were the same age and were very close growing up. They were both very smart and competed with each other to see who got the highest A on their report cards. But when they each turned about 15, Linda began to act very strange. She started skipping school, coming home late, and didn't have time to hang out with Virgil anymore. Linda killed herself at 18. When it was all said and done, the family found out that Linda had been having an affair with a white teacher at school since she was 15. They found letters that the two had written to each other and the man claimed to have been in love with her. But when Linda discovered that she was pregnant, the teacher drove her to Jackson for an abortion and then stopped seeing her. Between the abortion and realizing that she had been used, Linda couldn't cope any longer and had taken her own life. The family had filed a complaint and a smoke-screened investigation was conducted, but back then there was no way that a white male would be arrested for taking advantage of a black girl, not in Sparta. Virgil had all but forgotten about it, purposely blocking it from his memory. The situation with Lonnie and Monica brought it all back for him.
He and Jamison had become pretty close since they began his unofficial training. They were on the verge of becoming friends. Lonnie had been to the house several times for dinner and Virgil had taken him to class with him a few times. And in turn, Lonnie had made Virgil the only officer, besides Sweet, who had been invited to his home. In short, Virgil trusted him and saw a friendship forming. And now he felt that his trust had been betrayed. Virgil admitted that Lonnie believed he cared for Monica, but Virgil also knew that Lonnie had no idea what he was getting into. The Chief dating Harriet was different. The Chief was older; he'd lived his life and had nothing to lose. Lonnie, on the other hand had his entire future ahead of him. And when it was all said and done, and Lonnie was forced to make a choice, Virgil truly believed that another young girl he cared about would end up hurt at the hands of a white man.
Only this time, Virgil knew about it. And he could stop it. With or without the Chief's help.
XXX
Aaron Pitman was standing at the edge of the woods at Brewer's Pond. He had been there about an hour. He was watching Monica. Aaron had followed her there. Some white guy was waiting for her. It looked like they were arguing. Then the white guy left. Aaron stayed hidden until Monica decided to leave. He waited a few minutes, and then pulled out about five minutes behind her.
XXX
Lonnie's head hurt all the way to the bottom of his feet. His mind was heavy with work and Monica. He had hurt her, and he hated that. But he meant what he said and believed that he was right. Until he knew whether or not Virgil was serious about his threat, it was best that they not be seen together. That was common sense. But maybe that's why his relationships never seemed to work out. Being in love had nothing to do with common sense, as he found out this afternoon. Looking back on his conversation with Monica, he decided that he had made the right call, it just felt like hell. He only hoped that her intelligence would win out against her emotions long enough for her to realize the same thing.
XXX
Monica went back to the Tibbs'. When she walked in the door, Althea was in the living room reading to Billy and Sarah.
"Hi there! How's Lonnie?"
Monica tried to speak, but she couldn't. She finally burst out in tears.
"Oh, honey." Althea held the girl and stroked her back until she stopped sobbing and told Althea what happened.
"Althea, he's right. I know that. But to hear him say it just…it hurt!"
"Getting what you want isn't all it's cracked up to be, is it?"
"What do you mean?"
Althea smiled and continued to stroke her back. "Sometimes women have a habit of asking for things that they don't really want. You asked Lonnie to be honest with you. You told him to take his time and his own way to figure out if this is what he really wanted. But you didn't expect him to do it. And now you're angry because he did precisely what you told him to."
Monica wiped her eyes as she realized that Althea was right. She had caused this. And she needed to apologize to him as soon as he felt it was okay for them to see each other again. Just as Monica was about to share her realization with Althea, she realized that someone else should know first. She pulled away from Althea and dialed Lonnie's car phone.
"Hello?" Lonnie answered.
"Hey."
Lonnie had a smile in his voice. "Hey, what?"
"You know what." Monica smiled back.
Lonnie laughed. "No problem. And I love you."
"Me too, LJ." Monica responded, and then hung up the phone.
Althea was confused. "What was that?"
Monica just grinned. "I just said 'I'm sorry'."
XXX
The next day, Virgil met with Sweet, Lonnie and Luann on the kidnapping cases. Parker and Bubba had investigated the names of the two other young women that Sweet had discovered were missing as well. One name turned up as a dead body in an abandoned building in the Bottoms, the other name was still missing.
"I think it's safe for us to assume that these cases are related. Anybody have any ideas?"
"Well," Luann began. "If it is the same perp, it looks like he's got some kind of system going. Like they're some he keeps and some he kills off."
"I tend to agree with Luann." Lonnie added. "We're working on trying to tie everything these girls had in common, seeing if there's some kind of thread."
Virgil nodded. "Good idea, Lieutenant. Sweet found out from Jimmy that the last two victims didn't have boyfriends. Maybe that's another thread for you to work on with the first two."
Virgil gave a few more pointers and then left for his summer class. Lonnie was now heading up the investigation.
"Sweet, you want to go down and see if you can get anymore details out of Jimmy?"
"Actually you ought to go. He asked to see you."
"For what?"
"He didn't say."
"Okay. You go with Luann and visit the first two families again. Get some details on those girls' dating habits. I'll go find Jimmy."
Lonnie arrived in the Bottoms and found Little Ricky. Little Ricky was about 12 and it was suspected that he was a runner for Jimmy. He told the boy that Jimmy had sent for him. The little boy took off to get his boss. Jimmy arrived at their normal meeting place about ten minutes later.
"My ivory brother! What's up, man?"
Lonnie smiled slightly and shook his head. "I'm hanging in there, Jimmy. What can I do you for?"
"I just wanted to make sure we was still cool. I ain't seen you in a while."
"As far as I know, we're cool. Is there something I missed?"
"Come on, man. I know you know it was me that put Sweet onto you about Monica."
Lonnie suddenly stood completely still. For some reason, he'd always liked Jimmy. But Jimmy was what Jimmy was. And Lonnie didn't completely trust the man at all.
Jimmy noticed the change in Lonnie's demeanor, so he spoke again. "You ever wonder why I did that?"
"I figure you were just being your usual charming self. But, I did wonder why you didn't try to sell us out to the Chief. Is that why I'm here? You finally figured out what you wanted to keep your mouth shut?"
Jimmy rubbed his beard and crossed his arms. "Man, you done gave me what I wanted. I'm just checking in to see if you still doing it."
"Jimmy, what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about Monica. Ya'll still going together?"
"That's none of your business, Jimmy."
Jimmy smiled slowly and cocked his head to the side. "That, my ivory brother, is where you wrong. Think about it."
Lonnie eyed Jimmy for a minute. Finally it hit him. "Does she know?"
Jimmy laughed. "Hell no! Her own mama didn't know, so how was she supposed to?"
"If her mother didn't know, then how do you?"
Jimmy uncrossed his arms and cut his eyes at Lonnie. "'Cause I'm a man, dammit, that's how! I know where I been, when I was there, and who I was with. Besides, a real man don't need nobody to tell him when he's looking at his own flesh and blood."
Lonnie nodded his head in complete agreement. "She has a right to know, Jimmy."
"Naw, man. She got a right to be happy. Is she happy?"
"Yeah. She's happy. Moody as ever, but happy."
Jimmy laughed. "Yeah. That moody mess she got from her trick-ass mama. The smarts…that's all me, baby!"
Jimmy looked down at his feet and then faced Lonnie again. "Look man. I hear things could get real deep for you soon. Now, I ain't never done too much for that girl, besides beat her ass to keep her in school. And I like you. That's why I left you alone after Sweet said it was all good. But I'll tell you what…." Jimmy lit a cigarette as he got on his moped.
"If you ain't sure about this, and you mess her up…. I will kick your ass. Cop or not. We cool?"
Lonnie smiled. "We're cool, Jimmy."
Lonnie stood by the shack and stared at his mud covered shoes. All of sudden he broke out into a fit a laughter. He laughed so hard that he had tears in his eyes. When he remembered that he hadn't laughed like that since he was ten years old, he laughed even more. He finally pulled himself together enough to reflect on what he had just heard. 'I'll be damned!' He thought. 'Jimmy Dawes could end up being my father in-law!'
