Blood Bandits

3.

After I'd taken my shower, my nap lasted longer than I'd expected. It was now three o'clock in the afternoon. I'd wasted half the day taking a nap. When I arrived into the hotel room it was very cozy. Part of the room had light hardwood floors and the other was carpeted. The bed was huge. Big fluffy white duvets covered the bed while the headboard was very tall, reddish orange with dark rust button outlining it. It was a very nice room. I'd sleep so that I was glad that I still had a little bit of daylight left to do what I had to do.

The police station.

The afternoon was still humid and the traffic was hectic. Trying to get to from point A to point B was hell but that was New Orleans for you. The drive to the police station was more of hassle that I thought it would be but I finally made it. The building was old but you could tell it had been remodeled. It was now an old peached colored building that had white pillars around it. Policeman entered and exited the building. I reached over to the passenger seat and grabbed the folder that contained all the documents that I would need.

After I opened my door and hopped out, I locked the doors to my jeep and made my way up to the steps. There were even police officers standing outside the doors of the station. As I approached them they took in my profile very carefully before actually speaking to me. Maybe I could have dressed a bit better. I'm glad that I decided to dress in my business attire before I left the hotel. Black dress pants and a black blazer with a red blouse. Decent enough.

Nodding my head to both of the policemen, I pulled the door open as it buzzed announcing my arrival. Eyes didn't look over at me as I made my approach to the front desk. The smell was mixed with air condition and cigarettes. Men and women were walking back and forth on their mission getting to where they need to be and then there was me.

I made my way over to the front desk. There was a heavy set woman black woman seated there, reading a Southern Living Magazine : Family Recipes. I didn't want to disturb her but there questions that I needed answers to.

"Excuse me?" I asked softly, trying to ease her out of her reading instead of being rude.

She ignored me.

I licked my lips tapped my black manicured nail on the desk. "Excuse me?" I asked a bit louder.

Apparently, I had disturbed her because she slapped the book down and rolled eyes to my direction.

"Is there something that I can do for you?" Attitude. Her accent was a lot deeper than mine. Actually to be honest, I didn't even have one.

Trying to keep my polite facade, I smiled nicely at her. "Yes, there is actually. I'm Amina Lafayette from the New York Daily Times Newspaper Station and I was wondering if there was anyone here that I could talk to about some of the unsolved murder cases from a long time ago."

She cocked her brow, snarling her nose. "Out of all this crime that we have going on in this city already that ain't been solved, I doubt anyone has the time to dig around for old ones that ain't been solved either.

I pursed my lips and briefly shut my eyes, trying to keep my composure. I hadn't been home in son long that I'd forgotten how easily my my temper could come out of pocket. Tightening my grip that I had on the folder, I looked back at her.

"Look, I understand that. But this is very important. Is there anyone that I could talk to?" I asked once again nicely.

"You nee-"

"Lafayette?" I heard my name being called, interrupting what she was going to say but I wasn't sure as to where it was coming from.

It was called again but now I realized it was being called from behind me. As soon I turned around, my eyes landed on a guy I hadn't seen in years. Kenneth Baxter. He was a guy from my passed that I did a lot of things with. Good and bad he was always involved. There were many things that we did that my parents had no idea about. His parents were always the cool ones and mine were the overreacting parental couple who really couldn't take a joke. God love them. But they were just a couple of prunes.