Lisa Scottoline - Devil's corner

"You wanna know who killed your mama."

"Yes, I do," Reheema said, and Mrs. Bethave turned back to Vicki.

"What about you? Why'd you care?"

Reheema answered for her, "She's my friend."

Wow.

Mrs. Bethave thought a minute, then looked down at Albertus. "Mook, you know what these ladies talkin' 'bout?"

Albertus glanced timidly up at her face, then nodded.

Yes ! Vicki felt like cheering.

"Look at me, son." Mrs. Bethave cupped Albertus's chin and turned his face up to her. "Chucky gave you fi' dollars for the phone?"

Albertus nodded, his chin tight in his mother's hand.

"Where'd you get that phone? You find it somewhere?"

Albertus shook his head, no.

"Then where'd you get it?"

Albertus raised his hands and signed rapidly, his dark fingers flying, and Vicki held her breath for the translation. Chucky had told her that the little boy was deaf and that he read lips.

Albertus finished signing, and Mrs. Bethave's eyes filled with alarm. Her hand dropped from his chin and her lips parted. She jumped to her feet so abruptly, she bumped the three-ring notebook, startling all of them.

"Oh no! No, no, no!" Suddenly panicky, Mrs. Bethave hurried around the table and almost lifted Vicki bodily from her chair. "Go now, out, you two! That's the way it is, you two got to go."

"Mrs. Bethave, please, what did he say?" Vicki rose rather than be thrown out, but Reheema stood her ground.

"I'm not goin' anywhere, lady! Whoever gave him that phone killed my mother! Who gave it to him?"

"I can't, I can't say, you have to go."

"I need to know who!"

"You wanna get my child killed?" Mrs. Bethave shouted back, standing toe-to-toe with Reheema. With a mother's ferocity, Mrs. Bethave more than matched the taller and younger woman. "I'll never tell, no matter what! That man is a killer! He kills for money and he'll kill my boy, sure as we stand!"

He kills for money ? The words broke the standoff, and Vicki and Reheema exchanged looks.

"Go! Don't tell anybody you were here!" A terrified Mrs. Bethave shooed them both out of the kitchen and to the front door. "Please! Jesus!"

"Wait, no!" Reheema shouted, recovering first, but Mrs. Bethave had pulled open the door and was physically pushing them out into the cold.

"Never tell anybody you were here, never!"

Mrs. Bethave slammed the door closed and dead-bolted it with a loud, final ca-thunk .

Vicki steered the Intrepid onto the cross street, driving from the Bethave house faster than necessary. She worried for Mrs. Bethave's safety and for Albertus, and it had been all she could do to stop Reheema from breaking down the Bethaves' front door.

"Look, we got our answer, for the present time," Vicki said. "We followed my phone down the line and we know where it ends. And it leads to another question. Why did she say it was someone who kills for money? What did she mean by that?"

Reheema was shaking her head. "I shoulda broken down that door."

"I had assumed it was an opportunistic crime. An addict or someone from the neighborhood." Vicki thought back to that night, to poor Arissa straggling in only her housedress down the cold street. The older woman had been easy prey for anyone, but Vicki didn't need to draw a picture for her grieving daughter. "It doesn't seem likely it was a murder for hire. Maybe that's not what she meant. You think that's what she meant?"

"You can sit here and guess all you want, but Bethave knows who killed my mother."

"And we're not going to get her killed for it, or that little boy. She's protecting her family."

"And I'm protecting mine. I shoulda beat it out of her."

"You don't mean that, and she wouldn't have told you anyway." Vicki looked over to double-check, but it was darkening in the car, and Reheema had her sunglasses on. "Look, it's getting late. Let's grab something to eat and go over to Cater."

"I'm not hungry."

"Then let's go over to Cater now and pick up the black van. It's dark, and I feel better."

"I feel worse." Reheema was still shaking her head. "She knows who did it, and we're drivin' away like it's nothin'."

"We'll figure it out, just give me some time." Vicki tried to think of a lawful solution but kept coming up dry. "If we tell the cops, that'll put her in danger, and she'll deny she said anything anyway. At least we know where she lives and we have the information."

"What if she leaves?"

"She won't. She has a job and a kid in school."

"What about witness protection? Don't the feds do that all the time?"

"Only for federal crimes, like racketeering. Murder is a state-law crime."

Reheema scoffed. "Lawyer talk."

"I'm sorry," Vicki said, meaning it. She had been raised with a reverence for her profession, but for the first time, she was beginning to understand what people meant by legalese.

"You talk about making sense, now something else makes sense. I couldn't figure why a killer would give up a cell phone like that. But he gives it to a kid who can't talk."

"Yeah." Vicki nodded. It was why Chucky hadn't known when or where Albertus had gotten the phone. The child hadn't been able to tell him.

"But why not throw the phone away? Why take it at all?"

"Maybe he liked Albertus, was trying to do him a favor."

"A killer with a heart of gold. Stabbed my mother to death. We should go back."

"No."

"Turn around. I want to go back."

"No."

"I'll go back without you. Ditch you like you ditched me."

"Then I won't let you out of my sight. We'll have a sleepover at your house. I'll bring the nail polish. You got popcorn?" Vicki accelerated into light traffic, which had picked up now that people were coming home from work. She switched lanes, then took a right, a left, and another right, and in time, Reheema looked over.

"Where you goin'?"

"Cater Street."

"Then turn around, Harvard," Reheema said, with a soft chuckle, and Vicki knew they were back on track.

Darkness descended as Vicki and Reheema sat in the front seat of the Intrepid, parked near the end of Cater. They'd found a new parking space across the street; they were changing things to avoid signaling the watchers, and now that they'd identified the van, didn't need to see it pull up in front of the vacant lot.

"They'll pull in from the far side, and we'll see them when they come out. This is safer." Vicki eyed the watcher at their end of the street, four houses up from the corner. He wore a long green army coat and a dark knit cap, and he tended to face the other end of the street. "It helps that the action comes from the far side. We caught a break."

"Yeah." Reheema's tone echoed in the cold, hollow interior of the car. She had grown progressively quieter since their discovery at the Bethaves' house, and Vicki's heart went out to her.

"We'll find your mother's killer."

"You're damn right, we will. Your way or mine."

Vicki let it go, her eyes retrained on the dark street. Thick clouds conspired to hide the moon. "Hope we didn't miss the run to the supplier's."

"Yeah." Reheema checked the car's dashboard clock. "It's seven already. Won't your boyfriend wonder where you are?"

"I left him a note, saying I'd be out shopping."

"He'll believe that?"

"I shop a lot." Vicki reached in her pocket for her cell. "I figured I'd call him about now and say hi."

"Go for it."

Vicki retrieved the phone and flipped it open, making a bright blue spot in the car. She was about to press in Dan's cell number when she heard a car engine and looked up.

"It's them!" Reheema said, pointing needlessly, as the black van veered around the corner, spraying snow.

Vicki closed the phone and twisted on the ignition, and they took off.