Chapter 23 #2
“Nobody knows for sure. Doctors say it looks like the kind of injury that happens when the supply of oxygen to the brain is cut off, but we’re not aware of anything that could have caused that.
I took her to specialists, but there’s nothing you can do once brain cells start dying.
Just keep her comfortable until time runs out. ”
“Are you sure you’ve done everything you can? There might be someone in a bigger city—“
“I took her as far away as New York. There’s no-one else to see.” He must see the surprise on my face because he goes on. “You don’t want to know what I had to do to pay for it. For all of it.” He gestures towards the hospital.
“I don’t even know what to say.”
“Let’s go home, okay?”
I nod and start up the car.
Brandon
Deja’s agitation is obvious by the time we get home. She stares out her window, trying to control her breathing. I hear it speed up and then the deep breaths as she tries to bring it under control.
“Do they know about your mom?” she asks.
“Tanisha and Devin? Of course they know. She’s been sick since before she was fired.”
“But my mom doesn’t know her.”
“Were you listening? They all knew each other. Your dad was Jules.”
“I don’t understand what that means. My dad’s name was David.”
“For years she told me these rambling stories about Devin and his best friend Jules and Jules’s wife, Nia.”
“I get how Nia can be short for Tanisha, but why Jules?”
“No idea. A private joke? The point is your parents lied big time. I don’t know why, but it can’t be good.”
Her face droops. “I’m gonna ask. I have to know.”
“Do you think they’ll tell the truth?”
“I don’t know, but I can’t just let this go. I need to hear their side.”
“You honestly think there’s some version of this where they’re the good guys.”
“I’m not saying that,” she says, “but maybe there are no bad guys either.”
She wouldn’t say that if she knew half the shit Devin has done. For years he’s embezzled money from his company and based on what Anton told me, if it’s ever discovered it will be Deja’s mom who takes the fall. The man has everyone fooled. Only my mom has ever warned me to be cautious.
“All right,” I say. “Let’s talk to them after dinner.”
“Sorry, guys,” Deja’s mom says, buttoning her coat. “I left some money on the counter for takeout. The Kiwanis dinner is tonight. Maybe we can talk tomorrow after church.”
“There was nothing on the calendar,” Deja says, which is totally in character for her.
Her mom shrugs. “I’m sorry; it slipped my mind.”
I watch them walk to the garage, Devin’s hand on the small of Tanisha’s back.
Deja chews on her lower lip, wringing her hands.
She swears and stomps into the kitchen, pulling out a small cucumber and biting the top off.
She seems to take satisfaction in the loud crunch of the vegetable as she devours it.
She opens a can of sparkling water and guzzles it down, banging the empty can on the counter when she’s done.
“Let’s go to the basement,” she says, decisively.
“Why?”
“There’s gotta be something down there to confirm once and for all if they knew each other. You found that stuff. There’s got to be more. ”
I should see this a spark of luck, the opportunity to search the basement without drawing suspicion, but I’m worried about Deja’s state of mind. Her eyes appear almost feverish.
“Why don’t we order something to eat and then we can go to the basement after dinner.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You haven’t eaten anything since lunch.”
“I just ate a cucumber and literally cannot choke anything else down right now. Go ahead, if you want, but I’m going down there.”
“Fine,” I say. “I’ll grab a couple flashlights from the garage. It’s not that well-lit down there.”
I flip the switch on as we enter the unfinished part of the basement.
Two naked bulbs turn on, one near the furnace and the other above the area where a random assortment of items are stacked together.
I point Deja to the boxes I’ve already gone through, and I look through some plastic bins that turn out have nothing more interesting in them than Christmas decorations.
“I found something,” Deja says, barely five minutes into our search. She shows me a photograph of Devin and her dad wearing fraternity sweatshirts. She keeps digging through the box and pulling out photos. She compresses her lips and shakes her head before speaking.
“Both of them were in this fraternity. Don’t people usually keep their frat memorabilia? Paddles and whatnot?”
“I don’t know,” I say.
“All of these, Brandon,” she says. “This is my mom and dad with Devin. They look really close, right?”
Both men were embracing Tanisha. David had his arm around her shoulders and Devin’s looked like it was resting in the small of her back. Could the three of them have been more than just friends at some point? Could that be the motivation for hiding this from Deja?
“This one’s weird,” she says, handing me a photo of Devin and David dressed like characters from Pulp Fiction. They did bear a passing resemblance to John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.
“Do you have a phone?” I ask. “Can you look up the name of those two guys from Pulp Fiction? The characters, not the actors.”
She opens a browser window and looks at me, impressed.
“Travolta played Vincent Vega and Samuel L. Jackson played Jules.”
I point my fingers in triumph. “That’s where Jules came from.”