Mariah Stewart - Cold Truth

“So you’re still seeing Jameer?”

“Sort of. My aunt doesn’t really want me to have a boyfriend, you know.” She wrinkled her nose.

“Your aunt is a smart woman. As much as I like Jameer, I think you’re too young to be too involved with any one guy. And remember, at the end of the summer, he’ll be leaving for college.”

“Did I tell you he’s going to Georgetown to play basketball? Just like Allen Iverson?”

“Only about a hundred times.” Cass smiled.

“Maybe I’ll go to Georgetown, too,” Khaliyah said wistfully. “Maybe I could get a scholarship. My friend Tonya has a cousin who got a full ride there for track. Maybe I could get one for basketball. That’s what you did, right? At Cabrini?”

“Right. And I think your chances are great, if you keep the grades up and do as well on the court this season as you did last. We’ll talk to your coach and your guidance counselor over the summer and see what they think. I’m sure they’ll have some good ideas on where to apply and how to get the most financial aid.” Cass took a long pull of water. “Did you get your Advanced Placement scores back yet?”

“Yes.” Khaliyah smiled broadly. “All fours.”

“Excellent. I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks,” Khaliyah said softly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, sipping their water, watching the swallows swoop around the lights on the court.

“It’s getting late, I should get you back home so you can study for that test and maintain your perfect record.”

“Fifteen more minutes?” Khaliyah got up and began to bounce the basketball.

“Ten.” Cass stopped to set the alarm on her watch, then set about to steal the ball.

Twenty minutes later, Cass was dropping Khaliyah off in front of her aunt’s house.

“Thanks again for the phone.” Khaliyah’s eyes were shining. “I can’t wait to call Tonya. She’s had her own phone since middle school.”

Cass waved to Khaliyah’s aunt as the girl hopped out of the car, calling, “Aunt Sharona, look at what Detective Burke gave me…”

Cass grinned to herself and drove away, thinking how little it took to make Khaliyah’s brown eyes light with happiness.

It had not always been so.

Cass had met the girl after having been called to a grisly scene five years earlier. Khaliyah’s mother had been stabbed to death by her boyfriend, when she’d discovered that he’d raped her only child. Only twelve at the time, Khaliyah had endured more, had seen more, than any child should, but there was something in her spirit that had kept her strong enough to testify against the man who had attacked her and murdered her mother.

During the months leading up to the trial, Cass had spent a lot of time with Khaliyah, and the young girl had responded to the detective’s kindness and truthfulness at every step of the investigation and throughout the trial. Along the way, Cass had become a mentor to Khaliyah, who lived with her mother’s sister and her family. As much as Sharona loved her niece, the woman was already overworked with five children of her own and two jobs and had little time for the emotional needs of a damaged child. Cass had stepped in and become Khaliyah’s advocate, her best friend, and the big sister she’d never had.

It had been Cass who had made certain that Khaliyah got all the counseling she needed in the months and years after her mother’s death, Cass who had encouraged Khaliyah to ask to be tested for the top academic track when she reached high school, Cass who had paid for the summer school classes that had allowed her to catch up after having lagged behind in junior high. It had been Cass who had recognized Khaliyah’s athletic promise and enrolled her in basketball camp, and Cass who had helped Khaliyah get the part-time waitressing job at the diner where all the local officers stopped for meals during the day, and who had sat down with Khaliyah’s aunt and asked her to permit Khaliyah to take the PSATs this past year. Come the fall, it would be Cass who would work with the guidance counselors to look at the options for college, help her seek out the financial aid she would need, and take her on campus visits.

It was not lost on Cass that perhaps she was trying to replace one lost younger sister with another, but she’d shrugged off the thought. Khaliyah was smart and brave, brave enough to sit in open court and describe what had been done to her, what had been done to her mother. She had endured and survived, and was, in Cass’s mind, deserving of whatever advantages Cass could help her attain. She’d have done the same for Trish, if she’d had the chance. Now she’d do for Khaliyah. She knew what it was like to lose your mother, to have that core of strength and confidence taken from you. She, too, had been placed with relatives, and though she’d never doubted her aunt and uncle loved her, she’d never quite been able to completely settle there. Whatever she now did for Khaliyah, it was to help her through the toughest times and make certain that she knew there was someone who would stand behind her. Cass never regretted a minute of time she spent with her.

It was almost nine-thirty when Cass arrived home and crept into the stone driveway next to her bungalow. This year, she was going to get these stones replaced if she did nothing else. Macadam, maybe. Something nice and smooth…

Exhausted, she started to open the car door, then realized the lights were on inside her house. Had they been turned on when she left?

A shadow moved across the kitchen window.

Taking her bag from the front seat, she felt around for her gun. Holding it down, her finger on the safety, she exited the car but left the door ajar so as not to slam it. She crept up the back steps, and peered through the window. The shadow moved through the front hall into the living room.

Cass eased the door open and slid inside, lowering her bag to the floor silently as she proceeded toward the front of the house. She rounded the corner, her gun level in front of her.

“Don’t move,” she told the figure who stood in the middle of the living room floor.

“Oh, for Christ’s sake, Cassie, don’t you get enough of that cop drama during the day?”

“Lucy.” Cass exhaled loudly and lowered the gun. “Jesus, Lucy, I could have shot you.”

“A simple ‘Gee, it’s nice to see you’ would suffice.”

Muttering under her breath, Cass went outside and closed the car door.

“I brought dinner with me. Or have you eaten already?” Lucy said as she came into the kitchen. “And how ’bout a hug?”

“No, actually, I haven’t eaten.” Cass embraced her cousin lightly.

“Good. Chicken parm and pasta. I stopped at that place right as you come into town?” Lucy hustled to the refrigerator and opened it. “Get two plates, Cass, I was waiting for you.”

“Where are David and the twins?” Cass asked.

“The kids are both at sleepover camp this summer-they’ve gone before, but it never ceases to amaze me that they’re old enough for real sleepover camp.” Lucy shook her head. “I don’t know where the years have gone, Cass, I swear it.”

“And David?”

“You want a little wine with this, Cassie? I brought a bottle with me, it’s right there on the counter, by your elbow.”

Lucy fixed two plates and popped one into the microwave.

“Yay, a new microwave. The old one finally pooped out, eh? With any luck, the stove will follow suit and you’ll have to get a new one of those, too. Have you seen the kind that has two ovens? A little oven on the top and a full-sized one on the bottom? It’s super.”

Cass popped the cork on the wine bottle as Lucy found two glasses.

“Well, we could probably spring for a few real wineglasses, but I suppose it tastes just as good in these fat little tumblers.” Lucy smiled brightly and took a sip. “Yum. Cass, why don’t you sit down-you look like you’re about to pass out on your feet-and I’ll just find us some knives and forks…”