Family of Lies

by Mary Monroe

  About an hour after I’d left the Mission District, I called the hospital to check on Kenneth. His nurse was giving him a bath, so I told her to let him know that I’d be coming to see him within the hour.

  When I arrived at the hospital, Kenneth was sitting up in bed. Boy did he look bad! I had just seen him the day before and he’d looked bad then, but now he looked like he had aged ten years! I was surprised that he was still alive.

  “Hi, baby,” I said, leaning over his bed. He didn’t react when I kissed his forehead. He smelled like sweat and liniment, so kissing him was not a pleasant experience for me—not that it ever was anyway. He also looked like he’d lost about ten pounds in the past week. His face looked drawn and emaciated and as dry and tough as old leather. His eyes looked like two black holes that somebody had poked into his face. He hadn’t shaved since he’d been admitted. His brittle whiskers irritated my face and smudged my makeup when I kissed him. “I’m glad to see you looking so good, honey.”

  “Hello, Vera,” he mumbled, looking at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

  “I couldn’t wait to get back here, baby. I’m so lonely,” I lied, giving him one of my biggest smiles.

  “Humph! I bet!” Kenneth reared his head back on his pillow and gave me a look that made me nervous. I was confident that he didn’t know about me and Ricky or any of the other dozen or more boy toys I’d spent time with over the years. I had always been discreet. Whenever I even thought that somebody was getting suspicious of my activities, I slowed down until the heat was off. That little issue with the fibroids and my outpatient surgery had been a blessing in disguise. Had that not happened, I may have gotten careless. Ricky had been pushing my buttons and licking my pussy so well, I had been acting like a love-starved teenager and I’d done a few stupid things. One night when I thought I was in the house alone, that nosy-ass bitch Collette almost caught me giving Ricky some phone sex. And then there was the time that Bo noticed bite marks on my thigh when he and I both happened to show up at the gym at the same time. I was a lot more careful now. I had never been busted before in my life because I was too slick and I knew when to slow down. And anyway, if Bo, Cash, or Collette had proof of my affairs, I was not worried about them exposing me. They wouldn’t dare. I was the one who had made it possible for them to live the lifestyle of the rich and famous. That’s why I couldn’t imagine why Kenneth had given me such a guarded look.

  “What do you mean by that, honey?” I asked. My heart was racing and my blood pressure was rising like a tide. Since I’d found out about Kenneth and his affair with Sarah’s mother, he’d been too afraid to approach another woman. He knew how much he had hurt me and had promised that he would spend the rest of his life making up for that. He didn’t want to do, say, or even think about anything else that would hurt me again and jeopardize our marriage. With all of that in mind, I couldn’t imagine him even thinking that I was cheating!

  However, I was still nervous.

  “Don’t worry about it, Vera,” he responded, his eyes on mine. He had replaced the guarded look with a scowl. That made me even more nervous. Was he mad at me about something? I wondered. If so, what?

  “Uh, everything and everybody is well,” I told him, trying to sound upbeat, hoping it would cheer him up a bit. “Bo’s got everything under control at the store.”

  Kenneth let out a loud rattle of a breath and blinked. “How is my daughter?” I was disappointed that he had not asked me how I was doing, but I managed to give him a smile anyway. I had never known a man who got so giddy when it came to his daughter. You would have thought that heifer was the Queen of Sheba.

  “Sarah? Oh, she’s fine. Bo told me he was going to take her out to dinner this evening. But first he’s going to bring her to see you.”

  “I pray to God she doesn’t leave Bo! She broke down and told me she’s in love with Curtis and is going to move in with him. I don’t know if I believe her, though. The girl is going through a phase. She’s depressed and confused. But I suspect she’s got just a mild crush on Curtis because he came to her assistance in the parking lot the day she lost the baby.” Kenneth began to talk so fast he had to slow down and catch his breath. “I wish I could talk some sense into her head.” He paused and shook his head. In all the years that I’d known this man, I had never seen him look so hurt. I was glad that I was not the one who was causing him so much pain. “So she’s still at the house?”

  “Oh, yes! And to be honest with you, I don’t believe she’s going to do what she said. I had a little talk with her yesterday, and I think she’s giving it a lot of thought. I don’t believe she’s stupid enough to move from a palace to that flophouse Curtis lives in!”

  “What if she does? She sounded real serious to me,” Kenneth said, coughing. The longer I stood over his bed, the worse he looked. Now his lips were so dry they looked like metal. Sweat and dead skin had formed a necklace around his neck.

  “Well, even if she does, I don’t think she’ll be gone too long,” I declared. Kenneth nodded, so what I’d just said must have been what he wanted to hear. “Once she sees just how bad off she’d be shacking up with that security guard, she’ll come running back home so fast it will make your head spin.”

  Kenneth nodded again. “I hope you’re right. As long as Sarah hasn’t carried out her threat to leave, there’s still some hope. We just might get lucky and Curtis will be removed from our lives somehow.”

  “You mean one of the people he ratted out to the cops might finally kill him?”

  “Vera, that’s not what I meant. I thought that maybe he’d meet another girl or move away to Detroit like he said his mama was talking about doing.”

  “Him moving away would be nice, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. At least not in time to keep Sarah from making a huge mistake. I honestly feel that Curtis’s life is in danger. From what he told us at the dinner table, his name is on more than one hit list.” I didn’t think it would hurt to remind Kenneth about the danger Curtis faced every day. So when he got what he had coming, Kenneth wouldn’t be surprised.

  “Oh, I don’t believe those guys are serious! The ones who threatened Curtis are probably just a bunch of teenagers trying to flex their muscles.”

  “Why do you think that? You know how dangerous that part of town is and the young gangsters nowadays are even more dangerous than the OGs were back in the day, Kenneth.”

  “That’s the point. If a real gangster wanted to get rid of somebody, they wouldn’t put it off. Curtis is not in hiding, so if somebody wanted him dead, they’d know where to find him and he would have been dead long before now.” I was glad to hear Kenneth chuckle. “I just hope that Sarah will see how little Curtis has to offer her and what a potentially dangerous situation she’ll be putting herself in.” He paused and let out a great sigh. “However, despite what he’s done, I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to the boy. After all, he’s . . . he’s only a man and his only crime was falling in love with Sarah.”

  “I hope nothing bad happens to him, either,” I said, sounding like I meant it.

  Kenneth closed his eyes. I took a deep breath, folded my arms, and remained silent. When he didn’t open his eyes after several seconds had passed, I realized he had dozed off. I went to the window and looked out, wondering what things would be like if Sarah had not invaded our lives. One thing I knew for sure: I wouldn’t be conspiring to have a man murdered.

  Five minutes later, when I returned to the side of the bed, Kenneth was snoring like an ox. Had he not been snoring and his chest rising with each breath, I would have sworn that he was dead.

  It was almost over.

  I had a late lunch downtown at a popular Italian restaurant called Buca di Beppo on Howard Street. It was a cheap establishment with outlandish Italian décor and black and white poster-size pictures of every Italian entertainer from Frank Sinatra to Sophia Loren on the walls. But the food was delicious and so were some of the male servers. This was where I’d met
my first boy toy many years ago, an Italian stallion name Mario. His dick was not that long, but it was as thick as a baseball bat. I had to dump him a year later when I found out he was swinging his baseball bat at gay men on a regular basis.

  After I’d gulped down three glasses of chardonnay, a salad, and a lunch-size pasta plate, I headed to the next stop on my itinerary—Bloomingdale’s, a few blocks away.

  The brisk walk helped me digest my lunch, and since I hadn’t been to the gym all week, I needed the exercise.

  The clerks in the women’s department, the makeup and perfume counter, and the purse and shoe department knew me well. This was one of my favorite stores.

  As soon as I entered the men’s clothing department for the first time in my life, a grinning, slick-haired, hawk-nosed clerk who looked like somebody straight out of The Sopranos approached me.

  “How can I help madam today?” the clerk asked, grinning so hard now his teeth looked like they were trying to escape.

  “I need to purchase a dark suit for my husband,” I told him. “Armani will do if you have something in stock in my husband’s size.”

  “Very good. Armani! And will this suit be for a special occasion?”

  “Something like that. My husband is going to be buried in it,” I said without hesitation.

  CHAPTER 61

  KENNETH

  IT AMAZED ME HOW SUDDENLY THINGS COULD CHANGE. I HAD LOVED Vera with all my heart since the day I first laid eyes on her. I couldn’t stand the sight of her now. It was hard to believe that she was the same woman I had loved so unconditionally for so many years! But the woman that I had loved had existed only in my eyes. The truth was, she was two different people. She had a dark side and that was her true personality.

  One thing I knew for sure was that Ricky was not her first lover. I had no evidence, but just based on what Tim had told me, I knew that cheating was something she was comfortable doing. The thought of her attending movies and going out to eat with that Ricky punk in public made my skin crawl. How stupid can a woman be? She obviously wasn’t afraid that somebody who knew us would see her! I’d always believed that if a person was going to be unfaithful, do it right. Don’t be seen out in public with your lover, especially in the city you live in. Don’t run off at the mouth about your affairs to your friends. Be a smart cheater. Unfortunately, even smart cheaters like me still slip up and get caught anyway.

  Had I not gotten Sarah’s mother pregnant, Vera would have never known about that affair. It pleased me to know that she wasn’t aware of all the others. The main thing that had eased the burden of my guilt was the fact that since I told Vera about Sarah’s mother and me, I had not even looked at another woman. Vera must have decided to cheat on me to get back at me.

  It didn’t matter now.

  All that did matter was that my wife was in a full-blown relationship with another man at a time when I needed her full attention the most. I was probably on my deathbed and here she was going out to dinner and movies with a lover young enough to be her grandson! I had no idea how long she’d been with this Ricky person, or how much of my money she’d spent on him. And I didn’t want to know. I knew all I needed to know. But there was much more. A few hours later, around five, Tim called me up.

  “I know I’ve hit you with a lot lately and I know you told me you had the information you needed, but I found out something else that you really need to know about,” Tim told me.

  “Is it about my wife?”

  “I’m afraid so. I’ll come over in about an hour if you feel up to having a visitor.”

  “Not really, old man. I’m really tired and I need to get some sleep.” The truth of the matter was, I was feeling so rotten it felt like any breath could be my last. I honestly didn’t know if I’d still be alive an hour later. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that Sarah had just called me up and told me she’d be coming to see me in the morning. “You can tell me over the phone.”

  “Your wife recently visited the neighborhood where your daughter’s lover lives. She posed as some kind of promotions individual.”

  “What the hell did she do that for?”

  “I guess she figured it was the only way she could get the information on this Curtis Thompson for whatever reason she needs it for. Maybe she’s putting together a dossier on the fellow. One that would help her convince your daughter that this man is nothing but a loser and that she’d have a shit future with him. Anyway, she passed out several Walmart gift certificates, and Curtis’s neighbors told her everything she wanted to know. When she ran out of those inducements, she bought one lucky fellow a chicken dinner.”

  “Hmmm. That’s interesting, Tim. But it doesn’t matter why Vera was gathering information on Curtis. Even if she succeeded in convincing Sarah to sever her relationship with him, that wouldn’t help Vera. Her goose is already cooked! She’s an even bigger whore than my daughter! I will deal with Vera when the time is right. In the meantime, I wonder why she would check up on Curtis and not tell me about it.”

  “I’m here to help you as much as I can, buddy. But I can’t answer that question.”

  “I want you to keep an eye on Vera until I get up out of this hospital. The more dirt I have on her, the deeper the hole I can bury her in—and I’d like to throw a snake in behind her!”

  “There’s just one more thing.”

  “What?”

  “At her request, her lover procured a gun for her.”

  That piece of information felt like a brick going upside my head. The throbbing was so painful I had to shake my head and rub it. “A gun? A real gun?” I didn’t realize just how dumb my last question sounded until it had slid out of my mouth.

  “As real and as deadly as they come—a Glock.”

  “Tim, you’re damn good at what you do. How in the world did you find out about my wife getting a gun?”

  Tim chuckled softly. “Because I am damn good at what I do. But a good investigator never reveals his sources. Even though you and I are friends, I still have to remain professional, right? I will tell you this much, though; one of my associates is an expert hacker. She can access anything—phone lines, computers, even bank accounts. I had her tap into Ricky’s home phone and use a recording device that can’t be detected or traced. Unfortunately, by then your wife had already initiated her request for a gun, so I don’t have all the details.”

  “Why would Vera need a gun?”

  “Now that I don’t know. If you’d like to hear the recording, I’d be happy to oblige.”

  “No. I don’t need to hear that right now. What else did they discuss?”

  “It was a brief conversation. Neither one of them mentioned names or what the gun will be used for. But something tells me we will find out soon enough. The device is still on Ricky’s phone, so if they resume that particular conversation, I’ll let you know. All I can tell you at this point is that your wife’s lover has picked up a gun that your wife requested. She sounded very eager to get her hands on it, so she’s probably picked it up by now.”

  “Vera hates guns! She’s afraid of guns!”

  “That may be true. But apparently none of that stopped her from requesting one.”

  “If she needs a gun for protection, she could have come to me about that. I have an extensive gun collection and she knows about it.”

  “Excuse me for saying this, but I doubt if she would want to use one of your guns for whatever it is she’s planning.”

  “What makes you so sure of that?”

  “Well, for one thing, the gun she got is unregistered.”

  “Unregistered? Why in the world . . .” I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even finish my sentence.

  “There’s only one reason in the world I can think of. If a crime is committed with this particular firearm, it won’t be traceable.”

  I held the telephone in front of my face and looked at it like Tim’s words had just scorched my ear. “A crime?” I started talking again before the phone was even bac
k up to my ear. “Are you telling me that my wife is planning to commit a crime with a gun?”

  “I don’t know what she’s planning to do. But that would be a good guess. I’m sorry to have to tell you this, buddy.”

  “Damn! She couldn’t be thinking about . . .”

  “Thinking about what?”

  “I’ve got to hurry and get up out of this hospital. My life is falling apart all around me.” Something I didn’t want to think about stormed my mind. “Vera’s been looking depressed lately. Real depressed. Lord I hope that woman’s not thinking about ending it all.”

  “Suicide? You think she’s depressed enough to consider something that extreme?” Tim snorted. “No way, my man. If your wife is considering taking her own life, she wouldn’t care if the gun was registered or not. And from what I know about women, especially elegant, vain women like your bride, they like to take themselves out in style. Typically, they slip into their favorite negligee and overdose on sleeping pills or they loop nooses around their dainty necks. They wouldn’t want to be remembered as a bloody, mangled mess. Not even in death. Therefore, they don’t go for guns, knives, jumping in front of trains, or diving off the Golden Gate Bridge. But let’s not jump to conclusions. For all we know, Vera could have requested that weapon for someone else to use.”

  I had not expected the disturbing news that Tim had just delivered. But I had a feeling that news even worse than this was in the making.

  “Thanks, Tim. I’ve heard enough for now. You can expect a nice bonus from me for this one.”

  “I’m glad you want me to keep an eye on your wife. Especially now that we know about the gun.”

  “Tim, I know all I want to know.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to know what she’s planning to do with that gun?”