“What about Harrison?” Lily asked. “Are you going to talk to him? He seemed concerned.”
The only thing that man could be concerned about was seeing she got what was coming to her. “I’ll deal with him. Don’t tell him anything.”
Lily sighed. “But he—”
“Please. Let it rest.”
“Okay. But promise to call if you need me.”
“I will.” Makay hesitated before adding, “And Lily . . . thanks for caring.” Without waiting for a response, she disconnected the line.
Nate emerged from the restroom, grinning because she’d let him go into the men’s side alone since they were the only ones there at the moment and she had peeked inside first to make sure it was empty. “Can I have a candy bar now?” he asked. “I’ve been really good, haven’t I?”
Too good, in fact. It made Makay wonder if the attack on her had caused him irreparable harm. “Sure, you can.”
Lenny waved from the car and called to them. “Let’s go!”
<><><>
W
hen they arrived in Phoenix, Makay had Lenny drop her off at Albertsons where he’d picked her up the previous morning. “I don’t see your car,” he said, his sharp eyes piercing her.
“Don’t worry. It’s here.” Actually, the Sebring was parked down the street at another store because she’d worried about him beating her back to Phoenix and doing something to her car after she stole the blackmail money. She was tempted to ask him to drive her right to it now, but if he saw the boxes still in the back, he might suspect something. For now, she didn’t want him knowing anything about her change of address or her plan to leave the state.
She hefted her duffel bag with her good hand. “Look, I wanted to say thanks for what you did last night.”
He shrugged. “Yeah, you’re welcome. Now about the next pickup.”
All her good will toward him vanished. “You said I could have a few days.”
“Okay. But you should know that means rescheduling. No more than two days. I got bills to pay.” He jumped out of the Jag and went around to the trunk to retrieve his briefcase. “That reminds me, give me back Nichol’s folder. I know you’re mad at him, but you can’t get any ideas about revenge. And I have the next folder here for you. You can study it while you rest up. This deal might actually go through before your mother’s.” He smirked. “But I guess you don’t really need to study her file anyway.”
Without replying, Makay exchanged folders with Lenny and walked away, motioning for Nate to come along. They reached the Sebring without incident, though by the time Makay settled in the driver’s seat, she felt ready to collapse.
Her phone rang. Great, it was Harrison again. No way was she going to pick up. If he wanted to spit more hate in her direction, he’d have to wait until she was feeling better—or forever, whichever came last. She waited until the phone went to voicemail and then dialed Janice at her old apartment building. “I got your message,” she said. “I’ve been out of town. I wanted to stop by tonight, but I’m just not going to make it.” As she thought about it, she wasn’t even sure how she could drive back to Brette’s.
“But you have to!” Janice said. “You just have to.”
“What happened?” Maybe someone had broken into her apartment. Or Harrison might have called the police and they’d gone there looking for her.
“It’s Sally. She’s gone and left all of us money!”
“What?”
Janice laughed. “You heard me. She left us money.”
“Did she have life insurance?” The idea of Sally having anything to leave anyone was ludicrous.
“Nope. It was in a bank account all this time, and she left instructions that her money was to be doled out the minute the attorney heard of her death. He told me that her exact words were, ‘I want them to celebrate my life at my funeral instead of mourning me.’ Well, she can be darn sure of that. I picked up my five thousand dollars just a couple of hours ago, and I couldn’t stop grinning. What a surprise! I always knew I loved that old woman. Still, it’s hard to believe that all this time she had that kind of money—and her stiffing me with the bill every time we went out to grab a bite. She even left Ted a thousand, if you can wrap your brain around that. And a few of the others as well.” Janice chuckled. “Her attorney came this afternoon, bringing envelopes with a paper inside that tells us how to get our money. He told me Sally’s son was furious that she hadn’t left it all to him.”
“Is he going to contest the will?”
“Can’t. If he does, he doesn’t get the twenty thousand she left for him. It’ll go to charity.” Janice’s chuckle became a full blown laugh. “Sally knew her boy’s black heart, that’s for sure. If you ask me, twenty thousand is far too much for the likes of him. Just because he came from her womb doesn’t mean he has the right to swoop in like a vulture after she dies, especially since he never came to see her.”
Makay had to agree, yet the fact that Sally had so much money in the bank while she’d lived at that dump and let Makay support her with groceries was a little too much to digest. “How much did she leave me?” Makay felt light-headed as she asked the question.
“Well, I don’t know that.” Janice made a disapproving click with her tongue. “That fancy attorney knocked on everyone’s doors. I told him to leave yours under your door and that I’d call to let you know about it. After he left, I let myself in with your key and got it to make sure it was safe. But of course I didn’t pry. Now are you going to come and get it or not? I mean, I can open it for you, but you’ll need the letter anyway to collect your money from the bank.”
“I’m coming right now.” With renewed energy, Makay started her car. If it was a thousand dollars, it would be enough with even a partial tuition refund to get her into a rental somewhere far away from Lenny and Harrison. From there, she’d find a job waitressing or digging ditches. Whatever it took to keep Nate safe.
“Where are we going?” Nate bounced in the passenger seat next to her, his feet hitting a box that was still on the floor.
“Back to our old apartment. Sally left a letter for us.”
“Sally?”
Makay put her car back into park and reached for his hands “Yes, I’ve been waiting to tell you, but you know how old Sally is right?”
“Like two hundred or something.”
“Or something. Well, earlier this week, she went back to heaven.”
His face crunched with concern. “You mean she died?”
“Yes.”
“Oh.” He sighed. “I think I’m going to miss her.”
“We both will.” She held onto his hands for a few minutes longer, searching for signs of distress, but he’d seemed to take it more easily than she had. “Anyway,” she added, “Sally loved us all so much that she left us a little bit of money.”
“Us?”
“You and me, Janice, Ted, and some of the others.”
Nate’s eyes widened. “How much did she leave me?”
“I don’t know. But I’m sure she left both of ours to me since I’m the one who pays everything, and it’s probably just a little. She can’t have had that much money.”
“Is that why we always gave her food? Because she didn’t have money?”
“Yeah.”
What if Sally left us more than a thousand?
After all, the woman probably owed her more than a thousand dollars for all the groceries she’d bought over the past two years.
No, I can’t hope that. Anything she gave us will be enough. It has to be.
Makay’s head and arm were hurting so much when she arrived at the apartment that she had to take another pain pill and wait fifteen minutes before she was able to get out of the car. Janice opened the door on the first ring, as if she’d been waiting on the other side. She took in Makay’s ruined face and broken arm with an astonished gasp.
“What happened to you?” Her spotted face darkened. “It was that boyfriend of yours, wasn’t it?”
“No. Not him. I was in . . . an accident at a park.” Makay glanced down at Nate to make sure he didn’t say anything or equate “boyfriend” with Harrison. She’d asked him not to tell anyone what happened, but whether or not he’d follow through remained to be seen.
“Well, no wonder you didn’t want to come over tonight. You should be in bed.” Janice hurried her over to a brown couch with huge blue floral swirls that must have been popular before Makay had been old enough to remember such things.
“I’m fine.”
“Sure you are.” Janice clicked her tongue, her gaze going to Nate. “I have some of your favorite cookies in the kitchen.”
Nate grinned. “Thanks!”
Janice ruffled his hair. “You’re welcome. You know where the cookie jar is on the counter. Help yourself.” She sat down beside Makay as Nate hurried away. “I’m guessing there’s more to this so-called accident,” she said in a low voice, “but you can tell me later when Nate’s not here.”
More lies to make up. Makay felt weary just thinking about it.
“Here.” Janice scooped up an envelope from the coffee table, and Makay saw her full name typed on the outside: Makayla Greyson.
She wished she could hobble out to the car and open it in privacy, but Janice’s eyes were bright with curiosity. “Well, go on, open it,” she urged. “She better make it good after all you did for her.” She looked up at the ceiling. “Hear that, Sally? You better make this good.”
“She didn’t have to leave anything.” Makay wedged her finger under the flap.
“She did so. Living off all of us like that.” Janice rolled her eyes. “When I get to heaven, I’m gonna give her a piece of my mind.” She laughed. “Of course that doesn’t mean I ain’t going to enjoy the money. I’ve decided to take a plane to see my son in Florida. Been waiting a long time to see my grandbabies there, you know.”
A single sheet of paper nestled inside the envelope, all typed and neat. Makay scanned the letter quickly. Below all the lawyerese a paragraph in bold was a note directly from Sally. “Makay, thanks for taking care of me, dear. If I’d had a daughter, I would want her to be just like you.”
Tears filled Makay’s eyes as she pondered the old woman’s words. Strange how all her life Makay had been searching for a mother who didn’t want her, and here was a daughterless woman who had considered her worthy of being related. She wished she’d known how Sally had felt about her while she was alive, when there had been time to explore a closer relationship that might have benefitted them both.
“Oh, my!” Janice said, reading over her shoulder. “Ha! Ten thousand dollars! No wonder her son is in such a tizzy.” She sat back against the couch, her broad shoulders looking even wider as she threw out her arms and stared up at the ceiling. “Great, Sally. You really did good this time!”
Makay’s heart nearly stopped beating when her eyes finally found the words that detailed the amount of her inheritance. Janice was right.
Ten thousand dollars.
To her it meant the gift of a new life.
“Oh, don’t cry,” Janice said, handing her a tissue. “You’re supposed to be happy, remember? This will help you get through college and take care of Nate. I’m so happy I could burst. I was thinking of helping you myself if she didn’t come through. Good old Sally. Always knew I loved that woman.”
That was at least the second time Janice had repeated those exact words, but Makay felt herself echoing them. “So I can get this now, right?”
“Absolutely. Or rather, in the morning when the bank opens. That’s how Sally made it happen. If you want, you can get the money before the funeral, which, by the way, is tomorrow morning. You’ll be there, right?”
“Of course.” Makay looked over to the part of the kitchen she could see from the couch, the setup a mirror image of her own apartment. Nate stood there uncertainly, half a cookie in his hand. “Don’t worry,” Makay told him. “It’s good news. Sally left us a bunch of money. I’m crying because I’m happy.”
“Really?” Nate came running over. “Show me!” Makay pointed out the numbers on the page and listened to him ooh and aah over them. “Wow, now I’m sorry I kept laughing about her and that chili,” he said.
“Don’t be.” Makay pushed herself slowly to her feet. “That’s a good memory of her that we can keep forever.”
“What’s this about chili?” Janice asked.
Laughter bubbled from Nate’s throat. “It made Sally fart.”
Janice blinked. “Well, of course it did,” she said. “It makes me pass gas too.” Nate laughed harder at that.
“Thanks,” Makay said to Janice over his head. “You can’t know what this means to us.”
Janice stood and looked down at Nate. “Maybe I do a little. But see that you don’t tell anyone else how much you got, okay? I only told you and Ted myself. Don’t want any bad feelings, you know. Don’t worry about me. I’ll keep the secret.”
Makay felt even more weepy at that. Had to be the painkiller. “I’d better get home.”
“And go right to bed. Or do you have more studying to do?”
She would have had a lot of homework if she’d planned to continue the classes, but since she didn’t, it made no sense to expend the effort. “Not tonight. But we have a big day tomorrow.”
“That’s right. The funeral is at ten.”
“I’ll see you then.”
Makay hurried to her car as fast as her sore body would allow. Inside, Nate began looking through the box on the floor, taking out a few cans. “Somehow I feel like eating chili tonight,” he said softly.
“Okay.”
A vision of the canned tomatoes Harrison had thrown at her feet in the club came to her mind. Still in her backpack probably. Maybe she could dump them in the chili and be done with the memories once and for all.
She gave a sharp nod as everything came together in her mind. In the morning, she’d repack, leaving behind items that wouldn’t fit in the car. She would also gather all the evidence she had on Lenny and put it in an envelope. Then she’d go to the bank with her required two forms of ID, and from there, she’d drive to the funeral. After a stop at the college to ask about a refund for dropping out, she’d leave the envelope with the evidence in Lily’s mailbox—addressed to Harrison. When that was all taken care of, she’d kiss this state and Lenny goodbye forever.
And Harrison. That thought hurt more than she wanted to admit.
Chapter Twenty-Two
O
n Thursday Harrison worked through lunch, downing something from the vending machine in the employee breakroom when his stomach protested. Giving the company the extra time was the least he could do since his work had suffered these past few days with his preoccupation. Somehow, even with his focus, he still managed to call Makay several more times, and Lily as well. Neither returned his messages.