Briana never returned to the house and though I tried to move on with our evening, Amos’s statement still bugged me. I became interested in Amos only two years ago. At the time, I couldn’t understand why the man next door had caught my attention. Now here we were married a whole five months. Married life had been good, but we didn’t know everything about each other’s past lives. That was okay with us both being over sixty. We had entire lives with other people. Still, I didn’t want us to be having secrets.
Secrets with ramifications.
Amos’s statement had spun up my anxiety level. It had already been elevated since we discovered the body next door. Knowing the woman’s identity made her death even more real.
I managed to grill some chicken breast and sauté some green beans. It wasn’t a fancy meal, but it would do. I couldn’t concentrate on cooking anything too complex while my mind spun up all kinds of foolishness. You know your mind does that to you sometimes, just let the imagination take over. I had to flat out say to myself, “Eugeena, stop it.” This was Amos’s daughter, and this man had been nothing but good to my children. Whatever Amos had done for his daughter before, it couldn’t be that bad.
Me and the Lord knew how many nights I prayed over my children knowing they were up to no good and in some cases winded up in trouble, and they turned out just fine.
Praise the Lord!
We ate dinner in silence, which was unusual. Amos and I usually had conversations about our day, the children, the grands and occasionally squabbled over local happenings and the news. I cleared the table, busying myself with loading the dishwasher. When I finished, I turned around and the list that Amos had pulled out earlier caught my eye. I grabbed the piece of paper and sat. “We didn’t talk about this list. Do you know the people on this list?”
Amos had been typing on his phone. He’d been doing that a lot lately. Like me, he wasn’t a tech geek, but somehow those little devices took over your life. I often caught Amos engrossed in a game, which I found funny. It seemed out of the ordinary for him.
“Amos,” I repeated and waved the list at him.
He lifted his head and nodded, “Some of them. But only two names concern me.”
I frowned. So he did hear me when I asked the question before.
He continued not paying any attention to my face, which spoke volumes. “I plan on meeting with one or both of them tomorrow.”
Amos was going to have me developing wrinkles with the workout on my face. I could feel the tension in my forehead as my frown deepened. I guessed the two names he was referring to were at the top of the list. The Nichols boys, Theo and Damion.
“Is that really a good idea, Amos?”
He waved like it was no big deal. “Don’t worry. I need some work done on my truck too. I have a cover story,” he winked.
Amos might have been acting like this was no big deal, but I still didn’t like the idea. He’d already let it be known he wasn’t pleased with Theo visiting Briana the other night. What exactly was he planning to ask the brothers?
Did you kill a girl and leave her body in my shed?
I doubted seriously that a sixty-four year old man was going to make two young men confess. Young people rarely showed respect for their elders anyway. But before I could convey my concerns, Amos stood from the table. “I’m going to go next door to check on Briana.”
“Okay, if you don’t mind, my first thought would be to check out some of these names on Facebook.”
The grin that crossed Amos’s face almost made me blush.
He pointed his finger at me, “I knew you couldn’t resist so don’t let me stop you.”
After doing some other cleaning touch-ups in the kitchen, I grabbed my laptop and settled on the couch in the living room. I usually spent time in the evenings playing around on Facebook anyway, so I had to force myself not to scroll through the feed. It took me a whole twenty minutes to pull myself from watching funny video after video. I needed the humor, and laughter is good medicine. Some of my anxiety from earlier disappeared. Finally getting down to business, I started typing in names from the list starting with the two guys.
The Nichols brothers had Facebook pages, but they didn’t post much. Some posts were from Instagram, mainly cars they worked on in their auto body shop. My preferred social media vice remained Facebook only. I still hadn’t quite gotten the hang of Instagram, though Leesa talked me into creating an account. All I saw most days was a whole lot of selfies.
Speaking of selfies, the brothers did a lot of posing, looking more like overgrown teenagers than men. I had both of these young men in my classroom years ago, so I knew they were in their late twenties. Both brothers shared the same solemn look on their faces like it would hurt them to show some teeth. They were good-looking as boys and still remained handsome, now taller and more buffed than they were in my eighth grade class. I recalled Theo always being large for his age, while his younger brother, Damion, was small and skinny. He was only a year younger than Theo but it took him a while to catch up to his brother.
Theo was bald, which was surprising to me. I wondered if that was by choice or if he had already started prematurely losing his hair. His skin was milk-chocolate and he had the most expressive brown eyes which almost seemed to not fit his solemn face. There was a hint of dimples. If the man smiled, women would probably lose their minds over them.
Morris Chestnut. I snapped my fingers, Theo reminded me of him. I tickled myself sometimes at what I could recall. I may have been a history teacher, but I kept up on the pop culture stuff too.
I clicked on the younger brother’s page. Damion resembled his older brother in bulk and height but had bright, caramel skin. Same expressive eyes as his brother’s, but Damion’s eyes were hazel and almost sorrowful like a puppy who’d lost his owner. In several photos, Damion wore his close-cut hair with blond streaks, reminding me of that singer Chris Brown.
These were indeed two good-looking men. With Briana just coming back to town a few months ago, I wondered how she hooked up with them. She certainly had no problem inviting them to the house. Maybe she’d kept in touch all these years.
Growing tired of looking at the Nichols boys, I scoured the list, recognizing a few other names who were all definitely students of mine. If people filled out their profiles on Facebook, an amateur detective like myself could gather quite a bit of data. I’d come to the conclusion that most of these people were in the same age range and probably were Sondra’s classmates. These folks had known each other all their lives, attended the same schools and graduated together.
That started me thinking.
Though they didn’t live in Sugar Creek while the girls were in school, Amos mentioned that Briana graduated from North Charleston high school. I knew when my own children had attended, the high school averaged six hundred students with about one hundred and fifty students per class.
Sondra and Briana had to have been aware of each other.
Why was Briana acting like she didn’t recognize her?
I needed to know more about Sondra. I was still peeved at myself for not recognizing her. I could blame it on the state of her deceased body inside the shed. The horror of it all made me shiver slightly. I rubbed my arms, looking up from the laptop.
Focus, Eugeena. The Lord is my protector.
I didn’t have time to be getting weirded out now. I shook myself and typed in Sondra’s name. There were quite a few Sondra Howell Facebook pages and it took me some time to find the right page. Interesting enough, I found Sondra’s page by surfing through my daughter’s page. Apparently, Leesa and Sondra were friends on Facebook.
That surprised me because Leesa was younger. After further calculations in my tired head, I came to the conclusion that Leesa was probably a freshman when Sondra was a senior. Leesa told me once people just friended and followed each other on social media to have the numbers. Those relationships weren’t always real. Still, I would be curious to know my daughter’s take on Sondra.
As I perused the posts Sondra kept public, I noticed a pattern. Despite Gladys mentioning that Sondra didn’t attend church, I found her page filled with bible verses, especially in the days prior to her death. I even spotted one of my favorites.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7, NIV).
As I scrolled down, I read another one from the book of John, “Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me” (John 14:1, NIV).
It seemed to me Sondra was going through something and she poured out her anguish on her Facebook page. I wondered if Sondra was suffering from some type of depression. She worked a lot, but Gladys said she spent the whole day in bed on Saturday, not really spending time with her children. She could have just been tired, but that was a little concerning to me. What was going through Sondra’s mind? Did she just sleep the whole day from exhaustion or was something else bothering her?
Folks didn’t often deal with mental illness. I knew this from experience. Leesa suffered from postpartum depression after delivering her second child. Previously, as a teenager, she grieved deeply from the loss of her best friend during her junior year in high school. Her grief led to a rebellious period that resulted in her first child and my first granddaughter, Keisha.
I decided to ramp up my nosiness and dug a little deeper into Sondra’s photos, at least those that were public. She kept quite a few photos of her children on public view, which I thought wasn’t a good idea. As I looked at Sondra’s little boy and girl, I recalled seeing both children in summer camp at Missionary Baptist this morning, specifically in Annie Mae’s class. I’d never made the connection they were Sondra’s kids. We had a lot of children attending the church’s summer camp who resided in the nearby community and needed a place to be during the summer. Digging further down, I found a birthday party celebration at Chuck E. Cheese only a few weeks ago. Looks like the boy had turned eight years old.
There was something about his face that struck some familiarity. I searched but couldn’t find any photos of the children’s father. Was the father even a part of their lives?
My daughter decided years ago she wanted nothing to do with Keisha’s dad. Her father and I were not happy about it, but we supported her. When she got pregnant again, I eventually met the dad. Leesa’s relationship with her son’s dad was a bit precarious, but I knew they worked at co-parenting these days. So it was strange to me, but not too strange, that there wasn’t any existence of a dad on the page. Maybe he just wasn’t around.
I looked at the clock on the wall above the television. Then glanced at the door. Amos had been gone awhile now. I wondered how things were going next door. Hopefully, he could get some answers from Briana. She ran out of here like someone had chased her out.
Correction. No, she ran out because Sondra Howell’s name had been mentioned. This reminded me why I was nosing around on these people’s Facebook pages in the first place. I really wanted to find a connection between Sondra and Briana.
I pulled up my stepdaughter’s page. Briana had a beautiful singing voice. She didn’t know, but I often went to her Facebook or Instagram page to listen to what she posted. She didn’t post every day, but at least once a week Briana shared her soul in a video with strangers. She’d spent so many years in California, hoping to pursue her dreams. I’d heard that Nashville and Atlanta were also major places for musicians and singers to pursue their craft. I knew Briana clashed with Amos when she was younger and took her mother’s death hard, but I always wondered why she didn’t pursue her career a bit closer to home. I assumed since her older sister had married and moved to Seattle that the West Coast made more sense to Briana.
But was that the only reason?
I scrolled down her Facebook page which was filled with videos she’d posted over the years. Some videos showed her singing on stages with a band while others showed her singing alone, possibly in her L.A. apartment. In recent videos, I recognized the living room in Amos’s old home. Briana was sitting on a stool with a guitar in her arms. She strummed the strings effortlessly, singing a song I wasn’t familiar with, but it sounded pleasant and soothing to the ears.
This was a talented young woman who most of the time seemed bent on self-destruction. Obviously, life didn’t go the way Briana had expected. I knew from her older sister that Briana had money issues since she constantly reached out to her sister for assistance. What still didn’t make sense to me was her abrupt move back to the East Coast. No doubt living rent free in her childhood home seemed like a good thing, but Briana needed to grow up some. She may be forced to after last night’s discovery.
I’d noticed there were some photos I hadn’t seen before on Briana’s page. I clicked the post to find a group of photos. In one of the photos Briana was smiling and Theo Nichols had his arm thrown around her neck. They definitely knew each other and seemed quite the couple. In another photo, Briana stood between both Theo and Damion. Glancing at the post, I realized these photos had to be taken this past weekend. This definitely proved both men were at the house.
I wanted to take a closer look at the other photos, but a noise pulled my attention away. I cocked my head, listening to the sound, finally recognizing the front door lock being turned. Amos had returned. By the look on his face when he entered the house, I knew things hadn’t gone well next door. I shut the laptop.
Amos plopped down in his chair and turned on the television. “Briana didn’t want to talk. She wants to put this all behind her.” He rubbed his hand across his bald head. “I told her if she’s holding back something, Detective Wilkes would find out. There’s nothing I can do if she doesn’t talk.”
By now I was bursting at the seams. Between my Facebook digging and the statement Amos made earlier in the kitchen, my inquiring mind had to know what was going on. “Amos, what did you mean earlier about not getting her out of trouble again? What kind of trouble was Briana in before that could come back to bite her?”
I knew he heard me, but for an awkward minute it seemed like he had no intentions of responding. I’d been around Amos long enough to know it took him a minute to think about what he wanted to say. Still, it irked me to have to wait.
A deep sigh rose up as if the memories pained him. “That Nichols boy was a bad influence on her.”
I guessed, “Theo?”
“Yes, there was some kind of party back during Briana’s senior year. A girl, someone Briana knew, was killed.”
I sucked in a breath, but held my tongue despite the rapid fire questions roaring through my mind.
Amos continued, “Briana and this girl didn’t get along. They even fought a few days before the girl’s death. Both girls had been suspended. I punished Briana, and she wasn’t allowed to leave the house except to go to school. I was on a case that night. It was a Friday and there’d been the usual football game. Briana was supposed to be in her bedroom, but she snuck out to see Theo after the game. You know he was a big time football player back then, a running back. He and Damion entertained people at his house all the time. Anyhow, I got a frantic call from Francine. She didn’t know where Briana was, only that she wasn’t in her bedroom. I left my partner to hold down the investigation while I searched for her.”
Amos rubbed his hands across his bald head. “I had a hunch and I was right. Sure enough, I found her at Theo’s house. Unfortunately, something had gone down before I arrived at the Nichols’ boys house. That girl Briana had the fight with … she’d been shot.”
My laptop was still in my lap, so I placed it on the couch beside me. Then, I scooted forward practically to the edge of the couch, “Oh no, Amos.”
“Briana claimed she was with Theo, and they both were somewhere else in the house.” He shook his head. “No telling what they were doing. I didn’t want to know. Really, I only wanted Briana to have a tight alibi, which she would have had if she’d stayed home like I told her.” Amos’s voice rose, the memory of what Briana had done still affected him.
“The girl who had been shot was outside with other kids, just shooting the breeze in front of the house. Witnesses claimed the bullets came flying from nowhere and everyone was ducking for cover. The final findings were the girl was shot by a stray bullet. No one knew or saw anything. All the kids outside were questioned, and somehow Briana’s name kept coming up.”
“Because of the fight a few days before? People wanted to blame her?”
He nodded, “Yeah. It helped that I was a homicide detective and everyone knew me. Knew us. They’d watched Briana growing up. She’d been a good kid. I don’t know what happened to her when she got with Theo. I know girls go crazy over guys, but he changed her. She would have never left the house like that. To this day I don’t know what the girls were really fighting about, but one of Briana’s teachers at the time seemed to think they were fighting over him.”
I cringed, “Fighting over a boy ain’t never did any girl or woman any good. So, do you think someone is going to dig this up? I mean Briana wasn’t officially charged with anything.”
Amos shook his head, “No, there’s no record. But people talked a long time, and people around here have long memories. I really think that’s why Briana took off after graduation. I wanted her to go to college, but she wanted to explore the world. She came back here when Francine got sick. Took care of her mother, she really did. She’s a good girl, now a woman. I don’t know what drives her to make the impulsive decisions that she does. She has done damage with that mouth of hers, but I know she wouldn’t … kill anyone.”
I felt a lump in my throat. Amos had been fighting doubts about his own child and I hurt for him. “You know your baby girl, Amos.” I asked, “What’s next?”
Amos stared at the television, but I’m sure he wasn’t seeing the screen. “I’m going to have to figure out what’s going on. Why was that woman at the house? Where was she really killed? Who had motive? I know how this works, Eugeena. I know if I was Detective Wilkes I would be looking at all the obvious clues.”
I gazed at Amos’s profile, worried that he had to go through what seemed like a repeat of the past. A past that included Briana’s old flame and another dead female.