A Little Bit of Karma

by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

  “Who?” Nicole asked.

  Jay and I exchanged glances. I had conveniently left out the senator’s name, telling Nicole only that all of this was related to clearing our names. It was obvious Senator Bell was dangerous, and we didn’t want to get Nicole any more involved than she already was. “We’ll tell you all about it later.”

  “Shannon, what in the world is going on? Why are you guys playing investigative reporters when you’re wanted for murder?” Nicole asked.

  “Nicole, trust me, it’ll all make sense soon. But right now, the less you know, the better.”

  “Shannon…”

  “I’ll get back in touch with you soon, okay?”

  Nicole sighed. “Be careful. And let me know if there’s anything I can do. Both Quincy and I will be back in D.C. tomorrow. We got your stuff packed up, and it’s being shipped home too. We’re trying to avoid the media vultures but they are everywhere, so you might want to stay offline.”

  “Thanks so much, Nic. And don’t worry, we’ll be safe. I don’t have my phone, but we have Jay’s work phone and we’ll call you as soon as we can.” I hung up and turned to Jay. “Okay, this is major. No wonder Vonda was blackmailing the senator. There’s no way he’d want something like this to get out.”

  Jay nodded. “Yeah, it’s reason enough for him to kill to keep it from coming out.”

  “Well, now that we know what this is all about, the question is, what do we do with this information?”

  twenty-three

  How in the world had I been thrust into the middle of a Lifetime espionage movie?

  “Now what do we do?” I asked my husband. We were sitting in IHOP, supposedly to eat and discuss our next move. But neither of us had touched our pancakes. I was shocked that we hadn’t crashed from exhaustion but the adrenaline from trying to stay alive must’ve been fueling us.

  “Now we go see Bradley,” Jay said bluntly.

  I leaned into the table and lowered my voice. “Oh, yeah, right. We’re just going to waltz up into his congressional office and tell him all the dirt we have on him.” I threw up my hands. “Hello, do you hear yourself? First of all, we’re not going to even make it past the lobby area. Secondly, like he’s just going to admit to something this huge.”

  Jay held up the jump drive. “We have the evidence.”

  I shook my head. No way would this be that easy. Obviously, my husband never watched Lifetime. “Why don’t we just take that to the cops?” I asked.

  “Okay, we do that and we’re able to prove that the senator is into some shady, Watergate-type stuff. But there’s nothing to tie him to Vonda’s death, and that’s what we need to be concerned with. If what’s on here is true, Bradley Bell will make sure he discredits us and that we go down for Vonda’s murder. And there’s no telling who a man that powerful has in his pocket. No, our best bet is to just give him the drive, let him know we don’t want to be involved, and get him to clear our names.”

  “It’s just that simple, huh?”

  Jay exhaled his frustration. “I don’t know if it’ll work or not, but right now, it’s all we got.”

  “How do we even know he’s tied to those thugs in the Virgin Islands?” I asked. “I mean, are we really to believe Vonda had seduced the senator to the point that he’d share his illegal activities with her?”

  “Vonda was crafty. I doubt he shared anything. She might have stumbled on it.”

  I shook my head, unconvinced.

  “Nothing else makes sense,” Jay said. “After what we saw on this drive, the senator is the only one behind this.”

  I knew the senator was the only one with the money and power to chase Vonda all over the place.

  “So we just need to get in touch with the senator and play let’s-make-a-deal, and when he clears our names, we give him the jump drive,” Jay continued.

  “I don’t like this. We’re just supposed to let the man create another natural disaster so he can build a freakin’ casino? Do we want that on our consciences?” I asked. “Remember how many people died in Hurricane Katrina? Could you live with that happening again and knowing we could’ve done something?”

  Jay slammed his hand on the table. “I just want to live our lives, Shannon.” He lowered his voice when the waitress looked our way. “We turn this info over to the police and we’ll never see it again, and lose all hope of clearing our names.”

  My resolve weakened. I knew Jay was right. “So the question remains, how are we going to get in to see the senator?”

  Jay paused like he was thinking. “Quincy will help get us in,” he finally said. “We need to call him.”

  Before I could reply, Jay quickly leaned in and kissed me across the table.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I asked, trying to pull away.

  “Shhh,” he said, motioning toward the door with his eyes. I turned around and glanced at the two police officers who had just walked in. I quickly turned back around. Nicole had said the cops in D.C. were looking for us as well. We couldn’t take a chance on getting spotted.

  “Let’s just ease out as soon as they take their seats,” Jay whispered.

  I had never felt so nervous. What if we were caught? The very real possibility that I could go to jail for a crime I hadn’t committed filled my head. And even if we were eventually exonerated, I’d have to go through a living nightmare first.

  Luckily, one officer went to the bathroom in the rear of the restaurant and the other slid into a booth with his back to us. Jay stood, threw some money on the table, then grabbed my hand and led me out.

  We didn’t say anything until we were several blocks away, parked in the lot at a Target store.

  “I can’t take this, Jay,” I finally mumbled.

  “That’s why we’ve got to handle this,” he said as he pulled out his phone. He punched in a number, then put the phone on speaker. “I’m calling Quincy.”

  The phone rang twice, then Quincy’s voice filled the SUV.

  “Jay, man,” he said, his voice filled with relief. “Where are you guys? I’ve been worried sick. What the hell is going on? Why haven’t you been answering your phone? You just disappeared from Saint Thomas and the next thing I know, you’re wanted for murder. What happened?”

  “We’re fine, Quincy. Shannon is here with me. I have you on speakerphone.”

  “The police in the Virgin Islands and D.C. are about to issue a warrant for your arrest. So can you tell me what in the world is going on?”

  “Man, you know I didn’t kill anybody,” Jay said, repeating what had become our tagline. “Vonda was caught up in some real crooked stuff, and now I’m right in the middle of it.”

  “What kind of crooked stuff? And why didn’t you bring this to me and we could just take this to the cops?”

  “You said it yourself—I’m wanted for murder. I’m sure my fingerprints are in her room. And the people I think are responsible don’t play around. If they want me to go down for murder, I go down for murder. Thanks, but no thanks.”

  Quincy was silent as Jay’s words registered in his head. “What people, Jay? Tell me what in the world is going on.”

  Jay paused. “I can’t say just yet.”

  Quincy exhaled an exasperated sigh. “So what, do you plan to stay on the run?”

  “No, we’re going to find the real killers,” Jay replied.

  “Okay, Perry Mason. You’re no private eye, so don’t go trying to dig for answers. Let the police do their job.”

  I could picture Quincy, his brow furrowed, his mind racing as he tried to figure out how he could fix this.

  “Quincy, you remember when Joe got arrested for assaulting that woman in his building?” Jay said, referring to their old high school buddy.

  “Yeah, what does that have to do with anything? He was exonerated.”

  “Yeah, but after spending six months in jail. I’m not trying to go out like that.” Jay blew a frustrated breath. “You know what, just save it. My time is limited. I just need to
know what you know about Bradley Bell.”

  “Who?”

  “Bradley Bell, the senator from Louisiana.”

  “What does he have to do with anything?” Quincy asked.

  I was tired of playing twenty questions, so I spoke up. “Do you know how to get in touch with him?”

  “Why would I know that?”

  “You’re a high-profile attorney. You ought to know someone who knows him. What the hell are we paying you all this money for if you can’t help us,” I snapped.

  “Look,” Jay said, placing a hand on my arm in an effort to calm me, “Shannon didn’t mean to get smart with you, but as you can imagine, we’re freaking out over here. We’re exhausted and running on pure adrenaline.”

  Quincy hesitated. “I understand, but I just don’t… Wait, there’s this one guy I went to law school with. He used to work in Senator Bell’s office. I could see if he’s still there.”

  “I need you to get in touch with him and set up a meeting ASAP.”

  I could hear his doubt as he said, “Bradley Bell is a well-known politician and the word is that he’s going to be on the next presidential ticket. So the last thing he wants to be doing is having clandestine meetings with a wanted fugitive.”

  “Oh, I assure you, he’ll want to meet with us,” Jay said.

  Silence, then, “Okay, Jay, you need to tell me what’s going on.”

  “Just tell the senator that Vonda Howard passed his information on to me.”

  “Vonda, the dead woman? What does she have to do with anything?” Quincy asked. “What information did she have? Is that why she’s dead?”

  “Again, I’ll explain everything later. For now, just do this for me. I’ll call you back first thing in the morning.”

  “But, Jay—”

  “No buts, Quincy. Just work this out for me.”

  Quincy let out a heavy sigh. “Okay, man, but I hope you know what you’re doing.”

  “I don’t have much choice. We’ll be in touch.” Jay pressed the end button to disconnect the call.

  “So now what?” I asked.

  “Now we wait,” Jay replied, as he leaned back his seat to get comfortable.

  twenty-four

  I had only been half-kidding when I said it felt like I was in a movie, but that’s exactly where I was, only these weren’t fictitious characters, and if they didn’t figure out something, there definitely wouldn’t be any happily-ever-after ending.

  “What are you doing?” Jay asked as I dug in my bag for the cell phone I’d grabbed from the radio station. I downloaded my contacts and info from the cloud and saw tons of messages.

  “I tell you what I’m not about to do. I’m not about to sit in the Target parking lot for God knows how long. We can’t go home, because the police may be there, and if the police aren’t there, some thugs may be there, and I just want to lie down,” I huffed. “I’m calling Nicole. She has a condo downtown that I think is empty. Maybe we can go there until we figure all of this out.” I was thankful Jay didn’t protest as I punched in Nicole’s number.

  “Hey, Nicole.”

  “Hey, Shannon, are you guys okay? I’ve been going crazy since I talked to you. You guys really sound like you’re in some kind of danger.”

  “We are,” I confessed. “But we’ll be okay.”

  “What’s going on, Shannon? I need you to tell me everything. They’re talking about murder, warrants. All the media is covering it. It’s gone national. They said either you or Jay killed that woman Vonda.”

  I fell back against the headrest. “You know that as much as I would’ve loved to have strangled her until she begged for mercy, I didn’t touch her.” I looked over at Jay, who sat staring as if he was unsure whether he should comfort me. “And Jay may be a low-down, filthy, dirty dog, but he’s not a killer.”

  He seemed relieved to hear those words coming from my mouth.

  “So what’s going on?” Nicole asked.

  “Somebody killed her, all right, and they’re trying to pin it on us. So we’re trying to find out who.”

  “What do you mean find out who? You need to be letting the police do that.”

  “Nicole, we can’t do that, especially now that we’ve run. We look guilty. We believe the person responsible is a powerful man. He’d make sure we rotted in jail.”

  Nicole gasped. “Person responsible? Who are you talking about? Is this all connected to the New Orleans stuff?”

  I was just about to reply when the look in Jay’s eyes stopped me. He shook his head, a warning that I was saying too much. “Hopefully, I’ll be able to tell you all about it later. I don’t want to get you involved any more than you already are. We just wanted to see if we can stay at your downtown condo.”

  “Dang, I rented it out last week, someone is in there.”

  “Aww, man, we’re exhausted, but we can’t go home.”

  “Yeah, I know. There were all kinds of newspeople at the station today. They’re all over the place. I’m sure they’re camped out at your place too.”

  “What are we gonna do?” My voice was panicked yet weary.

  “Look, calm down. You can stay at my brother’s apartment in Richmond. He’s a college student, so it won’t be much, but he’s out of town. He has a spare key on the back porch.”

  “Oh, thank goodness, it’s just for a day or two. Hopefully, we can get to the bottom of this and clear our names.”

  Nicole gave me directions and some more pertinent information. “Girl, you call me if you need anything.”

  “Thank you, Nicole. I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  I hung up the phone and the river of tears was released. No longer hesitating, Jay took me into his arms and held me while I cried. After a few minutes, I began trying to pull myself together. This was getting ridiculous. I’d cried more in the past few days than I had in the past twenty years.

  “I’m okay,” I said, wiping my eyes. “I just want to go. Nicole said we can go to her brother Robert’s place.”

  I put the address into the navigation system and we hit the freeway. I was surprised that I actually fell asleep on the ride there. But the past few days had obviously taken their toll and I was utterly exhausted.

  I woke to Jay gently shaking my leg. “Come on, babe. We’re here.”

  I stretched, glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, and then stepped out of the vehicle.

  I unlocked the door to the apartment and we made our way inside and got situated. Robert had an old beat-up chocolate sofa, but I plopped down on it and it felt like I was relaxing on a luxurious mattress.

  “You hungry?” Jay asked, heading toward the kitchen.

  “I am absolutely starving,” I replied, suddenly wishing that I had devoured those pancakes.

  I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The smell of gym socks didn’t even bother me. I was just grateful for a place to lay my head.

  “You can tell we’re dealing with a college kid,” Jay called out from the kitchen. I pulled myself up off the sofa and made my way to the kitchen.

  “Why do you say that?” I leaned against the doorway.

  “Let’s see, we got Lunchables, beer, old pizza, or this unidentifiable object.” He held up a clear plastic container with some type of yellowish pasta.

  “Yeah, um, I’m gonna pass,” I said.

  Jay put the stuff back in the refrigerator, then walked over and opened the cabinet. “There’s some chicken noodle soup here. You want that?”

  I was just about to say no when my stomach answered for me.

  “I guess that’s a yes,” Jay said.

  I nodded before going to lie back down on the sofa.

  After a few minutes, Jay walked into the living room with two bowls of soup on a plastic tray and two bottled waters.

  “Do you really think Senator Bell is just going to take the jump drive and let us walk away?” I asked as I sat up and took the soup. “What if he takes it and we still end up charged with murde
r?”

  Jay sat down next to me. “I don’t know what other choice we have but to believe this will all work out.”

  “So you think we’ll get out of this?” I asked, skepticism filling my voice.

  “I know we will.”

  I sipped my soup, then said, “This is some heavy stuff, Jay.”

  Jay looked like he was pondering the fact that we could be in real danger. “We just have to tell the senator we didn’t look at the jump drive. We can tell him that Vonda left a note not to view the drive, or something like that.”

  “Yeah, right, like he’s gonna believe that.”

  He sighed like he knew that wasn’t a good idea. “Well, I just know that we have to let him know that if anything happens to us, the information will be made public. We’ll tell him we kept a copy as an insurance policy and if we’re harmed, he’s going to go down.”

  I continued eating my soup, savoring the hot liquid as it flowed down my throat. I finished off the bowl, then placed it on the coffee table. “I can’t wait for our lives to return to normal,” I said, leaning back on the sofa.

  Jay set his soup bowl down as well, then scooted over and pulled me close. “Me either, baby.”

  For the first time in weeks, I didn’t want to pull away from his embrace. In fact, I sank into his arms. We stayed that way, dozing off, until Jay’s phone rang. I pulled away, shaking off the sense of safety I felt in his arms. No sense in getting caught up in the mood, I reminded myself.

  “It’s Quincy,” Jay said, looking at the caller ID.

  He pressed the speaker button to answer. “Hey, Quincy. Please tell me you got the senator,” he said, not wasting any time with small talk.

  “Hello, Jay, and yes, God is definitely working in your favor,” Quincy said.

  I sat bolt upright. “He’ll see us?”

  “Yeah, I didn’t think he would, but his assistant called me back in less than thirty minutes once I was finally able to track down my friend. That’s unheard of, so whatever you guys have must be major.” Quincy paused. “What do you guys have, Jay?”

  “I’ll explain everything to you later, but it’s best that you don’t know now. When can we go see him?”