“Hers.”
“Tell her I said hello.”
“No.”
“Why don’t you stop by here on your way? I promise not to keep you too long.” I started to tell her no. “I just need you to hold me for awhile,” Rain said, and against my better judgment, I agreed.
I drove back to the hospital thinking of how just about every time Rain and I were together we killed somebody. Now she needed a hug. Under all that gangster-Go figure.
When I got back to the hospital, I didn’t see Rain anywhere, so I was about to go in visitor’s area to wait for her. I saw Jeff Ritchie sitting there and then I saw Miles come out of the intensive care unit and walk down the hall. Since the old man was gonna be all right, I thought I might catch Miles weak and he’d actually tell me the truth.
I followed Miles to the cafeteria. He got a cup of coffee from the vending machine and sat down at one of the tables. I waited a minute before I went and joined him. When I sat down, Miles didn’t seem to notice that I was there. Then he looked at me. “You’re Nick, right? Rain’s friend?”
“Yes. Sorry about your father. Is he going to be all right?”
“I don’t know. He’s awake now. His arteries are so blocked that it’s restricting the flow of blood. He may be in danger of having a stroke. They say we’ll have to wait and see.”
“This might not be the best time, but I need to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
I took Zakiya’s picture out of my pocket and slid it in front of him. “You wanna tell me about her?”
“I told you that I didn’t know her,” Miles said and started to get up.
“Yes, you do. You were having an affair with her. Nice N. Slow? That’s you, right?”
Then Miles did something that I really wasn’t expecting him to do.
He started crying.
I mean crying-like-a-baby crying.
I felt like shit for asking.
“I loved her,” Miles said and picked up Zakiya’s picture and stared at it.
“What happened?”
“I met her at the club a year ago. She was there to meet somebody, but he stood her up. And I wondered what kind of fool would stand up somebody as beautiful and sweet as her.”
“How long after that did the affair begin?”
“That night.” Miles looked up at me. “I loved her from that first minute I saw her. I know it was wrong. I have a beautiful wife, two wonderful kids. I know everything about what I was feeling for Zakiya was wrong. But I couldn’t help myself. It was like nothing mattered to me except being with Zakiya. But it was wrong and I knew it had to end.”
“So you had her killed?”
“What? What are you talking about? She was killed during a robbery.”
“You hired those two men to kill her. The robbery was just a front.”
“I didn’t have her killed. You’ve gotta believe me. I loved her!”
“They walked right up to her and killed her.”
“No,” Miles insisted. “It was a robbery. The police said it was some type of gang thing, I don’t know, but I didn’t have anything to do with it. Don’t you understand; I couldn’t hurt her. She was-too important to me.”
“No, Miles, you hired those men and they shot her.”