“Shit, lady, only ones he might do that for is his family. Nobody closer than that to him. They all real tight.”
“You know, I think you might be right about that. Thanks, Peanut.”
He opened the door. “And, yeah, that’s Duke in there.”
“This and that?” said Pine.
Peanut smiled. “Little’a this and a little’a that.”
“Give me your cell phone number in case I can get some more pictures to show you. I won’t have to look you up in person.” He did so and then climbed out of the car.
After he went back into the shop Blum said, “Where are we going now?”
“Back to Blake’s house. I’ve got a hunch and I’m praying that it pays off, because if it doesn’t we have less than zero right now.”
Chapter 47
DID YOU FIND PEANUT?” asked Cee-Cee Blake when she answered their knock.
“We did. Turns out he really couldn’t help us, but I was wondering if we could speak to your daughter.”
Blake looked confused. “To Jewel? Why?”
“We wanted to ask her a few questions about her brother.”
Blake shook her head. “She’s really upset. Can barely get her to eat anything. And she won’t come out of her room.”
“We will be very gentle, Cee-Cee. We have experience speaking with young people. And I really think it might help with finding out what happened to your son.”
“Well, okay. I guess you can try. You want me to go with you?”
“Just to introduce us. Then we’d like to speak with her alone.”
“No guarantee she’ll see you, though, and I ain’t gonna make her.”
They followed Blake up the stairs and down the short hall to a bedroom door. She knocked.
“Honey? It’s them two ladies from the FBI again. They want to ask you some questions about your brother.”
“No!” a voice screamed out. “Tell them to go away.”
Before Blake could answer Pine stepped forward and said, “Jewel, it’s really important.”
“I said no.”
“I’d like to know why your brother did what he did.”
“Go away.”
“Because I think he did it to protect you.”
Silence.
Blake looked astonished. “What the hell do you mean by that? Protecting Jewel? From what?”
They turned when they heard the door start to open. And then there was Jewel, tall and beautiful and well-developed for her age, with long dark hair swirling around her shoulders. She had on pajamas, with characters from Mulan on them. Her eyes were reddened and swollen.
“It’s okay, Momma, I’ll talk to the lady.”
“You sure, baby?”
Jewel nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Blake gave Pine a disapproving look. “Well, okay, but don’t take too long, honey, you need to rest.”
She slowly walked back down the stairs.
“Can we come in?” asked Pine.
Jewel stepped back and let them pass through.
The bedroom was cluttered, with clothes on the floor, books lying around, an iPad on the unmade bed, and a smartphone on the nightstand. And used tissues littered over seemingly every available square inch. The walls were painted with a mural of what looked to be female superheroes.
“Who did that?” asked Blum, motioning to the wall.
Jewel rubbed her nose. “Me and Jerome.”
“It’s really excellent. You’re both wonderful artists.”
“Jerome ain’t anything anymore ’cept dead.”
Pine leaned back against another wall and folded her arms over her chest. “That’s what we want to talk to you about.”
Jewel slumped on her bed and looked down at her bare feet.
Pine began. “A man met with Jerome at his school. After that meeting Jerome was totally changed. Then that same night he ends up in an alley holding a gun. And then he’s shot by a cop who might not be a cop.” She paused and glanced at Blum, who was standing rigidly by the mural wall.
“Jerome said something to me right before he died, Jewel. Do you want to know what he said?”
Jewel didn’t look up, but she nodded. “What’d he say?”
“He said that no one would believe him when I asked what he was doing there. Then he said something else. And that’s why we’re here to see you.”
Jewel looked up now. “What did Jerome say?”
“He said, ‘We’re in deep shit.’ Why would this man be able to make him do something that would end up getting him killed?” She stopped and looked at Jewel, who seemed to be withering to nothing under the gaze. “It must’ve been someone very important to him. Like maybe you, Jewel?”
Tears spilled down the girl’s cheeks. Blum sat down next to her and took her hand.
“I know this is so hard, Jewel. So very hard. But we’re trying to find out who took your brother’s life. And any help you can give us would be very appreciated.”
Jewel wiped her eyes and stared up at Pine with a composed expression.
“Jerome knew.”
“Knew about what?”
“The man who came to get me.”
“What man?”
“Just a man. He would come at night. When Momma’s at work.”
“Where does your mother work?”
“She cleans buildings at night. Then she comes home in the morning and goes to sleep for a few hours. And then she has another job at Subway for the lunch crowd.”
“Okay, maybe you should start from the beginning,” suggested Pine.
Jewel collected herself. “It started one night. I went somewhere I wasn’t supposed to. Momma had to go see Willie, my other brother in Delaware, cause he was sick. Jerome was supposed to be home, but he got called to do this thing with the robots. I told him I’d stay in. But I didn’t.”
“Where did you go?”
“A party in Newark. I look a lot older than I am. I had a fake ID showing I was twenty-one. I went with a couple of friends from school. We got a ride with another friend.”
“Where was the party?”
“At some guy’s parents’ house. I was there for a while, had a couple of drinks. And then someone said there was a van taking people to a place in New York. A guy came over and said I’d been picked to go.”
“How? What guy?”
“I don’t know. He was older than me, early twenties. Tall, good-looking. Said he was in college.”
“White or black?”
“Oh, he was a white dude.”
“Color of his hair?” asked Pine.
“Brown, sort of wavy. I mean, he was real handsome.”
Pine pulled out her phone and brought up the picture of Jeff Sands that she had gotten from Puller. “Was this the guy?”
Jewel looked at the screen. “Yeah, that was him. How’d you know that?”
“I didn’t, until just now.”
“Do you know his name?”
“I do. Did he give you one?”
“Just said it was Charlie or something like that.”
“Did he tell you why you were picked?”