Schooled In Lies (8 page)

“It’s been eleven years. Don’t your parents wonder where she is?”

“My father died of a heart attack five years ago and mom died of cancer six months ago. Until the day they both died, they still thought she was just staying away out of spite just to hurt them. They refused to look for her.”

“Maybe it’s time you found out what happened to her,” I said.

“You know, I don’t know what would upset me more, if I found out she was alive and just didn’t want to see me, or if I found out she was dead. I’m almost too afraid to find out for sure.”

“If she was my sister, I’d want to know what happened to her.”

“I really do think she’s dead.” Cherisse pushed her half-eaten plate away. “I know you wouldn’t understand. It’s a twin thing. It’s like I can’t feel her energy anymore. It’s like half of me is gone forever.”

I watched as she stepped off the curb to cross the street to her car. When she got to the middle of the street, I heard tires squealing and saw a dark colored car pull out from down the street and barrel straight for her. Cherisse was frozen to the spot.

“Cherisse! Look out!” I screamed and ran out grabbing Cherisse and pushing her out of the way just in time. The car never stopped.

“Are you okay?” I asked. We were on the other side of the street by her gold Ford Escort. She was clinging to my arm and staring after the car.

I tried to get Cherisse to report the vandalism of her car—and almost being run down—to the police. She refused. She was too rattled and upset and just wanted to go home. Understandably, Cherisse thought the message on her car was from yet another person who held her responsible for Julian Spicer’s death. Thinking back on the conversation I’d overheard between Vanessa and Audrey about the strange voice mail message left on Audrey’s cell phone, I wasn’t so sure. Then there was what Dennis Kirby had told me about coming home to find his garage vandalized. The vandal had painted some kind of message on his garage wall. Was his message the same as Audrey’s and Cherisse’s? If so, could all three messages be from the same person? Was this person also the one who almost ran Cherisse down and was behind Audrey’s drug and alcohol interaction and Dennis almost being electrocuted? And what about the baby oil I found at the top of the cafeteria steps Ms. Flack fell down. Had she gotten a message too? She certainly hadn’t mentioned receiving one. More importantly, what were the messages about? What were they going to be made to pay for?

I followed Cherisse to make sure she got home okay before heading home to read about the Montessori Method.

Chapter Six

I WAS STILL THINKING about the message on Cherisse’s car the next day at work. If I was right, and Audrey, Dennis, Cherisse, and possibly Ms. Flack had all gotten the same message, after suffering near fatal accidents, then Gerald and I should be next. That is, if Gerald hadn’t already received a message. I had to find out. During my two-hour break between the morning and afternoon class session, I headed over to Wheatley Financial, where Gerald worked, to pay him a little visit.

Wheatley Financial was in downtown Willow on the second and third floors of a beautifully renovated three-story brownstone. The first floor had been occupied by a real estate company that had recently moved to larger office space, at least that’s what the sign on their closed office door said. I headed upstairs and found myself in an open landing that had been turned into a warm and inviting waiting room. The walls were robin’s egg blue and abstract art in muted watercolors hung on the walls, thick plush brown carpeting cushioned my footsteps. A young black woman with braids, dressed in a white suit and seated behind a glass topped desk, looked up and smiled as I approached.

“May I help you?” she asked in a well-modulated, slightly accented voice. The brass nameplate on her desk informed me she was Sunny Abou, receptionist.

“I hope so. I’m here to see Gerald Tate. I’m an acquaintance of his. I don’t have an appointment. I just wanted to see if he could spare me a few minutes.”

“Really,” she said, staring at me quizzically for a moment. “Let me check to see if he’s free.” Sunny, the smile never leaving her face, consulted a leather bound planner on her desk before picking up her phone and punching in a number.

“Mr. Tate a—” She looked up at me expectantly.

“Kendra Clayton,” I supplied when I realized I never told her my name.

“Kendra Clayton is here to see you.” I watched as she listened to his reply nodding her head in agreement to whatever he’d told her.

“You can go on back. It’s down the hall, the third door on your left,” she said, half standing and gesturing down a long narrow hallway.

I thanked her and headed back. Before I got halfway down the hall, Gerald appeared in the doorway of his office.

“Kendra? What brings you by?” He had a slightly confused expression like he couldn’t decide if he was happy to see me or not. He shot a quick, nervous glance over my shoulder and I turned to see Sunny staring at us with a tight smile. Gerald’s tie was loosened and his shirtsleeves were rolled up. He wasn’t sporting any bandages or bruises indicating a recent accident, which meant I was going to have to do some digging.

“I hope I’m not bothering you. I just needed some financial advice and I thought who better to consult me than Gerald, right?” I didn’t wait for his reply and walked past him into his office and took a seat in one of the two chairs in front of his desk, which was a larger version of Sunny the receptionist’s. His office was small and much plainer than the waiting room with stark white picture-free walls and cold chrome furniture. But it was free of clutter, if a little impersonal, and he’d maximized what little space he had.

“So, what kind of advice are you looking for?” He sat behind his desk and closed his laptop computer so he could give me his full attention. Gerald was a handsome guy and someone I could have been attracted to if I didn’t know what an asshole he could be. Plus, with three ex-wives and four kids, he had way too much baggage.

“That’s a good question,” I said, laughing. “I recently came into a sum of money and I have no idea what to do with it. That’s why I’m here. I can’t decide if I should invest it or just stick it into my retirement fund or what.” I knew that there was probably no reason for me to lie about why I was really there but I still wasn’t sure there was any connection between what had happened to Dennis, Audrey, and Cherisse and didn’t want to come across as crazy or paranoid.

“How much money are we talking about?” he asked. I couldn’t help but notice he had perked up considerably at the mention of money and was again reminded of the missing reunion fund cash.

“About five thousand dollars,” I said, wishing I was talking about real money.

“Are you enrolled in a four hundred one k plan through your job?”

“Actually, I’m only part-time and not eligible for the four hundred one k plan my job offers. But I am enrolled in the school system’s retirement fund,” I told him truthfully. At 29 I wasn’t thinking as much about my financial future as I should be and hoped I wasn’t going to be dining on cat food cuisine in my old age.

“Then I’d recommend opening an IRA.” He pulled open a desk drawer and pulled out some brochures on the types of IRA accounts Wheatley Financial offered and the pros and cons of each. He really seemed to know his stuff.

“I think I’d like to take these home and give it some more thought,” I told him when he’d finished. “I just hope I live long enough to retire. It was so sad about what happened to Julian, which just goes to show that you never know when your time is up.” I was hoping to get the ball rolling. Gerald stared at the top of his desk and shook his head slowly.

“I know that’s right. Hell, I almost joined Julian.” He leaned back in his chair and gave me a grim smile.

“Really? What happened?”

“I fell asleep on my couch and woke up and the house was filled with smoke. I’d left a cigarette burning in an ashtray in my kitchen next to an open kitchen window. A breeze must have blown the curtains against the cigarette and caught them on fire. I woke up just in time to put out the fire before my whole kitchen went up in flames.”

“
Damn
! You were lucky you weren’t killed,” I said with genuine feeling.

“And do you want to know what the craziest part is?” He was tapping a pencil nervously against his desk. I shook my head.

“I distinctly remember smoking half of that cigarette before putting it out when I left the kitchen. But after I took care of the burning curtains, I noticed a whole smoldering cigarette in the ashtray. Isn’t that crazy?”

“That does sound weird.” I also didn’t remember it being breezy last night, either, but decided not to mention that. Instead, I filled him in on what had happened to Audrey, Dennis, and Cherisse.

“Maybe it’s some kind of reunion curse,” I told him jokingly after I’d finished. Gerald laughed. Clearly he didn’t see any connection between his and the other accidents.

“Naw. I can’t speak for the others, but I really need a vacation. I didn’t realize how much until last night. I must have been really tired to have forgotten to put out that cigarette.”

“Hard to say what could have happened to it.” He laughed nervously. He made a point of looking at his watch and then stood up. I knew he wanted me to leave but I wasn’t finished yet.

“You haven’t received any strange anonymous messages have you?” I asked. He blinked nervously a couple of times and shook his head slowly but never looked me in the eye.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Look, I’m glad I could help you out, Kendra. But I’ve got another client coming pretty soon. Go on home and think about which IRA you’d like then we can schedule another consultation and we’ll have more time to talk.” He walked over to his office door and held it open for me.

He wasn’t the worst liar I’d ever seen but he sure was close. Just for fun I sat and stared at him for a minute without speaking and watched him twist in the wind. He rocked back on his heels, looked at his watch again, pulled on his earlobe, looked up and down the hall. Finally, he looked away from me and down at his highly polished shoes.

“Thanks for the advice. I appreciate you taking the time to see me.” I got up and walked out the door.

I sat in my car across the street from Wheatley Financial to think. Something was very wrong. Gerald’s kitchen curtains had caught fire last night. He admitted the kitchen window had been open and assumed a breeze had blown the curtains against the cigarette in the ashtray. It hadn’t been breezy last night. In fact, it was muggy and humid. The heat had hung thick, stagnant, and unmoving in the air. I ought to know. The air conditioner in my apartment was broken and I was miserable.

With Gerald’s window being open, it would have been easy for someone to reach through the window, put a burning cigarette in the ashtray, and hold the curtains against the cigarette to catch them on fire. Just as it would have been easy to put baby oil on the cafeteria steps Ms. Flack fell down, spike something Audrey drank with alcohol, tamper with Dennis’s vacuum, and try and run Cherisse down in the street. I knew Audrey and Cherisse had gotten strange threatening messages. Even though Dennis had never told me what had been painted on his garage wall, I would bet anything it had been the same message saying: “You Will Pay For What You Did”. Now I just had to find out if Gerald had gotten a message, too.

I knew the black BMW convertible parked in the small lot next to Wheatley Financial was Gerald’s. I got out and went over to inspect it. There wasn’t anything keyed in the paint like on Cherisse’s car. I heard the sound of an approaching voice and ran over and hid beside a large dumpster next to the building. I stood on tiptoe, peaked over the top of the dumpster, and watched as Gerald came around the corner talking and laughing on his cell phone. The playfulness in his voice, and his soft seductive laughter, told me he was talking to a woman and it wasn’t about IRAs. He must be working on wife number 4. I watched him hop in his car and drive away and decided to have a go at his office.