As the Wicked Watch(76)

“Who else does he hang out with?” Pam said.

“I don’t really see him with anybody other than his roommate. Like I said, he’s not from here,” Yvonne said.

“What’s his roommate’s name?” I asked.

“Brent,” she said.

“What’s his last name? What does he do?”

“Carter. I don’t know,” she said, becoming more aggravated by the second.

I leaned in and looked Yvonne square in her eyes. “Yvonne, stay with me, okay? Stay in the moment.”

She nodded her head.

“I’m curious, what kind of car does he drive?” I asked.

“A gray Camry. I’ve seen Terrence drive it sometimes when he didn’t have the other car.”

“What kind of car?”

Yvonne sighed. “It’s hard to describe, like it was customized or something. Kinda sporty. A grayish purple color.”

“Did you notice if it was missing a rim?”

“No.”

“Has he been around here since Masey disappeared?” I asked.

“Yeah, Manny cut his hair about a week after she went missing. Manny told me he kept saying how messed up it was, but it seemed like he was trying to downplay how close they’d gotten recently. That bothered Manny, him acting like he didn’t know her all that well.”

“So Manny let him off the hook? He just let him act like he didn’t know her? Did he confront him?” I asked.

“No, he didn’t.”

“But why?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged.

“Did Manny spend much time around Masey?” I asked.

“What are you trying to say?”

“I’m not trying to say anything. I just wonder why he wouldn’t have confronted Terrence.”

“This is some bullshit!” Pamela shouted, and leapt out of her chair and headed toward the basement in search of Manny.

“Pamela! Pam! Wait!” Yvonne pleaded.

The last thing I wanted to do was to get caught in the middle of the family argument that I sensed was about to happen. But there’s so much more I needed to know, so I followed Pamela and Yvonne as they rushed to the basement. It felt damp down here and smelled of the type of astringent used to sanitize clippers and combs. Manny’s shop consisted of a single barber chair, a television bracketed against the wall, and an adjacent room with another television and folding chairs lining the wall. Magazines were stacked on a side table. But no Manny.

“If you’d given me a chance, I would’ve told you he’s not cutting today,” Yvonne said.

“I saw a guy outside as I was coming up. He had a White Sox hat on. Was that Manny?” I asked.

“Yes, that was him,” Yvonne said.

Pamela was now sweating from the sprint and the fear and adrenaline that had to be rushing through her body after all she’d just learned.

“Pam, come on, have a seat,” I said, gently draping my arm around her shoulders. “Try to settle down. Let’s get through this.”

“No, we need to go back upstairs,” Yvonne said abruptly. “He’ll be back soon.”

“Okay, that’s fine. Let’s go,” I said.

Once upstairs, I jumped right back in. “Yvonne, did Terrence ever pick up Masey from school?”

“If he did, she never said anything to me about it.”

“But it’s possible?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess,” she said. “But like I said, Masey didn’t keep secrets from me.”

Yvonne thinks she’s the cool cousin that the young girls come to for advice and gossip and even to share their secrets. I thought back to my cousin Stephanie, what it was like when we learned that she’d lied to everyone to meet up with an older guy on what was supposed to be a school band trip. She didn’t even tell me. Even now it stings when I think about it. I thought she trusted me most.

I go back to the question I had asked before. “Masey was over here quite a bit. Were she and Manny pretty close, too?”

The question struck a deeper nerve the second time. Yvonne’s teary eyes of regret were transformed into a ferocious stare now directed at me. “What are you trying to say? Why do you keep asking me that?”

“Look, Yvonne, I’m trying to put together how many people were in Masey’s circle to figure out how she ended up dead in a field, naked and left to rot!”

Pamela’s expression imploded like a building taken down by dynamite, and I realized I’d crossed the line.

Jordan, get a grip!

In that moment, I was embarrassed by my reckless choice of words. But I had to try to shift into reverse, leave this terrible moment behind, and back out of my confrontation with Yvonne. I needed to keep the focus on Terrence.

“Yvonne, we’re all here for Masey. Nobody carries a greater weight than Pam, and I know you’re hurt, too.”

Masey’s real life—as opposed to the life everyone thought she was living—is now the story and the path to learning the truth. Piecing it all together, I’m starting to believe that Masey was in fact dating this guy. Or at the very least, he lured her with promises of making her famous. I feel certain he was the person who’d been picking her up from school. But what set him off? Did they get into a fight? Did he try to have sex with her and she said no? Did he force her? Did he silence her to keep her quiet about the rape? Of course this is all speculation; there is no evidence. It could be him, but it also could be Manny. It could be anyone.