Never Tell

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The boy and girl waiting for them in the Whitmire living room looked like forgotten children.

The girl’s long, sandy, blond hair had matted into unkempt dreadlocks. Her already ruddy skin was further marred by acne. Ellie couldn’t even tell what the male sitting next to the girl actually looked like beneath all the self-imposed ugliness. All she saw above his long, pointy beard were the nickel-size discs stretching his earlobes like plates, a silver bar piercing the cartilage of his nose, and a tattoo of a green bar code on his left cheek. Maybe she was just too old, or midwestern, but she’d never understand how these kids who couldn’t afford food or a roof over their heads always seemed to have enough dough for another tat.

Bill Whitmire was about to join his wife on a narrow upholstered banquette in the corner of the living room, but Ellie stopped him.

“I think under the circumstances we’ll stick to the convention of speaking to these two alone, if it’s all the same to you, sir.” It was bad enough that the couple had gotten to the kids before the police. They didn’t need to exacerbate the appearance of special treatment by allowing Julia’s parents to sit in on a witness interview.

The Whitmires vanished up the townhouse’s winding staircase. If they could have politely taken their pristine furniture with them, they surely would have done so. The kids smelled as if they hadn’t bathed in days, maybe weeks.

Ellie chose the farthest seat from them, the same corner bench the Whitmires had just vacated. Rogan remained standing at the edge of the foyer, but wasted no time getting down to business.

“How about we start with names.”

The two kids just looked at each other.

“All right,” Rogan said, pretending to head for the stairs. “I’m sure we can have the DA persuade the Whitmires not to give one penny to you guys.”

The boy spoke up first. “Brandon. And Vonda.”

“For ten grand, I think we’ll need last names, guys.”

“Sykes. Brandon Sykes.” Brandon made sure to add enough sullenness to his tone to register his resentment.

“And how about you, Vonda?”

She sat there with crossed arms. These two were real cheerleader types.

“It’s Vonda Smith. Scout’s honor.” She held up three fingers, which struck Ellie as somehow different from whatever she’d done as a childhood pledge, but she wasn’t about to start an argument.

Vonda and Brandon. The two kids Casey mentioned when Ellie asked him about that day Katherine Whitmire came home to find them at the townhouse with Julia.

“The Whitmires say you have information about their daughter’s death,” Rogan said. “The medical examiner’s preliminary findings indicate suicide.”

“That’s not what we hear,” Vonda said.

“That’s the funny thing about gossip,” Rogan said. “It’s not always reliable, especially when it’s swirling around the homeless kid community with the promise of a hundred grand coming down the pike.”

“It’s not gossip.” Brandon’s voice jumped an octave and echoed in the high-ceilinged room. The shift from withdrawn to angry was immediate. “Casey told us what happened.”

“That’s Casey Heinz?” Rogan clarified.

“Yeah. You know he’s not a boy, right? She just pretends she is. Total fucking freak.”

This, from Tattoo Face. Ellie shook her head. “Casey said you guys were his friends. In fact, he stuck up for you when I told him that Julia’s mom was sure you guys had something to do with her death.”

“He probably didn’t want to be on our bad side. He knows we know he did it. He told us all about it.”

“Told you what?” Ellie asked.

“That he killed Julia.”

“And when did he supposedly say this?”

“Last night,” the boy said, “at the park. We saw him at the park.”

“Casey said they got into a fight about Ramona and he just snapped,” Vonda said. “Then he started crying like the girl he is, saying he wished he hadn’t done it.”

“If someone killed Julia, they went to great lengths to make it look like a suicide. I don’t think it just happened.” Ellie was careful not to reveal any details about the way Julia died or the appearance at the scene, but she wanted them to know that she and Rogan—unlike the Whitmires—weren’t going to swallow down every word they said. “How exactly did Casey say the killing happened?”

“Casey. Didn’t. Say.” Brandon mimicked sign language with his words. They’d obviously expected this to be easier. “It’s like he regretted saying anything to us, and so he stopped talking about it. We asked him more about what happened, but he just kept bawling like a little bitch baby.”

“And why would he and Julia have a fight about Ramona?”

“Because Casey’s totally obsessed with Ramona,” Vonda said. “He thinks Ramona’s eventually going to love him back, like he’s a real dude or something. It’s pathetic, but that’s the truth. You should see the way he looks at her. Then you’d know what we mean.”

Ellie recalled the way Casey had talked about Ramona Langston, like she was an angel.

“If you ask me,” Brandon said, “that fight probably had something to do with him hooking up with Julia.”

“You just said Casey’s obsessed with Ramona,” Rogan said. “Now you’re claiming he was with Julia?”

“Yeah, man. He’s totally into Ramona, but she’s, like, platonic or whatever, like Casey’s a girlfriend or something. But Julia, she’d try anything once, you know? Maybe she was gonna tell Ramona about it. Blow Casey’s chances forever.”

If Casey did have a physical relationship with Julia, then he had lied to her and Rogan. She didn’t want to believe Casey had actually confessed to these kids, but they also couldn’t ignore that kind of lie.

She continued to press. “And so after Casey told you he killed a girl, you did nothing until you heard about this reward?”

“Casey’s our friend, okay?” he said.

“A friend that you just referred to as a, quote, total fucking freak.”

The kid looked down at his hands and scraped some dirt from beneath his nails. “I feel bad. But, yeah, we could use the money.”

“It doesn’t mean we’re lying,” Vonda added.

“Then you won’t mind if we talk to you separately.” Ellie noticed the two exchange glances as Vonda followed Rogan into an office adjoining the sitting room.

Once she and Brandon were alone, she switched gears. Every instinct told her these kids were only here for the money, but unless one of them admitted they were lying, Julia’s parents were going to believe what they wanted to believe. Maybe if she could connect with this kid, she’d have a better shot at getting him to come clean.

“Where are you from?”

“Roseburg, Oregon. I started out in Portland. Some girl told me it was better here, so I took a bus eight months ago.”

“How’d you get the money?”

“I told some church I was heading to New York to go live with my parents. They handed me a ticket, and now, here I am.”

“Is it better?”

“Nope. Guess it would be if I was living in a place like this. But, nope. The panhandling’s better, but, you know, the cops mess with us more. And winter was colder than shit.”

Ellie resisted the temptation to explain that shit wasn’t especially cold.

“What was so bad about Roseburg?”

“Nothing, until my stepdad went medieval on me for cutting class.”

“Just how medieval?”

“Broke my left arm pretty good.”

“Seems like an overreaction.”

“Yeah, well, when a school social worker did a little unannounced pop-in on a Wednesday morning while he was cooking meth in the garage—my stepdad didn’t seem to think it was an overreaction.”

“And your mom?”

“Doesn’t matter. She got sick of dealing with me a long time ago. I’m now what you call emancipated. That means I’m legally responsible for myself.”

“That must have been hard.”

“Whatever. They don’t require a license for parents. Did Casey tell you about his family? They sent him to some brainwashing camp where a supposed counselor tried to rape him back into being a girl.”

“You say Casey’s a freak but I notice you refer to him as him, not her.” Ellie had heard enough about gender identity to correct Rogan’s initial use of feminine pronouns, but she had to admit, the preferred terminology did require conscious effort. “I know what you’re doing. You actually accept Casey at heart, but you want to make him sound troubled enough to do something like kill Julia.”

“And I know what you’re doing. I don’t need your friendship.”

“And I don’t need two selfish kids who would lie to churches for bus money taking advantage of these grieving parents. This isn’t a joke, Brandon. You may not have given a shit about a rich girl like Julia, but she’s dead. You may want us to believe that Casey killed her, but I could just as easily tell her parents up there that you and Vonda are making up this story to cover your own asses.”

“Cover our asses for what?”

“For killing their daughter.”

Beneath the tattoos and piercings, the color dropped from his face. “But—that—no, no way, lady. I knew we should’ve bailed. I knew the cops wouldn’t listen to us.”

“Tell me the truth and I’ll listen plenty.”

His moment of panic passed. The next time he spoke, the stammer was gone. “Point the finger at us all you want, but we’re not the ones who were messing around with Julia. Or have a key to this place.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Casey may not have given us a play-by-play of what he did to Julia, but we are telling you the truth. You’re right. He is my friend. And, yeah, me and Vonda are only here because of the money. But Casey said he killed Julia. And he—not us—could have gotten in here to do it. Julia gave him a key to this place when they hooked up. Why don’t you ask him about that?”

Ellie was starting to worry about the growing contradictions between Brandon’s statements and the impression Casey had created. First the hookup with Julia. Now a key. If Casey had access to the townhouse, he had access to Julia. And her computer. He could also be the one posting the threats on Adrienne’s blog.

“What did Casey think about Ramona’s family?”

Brandon chuckled. “You mean his future in-laws?”

“Casey loves Ramona that much, huh?”

“Totally. He’d fucking die for that girl, you know? But her parents? He thought they were spoiled pricks.”

“Why was that?”

“Because they are.”

“You know them?”

“The type. Sure.” He looked around his current, opulent surroundings as if the decor explained his point.

“Did he ever say anything specific about her parents?”

“Not really. Just that he’d gone over there once and could tell they were eyeballing him. You know, like something wasn’t right.”

She still didn’t believe Casey confessed a murder to these two kids, but parts of Brandon’s story had the ring of truth to them. She realized now that her compassion for Casey’s personal situation had caused her to give him too quick a pass. She should have done a more thorough interview while she’d had him at the park.

Brandon stared at his crossed feet. When he looked up, Ellie saw a surprising softness in his expression. “Like I said, Casey’s my friend.” Ellie forced herself to remember he was only sixteen years old and had lived a young life so horrible that his current existence—alone on the streets of New York City—was an improvement.

“So when do we get our money?”

And, just like that, the moment of sympathy passed.