As the Wicked Watch(75)

“Sure, I was concerned, this grown man wanting to help her. What did he want in return? But Masey assured me he hadn’t tried anything, and he just wanted to help her. So I talked to him myself to see what he was about. He may hustle a fifteen-year-old, but he wasn’t going to fool me.”

“You weren’t her mother, Yvonne. That was not your decision to make.”

“Where did she meet him?” I asked.

“Here, at my house,” she said. “Manny cuts his and his roommate’s hair. He’s not from here.”

“And you’re sure he wasn’t trying to mess around with her?” I asked.

“No, no, no! It wasn’t like that at all. He was acting like he was her manager. Manny says he’s corny as hell, a wannabe. He did make a lot of promises. Not just to Mase but to her friends, too, about his studio and his connections. He even offered to pay me to do Mase’s hair and I said, ‘Why would I take your money? I do her hair for free.’ But I’m pretty sure he gave her money to buy that pink bomber jacket she had pictures taken in.”

I recall seeing that photo at the vigil and thinking Masey looked like a model in it.

“How old is this man?” asked Pamela, now incredulous.

“I’m guessing almost thirty.”

“Thirty! You let my daughter hang out with a thirty-year-old man!”

“Pam, I swear there was nothing going on like that. Masey would’ve told me.”

“Did you ask her?” I asked.

“Of course!” Yvonne insisted.

Pam grabbed her head, then slammed her arms back down on the arms of the chair.

“But then I started hearing from my customers that he was a fake. He’d taken this one girl’s money to pay for studio time and she never heard from him again. He don’t have any money. He’s been living with his boy for a couple years, and sometimes he stays with this older woman, his girlfriend. Turns out that was her car he’s been driving. He’s broke. He’s a phony.”

“Do you think he had something to do with Masey’s murder?” I asked.

“Honestly, no, I don’t think so. He’s a con, but nobody on the street says he’s violent. He did show us pictures of him with this big Grammy-winning producer once. He said he had the guy’s number and that they hung out. He made it seem like he was the man and that with his connections Masey could make it in L.A.”

“How much time was she spending with him, Yvonne?” Pam asked.

“Not a lot. One time he took her and a few of her friends over to the South Shore to do a photo shoot. I went with her. The pictures came out beautiful. That part was legit, I know. It was just that one time. I wouldn’t have let her go alone, and that was only after I’d checked him out,” Yvonne said.

“If you don’t think this Terrence hurt Masey, then why do you think her wanting to be famous got her in trouble?” I asked.

“I said maybe,” she said. “He might’ve owed people some money. I’m just speculating. But maybe he took money from the wrong people and they came looking for him, and Masey got caught up.”

“Do you know his last name?” I asked.

“Bankhead.”

“You say he’s not from here. Where’s he from?”

“He mentioned something about living in New Mexico for a few years before coming to Chicago.”

“So you think it’s possible that Masey was collateral damage for something he was mixed up in?” I asked.

“I dunno. I just had to say something,” she said.

“Now you say something!” Pamela screamed. “Now you say something! God damn you, Yvonne!”

“Pam, I’m sorry. You’re right, I should’ve. Please don’t hate me,” Yvonne pleaded.

The situation between Pam and Yvonne was escalating, but the conversation raised more questions.

“Where does he live?” I asked.

Before Yvonne could answer, Pamela interrupted. “If they were after him, why would they want to hurt Masey? How would they have connected them?”

I know from the many stories that I’ve covered that the wicked watch, and they strike when they think nobody’s looking. In Masey’s case, that would’ve been the day she left Yvonne’s at dusk on her bicycle.

“When was the last time you saw him?” I asked.

“At Manny’s birthday party. He was here late that night. He couldn’t have done something to Mase and been here at the same time,” she said.

“But you think it’s possible somebody who was after him recognized Masey and caught up with her?” I asked.

“It’s possible, I guess. Manny said he was always flashing cash. One minute he’d say he won it gambling, the next he’d just gotten a record deal. At one point he even claimed he had all this real estate.”

“Wait—but you said he was strapped for cash,” I said.

“Well, that’s the thing. We were hearing on the streets that he owed people money. But whenever he was around here, he wanted people to think he was ballin’.”

But if this guy Terrence isn’t who he says he is, what else is he hiding?

“Yvonne, I’ll ask you again, where does he live?”

“I don’t know.”