Family of Lies (30 page)

A
S SOON AS
I
ENTERED
D
ADDY’S HOSPITAL ROOM,
I
COULD FEEL THE
tension. He lay on his back looking up at the ceiling. Vera stood by the side of the bed with her hands on her hips.

“Hi, Daddy,” I said meekly, still standing in the doorway.

Daddy turned sharply and looked at me. Then he looked at Vera and snapped his fingers in her face. “Vera, leave this room so I can talk to my child,” he ordered.

“What the f—” she began, but Daddy cut her off.

“Get out before I have them throw you out!” Daddy boomed, pointing toward the door.

With a horrified look on her face, Vera scurried out like a scared rabbit.

“Sarah Louise, you get your tail in here and shut that door! I need to talk to you!” he bellowed.

I didn’t like the tone of his voice and the angry look on his face. He had never spoken to me or looked at me this way before. I knew that whatever he needed to talk to me about, it was serious—especially since he’d ordered Vera to leave the room in such a brutal manner.

I closed the door and walked slowly toward the bed, dragging my feet like I was on my way to my own execution. I swallowed hard and clutched the strap of my purse. “What’s wrong, Daddy? Are you mad at me?” I asked, hoping I didn’t look as dumb as I sounded.

“I know you’ve been seeing Curtis!” he barked. “I know you’ve been rolling around in bed with that man! That’s what’s wrong,
Jezebel
!”

“Now, Daddy, just let me explain—”

“Explain what? Don’t even bother lying or trying to make up excuses!”

“Daddy, don’t holler like that. I don’t want other people to know my business.” I glanced toward the door, wondering if Vera was outside with her ear pressed against it.

“You didn’t care about other people knowing your business before now! I’ve got pictures of you out in public with Curtis all hugged up with strangers looking at you from every angle! Shame on you, Sarah Louise!”

I almost choked on some air before I could speak again. “You had somebody following me around?” My voice sounded shrill and frightened.

“Yes, I had somebody following you around!”

“Oh,” I mumbled. I sighed and offered Daddy a weak smile, hoping it would defuse the situation a little. My smile didn’t even faze him. The angry look was still on his face. “Well, I’m not going to lie about it. I’m tired of keeping it to myself. I love him, Daddy. I have never loved a man as much as I love Curtis. Not even Bo.”

Daddy looked at me like I was speaking Gaelic. He shook his head and clucked like a rooster. “Why in the world do you want to hurt me and your husband like this?”

“I don’t think I love Bo anymore.”

“What? What do you mean you don’t ‘think’ you love Bo anymore? When did you realize that?”

I looked away because I didn’t want to see the pain in Daddy’s eyes when he heard what I said next. I stared at the wall and said, “I know Bo was with his ex when he went to L.A. with you.” When I turned to face Daddy again, he looked like a pillar of salt.

“Say what?” As weak as he was, he managed to sit bolt upright with his back as straight as a broom handle. “Who told you Bo was with his ex in L.A.?”

“I found a letter in his pocket that she had sent to him in care of Cash asking him to meet up with her when he got to L.A.”

“Did he tell you he met with her? Bo was with me most of the time, so I don’t know how he could have spent any time with her without me knowing about it.”

“Did you and Bo sleep in the same room?”

“Hell no! What’s wrong with you, girl? You know I don’t hang like that!”

“Then how would you know what he did when he wasn’t with you? I called the hotel and she’d checked in.”

Daddy’s jaw dropped and the pupils in his eyes got so dark, they looked like ink spots. “What are you telling me? Is Bo thinking about going back to that wench?”

“He claims he only agreed to talk to her so he could tell her to her face that he didn’t want to be with her again.”

“Did you believe him?”

“It doesn’t matter now, Daddy. I’m going to divorce him no matter what.”

“Lord have mercy!”

“He can still work for you and he can still live in the house if you want him to. I’m going to move in with Curtis anyway.”

“Have you lost your mind, Sarah Louise?”

“No, I have not lost my mind. I want to be happy like everybody else. I want to have a long, strong relationship with somebody I love. Just like you and Vera.”

Daddy started to laugh so hard he choked. I slapped him on the back, but that didn’t help. He was gasping for air so hard I had to summon his doctor back into the room. Dr. Mason came right away, with Vera trotting along right behind him with a scared look on her face.

“What’s the matter?” she yelled as the doctor waved her out of his way.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Daddy groaned, pushing the doctor’s hand away.

“Mr. Lomax, I think you’ve had enough company for today,” Dr. Mason said gently, adjusting his stethoscope and then feeling Daddy’s pulse.

“What did you say to him, Sarah? He was doing fine until you got here!” Vera snapped, wiping her nose with one of her dozens of monogrammed silk handkerchiefs.

“I just told Daddy that I’m leaving Bo so I can move in with Curtis,” I told her, speaking in a firm, proud manner. I didn’t feel scared anymore. As a matter of fact, I’d never felt bolder and more determined in my life. My words must have really slammed into them. I couldn’t tell which one groaned louder, Vera or Daddy. Neither one said a word. They just stared at me and blinked, shook their heads, and groaned some more.

Dr. Mason cleared his throat and looked from me to Vera, shaking his head. “Okay, that’s enough! You two are upsetting my patient,” he barked, snapping his fingers. “I insist that you both leave this room at once.” From the stern look on his face, I knew this doctor meant business. The last thing Daddy needed to see was Vera and me being escorted out by hospital security.

“Daddy, I’ll come back as soon as the doctor says it’s okay,” I sputtered. I gave him a quick peck on the forehead and then I left. I had made it halfway down the hall when I heard the heels of Vera’s Jimmy Choos clip-clopping on the marble floor behind me.

“You wait a minute!” she snarled, grabbing me by the arm as soon as she caught up to me. “What the hell has gotten into you—besides Curtis’s slimy dick? What about all the dealers and gangsters and whatnot he told us about who want him dead for being such a snitch and a busybody? I’m surprised he hasn’t already been snuffed out! Do you want to get caught up in his mess and get yourself hurt too?”

“Curtis can take care of himself—and me too—if he has to. He’s no fraidy-cat punk!” I strongly declared. Curtis kept a baseball bat, a stun gun, and a can of mace for protection in his apartment and had only had to use them a few times. If he wasn’t too worried about getting “snuffed out,” I wasn’t going to worry about it either.

Vera was so exasperated she was trembling. “What’s wrong with you, girl? You can’t leave Bo for that scumbag
security guard
.” She made “security guard” sound like the two most obscene words in the English language.

“I can’t? Well, you just watch me!” I retorted, slapping and pinching her hand until she released my arm.

“Bo will
never
give you a divorce!” Vera yelled. “I’ll see to that myself. He listens to me more than he listens to you!”

“Yes, he does. I noticed that a long time ago, Vera. Maybe that’s why it was so easy for me to get involved with another man.” I sniffed and narrowed my eyes. “If he had been more of a man, women like you and his ex couldn’t have turned him into such a wimp, which is what he was by the time he got to me. Well, he can listen to you all he wants. Whether he agrees to a divorce or not, I’m leaving him anyway.”

Vera noticed how people were looking at us, so she lowered her voice. “Haven’t you caused everybody enough pain? And why now?”

“What do you mean, ‘why now?’ Now is as good a time as any for me to leave.”

“Can’t you wait until your daddy gets better? Can’t you see what all this drama is doing to him? You are the most selfish bitch—”

“Look, Miss Prissy! I don’t have to stand here and listen to that kind of talk coming from you. I’ve tried to put up with your snooty ways since I was a teenager, and I’m tired of trying to be nice to you. And you have some nerve calling me selfish. You are the most selfish bitch I’ve ever met! No wonder you don’t have any friends.”

“What? I . . . I have plenty of friends, little girl! You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Vera roared. Her eyes looked like two pieces of coal. Blood rushed up her face, settling mainly in her nose. It looked like a strawberry. It was a funny sight, but I was too angry to laugh.

“Then how come you asked
me
to take you to the hospital when you had to have that fibroid surgery?”

Vera looked so stunned and vulnerable at that moment I was surprised she was still able to stand on her own. I couldn’t wait to hear her response. I braced myself. But nothing could have prepared me for what she said next. “I hate you, Sarah. I have always hated your ass,” she told me with her lips trembling and her eyes pooled with tears.

It took a few seconds for my brain to register what she’d just admitted. I had always suspected that Vera didn’t really like me. But hearing her say she
hated
me made me feel unbearably sad. “I don’t hate you, Vera. But I hate what you say and do. I feel sorry for you.”

“Oh my God!” She covered her mouth with her hand and shook her head. This time the color drained from her face. Now she looked almost like a ghost. I actually did feel sorry for her, but just for a few moments. “I’m sorry I said that!” she choked. “You know I didn’t mean it! It’s just that I’m so worried about your daddy and . . . and I’m so stressed and confused! Let’s try to be more civil to one another, sweetie.” Vera grabbed my arm again and smiled. I slapped and pinched her hand again. People were still looking at us. She began to fan her face with her hand, but that didn’t stop the sweat from forming on her forehead. Her thick makeup began to slide down her face like mud sliding down the side of a hill. “We have to live under the same roof, so we need to try and get along.”

“Didn’t you hear what I just said? I’m going to leave Bo. There is nothing you, Daddy, or anybody else can say to make me change my mind.” A couple of nurses and a few other visitors walked by, looking and listening to our heated conversation. I was embarrassed and I attempted to leave again, but Vera grabbed my arm and held me in place. “I’m moving in with Curtis today!” As soon as she heard that, she released my arm on her own this time.

“All right, BITCH! You go on to that motherfucking security guard. But I can tell you now, Bo is going to make you regret it! I’ll make sure of that!”

“I know you will, Vera.” I trotted on down the hall with her still following me, panting like a coyote. I bypassed the elevator and ducked into the stairwell. I had on my Nikes, so it was easy for me to run down three flights of steps. Somehow, Vera managed to run down the same steps, not even stumbling in her impossibly high heels. When I got to the ground floor, she was right behind me, holding her shoes in her hand.

“Sarah, we need to talk some more. Please let me talk some sense into your head. If you want to leave Bo, at least wait until your daddy is out of the hospital. Didn’t you see how upset he was?”

“All right,” I said. “I’ll wait until Daddy gets well and comes home.”

“And please don’t even mention that security guard to Bo until then.”

“Why? I think the sooner Bo knows what I’m planning to do, the better. He’s not stupid. He
knows
I’m sleeping with Curtis and have been for a long time. And I know you know it too!”

Vera nodded her head hard. Then she swept her hair back with her hand so far I could see the faint scars behind her ears from her last face-lift. “I suspected you were. Don’t you know that’s a sin and a shame, girl? I’m sorry I had to stand here in public and hear you admit that you’ve been
cheating
on your husband.”

“Don’t be sorry. Be glad that it’s finally out in the open now,” I said sharply.

“Lord, what a mess you’ve created, child. I’m . . . I’m feeling sicker by the second,” Vera whimpered, gulping for air. She sounded like a sick puppy now and looked like the hag she really was behind the mask she wore. Despite all of the surgeries that had been performed on her face, the vigorous workouts with her trainers, and the makeup, Vera looked every minute of her sixty-two years now. “Let me talk to Bo first so he won’t take it so hard,” she rasped. Even her voice now sounded like it belonged to an old woman.

“Woman, what’s wrong with you? I don’t need for you to talk to my husband! That’s my job! You and Daddy have been running our marriage long enough. That’s part of the problem.”

“Yes, we did interfere more than we should have. We can’t change that now. But I’d still like to prepare my poor cousin for the bombshell you’re going to hit him with. He’s still in pain from the breakup of his first marriage.” I enjoyed watching Vera squirm, but I was anxious to end this conversation. “Sarah, I helped raise Bo. I’m like a second mama to him. I know him a lot better than you do. Please let me talk to him before you do—for everybody’s sake. I won’t ever ask you for anything else as long as I live.”

“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.”

I
KNEW THAT
R
ICKY 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.”