“I wanted to surprise her.”
“One thing I’ve figured out about your grandmother?”
“What’s that?”
“She doesn’t like surprises.”
Over the course of the next hour we drove once again past all the places Ava had mentioned during the time she lived with us. We talked to kids her age and showed them her picture. But as before, none of them said they’d seen her.
We were about to go home when I decided to swing past Owens Road Park. I’d never heard her talk about Owens Road, but I knew it was a hangout for kids as much as Seward Square was. As we drove past the park, I spotted a girl about Ava’s age sitting on a park bench and pulled over immediately, saying, “I know her. She came to the house to visit Ava once.”
Chapter
42
I searched my brain for the girl’s name and came up with it.
“Yolanda?” I called to her after getting out.
She looked at me, puzzled, until I got closer. Then her face clouded.
“You remember me?”
Yolanda nodded. “You’re the Man, right? After Ava?”
“Yes. But I’m looking for Ava as her friend. Not as the Man.”
She chewed the inside of her cheek before replying, “Lot of people looking for Ava, I hear.”
“Why?” asked Bree, who’d come up behind me.
Yolanda looked at her suspiciously, then said, “She owe people money.”
“Drug people?” I asked.
“Them, too,” she said.
“You know where we can find her?” Bree asked.
Yolanda pursed her lips, shook her head. “I ain’t seen that girl in two weeks. Last time she was dirty and smelled bad, like smoke. She was strung out, too, acting all paranoid, said somebody tried to kill her, and he still trying. I figured she was just in need of an oxy. But I gave her twenty bucks and told her to run.”
“So she was doing oxycodone?”
“And Percocet. Anything painkilling.”
“You see her, you give her a message,” Bree said in a strained voice. “You tell her Bree and Alex just want to talk to her. No judgments. No matter what time it is, she can call us. Okay?”
Yolanda shrugged. “Way I figure it, way I hope it, that girl is long gone, way out to California by now and got that monkey off her back. I know that’s how it would be I had that many people chasing my ass.”
Back in the car, heading home, I waited several minutes before I said, “Two weeks ago she was dirty and smelled like bad smoke.”
Bree closed her eyes and started rubbing her temples. “I know. Right about the time Jane Doe was set on fire.”
“I’ve got to tell the captain about this tomorrow. Show him Prough’s statement.”
My wife said nothing but nodded. We drove the rest of the way in silence.
It was nearly nine when I followed Bree up onto the porch, carrying the sweet potato pie from Henry’s. Nana Mama makes a mean sweet potato pie herself, but she loves Henry’s version. I figured to use it as a peace offering.