I should have been scared, but instead I was mad. Mad that I’d focused my attention on the wrong person. I peeked at Gladys again, wondering if I could persuade the large figure blocking the doorway with reason. Gladys appeared to be fading fast. There was no telling how bad she was hurt since she was already in a weakened state. The woman should have stayed in the hospital.
I faced the figure in front of me, standing to my full height and with my sternest voice I asked, “Is this really necessary? Did you do this to Gladys? This woman is your mama’s age. What were you thinking?”
Damion stepped forward out of the shadows of the hallway. He appeared to be sweaty, his eyes glassy. “She deserved it. Just like her daughter deserved to die. People like them just bring trouble to other people.” He tipped his head towards Gladys. “This one in particular liked to pretend like she was all good and Christian.”
I thought back to my conversation with Damion last week. He wasn’t shy about expressing his hatred for Sondra. He also admitted to being protective of Charlene.
Had the two been working together?
“Did you kill Sondra, Damion? I thought you were Briana’s friend. You’re going to let her go down for something she didn’t do. I don’t understand.”
I knew I shouldn’t agitate Damion, but I had to know. That was me all the way, didn’t know when to stop even with a gun pointed at me.
Damion shuffled forward. I watched his face shift from hard to indecision, as if for a slight second he wasn’t sure what he was doing. “I’m sorry about Briana. None of that was supposed to happen. I was going to fix everything.”
I guessed, “You weren’t expecting Briana to go to the shed and find the body.”
“After Theo left, the party was winding down anyway.” Damion snorted, “Theo has always been the life of the party. He left in time too. Because Sondra showed up, and she’d been drinking. I asked Charlene why she brought her to the house. I was surprised at her. Charlene is sweet, but when she got around the wrong people, they influenced her. I could tell Charlene was ripe to see Sondra do something.”
I listened. Now this was what had my focus. I felt the whole time there was some kind of dynamic going on between Sondra and Charlene for them to even have the nerve to show up at Briana’s home.
He glanced away, his arm lowering the gun only slightly. The memory from that night must have caught his attention, for that I was grateful because I still had my phone in my hand. I placed my hands behind my back fumbling with the phone. If only I could figure out what button to touch. Under favorites, I knew Amos’s number was first. If only my hands could move that nimbly. It’s not like I had young hands anymore, some days I felt the pangs of arthritis.
Hands don’t fail me now!
Damion interrupted my concentration, “It happened so fast. Sondra was spouting off like she always does. Threatening to make sure my brother never sees his kids.”
I frowned, still trying to figure out what I was pressing. A few weeks ago Leesa fussed at me about keeping the phone sounds so loud. From that conversation, I’d turned down the sound levels on the clicks. I hoped they were low enough that Damion couldn’t hear. I’d also just typed in my passcode, and I knew I didn’t have but maybe five minutes before the phone locked again.
I forced myself to multitask, focus on Damion and the phone, “Why would she do that? It’s my understanding that Theo is an upstanding citizen, he runs a reputable business. If anyone is more qualified to have custody of the kids, I would think it would be Theo.”
“Yeah, you right he should, but Sondra holds stuff over people. Theo had my back a few times. Stuff he would have never done. I don’t know how Sondra found out what she knew, but she made sure to use it against Theo.”
I hoped I was pressing the right thing. I heaved in a breath and continued to engage with Damion. “I remember Sondra being overly aggressive and saying things to people that were upsetting.”
I probably shouldn’t have been talking, but I wanted to appear to be trying to understand his side even though I really didn’t. I slipped the phone back into the pocket of my sundress.
He nodded his head, his eyes distant. “Yeah, that was her style. All up in somebody’s face calling herself trying to threaten someone. That woman never had any sense.”
“She was being ugly to you. You couldn’t take it anymore. I get it. You shoved her away. The shove was a bit too hard. She fell and hit her head. But why didn’t you call for help? It was still an accident. She was in your face and you just pushed her away.”
Damion scoffed, “With my record, cops are always looking for a way to put me back in jail. She wasn’t moving. I could tell something was wrong and I sure wasn’t about to go down because of her.”
“I see. But why is there a witness trying to put this all on Briana? That’s not right, Damion.”
Damion sighed, “I had nothing to do with that. Charlene has always blamed Briana for her sister’s death. And she’s probably trying to keep the cops off me.”
“You two protect each other, I see.”
Damion had the gun lowered now as well as his head. I still wasn’t planning any quick movements and I prayed I had pressed something that allowed someone to hear this conversation.
“She should blame me.”
“What?”
“Charlene should blame me. I was talking to Yvette that night. We were shooting the breeze, laughing and then I saw the car coming. Actually, I heard it first. I recognized the Mustang’s engine. I knew who was in the car because I was there when they worked on that car. I knew they were coming for me.”
I sucked in a breath, “The person who shot Yvette? They were after you?”
“Yeah, I dived down. I knew it was coming. None of the bullets hit me. I shouted to Yvette, ‘Get down, get down.’ She had this confused look on her face because we were just laughing so hard. I think she thought I was playing. Then I saw the bullets rip into her. The look on her face, I will never forget it.”
Damion was breathing hard like he was trying to push the pain back, “Charlene doesn’t look or act like her sister, but I know that was her twin. They were close. I saw what Yvette’s death did to her and her family. I tried to protect her over the years since I couldn’t protect her sister.”
There was quiet between us for what seemed like a long time. It was a lot to process. I was also listening hard for some police sirens or something.
I checked on Gladys. Her eyes were closed and she didn’t appear to be moving. “That doesn’t explain why you’re messing with an old woman. She just had a heart attack, Damion. We have to get her to a hospital.”
He looked down at Gladys as if he’d just remembered she was there. “No. She wasn’t supposed to be here. I thought she was still in the hospital.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Then, why did you come here?”
The hardness returned to his eyes as he focused on me. “I like you, Mrs. Patterson. I meant it when I said I liked your class.” His voice took on a menacing tone, “But you ask too many questions. You shouldn’t be here either.”
I sucked in a breath as fear crept all over my body. From what I could gather, Damion had every intention of coming into this house and apparently was surprised by Gladys returning home. My guess was that Gladys saw him. Either she set off towards him or was trying to run away from him. Either way, Damion must have shoved her in a similar way he did to her daughter over a week ago.
You would think the man paid attention to his own strength by now.
Still, if people were in places they shouldn’t have been…
Including myself in this scenario. Because I shouldn’t have opened that door.
“I’m sorry, Damion. But your nephew and your niece have had a hard week. They lost their mama. Do you want them to lose their grandma too?”
I noticed the hand holding the gun was shaking, like Damion was trying to have some self-control. “Those kids don’t need to be with her. She tried to poison them against Theo. Every time Theo comes to get his kids, he has to fix the damage. He had to explain to his little kids that he loved them and he would be there for them. Just because he told Sondra he didn’t want to be with her, she didn’t have to push her bitterness onto the kids.” Damion pointed the gun towards Gladys, “That woman, she encouraged it. I know she did because she’s an evil—”
I held up my hands, alarmed by the increasing agitation in Damion’s voice and body. “Okay, I’m so sorry. Please calm down. People do incredibly ugly things, especially people who’ve been hurt.”
“Hurt? Sondra caused more hurt to people with her mouth than anybody I knew. She’s always been ready to gossip about someone. Lately, she was trying to be a snitch too.”
Snitch? What did Damion mean by that?
I didn’t have time to contemplate that part anymore because what I’d been waiting for was on the way.
Damion cocked his ear and listened. Then he looked at me. “What did you do?”
“Nothing, I’ve been talking to you.”
“You called the cops some kind of way.”
I didn’t know what I’d done, but I hoped that we would all be alive when the cops got here.
“I’m not trying to go back to jail.” Just like that, Damion took off.
Fear shook me. “Damion. Wait, give yourself up. Don’t do anything crazy.”
That boy was going to get himself killed.