As the Wicked Watch(77)
Yvonne handed Pamela tissues from the Kleenex box on a nearby table. Grief was so thick in the air, it was hard to breathe. My visit here began with Imani crying her eyes out, seeking comfort from her mother, and would end with two mothers comforting each other. I was relieved to have an excuse to escape.
“Pam, I’ve got to get back to the newsroom. I’ll be in touch. Yvonne, thank you so much for everything. I’ll let myself out.”
When I reached the door, I felt a tug on my arm. Pamela was right on my heels.
“Yes, Pam?”
“Are you going to report this on the news, too?”
“Report what?”
“All this stuff about this guy,” she said, then more discreetly so Yvonne wouldn’t hear, “and Manny.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
She let go of my arm.
As I walked to my car, I glanced back at the basement steps where Manny had emerged an hour before. Enough time had passed that maybe he’d return soon. Perhaps I should wait. I looked around for Manny one more time and paused to take a beat to process, as best I could, everything that had just happened before I got in the car. I’m drained, I realized, but there was still more to do. I called Joey and got his voice mail.
“Joey, it’s me. Listen, we don’t have time to be mad. I need your help. I have some more information in the Masey James case. Masey’s cousin just told me about a guy named Terrence Bankhead. He had some type of relationship with Masey. Her cousin said he’s about thirty years old and moved to Chicago from New Mexico, but she doesn’t know where he lives. And while you’re at it, can you check out Masey’s cousin’s boyfriend Manny Walker? Talk to you later. Bye.”
It hit me that the answer to what happened to Masey James could be terribly obvious: a beautiful girl being taken advantage of during an impressionable time in her life by the wrong guy. To my knowledge, only one person could confirm the driver of the car Masey got in that day, and that was the football player Grace talked to at Carol Crest.
*
The next day, Joey still hadn’t returned my call. So I left him a neutral message—“Hey, give me a call when you get a chance”—before heading to my doctor’s appointment. I was sitting in the waiting room when my phone vibrated. I was supposed to turn my cell phone off in the waiting area, but I never did. Switching to vibrate was the best I could do. I looked down and saw that it was Baby Smierciak.
“Jordan, where have you been? I called you last night.”
“Yeah, I’m sorry I missed your call,” I said. “What’s going on?”
“You’re never gonna believe what just happened this morning!” Justin said excitedly.
“Hold on. I need to move somewhere more private,” I said.
I rose to step out into the hallway, eliciting daggers from the waiting room receptionist for my noncompliance.
Your boss never turns off his cell phone. Give me a break.
“Justin, what’s up?” I asked, safely away from waiting room ears in the chilly hallway.
“Something big’s about to happen in the Masey James case,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my heart racing.
Did police find and arrest the mystery driver?
“I heard on the scanner that police had reopened the streets surrounding the playground. So I headed right on over this morning to see if I could get some pictures. Well, sure enough, the street was open, though the yellow tape kept me pretty far back. I went across the street to set up my shot, right? And this woman comes up and starts asking me a bunch of questions. We started talking, or I should say, she started talking. Telling me she told police she’d seen some kids over on the playground where the body was found. They’d scrounged up some sticks, she said, and were squatting over something. She identified two of them—the Harvey brothers, she called them. She said they go to her church. She told me that police picked them up for questioning, then came back to her house yesterday and asked her if she could identify them from a lineup of photos. Jordan, she told me that police said a positive ID was all they needed to charge them.”
Eddie from the convenience store was right!
“Charge them with what?” I asked incredulously. “You said boys. How old are they?”
“Not sure about the charge, but the lady said the Harvey brothers go to Ida B. Wells Prep, which isn’t far from the crime scene. Jordan, it’s a middle school!” Justin said.
“Get out! You mean they think the killer could be as young as a sixth grader? This is unbelievable! Where are you now?” I asked.
“I’m headed to police headquarters,” he said. “I’m gonna stake out there for a bit to see if charges are announced.”
“All right. I’m at the doctor’s office, but I’ll probably see you there . . . soon.”
I went back inside the waiting room and tapped on the receptionist’s window. “Excuse me, I’m going to have to reschedule,” I said. “I’m really sorry, I have an emergency.”
The receptionist rolled her eyes. “Wait here,” she ordered.
My cell phone vibrated in my hand. I didn’t recognize the number, but after what I’d just learned, there was no way I wasn’t answering it. The receptionist returned.
“Excuse me,” I said.