“Yes, boss. Your girl tried to call you on what seems to be a crappy morning for her. She felt bad she didn’t respond to your messages last night. To her surprise, a girl answered your phone and said, and I quote,He left it with me, told me to keep an ear out. You know he can be sweet on us and takes care of us and all,” Reva says beautifully, better than I could. We’re chaos in the making. She fists bumps me. He still has not figured out that I’m yanking his chain, just a bit.
“Sounds like someone has fucked up, boss,” Darius chirps in the background. Alexander’s still silent, shocked and confused. Darius adding a perfect flair to all of this. Topaz comes through the doors and hurries with the fries and ranch, a way to my heart. She flashes a devilish smile.
“Thank you,” I say as she plops down next to Reva, taking out a cigarette and starts to light it.
Suddenly, the light bulb comes on across his face. A small snicker releases from his lips. “You mean to tell me, you heard a woman’s voice on the phone and got jealous. And lucky enough it was Blue over here?”
“I don’t take too kindly that, when I call you, a woman says you were “taking care of business,” if I know what she means.” I stuff a French fry in my mouth, leaning on Reva’s chair.
“Oh darlin', green is not your color.” He walks over to the bar where Darius still sits.
I signal Reva to take the basket of fries with us as I count out some cash to pay for the food and drinks and hand it over to Topaz, giving her a nice tip as well part of my guilt.
“Alexander, I’m going to say this once and only once. I’m not a forgiving woman. If I hear another womanspeakyour name in a tone I don’t like, be prepared. And I will allow Topaz to help me.” I walk up to the bar and pat Alexander's cheek, handing Johnny a tip as well.
“She’s a keeper, and I won’t hold her back from scratching a woman’s eyes out.” Topaz chuckles out.
“Darius, I'm going back to the office, if you are still on tailing duty. Don’t worry, Reva is driving. Alexander, I’ll be home tonight. Try not to go caveman. I’ll have company over.” I exit the bar with Reva in tow. The alcohol is still taking over a bit of my control. I’m hoping the point was made. But a part of me jumped to conclusions and almost made another mess that would need to be cleaned up. Bright side, I made a new friend and she is feisty. I must admit, it was invigorating, empowering, not according to plan. This is exactly the feeling I wanted years ago.
Sam, Reva, Britt, and I met at my house, and I cleared my office area, giving us room to Nancy Drew this shit. I need to look at the whole timeline and evidence. I honestly haven’t heard anything from Jackson and the feeling inside that he’s withholding information isn’t sitting well with me.
I sip my wine. Alexander’s been silent and I’m sure someone is watching over us. Maybe stubbornness and quietness is my answer. I feel like I need to check in, but I push the thought away.
We sit in the office, going through reports and notes Sammie and I made. We’re racking our brains with what we have, feeling like there’s a puzzle but no indication of a photo. Pens and sticky notes lay all over the floor. A couple of hours pass by, and we look like we’ve been at it for weeks. My wall is looking like a conspiracy theory in motion.
“Okay. Staring at the papers ain’t helping. Let’s walk the timeline from the beginning. By the way, llamas?” Brittany holds up my llama sticky notes from Ellie.
“Leave me alone. I love them and they’re all I have.”
“Okay, so let’s get at it. When did it start again?” Sam asks, stuffing another slice of pizza in her mouth.
“It was after Allie’s party. I believe it was the Monday after, because that was before I ran into Jackson.” I scribble the early March time frame on a sticky note, handing it to Britt.
“And what were his words?” Sam asks. Reva sits in the chair at my desk, feet propped up, notepad on her lap. Sam lays on her stomach on the floor, papers surrounding her with a pen sticking out of her messy bun. Seamus lays silently between Sam’s legs, pancaked on the floor. I’m laying down with a pillow over my head, blocking out the light and possible distractions.
“Said that he hadheardthere were people missing, something about jobs and housing,” I say, rubbing my forehead.
“To which you said...” Reva continued.
“Please be careful, if he sees anything to call the police,” I say.
“Alright, so the start of March, then what? Where did the white rabbit lead you?” Brittany asks, putting one of the notes on the wall.
“I had asked Aggie if she heard anything as people were entering the center. She said if she heard anything then she would have told me by now. She didn’t say anything was going on.”
“Uh huh, so where did the white rabbit take you to next?” Brittany asks again.
“Didn’t you have that call? That’s what prompted you to tell me to look into reports and any strange calls,” Sam pipes in.
“Oh yeah, okay. So basic call, looking for housing. I believe he said his buddy was telling him about it and asked if the hotline had the phone number. I explained that we didn’t have that resource. I think my mind started to spiral because I remember shivers went down my spine and too many connections to make it a coincidence. Which is where you came in Sam.” I point to Sam, giving her the chance to explain her information.
“Within the month of March, we didn’t have any decrease in calls. I went through calls and looked into everyone’s call notes. There were five additional calls about a group having jobs and housing, promising that if they worked, they would be housed outside of the city,” Sam reads off her reports and information she printed out.
“Was there any information regarding names or even a location?” Reva chimes in, scribbling some notes and thoughts.
“Nope. One call mentioned vehicles coming to pick them up, but no mention of a location,” Sam answers. Part of me feels this is an endless circle, and there isn’t any clear proof. I’m hoping, with this information, I can take it to the committees and local police to make a plan. As much as I would like to find the people associated and end it, this is as much as I might be able to do.
“Alright, so that’s March. Let’s look into April; what do we have? Please tell me y’all have something,” Brittany continues.