“You’re blaming Rasheda for everything that’s happened?” Vince was stunned too.
“I’m calling a spade a spade, that’s all. Take it or leave it.”
Ricki couldn’t stand the sight of him. “Daddy, we know everything,” she said, “so don’t even lie anymore.”
Hershel and Mamie both looked at her. “What is your fool ass talking about?” Hershel asked her derisively. “Who you calling a liar?”
But Ricki refused to let her anger get in the way of finding the truth. She and Vince discussed it on the drive over. She maintained her cool. “We know Althea McDonald hid the factthat the Richardson DNA found at Dr. Proctor’s crime scene came from a male Richardson, not a female.”
“Yeah it did. Davey,” said Hershel. “That’s why they arrested him. Soon as he recovers from his injuries he’ll be released into their custody. Don’t you know anything?”
“I know Davey didn’t kill Dr. Proctor. I know that!”
“How you know that?” Mamie asked her daughter.
“Because I know my brother. And just like Erica couldn’t have killed Dr. Proctor, Davey couldn’t have either.”
“Girl get on from ‘round here!” Hershel said angrily. “Erica killed that doctor. He wouldn’t marry her so she killed him.”
“It couldn’t have been Erica, Daddy. Your girlfriend gave it away.”
For the first time, Vince saw some life in Mamie’s eyes. “What girlfriend?” she asked.
“Althea McDonald. She asked JoJo to kill Erica in her jail cell because they were cousins and she figured he wouldn’t rat her out. But he told me it was Al just before some thugs she hired killed JoJo.”
Mamie looked at Hershel. “You told me that was over with,” she said with passion in her voice.
“It is over,” said Hershel. “Ricki just making stuff up.”
“You said you wasn’t seeing that woman anymore, you bastard!”
Hershel slapped Mamie hard across the face, causing her head to jerk sideways. “Who do you think you’re talking to, woman?!”
Ricki was about to go to her father and defend her mother, but Vince held her back. They needed facts. And anger always brought out the truth.
“You told me it was over,” Mamie said again, holding the side of her face. “You told me you stopped seeing that hussy. You told me you stopped that foolishness.”
“I lied, okay? I lied! What you gonna do about it?”
“Why did you do it, Mr. Richardson?” Vince asked him, to keep his anger going.
Hershel looked at Vince and then at Milo and George. It was as if he knew he was cornered. And his defiance took over. “What you gonna do about it?” he asked Vince.
“Why did you do it?” Vince asked him again.
“I did it because he knew.”
Ricki frowned. “Dr. Proctor? What did Dr. Proctor know?”
“That Erica’s stupid ass managed to get herself pregnant again.”
“She was pregnant again?” asked Ricki. That was news to her. “She was pregnant with Dr. Proctor’s baby yet again?”
“Not with Dr. Proctor’s baby,” said Mamie. “With your father’s baby. Yet again!” she yelled at Hershel.
Everybody in that room stopped all movement. None, however, was as shocked as Ricki. “What are you saying? Are you telling me thatDaddy. . . ThatDaddy?”
“He been messing with her since she was ten years old. You was long gone when he first started. He wouldn’t bother her when you were around.”
