“Murder?” Ricki gripped the phone with both of her hands as Geraldine and Neika both looked at her. “You’re accusingmy sisterof murdering Dr. Proctor?”
“She’s been arrested for his homicide, yes ma’am.”
“But that can’t be right. Put her on the phone. Let me talk to her.”
“No can do. She’s still being processed in. She asked me to call you, I called you. Her bail hearing will be this afternoon, 4p.m., in courtroom seven. Good day.” And he ended the call.
Ricki was so blown away she could hardly think straight. Geraldine took the phone from her. “What is it, Ricki?”
“They’re saying my sister murdered somebody.”
“Wow,” said Neika. “Murder?”
“Who they’re saying she murdered?” Geraldine asked.
“Dr. Proctor.”
Geraldine was confused. “Who’s Dr. Proctor?”
But Ricki was still in a state of shock. “They’re saying my sister murdered Dr. Proctor.”
“Wow,” said Neika again.
Ricki looked at a stunned Geraldine. “I need to go to Milton.”
“Then go. We’ll hold it down until you get back. You go see about your sister.”
Ricki nodded. “Thanks.” Then she looked at Neika, distress all over her face. “I won’t be able to do your hair today.”
“Of course not,” said a still-stunned Neika.
“I’ll get somebody to do it for her,” said Geraldine. “You just go and take care of your sister. That’s the baby sister you told me about, right?”
“That’s the only sister I have, yes. And I know what you’re thinking. She do what she do. Yes, she does. But she could never in a million years murder anybody. Never.” Then Ricki hurried out of the salon.
“That’s what they all say,” Geraldine said. “Their loved ones can never in a million years do it. Never, ever. And that sister of Ricki’s was already a troubled soul. But never in a million years could she harm a flea. Jeffrey Dahmer’s family probably thought he would never in a million years eat people. But he ate’em.”
Neika looked at her. “Wow. You think her sister ate that doctor?”
“What?” Geraldine looked at her as if she couldn’t believe she just said that. Then she shook her head. “Stupid people have no business living. None whatsoever! Jurita? She yelled toward the back of her salon.
“Ma’am?”
“Do Neika’s hair. Four big braids and that’s it.”
“Yes ma’am. Come on back, Neek.”
Neika didn’t hesitate. She hurried to the back of the salon to get away from the woman that just called her stupid.
But Geraldine wasn’t thinking about Neika. She was thinking about Ricki and how she once told her that that baby sister of hers was nothing but trouble.With a capital T, she remembered Ricki said. Now this?Murder?
She said a quiet prayer because she knew Ricki was going to do everything in her power to help that trouble. That was how she rolled. Ricki was a helper. The only person she never bothered to help, if you asked Geraldine, was herself.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Her hometown of Milton was on the northern end of Connecticut, just past Vernon, and was just about a three-hour drive from Brooklyn. Ricki wanted to speed. She wanted to get there that badly. But she couldn’t afford to get stopped by cops. That would not only slow her down even more, but that ticket would cost her more than she had to spare. A practical girl where it mattered, she didn’t take unnecessary chances.
But as she drove, she couldn’t stop thinking about her baby sister. Erica was only nineteen. There was a ten-year age gap between her and her sister. And that sister of hers was a handful. She’d been that way her entire life. But to be accused of what she was accused of? And the victim was Dr. Proctor of all people? That made no sense. Nobody was ever going to tell her that somehow, someway that made any kind of sense at all. Erica couldn’t do that. She would not do that.
