Baltimore Chronicles (12 page)

Rodriguez looked around on the roofs of the surrounding buildings, but she didn't see anyone. Then she noticed a red dot on her arm. She raced to get back into the van. She knew then that there was a sniper firing from somewhere. “Everybody get the fuck back to their cars now!” she screamed into her radio, and all of the officers began scattering.

Scar was once again one step ahead of them.

A bullet whistled through the air and hit the side of the van as Rodriguez was about to climb into the front to drive away. She dropped down on top of Tiphani, who was crying hysterically, to shield her. Then more bullets hit the van, one shattering the passenger side window this time.

“Oh, God! He is going to kill us! What about my kids?” Tiphani screamed, covering her ears.

Rodriguez knew she had to take a chance to get out of there. She jumped into the driver's seat and started the van. Just as she went to pull out,
Bang!
A bullet pierced the windshield, and Rodriguez's body slumped over, blood leaking from her head.

“Agghhhh!” Tiphani screeched. If she didn't act fast, she would never make it out of there alive. From the back of the van, she struggled to pull Rodriguez's limp body from the seat. By now she could hear more police coming onto the scene and more bullets flying. She struggled with the dead weight until Rodriquez's body finally fell far enough over that she herself could climb into the driver's seat.

Tiphani struggled behind the wheel and hurriedly threw the van into drive. With her hands shaking fiercely, she pulled out like a mad woman. Just as she made it out of the spot, another bullet hit the side of the van. They had missed her again. She sped down the street and away from the scene, crying and shaking so hard, she could barely maintain control of the car.

“Oh, God! What have I done? What have I done? Somebody help me!” she squealed. She didn't know where she was going or how she would ever get her kids so she could disappear.

Tiphani kept driving and driving. When she thought she was far enough away from the scene, she picked up her cell phone. That's when she noticed a flashing text message—YOU JUST FUCKED UP. MAKE SURE YOUR WILL IS UP-TO-DATE, BITCH.

Tiphani threw her phone down. She knew exactly who the text was from. Scar was out for revenge, not just any kind of revenge. He would have a high bounty on her head. She couldn't stay in Baltimore. She just had to figure out a way to get out before Scar and his little crew members found her.

Tiphani thought she knew somebody who could help her. She picked her phone back up and dialed the mayor's phone number. The mayor had told her to meet him at the courthouse, that he would gladly help her.

Tiphani watched as the sun came up on another day. She knew it would be her last day in Baltimore, Maryland.

 

Derek clung to life in the jail's infirmary. The nurse came in and shifted him in the bed, so he wouldn't get bed sores. He'd heard the doctors say he had barely made it.

The small television that hung over his bed had the news on. Derek stretched his eyes when he heard a reporter say that there was breaking news regarding Judge Tiphani Fuller. He knew right then that Tiphani's indiscretions with Scar would be aired that day beginning on the 6 o'clock news.

Wincing in pain, he fought against the drowsy effects of the painkiller to watch the news. He planned to be glued to the television for every single news broadcast. Derek hadn't figured out who'd tried to kill him yet, but he also planned to await Rodriguez's return with the information needed to help him get free. If Rodriguez didn't come through, he knew he still had the mayor's loyalty for helping him. Derek was happy to still be alive and took comfort in the fact that all of Tiphani's lies would finally be brought to light. In his assessment, he would be a free man in no time, and the first place he would go is to see his brother, eye to eye, man to man.

 

Tiphani had managed to sneak into a drug store and purchase a Halloween costume wig, some oversized shades, and a new shirt. She couldn't go to the courthouse in a shirt with Rodriguez's blood splattered all over the front of it. She took a cab to the court building, and as she exited, she looked around. Tiphani noticed all of the cameras and the podium set up at the front entrance.

“This is all I need today,” Tiphani mumbled to herself. “A fucking high-profile case in front of the court. I need to get inside to meet with the mayor. Just gotta make it inside.” Tiphani didn't notice that she was once again being watched like a hawk.

When she got to the back entrance, the guards didn't recognize her. One court officer told her, “Ma'am, this entrance is for judges only.”

“I am Judge Tiphani Fuller,” she said nervously, pulling the sunglasses down slightly to reveal her face a little more.

The guard's eyes grew wide, and he swallowed hard. He looked like he'd just seen a walking dead person.

“Stay right here, Judge Fuller, um, one minute.”

The guard ran behind the desk and picked up the telephone. He mumbled something into the receiver as he eyed Tiphani, who rolled her eyes at him, tapping her foot impatiently. Tiphani was fuming. She didn't have time for this shit today. It was all too risky standing there. The longer she waited, the less time she had to make it out of Baltimore alive.

“Judge Fuller, they have instructed me to escort you to the front entrance of the building,” the court officer told her.

“What? What the fuck is going on?” Tiphani screamed as four other court officers emerged and put hands on her. She began fighting them, bucking and thrashing. “I'm the fuckin' circuit court judge! What the fuck is the meaning of this?” By now her wig had come off, making her identity readily apparent. “You are making a mistake!”

When the guards emerged through the front doors with Tiphani, she was met by a crowd of media and Baltimore citizens. Mayor Steele was standing behind a media podium, all dressed up and looking debonair.

The crowd began jeering and booing Tiphani.

“Murderer!” a lady screamed out.

“Dirty judge!” screamed another.

Tiphani felt her stomach muscles clench. There was basically a mob of people after her. “Mathias, what is going on here?” she shrieked.

“Here she is, ladies and gentlemen. The crooked judge who sleeps around with defendants and gets paid to hand down acquittals,” Mayor Steele announced in a serious tone.

“Mathias, I can ruin you!” she screamed.

It was too late. She listened to a loudspeaker blaring her voice. “Aghhh, Scar, fuck me! You fuck me so much better than Derek.”

Tiphani's bladder released right there on the spot. The entire world knew she had fucked Scar Johnson and that she had been on the take the entire time.

“Just like I promised, I will be tough on government corruption. There will be no dirty cops or judges when I'm elected to the state senate next week,” Mayor Steele boomed into the loud speakers. “Take her to jail where she belongs!” Mayor Steele shouted. With that command, the court officers roughly carted Tiphani to the cells inside the courthouse.

Tiphani was screaming, but no one could hear her over the loud jeers of the crowd, which was now turning into a mob.

Scar watched from a distance. He was pissed. Now he would have to use other connections to get to Tiphani. One thing was for sure, he wouldn't let her get away with setting him up. He had two of her most precious commodities to hold over her head.

“Uncle Stephon, when will we meet up with Mommy?” Tiphani's son asked.

Scar looked at Tiphani's daughter, who was sleeping in the backseat of his truck, Sticks sitting next to her, his gun on the ready. “Soon, baby boy, very soon.” He picked up his cell phone to call in a favor.

 

Chief Hill raced out of the stationhouse. He had received a call that spurred him into action. He arrived at the courthouse in record time, flashed his identification, and rushed to the cell area where Tiphani was being held. “I'm here to pick up our prisoner,” he announced. “Judge Fuller.”

The captain of the court officers asked, “Who said she is the state's prisoner?”

“I fuckin' said it, and the mayor fuckin' said it. You want to question us? Or maybe Judge Fuller is fuckin' you and payin' you too,” Chief Hill gritted through clenched teeth.

The decorated court officer backed right down.

Tiphani was sitting in the corner of the cell when they came in and told her she would be going with the chief. She remembered Chief Hill's face from somewhere, and it wasn't in court. She slowly walked out of the cell and out of the courthouse with Chief Hill, who led her to an unmarked car.

Tiphani thought that was very strange. “If I'm so bad, why don't you have a squad car? And since when does a chief come out to pick up prisoners?”

Chief Hill was silent. He held onto Tiphani's arm tightly as he led her into the back of the car. Once she was seated inside and he was in the driver's seat, he turned on his car radio.

“Uncle Stephon, when are we going to see Mommy?”

Tiphani heard her son's voice coming through the speakers. “Noooo! Help me!” She began to scream and buck in the backseat. She tried banging her head on the windows to get the attention of anyone on the outside, but it was of no use. She continued to scream. “Please! Not my children, pa-leeeessee!”

“No need to cry now, Judge. You brought this all on yourself,” Chief Hill said calmly.

Just then it came to Tiphani remembered where she knew the chief from. She had seen him meet with Scar several times to pick up payments. She had also remembered seeing him in the courtroom when Derek was convicted. All along she'd thought of him just as the chief of Division 1, but as it turned out, he was another of Scar's paid aces.

Tiphani knew her life was over. She figured she would never make it to any prison. The chief was surely going to be driving her straight into Scar's hands.

Her throat sore from screaming, Tiphani finally gave up on her cries for help, and began concentrating on trying to ease her hands out of the handcuffs. She kept struggling. She felt like her wrists were bleeding already, which was exactly what she wanted—something wet and moist to help her squeeze her small, bony wrists out of the cuffs. She kept on maneuvering as the chief continued driving.

All Tiphani could think about was her children, who were old enough to identify Scar, so she knew he would kill them too. Tiphani felt a flash of anger in her chest, as her motherly instincts suddenly started taking over, her need to save her children becoming overpowering.

Tiphani had always thought of herself as a shrewd career woman with the skills to keep rising to the top. But now, riding in the back of a cop car with a crooked-ass police chief on her way to meet death face to face, it looked like the “Maryland blues” was bringing her right back down. But Tiphani had other plans. If she was going to die, she would die trying to free her kids first.

As she looked at the back of Chief Hill's head, Tiphani felt like it was now or never. She pulled the handle on the door, and it flew open.

“Oh, shit!”

Chief Hill screeched as he swerved the car, causing him to slow down a bit, all part of Tiphani's plan.

Tiphani jumped out, and her body hit the road like a sack of potatoes and rolled. She could feel her skin ripping open with “road rash,” as the wind was knocked out of her. After a few seconds of excruciating pain, she got her bearings enough to run down the highway screaming for help.

Chief Hill pulled over on the shoulder of the highway and got out of his car. He kicked the tires. “Fuck!” he screamed. He scrambled to his car and picked up his police radio. “Chief Hill, Division 1, on the air!” he screamed.

“Go, Chief,” the operator answered immediately.

“I have an escaped prisoner on I-95. Female, black—aww, fuck it! It's Judge Tiphani Fuller, and she is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. I want her taken down by any means necessary! I repeat, she is to be taken down!” Chief Hill barked. If Tiphani got away, Scar would simply kill him, chief of police or not.

Tiphani ran down the highway like a mad woman. Her legs and chest burned as she ran as fast as her legs would take her. “Help me!!” she screeched.

Finally, a long-haul truck driver stopped. He thought maybe the crazy woman was running from a john that was trying to beat her up or kill her. He reached over and pushed open his passenger side door.

Tiphani climbed up into the cab of the eighteen-wheeler. “Please, help me!” she huffed. “I'm a judge. The police are trying to kill me!” she gasped.

The truck driver was stunned, not understanding what he got himself into. Then he noticed all of the police cars whizzing down the highway. “Oh shit! You need to hide up in the back of the cab,” the truck driver said with a thick country accent. “I got some blankets back there you can cover up with.”

Tiphani did as he said.

“I'm gonna keep on driving the hell outta Maryland, but I know they gonna eventually block off this here road.”

“Just keep driving, please. My life is on the line,” she cried, burying herself in the back of his cab.

 

Day was getting nervous. He had been waiting at the meeting spot for half an hour, and still there was no sign of his girl, which wasn't like her. She was always right on time. The war on Scar Johnson was getting heavy, and Day was afraid that his girl had been found out. He vowed to look out for her and keep her safe, and if she wasn't, his guilt might push him over the edge.

Then, out of the shadows she crept. She was being very careful not to be spotted by anyone, and to make sure it was Day in the car.

Day pushed the button to roll the automatic window down. “Get in quick, Halleigh.”

Halleigh ran to the passenger side door and got in the car. “Dayvid, I'm sorry I'm late.”

Dayvid and Halleigh had met when Halleigh moved to Baltimore from Flint, Michigan. Dayvid was being groomed by Halleigh's man, Malek, to take over his drug business, and the three formed an immediate bond. When Malek had asked Dayvid to take care of Halleigh when he was gone, he didn't need to ask twice. Dayvid would do anything for Malek.