Chapter Thirteen

Raven was barely aware that she parked the Mustang in the same spot that she had used in her previous life as a homicide detective at the BLPD. Her heart hammered too loud in her chest for the recognition of ironies. It had been over a year since she had been in that parking lot. Yet her parking space sat there empty as if waiting for her return. The same fountain that had greeted her every day for years greeted her again, bright water clattering against the stone basin. To her frazzled mind it sounded like we knew you’d be back, we knew you’d be back. Even the desk sergeant was the same, a pudgy man named Spangler who had always been kind to her.

She greeted him, then asked, “Cameron, Billy Ray, where are they?”

“Interview Room D. But you can’t go back without a visitor’s….”

She continued down the hall while his voice faded, walking as fast as she could without running. Her thoughts came faster and faster now. Questions surged through her head in more of a prayer than a denial. How could it be Noe? He didn’t fit the victim profile. The chief said white. Noe definitely was not white.

She stepped through time when she opened the door of the interview room. Nothing had changed, not the light blue walls, not the metal table and chairs, and not the smooth suppleness of the two-way. She searched the corners of the room for cameras that would make the glass unnecessary, but the chief hadn’t gotten around to installing them in this room, not yet.

Cameron sat with both elbows on the table, his head cradled in his hands. He looked up at her with shock in his eyes. His mouth hung open in disbelief.

Tell him to close his mouth, Floyd’s voice in her head again. He’ll catch flies.

She tried to push Floyd away, but couldn’t. The weight of his evil was too heavy now, even though he had been decomposing into dust for over a decade.

Edmée was there, too. She sat beside Cameron with one arm around his shoulders.

“What’s happening?” Raven said. “Cam? Edmée?”

Edmée looked left, and Raven followed her gaze.

Well, well, the gang’s all here, came Floyd’s sing-song voice. Just like in the olden days.

Billy Ray was standing opposite the two-way, leaning against the wall with one hand in the pocket of his slacks, his ever-present pork pie hat pushed back on his head.

“What’s happening?” she asked Cameron again. “Talk to me.”

She knew it was the second time she asked the question, but she couldn’t help it. Cameron’s mouth worked, but not well enough to make sound. Raven turned back to Billy Ray. She told him with her eyes that he would have to be the grown-up in the room. My God, didn’t he already know that? Cameron, at the moment, was useless, just as he himself feared he would be when he learned that he was now daddy to an almost grown boy. Billy Ray’s silence frightened her more than words could. Noe was most likely dead.

“They don’t have a body,” Billy Ray said slowly as if reading her mind. “He’s missing.”

“How long?”

Billy Ray held Raven’s gaze, waited a beat before saying, “Since Friday morning, before school.”

“What? Since Friday? All weekend? How’s that even possible?” Raven asked.

“I’m sorry,” Cameron managed. “I thought he was spending the weekend with Clyde.”

“And Clyde’s parents probably thought Clyde was spending the weekend with Noe and Cameron,” Billy Ray said.

Raven turned a disgusted look toward her foster brother. “Come on, Cameron. That’s the oldest trick in the book. Where’s Clyde? Did you talk to his parents?”

“I talked to his daddy,” Cameron said. “He just said his kid ain’t missing, and he hadn’t seen Noe in a while.”

“I don’t believe this,” Raven said.

“My fault, Raven,” Cameron croaked. “You were right. I’m not cut out to be anybody’s daddy. How can anybody expect me to know how to be a father to a fifteen-year-old kid I don’t even know?”

“Now you got excuses?” Raven said.

Everything about Cameron at that moment irritated her – the black power pick stuck in his big afro, his vintage and very expensive Air Jordan tennis shoes, the long-sleeved Wu Tang Clan T-shirt he was wearing without a jacket in spite of the weather, and his tears. Especially his tears. She couldn’t understand how he didn’t know that Noe was missing a couple of days.

“Leave him alone,” Edmée said. “He’s having the worst day of his life. Why do you need to make him feel shittier than he already does? Raven. Please.”

Edmée slid a long green scarf from her neck, and draped it around Cameron’s shoulders.

“Because a fifteen-year-old kid is missing and probably dead,” Raven said. “Because it’s his responsibility to look after his son.”

“That’s enough, Raven,” Billy Ray said. “No cause for all this snapping.”

No, it’s not enough, Raven wanted to scream. Noe is missing and it’s my fault. She took a breath in and let it out slowly. It wasn’t until she thought she could speak calmly that she said, “Missing person report?”

“Took it at the desk,” Billy Ray said.

“Maybe I should go,” Edmée said. “I don’t want to cause any trouble.”

Raven was preparing herself for what she would have to do to find Noe. Edmée was having a calming effect on Cameron. That was good. Let her, Raven thought. There would be more hard times and grief to come in the next few hours if what Raven suspected turned out to be true.

“No, don’t go,” Raven said. “Take care of Cameron. Who’s working this, Billy Ray?”

“DeShawn Breaker,” Billy Ray said. “You know him?”

“Not well,” she said. “I met him over at the Memorial crime scene. I don’t understand why he—”

“Yes, that’s right,” Billy Ray said, before mouthing, “Homicide’s got it.”

Holy flock, Raven thought as she pulled out the chair next to Edmée. She sat down so hard that she felt the sting all the way up her thighs.

“Where’s Breaker?” Raven asked.

“Said he’s getting some water and coffee for us,” Billy Ray said.

Cameron snuffled, and ran the sleeve of his T-shirt across his nose. Edmée pulled a Kleenex from her purse and handed it to him. Raven stood up and motioned for Billy Ray to follow her outside.

Once in the hallway, she closed the door behind them and whispered, “How bad does this look?”

“I can’t say,” he said. “But I’m thinking it can’t be connected to all these killings going on.”

“Because Noe’s black?”

“Yes, because Noe’s black. This killer is only snatching white kids so far.”

Raven tried to catch hold of the hopeful thread now running through her. Noe didn’t fit the profile. He could still be alive. But she knew that there was no logic in these things, nothing to count on.

“Maybe Noe ran back to his stepfather? Grandparents? Cousins?” Raven asked.

“Cameron already made those calls. They haven’t seen him,” Billy Ray said.

“You think they’re telling the truth?”

Billy Ray looked at her and said, “Why would they lie? They didn’t want nothing to do with him once they were shut of his mother.”

Raven nodded, her mind moving on to other things. “You think Breaker was watching all this behind the two-way?”

Billy Ray gave her a half-smile. “I would be. Wouldn’t you?”

Just as she was about to answer his question, Breaker arrived with two bottles of water under one arm, and balancing a full-to-spilling cup of coffee with both hands.

“Whoa,” he said in a friendly voice. “Can you open the door for me?”

Billy Ray opened the door and held it there while the man entered the room and put the drinks on the table.

“A full house, I see,” he said. “Why don’t you two stay out there and I’ll be along directly.”

Raven looked through the door to see Cameron’s eyes, still red from tears. She wasn’t sure if she should leave him.

“Go on and talk,” Edmée said, looking over at Raven. “I’ll stay with him.”

Yeah, Raven thought, losing patience again. Why don’t you change his diaper while you’re at it? She loved her foster brother, but there was one thing about him she just couldn’t abide. He had a way of making everything about him during tragic situations. Raven knew he didn’t do it on purpose. He was an emotional man when it came to some things, but his sobbing and sniffling when someone else was dead or their life was on the line required that he be taken care of as well.

Once Breaker was back in the hallway, all of his faked friendliness was gone. He looked down at his feet. His leather shoes had a spit shine that any army recruit would envy.

“Your partner and I got reacquainted over at the Memorial crime scene,” he said to Billy Ray. “I mean ex-partner. You used to work here, too, right?”

“Used to,” Billy Ray agreed.

“So, you’re Billy Ray Chastain? I don’t think we’ve ever met but I’ve heard a lot of good things about you.”

“And you’re DeShawn Breaker,” Billy Ray said.

Billy Ray waited. Raven waited. They all waited.

Finally Billy Ray smiled. All charm, he said, “I see you know a lot about me, but I know next to nothing about you.”

“Sorry.” Breaker smoothed back his curly black hair with the palm of his hand. “Chief pulled me over from major crimes about six months ago. I’ve got the Sleeping Boy case.”

“I get all that, but why do you have Cameron’s case, man?” Billy Ray asked.

Breaker blew out a breath. He looked down at the buffed linoleum before looking back at them.

“Because we have a body in the morgue.”

Raven didn’t feel the breath leave her body. Instead she felt air rushing in before landing in her gut like a punch. Billy Ray placed a hand on her shoulder and squeezed.

“Your guy?” Billy Ray asked.

Raven couldn’t believe Billy Ray’s voice was so calm. Noe might be dead and here he was as calm as still water.

“Is it Noe?” Raven asked.

“It’s likely,” Breaker said. “We don’t know because, of course, he didn’t have any identification on him, being, you know,” he stopped before continuing on, “naked.” Breaker pulled at his red tie as if it were choking him.

“These killings your first homicide case?” Billy Ray asked.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “They are. Gotta be a first time for everything, right?”

“God bless it,” Raven said. She put her hands on her hips and turned away from him.

“The chief should have asked for help,” she said, turning around to face him.

“You know damn well he did,” Breaker countered.

“I’m not talking about from me,” Raven snapped.

“Couldn’t get any other help. Who’d you think would want this case? Besides, the mayor doesn’t want this going national.”

“Yeah,” Raven said. “Better to have another dead body than a three-minute segment on Good Morning America.”

“Where is the chief, anyway?” Billy Ray asked.

“He’s on his way in.” Breaker flipped his wrist to check his watch. “A half hour or so. This was supposed to be his day off.”

“Why are you talking to us and not Cameron?” Raven asked.

“We need your brother to identify the body. I thought that it would be better if the news came from one of you.”