blurted honestly. She shook her head and wrung her hands together. “My brother is on the street selling drugs. Working for a dude that is my father’s known enemy. Kelsi basically has lived with us since we were kids because her mother is on crack and used to really abuse her, which she still struggles with. I just left for college, and there was a bunch of craziness going on right before I left. I just don’t know if any of it is related to something like—to... this,” Cheyenne rattled off, letting out all of their family secrets. She didn’t care whose feelings got hurt or who was offended. She would say anything that might help the detectives find out who killed her mother.
Kelsi sucked her teeth, and her nostrils flared, but she didn’t say a word to Cheyenne about the description of her life.
Detective Simpson sat quiet for a few minutes. His eyes had questions, so Cheyenne knew more were coming.
“So, you’ve been gone to medical school in Texas? Your brother is gone from home? Who was here? Just your parents?” he asked, his forehead creased.
“And her,” Cheyenne said, tilting her head toward Kelsi. “My best friend who, like I said, has been basically living with my family since we were kids,” Cheyenne said, looking over at Kelsi now.
Kelsi stopped swinging her legs in and out. She’d had enough of Cheyenne speaking about her like she wasn’t even in the room.
“Excuse me. I need to use the bathroom,” Kelsi said as she jumped up from the love seat like she had springs on her butt. She rushed to the back of the apartment and slammed the bathroom door.
“I guess she’s emotional, huh?” Detective Simpson asked. “Pretty hard losing someone close to you, blood related or not.”
Cheyenne shook her head in the affirmative. “To give you some clarification on the type of person my mother was—she took care of Kelsi like she was her own child. How many women can you say would do that? There is no one I could think of, for any reason in the world, that would just shoot my mother down like a hunted animal,” she told him. “There is not one soul I could think of that would ever hurt my mother. When you get to know her, you’ll see what I mean, detective,” Cheyenne said through sobs. She laid her head back on her father’s shoulder.
Detective Simpson took a deep breath and bit down into his jaw. He looked at the other detective, who stopped writing at that point and looked up and around like he’d been lost in his notepad.
“Cheyenne, I usually don’t make promises when it comes to my cases, but I’m making the exception for you. I promise you I will find your mother’s killer, and when I do, I will make sure that person never sees the light of day again,” Detective Simpson told Cheyenne with feeling. “Oh, and I’ll start with speaking to each family member separately. Including Kelsi,” Detective Simpson said, shooting her father a squinty-eyed look.
Then the detective stood up. “I’ll be at the station tomorrow. Why don’t you all come down and we can get started?”
“Thank you. I really appreciate it. Everybody will speak to you willingly,” Cheyenne replied, looking at her father for confirmation. He opened his hands and nodded slightly.
“Trust me, my mother didn’t deserve to die like that,” Cheyenne continued through tears. She stood up and shook Detective Simpson’s hand. She looked in his eyes, and she saw a sincerity she had never seen from anyone other than her mother. Cheyenne knew then that he was going to solve the case.
Chapter 4
Cheyenne
Being home from medical school sent Cheyenne into a deep depression. She’d barely eaten, and talking was out of the question. Lil Kev had come home only twice since she’d been back in Brooklyn, a fact that disturbed Cheyenne. He hadn’t said much to anyone, and she hadn’t seen him shed a tear for their mother. Cheyenne knew her brother had grown more selfish as he got older, but she never expected it to be like this. He had to be the angriest young person she knew on the planet.
On the first full day at home, Cheyenne forced herself to get out of bed after a sleepless night. She padded into the kitchen. Everything there reminded her of her mother. The cow-spot patterned dish towels and potholders hanging neatly from little pegs above the sink had been her mother’s quirky joke one time after they drove cross country on college tours for Cheyenne. The gleaming silver dish rack had been her mother’s prized kitchen accessory, because when her mother was growing up, all her family could afford were the cheap, plastic ones that quickly grew mold. Everything in the house had a lighthearted explanation for being there. That was how fun her mother was.
Cheyenne swallowed hard and stood in front of the refrigerator. She yanked open the freezer to get ice for her glass, and there it was. Cheyenne sucked in her breath. The glass slid from her hand and shattered into pieces as it hit the tile floor. Cheyenne reached out and touched the frozen cake top, and as if she had been teleported to that place and time, her mind reeled back.
* * *
“Surprise!”
Cheyenne almost jumped out of her skin when she walked into the Carey Gardens community center. Her cheeks flamed over, and her heart thundered with excitement. She clutched her chest to make sure her heart didn’t jump loose. There were so many people huddled together. Cheyenne didn’t even know what to say or do. She stood frozen, her mouth and eyes wide.
“Aha! We got you!” Kelsi yelled as she ran straight into Cheyenne with a big bear hug, breaking up the awkward moment.
“Surprise, baby girl!” her mother yelled and then grabbed her and kissed her on the cheek.
Everyone in the room laughed, talked, and cheered Cheyenne on.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe y’all got me so good. I really thought I was coming here for Tanya’s baby shower,” Cheyenne replied, red-faced. The crowd laughed. Cell phones popped out from everywhere to snap pictures and videos of her.
“Yo! You are so hard to surprise. You are mad nosey! All day you kept asking me where I was going, what I was doing, why I’m not coming with you to get your hair done, then caught an attitude because I wouldn’t tell you! Damn! You are one nosey-ass chick!” Kelsi complained jokingly.
She was right. Cheyenne had copped a salty attitude when she thought Kelsi was brushing her off all day so she could be with her lowlife boyfriend.
“Yes, lawd! Hiding stuff from you is almost impossible. I had to keep everything for the party hidden in the nurses’ lounge at the hospital,” her mother followed up with the biggest grin she could muster on her face.
Cheyenne reached out and gave her mother another big hug. She could never know how much Cheyenne appreciated her.
“Well, y’all both know I am an investigator on the low. Neither one of y’all can do anything without me, so this was totally a surprise. Y’all did real good hiding this one from me,” Cheyenne joked. She felt over the moon happy. At that moment, she loved her mother and Kelsi so much.
It definitely turned into a party. The entire neighborhood had come out. Even Ms. Lula, who’d gotten so fat over the years it was hard for her to get out of her apartment, was there, shaking her cane to the music. Some of Cheyenne’s high school and college friends were there too. She couldn’t believe her mother and Kelsi had pulled it off without her even having an inkling something had been going on.
“What
