A Little Bit of Karma

by ReShonda Tate Billingsley

  I threw my hands up. “I didn’t say a word.”

  Jay groaned and hung the phone up. “The number’s disconnected.” He paused. “What if something happened to her too?”

  “Nothing happened to her or she wouldn’t have packed,” I responded. “She took off, that’s what happened to her.”

  Jay looked like he was really thinking. “Why would she leave in such a hurry?”

  “Keri is on the run.” That’s the only answer that made sense.

  “On the run from what, though?” Jay asked.

  “Probably because she’s in a whole lot deeper than she’s letting on, and now she’s spooked and decided to take off.”

  “How are we going to find her? She could be anywhere, and I feel like she’s the only hope we have of getting answers,” Jay moaned.

  I sat deep in thought, racking my brain. Something was on the edge of my mind, something that I felt could lead us to Keri.

  “She didn’t go too far,” I said, as it dawned on me what that something was.

  “How do you know?”

  “Remember the letter I was reading when we were there? From the nursing home about her grandmother?”

  “So? Maybe she doesn’t have a relationship with her grandmother.”

  “No, there was a picture on Keri’s mantel of her and this old lady holding a birthday cake next to the woman’s bed. I bet that’s her grandmother. Maybe she knows how we can find Keri.”

  “So you think her grandmother is in a nursing home?”

  I tried to recall the name I had seen on the notice. “Westhaven,” I said, snapping my fingers as the name came to me. “Her grandmother is in Westhaven Nursing Home. That’s the name that came up on the phone’s caller ID and that was printed on that past-due bill. And her name is Eloise Walker. I think that we should go pay Ms. Walker a visit; maybe she knows how to get in touch with Keri.”

  “It’s worth a shot,” Jay said, shrugging.

  “And at this point,” I said, “it’s all we have.”

  I didn’t know what we were going to do if we found Keri, but I knew we had to do something—even if that meant dragging Keri to the senator’s office ourselves so she could tell him what she knew. The bottom line was, I refused to spend my life worried about Senator Bradley Bell and his thugs, and if Keri was the only way to clear this up, we couldn’t rest until we found her.

  Jay was just about to back out of the parking lot when he turned to me.

  “What?” I said, confused as to why he was staring at me.

  “We make a pretty good team,” he said with a smile.

  My first instinct was to respond with sarcasm, but instead, I returned his smile. “We do, don’t we?”

  thirty

  I had never been on the inside of a nursing home—my grandparents were all dead by the time I was a teenager, and my parents hadn’t lived past sixty—but it smelled just as I’d imagined it would: like mothballs and old people.

  Thank goodness for the sweetness of the colorful bouquet Jay had thought to stop and pick up on our way there. The flowers made us look like official visitors as we made our way into the building.

  We approached a robust woman with graying hair sitting at the information desk. She wore a name tag that read BERNICE.

  “Good afternoon, we’re here to see Eloise Walker,” Jay said.

  The woman looked up over her cat-eyed glasses.

  “Haven’t seen you here before,” she said.

  “I’m her nephew from Mississippi,” Jay said with a big, cheesy grin. “My cousin Keri is going to meet us here later.”

  “Okay,” the woman said, turning her attention back to her National Enquirer magazine. “Mrs. Walker is in room 12A. She might not recognize you. Half the time, she can’t remember her own name.”

  I stared at him as we walked down the long hallway. “You’re a great liar,” I said, only half-kidding.

  “Look, I’m just doing what I need to do to get us in here,” Jay said, his tone defensive.

  I let the issue drop and made a mental note to stop with the sarcasm. I didn’t want to be the angry black woman, but what so many men failed to see was that they were the ones who made us angry. Pain has a way of sparking fury. Even so, we’d had some decent moments these past few days, and I didn’t want to ruin them with an anger that wasn’t good for anyone.

  Jay eased open the door to Mrs. Walker’s room. Inside, an elderly woman sat in a rocking chair, staring out the window. She turned toward us, long, stringy gray hair framing her face. She pushed some stray strands out of her eyes and squinted in our direction.

  “Who is it?” she said.

  I couldn’t tell if the woman was half-blind or what, but she was definitely struggling to make out who had entered her room.

  “I’m Sara, and this is Tony,” I slowly began, shrugging at Jay as I approached her with measured steps. “We’re friends of Keri from school.” I almost said college but quickly changed my mind, since I wasn’t sure if Keri had actually gone to college.

  “Oh, you’ll have to excuse me, baby, I can’t remember much these days.” Mrs. Walker laughed and turned back to the window.

  “That’s okay, I have a hard time remembering things myself,” I said, easing to her side. It dawned on me that Jay and I were so anxious to find Keri that we hadn’t really talked this plan all the way through.

  “What can I do for you?” Mrs. Walker said.

  I looked at Jay. He shrugged again, so I just began spinning a story. “Well, today is Keri’s birthday,” I began, “so we wanted to—”

  Mrs. Walker stopped rocking and frowned in confusion. “It’s November? But I thought we just celebrated Palm Sunday.”

  I exchanged glances with Jay. “I told you, I have a hard time remembering things too. You are so right.”

  I knelt in front of the old woman. “I don’t know if you know, but Keri has been quite depressed lately. And we’re just trying to catch up with her so we can take her out and cheer her up or something.”

  Mrs. Walker shook her head like that couldn’t be right. “But Keri said she’s going away for a while.”

  “That’s because she was so sad. You know what,” I said, clapping my hands together as if a great idea had just hit me, “why don’t we throw her a surprise party today?”

  “Today?”

  “Yes, you know how happy parties make Keri!” I hoped I wasn’t totally off base.

  The woman slowly nodded, as if she was trying to make herself remember.

  I continued talking. “We could throw Keri a small birthday party. Right here. Nurse Bernice already said it’s okay. Tell you what, let’s play a game. You call Keri and we’ll make up a story to get her here; then when she gets here, we’ll yell, ‘Surprise!’ ”

  Mrs. Walker continued shaking her head doubtfully. “I don’t know about this. I watch my friends play bid whist at five o’clock, and I was just about to take my afternoon nap.”

  “It’ll take Keri, what, an hour to get here?” I said. “That’ll give us enough time for Tony here to run and get your granddaughter a cake and you can get a quick nap in.”

  She was quiet, as if she was contemplating it.

  “Don’t you want to make Keri happy?” I asked. I felt awful about using this poor old woman, but desperate times called for desperate actions.

  “Yes, she’s the only one who comes to see me,” the woman said, her voice filled with sadness.

  “Yes, exactly. She needs this. She was just telling me the other day how much stress she was under. And something like this would brighten her day. Don’t you agree, Jay?”

  “Tony,” Jay corrected, shaking his head.

  “That’s what I said,” I said, grimacing. “Let’s go ahead and call Keri now. Do you know her cell phone number? I have it but it’s in the car.”

  “Yes. I… I think she has a new phone. It’s in my drawer, in my Bible.”

  I walked over, opened the drawer, and pulled out the Bible. I foun
d the paper and dialed the number, making sure I committed it to memory. As soon as it started ringing, I handed the phone to Mrs. Walker.

  “Tell her they’re about to put you out of your room because your bill hasn’t been paid,” I whispered.

  Mrs. Walker shook her head. “Oh, no, I don’t like lying.”

  “Oh, we’re not lying,” I quickly retorted. “It’s a surprise.” Mrs. Walker took the phone, doubt still written all over her face.

  “Keri, it’s your grandmother,” she began, her voice filled with hesitation.

  I nodded, encouraging her with a smile.

  “Um, baby, I need you to get down here right away…. Well, these people here, they say it’s a problem with my room. Um…” She looked at me. “What did you say to tell her?”

  I grimaced again. “Your bill hasn’t been paid,” I whispered.

  Mrs. Walker nodded. “Oh yeah, they say the bill hasn’t been paid and I have to go. Come down here, baby. Can you come now? I don’t want to leave.” She paused, then took the phone away from her ear. “She wants to speak to the nurse.”

  I looked at Jay and he motioned for me to take the phone.

  I took it and began speaking in a nasally tone. “Hi, this is Sylvia,” I said.

  “Sylvia, who are you and where’s my grandmother’s regular nurse?” Keri demanded.

  “Well, I’m the one who handles financial matters.”

  “I don’t have any financial matters! What the hell is going on?”

  “It appears your grandmother’s bill hasn’t been paid for two months, so we’re preparing to move her out.” I flashed a reassuring smile at Mrs. Walker, who seemed anxious at the idea of lying to her granddaughter.

  “Are you crazy? I paid my bill two months ago.”

  “I’m sorry, but our records indicate otherwise.”

  “Well, your records are wrong!” Keri yelled.

  “Well, if you claim you paid it, bring a copy of the cleared check down here on Monday and we’ll get it all straightened out, but in the meantime, we’re going to have to move your grandmother out because we have a waiting list for this room.”

  “Move her where?” I could feel Keri’s anger through the phone.

  “Well, unfortunately, we’ll have to send her to a shelter for the elderly.”

  “Are you insane? You’re not moving my grandmother! I paid the freakin’ bill!”

  “Well, is there any way you can come bring a copy of the cleared check to us now? Because of the high level of fraud, we’re not allowed to accept faxes or emails as documentation.”

  “This is ridiculous,” Keri huffed. “I can’t come down there right now.”

  “Well, we’re left with no choice but to move your grandmother.”

  Keri uttered a string of curse words, before finally saying, “Ugggh, I’m on my way, and all I know is my grandmother better get a free month for all this hassle.”

  She slammed the phone down and I turned to Jay and smiled. “She’s on her way.”

  “I don’t like lying to my granddaughter.” Mrs. Walker shook her head, clearly distressed.

  I gently patted the old lady’s arm. “Oh, but this little white lie will all be worth it,” I said, leading her over to the bed. “For now, you just lie here and get some rest, and, Tony, you can run to the grocery store down the street and pick up a cake.”

  Jay shook his head as I walked him to the door.

  “Do I really need to go get a cake?” he whispered.

  “No, just wait outside a few minutes.”

  He nodded. “Okay.” He stopped and looked at me. “Oh, and Shannon?”

  “Yeah?”

  “You’re a pretty good liar yourself.” He didn’t smile as he walked away.

  thirty-one

  I couldn’t believe we were about to do this, but I knew we hadn’t been left with much choice. We needed answers, and Keri was the only one who could give them to us.

  “You really think this is going to work?” Jay whispered.

  “It better, because it’s our last hope,” I replied.

  He glanced down at the old woman, who had dozed off and was peacefully sleeping. We’d been waiting for forty minutes. Nurse Bernice had come in, and I’d assured her that everything was fine and we were waiting on Keri, so the woman had pretty much left us alone.

  “I don’t know. I feel bad about using the old woman,” Jay said.

  “I do too. But you’d think you’d feel worse about looking over your shoulder all your life,” I replied.

  “You have a point there.”

  We paced the small living quarters for about twenty more minutes before the door to the room swung open.

  “Grandma?” Keri called out as she barreled into the room. She had her hair pulled back into a ponytail and a tight jogging suit on.

  As soon as she stepped in the room, I jumped up and slammed the door closed.

  “What the—?”

  Jay immediately covered Keri’s mouth. Keri slapped his hand away.

  “Shhh,” he said, gently pushing her against the wall. “We don’t want to hurt you.”

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked, trying to wiggle from his grasp. “Did you do anything to my grandmother?” Her eyes frantically looked over at her grandmother.

  “Of course not,” I replied. “She’s sleeping.”

  Keri jerked free, then walked over to make sure that her grandmother was fine. Satisfied that she was, Keri spun toward us. “I’ll ask you again: what are you doing here?”

  “What does it look like?” I said, walking toward her.

  “It looks like you broke into an old lady’s room and are now trying to take me hostage.”

  Keri pushed her way around Jay and headed toward the door. “I’m going to call security.”

  “Do you really want anyone to know that you’re here? I’m sure there are some people looking for you,” Jay said, stopping her in her tracks. “I mean, if we could find you, it shouldn’t be any problem for Senator Bell’s people to find you too.”

  Keri spun around, her eyes wide with fear. “Why would they want to find me?”

  “Obviously, you’re the one behind the story in the newspaper,” I said.

  Her eyes darted from side to side. “Wh-where did you get that idea from?” she stammered.

  Jay regarded her, his eyes narrowed. “The story ended up in the media anyway, and the way I see it, the only people who knew about the blackmail were me and Shannon and you and Vonda. Bradley Bell is pissed. He thinks we went back on our word. He thinks we double-crossed him.”

  “And we didn’t,” I said. “That means, if we didn’t, and since Vonda’s dead, you’re the only person left on the list of suspects.”

  “Why am I being dragged into this? I didn’t have anything to do with this.” Her voice cracked; it was obvious that she was terrified.

  “Because you’re the only other person who knew about the senator,” Jay said.

  She glared at Jay a moment before saying, “What makes you think that?”

  “Look, little girl,” I said, slamming my palm up against the wall, causing Keri to let out a small scream, “we’re not messing with you. Our lives are in danger because you want to play games.”

  “Get away from me!” Keri shouted. She moved away from the door, her chest heaving up and down as she glanced over to make sure the commotion hadn’t awakened her grandmother. “I didn’t have anything to do with anything,” she protested.

  “Whatever! You and your bimbo friend came up with this grand scheme to get rich off a shady politician and it’s blowing up in your face.”

  “Stop talking about Vonda like that!” Keri yelled, before catching herself when her grandmother squirmed. She lowered her voice. “Women like you are so freakin’ pathetic. You want to hate the other woman, when it’s your husband you need to be hating,” she spat. Her eyes were filled with venom. “Vonda didn’t owe you a damn thing. He did.” She jabbed a finger toward
Jay.

  I took a step back to calm myself. It wasn’t that I was buying into Keri’s speech; the way Vonda had tormented me in the Virgin Islands, I had a right to hate that tramp. But I knew we wouldn’t get anywhere if I continued to badger Keri.

  I made eye contact with Jay as if to tell him to step in and handle this.

  “Look, Keri,” he began, holding his hands up, “we’re just trying to get to the bottom of what’s going on. If you say you didn’t have anything to do with the story in the Dispatch, then who else knew? Who would go to the press?”

  She huffed, rolled her eyes, then folded her arms across her chest.

  “Please, Keri. These are our lives here,” Jay pleaded. “None of us are safe.”

  She blew out a frustrated breath. “Fine. The only other person who knew what Vonda was doing is Vincent.”

  “Who is Vincent?” Jay asked.

  Keri smirked. “Vonda got around.”

  “What?” both Jay and I said in unison.

  “I didn’t stutter. Vincent is the true love of Vonda’s life. They just have a volatile relationship, so they don’t work well together. She thought you would help her finally get him out of her system, but they have history,” Keri said.

  Jay looked dumbfounded. I was mortified. First Bradley Bell, now this Vincent guy. So now there were more men in this DNA-swapping chain I’d unknowingly been involved in? I was getting mad all over again.

  “H-how do you know she told him?” Jay stammered. He probably was thinking the same thing I was—exactly what kind of woman was Vonda Howard?

  “Because Vincent had a way of creeping back into her life whenever he felt like it. And Vonda had some loose lips during pillow talk. She messed up and told him one night, and truth be told, I think he was the one egging her on to blackmail the senator.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us this from the start?” I asked.

  “Look, I told you I don’t want to get involved. Senator Bell may be a legit thug, but Vincent is a real-life thug. I know for a fact he’s killed someone once before. I’m not trying to become one of his victims,” Keri said.