Schooled In Lies (32 page)

“She’s lying! She’s crazy!” Dennis said, sobbing and clutching his leg. I doubted he’d be able to pull this nail out.

“I knew something wasn’t right about what you said about Serena at Estelle’s the other night and it didn’t hit me until yesterday what it was. Serena told me the last time I talked to her, the day she took off for California, that she was getting a tattoo of her and her girlfriend’s names in a heart. Her girlfriend was having second thoughts about going to California with her. She was going to do it to prove her love. But I never saw the tattoo because she hadn’t gotten it yet. You must have seen her right after she got it done. How did you see it, Dennis? She wouldn’t have shown it to you. You two weren’t friends. She couldn’t stand you because of the way you treated me. How did you know about the tattoo?” she screamed. When Dennis didn’t answer her, she raised the nail gun again.

“Wait a minute!” he said, throwing up a hand.

“Tell me!” She started to squeeze the handle slightly.

“Okay, okay! I was in love with Serena! Are you satisfied? But, she never gave me the time of day. I sent her flowers with an anonymous note telling her to meet me here at the house. Julian and I used to come here and chill and get high all the time.”

“Then what happened,” I asked him. I had to go past Dennis to reach the safety of Cherisse and the nail gun but I was afraid Dennis would grab me. I stayed put.

“I had a candlelight dinner waiting for her. But when she got here, I could tell I wasn’t who she was expecting. I told her how I felt anyway and she…she…just laughed at me!” Dennis moaned like the memory of that rejection hurt him more than the nail sticking out of his shin.

“Go on!” Cherisse took a step closer.

“At first I thought it was because of the way I treated you. I told her I would apologize to you and get my friends to do the same. But she called me a stupid asshole and said she could never love me because she was gay. I didn’t believe her. Thought she was just making it up to scare me away. That’s when she pulled down her pants and showed me the tattoo on her hip. It was still fresh and had a bandage over it. It was a heart and inside it said Audrey and Serena Forever. She told me she and Audrey were in love and running away to California together. That’s when I knew she wasn’t lying. I realized that’s why Audrey was so hot to pass that science final so she could graduate on time, and that’s why she broke up with Julian. She was in love with Serena. I couldn’t believe it.”

“So, you figured if you couldn’t have her, no one would?” Cherisse’s hands were still trembling. I was praying she wouldn’t drop the nail gun.

“No! It wasn’t like that! I thought I could change her mind. I tried to kiss her but she slapped my face. I got mad and shoved her but her pants were still down around her hips and her legs got tangled up and she fell and hit her head on the corner of the table! I swear I never meant to kill her! I swear!” Both Dennis and Cherisse were sobbing now.

“And that’s why Audrey tried to kill herself, isn’t it? She thought Serena took off without her and it broke her heart.” I stood up slowly. Dennis just nodded.

“What did you do with my sister? I’ve been following you since yesterday hoping you’d lead me to her grave. Is she down here? Tell me!” She placed the nail gun against Dennis’s forehead.

As I watched the two of them, it occurred to me that I may not have been the only one to realize someone was buried in the cellar.

“Dennis, did Julian find out what you’d done? Did you push him off the roof?”

Dennis buried his face in his hands and howled. “I am such a fuck up! My parents have been telling me that all my life and it’s true. I had no idea Julian had bought this place. I was still living in San Diego. I came home for a visit and he told me he had a surprise for me. Brought me out here and told me he’d bought the place and was going to renovate and sell it. Make a huge profit. Said he was almost finished with the roof and would be working on the cellar next. I couldn’t let him find her. I came out here while he was working and threw a brick at him. I was just hoping he’d fall off the roof and break an arm or leg and not be able to work for a while. I just wanted to buy some time so I could dig her up and rebury her someplace else. I never meant for him to land on the fence. Julian was the only person who loved me.”

“Where is she? Where’s my sister?” Cherisse screamed in his face. Dennis flinched and timidly pointed near the place where he’d sunk the pick ax into the cellar floor. Cherisse turned to look, and in that instant Dennis knocked the nail gun out of her hand and shoved her to the floor. He got to his feet and started kicking her with his uninjured leg. She curled into a ball and started whimpering.

I ran over and kicked the nail protruding from his shin, probably sending it another half inch into the bone. He stopped kicking Cherisse and his face went white. The sound that came out of his mouth was inhuman. He stumbled backward, tripping over the same shovel he’d been digging my grave with, and fell impaling himself on the pick ax sticking out of the dirt floor.

Damn. That karma’s a bitch.

Epilogue

WHEN I GOT HOME early the next morning, after giving my statement to the police, and being checked over in the emergency room, there was a message on my answering machine from Carl. It said:

Kendra, by the time you hear this, I’ll be on my way to Atlanta. I came by to reason with you and what did I see? You all dressed up getting into another man’s big, fancy car. Guess your paranoia over me and Vanessa was a reflection of your own guilty conscious, huh? I guess I never really knew you at all, did I? Well, I hope you find whatever it is you’re looking for, but I now know it’s not me. Goodbye.

Carl was gone. I couldn’t believe it. And I didn’t know what was worse, the fact he thought I’d been cheating on him, or the fact that he thought I’d been cheating on him with Lewis Watts! I sat down on my couch and cried myself to sleep.

I went to four funerals that next week: Ivy Flack’s, Dennis Kirby’s, Serena Craig’s, and Clair Easton’s. The first two I attended purely out of a need for closure more than anything else. Ms. Flack’s funeral was well attended by students and staff at Springmont High. They’d loved her. Despite everything I’d found out about her, she’d been an excellent principal. I tried to think about the Ivy Flack I’d known before I found out about Alice Ivy Rivers. I mostly succeeded.

Dennis’s funeral was attended by his parents, Gerald, and a few of his coworkers at the college bookstore. I was also surprised to see Ashley, the physical therapist, there. I stood well away from the small group and just observed. Dennis’s parents looked numb with shock and clung to each other. Gerald kept sneaking peeks at Emma Kirby, who totally ignored him. I couldn’t tell if it was because of grief over her son’s death or anger over Gerald’s baby with Sunny. Mostly likely it was both. Ashley and Ellis Kirby also didn’t make much eye contact. I watched Ellis and Emma leave their son’s gravesite to go put flowers on Julian’s grave. Seems Dennis couldn’t even have his parent’s undivided attention at his own funeral. Unnoticed by the Kirbys, Gerald and Ashley left together.

Serena’s funeral was also sparsely attended by Audrey and her girlfriend, Janice, Cherisse, and me. Audrey had left her husband and was now living with Janice, the woman I’d seen her with at Estelle’s, and was preparing to fight for custody of her children. Audrey’s grief over Serena’s murder was tempered with a certain amount of joy. Audrey had been waiting for Serena at the bus station the night she died. She was heartbroken when she never showed up. Now she knew the love of her life hadn’t run off and left her eleven years ago like she’d thought. Audrey was at peace and felt free to be who she really was.

Cherisse was also at peace. She planned to change her major to psychology and become a high school guidance counselor like Ms. Flack. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth about Ivy Flack. There was nothing to be gained from shattering her illusions about a woman who was her only high school friend. Cherisse had also stopped seeing Gerald and had let go of a lot of the anger and hurt from high school. I told her I’d never tell a soul about her helping Ms. Flack blackmail the reunion committee and I meant it. I was hoping we could finally be friends. She seemed to want that, too.

I felt restless after leaving Claire’s funeral. I drove around for a while to think. I had tried to call Carl to explain what had really happened the night he came over and saw me getting into Lewis Watt’s car. But I when I dialed his cell phone number, I found out it had been changed. I even tried to get his new number from his mother. No such luck. She basically told me I’d fucked up and it was my loss. Her son was better off and I needed to leave him alone so he could find happiness with someone else. So, I did. His mother was right. He wanted marriage and babies and needed to find someone who wanted those things, too, because that person wasn’t me. And I didn’t know if it ever would be.

Hours later, I found myself parked in front of Rollins’s house. If nothing else, I always had a friend in him. At least I thought I did. I hadn’t seen him since our dinner at Estelle’s. Even after my latest caper hit the papers, I hadn’t heard a peep out of him, which was strange. I noticed the car parked in the driveway behind his gold Mercedes and figured it was his daughter Inez’s car. As far as I knew, she was still living in the apartment over his garage.

I let myself into his backyard and walked up on his deck, my hand poised to knock on the sliding glass door. But the lights were down low. I cupped my hands and looked in. Rollins was inside and he wasn’t alone. I could hear music playing. It sounded like Ray, Goodman, and Brown’s “Special Lady”. Rollins was slow dancing with someone I couldn’t see at first. Her head was resting against his shoulder. I couldn’t move. All I could do was watch. Finally, the woman lifted her head and I saw her face and wanted to scream. It was Detective Trish Harmon.

Now all of the new clothes, hairdo, and attitude were understandable. She was in love…with Rollins! I watched as he leaned down to give her a kiss, then they turned and left the room hand in hand, heading for the bedroom, I assumed. Was this what he meant when he asked me to let him move on? He’d met Trish Harmon and wanted to be with her? I felt dizzy and had to sit down on the deck steps. Well, what did I expect? He had every right to be happy. But with Trish Harmon? This was not happening.

“She died?” I said, not at all surprised since last I’d heard she was on death’s door. I was relieved I wouldn’t have to testify against her.

“No, Kendra, she escaped from custody.”

“What?” I sat straight up in my chair. “How? I thought she was dying?”

“Everyone did. They found out the prison doctor treating her was one of her ex-johns from back in the day when she was hooking in Vegas. He purposefully got assigned to the prison she was in to be near her. He’d been lying to everyone about her condition so he could help her escape. She wasn’t dying. She was getting better. Now they’re both in the wind. Nobody knows where they went. I’m scared. What if she comes after us and tries to kill us again?”