Page 49 of Roark
The room was silent again.
“Tony said if Kaymen didn’t get out with us, he must’ve been dead. So we didn’t go back. None of us slept that night, either. And in the morning, we saw on the TV in the motel room that a car had exploded in a ditch and was burned to a crisp by the time the police got there.” Tears ran slowly down her face.
“Kaymen was dead for real. That’s what we all thought, and we knew we couldn’t tell anybody, or we’d all be in trouble. There was nothing more to talk about, we just left that motel. Ronnie cried for weeks, and me and Max had to finally get her to snap out of it before she got us caught. We couldn’t get in trouble. Me, Lem, Ronnie and Max, we didn’t have the type of money Gabe and Tony had. Their rich families would’ve gotten them good lawyers, and they probably would’ve never gone to jail. But us, I know my daddy didn’t have no money and he would’ve been so pissed at me that if he did have money, he wouldn’t have given it to me. He’d have said I need to take whatever repercussions came from what I did.”
“Oh, Mama.” Tamika wrapped her arm around her mother’s shoulders again.
“No, don’t feel sorry for me. We should’ve told somebody about the accident that night. That way they could’ve gone back to look for Kaymen. We never should’ve left him there to die.”
“But he didn’t die,” Pierce said. “Because if Kaymen died, then he couldn’t have been the one who set that fire in London last week, or—”
“Oh, it’s him.” Sandra insisted. “I looked right in his face that night at my cottage. There’s not much left of his face, burns all over, but I knew his eyes and his voice. It was a little raspy, but he still sounded like Kaymen to me. Besides that, he said he was gonna make sure I died for real, just like he did with Max…and Lem.”
Roark sucked in a breath. He let his arms fall to his side and gritted his teeth. For weeks he’d wanted nothing more than to know who’d killed his mother, and now he knew. And he knew why.
“Mrs. Rayder, did Maxine tell you how she knew Kaymen was still alive?” Pierce continued his questioning when everyone else remained silent.
Cade was a professional, but he was also hearing the motive and intent of the man who’d killed his aunt. He may not have been as rocked by Sandra’s statements as Roark, but he was definitely feeling something, because it showed in the grim look on his face.
Sandra lifted her hands to wipe the tears from her face, and Tamika stood to get her some tissue. “I didn’t believe her. I wrote back and told her there was no way he was alive, that he’d burned to death in that car. Right where we left him.” When Sandra stopped speaking this time, she closed her mouth so tightly her lips thinned and she rocked her body back and forth in the chair.
“We left him there, and that was wrong. He was our friend, and we should’ve helped him,” she whispered after a few moments. “We should’ve called somebody to help him because he was our friend. We did that to him, to his face and his hands—we did all that. We left him there and that fire burned him, it burned straight to his heart, and now he’s after all of us. He’ll kill us all! He’s gonna come back for me and finish the job, and then I can be with my Lem. I can be with my love and I guess my friends again. We’ll all be together.” Sandra’s words had begun to slur, tears falling faster, and the way she continued to rock in that chair had Roark standing and moving closer to her. But Tamika was already there and she turned to everyone, saying, “That’s enough. I’m taking her back to bed.”
Roark agreed Sandra needed to rest now. She needed to let everything she’d just remembered settle back into the recesses of her mind, for her sanity’s sake. “I’ll help you,” he said and went to the other side of the chair to help lift Sandra up.
Tamika didn’t say anything at first but by the time they made it to the stairs, she stopped to look up at him. “I can handle it from here.”
“I want to help. We can get her settled, and then I’m sure Pierce and Cade will have more to talk to us about.”
Tamika shook her head. “No,” she said quietly. “I can’t do it right now. I need to make sure she’s alright. That’s all.”
Roark had never before seen the look of fear and distress in her eyes. He’d never heard her voice in such a shaky tone, but he did recognize the grief that rested heavily on her shoulders even as she tried to support her mother. He could see it in the way her hand was tightly gripping her mother, pulling Sandra close to her body. Protecting her and trying desperately to hold on and keep her mother here with her. If Roark could’ve held on to his mother before Kaymen had come for her, he would’ve. There was no doubt he’d have never left Maxine’s side, held her hand, made her smile, any and everything he could’ve done to keep her here with him; he would’ve done in a heartbeat.
For that reason, Roark took a step back and dropped his arms to his sides. “Whatever you or she needs, Tamika, I’m right here. All you have to do is say the word, and it’s done.”
She tilted her head as if she were trying to decipher what he said or how to respond. Both of which were unlike her. Tamika always knew what she wanted to say in any given situation. “Right now, she just needs to rest,” she replied finally and then took the first step with her mother.
Roark didn’t leave immediately. He stood watching and when Tamika turned back to look at him, he was ready to jump to do whatever she requested.
“Thank you, Roark,” she said. “Thank you for everything.”
That hadn’t been what he was expecting and as he walked back into the parlor, Roark was still examining the tightness that had gripped his chest at the finality he’d heard in her tone.
“Is she gonna be okay?” Cade asked.
The sound of his cousin’s voice immediately snapped Roark out of his thoughts about Tamika. He could admit to himself that he was grateful for that fact. “Yeah, she probably just needs to rest. Traveling from the hospital and then, well, all this, has been a lot.” Much more than even he’d anticipated. He pushed his hands into his pant pockets.
Cade nodded. “Yeah, I can imagine.” He was standing now too, and so was Pierce.
“I had a tech guy who’s retired from the MPD doing background checks on all the friends in that group. Just sent him a text that I need those reports ASAP,” Pierce said.
“Good,” Cade told him. “Now that we know who it is, we need to track him, grab his ass and this’ll be over.”
Roark wasn’t so sure about that. “What happens in the meantime? You heard what she said—he’s coming back for her.”
“We knew that already,” Pierce said, and Roark looked at him, unable to hide is irritation.
“You knew she was a sitting duck?”
