Dead to Her(91)

“Survive, I guess. What else can I do?” It was strange being here with her again. Beautiful Keisha, a blend of such fragility and strength, who still, if her racing heart was to be believed, held a tight grip on her. “I’m so sorry I snapped at you at the party. Jason had just gotten my high school yearbook. I guess your attorney told you about that?”

Keisha nodded. “He told me. It’s so weird. Billy got an envelope that night too. It was a photo. From that voodoo rave thing we went to. The first time we . . . well, you know what we did. In the picture I was asleep on the grass and I only had my knickers on. Don’t look so worried, you weren’t in it. Your arm is but that’s it. No one would know you were pretty much naked beside me.”

Marcie flinched at what Keisha was revealing but if perky Kate Anderson quizzed her on it, they’d danced at a party and gotten a little wild. So what? What was more important was that someone had been watching them. Taking photos.

“William lost his shit,” Keisha continued. “The final straw for me with him I think. But what’s so odd . . .” She leaned forward and Marcie thought that even here, her breath was sweet and warm and fresh, and she wanted to dip her tongue into that mouth.

“What’s so odd,” Keisha continued, “is that the police haven’t mentioned it. It’s gone. Someone must have taken it that night. But who?”

“Zelda? You thought you saw her.”

“Yeah, but she would have left it so the police would find it. And she wouldn’t do anything to William.”

“Maybe William destroyed it?”

“He wouldn’t have done that. It was evidence against me. That I was a bad wife.”

Marcie half-smiled, once again irreverent in Keisha’s company. “To be fair, you weren’t a great one.”

“I know I wasn’t. But I didn’t hurt him. Honestly. They think I did the conjure ball and the juju dolls myself, but I didn’t. I know I wished him dead, I know, but I didn’t do it.” Her eyes welled up. “It’s all so confused in my head. It’s dark magic, I know it is. I kept seeing that old woman with the orange hair. She’s something to do with all this. Her and Zelda together maybe. Remember when we first saw her in the square? She called us ghosts.” She shivered. “I’m so tired of ghosts. I think she knew I was cursed. From the boy. Could sense it maybe. Maybe I’ve tainted you all with it.”

Seeing how Keisha was drifting, Marcie switched topics. She didn’t give a shit about juju dolls, whatever they were. “That day you came around and I gave you the Xanax. Where did you go after that? William came to the house looking for you.”

“I went out to that place where the party was,” Keisha said. “The Truman Parkway. I figured I could score something down there to keep me going. The stuff you gave me wasn’t touching the sides and I knew I needed more. I did manage to buy a few pills, Oxy supposedly, but it didn’t really work. I should have taken the scrip you offered.”

When Jason had gripped Marcie’s hand, it was as if he were a drowning man determined to be saved or to make her drown too. With Keisha there was just warmth in it. Care. Love maybe. For all her tears and craziness, Keisha was tougher than Jason. She squeezed her hand back. If Keisha had been scoring drugs that day then she hadn’t spent it with Jason.

“God, no wonder they think I’m guilty,” Keisha finished. “I’m such a mess.”

“Anderson seems to believe maybe you and Jason did it together. Maybe you knew each other in London before you came here.”

“I know.” Keisha half-laughed. “How ridiculous. Like I could ever fall in love with Jason.” Her face dropped back into sadness. “I’m in love with you.” Despite everything, the words made Marcie’s heart soar.

Her spirits were still lifted when she saw Anderson and Washington waiting for her in the corridor. Kate Anderson was still riled at being coerced into allowing Marcie to visit, but there was also an amused glint in her eyes.

“So you were getting naked with the second Mrs. Radford. Now that would be quite the Savannah scandal, don’t you think? Your fancy legal connections might not have been so keen to do you any favors if they knew about that.”

“We took off a few clothes while dancing,” Marcie said, not pausing as she walked past them. “It’s nothing.”

“The first time we . . . well, you know what we did. Sounds pretty straightforward to me. How about to you, Washington?”

The big man grinned. “I’d watch the movie.”

“You’re disgusting.” Marcie couldn’t wait to get out of the station.

“Hey, not me.” Anderson held her hands up. “I’m a sucker for a beautiful woman and she’s a beautiful woman. I can see why you would.”

A dyke, Marcie thought. Of course she is. No doubt thinking Marcie was just a straight bored housewife wondering what it was like to act like a lesbian.

“So,” Kate Anderson said, as she held open the door, the sunlight making Marcie flinch, “it seems to me you had plenty to gain by William Radford’s death. A lover who’d be a rich widow or getting your thieving husband off the hook and keeping your life of luxury.”

“But I wasn’t there, was I?” Marcie said, her tone like sharp lemons on teeth. “I couldn’t have poisoned him.”