From the Desk of Zoe Washington(21)

I looked at him and realized what I’d just done. “I shouldn’t have told you all that.” Panic started to balloon in my chest. “You can’t tell anyone what I said. Promise.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

“You didn’t promise,” I said. “I mean it. You can’t tell anyone. It’s really important.”

Trevor’s face became serious. “I promise.” And then he looked at me funny. “Since when are you a rebel?”

“I’m not,” I said, though when I thought about it, it was sort of true. It was so unlike me—lying to my parents, sneaking around doing something they wouldn’t approve of. I never lied to them this much about anything, and I felt a little guilty.

But now that I knew Marcus might be innocent, there was no way I could stop.

Maybe I could track down Marcus’s lawyer and ask him questions about the case. Or I could find his alibi witness and listen to their side of the story. If that person really did see Marcus when the crime was happening, then I would know for sure whether he was telling the truth.

If I could prove that Marcus didn’t commit his crime, then Mom would have to let me have a relationship with him. Then the lying could stop for good.

“If he’s innocent, then how come he’s been in prison this whole time?” Trevor asked.

I hesitated, not sure if I should trust Trevor with anything else. Would he really keep my secret?

“What?” Trevor asked, as if my thoughts were written all over my face. “I’m not going to tell anybody.”

“Okay,” I finally said. “Marcus said he had an alibi—like, he was somewhere else when the crime happened.”

“Wait, for real?” Trevor asked.

I nodded and put my hand on the book. “Then I found this—it has all these stories about innocent people who went to prison. I didn’t think that happened.”

“I guess I knew that,” Trevor said. “My parents have all of these talks with me—like, because I’m Black, I have to be extra careful around the police. Stuff like that.”

“My mom had that talk with me, too,” I said. “I hadn’t made the connection.”

I told Trevor about the Innocence Project and filled him in on the case I read about. I still couldn’t believe how unfair it was. What was the point of a legal system if it didn’t work a lot of the time? And what about all the people who didn’t know to ask for the Innocence Project’s help?

“That’s messed up,” Trevor said.

“I know,” I said. “I’m going to go use a computer and see what I can find about Marcus’s case.”

“Cool, let’s go,” Trevor said as he pushed his chair back.

“What do you mean, ‘let’s’?” I asked.

“I want to come, too,” Trevor said. “I’m curious now.”

“Um . . .” I hesitated, not sure if I was ready to be friends with Trevor again. But it was nice to talk all of this through with him. It was almost like before.

“Okay, then,” I finally said.

I left The Wrongfully Convicted on the table, gathered my other stuff, and then Trevor and I walked to the nearest computer.

My mom never told me any of the details of the crime—only that the victim was someone Marcus knew in college. I didn’t want to look it up before, because I was sort of scared of what I’d find. But now that I wanted to figure out if he was really innocent, I needed to know exactly what happened the day of the crime.

I typed “Marcus Johnson” into the search bar, and the page filled with links and pictures of some jazz musician. I had to get more specific, so I put “Malden” after his name, since that’s where he and my mom grew up.

A few articles from over twelve years earlier popped up at the top of the list. In the middle of the page, a few images appeared. I immediately recognized Marcus in one of them.

I clicked on it to get a better look. The picture showed his head and the top of his shoulders, with a gray background. It had to be Marcus’s mug shot.

“That’s him.” The only other picture I’d seen of Marcus was him smiling at the basketball game. But in this one, Marcus looked mean—like a murderer would look. His jaw was tight, his eyes stony, as if he didn’t feel bad at all.

I started to panic; maybe this was all a mistake—he was guilty, of course he was guilty. But then I looked at the picture a little closer and noticed something else in his eyes. It seemed like maybe he was putting up a front, like he was really frightened but trying not to show it.

I wasn’t sure which was right.

It looked like the picture came from an article, so I clicked on it. I leaned even closer to the computer screen and started to read.

Arrest Made in UMass Student’s Murder

Published: Friday, November 1

A suspect has been charged today in the death of 18-year-old Lucy Hernandez, authorities said. The University of Massachusetts freshman was found dead in her apartment near campus on Sunday morning. Marcus Johnson, 18, UMass freshman and Malden resident, is charged with first degree murder.

Hernandez’s roommate found her body in her apartment the morning of October 27. Authorities ruled the death a homicide later that day, a Sunday. An autopsy determined that the cause of Hernandez’s death was blunt force trauma to her head, according to the prosecutor’s office. The coroner estimated that her death occurred sometime between 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. on October 26.