Jeffery Deaver - The Twelfth Card

“Meet me at school.”

“Naw. Wanna talk just us.”

Geneva debated. Her friend’s face told her this was important. She slipped out through the gate and walked up to the big girl. They fell into a slow walk, side by side.

“Where’ve you been, Keesh?” Geneva frowned. “You cut class?”

“Ain’t feelin’ good.”

“Monthlies?”

“Naw, not that. My moms sent a note.” Lakeesha looked around. “Who that old dude you with th’other day?”

She opened her mouth to lie and instead said, “My father.”

“No!”

“Word,” Geneva said.

“He be livin’ in Chicago, or somethin’, you tellin’ me.”

“My moms lied. He was in the system. He got released a couple months ago, came to find me.”

“Where he at now?”

“In the hospital. He got hurt.”

“He down?”

“Yeah. He’ll be okay.”

“And him and you? You phat?”

“Maybe. Hardly know him.”

“Damn, him showin’ up – musta been freaky.”

“You got that right, girl.”

Finally the big girl slowed. Then stopped. Geneva looked at her friend’s evasive eyes and watched her hand disappearing into her purse, gripping something inside.

A hesitation.

“What?” Geneva asked.

“Here,” the girl whispered fast, lifting her hand and thrusting it forward. In her fingers, which ended in black-and-white-checkered acrylic nails, was a silver necklace, a heart on the end of a chain.

“That’s -” Geneva began

“What you give me last month, fo’ my birthday.”

“You’re giving it back?”

“I can’t keep it, Gen. You be needin’ benjamins anyway. You can hock it.”

“Don’t be wack, girl. Not like it came from Tiffany’s.”

Tears were welling in the big girl’s eyes, the prettiest part of her face. Her hand lowered. “I be movin’ next week.”

“Moving? Where?”

“BK.”

“Brooklyn? Your whole family? The twins?”

“They ain’ goin’. None of the family be goin’.” The girl’s eyes swept the sidewalk.

“What’s this all about, Keesh?”

“I’ma tell you somethin’ that happen.”

“I’m not in the mood for drama, girl,” Geneva snapped. “What’re you talking about?”

“Kevin,” Lakeesha continued in a soft voice.

“Kevin Cheaney?”

Keesh nodded. “I’m sorry, girl. Me and him, we in love. He got this place he moving to. I’ma go with him.”

Geneva, silent for a moment. Then: “Was he the one you were talking to when I called last week?”

She nodded. “Listen, I didn’t want it to happen but it jus’ did. You gotta understand. We got this thing, him and me. It ain’t like nothin’ I never felt. I know you wanta be with him. You talkin’ ’bout him all the time, lookin’ him over ever’ day. You so happy that time he walk you home. I know all that and still I done move in on you. Oh, girl, I been worried steady, thinkin’ ’bout tellin’ you.”

Geneva felt a chill in her soul, but it had nothing to do with her crush on Kevin, which had vanished the instant he showed his true self in math class. She asked, “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

Wasn’t feeling good …

Keesh lowered her head and stared at the dangling necklace.

Geneva closed her eyes for a moment. Then she asked, “How far down?”

“Two months.”

“Hook yourself up with a doctor. We’ll go to the clinic, you and me. I’ll -”

Her friend frowned. “Why I do that? It ain’t like I laid no baby on him. He say he use protection if I say so but he really want to have a baby with me. He say it be like part of both of us.”

“It was a line, Keesh. He’s working you.”

Her friend glared. “Oh, that cold.”

“No, that’s word , girl. He’s been fronting. He’s working some angle.” Geneva wondered what he wanted from her. It wouldn’t be grades, not in Keesha’s case. Probably money. Everybody in school knew she worked hard at her two jobs and saved what she earned. Her parents had income too. Her moms’d worked for the Postal Service for years and her father had a job at CBS and another one nights at the Sheraton Hotel. Her brother worked, as well. Kevin’d have an eye on the whole family’s benjamins.

“You loan him any money?” Geneva asked.

Her friend looked down. Said nothing. Meaning yes.

“We had a deal, you and me. We were going to graduate, go to college.”

Lakeesha wiped tears from her round face with her round hand. “Oh, Gen, you a trip. What planet you be livin’ on? We talk, you and me, ’bout college and fancy jobs but fo’ me, it just talk. You write yo’ papers like they nothin’ and take yo’ tests and you be number one at ever’thing. You know I ain’t like that.”

“ You were going to be the successful one, with your business. Remember, girl? I’ll be a poor professor somewhere, eating tuna out of a can and having Cheerios for dinner. You’re the one going to kick ass. What about your store? Your TV show? Your club?”

Keesh shook her head, her braids dangling. “Shit, girl, that just claimin’. I ain’t goin’ nowhere. Best I can hope for is what I doin’ now – servin’ up salads and burgers at T.G.I. Friday’s. Or doing braids and extensions till they go outa style. Which you ask me’ll be all of six months.”

Geneva gave a weak smile. “We always said ’fros’d be coming back in.”

Keesha laughed. “Word. All you need fo’ them is a pick and spray; ain’t no need fo’ no fresh artist like me.” She twined her own blonde extensions around her finger then lowered her hands, her smile fading. “By myself, I’ll end up a played-out old bag. Only way I’ma get over is with a man.”

“Now who’s talking trash ’bout herself, girl? Kevin’s been feeding you crap. You never used to talk this way.”

“He take care of me. He be lookin’ steady for work. An’ he promise he help me take care of the baby. He different. He not like them other boys he hang with.”

“Yes, he is. You can’t give up, Keesh. Don’t do it! Stay in school at least. You really want a baby, fine, but stay in school. You can – ”

“You ain’t my moms, girl,” Keesh snapped. “I know what I’m about.” Anger flashed in the girl’s eyes – all the more heartbreaking because it was the very same fury that had filled the girl’s round face when she stepped up to protect Geneva from the Delano or St. Nicholas project girls moving on her in the street.

Get her down, cut her, cut the bitch …

Then Keesh added softly, “What it is, girl, he sayin’ I can’t hang with you no more.”

“You can’t -”

“Kevin say you treat him bad at school.”

“Treated him bad?” A cold laugh. “He wanted me to help him cheat. I said no.”

“I told him it was fucked up, what he was sayin’, me and you being so tight and ever’thing. But he wouldn’t listen. He say I can’t see you none.”

“So you’re choosing him,” Geneva said.

“I ain’t got no choice.” The big girl looked down. “I can’t take no present from you. Here.” She thrust the necklace into Geneva ’s hand and released it fast, as if she were letting go of a hot pan. It fell to the filthy sidewalk.

“Don’t do it, Keesh. Please!”

Geneva reached for the girl but her fingers closed on nothing but cool air.

Ten days after the meeting with Sanford Bank President Gregory Hanson and his lawyer, Lincoln Rhyme was having a phone conversation with Ron Pulaski, the young rookie, who was on medical leave but expected to return to duty in a month or so. His memory was coming back and he was helping them shore up the case against Thompson Boyd.