The Twelfth Card (Lincoln Rhyme 6)

"You got that right, girl."

Finally the big girl slowed. Then stopped. Geneva looked at her friend's evasive eyes and watched her hand disappearing into her purse, gripping something inside.

A hesitation.

"What?" Geneva asked.

"Here," the girl whispered fast, lifting her hand and thrusting it forward. In her fingers, which ended in black-and-white-checkered acrylic nails, was a silver necklace, a heart on the end of a chain.

"That's--" Geneva began

"What you give me last month, fo' my birthday."

"You're giving it back?"

"I can't keep it, Gen. You be needin' benjamins anyway. You can hock it."

"Don't be wack, girl. Not like it came from Tiffany's."

Tears were welling in the big girl's eyes, the prettiest part of her face. Her hand lowered. "I be movin' next week."

"Moving? Where?"

"BK."

"Brooklyn? Your whole family? The twins?"

"They ain' goin'. None of the family be goin'." The girl's eyes swept the sidewalk.

"What's this all about, Keesh?"

"I'ma tell you somethin' that happen."

"I'm not in the mood for drama, girl," Geneva snapped. "What're you talking about?"

"Kevin," Lakeesha continued in a soft voice.

"Kevin Cheaney?"

Keesh nodded. "I'm sorry, girl. Me and him, we in love. He got this place he moving to. I'ma go with him."

Geneva, silent for a moment. Then: "Was he the one you were talking to when I called last week?"

She nodded. "Listen, I didn't want it to happen but it jus' did. You gotta understand. We got this thing, him and me. It ain't like nothin' I never felt. I know you wanta be with him. You talkin' 'bout him all the time, lookin' him over ever' day. You so happy that time he walk you home. I know all that and still I done move in on you. Oh, girl, I been worried steady, thinkin' 'bout tellin' you."

Geneva felt a chill in her soul, but it had nothing to do with her crush on Kevin, which had vanished the instant he showed his true self in math class. She asked, "You're pregnant, aren't you?"

Wasn't feeling good . . .

Keesh lowered her head and stared at the dangling necklace.

Geneva closed her eyes for a moment. Then she asked, "How far down?"

"Two months."

"Hook yourself up with a doctor. We'll go to the clinic, you and me. I'll--"

Her friend frowned. "Why I do that? It ain't like I laid no baby on him. He say he use protection if I say so but he really want to have a baby with me. He say it be like part of both of us."