A Little Bit of Karma

by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

  “But you do,” I said, stepping even closer to show the woman I meant business. I wasn’t a fighter, but with all the rage built up inside me right about then, I probably could have knocked out Mike Tyson. “And I want to know what the hell is going on.”

  Jay stepped in front of me, almost as if he knew I was a ticking time bomb about to explode.

  “Keri, I’m sorry, but I hope you can understand, my wife is pretty worked up. Someone is trying to frame us for Vonda’s murder and we didn’t do it. You know we didn’t do it.”

  “I don’t know nothing,” she said, her eyes darting back and forth between the two of us.

  “Keri, please, just help us try to figure out what’s going on. Some very bad guys tried to kidnap us. We managed to get away, but I doubt they’ll just go away. If the police do pick us up, that means the real killers are still out there.”

  “And they may try to tie up all the loose ends, including friends that they think may know something,” I added.

  Keri wrung her hands nervously, then let out a deep sigh as a lone tear trickled down her cheek.

  “I told Vonda these people were dangerous,” she said softly, more to herself than to us. “She wouldn’t listen.”

  “Who are ‘these people’?” Jay asked.

  “I don’t want to get involved in this.” She looked terrified.

  “You already are involved,” Jay said. His voice was calm, like he was really trying to get through to her. “Just tell us what you know; then we’ll leave.”

  Keri wiped her face and took a deep breath before continuing. “I don’t know if they killed her or not, but I do know she was playing a very dangerous game.”

  “With whom? Who is ‘they’?” I demanded.

  Jay shot me a Let me talk look. I retreated, but didn’t bother to hide my scowl. We didn’t have time to be babying this woman.

  The woman cut her eyes at me but continued talking to Jay. “You ever heard of Bradley Bell?”

  Jay paused like he was searching his memory. “The senator?” he finally said.

  “Yeah, that one.” It was obvious she held monumental disdain for Senator Bell.

  “What about him?”

  “Was Vonda sleeping with him too?” I asked.

  Keri smirked at Jay like she didn’t mind delivering that piece of news.

  “What do you think?” she said.

  Jay looked shocked, and I didn’t miss his expression. I actually took small comfort in the surprise on his face. All this crap Vonda had been spewing—now Jay knew his wasn’t the only ego she’d been feeding.

  Jay shook off his surprise. “Why would Bradley want Vonda dead, though?”

  “Look, I’ve already said too much.” Keri headed toward the door and held it open. “You have to go.”

  Keri’s phone, which sat on the mantel next to me, rang. I glanced down and saw Westhaven Nursing Home on the caller ID. Keri muttered a curse word as she darted over and grabbed the phone.

  “Hello,” she said, turning her back to us. “Is my grandmother okay…?” She stepped off to the side and lowered her voice, and I did a mental scan of her living room. Unlike at Vonda’s, the pictures in Keri’s place were scarce, with the exception of a photo of Keri standing over the bed of an older woman, holding a birthday cake. There was a stack of mail on the table and I eased over to steal a glance. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I wanted to see if I could find out any information about Vonda.

  There were a lot of overdue bills and a notice from Westhaven Nursing Home. I strained to get a glimpse but only saw the first line—We’re writing in regard to your grandmother, Eloise Walker—before Keri stomped over and snatched the papers up.

  “Let me call you back,” she said into the phone. “What are you doing?” she shouted at me.

  “Nothing, I… umm, I was just…”

  “You were just digging where you don’t have any business.” She pointed toward the door. “I’m going to ask you again: please leave before I call the police.”

  Jay gently grabbed Keri’s arm. “Keri, please. What does Bradley Bell have to do with this?”

  She hesitated, shot daggers my way, then said, “Vonda discovered some information that Bradley didn’t want getting out.”

  “What was this information?” Jay asked.

  “I don’t know. She wouldn’t tell me. But I know that in the last few days it had her spooked. I suggested she leave town for a little bit, and she said she had the perfect place to go.”

  “Yeah, she came to the Virgin Islands, following her lover,” I interjected.

  Jay sucked his bottom lip but kept his attention focused on Keri. “So you have no idea what she had on him?”

  She shifted her eyes downward.

  “Keri, I need to know,” he pleaded, grabbing her tighter.

  “Fine!” She snatched her arm out of his grip. “Just wait a minute.” She retreated to her bedroom.

  We stood in the living room, a cloak of silence blanketing us.

  Finally, I spoke. “As soon as this is over and we get our lives back, I want you to sign the divorce papers.”

  “Don’t act like you’ve been Dolly Do-Right,” Jay snapped. “Don’t forget, you have a skeleton of your own.”

  “Well, we’re not accused of murdering my lover.”

  He flinched at the reference to Ivan.

  “Yeah, it hurts, doesn’t it?” I continued. “The idea of me being intimate with someone else tears at your insides, huh? Try the idea of someone else being obsessively in love with me. How would that make you feel? And then she’s sleeping with Bradley Bell and God only knows who else. My God. I need to be tested for HIV,” I said. That thought made me ill, and I shook it off so I could focus for now. “What’s taking her so long?”

  Before Jay could answer, Keri walked back into the room. “I don’t know what’s in here,” she said, handing Jay a manila envelope. “I didn’t want to know. All I know is Vonda said if anything ever happens to her, to open this.”

  “Why didn’t you open it?” he asked, taking the envelope.

  “Number one, I didn’t know anything had happened to her until you just told me, and number two, whatever is in there probably got Vonda killed and I don’t want to know.” She looked at the envelope like it carried some sort of plague.

  “Fine,” Jay said, flipping the envelope over to open it.

  Keri stopped him. “Unh-unh. Take it and get out of my place. I still don’t want to know. Just take it and go.”

  “Okay.” Jay headed toward the door. I was close behind him. We stepped outside and he turned around. “Thank you, Keri. I promise we’re going to find out who did this.”

  Keri slammed the door without responding.

  twenty-two

  Jay and I barely made it into the SUV before he was ripping the envelope open. He started silently reading the letter. I pushed his shoulder.

  “Read it out loud!” I demanded.

  “Oh, I wasn’t thinking,” Jay said. “It says, ‘Keri, I hope you never have a reason to open this. But if you’re reading this, that’s not a good sign. Don’t let them get away with this. The stuff they want is—’ ” He abruptly stopped reading.

  “The stuff they want is what?” I asked.

  He swallowed, then continued reading. “The stuff they want is with Jay. Make sure he takes it to the cops. Love you, Vonda.”

  “What stuff do you have?” I eyed him suspiciously. “I thought you didn’t know what was going on.”

  “I don’t,” he protested. His brow furrowed in confusion. “I have no idea what Vonda is talking about.”

  “Well, let’s go back and talk to Keri.”

  “No way she opens the door again.” Jay shook his head and pulled out his work cell phone from the glove compartment. He turned it on and punched in a number, and I couldn’t help but note that he had it memorized.

  “I remembered the number from Vonda’s phone,” he said, as if he were reading my mind.
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br />   I just stared at him. At this point, I couldn’t distinguish lies from truth.

  “Keri, wait, don’t hang up…. I know, I won’t bother you anymore but I have to ask: this note from Vonda says I have the stuff they want. What is Vonda talking about?… Uh-huh… Please, I’m not trying to cause problems. Just tell me.” He paused for a few seconds, then said, “But I don’t…” He moved the phone away from his ear and faced me. “She hung up.”

  “What did she say?”

  He sighed in frustration. “She claims she doesn’t know. The only thing she would say was that Vonda alluded to sending something important to me. She thinks that might be it.”

  “Sent what to you?”

  “I. Don’t. Know. Vonda has never sent me anything.” He hesitated like he was deep in thought. “Wait a minute…” He tossed the phone on the console and started the SUV. “I think I may have an idea what she’s talking about.”

  Jay pulled the SUV out into traffic. I pummeled him with questions, but he would only respond with “Just give me a minute, I’m trying to think.”

  I leaned back in the seat and crossed my arms. This whole James Bond caper was getting on my nerves. I just wanted to go back to my normal life. “At least tell me where we’re going,” I finally said.

  “To the radio station.”

  “For what?”

  “Just bear with me.”

  “So we’re just going on a wild-goose chase based off something Keri said? She’s shifty. There’s something about her that I don’t trust.”

  “Right now, Shannon, Keri is our only lead, so let’s just see what we can find out.”

  I wanted to scream, but I remained quiet as I settled back in the seat. Fifteen minutes later, we were pulling into the radio station.

  “We’re gonna have to move quick. I doubt the police here are vigilantly looking for us yet, but we can’t take any chances.”

  Jay used his card key to go in the back entrance of the station. I was grateful that the only person who saw us was Ed, the old, useless security guard.

  We quietly made our way up the stairwell to the third floor, where the offices were located.

  “Can you tell me what you’re looking for?” I asked, once we were in Jay’s office.

  Jay pulled a box out from under his desk. He dug through some tapes and magazines. “This,” he said, holding up a teddy bear. “Vonda sent me this crazy-looking Build-A-Bear teddy. I thought it was strange, but I didn’t pay it any attention and just tossed it in a box.” He flipped the bear over and dug inside.

  I was just about to ask him what lie he would have told me if I’d seen the bear, but the intense expression on his face stopped me.

  “Bingo,” Jay said, holding up a small flash drive. “Obviously, whatever Vonda was holding over the senator is on this,” he said, turning his computer on.

  We stood anxiously as we waited for the computer to power up. Jay popped the drive in, and within seconds, several Microsoft Excel documents filled the screen.

  “What’s all that?” I asked, leaning in next to him. Even after two days on the run and the nightmare we’d been through, my husband still smelled good.

  “I have no idea,” Jay replied, scrolling down the page.

  I shook away my thoughts. Why the hell was I thinking about his smell?

  “ ‘Land-Acquisition Plan,’ ” Jay said, reading the title. “It just looks like some real estate stuff. I can’t make sense of any of this. It’s just a bunch of numbers…. Wait a minute, what is this?” he said, zooming in on the page.

  “This is highlighted. ‘Payment to Richard Holmes and Lance DeMontrond for N.O. levee plan,’ ” I read. “Two hundred fifty thousand dollars. Wow.”

  “I assume N.O. is New Orleans, the senator’s home district, but who are Richard Holmes and Lance DeMontrond?” Jay said.

  “I don’t know, but we need to find out,” I said, sliding into the seat at his assistant’s desk. I logged onto the assistant’s computer. “I’ll look up Lance and Richard and you keep looking through that and see what you can find.”

  All it took was a quick Google search and I was led to the official City of New Orleans web page. I scrolled through the departments. “Okay, got it. Lance is the city inspector and Richard is with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.” I leaned back in the seat. “Why would the senator be paying them?”

  Jay continued studying his screen. “Maybe because of this,” he finally said, his eyes wide at his discovery.

  I stood and walked around to Jay’s side of the desk. On the computer screen was an artist’s rendition of a massive casino complex.

  “So what? It’s another casino. Doesn’t New Orleans already have one?” I said.

  He scrolled down the page. “Yeah, but look at where they’re trying to build this one,” Jay said, a look of disbelief on his face.

  “Where? I can’t tell anything from this map,” I said, leaning in closer to survey the screen.

  “You know my buddy Jerome is from New Orleans, so I’m kind of familiar with the city, and this,” Jay said, pointing to the middle of the casino drawing, “is smack-dab in the middle of the Ninth Ward.”

  “How are they going to build a casino in the middle of a neighborhood?” I asked.

  Jay leaned back, confused. “I have no idea.”

  “Hey,” I said, an idea hitting me. “Nicole won an Edward R. Murrow Award for a segment she produced on Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans when she was working for the Washington Post. So she did a lot of research.” I picked up the phone and started dialing. “Maybe she can give us an idea as to what this all means. I just hope she answers.”

  Nicole picked up the phone on the second ring. “Hey, Nicole. It’s me.”

  “Oh my God, Shannon!” she exclaimed. “Where are you?”

  “We’re safe. We’re back in the States.”

  “What the hell is going on? You just up and left all your stuff here and disappeared in the middle of the conference.” She was talking a mile a minute. “At first, I thought you made your flight, but the driver said you never showed. I thought something had happened to you guys until I found out the police are looking for you because they think you had something to do with Vonda’s murder. Please tell me you didn’t have anything to do with Vonda’s murder.”

  “Come on, Nicole. You know better than that,” I said.

  “Shannon, what is going on? I talked with Emerson. He said you guys were on the news in D.C. tonight. Police there say you’re wanted for murder.”

  “Calm down,” I said, trying to take my own advice. Which was hard, since I felt nauseated in the pit of my stomach. We had made the local news. This nightmare, which it felt like we’d been living for days, instead of twenty-four hours, was about to get worse. “It’s a very long story,” I continued. “But you know we didn’t kill anyone.”

  “I know that, and that’s what I told the cops. But the fact that you and Jay are missing doesn’t look good. And I’m not even going to tell you how furious the Family First Foundation is. Quincy is losing his mind.”

  I couldn’t deal with the Family First Foundation or Quincy right now. “Nicole, I need you to just trust us on this. Jay and I were kidnapped at gunpoint.”

  “Kidnapped?” she exclaimed, then paused. “So that’s the story we’re rolling with?” she said.

  “Nicole, I’m dead serious,” I said. “We managed to get away and get off the island before these dudes killed us. We’ve gotten caught up in the middle of some major drama.” Even as I was relaying the story, it sounded ludicrous. Unless we got to the bottom of this, no one would ever believe us.

  “What kind of drama?” Nicole asked, panic clearly setting in.

  “I don’t have time to go into details,” I said. “I just need to ask you some questions about New Orleans.”

  “New Orleans?” Nicole said, like she’d heard me wrong. “Are you serious? You’re a wanted fugitive and you want to ask me questions about New Orleans?”
r />   I finally got Nicole quiet long enough to fill her in on everything we’d found on the jump drive.

  “So what do you think it means?” I asked when I was done. I looked over at Jay. He looked like he was dying to know what Nicole was saying.

  “Hold on, Nicole, I’m putting you on speaker.” I pushed the button for speaker and Nicole continued talking.

  “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but from what you’ve told me about this spreadsheet, this could be major,” she said. “The Army Corps of Engineers has rebuilt the one hundred sixty-nine miles of levees, floodwalls, and gates that were damaged by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Those areas were repaired to pre-Katrina design specs, some of them even stronger.”

  “But why would anyone need to be paid off for that? That’s what everyone wants,” Jay said.

  “Shannon said there was a circle drawn around a portion of the drawing that said New Orleans East,” Nicole said.

  “Yeah,” Jay replied. “It’s actually an area five miles square.”

  “New Orleans East is in the Ninth Ward.”

  “Yeah, we know that. But what we don’t understand,” I said, “is what this all means.”

  Nicole sounded like she was getting excited. As a producer, she usually did when she was on the cusp of a big story. “Think about it. You said they’re trying to build a casino. Real estate in New Orleans is through the roof. If you wanted to build a casino, or anything else, it could cost you millions.” She paused. “Unless you can find some property that is valued at little or nothing.”

  Both Jay and I leaned back as the realization of what Nicole was saying set in.

  “And one more disaster even close to Hurricane Katrina, and the Ninth Ward wouldn’t recover?” Jay finally asked.

  “Right,” Nicole replied. “And if Mother Nature won’t send another Katrina, you create one by building substandard levees and waiting on the first heavy rainstorm. The levees will break and you’ll have catastrophic flooding. Again. Property values would plummet and the government would basically give the land away.”

  Jay shook his head in disbelief. “And guess who would swoop right in and buy up all the property?”