I hurried home as quick as I could. I sent a text to Amos to let him know his daughter had returned. I just hope she remained in place until he arrived. I practically skidded into the driveway so if my plan was to surprise her, I’m sure she had either heard or seen me coming. Once I parked the Camry, I sat for a few minutes.
A sistah needed to catch her breath and think for a minute!
From the moment I saw Briana’s face on the security app, I went into overdrive. I’m not sure what I thought I could do or even say to her. I just felt the urge to make sure she was okay.
After finally coming to some resemblance of a plan, I got out of my car and decided to go in my house first. I’m sure Porgy could use a walk in the yard being cooped up the past few hours. As I watched my dog tear around the yard, I looked over in the other yard. Most of the houses on my street had a bit of privacy usually by a fence or shrubbery. Years ago, Ralph had a wooden fence installed all around the yard. When the boys were young and living at home, Ralph and the boys would wash down the fence as well as the deck that was eventually added. Then they stained it to protect it from the sun.
I stared over that fence now, for some reason noticing the shed for the first time. I’m sure I’d seen it before, but it really stood out to me. Probably because over a week ago a real dead body had been found.
A body that Briana was being accused of placing there. What struck me and I’m not sure why it didn’t occur to me before was how much effort it would have been to drag what had to be dead weight into the shed.
Briana had her mother’s frame, which was much lighter and slimmer than mine. She wasn’t skinny, but she didn’t strike me as one who could heft a lot of weight. Briana wasn’t short, but slightly taller than my 5’4 frame.
I finally got Porgy back inside and headed over to the house. A few moments later, Briana peeked her head out. As I suspected she was not happy to see me.
The grimace on her face disappeared as quickly as it appeared. In its place was a more haggard look as if the child hadn’t slept in a while.
“Are you okay?” I peered at her. “I saw you were home and wondered if we could talk.”
“Sure,” Briana left the door open and I followed her inside.
Well, at last she didn’t close the door in my face.
I noticed the place looked a bit cleaner than it did the last time.
Briana turned around, her arms were wrapped around her similar to the way they were the night Sondra’s body was found.
“I’m really here to see if you are alright. I’m sure your dad has been in touch with you.”
“Yes, him and my sister have been blowing up my phone.”
“I’m sure Detective Wilkes has too.”
Fear flashed in Briana’s eyes. “Is she going to arrest me?”
“I don’t think she has anything on you other than some circumstantial stuff like the video.”
Briana dropped down on the couch. “I can’t believe someone recorded that. I was doing my job. I wasn’t crazy about the job at first, but it was cool hanging around Fay and Jocelyn at the cafe. I do love coffee.”
I had to smile at that. “Well, that’s something we both have in common.” I took it upon myself to sit across from her. “Briana, if you knew who Sondra was in the first place, why did you pretend you didn’t?”
Her eyes flashed and then watered, “I wasn’t pretending. I couldn’t process what I was seeing. I didn’t understand what or how a dead body was in my yard.”
“That’s understandable. You were in shock.”
Briana’s bottom lip trembled, “When I heard you and my dad talking about her in the kitchen, it started to occur to me that I could get blamed for her death.” She threw her hands up as if all was lost. “Just my luck, being blamed for killing somebody I didn’t even know was in my house. Somebody who hated me for such stupid reasons.”
“Are you sure you never saw her Saturday night? Detective Wilkes is convinced Sondra showed up to start trouble with you and Theo.”
Briana shook her head, “No. I never saw her and neither did Theo. Besides, he left the party early when his mom called. She wasn’t feeling good. I was too busy trying to be the hostess most of the night. I served food, drinks and even sang a couple of songs.” Briana stared off into space, “I will say after Theo left, everyone else seemed ready to go. The party was over probably forty-five minutes after he left. I was exhausted and went to bed.”
I nodded. “Well, what’s even more crazy is she was at the Black Diamond. That’s like what, ten miles from Sugar Creek? I can’t get why she would come all the way here? Certainly the woman wasn’t that vindictive to pick a fight with someone in their own house? And if you never saw her, then I’m wondering if Sondra came here not realizing this is where you lived?”
Briana stared off into space as if her mind was trapped by a dark memory. “Theo told me Sondra had been trying to get back together. He said he made the mistake of spending time with her. He was doing it because he thought it would make his kids happy, but he finally gave up because she was so demanding. She never had anything good to say about him. He told me he got into a huge argument with her before Christmas and that he only wanted to co-parent with her.”
“Before Christmas. That was over seven months ago. Sounds like Sondra never took the hint.”
Briana rolled her eyes, “Sondra was never a person who understood the word no.”
“I imagine her friend was the same way.”
Briana frowned, “Who?”
“Yvette.”
Briana bristled as if an electric current had stung her. “You know about her?”
“I’ve heard a lot I didn’t know in the past week.”
Briana dropped her head in her hands. “I can’t believe all this is happening. I left California to come home for some peace. You would think after all this time life would be different. High school was almost a decade ago.”
“I’m sorry. Some people never quite grow up from the high school experience.” Since I was curious, I changed the subject and asked, “Have you ever been to the Black Diamond?”
Briana lifted her head from her hands. “Yeah, I had a gig there last month. It was my first paying gig since being in South Carolina. It’s not the most classy place, but I missed being in front of an audience. The stage was a pretty decent size and I liked the band.”
“Did you know Sondra worked there?”
Briana’s eyes grew wide, “No, I didn’t know that.”
I nodded, “I was trying to figure out how she knew you were back in town. Charleston isn’t exactly a small town, and Sondra didn’t live here in Sugar Creek.”
Briana shrugged, “I doubt Theo would have said something to her. He was keeping contact to a minimum with her, only to pick up the kids. I know he said that lately her mother was giving him trouble about picking up the kids.”
“Gladys? I would think she would want the father in their lives.” I thought back to my earlier conversation with the Brown twins. Like mother, like daughter, both Gladys and Sondra seemed to have a mean streak in them. They also mentioned Gladys was determined to keep her grandchildren despite her health condition. She was even bringing in help.
“Briana, what do you know about Charlene?”
Briana frowned, “Charlene Hunt? She was Yvette’s sister. I remember her being shy and wanting to fit in. To be honest, we both were probably a lot alike, but Charlene had her sister and Sondra.” Suddenly Briana’s face went rigid as she stared off again. “Oh no.”
“What? Are you remembering something?”
“Charlene was here at the house.”
Emotions warred in my body as some of my questions were being confirmed. “When was this?”
“Last Saturday. I saw her talking to Damion. At first, I didn’t recognize her, but then I remembered she came to the cafe with Sondra. She’s always been skinny, but she seemed like she hadn’t been well.”
I didn’t have a good feeling about this. “She’s apparently had a hard time since her sister’s death. Do you know what time you saw Charlene?”
“I don’t remember the time. I know she showed up after Theo left. Damion came over looking for his brother, but Theo had already left to check on his mom. ”
“You’re sure you didn’t notice Sondra?”
“I’m positive! You don’t believe me?” Briana’s voice rose in accusation.
“No. I believe you did nothing wrong, Briana. I’m on your side here. What I’m trying to say is when I talked to Charlene last week, she claimed Sondra was with her. That they had met at the Black Diamond. I have a feeling they were riding together in the same car.”
Briana shook her head, “This doesn’t make sense. I had quite a few people over that night, but I saw everyone’s face. I may not have known all of them. Some people brought guests. I can’t imagine that I would have missed Sondra.”
“Especially after she confronted you at Sugar Creek Cafe.”
Briana grew quiet and hung her head. When she looked up, unshed tears clung to her lashes. “I’m going to get blamed for all of this no matter what. People are going to assume the same thing they did years ago. That I somehow got back at a person who’d been harassing me.”
I didn’t have time to agree or disagree. The doorbell rang.
I reached for my phone and switched on the security app. “Oh no.”
“What? What are you looking at on your phone?” Briana asked.
“The camera for this house. While you were gone, your dad had Simply Security cameras installed. You have a visitor.” I turned the phone around so Briana could see the display.
Briana jumped up from the couch, “What am I going to do?”
I held up a finger, “First, let me call your father. Second, when we answer the door, you are not to say anything until your dad gets you a lawyer.”
I pressed the speed dial for Amos’s phone.
He answered on the second ring. “Eugeena, I’m almost there.”
“You better hurry and I hope you secured that lawyer for Briana. Detective Wilkes is at the door right now.” The doorbell rang again, this time long and hard. I added, “Wilkes sounds like she’s ready to break the door down.”
“Hold tight, I’m right around the corner.”
After he hung up, I faced Briana, “Your father is on the way. You ready?”
“I don’t think I have a choice.”
When I opened the door, Detective Wilkes’ flushed face glared through the screen door at us. “Thank you for finally answering the door.”
“We didn’t mean to make you wait.”
“Can we come in?”
I observed behind Wilkes. She didn’t come alone today. Not one, but two deputies stood behind her.
What’s all of this? Where is Amos?
Once inside, Wilkes zoned in on Briana. “Nice to finally see you again, Ms. Jones. I thought you might have skipped town after I specifically told you not to.”
It occurred to me that I still had no idea where Briana had gone. It made sense that the detective would have asked her not to leave town. Briana sure did know how to make things harder on herself. I hoped Amos would show up soon because I was losing ground with knowing what to do with Wilkes here.
I stepped up beside Briana. “Detective Wilkes, are you here to ask Briana questions?”
“I have questions, but I need Briana to come with me down to the station.” One of the deputies stepped forward while reaching for handcuffs.
Briana shrank back, “You’re arresting me?”
The deputy glanced over his shoulder at Detective Wilkes as though he needed confirmation, “Yes, ma’am.”
Briana stared at me as if I could stop this from happening. I was just as shocked that Wilkes was doing this.
As the detective began reading Briana her rights, Amos burst through the door. “What’s going on? Do you have an arrest warrant?
Wilkes stopped mid-sentence and held up her hand, “Mr. Jones, please, I’m doing my job.”
He stated, “Are you, because you don’t have anything substantial to be arresting my daughter?”
“Yes, we do. A witness has come forward. I’m going to ask you again, out of respect, to let me do my job or I will have to take you to the station too.”
I thought to myself, Who would come forward now? What did they see? I was not buying that Detective Wilkes supposedly had a witness now. I smelled something fishy going on and I didn’t like it. Somebody was deliberately playing with Briana’s life, setting Amos’s child as the killer.
My husband glared at the petite detective like he didn’t believe her either. He spouted out instructions to Briana. “Don’t you say a word. I will be there with your lawyer.”
I felt so helpless watching them walk Briana outside towards the police car. Amos took off towards his truck to be there at the station with Briana.
I glanced around and found several neighbors, including Louise, watching as Briana was placed in the back of the car. She waved at me. I waved back, but I would get with Louise later.
Though the situation seemed to be spiraling out-of-control, I wasn’t discouraged. I was going to find this witness. I had a sneaky suspicion, I knew who was behind all of this madness.