Behind the Wall on Cherry St

“Whelp! What do you think? This house has a great spacious three bedroom, there’s lots of backyard space, you can even add a playground for the little one.”

“Hmm… I do love this kitchen... it needs some modern finishes though. Oh, but I’m d-y-ing over this island.” However, I would like to see the bedrooms upstairs again.”

“Of course! I know you would do an amazing job sprucing up your new home. Well let’s go upstairs, shall we?”

There was something that kept drawing Nia to this house. Nia saw four other homes, but this would be the third time she had seen this house. Maybe it was the elaborate carved wooded front door or the modernized Spanish villa look, located on a street called Cherry ST. Moving here seemed like the perfect place for a freshly divorced thirty-two-year-old woman to start over. For the first time it would just be Nia and her four-year-old daughter, Zion. Even though Nia tried to keep a poker face the realtor could tell that she was ecstatic about the home.

“So, do you think you’ve made a decision?”

“Well, that depends on Zion what do you think sweetheart; is it Zion approved?”

“Yup! I can play hide-in-seek everywhere!”

“Ha-ha! Well Zion seems to love it just as much as I do so we can start the paperwork on Monday. Just one question Lisa, um… I see that the property value recently went down a little what happen with the last owner?”

“So, the last owner failed to uphold the HOA laws and… we had some minor bad press regarding the whole BLM riots not too far from here.”

“Hmm… Power to the people.”

“Huh?”

“Oh nothing, what were you saying?”

“Anyways, apparently the last owner got caught being a part of the protest; he went to jail and couldn’t keep up the mortgage payments so unfortunately the house went up for auction. But! We have turned things around with our new Cherry developments. Also, we’ve been doing great charity work by taking in families of diversity!”

“O…kay… well, from all my research I think the neighborhood is a great fit. I will get back with you on Monday with that paperwork.”

Six weeks had passed, Nia and Zion were adjusting to their new home nicely. However, there were some issues starting to spring up. Recently Nia could hear a beeping noise in her room, but she could not pinpoint where the noise was coming from. The beeping would start at random times of the night up until the early morning. Also, two sketchy men showed up to her home looking around as if her home were still being marketed. Nia let Lisa know of the situation and Lisa assured her the house was not listed on the company website, but she would check again. Feeling uneasy about the random men Nia decided to get cameras installed outside of the home.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Trying to sleep, Nia jumps out of bed in rage and annoyance the noise has picked up more than usual. "WHAT THE HELL! WHERE IS THIS NOISE COMING FORM!" Nia thought that maybe she needed to change the batteries in the smoke detectors, but that was not the case. Turning on the light and tracing the sound along the walls lead her inside the closet, as she got closer the beeping grew louder.

Boom Boom!

“Shoot! Zion! Why are you banging on the door so loud and what are you doing up late?”

“Mommy I’m thirsty.”

Startled by the knock on her bedroom door, Nia quickly takes Zion downstairs to get something to drink and sends her back to bed. Rushing back to her bedroom closet she noticed that the beeping stopped. Nia was convinced that there was something behind the wall in her closet, so she started pressing on the walls until she felt a soft spot. With the letter opener from her home office, she begins to carve out the spot in the wall. The beeping starts again, and Nia is no longer annoyed but curious as she relentlessly keeps digging into the wall until she hits something. Shinning her flashlight from her cellphone she sees something small, suppressing her fear of what it could be she slowly reaches in the wall. Pulling out a small black pager the light from the phone catches somethings else, something silver. Nia reaches her hand in again and pulls out a little black notebook with silver springs. The notebook neatly contained dates, times, addresses, and large sums of money next to what appeared to be initials. “ What the hell It’s 2020 who still uses pagers? Wait! Dam, how do you use a pager?”

Even though Nia was by herself she still felt a little embarrassed that she did not know how to use a pager, considering she grew up in the era of advanced technology. Reluctantly Nia used You Tube for a quick tutorial on how to read a pager and immediately felt incompetent, all she had to do was keep pressing the green button to read each message. Something catches her eye it was the initials D. R. L; Nia saw these same initials in the black notebook. Going to the page with the initials Nia sees the address and an amount for $85,000.0 under it, feeling a bit uneased she goes to google and enters the date and address. To Nia’s surprise an article populated of a Daniel Reeves Lennard a chain owner of payday loans. The article explained a freak accident were his gas tank in his house exploded taking his life last year while leaving both sons severely burned, the crazy thing was that his house on Evans Drive was only seven miles from Nia’s house. Nia goes to another message with more initials this time M. D. with a location and $52,000.0 under it, Nia flips through the black notebook franticly and finds the matching information. Looking up the address it was to a Mikes Auto Detail business, the owner was a Michael Daughnna. An article attached to the name described a near death car accident headlining, “I’m glad I left without my leg and not my life.”

At this moment Nia was beyond freaked out, looking over at the clock she noticed that she only had about three hours of sleep until she had to get up for work and drop Zion off at her mothers. Nia took a shower got dressed and laid back in bed until 6:30 AM but she could not sleep. At work all Nia could think about was that pager and little black notebook. What was uncovered was something straight out of the Sopranos. Convinced this guy was a hitman or maybe a fixer of some sort, she needed to see what he looked like incase if he ever came back. Nia thought maybe she should call the realtor back after work and ask for more information about the previous owner. When calling the realtor, the phone went to voice mail Nia knew she would have to lie so Lisa would not be suspicious.

"Hey Lisa, loving the house by the way! Listen, I’m just calling you because I wanted to know the name of the previous owner. It’s just I’m taking an ethics class and we’re dealing with social issues in America and I felt like the back story of my home would be a perfect analysis. Call me back when you can, okay, bye."

“Alexa, Play Redbone by Childish Gambino.”

“Playing Redbone by Childish Gambino.”

Nia dances to the music with a glass of red wine in her hand and starts cooking. It was the weekend, so Zion was with her father and Nia’s best friend Cassie from college was coming over for dinner. Noticing some cooking utensils were missing, Nia goes downstairs into the basement to look for the other boxes still packed. Picking up the box with “kitchen” written on it she could feel the floor was significantly uneven and a piece of fake tile was sticking up. A sinking feeling formulated in the pit of her stomach, what else was she going to uncover. Using a box cutter, Nia starts peeling back the fake tile. “Holy Shit! This is CRAZY”!

Nia didn’t know if she should Scream for joy or make sure all of her doors were locked. there was over a million dollars hidden in the floor. Quickly, Nia reached for her phone to call her friend and tell her not to come over when she noticed a voice message left from Lisa. “Hey, Nia it’s Lisa returning your call, the name of the previous owner was a Bryan Denton I think he was like thirty-seven when he was arrested. Anyways, great job getting back into school! talk to you later.”

Sidetracked, Nia does a background check using the information given. With mixed feelings, Nia knew she had to call the cops but there was something she had to do first. After calling the cops Nia calls Cassie but she is sent to voice mail. Shortly after there is a knock at the door, thinking it might be Cassie but to Nia’s surprise it was Lisa.

"Hey, wasn't expecting you, come in."

“I was in town on business I thought I stop by. So, how are you liking the house?”

“Great! Zion and I are adjusting very well. Uh… is there something else you need I’m about to have company.”

“Yeah, I think I left master keys in the basement I’ll just look around.”

“Oh, I...I’ll get it! Where are they?”

“Ha-ha! It’s okay, really, I have to look for them I don’t remember exactly where I put them.”

Before Nia could object again Lisa whipped out a handgun from her purse.

“SHUT UP AND GET ON THE FLOOR! You know we were partners and that little shit tried to cut me out of our money, so I had to make sure he was gone. I don’t know why I didn’t look here first. The money wasn’t in his deposit box, so I know it’s here!”

Lisa makes Nia hand cuff herself to the railing leading upstairs. Lisa then goes into the basement, soon after there was a knock at the door it was the police that Nia called earlier. Nia screams and the cop’s come barging in seeing Nia hand cuffed to the railing, she’s downstairs she has a gun!”

Three cops rush downstairs and two stay upstairs, a few minutes later the cops carry Lisa out in hand cuffs along with the money. Nia turns over the little black notebook and pager for evidence. Nia’s friend Cassie standing at the door in shock as Nia gives her statement on the staircase, Cassie rushes to consul Nia. After wrapping up the scene one officer stays back his badge reading PPB with the last name Reynolds on his uniform.

“Just get some rest tonight because tomorrow you have to come to the precinct and give your statement in writing. We uncovered about a million and a half dollars here, was that all you saw in the basement?”

Yeah… that’s all I saw. Thank you officer and I will be there early to give my statement.

“Nia, are you okay?

"Yes."

"Did you really give all that money back?”

Really Cassie? Do you really think I would keep that money? Uh! Let’s just order a pizza, I’ll get my wallet from the car.

Nia walks to her car and opens the trunk. Pulling up a latch compartment used to keep a spear tire, a smirk creeps across Nia’s face while looking down at one hundred- thousand dollars packed inside. Nia closes the compartment grabs her wallet and heads back inside. “Ready to order?”