As the Wicked Watch(85)

After a brief silence he said, “Don’t say that. I might take it the wrong way.”

All right, that came out of nowhere.

I withdrew my hand, and after I didn’t respond to whatever point he was trying to make, he continued.

“Okay! So I got your message about Terrence Bankhead. I didn’t find anything on him. You’ve got to get me a birth date or an address or something.”

“What about Manny?” I asked.

“Jackpot! His real name is Emmanuel Walker. He’s done time. He was convicted of aggravated battery back in 2003. He spent a few months in Cook County Jail before being transferred to Joliet.”

“How long did he serve?”

“Almost two years. He just got off parole in May. That’s how I was able to connect him to the address you gave me.”

“Who did he beat up?”

“The details in the report were kind of sketchy, but it had something to do with an altercation with a girlfriend.”

“Yvonne?” I asked.

“No, I can’t remember the name on the police report, but it wasn’t Yvonne. He pled guilty to the charge. There haven’t been any incidents since then. According to his parole officer, he went to barber school and he cuts hair somewhere,” Joey said. “But I’ll find more on Bankhead. Everybody’s got a footprint. I just need more time.”

“You’re exactly right. I didn’t get a chance to tell you, but Yvonne said he lives with someone named Brent Carter. Both go to Manny to get their hair cut. He cuts hair in his basement, by the way.”

I thought back to Yvonne’s vibe when she said we should go back upstairs before Manny returned. She seemed more eager to get out of there than she was to confront him about Terrence.

“They all know one another. So now what? Have the police questioned Manny? I’m hearing nothing on the ground.”

“I have to be careful. If the department finds out I’m leaking information to you, it doesn’t end well for me.”

“You don’t believe those kids killed Masey, do you?”

“Hell no!”

“Police are no longer looking for the driver who was seen picking her up from school?”

“Not sure. I’ve been trying to find out. Nobody wants to tell me anything anymore. Fawcett put the word out, I think, that I’m leaking to the press. They’re focused on the kids. I went to Bartlett and told him I’d gotten a tip about the mystery person picking up Masey from school.”

I wonder if that was before or after I spoke with Bartlett.

“I’ll follow up today,” Joey said.

“One more thing,” I said. “There’s a kid at Masey’s school who may be a good eyewitness. He’s on the football team at Crest.”

“Oh yeah? They’ve got a really good squad this year,” Joey said. “What’s his name?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t talk to him; an intern did. She was so unprepared, she forgot to ask him his name, and she wasn’t able to fully describe him. So, it’s probably a dead end at this point.”

Joey dropped and shook his head, appearing as broken and frustrated as I was becoming by the endless roadblocks. I started to walk back to my car, then turned and asked, “Are we good?”

Joey closed the space between us and rested his hands on my shoulders. “We are as long as you promise to stay away from Manny Walker’s house. Because if detectives do show up to question him, he’ll know who tipped them off.”





13




The case against the boys has an emotional grip on people across this city. No matter their occupation or zip code, Chicagoans throw it into the conversation, from beauty shops and barbershops on the South and West Sides to the posh residences along the Gold Coast that at times feel far removed from the realities of life for most city residents. So when I got the email with the subject line “MANDATORY TOWN HALL TONIGHT AT 6 p.m.,” I had an inkling of what the meeting was about. Chicago’s newsrooms aren’t nearly as diverse as the city is. Ellen, in fact, is the only high-ranking female news executive at Chicago’s four major networks, and there’s not one general manager who is Black, Latino, or Asian. So whenever a high-profile case touches the live wire of race or gender, the trepidation reporters feel over saying the wrong thing and being called out for it can lead to animus that spills over into the work environment. With unprecedented murder charges lodged against three Black minor children, it’s quite clear we are sitting on a powder keg. Before that toxicity spills over into the newsroom, Ellen and Nussbaum called this meeting to hear from their staff.

Ellen knows that in the eyes of the people in the community, our coverage has put us on the same side as the police, fueling a perception that we’re somehow all in it together. That we’re not scrutinizing the police nearly enough. We’re just taking their word for it. They have no idea that behind the scenes, TV reporters and journalists at the local papers have been scrutinizing the hell out of the police. But that doesn’t always come through in the coverage.

I was just about to step away from my desk to head to the meeting when my cell phone rang. Who is this?

With everything that’s going on, I can’t afford not to answer a call.

“Hello?”