I Saw Your Profile Read online

  “You brought us together,” Brenda said. “I’ve met lots of nice sistas thanks to you. By the way, there is no Danielle. But there is a Daniel. And you fucked him last night.”

  “Well he fucked you last night,” Arianna laughed.

  Chauncey jumped out of bed, still holding on to the sheet.

  Arianna snatched it and moved away. “We’ve seen your dick before.”

  “And now all your online admirers are going to see it too,” said Brenda, using her fingers to simulate intercourse. “Sliding up and down in another man’s ass.”

  “Weren’t you the one who said being a faggot was an abomination before your lord?” Arianna carped.

  “You bitches are crazy. Danielle is as much a woman as either of you.”

  “I’m sure she would agree,” Arianna said. “But the dick between her legs make her a male like you. Notice I didn’t say man. It takes more than a dick to make a man.”

  Chauncey brushed past Arianna to get to the table and chair set in the corner where he’d left his clothes and snatched his underwear. He replayed what he could remember of the previous night in his head. He remembered being on the bottom, his penis inside tight, warm flesh.

  Beads of sweat started to form in the creases of his forehead. His arms shook as he pulled his boxer shorts over each leg.

  “Fuck you both. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “We set this shit up, asshole,” Arianna said. “The woman you thought was Danielle online was me. The real Danielle is a man we paid to fuck you. And we got it on tape.”

  “What tape? Where?”

  Arianna got in his face. “Never mind where the tape is. One day you’re going to log on to your computer to do your dirt and it’ll be there. On LoveMeBlack.com and every other web site you’ve trolled…”

  Before Arianna could finish her sentence, Chauncey lunged for her. “Give me that fucking tape!”

  Arianna jumped to the side. She stumbled into the nightstand by the bed, knocking over a lamp, which landed on the floor between the bed and the table.

  When Arianna turned around, Chauncey was staring her down like an animal facing his prey. “Give me the damn tape!” he shouted, spewing venom in her face.

  Brenda screamed. “Leave her alone! I’ve got the tape.”

  She nervously opened her purse and fumbled through it.

  “Damn!” Brenda said when she realized there was no tape. “I forgot it. It’s in my other purse.”

  Chauncey turned back toward Arianna.

  “You have it, don’t you?”

  He snatched the red purse from her shoulder and pushed her on the bed.

  He ripped it open and went back to the corner where he dumped the contents on the table.

  Brenda rushed to Arianna. “Are you all right?”

  Arianna was breathless.

  “Yeah. Let’s get out of here. He’s nuts,” she panted.

  “You’ve got to get your stuff,” Brenda said.

  “Give me my purse, Chauncey.” Arianna’s heart was beating out of control and her words were filled with fear.

  “The tape’s not in there. It’s in our room.”

  He threw down the purse and turned toward them.

  “Then let’s go to your room.”

  “No,” Arianna shouted as she stood up. “We’re leaving.” She motioned for Brenda to get up. She did.

  “You bitches don’t expect me to let you just leave here do you?” Chauncey yelled.

  “You can’t stop us,” Brenda said.

  As they headed for the door, Chauncey grabbed Brenda and slapped her, knocking her back on the bed.

  “Who can’t stop you?” he yelled.

  Brenda hollered in pain.

  Arianna went to slap him back, but Chauncey grabbed her hand before it connected with his face.

  “Whom did you stupid women think you were messing with?” he hissed, pressing his fingers into her flesh. “You can’t outsmart me.”

  “We already did. We got your stupid ass here, now let me go,” Arianna shouted.

  Brenda got up from the bed, tears burning the spot on her face where she’d been slapped.

  “You’re a liar, a cheat and a whore Chauncey, but I never figured you for a woman beater. Let Arianna go before somebody really gets hurt.”

  Arianna was squirming, trying to wriggle her way free of his grip.

  “Get your fucking hands off me,” she howled.

  Brenda pushed him. “Let her go.”

  He stumbled back, instinctively letting go of Arianna to break his fall.

  Arianna ran to Brenda’s side.

  Anger filled his eyes as he balled his fist.

  “Somebody’s about to get hurt for real now,” he snarled.

  Chauncey arched his back, giving his impending blow the most momentum. As he thrust his arm toward Brenda, she ducked and Arianna lurched forward, pushing him.

  Chauncey again stumbled backwards, this time tripping over the lamp that lay on the floor and hitting his head on the table.

  The sound of his head crashing against the wood stopped Arianna and Brenda cold.

  For a moment, they stood motionless, waiting for him to move.

  He never did.

  Finally, Arianna walked over to him, knelt down and checked his pulse. He didn’t have one.

  As she stared down at him, she noticed blood gushing from the back of his head.

  “Well?” Brenda cried.

  “He’s dead,” Arianna said, her heart ready to jump from her chest.

  “Oh my god,” whispered Brenda. “What are we going to do?”

  Just then, there was a knock at the door. The manager had received several complaints and wanted an explanation for the noise.

  Arianna jumped up and ran to the door, lowering her voice to sound like a man. “I’m sorry,” she said. “Everything is fine. We just got a little too passionate if you know what I mean.”

  The manager left after warning her to keep it down.

  When she turned around, Brenda had covered Chauncey with a blanket.

  “Why’d you do that?”

  “I thought the manager was going to come in. I didn’t want him to see the body.”

  “Okay. Lets get out of here.”

  Arianna grabbed her things from the table and threw them back in her purse, her hands trembling.

  “Just like that? We’re going to leave?” Brenda said.

  “What do you want to do?” Arianna said. “We can’t stay in here.”

  “Aren’t we going to call the police?”

  By now, Arianna was crying. She could feel her heart beating in her throat.

  “And tell them what? That we set him up because he was a dog and then he accidentally died? Let’s just go. The police and black folks are never a good combination.”

  “He was attacking us, we fought back. It was self-defense,” Brenda said.

  “The man is dead. Getting the police involved is not going to bring him back.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “You killed him?”

  Kenny wouldn’t be the only person to make that assumption.

  Arianna told him the news as they left the Philadelphia airport and headed for the interstate.

  “I said he was dead. I didn’t say I killed him.”

  Kenny pulled off exit thirteen and drove to the strip mall on Route 291 near Lindbergh Boulevard and parked the car.

  “What the hell happened?”

  Kenny listened intently as she told him how Chauncey met his demise. By the time she was finished, she was shaking and sobbing. The reality that a man was dead and she had played a part in his death had just begun to settle in.

  “I swear I didn’t mean for him to die,” she cried.

  Kenny pulled Arianna toward him and wrapped his arms around her. “It’s gonna be okay.”

  He cradled her wet face under his chin. She settled into his embrace. Her quivering stopped as she gave her fears and anxi
ety to his chest.

  “It was an accident. We didn’t want this to happen. But if anyone finds out what me and Brenda did – setting him up and making that tape – they might think we meant to kill him.”

  “Who else knows about the setup?”

  “Nicole and Janelle.”

  “Are you going to tell them what happened?”

  “I have to. They know I went to California. Eventually, they’ll find out he’s dead. They might as well hear it from me.”

  “Do you think they’ll tell anybody else about you and Brenda?”

  “I’m not sure. I haven’t known either one of them that long, but I don’t see why they would if I ask them not to.”

  “I told you I had a bad feeling about this,” Kenny said as he stroked her hair. “You should’ve just let it go. Revenge is never as sweet as people think it is.”

  “What scares me is even though I didn’t want him to die, I’m not sorry he’s dead. I never thought of myself has cold-blooded.”

  “You’re not. He was an asshole who took advantage of people. It’s hard to feel for a person like that.”

  Arianna lifted her head and wiped her face with her hands. “Can you take me home now?”

  Kenny pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the Schuylkill Expressway.

  Arianna played Chauncey’s death over and over in her mind as she stared at the road. She wondered how Nicole and Janelle would take the news.

  “Do you want me to come in with you, or would you rather be alone?” Kenny asked as he parked in front of her house.

  “Come in, please.”

  He made her a cup of herbal tea and put on a Miles Davis CD. He sat behind her on the couch and massaged her neck. Arianna sank into his hands as she sipped her tea, inhaling the aroma.

  “Thank you, Kenny.”

  “For what?”

  “For being here.”

  Kenny stood up and reached for her. Arianna gave him her hand. They climbed the stairs to her bedroom in silence.

  As she lay on the bed, he ran her a bath. He undressed her. First, the red dress. Arianna didn’t protest when he balled it up and threw it in the wastebasket next to her nightstand.

  “It will only bring you bad memories,” he said.

  Then her underwear and jewelry. Last, her shoes.

  He carried her to the bathroom and gently placed her in the tub where he bathed her and washed her hair.

  He helped her from the tub. As he dried her face, he kissed her forehead. He worked his way down, kissing and drying every inch of her.

  His kisses were a balm, healing wounds that had been open for years. Her passion rose and her defenses dropped with each one.

  She begged him to make love to her.

  He spread her legs and moved his head between them. She grabbed the sink and held on for dear life as he gently stroked her clitoris with his tongue.

  Her body shuddered with her climax. She pushed his head away, but he wouldn’t move. He drank every drop of liquid that poured from her body and started licking her all over again.

  Arianna’s head rolled back as she screamed her next orgasm.

  When her sounds had been reduced to moans, Kenny scooped her up and brought her back to the bedroom. He laid her on the bed and took off his clothes.

  It wasn’t until he was inside her that Arianna realized they hadn’t taken any precautions, but by then she didn’t care.

  She arched her back to take him in all the way. To that place where it hurt, but felt good at the same time.

  She wanted all of him and gave as much in return. She wrapped her legs and arms around his back, pressing his flesh with her fingers.

  Her screams and moans made his strokes faster and deeper.

  Kenny held her face and looked in her eyes. She closed them.

  “I love you,” he panted.

  She didn’t respond. She didn’t have to. The tears that flooded down her cheeks as they reached a mutual climax said what she couldn’t.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Arianna was sprawled across her living room buried under a stack of papers when the howl of the phone almost sobered her.

  She was still slightly under the influence of tequila and forgot not to answer. She slowly stood up and shuffled to the end table where the phone sat in a charger and plopped on the couch next to it.

  “Hello,” she said with a raspy voice.

  “Miss Singleton?”

  “Yes. Who is this?”

  “Detective Mitchell. I’m sorry to call so late, but I tried earlier and didn’t get an answer.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  “I’m investigating the death of Chauncey Cockfield and I have some questions for you.”

  “Why me?”

  “You knew him, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “Then, we’d like to ask you some questions, ma’am.”

  Arianna found total sobriety. “All right, when?”

  “I’ve made arrangements for a Philadelphia detective to meet with you. Detective Howard. He can see you tomorrow. What time is good for you?”

  She wiped her eyes and sat up straight. “Seven-thirty.”

  “I’ll let him know. Thanks for your cooperation.”

  “Detective?”

  “Yes,ma’am.”

  “How did you get my name?”

  “I’m not at liberty to say.”

  Arianna called Nicole.

  Detective Mitchell already had questioned her about Chauncey and Arianna.

  “I told him about our relationship and how we broke up,” Nicole said. “He asked me where I was the weekend Chauncey died and I told him. I tried to call you, but you weren’t answering your phones. Where were you?”

  “Passed out. I had too much to drink.”

  “You okay?”

  “Just pissed!” Arianna stood up and started pacing the floor. Her voice got louder.

  “Chauncey’s death would’ve been filed in a drawer with the anotha-nigga-bites-the-dust cases if Janelle hadn’t opened her big ass mouth. That bitch is about as bright as a damn blackout.”

  “Not really. She knew what she was doing,” Nicole said.

  “She picks now to get a brain? Where were all these damn smarts when Chauncey was knocking her ass up and giving her VD?”

  “He didn’t have to die for it, though.”

  Nicole’s words pricked Arianna’s conscious in its most vulnerable place. Her voice lost its harshness and some of its volume.

  “Where is that coming from? I thought we were past this?”

  Nicole had been upset when Arianna told her the news about Chauncey. She blamed Arianna for taking revenge instead of leaving Chauncey’s fate in the hands of God.

  A week later, she called Arianna, telling her that she’d prayed about it and God said it was Chauncey’s time to go. She and Arianna made up.

  Janelle went straight for the murder accusation, screaming over the phone at Arianna and calling her every expletive her tongue could spew.

  Nicole convinced Janelle to let it go. The three of them decided not to attend the funeral and vowed to keep Arianna’s trip to L.A. between them.

  Those promises were quickly broken.

  Arianna repeated her question when Nicole didn’t answer immediately.

  Nicole sighed. “I’m sorry. I know you didn’t mean for Chauncey to die. It’s just that when you start going off like that it makes me wonder if you’re even sorry about what happened. The truth is, if you didn’t set him up, Chauncey would still be alive, and Janelle just told the truth.”

  Arianna plodded back to the couch and slumped down.

  “I don’t know what you guys want from me,” she said, her voice devoid of energy. “Yes, if I hadn’t set him up, he’d still be here whoring his way across the World Wide Web. But I was defending myself, and Janelle is trying to send me to jail for it. I don’t deserve that.”

  “No you don’t deserve that, Arianna. Just tell the
police the truth, and everything will be fine.”

  Sleep eluded Arianna most of the night as Chauncey’s ghost haunted her. His image appeared each time she closed her eyes.

  Chauncey’s crumpled body on the hotel room floor, blood gushing from his head.

  Chauncey lying in his cheap casket.

  Shortly after midnight, the sandman paid her a brief visit. She dreamed that Chauncey had risen from the dead. He stood naked at the foot of her bed cackling that her jail cell would be his revenge.

  Arianna awoke from the nightmare dripping in sweat, her heart racing. She dragged herself to the bathroom and took a shower.

  When sleep finally landed on her, it was four in the morning. Two hours later, her alarm clock was blaring, signaling the hour had come to wake up Amir.

  The detective pulled up in front of her house an hour and a half after that, just as Akilah’s bus was pulling off.

  He was a tall, fine brother with a low haircut.

  Arianna invited him in and offered him a cup of coffee.

  “So what do you want to know, detective?”

  He sipped his coffee. “How well did you know Mr. Cockfield?”

  “We dated for a short time.”

  “How did you meet?”

  “Online.”

  “Why did you stop dating him?“

  “I found out he was living with another woman.”

  “Were you angry?” He took another sip of coffee and peered at her over the cup.

  “Sure.”

  “What did you do about it?”

  “What could I do?”

  “Miss Singleton, we have a statement from one of the women he was seeing that you hatched a plan to pay him back. You’d be doing yourself a favor by just telling us everything now.”

  “I think I’m done talking until I get a lawyer.”

  “Innocent people don’t need lawyers, ma’am. If you’ve done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.”

  Arianna didn’t respond.

  The detective finished his coffee and stood up.

  “When you’ve contacted your lawyer, I’ll need you to come down to the station to finish your statement. Can you do that later today?”

  “No. It’s not like I keep a lawyer on hand for these types of things. I’ll need a few days to retain one.”