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“Well, we wanted to see what you could tell us about his relationship with Aisha Kaufman,” Detective Washburn announced.
At the sound of her name, Linda’s face contorted into an unpleasant frown. “What about that bitch?”
“We take it you didn’t like her much,” Washburn followed up quickly.
Olivia thought they should take the conversation inside, but she figured Washburn had a good reason for staying in the hall.
“That bitch got me fired. No, I didn’t like her ass at all. It was like Mar had his head stuck so far up her ass, he couldn’t see straight. Before she came along, he took real good care of his girls. I mean, everybody on the south side wanted to dance at one of his clubs. It was like you slummed at the other dives to work your way up to Mar’s standards. It was all-good. He wasn’t greedy, and he didn’t mind breaking you off when he felt you deserved it. Then she showed up.” Linda’s frown got worse if that was possible. “None of us liked her ass, but still, in the beginning we thought the worst that could happen was Mar would put her in charge of the club, and we’d have all these new rules about twirling on the pole or some dumb shit like that,” she shrugged then continued. “Come to find out, the bitch been working him all along. A group of us suspected that’s what was up, tried even to have—what you call those meetings when you realize someone’s so far gone on drugs it affects his job?”
“An intervention?” Olivia offered.
“Yeah, that’s it.” Linda laughed at herself. Olivia wanted to, but she was there on business. “We needed to get through to him before the fool gave up the entire farm. It was me, his business partner, Derrick, and two of the other girls.”
“How’d it go?” Detective Washburn asked.
“Well, somehow she found out what we were up to and half way into the damn thing, she came bursting into the office like she owned the joint. All hell broke loose.”
“What happened?” Olivia asked eagerly.
“Somehow, she turned the tables on us. By the time she was done with her fuckin’ list of shit we was supposed to be doing, Derrick was close to giving up on their partnership, and I got fired for trying to start some shit.”
“She had that much power over him?” Olivia asked.
Linda shook her head. “The shit was wild. It was like right before our eyes he turned to putty in her hands. We saw him go from a strong businessman into a pussy-whipped wimp!”
“Do you know what happened with them?” Olivia asked.
“Yeah, she broke him. She convinced him that Derrick was stealing from him. Him and Derrick had been friends for years. After that, I lost touch with him.”
“How did you hear about Lamar dying?” Olivia asked.
“Big as Chicago is, it’s just like a small town. Word gets around, you know,” Linda said. “Somebody big time like little Mar dying gonna be some talk.”
“What was the talk?”
“That the bitch poisoned him. That’s what everybody was saying.”
“Why? What happened?” Olivia asked.
“I heard ’bout a month before he started getting sick, she just vanished. Let Derrick tell it, and so was more than half the money.”
“Did you tell the police about this?” Washburn asked.
“I tried, but they weren’t interested in what I had to say. They were stuck on Derrick, and when I wouldn’t help build a case against him, well, they moved on to the next person, I suppose. But who the hell else would want to poison him? I mean seriously, the fact that you guys didn’t even question her ass was just—well, it was typical,” she spat out.
“You don’t seem surprised about how he died.”
“Nah, it all made sense. Well, afterwards anyway. I mean, everyone was telling me ’bout how he seemed so fuckin’ weak all the damn time. I thought he was whipped on the pussy, but apparently her ass had been slowly feeding him poison, and nobody suspected a damn thing.”
Their trip to Derrick Brown’s pretty much confirmed everything Linda had shared. At the time, Derrick spent a chunk on legal fees for the murder of his business partner and best friend before charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
That evening, Olivia eased back in her chair and closed her eyes as the plane took off. She couldn’t wait to get back to call Marcus and report her findings about the deceased.
30
While Olivia was in Chicago, Garrett boarded a flight to Houston. He had yet another murder to inquire about—the murder of Otis Grimes.
Garrett exited Kirby drive off 610 South and made a right turn into the dealership lot. He looked around at the busy workers who were either talking to customers or showing them cars while others went toward the service section of the massive lot. Walking up to the main office door, Garrett tried to think of the easiest way to get what he had come for.
