Deliver Me From Evil (25 page)

“W
hat's wrong with you, woman? Have you completely lost your mind?” Wade asked, pushing me away like he'd just heard that I had a fatal disease and was contagious. Then he reared back and stared at me in slack-jawed amazement. “I can't believe my ears! Kidnapping is one of the most serious crimes you can commit in this country. That ain't too far from being a terrorist!” He wobbled up from his seat and stood in the middle of the floor, with his hands on his hips, staring at me now, with his mouth hanging open in a yawn so wide, I could see the base of his tongue.

“Not if you don't get caught. And, if we do everything right, there is no chance of that happening,” I assured him.

As far-fetched as my scheme sounded, even to me, I had given it a lot of thought. It had been on my mind for several days now, but this was the first time I'd felt brave enough to put it on the table.

“But it won't be a real kidnapping,” I added. “I'll hide out with you somewhere, and you make the call.”

“What call?”

“The threatening voice that calls my husband to tell him that I've been kidnapped and am being held for ransom,” I answered, not even trying to hide my exasperation. Wade was supposed to be so streetwise, but he was as dense as he could be.

Wade opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out at first. He shook his head as if that was the only way he could get the words to move. “You think I could pull it off? Do you honestly and truly think that I could pull something like that off?”

“You're an actor, brother,” I snapped. “If you can't, I don't know who can.”

Wade shook his head and then looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “How do I know you ain't trying to set me up?”

“Why would I be trying to set you up?” I asked, rolling my eyes. “What the fuck would I have to gain by sending you back to jail, Wade?”

He massaged the side of his head and let out a loud sigh. “All right. Talk to me,” he ordered. “Tell me everything I need to know.”

“Then you'll help me?” I asked, my eyes as wide as a child's on Christmas morning. “You'll do it?”

Wade nodded, but with noticeable hesitation. “If we don't do this thing right, it might be the last thing we ever do,” he warned.

“It's a simple plan, baby. Now listen …”

It was a simple plan, my plan. It took me only ten minutes to lay it out. If Wade followed my instructions, we'd both be very happy with the outcome.

When I stood up to leave, Wade grabbed my hand. “I just want you to change one detail.”

“What?” I asked, annoyed and alarmed. “I thought we had everything worked out.”

“We did. I mean, we do. It's just that I need a little more time.”

“More time for what? You want to give this some more thought?”

“Not really. I am going to do it, but I just don't want to do it tomorrow like you said. I think we should wait at least a couple of days more.”

“What is there to wait for? You're going to rent a motel room for me to stay in. You're going to call up my husband and tell him you're holding me for ransom.”

“What if he won't pay? Then what? Do you go on back home and pick up where you left off with him and his crazy-ass family, or what?”

“He'll pay,” I said firmly. “He's all about money. He's never turned anybody down that asked him for money.”

“Christine, this is not the same thing as that snow-cone truck–driving brother-in-law of yours asking your husband for a few dollars. Or that Harvey or Adele asking for money to go on cruises and shopping sprees with. Those are not crimes, but they should be,” Wade said, with a dry laugh.

I gave Wade a pensive look. “If he doesn't pay, I leave, anyway. I might even go to L.A. with you.”

“And if he does pay? What is your next move? Whatever it is, it better be good.”

By the time I left Wade's mama's house, we had ironed out our plan some more. If Jesse Ray paid the ransom, Wade would take his share and go back to L.A. and resume his Mickey Mouse “acting” career. If he was smart, he'd use some of his money to hire a good manager or a publicist who could help open a few doors for him. And, from what I knew about his career, he was going to need all the help he could get if he wanted to do something that he could be proud of.

Besides Wade, I didn't know any other people in the movie business. But I knew enough about the business from reading the tabloids and watching shows about entertainers on the E! channel to know that Wade had had his fifteen minutes of fame. In his case, he'd even been cheated out of that. His fifteen minutes had been more like two. But the saddest part was the fact that it had been two minutes of shame. I didn't know about other people who had been reduced to starring in porn movies, but I knew enough about Wade to know that he had too much pride to let his mama and the rest of us know the truth.

I told Wade that my plan was to go to Hawaii and start over. Other than that, I was as vague and evasive as possible. I avoided telling him where in Hawaii I planned to go. When he asked me for the fourth or fifth time, I said the first thing that came to my mind. “Uh, Maui.”

“I'll wait a few months; then I'll come visit you,” he told me. “But”—he paused and let out a tired sigh—“if dude don't pay and you still want to get away from him, you can come on down to L.A. and stay with me, if you don't mind sleeping on the pallet in a studio with two other folks ….” Wade paused again and let out another tired sigh. I was not counting, but I was convinced that he had let out enough sighs to blow out a streetlight. “Until you find a job. It's the least I could do.”

I knew in my heart that my relationship with Wade had finally run its course. What he had to offer as far as a future was concerned didn't appeal to me at all.

“Sure,” I mumbled. I said whatever I thought he wanted to hear because I knew that if things went the way I wanted them to go, Wade would not see me in the future.

And neither would Jesse Ray.

I
had come to believe that anybody who chose to commit a serious crime had to be stupid in the first place. But I'd only felt this way since I'd married Jesse Ray and become “respectable.” However, I knew from experience that a lot of people committed crimes out of necessity. The most honest man in the world would steal food if that was the only way he could feed his starving family. That was all about survival. I felt that I had something in common with that honest man trying to feed his starving family. I needed to survive. I had convinced myself that I wouldn't survive if I stayed with Jesse Ray.

Leaving him was going to be painful because I would be giving up a lot. I loved the house he had bought for us to grow old in. It was kid friendly, with a recreation room and a spacious backyard. But none of that mattered now. Because even if I stayed, the only kids who'd enjoy all that would be Adele's and their obnoxious friends.

The next night I called up Wade a few times on my cell phone from my spacious bathroom, a location I used to enjoy being in. Right after we'd moved into the house, Jesse Ray had installed a plasma television with a flat screen in our master bathroom so that I could watch my favorite shows during my long bubble baths. Those days were gone. With so much going on in the house now, my time was severely limited. I had to use it wisely. An hour-long bubble bath was a luxury that I rarely enjoyed anymore. I didn't even like to use the bathroom at all unless I had to. Especially after I'd caught Odell peeping at me through the bathroom-door keyhole and jacking off while I was doing my business on the commode. Now I always covered the keyhole with a towel. And just to make it even more difficult for that sick puppy to get off with the help of my bathroom activities, I ran the water in the bathtub and in the sink so he couldn't hear what I was doing in there, either.

Even with all the background noises in my bathroom, running water, and Anita Baker on my CD player, I still whispered into the phone. “Wade, I just wanted to go over one more detail. When you release me, you'll have to keep and destroy my purse and everything in it.”

“Why?” he asked, breathing hard.

“Wade, if somebody really did kidnap me, one of the first things they'd probably do is dispose of my purse. A real kidnapper would not want me to have access to the cell phone that I always carry in my purse when I'm away from home. And, what if the cops stop us and ask for ID before you get me to wherever you're going to hide me? As a brother, you of all people know that if the cops stop you when you are ‘driving while black,' they want to ID everybody in the car.”

“And that's another thing,” replied Wade. “Speaking of cars, what are we going to use for transportation? I don't know any kidnappers, but I doubt if any of them haul their victims around on a bus or in a cab.”

“We can rent a car,” I said.

“And now you're talking about leaving a paper trail, too? Christine, why don't you just forge your old man's signature on a piece of paper and take it to the bank and get you some money that way? Or why don't you find somebody that looks like old Jesse Ray and have him go to the bank with you?”

“Wade, now that is a straight-up felony if ever there was one,” I hissed.

“And kidnapping is not?”

“How many times do I have to tell you this is not a
real
kidnapping?”

“You don't need to tell me no more. You save all that for the man when they slap them cuffs on you.”

“So what are you telling me? Are you backing out? There is fifty thousand dollars in this for you.”

Wade took his time responding. “Okay. Be cool, baby. It's all good. I just want to make sure we got every little deal worked out,” he told me.

I got sick of going over “every little detail” three and four more times all in the same conversation. Each time that Wade attempted to talk about us getting caught, I steered him in another direction, assuring him that if we stuck to my original plan, that was not going to happen.

When I met up with Wade again a few days later at his mama's house to go over the plan
one more time
, Miss Louise was still in the hospital, but Wade was not alone.

“This is Jason. He's going to be our backup,” Wade told me as soon as I got inside. “He's got a car, so now we don't have to worry about taking a risk with a rental.” I gave Wade a horrified look. I wanted to make sure he knew how I felt. But he tried to minimize it by shrugging his shoulders and giving me a weak smile. I looked at Jason, giving him the same horrified look that I'd just given to Wade.

“Wassup, sister?” Jason said, walking toward me, with his hand out for me to shake. “Long time no see.” Jason Mack was no stranger to me. He'd been in a lot of my classes at Berkeley High, but he'd spent more time in jail than school for burglarizing homes and businesses and robbing old ladies on the street in broad daylight. And, with his shifty snake eyes and snaggletoothed grin, he looked like the type who'd knock an old lady down and run off with her purse. But that had not stopped him from having an extremely vigorous social life. He'd married one of the girls from my old gang, but he'd also carried on affairs with several other women at the same time. Every now and then, I caught a glimpse of him out in public with one of the five women that he'd had five babies with. This was the closest I'd been to him since the tenth grade, and I didn't like it.

I ignored Jason's ashy hand and turned to Wade again. “What the hell is this?” I gasped, rotating my neck. I took a few steps back toward the door. I still had my car keys in my hand, because I didn't plan on staying more than a few minutes. It had not been easy for me to get away from my house. I had not been able to reach Nita so that she could come stay with Miss Rosetta. Out of desperation, I'd wheeled Miss Rosetta out to my Lexus and loaded her into the backseat. The only other times I did that was when Miss Rosetta had a doctor's appointment. I was glad that that happened only a couple of times a month.

“What did you tell him?” I asked, glancing out the window to make sure my vehicle was still parked in front of Wade's house, with my mother-in-law in it. I knew of two other people who had been carjacked in this same neighborhood. One woman's car had been taken with her toddler strapped in his car seat.

A painful memory shot through my mind, which distracted me momentarily. I sucked in a deep breath and closed my eyes. It felt like the floor was moving beneath my feet, and I had to lean against the door for a moment to keep from falling. I recalled a night during my teens when I had participated in a carjacking myself. My friends and I had needed a ride to Oakland and decided it was cheaper to jack somebody's vehicle than it was to waste our money on bus fare. Other than the terrified driver, there had been no one else in the car. But even if there had been, that would not have stopped us. Those crime-filled days were behind me. It saddened me to know that I'd backslid all the way to orchestrating a kidnapping. And, it angered me now to find out that my plan had been compromised without my knowledge or consent. I let out air that I'd just sucked in and opened my eyes. Wade and Jason were standing there, looking at me like I'd just sprouted a mustache.

“Christine, you ain't got nothin' to worry about. Your secret is safe with me,” Jason said, his hand still out for me to shake. I glared at him before he finally got the message. He threw his hands up and moved off to the side.

“I thought my secret was safe with Wade,” I wailed. I looked at Wade with so much contempt, he flinched. “You can forget about everything,” I said, turning to leave.

“It's now or never, baby,” Wade yelled after me. “If you want me to help you do this thing, it's now or never.”

“What's Jason supposed to do? What is he going to get out of this?” I asked, turning back around.

“Don't you worry about that. That one's on me,” replied Wade.

“Wade can't do it all and do it right, baby,” Jason said. “He might need somebody to watch his back.”

“And why would he?” I snarled. “All he has to do is get a place for me to stay for a few days, make a few phone calls to my husband, then collect the money. Why would he need somebody to watch his back? I can do that myself,” I insisted, pointing at my chest. I shook my head and let out a deep breath. “How do I know I can trust you?” I asked Jason. “How do I know you won't drag one of your homeboys into this mix?”

“You don't. But this is the way it's going to be if you want me to help you. Otherwise, you can get yourself another boy,” Wade said, his words taking me by surprise.

“All right,” I said, slapping the side of my throbbing head. “The sooner we do this, the better. I want it to happen on Monday. My car will be in the shop for maintenance, so he'll have to drop me off at the beauty shop to get my hair done.”

“What about that old woman you take care of?” Wade asked.

“I've already taken care of my mother-in-law. One of my friends agreed to stay with her until Jesse Ray picks me up from the beauty parlor and brings me back home.” I had felt guilty about asking Nita to come to the house and sit with Miss Rosetta until I returned. Especially since I knew that I'd be gone a lot longer than a couple of hours like I'd told her. The twins got home from school around three in the afternoon, and Adele and Mel got home from work shortly after that. Nita could go home then. She had no idea that she was part of my plan, and I didn't want her to know.

I would have trusted Nita and Jeanette with my life, but I knew that this was one thing that I could never share with them. Even years down the road, when we would all be sitting on a porch, sipping tea and complaining about various ailments. This was one secret that I would carry with me to my grave. And I prayed that Wade and Jason would, too.