Gracinne Chandler and The Kwanzaa Killer

By Julius Tyme

2026 is a time when because of Climate Change, people are growing less tolerant of those who abuse their rights. Yet, there is one season of the year where almost everyone puts forth an effort to do better; to love better. When the beloved, but mysterious and, wealthy Captain Gracinne Chandler flies her family, and crew to Detroit in time to celebrate the holidays of Christmas, Kwanzaa and, New Years, she finds they can't avoid being drawn into one of the biggest serial killer investigations of the time. The investigators are searching for a killer that chooses just one festive time of year to kill. To catch this killer Captain Chandler must risk putting her family, including children, at risk for the sake of a city. Yet, a serial killer isn't the only risk she finds herself taking, as the drama of secrets she have been keeping from her closest loved ones threaten to destroy critical personal relationships.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Julius Tyme
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9780996357111

Julius Tyme

Julius Tyme is a man that is just finding his literary voice in the genres of fiction, after a long career writing for government and business. He loves traveling and, observing people of different societies. He holds multiple university degrees and, has accumulated many stories to share from his experiences. He has lived for a time in each of four corners of the United States including Hawaii, but won’t say which he prefers. When not writing, the author enjoys hiking, bicycling and, playing Chess. He doesn’t smoke, but enjoys a good liqueur or Brandy. For more information about Mr. Tyme, read his Smashwords interview.

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Gracinne Chandler and The Kwanzaa Killer

Copyright 2015 Julius X. Tyme

Published by Metropolis Consulting and Books at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

ISBN: 978-0-9963571-1-1

Disclaimer

This book is wholly a work of fiction. It is intended for adult audiences 18 years of age and above. It contains text describing violence, adult language and, adult situations. Although geographic locations may actually exist, all characters, and events are fictitious. Any similarity to situations, names or, descriptions of any actual person or persons, is solely coincidental. The Author, his agents or, publishers shall not be responsible for the distribution of this work to minors by others whom they have no control over. Distribution to minors under the age of 18 may be a violation in some states and/or, of federal laws.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter One

The Holidays

A New Baby's Birth

Secrets

Chapter Two

Parties Don't Last

Chapter Three

The Playing Board

The Morgue

The Second Murder

Chapter Four

When Patterns Break

The Fate of Hunters

Chapter Five

Ujima

The Reprieve

Chapter Six

End of the Rage

The Hideaway

Fatal Errors

Chapter Seven

The Big Arrest

Redirection

Gracinne's Father

The Trip Home

Chapter Eight

Next Challenges

Home Roundup

The Tanzanian Brief

Post Kwanzaa Personnel Issues

Chapter Nine

Rise of the Priestess Order

Other Books by This Author

Resources to Connect with Julius Tyme

Acknowledgements

I want to acknowledge my Beta Readers for their helpful feedback on this book. Thank you Vickie.

Chapter One

The Holidays

December twenty-sixth, twenty-twenty-three; at two o'clock in the morning; Kevin Johnsie, an employee of a Home Depot store in Detroit was trudging through a foot of snow to get to his car in the store parking lot, at the end of his shift. His hands were full of bags for overstock items put on special sale to employees after the Christmas holiday rush. He reached his car just to find there was no place to sit the bags on the ground or, his car that would not keep them from getting wet. Kevin re-adjusted by tucking, as many of them under his arms as he could and, stuffed the top opening of one bag into his mouth to free a hand to reach for keys from his pants pocket. The night was dead silent with the exception of a buzzing sound from a streetlight and, the dull hum of the store heating system. Still, he neither heard nor saw the dark figure walking up behind him until he was alerted to the presence by an arm reaching around his neck. There was the smell of heavy perfume or, cologne as he felt the sharp pain of a knife being driven into his back. He tried to struggle but the figure was strong and had leverage as it pulled him backwards. Kevin tried to scream but the figure’s arm held the bag in his mouth in place. It muffled his attempt to cry out. His last few breaths were labored as a tear rolled down his face from the pain before he faded from consciousness.

***

December twenty-first, twenty-twenty-six, Gracinne Chandler and, her popular if not all too unusual family, and crew were flying to Detroit to spend their first Christmas and, Kwanzaa with Gracinne’s mother. Noted for her actions against White sex slavery organized crime, terrorism and, her rapid rise to wealth; Gracinne was also an irresistibly beautiful, Black, six feet two inch tall, Lesbian Hermaphrodite. Her mother, Veronique Chandler was anxious for their arrival, but was also nervous about how long she could continue to harbor the secrets she had been keeping from her daughter.

Veronique, a church going African-American woman considered herself a good Christian, and despite traditional church doctrine had grown to not only accept her daughter for who she was. Furthermore, she was appreciative of her daughter for so far, not appearing to resent the way she was treated as a child. In fact, despite being kicked out of the house for the discovery of her first lesbian relationship, Gracinne loved her mother.

Gracinne had bought and, financed the rehabilitation of the building that was now her mother’s new home. Together, they worked to turn it into a beautiful four floor habitat where Veronique occupied the upper two floors as a penthouse and, managed the two lower floors as apartments. There were ten apartments on each of the two lower floors that rapidly filled at the completion of renovation, with a mixed selection of leaseholders of lower middle class income levels. Veronique did not want to set the rents so high in her quality-renewed building, that only middle class and above people could live in them. She would not have been able to identify with those people because, before Gracinne became wealthy, she was never in a position to hobnob with anyone in the financial upper class; at least since being a teenager herself. In fact, most of the people living in her building now, were people from her old neighborhood who attended her church or, those close around her part of the city.

Detroit itself had been dying until new investors started rebuilding the downtown area about twenty years previous. The renewal was just reaching the suburbs and, Gracinne was doing her share in her mother’s neighborhood. Still, the city was being endangered by rising sea levels that was spilling over into the Great Lakes, and increasing their height as well. The problem threatened to flood the newly refurbished downtown itself. Consequently, those with high paying jobs who had moved into the center city areas were now, seeking to move farther away from the danger, to the very areas people like Gracinne were attempting to revitalize for the less financially privileged. Yet, other financiers were not as conscientious as Gracinne. Some, forced poor tenants out of their renewed buildings to allow in, people of higher income. The moves were creating local conflict between the haves and, have-nots.

***

Gracinne’s company leased the entire First Class cabin of a commercial jet to fly her family and, attending entourage from India to Detroit. The large plane made refueling stopovers in Australia, and Hawaii before landing in Los Angeles, where they had to change flights for the final leg to Detroit. The flight crossed the International Date Line so, the over twenty hours of flight time included the loss of a whole day. Even with the First Class section of the plane to themselves, the trip frayed the nerves of the nine months pregnant Olga Belinov. Olga was the only woman of Gracinne’s company that did not start with her as either a Sex trade victim or, illegal pharmaceutical experimentation victim saved by Gracinne. Olga was the only woman that started out on the side of Gracinne’s enemies. However, she was now, the fourth woman to become pregnant by Gracinne and, at the age of fifty-five, the oldest of them all. That; was one of Gracinne’s unusual physiological anomalies that threatened to cause scientific fervor and, placed Gracinne in continuing danger. Olga refused to leave Gracinne’s side because she wanted Gracinne to be present at the baby’s birth. Olga's pregnancy had been difficult. At her age, to have a baby was almost news worthy in itself. She almost lost the child twice during her term, forcing the doctor to place restrictions on her activities. She had to get upset with him, to convince the doctor to give permission for this trip. This birth was also a secret from the public because that knowledge would create, not only a new frenzy in the Press, but new threats. Threats of the kind they had recently overcome, when one of Gracinne’s children was perceived as a source of new healing drugs. Each of her children might offer similar opportunity for greedy corporations if Gracinne and her people were not careful.

The difficult pregnancy was made easier to bear by the doctor employed aboard Gracinne’s ship. Doctor Jon Kibet taught Gracinne and, her inner circle how to perform a gentle stomach massage called La Maze, that helped to ease Olga’s pains, soothed her, and helped her sleep at night. It seemed the massages soothed the child itself. The doctor also taught them how to deliver babies in emergencies, since he could not convince Olga to stay home in India. While all the women of the inner circle attended Doctor Kibet’s First Responder level lecture, only Julia Rodriguez and, Ilene Summers thought they could serve as Midwives without getting sick. Gracinne felt she could do it as a last resort but, Roxanne Rodriguez, her closest friend and, sidekick recoiled at the very idea. Apart from Olga herself, the remaining inner circle consisting of Ilene, Julia, Roxie, Tawana, and Gracinne at one time or, another during the pregnancy, found themselves assigned to giving Olga’s often swollen feet a massage. It deepened the feelings of kinship between them.

Ilene, Gracinne’s fiancée and, Tawana Parker her first girlfriend, chased three restless children around the plane trying to keep them entertained. The couple Roxanne and, Julia Rodriguez sat in their seats watching movies in a marathon. Many of the movies Roxanne had never seen since she left Cuba and, spent so much time busy as Gracinne’s loyal second in command of their research ship the Chandiki. Cubans only got to see new movies made in countries other than the United States unless they were bootlegged, thanks to a continued partial embargo. While she was a Cuban prisoner, she lost access even to those. As a sex slave before meeting Gracinne, access to movies was also limited. Now, catching up was one of her favorite past-times.

Doctor Raquim Henderson the ship’s official Psychologist was invited and, accepted the invitation for the trip because he had never been to Detroit. Having lived all of his life in the Caribbean, nor had he ever seen deep snow in person. He also served to maintain the public illusion that Olga was having his baby. He sat next to her on the plane. Early in the pregnancy, they even dated each other without thought about the public image cover-up.

Gracinne had to have her personal assistant Norman Shell with her. He and, Talia Niesche sat together in seats just behind hers on the plane. Talia was another Gracinne devotee. Gracinne spent a lot of time during the flight pampering her daughters and, son as well as, being on the telephone with Stock Brokers, attorneys and, her headquarters staff. Even during the holidays, it seemed her attentions were needed by someone. She sometimes caught herself barking orders at Norman when it was unnecessary to be so abrupt. One business related task she had to accomplish while in Detroit, was the interview of two applicants to fill the new position of Publicist. The person would be the Press Spin Doctor she had been searching for, ever since the idea was given to her in June that year. Still, she felt the vacation would be good for her. Even with so many people around, the trip would ease the tensions she had been recently feeling.

Warren Chesterfield, a Gay close friend, computer Geek and, important member of Gracinne’s ships’ crew, sat in a window seat next to Margerie. He was only one of two males rescued by Gracinne that remained with her after more than eighty other people dispersed to return to their pre-slavery lives.

Margerie Simms was the best deck officer Gracinne had as a part of her shipboard operations. There was going to be a big Christmas and Kwanzaa party after they arrived. She and, Warren along with Talia the Ship’s Chef, were planning to play a big role in cooking the holiday meals. Yet, despite the coming festivities, Warren was troubled. He too found himself often being short tempered with the women around him. He did not really understand why he was having issues with them recently, when for a whole six months of a previous ship deployment, they all got along famously.

In another pair of seats sat Regena Ferris a young woman from the Philippines and, Tanya Yildiz from Turkey. Both women were prior sex slaves saved by Gracinne. Across from them in yet another set of seats sat Pam Terrance who originally was a kidnapped teen from the New England area of the United States and, Tonya Shala, originally a kidnapped teenager from Somalia. Both of these young women were also liberated by the actions of Gracinne.

The ships’ Nurse, Beverly Davis decided to travel home for the holidays elsewhere in the U.S. She was sitting the farthest back in the first class compartment. Her flight split from the group in Los Angeles. Like the ship's doctor and, most of the other men, Davis was hired onto the crew to help look after the medical needs of these vibrant and, often endangered women. She planned to rejoin the group for the return flight after the holidays.

Whenever possible during the flight, Gracinne slept and Roxanne, sitting across the aisle from her would automatically take charge of the group. While asleep, Gracinne dreamed about the surprise birthday party the crew gave her on November twentieth, her twenty-fifth birthday. They had not thrown her one in the prior two years and, it was only remembered by Ilene, Roxie and, Olga. For Gracinne, that was remembrance enough. This past birthday was very different. The women would not tell her who orchestrated the whole party, but she was showered with the most surprising gifts. Roxie told her she did not want her to run out of ammunition again, as she did when their home compound was attacked earlier in the year. To remedy that potential problem, she gave Gracinne a pair of customized forty caliber new poly-carbon fiber Sig Sauer semiautomatic guns with pearl grips, laser sights, quick frame attachable mini-flashlights and, speed draw holsters made for the small of the back instead of the hips. A special waist harness placed two hard frame quick reload magazine pouches on the outside of each thigh and, they left room for a Kukri blade to be placed at her waist. Gracinne joked, that the rig made her feel, like the star of an old adventure movie made before the twenty-twenties.

Ilene did not like that, Roxie’s gift upstaged one she had previously given Gracinne, but she cared more about keeping their family running smoothly. This time, she gave Gracinne a gold bracelet that expressed her commitment by having their names spelled in diamonds (Ilene, Roxanne, Olga and, Tawana).

Olga gave her a beautiful high technology winter coat. The fur like coat itself changed colors depending upon the outside temperature and, a heating system inside the coat was adjustable by the wearer to keep warm or, cool. The micro-circuitry of the coat allowed it to be lightweight and, the miniature battery system charged in any daylight or, artificial room light.

Even Doctor Henderson had given her a gift in the form of a digital diary pad. All of the other adults chipped in for the children to buy what they wanted to give. It turned out to be an Arabian breed horse. They had it shipped in from Saudi Arabia to India, a task that was no small feat in itself. Gracinne smiled in her sleep as she contemplated while dreaming, that the children really wanted ponies themselves for Christmas. In her mind’s eye, it was an idea instigated by her daughter September.

Tawana bought Gracinne a heart shaped diamond ring with matching earrings and, necklace. She went a step farther than the other girls by also having Gracinne’s name tattooed on her right Butt cheek. She was the newest member of the inner circle of women with sworn love for Gracinne. As the newest member of their extended family and, mother of September, Ilene nicknamed her ‘T.’ It was Tawana and, September her five-year-old daughter, that Gracinne and her crew of women rescued from the experimental laboratories of a pharmaceutical company. While the other women had been trained after their liberation to be operatives for the Indian and U.S. intelligence agencies, Tawana was just a Black woman from the ghettos of Detroit whose daughter belonged to Gracinne.

The biggest birthday surprise for Gracinne was that the rest of the crew chipped in and, bought her a new car with cash. When she saw the two hundred thousand dollar vehicle, Gracinne joked that she was, ‘paying them way too much money.’ The car was a four-wheeled drive, four door, black and yellow, 2024 model, Ford Javelin with oversized Mag wheels. The frame of the car featured three hundred sixty degree roll cage protection and, the vehicle was self-righting if ever it was turned over landing off its wheels. It was powered with the flip of a switch by solar electric and/or any liquid fuel available whether it was gasoline, biodiesel or, diesel. Inside, there was satellite navigation, surround sound music speakers and, video, heads-up windshield vehicle display panel, electric shock security alarm system, self-drive capability and, built-in automatic cellular phone synchronization. The car wound up replacing Gracinne’s old but customized, twenty-sixteen yellow Camaro that she so loved and, stored in a cargo hold of the ship. With all the love, what troubled Gracinne’s sleep were the secrets she held from all of them as well as, the public. Only Roxie had a true hint at the truth and, she had sworn to keep what she knew.

Although Gracinne promoted a close crew, six members were not on the flight. Cinthia Briant and, her fiancée crewmember Gish Hanan, decided to spend their holidays with Gish’s family in India. The two ships’ Engineers Eddie Applegate and, Jean Driscol also decided to travel to their respective homes in Europe for the time. Her ships’ Doctor Jon Kibet chose the time to do some volunteer medical work in his home country of Kenya. Balu Sihaan was the second Communications Technician for the ship. He decided to stay in India to support the marriage efforts of Gish since the two had grown to be best friends while serving aboard the Chandiki.

Roxanne most often referred to by her friends and, Gracinne as Roxie, preferred the male role for her living and, love preferences. Despite the fact she was gorgeous as a woman, she did what she could to exude the male presence including, using a regime of bodybuilding started earlier in the year. Her choice was to stop short of altering her body with surgery. She was not sure, why she did not want a full sex change other than she enjoyed a periodic tryst with Gracinne as a woman or, man. She was also somewhat of a genius inventor creatively liberated by Gracinne’s very first actions to support her projects.

During a period where the children were asleep along with most of the adults, Roxanne looked over at her new bride as she nodded while listening to music through headphones. She gently shook her shoulder. When a slightly groggy Julia looked over to her, she asked, Julia, what is Kwanzaa, and what is the celebration about? I mean mi amor; I have heard you, T and, Gracie talk about it, but it was not in a way I really understood, you know.

Julia wiped her eyes with her fingers and, pulled the earphones from her head. Then she said, Sure Boo, I’ll explain it to you. Kwanzaa is an African American holiday that runs for seven days from December twenty-sixth to January first. It was introduced in the U.S. Civil Rights times to help unite the Black community in America and, give us a cultural point of connection with our African origins. It is a celebration of family, community and, culture. All three of those things were taken from African Americans during the American slavery period. Now, each year, a table is set with symbols representing the holiday and, candles. The candles are alternately red and green but one is black. One candle is burned each day as a representation of one of seven good African principles that each one of us should attempt to adopt. The first day and candle is a remembrance for the principle of Unity or the Swahili word Umoja. The second day is Kujichagulia or Self-determination. You know, I really like that one. The third day is Ujima or Collective Work and Responsibility. The fourth day stands for Cooperative Economics or Ujamaa. The fifth day is Nia for Purpose. The sixth day Kuumba reminds us of Creativity and, the seventh day Imani, reminds us to have Faith. Each day before lighting of a candle there is supposed to be a short prayer for the principle. You’re supposed to fast during the days and have a big feast at the end of the seven days. Somehow, I don’t think we are going to be doing the fasting part. Julia giggled.

Roxie thought about the principles and said, Wow, that’s deep. Thinking about all the principles and, what we all have been doing together, it’s like Gracie has been leading us like that; to that, all along. She looked over at Gracinne and shook her head then she looked back at Julia. She said, I have faith in Gracie, Julia, real faith. You should too.

Julia smiled and said, Well, I don’t know about religious faith but, I will follow her anywhere. Just like you Boo. I don’t think we will ever meet anyone else like her as a person or leader.

Roxie smiled and gently kissed Julia on the lips before saying softly, You just don’t know how true that is sweetheart.

They landed in Detroit on the evening of December twenty-second and, after hauling their luggage off the conveyor belts, Red Caps rolled overfilled carts to two large rented tour busses. The drive from the airport took about three hours because the ground and, most of the roads was