A House Divided (18 page)

C
harlotte and Matthew dashed inside Mitchell Memorial and strolled over to the window where less-emergent patients checked in. A woman with salt-and-pepper hair smiled, and Charlotte could tell she recognized her. People had started noticing her more and more as the ministry had grown, but even more so now that they broadcast on television. The cameramen usually made sure to capture a couple of shots of her during each sermon they aired, and now Charlotte didn’t know if that was a good idea.

“The doctors are with your husband, but I’ll let them know you’re here,” the woman said. “Someone will be out as soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”

Charlotte and Matthew went over to the same ER family room they’d sat in numerous times: years ago when Marissa had fallen down the stairs, two years ago when Curtis had gotten hurt in his car accident, and just a few weeks ago when Racquel had gone into early labor. It seemed as though tragedy struck them all the time, but now she wondered if maybe God wasn’t happy about her scheming to get MJ and was punishing her. But no…not when God knew MJ was in the best place and that Charlotte had only done what she had to do to protect him. She reminded herself that Racquel was just a child, and that Vanessa was too busy to give MJ the kind of time and attention he needed. Charlotte, on the other hand, wanted to be there for him every waking moment, and she was missing him even now. Just before she and Matthew had driven over to the hospital, she’d called Aunt Emma and then dropped off Curtina and MJ. She hadn’t wanted to, but she’d also known a hospital setting wasn’t the place for a newborn, and Matthew had agreed.

They sat in the waiting area, trying to stay calm and hopeful. Charlotte prayed that Curtis would be okay. She knew the reporter had mentioned that Curtis had been beaten and was unconscious, however Charlotte hoped this was the extent of it; that all he had were a few bruises and maybe a concussion but would be able to go home with them in a few hours.

In the meantime, Charlotte called her parents to let them know what was going on. Then, she called Janine, Elder Jamison, and Lana. She wanted Elder Dixon to know, too, but she knew Lana would contact him. Matthew called Alicia and Racquel, and while everyone said they were on their way, Charlotte knew from the look on Matthew’s face that Racquel wasn’t coming.

“Can’t you come for just a few minutes?” he said. “I really want you here with me.”

Charlotte listened to him, practically begging that silly girl, and she wanted to grab his phone from him. Racquel was so wrong for Matthew. Here her future father-in-law had been rushed to the hospital, yet she wasn’t planning to be there for the family?

“I understand,” he said, “and I’ll keep you posted.”

Matthew hung up his phone, and Charlotte looked at him. “Is Racquel okay?”

“Not really. She’s so depressed, Mom. She misses MJ, and she got upset when I told her we took him over to Aunt Emma’s.”

“Well, it’s not like we could bring him here.”

“She knows that, but she doesn’t understand why we couldn’t bring him to her.”

“Because DCFS doesn’t want him there.”

Matthew leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes. He sighed so loudly, others in the room stared at him.

Charlotte ignored him, though, because Racquel was the least of her worries. Curtis was her priority, and she had to stay focused.

After a few moments, Matthew opened his eyes. “Gosh, I just don’t believe Dad. Treating that woman so badly and pretending all these years that they never had a child. What kind of person does that?”

“First of all,” she said, “we don’t even know if this story is true. I mean, why would your uncle Larry all of a sudden fess up about everything when he could have done it years ago? He certainly could have done it when he was trying to steal money from us.”

“I don’t know, but I believe that guy.”

Charlotte frowned but then looked around and saw people staring again. “Why?” she whispered.

“He looks just like Dad. And why would someone lie about this kinda thing?”

“Money, of course.”

Matthew pursed his lips, leaned his head back, and shut his eyes again.

Charlotte left him alone and waited. They both sat quietly until a nurse came and led them down to a meeting room.

“Dr. Mason will be with you shortly.”

“Thank you,” Charlotte said, realizing Dr. Mason was one of the doctors who’d taken care of Curtis two years ago.

They waited only a couple of minutes before he walked in.

“Mrs. Black, how are you?”

“As well as can be expected,” she said. “You remember Matthew, right?”

“How are you son?” he said, shaking Matthew’s hand. “Well, I won’t try to sugarcoat this. Pastor Black is in pretty bad shape. He was beaten from head to toe. To be honest, I don’t believe there’s a part of his body that wasn’t injured.”

Charlotte winced. “Dear God.”

“His ribs are broken, his spleen is ruptured, and he has a large contusion on the back of his head. Whoever did this must have kicked him until they were exhausted.”

Matthew didn’t say anything, but tears streamed down his face. He tried wiping them away as quickly as he could, but they kept rolling. Charlotte latched onto his arm, trying to console him.

“The good news is that we finally got him to wake up. He didn’t stay with us for long, but he was conscious. Anyway, our main goal is to get his spleen repaired. He already has some internal bleeding, but we don’t want him to lose a lot of blood. We’ll be heading to the OR with him as soon as my partner gets here. The rupture is pretty bad, so he’s going to assist me.”

“Will we be able to see him first?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes—and one other thing. Because he was beaten so badly, we had to call the police. So I’m sure they’ll want to talk to you.”

“Thank you,” she said again.

“I’m really sorry about this, and I hope they catch the lowlife who did this.”

“We do, too,” Charlotte said, holding back her own tears.

Dr. Mason stood up. “I’d better get back, but we’ll let you know when you can go in for a short visit.”

“Thank you again for everything,” she said.

As Dr. Mason walked out, Neil walked in.

Matthew got up. “Hi, Dr. Anderson. I’ll be back after I call Racquel,” he said, and closed the door behind him.

Charlotte didn’t like this. Why was Neil in there?

“I’m really sorry to hear about Curtis. What happened?”

“We don’t know yet.”

“Is it true that they found him behind a strip club?”

“Yeah, but he was only there to help one of our members.”

Neil raised his eyebrows.

“What?” she said.

“I guess I find that kinda hard to believe. Most men who go to strip clubs go because they want to.”

“Well, not this time. Curtis has been counseling a young man who has an addiction problem.”

“Hmmm. But we know he likes strip clubs because I saw that interview this morning. I was making rounds and watched it in a patient’s room. I couldn’t believe it.”

“Curtis has been lied on many times before, and this is no different.”

“Well, either way, I’m still sorry he’s been hurt so badly. And where’s MJ?”

Charlotte hated having to answer this because she didn’t want Neil, Vanessa, or Racquel thinking she couldn’t take care of MJ. “He’s with my aunt,” she said in a hurry. “Only because we didn’t wanna bring him here around all these germs…but I promise you he’s fine. He’ll be well taken care of…she’s taken care of all my kids.”

Neil slightly chuckled and raised his hands. “Whoaaaa. It’s no problem at all. You don’t have to explain. You did the right thing.”

“I didn’t want you thinking he wasn’t safe.”

“I would never think that,” he said, eyeing her up and down.

“I’d better go,” she said, moving toward the door.

Neil grabbed her hand and drew her back to him. “I hope you know I’m still waiting.”

Charlotte hated the way he made her feel and pulled away. “Neil, please don’t do this. My husband isn’t well.”

“I understand that, but I still want you. I’ve never wanted any woman more…and you want me, too.”

“I’m really surprised at you. Your wife and daughter are dealing with some very serious allegations, yet all you can think about is sleeping around?”

“But that’s just it—they’re completely innocent.”

“I hope so,” Charlotte said. “We all do.”

“I guarantee it,” he said. “And you of all people know they never did those things.”

“Well, it wasn’t like either of us was there. We weren’t with Racquel or Vanessa when those witnesses claim they saw them.”

“Let’s stop playing games, Charlotte. I know you paid to have this done. I found out this morning.”

Charlotte’s heart thumped against her chest. Still, she played like she was calm and clueless. “Excuse me?”

“I know you’re behind all this, but I’m willing to overlook it.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I don’t know the whole story, but I know enough.”

“This is crazy,” she said, folding her arms. “Who would do something that jaded?”

“Maybe you’re not jaded at all. Maybe you just love your grandson so much you wanted him for yourself. I can’t say. But what I do know is that nothing is so bad that it can’t be worked out.”

“I’m not having this conversation,” she said.

“It’s not like you really have a choice. I know Curtis is about to have surgery, but I’ll expect to hear from you sometime tomorrow.”

Charlotte stared at him, speechless, and walked out.

A
s soon as Charlotte rushed out of the meeting room, two male detectives strode toward her. One was medium height and pretty average looking, but the other reminded her of Denzel Washington.

“Mrs. Black?” the Denzel-looking one said. “I’m Detective Woodson, and this is my partner, Detective Randall. If it’s okay, we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“Of course. I’d like to go get my son as well.”

“We’ll just wait here,” he said, pointing toward the room Charlotte had just walked out of—the room where Neil had come on to her again and then claimed he knew her secret. At first she’d doubted his word, but something told her he was serious. Something inside her screamed major trouble, and she wondered who had opened their big mouth. Everything was always about money, though, and now she was sorry she hadn’t paid her helpers a lot more.

Charlotte walked farther down the corridor. As she approached the waiting area, she saw Janine, Lana, both the lead elders, her cousin Anise, Minister Simmons, and Minister Morgan. She spoke to all of them, and then said, “Matt and Janine, can you come with me? You, too, Lana.”

Anise looked at Charlotte, probably wondering why Charlotte hadn’t asked her to come along since she was family. But it wasn’t like they’d gotten close again. Anise did talk to her a little more than she had two years ago, but they still didn’t have the best relationship. As a matter of fact, the only time she usually saw Anise was at Aunt Emma’s.

When Charlotte, Matthew, and the other two women walked inside the room, the detectives leaned forward, resting their arms on the table.

“So, do you have any idea who would’ve done something like this to your husband?” Detective Woodson asked.

“Not really,” Charlotte said. “But there was some guy named Dillon Whitfield on the news this morning, telling a lot of lies about Curtis.”

“We were told about that.”

“My husband also left to go meet someone named Dillon last night. He called Curtis shortly after ten, saying he was having some trouble.”

“Is it common for your husband to go meet someone that late?”

“Yes, especially when a member needs him.”

“Your husband was tossed next to his vehicle, but his door was wide open. So what we’re trying to figure out is whether he was moved or he remained there the whole time. We’ll also have his vehicle checked for fingerprints. But it really would help if we knew as much as possible.”

“For example,” Detective Randall said, “has he been receiving any threatening phone calls, letters, e-mails?”

“Not that I know of,” Charlotte said.

“Actually, there is something you might want to know,” Lana said. “Pastor Black never told me himself, but one of our new assistants, Shelia, says two urgent overnight envelopes came for him. She only told me because when she took him the second envelope, he seemed nervous. To her, something wasn’t right, and she got worried.”

Charlotte wasn’t positive, but she fully believed this Dillon character was behind all this. He was trying to bully his way into their lives for financial reasons, and Charlotte couldn’t wait for Curtis to demand a DNA test.

“We’d really like to talk to your husband,” Detective Randall said.

Detective Woodson nodded. “Yes, that might help a lot. Especially if he saw faces.”

“It sounds like he’s very weak, but I agree that you should talk to him,” Charlotte said. “Do you mind if I listen in?”

“No problem,” Detective Woodson said.

When they left the room, Charlotte asked to see Dr. Mason, and he authorized the detectives to question Curtis. He was still in the ER area, but thankfully, he had a closed-door room. But as Charlotte moved closer to his bedside, her knees buckled.

Detective Randall grabbed her. “Are you okay?”

Charlotte wanted to respond, but all she could think about was how pitiful Curtis looked. Of course, there was an IV inserted in his vein, a heart and blood pressure monitor, and just about everything else he’d been hooked up to when he’d had his accident, but nothing could have prepared her to see what she was looking at now. His face was so swollen that she barely recognized him, and his arms and hands were covered with multiple lacerations. She wondered what the rest of his body looked like, but she was glad his hospital gown and blanket were disguising it. If it were anything like what she
could
see, she didn’t as much as want to think about it.

Curtis’s attending nurse smiled at Charlotte, and then moved to the other side of the bed, adding medicine to his IV, but Charlotte could tell she wasn’t leaving. Seconds later, Dr. Mason entered the room, too.

“I’m sorry to have to hurry you along, but the other surgeon is here, and we need to get Pastor Black down to the OR.”

Detective Woodson moved toward the head of the bed. “Pastor Black, can you hear me?”

Curtis slightly moved his head to the side, but never opened his eyes.

Charlotte touched his shoulder. “Honey, are you awake?”

He moved his head again and moaned, but that was it.

“He’s in a lot of pain,” Dr. Mason said, “so this may have to wait.”

Detective Randall wanted answers now. “Pastor Black, can you tell us who did this to you?”

This time Curtis mouthed the word
No.

“Did you see the person’s face?”

“No,” he struggled to say.

“Have you been threatened by anyone?”

Curtis tried to part his lips again to speak, but he couldn’t.

“I think that’s enough for now,” Dr. Mason said. “Maybe once he’s out of surgery, and he’s rested for a few hours. Or possibly tomorrow.”

Charlotte looked at the nurse, who was now disconnecting the monitor, but suddenly a piercing alarm went off.

Dr. Mason pushed past Charlotte and the detectives. “Everyone out!”

Charlotte backed away in terror, watching the nurse pass Dr. Mason a syringe different from what she’d used on Curtis just minutes ago. Charlotte had no idea what was going on, but she stood there, stuck in her tracks…until Dr. Mason yelled at all of them again. “I said, everybody out! Now!”