Nice Girls(45)

And I realized that I did know someone.





22




It was easy enough to find Charice online. She was one of Dwayne’s Facebook friends. Her profile page was public, and it showed pictures of her clubbing and going out with friends—she had over two thousand of them on Facebook. She’d also listed her phone number.

I called her instead of texting. It was more direct that way.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Charice. It’s Mary. We met on Jayden’s birthday?”

“Yeah, what’s up?” She coughed, her voice faint and scratchy.

“Is this not a good time to talk?”

“It’s fine. I think I got sick last night,” croaked Charice. She and everyone else our age had stayed up until dawn, partying. “I’ve been sleeping in. What’s going on?”

“Do you remember the morning at the beach?” I asked.

Charice cleared her throat, but she said nothing.

“I read somewhere that the police were mishandling DeMaria’s investigation. A lot of people think more needs to be done for her.”

“The cops don’t give a shit,” said Charice.

“Exactly. But some people think that she’s connected to—”

“The Olivia girl,” Charice finished. “I know—the serial killer theory. I’ve seen it online. No one’s looking into it, though.”

“We could change that,” I said softly. “If the details of DeMaria’s case were to be leaked online, then maybe the police would be forced to investigate it. There’d be more eyes on them, you know? They’d have to be held accountable for DeMaria.”

“Maybe . . .”

“And your brother Felix is a cop, right? You guys mentioned him.”

There was a long pause. Charice was thinking, weighing her options.

“It’s just an idea,” I said carefully. I didn’t want to push it.

“Are you free tomorrow or Tuesday?” she finally asked.



Monday was my day off, but I spent most of it waiting for Charice to get out of class. At two thirty, I drove straight to the Isles Mall, located northeast of the city.

I found Charice at the food court. She was texting and dressed in a puffy gray jacket and a pair of black joggers. Her fingers moved furiously. Jayden sat beside her, watching a video on his phone.

“Hi, guys.”

Charice flashed a smile while Jayden just nodded.

She’d never mentioned that he was coming along. Normally, I would’ve been annoyed if a friend’s boyfriend showed up unannounced to our meeting.

But the current situation wasn’t normal. We were doing something dangerous and illegal, and it put me, Charice, and her brother at risk.

Worse, she most likely had told her boyfriend everything. Jayden’s presence compounded the situation—the more people involved, the greater the risk. I regretted calling her, but I had no other options.

“I was thinking of stopping at a store while we’re here?” asked Charice. She flashed us a winning smile.

We stopped at Macy’s. Charice was looking for a pair of warm and chunky high-heeled boots. While she was trying some on, I drifted toward the sale aisle. Jayden followed me, his hands in his jean pockets. He seemed tense, his eyes darting around the rest of the store. I realized that he was eyeing the cameras, the employees, the other customers nearby. He was watching them to see if they were watching him. I realized that was why he followed me—to avoid being stopped and checked. It seemed exhausting.

“So how’s Dwayne?” I asked. We had nothing else to talk about.

“I don’t know. Don’t you two work together or something?”

“We do. Dwayne’s just been . . . off lately. Like he’s a little preoccupied.”

“Damn,” said Jayden. He sounded concerned. “I haven’t seen my cousin since the lake thing.”

“What?”

“Yeah. I’ve tried to hang out and shit, but he’s been turning me down. Thought he was busy.” Jayden sighed. “Dwayne’s probably freaked out by what happened.”

“You think so?”

“Yeah.” Jayden stared at me. “Aren’t you?”

The morning at Dwayne’s apartment had shaken us all. One week ago, none of us had been prepared to find a hacked limb in the sand. You could read about cruelty and murder, you could see it depicted on screen and through art. But it was different to witness it with your own two eyes. The experience became a part of you. And the distance was gone. You realized that the violence was out there, a town, a mile, a block away from you.

No one was ever truly safe.

I glanced back at Charice. She was checking the bottom of her shoe.

“I thought we were supposed to talk about DeMaria here,” I said quietly.

Jayden let out a loud cackle, so loud that some of the store employees turned to look at us. He clapped his hands together, amused.

“That’s the funniest shit I’ve heard all day,” he said.



“You thought we’d talk about this at the mall?” Charice sounded incredulous.

We sat in Jayden’s beat-up black car. After buying a pair of thigh-high black boots with a stiletto heel, Charice picked up a large pop from the food court. We went straight to Jayden’s car right after.