Kirk finally got a break in his case. Earlier in the day, he got a call from Reyes, the head of the CSI team who told Kirk that they found some evidence at one of the murder scenes. Kirk and Richards went back to the precinct to see what he had.
"What you got, Reyes?" Kirk said as soon as he came through the door.
"How are you, detective?" Reyes said.
"Fine."
"I was talking to Richards," Reyes said and laughed.
"You gotta forgive my partner," Richards said and shook hands with Reyes as Kirk took a seat. "He gets so caught up in these things that he sometimes forgets his manners."
"Fuck this, what you got, Reyes," Kirk said.
Reyes handed Kirk a file. "My team found a finger-print at one of your crime scenes that didn’t match any of your bodies."
"One of the shooter’s maybe?" Richards speculated.
"We should be that lucky," Kirk said as he opened the file.
"The prints belong to a woman. Her name is Erika Thompson," Reyes told them.
"Arrest record includes shoplifting, possession with the intent to distribute and solicitation," Kirk said as he read over the file.
"Doesn’t sound like a shooter, but maybe she can tell us something," Richards said.
"Thanks, Reyes. We’ll check it out," Kirk said, and he and Richards left the office.
Within a few hours, one of Kirk’s informants told him where to find her on the street, working a corner.
"That’s her," Richards said as the detectives sat in their car. "What’s your plan? If we rollup on them in this car, they’ll all scatter and we might lose her."
"Why don’t you walk up to her, see if she makes you an offer?"
"Why me?"
"’Cause they’d never believe a good-looking guy like me would be out here tryin’ to buy some pussy. But you, on the other hand," Kirk said and laughed. "You got trick written all over you."
"Fuck you, Kirk. That’s all I gotta say; fuck you," Richards said and got out of the car.
Kirk let Richards get a little ways down the street before he got out of the car. He approached slowly and looked on as Richards walked up to the women on the corner and began talking to Erika Thompson.
"Oh, I got what you want, honey."
"Well let’s go then."
"Hey, hey, slow down. You at least got a car or something?"
"Yeah, come on," Richards said and grabbed her hand.
"It’s gonna cost you," Erika said as he practically dragged her along.
"How much?"
"Head is fifty. It’s a hundred for the whole show."
"That much, huh?"
"You gotta pay for what you want. And I can tell you want this pussy real bad," she said when he got in the car.
"Yeah, and you’re under arrest," Richards said and showed her his badge.
"Damn," Erika said and tried to get out of the car.
"Took you long enough." Kirk got in the back seat and grabbed her. "Where you goin’, honey?"
"This is fucked up. This is fuckin’ entrapment, that’s what this is, entrapment."
"Whatever you say," Richards said as he put the cuffs on her.
When they got to the station and had a female officer search her, they found that she was carrying a small quantity of rock cocaine. After being processed, Erika was taken to an interrogation room where she was left alone for over an hour.
Finally, Kirk and Richards came into the room. They both sat down and began to read Erika’s arrest record to her.
Erika sat quietly and listened. "Okay, so what y’all really want?"
"What do you mean?" Richards asked.
"Like you been tellin’ me, this ain’t my first time at this. I’m in here ’cause y’all want something."
"Okay," Kirk said and stood up. He handed Richards an envelope and Richards laid the pictures out in front of Erika. The look in her eyes told them that she recognized the men in the pictures. "Those three men were murdered last night. Your fingerprints were found at the scene."
"What?" Erika looked at the two detectives. "You think I did that shit?"
"Didn’t you?" Richards asked. "Like you said, we don’t have you sittin’ in here for just some solicitation beef. You killed those men and stole their coke, didn’t you?"
"Oh hell no! I didn’t do that shit. I swear ’for God, I didn’t kill nobody."
Richards looked at Kirk and laughed. "When was the last time we heard that one?"
"Last time we questioned a murder suspect."
"I didn’t kill nobody!" Erika yelled.
"Then how did your prints get there?"
"Okay, okay, look, I was there, but I didn’t kill them niggas."
Richards slid a notepad in front of Erika. "Just go ahead and write down how you killed them and it will go a lot easier for you."
"Oh hell no," Erika said and pushed the pad back at Richards. "I ain’t writing shit ’cause I ain’t kill them niggas."
Kirk got in her face. "Then tell us who did."
"If I tell you what I know, what I get outta it?"
"She wants to deal," Richards said. "I think we should just go ahead and book her for murder.
"What is you sayin’? This shit is crazy. I’m tellin’ you I didn’t kill nobody."
Kirk shrugged his shoulders and started to leave the room. Richards got up and followed him to the door. "Wait a minute, wait a minute, damn. I’ll tell you what I know."
Kirk came back to the table and sat down. "I’m listening."
"I was there in the apartment when the shit went down, but I’m tellin’ you, it wasn’t me that did the shootin’."
"What happened?"
"I was there to get a hit and they let me use the bathroom to smoke. So I’m in there smokin’ when all of a sudden I hear the shootin’."
"What did you do?"
"I dove in the bathtub and stayed there for a while after the shooting stopped. When I came out everybody was dead."
"What did you do then?"
"I searched the place."
"What’d you find?" Richards asked.
"I found the rock you caught me with, and I got out of there."
"You know who supplied these guys?"
"Nope. All I can tell you is that it’s a woman."
"A woman?" Richards questioned.
"I don’t know who she is, but they was always talkin’ about her."
"Well tell me this one more thing, and I’ll see what I can do on the solicitation and possession charges."
"What else y’all wanna know?"
"Who would you buy from now that your friends here are dead?"
"Rockwell."
"Who?"
"KK Rockwell. I can tell you where to find him."