Family of Lies (35 page)

I
HAD TRIED TO REACH
B
O AND
C
ASH ALL EVENING, BUT NEITHER ONE
answered his office telephone or cell phone. I wanted them to know that Sarah had plans to go out so she wouldn’t be my alibi. Under the circumstances, all I could do now was sit back and wait.

I glanced at my watch every few minutes for the next hour. Finally, at exactly 10:45 p.m., Collette flew into my bedroom like a bat out of hell. “Vera, you will not believe what I just heard on the news!” She sprinted over to the bed where I lay with my head propped up on three pillows, waving her arms like she was going crazy. “Somebody shot that Curtis! Shot him in the head!”

It was hard for me to remain calm. But I wanted to leap up off the bed and dance a jig. I was so happy to hear that Bo had done exactly what I told him to do! “Do they know who did it?” I asked, forcing myself to look concerned.

“The news said it looked like a botched home invasion. But I have a feeling it was probably some of those dudes that’s been threatening Curtis!” Collette yelled, still waving her arms. “And the worst thing—”

I interrupted Collette. “The worst thing is crimes like that happen over there all the time. I’m surprised they’d have a TV newsbreak about it, though. Curtis is not anybody important. He is just another lowlife with a lot of enemies.” I shook my head and began to fan my face with my hand. I was so excited my face felt like it was on fire.

“Vera, let me finish!” Collette moved closer to the bed. “There was a woman with him and they shot her too!”

“They shot some woman too? He lives with his mama, so it must have been her!”

“Yeah, they shot a woman, too, but it wasn’t his mama. The news said something about it being the daughter of a prominent businessman. They couldn’t give her name out until her family’s been notified. Lord, I hope it wasn’t Sarah! That girl got on my last nerve, but I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to her. Kenneth will never get over it!”

“Sarah told me she was going to the movies with one of her friends,” I whimpered. My head felt like somebody had stuffed it with rocks. I knew it had to be Sarah that Bo had shot!

“Well, I hope that’s where she went. But I’ve got a bad feeling that . . . that it’s her!”

“I better try to find Bo,” I muttered. I got up and started pacing back and forth like a caged lion.

“Yeah, and I guess I need to locate Cash. I don’t know about you, but I need a highball,” Collette said. She was talking so fast she almost lost her breath. “We both need to calm our nerves until we find out what’s going on. You want me to fix you a drink, too, Vera?”

“God yes! And make mine a very strong double.”

Just as Collette and I made it downstairs to the living room, Bo and Cash entered. I was glad to see that they had changed from their thug outfits back into their regular clothes. I was also glad to see that they looked as normal and calm as usual. “Oh, I’m so glad you both are here!” I yelled, running up to Bo, throwing my arms around his waist. “Collette just heard on the news that Curtis got shot!”

Bo and Cash looked at each other, then back to me. “No shit?” Cash said in a hoarse voice. “I guess those dudes over there meant business. Being a snitch will surely get you killed. Poor Curtis . . .”

“Oh, he’s not dead!” Collette hollered from behind the bar.

“What? Didn’t you tell me the news report said he was shot in the head?” I asked Collette.

“Yeah, I did tell you that. But you didn’t give me time to tell you everything they said on the news. Curtis and the woman with him were shot, but they are both still alive.” Collette trotted from behind the bar without the drinks. “Bo, Sarah’s not home. She is supposed to be at the movies. But the news said the woman who got shot is the daughter of a prominent businessman. Do you think it was her?”

Bo and Cash looked at each other and then at me again. I had never seen either one of them look so frightened before. Now they looked like they had just seen their own ghost. But I was even more frightened than they were. If Bo shot Sarah and she was still alive, she would be able to identify him and Cash!

“Let’s not jump to conclusions! Sarah may have gone to the movies with her friend and then decided to stay out a little later,” I said hopefully. But the look on Bo’s face said it all. He had shot Sarah too. “Uh, Bo, don’t you get too upset. There is no need for us to assume anything until we hear from Sarah!”

“Cash, where have you been all evening? I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for hours,” Collette said.

“We had some real important work to finish up at the store that Kenneth had started,” Cash rasped. “Then me and Bo went by that little Irish pub downtown on Front Street and had a few drinks. Didn’t we, Bo?”

“Yeah,” Bo mumbled. He looked like he wanted to sink into the floor.

“What pub? Harrington’s is the only Irish pub I know of on Front Street,” Collette said.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Cash said quickly.

A puzzled look appeared on Collette’s face. “Since when did you two start going to a place full of white folks?”

“They make some mean Irish coffee,” Cash said quickly. “The best in town.”

I couldn’t believe Cash could come up with such a flimsy alibi. If they claimed they were in a lily-white bar like Harrington’s, everybody would remember them if they had really been there. Lord, I hoped we wouldn’t need an alibi!

“Bo, will you go into the kitchen and get us all something cold to drink?” I gave him the sternest look I could manage. “I put a few bottles of beer in the refrigerator a few hours ago and they should be nice and cold by now.”

Bo gave me a strange look. Since Collette’s eyes were on Cash, I was able to give Bo the conspiratorial look that told him I needed to talk to him in private. “Yeah, um, I’d love a cold beer,” he stammered with that strange look still on his face. He left the room immediately, headed toward the kitchen.

“Baby, I just told Vera that I never wanted anything bad to happen to Curtis. If he had left Sarah alone, that would have been enough for me,” Collette said, pulling Cash to the couch. He moved like a robot. If she hadn’t grabbed his hand and steered him, I think he would have continued to stand in the same spot with a blank expression on his face the rest of the night.

While Collette was busy paying attention to Cash, I eased out of the room and headed toward the kitchen. Bo was standing in front of the refrigerator with his hand on the door handle, looking like he was about to faint. “You shot Kenneth’s daughter?” I asked in a whisper.

“You told me not to leave any witnesses behind, goddammit!”

“You stupid fool you!” I hissed. “I didn’t tell you to kill my husband’s only child!” I was so distraught I wanted to kill Bo with my bare hands. “What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”

“Correction!” Bo shook a finger in my face. “What the hell have
we
gotten ourselves into? Your ass is as deep into this mess as mine! Maybe even deeper because this was your idea.”

I wrung my hands and gritted my teeth. “It’s a good thing you wore that mask.” Bo gave me a bug-eyed look and shook his head. “You
didn’t
wear the mask?” He shook his head again. “Do you mean to tell me they saw your face?”

“My mask got knocked off during the scuffle. Cash got so confused when he realized Sarah was there, he took off his mask before everything got crazy.”

“The news reported that they’re still alive! Why didn’t you check to make sure they were dead?”

I was sick of Bo shaking his head, but he did it again. “I could hear folks outside in the hallway, so I panicked. We didn’t have time to check their pulses or listen to their hearts. But I aimed for their heads like you told me to. If they didn’t die on the spot, they will die soon if they haven’t croaked already.”

“Shit, shit, shit! Did you make it look like a robbery? Did you take anything?”

“We didn’t have time to look for something to steal. But like we said, with all the enemies after Curtis, the cops will think it was a retaliation thing.”

I held my hand up and snapped my fingers. “We just have to stay cool. And we need to find out if they both died—and if one of them talked before they did.”

“What if one or both of them lives long enough to tell what happened?”

“Don’t say that! Don’t even think it! I . . . I don’t know what we’d do if one of them talks!”

“I feel like horseshit! Damn, damn, damn!” Bo shouted. “I . . . I . . . when I realized Sarah was there and I had to shoot her, too, my mind snapped. I couldn’t even think straight at the time. All I knew was we had to get the hell up out of that place!”

“Oh, this is the worst mess!” I folded my arms and glared at Bo. “If . . . if you shot them in the head in the right spot, they
have
to be dead and—” Before I could finish my sentence, Collette burst into the kitchen with a wild-eyed look on her face.

“The cops are here!” she announced.

W
HEN
I
OPENED MY EYES, A HEAVY-SET
A
SIAN DOCTOR WITH THICK
white hair was looking down at me. Most of my body felt fine, but the left side of my head felt like somebody had bashed it in with a brick.

“Good morning. You look a lot better than you did when they brought you two nights ago. And I am happy to say that you’re going to be all right.”

“My head hurts,” I mumbled, sitting up. I was so tired and weak I could barely move. It took me a few seconds to realize I was in a hospital bed and there was an IV tube attached to my right arm. “I can’t hear out of my left ear,” I reported. I touched my ear, which had a bandage on it, and it tingled.

“You were shot. The thick, stone-filled earrings you had on saved your life. The bullet ricocheted off of it and only pierced your earlobe. You were very lucky.”

“I don’t know about that. I sure don’t feel so lucky,” I muttered.

The doctor, whose name tag identified him as Dr. Louie Choy, nodded. “You may have some minor problems with hearing for a few days. But other than that, you’re going to be as good as new.”

“Did Curtis Thompson get shot too, Dr. Choy?” I asked.

He responded with a weak nod.

I looked Dr. Choy in the eyes and said, “My husband did this to me. Bohannon Harper. His cousin Cash Booker was with him when he did it. I remember them kicking in my boyfriend’s front door and coming into the apartment with a gun. And . . . my stepmother was in on the whole thing. She was the ringleader. They planned to commit murder days ago. I overheard them with my own ears. Call the police so I can tell them everything I know.”

Dr. Choy gave me a sympathetic look. “Ma’am, all three of the perpetrators are in custody and they’ve all confessed.”

“What? Oh my God,” I moaned. I wanted to cry but couldn’t. I didn’t know what to do now. “My life will never be the same again.”

Just knowing that three people I had lived with for years and had some feelings for were willing to kill a man—and me and anybody else who’d been with him—was almost more than I could stand. That was bad enough. But the fact that I had known about the crime before it happened and chose to let them do it said a lot about me. Bo, Cash, and Vera not having any regard for human life, except their own, was one thing. They were heartless monsters! But with me not warning Curtis and then choosing to sacrifice my own life, was the same true of me? Had I lost my way so severely that
I
no longer had any regard for human life either? Had I died, my poor daddy would have been devastated!

“You’re a healthy and strong young woman. Take life one day at a time. I’ll refer you to a good therapist and after a few sessions, you’ll be just fine.”

“Yeah. I’ll get over this, but it’s going to kill my daddy. Bad news like this is going to be real hard on him,” I muttered. I didn’t like the sad look on the doctor’s face. “He’s been so sick lately he’s in the hospital too. Does he know about what happened to me?”

“Uh, Mrs. Harper, I am so sorry.”

“What? Tell me!”

Dr. Choy moaned like a sick man himself. He removed his horn-rimmed glasses and massaged his forehead. When he looked at me again, he shook his head and took a deep breath. I knew that whatever he had to tell me was bad, so I braced myself. I took a deep breath too.

“Ma’am, I hate to tell you this, but the sooner you know the better. You are Kenneth Lomax’s daughter. Unfortunately, you no longer have a close relative available to tell you this, but . . . your father didn’t make it.” Dr. Choy gently patted my arm. “When he got the news about what had happened to you . . .” The doctor paused. For a second I thought he was going to cry. That’s how sad he looked. “The news was too much for him. He immediately suffered a massive heart attack. We did all we could.”

“My daddy’s dead,” I mumbled.
“My daddy’s dead!”
I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer. Dr. Choy handed me a tissue. Before I knew it, I was crying and shaking so hard, I wanted to die more than ever now. I was glad that I had visited Daddy before I went to Curtis’s place to meet my fate. At least I got to say good-bye to him. But I never thought that
he’d
be the one to die.

I stopped crying and blew into the tissue. After taking a few deep breaths, I was able to speak again. “I was supposed to die with Curtis. I overheard them talking about how they were going to kill him and leave no witnesses. I loved him and I was going to leave my husband to be with him. I went to Curtis’s place because I wanted to die with him. That was the only way we were going to be able to be together,” I said, staring at the wall.

“With all due respect, ma’am, that part of this tragedy is none of my business. But whatever you and Mr. Thompson decide to do now, I wish you all the best.”

I turned sharply to look at Dr. Choy. “Is Curtis really going to make it? Can we be together after all?”

“Yes, he is going to make it, but he’s in critical condition.”

“Can I see him?”

“Only relatives are allowed to see him.”

“How is he doing? Is he going to be all right?”

“Mr. Thompson will live, but I predict that he will have some problems in the future. I’d rather not say any more about his condition at this time. Now you get some rest.”

How in the world could I rest knowing that Curtis was in the same hospital in critical condition and my daddy was dead?

I rested for about an hour. After a nurse with cold hands gave me a sponge bath, I called the hospital operator to get Curtis’s room number. I was pleased to hear that he was on the same floor I was on, just four rooms down on the opposite side of the hall.

I sat up and carefully removed the IV cord from my arm. I didn’t know if I was causing myself any physical harm or not. But under the circumstances, I didn’t care if I lived or died. I scrambled out of the bed and didn’t bother to try locating my street clothes. It dawned on me that they were probably covered in blood anyway, so even if I had them in the room, I couldn’t wear them. I snatched a hospital robe off the hook behind the door and put it on. I was light-headed and my legs were kind of wobbly, but I managed to make it to Curtis’s room in a couple of minutes. As soon as I got inside, I regretted what I had done. First of all, he looked worse than I expected. They had shaved off all the hair on one side of his head and a bandage covered his left eye. His other eye was closed so I assumed he was either in a coma or asleep.

A scowling, middle-aged black woman with a frizzy wig sitting sideways on her head occupied a chair by the side of the bed. I had never met Curtis’s mother before, but I knew that was who she was.

“I’m . . . I’m Sarah Harper,” I stammered.

“I know who you is. You Kenneth Lomax’s daughter,” Mrs. Thompson snarled, folding her arms. “You the reason my boy got shot up!”

I remained by the door, in case she got so hostile I had to bolt from the room. She looked like she wanted to wring my neck. “Ma’am, I’m so sorry about what happened. But I love your son and he loves me. I wanted to spend my last moments on earth with him. That’s why I was there that night.”

Mrs. Thompson’s jaw dropped and she gave me an incredulous look. “So you
knew
what was going to go down, huh?”

“Something like that. I had heard my stepmother and my husband plotting to kill Curtis. But there was nothing I could do to stop them. And I figured that if I told Curtis, it would make the situation worse.”

“So you
let
them niggers shoot my child? You must not have ‘loved’ him that much! As far as I’m concerned, you just as guilty as the rest of them devils and your black ass ought to be up in that jailhouse right with their asses! If the police don’t arrest you for something, I’m going to hire me a smart-ass Jew lawyer and sue the shit out of your rich ass!”

“What’s done is done and I can’t change it!” I didn’t care if this woman was Curtis’s mama or not. I was not going to let her bully me. “You can stop talking that shit right now!”

Right after I stopped talking, Curtis opened his right eye. It was severely bloodshot. A black shadow had formed a ring around it that looked like a bull’s-eye. He looked at his mother first, then at me. From the grimace on his face, I could tell he was still in pain. But he managed a smile anyway.

“Hello, baby,” Mrs. Thompson said. She stood up and leaned over the bed. “You look way better today than you did the other night when they brought you in.” Mrs. Thompson had attractive features and without that scowl on her face now, she was almost pretty. But as soon as I got closer to the bed, she got ugly again. Her evil-looking black eyes glared at me. Her thick lips quivered as she balled up her fists. For a moment, I was afraid that she was going to punch me in the nose. “You ain’t supposed to be in this room no how, Miss Girl! You ain’t even no relative!” she yelled.

“Mama, please,” Curtis managed with a weak cough. He shook for a few seconds like he was having a spasm. Then he looked at me with his eye fluttering and pooled with tears. “Sarah, you can let your husband know that when I get up out of this hospital, his butt is mine,” he told me with a tortured laugh and another cough.

“Son, you ain’t got to worry about that motherfucker! He’ll be doing some hard time,” Mrs. Thompson shouted with glee, glaring at me some more. “And I hope you don’t be fool enough to waste any more of your time with
this
woman!”

“Mama, this is the woman I love,” Curtis declared. I was surprised that he was able to speak in a much stronger voice this time. “If she still wants me, I’m going to be with her.” He turned to me with such an endearing look on his face it made me feel more loved than I’d ever felt before in my life.

“I love you, too, baby. And everything is going to be all right for us now,” I assured him.

“I know it is,” he agreed.