5. Sage #2
My radio kept me up to date. I talked to other officers and they talked to me as we worked together to bring the speeding car to a stop.
Several streets had been blocked off and spike strips laid, hoping the car would continue on the assumed path.
Going straight would lead to my old stomping grounds, which I knew well, but venturing off on one of the side streets would put the car on the highway in seconds, making it harder to catch.
As expected, he went straight, telling me everything I needed to know. Whoever was behind the wheel wanted to stay in the area, making it highly probable that the driver lived nearby. Anyone with sense would have tried to take a different route because eventually the car would be boxed in.
We didn’t get there though.
A spike strip deflated the passenger side tires.
The driver kept going, slower, seemingly unfazed by riding on flats.
Eventually, the back tire came apart and a strategically positioned police car popped out right in time to perform a pit move.
The car began to spin, coming to a stop facing the opposite direction.
Squad cars moved in, blocking the car before it could try to take off again in its broken-down state.
Then the driver had the bright idea to try to flee on foot, receiving a two for one tackle by some of Diamond Falls finest.
Rookies.
I wasn’t chasing no damn body when I had two options on my hip to do the chasing for me, one permanently if I aimed right.
I heard, “Stop resisting,” after walking up on the action.
“Ain’t nobody fucking resisting,” a vaguely familiar voice barked back. “It’s all y’all and just one of me. Y’all niggas just weak.”
Four officers had a Black man with a thin build pinned down, struggling to get the cuffs on him. I laughed at the sight, leaning back on my vehicle to see how long the circus would go on. It took almost a minute for the man to be cuffed and another two to be forced to his feet.
“Name?” one of the officers requested.
“I don’t know. I forgot.”
“Don’t worry,” Gerald, the most senior officer on the force, assured him. “You’ll have plenty of time to remember it where you’re going.” He pointed to one of the rookies. “Put his ass in the car.”
“That won’t be necessary.” I pushed off my car. “I’ll take him.”
“You sure?” Gerald quizzed with a raised brow. “I can have one of these fools?—”
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m headed back there anyway.”
Nobody really liked jail drop-offs. They required too much time and paperwork. But as someone who loved to talk and interact with just about everyone, I was one of the few who didn’t complain. It was just another part of the job for me. I didn’t mind.
“Put him in Green’s car,” Gerald instructed.
He was tossed in the back seat of my SUV, threatening everyone who touched him with a lawsuit. He was still running his mouth when I pulled off, talking to the rolled-up window.
“I don’t think they can hear you.”
“Fuck ’em,” he scoffed. “And fuck you too. You stood there and watched them beat my ass.”
I laughed. “You call that an ass beating?”
“Yep. And I’m ’bout to call it a pay day. They didn’t have to do me like that. I’m only a hundred and sixty pounds.”
More like one-forty.
“I was there, Domani. I saw the whole thing. Nobody did nothing to you.”
“Oh,” he dragged out. “I forgot. I’m dealing with Dudley Do-Right.”
“Who?”
Domani had been saying weird shit since I met him. He had a vivid imagination and could think of a lie in a heartbeat. But that described many teenagers living in Diamond Falls. What he wasn’t though, was a criminal. At least not that I knew of.
“Never mind, nigga,” he mumbled. “I don’t even know why I expected you to be on my side.”
“Ain’t no side. Just right and wrong. And stealing a car and going on a joyride is wrong.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“See, that’s your problem. I’m trying to tell you right and you’re not even listening.” He sighed dramatically. “You’ll get it though…one day. And if you don’t…” I shrugged. “Oh well. It’s on you.”
Domani only listened when he wanted to. If it wasn’t DP, he took what was said with a grain of salt.
Still, I tried to get through to him, knowing Ms. Pat, his mother, would want me to.
She’d been good to me over the years since I was friends with her older sons.
We all used to run the streets together, doing shit just to be doing it.
But I calmed down after Keturah was born.
My friends didn’t. Now that one was locked up and the other was in the ground, Ms. Pat’s biggest fear was losing her baby boy too.
The ride turned quiet, giving Domani time to think. Eventually, reality set in.
“You really taking me to jail?”
“What do you think? You in handcuffs, ain’t you?”
“Come on, Keyoni. You know me. I was trying to get home, that’s all. I was fucking stranded.”
“You switched the plates.” I refused to let him downplay what he did.
“Then went on a damn high-speed chase. That shit ain’t cool, Domani.
” His bowed head and closed mouth told me he was listening.
Maybe I was getting through to him. “You had me and half of Diamond Falls PD risking our lives trying to stop your ass. There were kids out there and people minding their own fucking business and here you come rolling through… literally .” I glanced in the mirror again and saw him looking out the window. “You better be glad nobody got hurt.”
“Cole switched the plates.” Out of everything I said, that was what he chose to counter. “I was just the driver.”
“ And the dummy that got caught.” Domani would stay in trouble hanging with friends like Cole. He was a lost cause, racking up charge after charge as a juvenile. “Where he leave you at?”
“He didn’t leave. I dropped him off.” I shook my head. Common sense wasn’t so common. Domani continued. “On Rosier. With his son’s momma.”
Cole had two. Two kids and two baby mommas at just seventeen. They both lived on Rosier.
“Now you’re stuck facing everything alone while Cole’s probably laid up making another baby. That’s real smart, Domani.” He sat quietly. “You’re eighteen now. You gotta make better choices.”
“I know…and I will. After you help me out of this?—”
I hit the brakes hard, almost running the red light because of his nonsense. I shifted forward slightly, but my seat belt kept me restrained.
“I ain’t helping you with nothing. You’re on your own.”
“But…Keyoni…”
I continued through the green light, tuning him out.
People took my kindness for weakness, often trying to use it in their favor.
I did my job well, but my main objective wasn’t about getting criminals off the street.
It was about educating—especially young black boys—because without the right voice in their ear, they could get lost in the system set up to make them fail.
And it was easy to do. Life automatically made them criminals based on the color of their skin. But it didn’t mean they were destined for failure. They just had to work harder and put in the effort. Otherwise, they would fall victim to a system set up to work against them.
I was close.
I saw so much of myself in Domani that I just wanted to pull over and knock some fucking sense into his head. He had so much potential and it was going to waste.
“Does Ms. Pat have dialysis tomorrow?”
“Yeah,” Domani said lowly. “In the morning. I’m supposed to be going with her. They’re gonna teach me how to help her do it at home.”
“How you gonna do that in jail?”
“I guess I can’t.”
The fact that he’d done something so stupid when he had responsibilities to handle pissed me off even more. The only person who was going to suffer was Ms. Pat. Domani was all she had left.
I pulled into a gas station and parked off to the side.
“What’s going on?” Domani asked.
“Checking on my partner.”
I went to the back where Kaiser was laid out, unfazed by what was going on. His head didn’t move, but his eyes found me before drifting back to whatever he was looking at. I watched him for a few more seconds, then closed the door, noting he didn’t appear to be in need of anything at the moment.
Shifting my attention, I went to the back passenger door and opened it, demanding Domani to get out. He looked back up at me with a confused glare.
“Why?” One of his feet hit the asphalt. “What you doing?”
“Looking out for Ms. Pat,” I told him. He got out of the car and turned around at my command, while I pulled out the handcuff key. “Make it look believable,” I suggested. “As soon as the cuffs are off, put those feet to use.”
“What that mean?”
I thought about putting his ass right back in the car. Instead I broke it down in the simplest way possible.
“Nigga, run.”