YNs

1989

Blue and yellow made green. The Ziploc baggies carried the product. Nadine Horford, 19, bagged up the work at the Marriot. Two Uzis tucked behind her, embracing her waistline. She stood at five foot four inches. Her cocoa butter brown skin and her soft features could lure any man. She had to handle the work with one eye shut. Everything she did contributed to the care and precision she used with the scale. Flaky and white, the cocaine seemed like fishscale. Zatavian Acton, 22, cooked the product in Pyrex on the stove in the suite. He possessed two 44 magnum pistols behind him, too. He was five foot eleven inches and had the skin color of burnt toast. By standing over the stove and forming it into tiny morsels, it seemed like he prepared quiches for a bake sale, he brought the heat to the baking soda infused product. The ready rock hung to dry and she coupled the pigeons in the refrigerator. Once she finished up on the last baggie, she licked her thumbs. They had a system.

When she opened up the tiny fridge it was like a blast of coolness. The work had been lined up and had the appearance of mini white pies and cakes.

“I need you to go down by four five four,” Acton commanded his girlfriend. Four fifty-four stood for the apartment complex where the work would be distributed by the couriers.

“That’s right, Daddy.” They kissed. “I’m going to Maryland to open the market up down there. Keep all of this tight and we’ll be on our merry way.” He looked at her again and then removed himself from the hotel room. He passed by Hemdon Lockerby, 21.

“Hey…Hem. What’s going on my guy?” Acton asked.

“I’ve got a thing going on in my hotel room. Something special.”

“I do, too.”

It appeared as if they both knew exactly what the other meant.

“I’ll see you,” Lockerby called.

“Bet.”

Nadine saw her beeper flash. The neon green screen showed that Acton had left the premises. A knock came at her door. Lockerby stood there smiling when she opened it. Their lips met. She backed up and felt around his rear end and felt the two Desert Eagle pistols. She planted them on the table.

They didn’t even take their clothes off. Nadine dropped to the floor and unfastened the button and zipper to Lockerby’s jeans. After the zip sounded, Nadine proceeded to entrust her being with Lockerby’s. His eyes rolled back like a convertible top. Then, they heard the sound of the door and looked at it in horror.

“I just forgot my––hey what the hell?!” He drew his two guns. He pointed them at his lover and his friend. Lockerby raced to pull up and fasten his pants. He lifted his pistols. They drew their weapons and the standoff began.

“Alright, why didn’t you tell me you didn't love me?” Acton’s voice broke slightly.

“I do love you!” Nadine shrieked.

“Not if you’re with him!”

“‘Him’ has a name,” Lockerby announced with bass in his voice.

“Hem’ is your name, goddamnit!”

“Oh, so you’re big and bad now because you stole my woman. Fine. But nobody’s getting out of here until––” Two shots rang out. Nadine shot both men in the head with her weapons. They slumped to the floor like piles of dirty laundry.

She cleaned up the work from the stove and any particles or signs of drug paraphernalia. With certainty, she staged the scene to look like the two men had tried to attack her. By covering all the bases, she ensured she would not be found guilty of a double homicide but cleared on grounds of self-defense. The phone call to the police displayed not a frantic woman in distress, but a confident female who had been cold enough to blow away two grown men.

A set up of a game of tonk made the scene look like a dispute over cards led to an attempt at sexual assault.

She cleared out the refrigerator and added the work to her purse and her suitcase. She didn’t even clean up the area where the men had fallen. Mountains of powder cocaine still remained in the kitchenette. With quickness, she scraped and scooped the remnants into a large Ziploc bag. At last after checking the area three times, she called the authorities.

“9-1-1 what is your emergency?”

“I was just attacked by my boyfriend and his friend.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the Marriot in Wilmington.”

“And you said you were attacked?”

“Yes.”

“Where are these attackers?”

“They’re dead.”

“We’re going to send a vehicle over there to you. Stay put and stay safe.”

“Thank you.”

Nadine grabbed her bags and checked for any more signs of the powder or ready rock.

She cleared everything. Again. Now, all she had to do was––

Knock! Knock! Knock! “Delaware State Police. We’re responding to a call.”

Damn, Nadine thought. Not the Wilmington Police Department (WPD)? The State Police?

With a hand outstretched, she opened the door.

Two officers with mustaches, both black, looked in at the scene. They absorbed the moment.

“Dispatch, we’re going to need that wagon over here. It looks like two deceased black males apparently sustained gunshot wounds.”

“Copy.”

“What went on here?” Officer Davison Thistle asked.

“I was just trying to play some cards with them and the two of them ganged up on me. The one lying there (she pointed) was my boyfriend and the other man was a friend of ours. They tried to rape me.”

Officer Friedly Cumberland asked, “And what time did all of this occur?”

“It was about twenty-five minutes before you arrived. Oh, please just allow me to go home. I don’t want to be around all this death.”

“We know ma’am, but we’re going to have to take you in for some further questioning.”

“That’s fine with me.”

“It smells in here. Like burnt plastic,” Officer Thistle acknowledged.

The two police walked further into the room and observed her luggage.

“You’re going to need a warrant for that, officer,” Nadine chimed.

“Dispatch, request for a K-9 unit.”

“Copy.”

“If we find anything, you’re going away for double murder and drug possession. That’s life in prison. And you let us in here. We can check anything we want to check,” he reminded her.

Nadine slid down the door and looked blankly with milky eyes. “They tried to attack me,” she said through gritted teeth.

“Once forensics gets here, too, we’ll know exactly what happened.” Nadine turned her head and cried. The two officers looked at each other and then down at the mass of bawling inhumanity at their feet. Still shackled, she shot to her feet and exhaled sharply.

“If you didn’t do anything wrong, why are you crying?” Cumberland asked. The other units arrived at the scene. The drug sniffing dog shot straight to Nadine’s bag. Its barks signified that there had definitely been some substance embedded in the lining of the luggage.

Cumberland placed the cold steel bracelets of justice on Nadine’s hands as the medical examiner’s unit wheeled out the bodies of the two men.

“The detectives have a few questions for you at the station,” Thistle mentioned.

When they arrived at the police department, Nadine sat with a cigarette and a Snicker’s bar. Detective Cody Barkman and Hanson Jacobs, both black as well, looked at the woman through close circuit tv. She had already called her attorney who advised her to answer only questions that pertained to the drugs. He mentioned leaving the deaths to him.

“She’s definitely got the drugs on her. But did she actually murder these men or was it self-defense?” Barkman queried.

Barkman and Jacobs entered the room.

“You need a coffee?” Barkman asked, throwing his thumb in the air and turning slightly.

“No.”

“Alright. What happened?”

“He came in—”

“He, Mr. Lockerby?”

“Yes. He came in while Z was away.”

“Away for how long?”

“About ten minutes.”

“And then he came back.”

Nadine nodded her head. She completely disregarded her lawyer’s orders.

“Okay. We don’t care about the drugs. We just want to get to the killings. Did you feel you were threatened?” Jacobs asked.

“Yes. They came at me aggressively. I had to stop them.”

“You were all selling, no?”

“Z was selling. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I thought you wanted to know about the killings, no?”

“Let us ask the questions,” Barkman thundered.

Nadine opened up her arms.

“You wanted to murder Acton and Lockerby to take over their hustle….”

“No. I’m late….”

“What are you talking about, you were brought here in time for you to possibly go home.”

“I mean I missed my period.”

Barkman and Jacobs exchanged glances. Barkman looked up. Her lawyer arrived.

“Why is my client sitting in a metal chair? Why isn’t she sitting with a pad? She’s pregnant!” Clive Minton screamed. Barkman and Jacobs walked past each other in the room. He looked pecan-colored and determined.

“Some time with Nadine and myself, gentlemen!” The detectives left the room.

Minton had hair on the sides of his head with baldness at the top. He wore a gray suit with a shirt with a brown ring around the collar that had been starched. He had tobacco and coffee and mints all mixed up on his breath. He carried a black brief case with a brass combination lock on top.

“You’re looking at thirty years at least for the drug possession and if a jury sees that you canceled both men, well you could get the chair or a thousand years.” Minton spoke as if he were delivering a eulogy.

“What can I do?”

“Nothing really. You’ll be locked up on a six hundred thousand dollar bond. I won’t be able to get you home but we can work on the case until you find yourself in a courtroom.”

Two tears spilled from her eyes. The saltiness found its way to her mouth and she licked her lips.

“Alright, I could be in here and give birth.”

“It’s very possible. I’m going to fight for the self-defense angle, though. You could be out of here in eight months. Therefore, you’ll deliver outside of these walls…when we get our win.”

The fact he uttered “when” encouraged Nadine. She brought her head up to the fluorescent light. A fly buzzed around the overhead lamp.

“We’re going to go through this with bravado and confidence. You were going to be attacked by two men you trusted. They drew their guns, you drew yours. You were defending yourself. We can work this.”

Nadine nodded slowly. Her hands clasped in front of her.

“Alright? We’re going to fight. We’re going to go all in on this one.” Minton rose and buttoned his jacket and picked up his briefcase.

“I did it!”

Minton rushed around to close her mouth. He placed a palm over her face. She bit him.

“I killed them both. I helped move the drugs and I killed them dead.”

Minton watched as the two detectives stood before Nadine.

“She’s under duress. She’ll say anything at this point. She’s going through hormonal changes. This is par for the course. This is nothing! You both have seen this!”

The two detectives folded their arms.

“Miss Horford, if you did do the crime you will be handed over to the detention center and remain there until trial. We have already read you your rights. You have been granted access to an attorney. Now, you must come with us.” The sense of authority provoked Nadine to smirk.

Minton looked like he was losing a tug of war in his mind. He saw his own client which he prepared to defend, do herself in, admitting to her vice.

They once again made her rise and handcuffed her. As she walked out of the interrogation room, she saw the face of her attorney. It looked barren of emotion and almost sickly. He shook his head in disgust, in resentment.