Linwood Barclay - Never Saw It Coming

But no matter how much Caroline might look down her nose at her cousin, she never took it out on Matthew. Even though she didn’t see her second cousin often, she never forgot to phone him on his birthday, or send him a small present at Christmas. This past year, she even mailed him some chocolate eggs at Easter.

Matthew’d be better off with Caroline and Earl, Keisha thought, even if I don’t get arrested.

No, no, that wasn’t true. For all her faults, Keisha believed she was a good mother. She loved her son more than anything in the world, and he loved her. As long as it was possible for them to be together, they would be.

Should she call her cousin? Keisha contemplated phoning Caroline, telling her something had come up, she might have to send Matthew out there for a few days. Once he was there, if the police did pick her up, Caroline would hold onto him. She’d do the right thing. She was that kind of person.

These thoughts ran through Keisha’s mind as she unlocked the front door of her rented house and walked into the living room. Saw Kirk’s unfinished beer and half-eaten Twinkie on the coffee table.

She looked at the clock. Any moment now, Matthew would be home.

Outside, she heard a car door slam. Seconds later, the front door opened and Kirk’s eyes landed on her.

“Shit, I raced back here for the kid, but you’re already here. You couldn’t have called me?”

“I just got dropped off a second ago,” Keisha said. “Did you do it? Did you get the bag?”

He smiled triumphantly. “I got the bag.”

If there were half a dozen weights on her shoulders, she felt one of them float away. “Oh thank God. It was still there? It hadn’t been opened?”

“Still there, not opened,” he said. “You think I don’t know how to get things done?”

“Okay, that’s good. Thank you.”

“You get the five grand?”

She nodded tiredly. “I got it.”

He slapped his hands together. “Did she get cash, like I told her?”

“She got cash.”

“Let’s have a look.”

She pointed to her purse, which she’d dropped onto the couch. He dug into it, found the envelope, and peered inside. He riffled his finger across the tops of the bills.

“Sweet,” he said. “Have you counted it?”

“Gail wouldn’t cheat me.”

“We should go out for dinner tonight and celebrate,” Kirk said.

“I don’t feel like celebrating.”

“Come on. Live a little.”

Keisha glared at him. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Huh?”

“All the stuff that’s gone down today-I nearly died! A man is dead. This police woman, Wedmore, is sniffing around me, and I think she knows what happened. And you want to go out and celebrate?”

He had the money out of the envelope and had turned the bills into a thick fan. “You have to live in the moment, babe. And at this moment, we’re loaded.”

“I almost gave it back,” she said quietly.

“You what?”

“I almost gave it back. I’m not taking advantage of people like this any more. You don’t think today was some kind of message? Huh? You don’t think maybe somebody’s trying to tell me something?”

He sneered. “Oh, that’s bullshit. Sometimes shit just happens. Then, the next day, different shit happens.”

She shook her head and walked into the kitchen. He followed her in, saying, “Where you wanna go? Come on. The li’l fucker likes Chinese. We’ll go someplace he likes.”

“His name is Matthew.”

“Come on, you know I’m just goofin’ around.”

She leaned against the counter and sighed. “What did you end up doing with it?” she asked.

“With what?”

“The bag. Where’d you finally dump it?”

“Oh, it’s still in the truck,” he said offhandedly. “I was planning to get rid of it soon as the kid showed up. Go to the mall, get a snack, drop it off back of the place.”

Keisha wondered if she should just turn herself in. It’d be faster. “You’re not serious.”

“Yeah, I raced back ’cause you wanted someone to be here for the kid. Figured you wouldn’t be home in time. I’ll get rid of it, don’t worry.”

“So that bag, it’s here, sitting in the driveway?”

“Don’t worry. It’s all under control. Where is the kid, anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Keisha said. She left the kitchen and went to the front door to watch for Matthew, saw Kirk’s truck parked by her car.

She couldn’t see the bag in the back of it.

“Kirk!” she shouted. “I don’t see any bag!”

“It’s there,” he said wearily. “It’s just tucked up under the rear window, is all.”

She was going to go out and see for herself, but stopped when a dark vehicle stopped at the end the driveway. An unmarked police car. Rona Wedmore got out, looked at the house, saw Keisha standing in the doorway, and smiled.

“Perfect,” Keisha said.

As Detective Wedmore walked past Kirk’s truck, she glanced into the cargo bed, empty save for the green garbage bag with the red tie at the top. Keisha opened the door wide as Wedmore mounted the three steps.

“Detective,” she said.

“Ms. Ceylon,” Wedmore said, nodding. “Mind if I come in?”

Keisha admitted her into the house. Wedmore saw Kirk standing there and said, “Hi, how are you? I’m Detective Wedmore with the Milford police.”

Kirk’s right hand was busy stuffing the five thousand in cash into the back of his pants, so he awkwardly extended his left. Wedmore accepted it as though she always shook hands that way.

“Hey,” he said with false cheerfulness. “I’m Kirk. Nice to meet you.” He flashed a smile.

“What’d you do to your face there?”

He touched his scratched cheek. “Nothin’,” he said.

“I had an interesting chat with Mrs. Beaudry,” Rona Wedmore said to Keisha. “She brought up something I wanted to bounce off you.”

“Sure,” Keisha said. “Did you want to talk privately?”

“No, this is fine,” the detective said, smiling again at Kirk, who still had one hand rubbing the lump of cash in the back of his jeans. “This all comes back to the card.”

“My business card,” Keisha said.

“That’s right. She says…” Wedmore stopped herself and looked at Kirk. “I’m sorry, I’m probably being very rude here. Has Ms. Ceylon told you about what’s happened today?”

“Uh, a little,” he said hesitantly. “Some dude got killed or something.”

“That’s right. Wendell Garfield.”

“That’s the guy was on TV asking for help to find his wife. Yeah, I know who you mean.”

“When we found Mr. Garfield, he had Ms. Ceylon’s business card in his shirt pocket.”

Kirk’s eyes went wide. “Wow, well, that’s something. Isn’t that something, Keisha?”

Shut up, she thought. She should have said it out loud.

Kirk said, “So maybe he was thinking of hiring Keisha to find out what happened to his wife. She does that, you know. She’s got this gift. She can see shit.” He smiled at her and put a hand on her shoulder. “And she likes to help people.”

Shut up shut up shut up.

Wedmore turned her attention back to Keisha. “You had a theory about how Mr. Garfield got your card. A theory that didn’t include you handing it to him yourself.”

Keisha said, “I don’t know how he got my card, but yes, I do think maybe he could have gotten it from his sister, Gail. Since she’s already been coming to see me for some time for consultations.”

“Right, that’s what you said. So I asked Mrs. Beaudry about that. Whether she had given her brother your card.”

Keisha waited.

“And she said it was possible. She didn’t actually remember doing it, but she said she could have given it to him, or to Mrs. Garfield.”