by Mary Monroe
“All right, Vera! If it means that much to you, you talk to him, then. But you better do it real soon. Because as soon as my daddy is back on his feet, I’m hauling ass.”
CHAPTER 57
VERA
I KNEW THAT RICKY WAS SLIGHTLY THUGGISH FROM THE DAY I MET him. He had spent most of his life in the ghetto, just like Sarah. Even though he lived in a much better neighborhood now and had classy neighbors, he was still just as ghetto as ever, just like Sarah. But in his case, it didn’t matter. I didn’t have to live with him or take him around any of the sophisticated people I associated with. But other than that long tongue in his mouth that he was so proud of and that big stick between his legs, he had other things I could use to my advantage, like criminal connections.
Right after my run-in at the hospital with Sarah, I called Ricky up from my cell phone before I left the hospital parking lot.
“Can you get me an untraceable gun from one of your homeboys?” I asked him.
“An untraceable gun?” he asked with a loud gasp. “Why you need something like that?”
“Don’t ask any questions. Just tell me if you can get me one or not.”
“Yeah, I can get you one. It’ll cost you a pretty penny, though.”
“I don’t care about that. You just get me a gun and make sure it’s loaded. And if you can, get me one with a silencer.”
“Look, baby. This ain’t CSI or one of them other cop shows where a dude can get his hands on shit like silencers and whatnot at the drop of a hat. Now listen up; my cellmate was this Vietnamese dude and he had a bag full of tricks. He might be able to put together a homemade silencer. But he won’t get out of the joint for another couple of weeks.”
“I can’t wait that long! I need it right away.”
“Vera, I don’t know what kind of mess you done got yourself into. But take some advice from somebody who’s spent time in lockdown—prison ain’t no place that a dainty lady like you want to be. You wouldn’t last a week behind bars! If you didn’t die from eating the prison slop, them husky bull dykes would eat you to death—literally.”
“I’m not going to prison. I’m not stupid enough to get caught!” I hollered.
“That’s the same thing I said, and the same thing every convict done said at one time or another. With DNA and forensics and all the shit they got now, there ain’t no such thing as a perfect crime. They’re catching folks for crimes they committed thirty years ago. Like I just told you, take some advice from somebody who’s been in prison. When you commit a crime, there are dozens of ways you can fuck up. I don’t care how smart you are.”
Ricky had just been released from Folsom two weeks before I met him. He had done time for car theft and a home invasion, crimes that he had committed when he was high on cocaine. He didn’t tell me that until I had known him for a couple of months. By then I was so addicted to him I wouldn’t have cared if he’d just been released from an insane asylum. A few more weeks into our affair, he told me about some of the other crimes he had committed that he’d never been arrested for. He’d broken into several houses and taken whatever he could carry. One night after too many drinks, he’d beaten one of his partners in crime to death because he’d stolen the loot from Ricky’s apartment that they’d stolen a few days before. Even though he’d never even been suspected of that crime, he was worried that someday he would turn himself in. Not because he had found Jesus like so many other cons and ex-cons claimed, but because he had turned his life around.
As far as I knew, I was the only person that Ricky had told about him killing his accomplice. Since I had that on him, I was not concerned about him tattling on me for coming to him for a gun. But I thought it would be wise for me to mention it anyway. “Uh, on account of that thing you told me you did to your friend, I’m sure I don’t have to worry about you telling anybody about this conversation.”
“Hell no!” he hollered. “I ain’t in no position to be ratting you out, or nobody else. Shit. My glass house is way too fragile for me to be that big of a fool.”
“Good. Now you get me a gun as soon as you can. I’ll come over and give you five thousand dollars today and another five when you get it. Use it to pay for the gun. I’m sure it won’t cost ten grand—you keep the change. Do you hear me?”
“I hear you. Especially the part about the ten Gs!” Ricky yelled. “You know when money talks, I listen. But you’d better listen up, baby. I’m a little more experienced in certain areas than you. Do you want me to help you do whatever it is you planning to do with this gun? I might even know somebody who would do the deed real cheap as a favor to me. Is that something you might want to consider?”
Apparently Ricky had not “turned his life around” too well. The fact that he was so eager to backslide for me was touching. I appreciated his offer, but the problem I had to resolve was too personal and I didn’t want to involve any more people than I had to.
“Didn’t I tell you not to ask any questions? I don’t want you to do anything but get me that gun. I’ll see you later tonight if I can, or tomorrow morning for sure.”
“That’s fine, baby. I can’t wait.” Ricky made a loud kissing noise. “And don’t forget to bring the money.”
“I won’t.”
I was not ready to go home and deal with Sarah, so I drove to Fisherman’s Wharf. I pulled into the first parking lot I saw. I wasn’t hungry, but I went into a nearby café that I often visited and ordered a glass of merlot. I had a lot of thinking to do. I had to make sure I had all of my thoughts organized when I talked to Bo about what we had to do—kill Curtis Thompson.
After I’d drunk my second glass of wine, I called Bo’s office. I was prepared to leave him a voice mail. He was not in a meeting or off somewhere else for a change. As a matter of fact, he answered his own phone. “Bo, what time are you coming home this evening?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he told me in a cheerful tone of voice. Well, he wouldn’t be cheerful for long. “Why? What’s up? Oh! I was going to swing back by the hospital to see Kenneth on my way home. Are you at the hospital now?”
“I left there a little while ago.”
“How is Kenneth doing?”
“Pffft! He looks like he could haunt a house.”
“Hmmm. That bad, huh? I have a feeling dude is not going to be with us too much longer. The other day he passed out while sitting on the commode in his office bathroom. It was a good thing I found him before somebody else did.”
“He didn’t tell me about that.”
“You don’t have to tell him I told you. He was embarrassed about it and tried to play it off. Did his doctor give you any hopeful news?”
“That damn quack tells Sarah more than he tells me. All I know is this—Kenneth is worse off than ever before. One of the nurses took me aside today and suggested that when and if we do take him home, we should make him as comfortable as possible. To me that’s as good as her telling me to start planning his funeral.”
“It’s that serious, huh? This must be pretty hard on Sarah.”
“Humph! Well, I smell a rat, and it stinks to high heaven.”
“You do? Why do you say that? Do you think Kenneth and Sarah are cooking up something? And you know what, you could be right. His estate lawyer called here a little while ago, and when I told him Kenneth was in the hospital, he told me he was going to go see him immediately.”
“Well, the man has been a friend of Kenneth’s for more than twenty years. And most of his other friends have already paid him a visit.”
“Vera, I know that. But the lawyer also told me that Kenneth had made an appointment with him for this morning. When Kenneth didn’t show up or call, his lawyer called the store.”
“Hmmm. I wonder why Kenneth wanted to meet with Donald, you know—oh shit! I bet it’s got something to do with his will!”
“That’s my guess too. Did Kenneth say anything to Sarah about his appointment with his lawyer?”
“I don’t know. He made me leave
his room so he could talk to her in private.”
“Oh?” Bo didn’t sound the least bit cheerful now. “And what did he want to talk to her about in private?”
“How would I know that if he made me leave the room? I tried to snoop around and listen at the door from outside but too many people were walking by.”
“This doesn’t sound good for us. I’m worried. . . .”
“You think I’m not worried?”
“Well, did you ask Sarah why Kenneth wanted to have a private conversation with her?”
“Bo, if Kenneth wanted to talk to Sarah about something in private, what would be the point of either of them telling me what it was about?”
“You’re right. Well, I just hope it’s nothing too serious.”
“Any time a man’s estate lawyer comes to visit him while he’s in a hospital at death’s door, it’s serious. Especially if Kenneth had made an appointment to see him.”
“Listen, I think we need to sit down and talk when I get home. Just you and me, and maybe Cash. Afterward, I’ll take Sarah aside and I’ll try to get as much information out of her as I can.”
“Uh . . . there’s another thing you need to know. And this can’t wait.”
“Oh? What is it?”
“Sarah’s going to drop one hell of a bombshell on you. Maybe even before the day is over. And you are not going to like what she tells you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You heard what I said.”
“Well, what the hell kind of bombshell is Sarah going to drop on me? Did she tell you that?”
I sucked in some air and held it for a few seconds. Then I let it out with a whoosh. “Bo, your wife is fucking that security guard!”
“No, she’s not!”
“Yes, she is! And that’s not the half of it. She’s going to move in with him! She told me so herself to my face before I left the hospital!”
I could hear my poor cousin breathing through his mouth.
“Bo, are you all right?”
“No . . . no . . . no . . . she can’t do this to me,” he cried. Nothing broke my heart quicker than a man in tears. “I’m firing that happy son of a bitch as soon as I get off this phone!” he boomed, choking on a sob.
“I don’t know why you didn’t do that back when we first found out she was getting too close to that fool!”
“Has she been seeing him since we confronted her?”
“It looks that way to me. You should have heard her going on and on about how she was in love with that skunk! I can’t believe that damn girl!”
“I’ll kill that motherfucker before I let him have my wife!”
“Uh-huh. And I don’t blame you one bit, cuz. I’d do the same thing myself. We’ll talk about that tonight.”
CHAPTER 58
SARAH
I HAD NO IDEA WHERE VERA WAS, BUT I WONDERED IF SHE HAD RETURNED to the hospital to try and kiss up to Daddy. He was mad at her about something, and it was in her best interest to resolve whatever that was. I decided to call and check on him, but I was also calling to be nosy about Vera. Donald Baskerville, his estate lawyer, answered the telephone.
“Sarah, it’s so nice to hear your voice. You had just turned twenty-one the last time I saw you,” Mr. Baskerville said. “You were nothing but legs then.”
“Well, I still have the same legs,” I said, forcing myself to laugh. “Is my stepmother there?”
“No, she’s not.”
“Uh, is my daddy able to speak to me?”
“Hold on, sugar. I’ll check with him.”
I heard some muffled talk in the background and a lot of coughing. It was a couple of minutes before Mr. Baskerville came back on the line. “Your father will speak to you now. He’s still fairly weak, so I advise you not to keep him on the line too long.”
“I won’t. I just wanted to check on him now before they give him a sedative or something. Um, I’m sure Daddy was glad to see you. . . .”
“I’m sure he was and I was glad to see him. He missed an appointment with me this morning, so I decided to meet with him here. But I won’t take up too much more of his time. You take care of yourself and don’t spend too much time worrying about your daddy. He’s going to be just fine.”
I didn’t believe a word of what Mr. Baskerville had just said about my daddy going to be just fine. Daddy was dying and I think everybody knew that. Why else would his estate lawyer be visiting him in the hospital instead of waiting for him to get out and come into this office? I answered my own question. Daddy was making more adjustments to his will, and I had a feeling somebody was not going to be happy with the new changes.
“Hello, sugar.” Daddy’s voice was so weak I could barely hear him.
“How are you feeling?”
“Tolerable, I guess. Are you at the house?”
“Yeah. I came straight home after I left the hospital. Do you know where Vera is?”
“HELL NO!” he boomed. His reaction stunned me. Daddy had never used such an angry tone of voice when Vera was the subject. “She’s so mysterious these days, there’s just no telling where she is or who she’s with!”
Something was going on between Vera and Daddy. His last comment sounded pretty ominous to me. I had no idea what he was implying. But I silently agreed with him. There was just no telling where Vera was and who she was with. That woman had always been a “suspect” in some regard as far as I was concerned. After all these years, she still had not given me enough information about all the charities she allegedly spent so much time working with so I could help too. It was very suspicious, even more so now. That woman was up to something no good, but I had no idea what. But from the way Daddy was acting, I had a feeling that he had an idea what it was.
I didn’t like that Vera had stuck her cosmetically enhanced nose into my marriage. And since I didn’t want to cause Daddy any more emotional pain than he was already in, I decided to keep my nose out of their marriage. I was not going to encourage him to tell me why he was upset with her. Me being nosy and meddlesome might make matters worse. Besides, I needed to stay focused on my own problems.
“Daddy, I’m sorry I let you down. I tried to be the daughter you wanted me to be, but I couldn’t. I have to be myself if I want to be happy.” I had to blink real hard to hold back my tears, and knowing how emotional Daddy got, he was probably doing the same thing on his end. “I’m real sorry for all the trouble I’m causing you about Curtis. But . . . I can’t undo anything now.”
“Yeah, I know. Neither can I. All I can say now is that you do what you want to do. I can’t stop you. At the end of the day, all I really want is for you to be happy. Even if it means you leaving Bo for Curtis. It’s your life and I don’t need to keep interfering. I realize that now.”
“You’re not interfering, Daddy. You’re doing what every other daddy who cares about his child would do. And just so you’ll know, Curtis is not interested in me for my money. When I go out with him, he always pays the check. I’ve already told him that I’d give up the generous allowance you give me every week and my inheritance if he wants me to. Vera can have it all!”
“‘Vera can have it all? BAH!” Daddy roared. “We’ll see about that!”
“Is that why Mr. Baskerville is with you now? You’re changing your will again?”
“Don’t you worry about my will!” Daddy said sharply in a very loud voice. When he spoke again a couple of seconds later, his voice was so weak and hollow I had to press the telephone closer to my ear so I could hear him. “Now, if you don’t mind, let me finish up my business with Donald. I don’t feel well and I need to get some rest.”
“Good-bye, Daddy.” It was so hard for me to hang up. I was tempted to go back to the hospital and spend as much time with him as they’d let me. I even thought about spending the night in his hospital room.
Since I had decided to delay my departure from the house and my marriage, I knew that it was going to be harder than ever for me to sleep under th
e same roof with Bo and Vera. Especially after the way she had exploded when I told her about Curtis and me at the hospital today.
If me ending my marriage was having this much of an impact on Daddy and Vera, I couldn’t imagine how it was going to affect Bo. But I had made up my mind, and nothing was going to make me change it.
CHAPTER 59
SARAH
ABOUT TWO HOURS AFTER MY TELEPHONE CONVERSATION WITH Daddy, I heard Vera and Bo enter the house. A few minutes later, I heard Cash’s voice. I happened to be standing at the top of the upstairs landing, so I couldn’t really make out what they were saying until I eased down a few steps. Then I heard Vera say, “I’ll check on her.” I knew she meant me, so I scrambled back up the stairs and sprinted down the hall to my bedroom.
When Vera tapped lightly on my door a few minutes later, I was stretched out in my bed. “Come . . . in,” I said, speaking in a voice that was as weak as I could make it sound.
The door swung open immediately. I couldn’t understand why she even bothered to be nice enough to knock, especially after our heated conversation today. She usually just barged in.
“Oh. I just wanted to check and see how you’re feeling,” she said, giving me one of her fake smiles. She had had so many face-lifts and other procedures on her face, sometimes it looked like she was smiling even when she wasn’t. But this time the ends of her lips curled up so high her mouth looked like a horseshoe. “I’m really sorry about what happened at the hospital. I was pretty mean to you and I’m so sorry. You know that wasn’t the real me. I didn’t mean any of those nasty things I said.”
