Free Trail of Echoes by Rachel Howzell Hall Page B

damned . If you want us to find out who killed her—”
    â€œEverybody in jail, okay?” Regina snarled. “Satisfied? We hood rats. Is that what you wanna hear, Miss Detective Who Made It Out?”
    Colin placed his hands on his hips. “Look—”
    I gave him a slight headshake. Let’s not go there.
    Regina glared at me and pointed at Colin. “ He needs to get the fuck outta my house. Matter of fact, you also can get the fuck—”
    â€œReggie,” Alberta said. “They here to help.”
    Regina stood, hands on her hips. “Let’s see how your white ass do out there without your ghetto tour guide.”
    Alberta shushed her daughter. “Relax, now. None of this is helping Nita.” To Colin, she said, “She’s just … just…”
    Colin blinked at me—I nodded. Relax. He sighed, then flipped a page in his notepad.
    â€œThis newspaper teacher, Mr. Bishop,” I said. “What’s his relationship with Nita?”
    â€œHe’s very involved,” Alberta said. “He’s also her counselor, and so he pays a lot of attention to her. I think she had a crush on him.” She allowed herself to smile.
    â€œDid that worry you?” I asked as I wrote ‘MR. BISHOP’ in my notes.
    Regina shrugged. “That’s normal, ain’t it? I mean, he’s cute, smart, about somethin’. The only positive man in her life. I’d be worried if she didn’t like him.”
    â€œWere they together a lot?” I asked.
    â€œHe drove her to stuff,” Regina explained. “Photo contests, art exhibits … He believed in her more than anybody else did at that school. And he tried to get those girls suspended for all that they did to her.” She hid her face behind her hands. “I miss her so much. It’s like a giant piece of me is just gone. I’d do anything just to have her back with me and…” Regina gasped, then bent over to sob into her lap.
    â€œIt’s okay, Reggie,” Alberta said, patting her daughter’s back. “Nita ain’t in no more pain. She takin’ pictures of the angels now.”
    â€œI need to search her room,” I whispered, search warrant in my hand. “Just to see if there’s anything that will tell us if she went to meet someone or—”
    Regina stared at the court order. “Do I have to stay here?”
    â€œNo. I’ll also need Nita’s phone number to see who she called.”
    Alberta rambled off her granddaughter’s phone number.
    â€œIt’s Moriaga,” Regina announced. “He shouldn’t even be around here. Why y’all even let him out of jail? He’s a predator.” She shuffled to the door, but stopped in her step. “Y’all see us and only look at the outside. They poor, so we don’t need to do nothing. Y’all thought she hung out and smoked weed and slept with bangers like Ontrel and that’s all she was about. But we ain’t all the same up in here.”
    Regina peered at me with granite eyes, determined to make me understand, to make me remember . “Chanita watched Big Bang Theory and took pictures and she was on the honor roll. Sometimes, she made me get up at the crack of dawn so we could see the sunrise. She was my Nita.” She swallowed and crumpled the search warrant into a ball. “And she was better than what I would’ve ever been.”
    *   *   *
    Colin and I found nothing strange in those drawers. No inappropriate pictures or diaries or love letters. Just lots of photos. Still, we shot pictures and then confiscated a yearbook, three birthday cards, and a notebook.
    â€œReady?” Colin held seven evidence bags filled with Chanita’s things.
    I glanced around the room one last time. That. I took a picture with my phone, then walked to the window. Above the bed’s headboard hung a framed photograph: a