Page 21 of Justice for JoElla

“I want you to come to dinner at my mom and dad’s. I think?”

“I’d feel like I’d invited myself, and I don’t want to?”

“I’m inviting you, and it’ll be fine with my mom as long as I tell her you’re coming so she has enough food. Which is never a worry anyway, seeing as how she thinks she’s feeding a football team every time we go over there. Of course, if you think about it, with Liam, Landon, and my dad eating, that’s about right. So anyway, come with us. I want you to see how the other half lives.” Then she quieted and waited.

They’d done everything they could to draw him into their family. They’d given him a home when he had none, been kind to him when others wouldn’t have been, and tried to help him in every way they could think of. He had a job, and that wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been for Landon.Step out, he heard a voice in his head whisper. “I’d love to. Your mom and dad seem very nice, and I’d like to get to know them.”

“Good. Saturday evening. Don’t be late.” Jerrica turned back to the TV, but she was grinning, and that made Brandon grin.

A date for Friday night. A family dinner on Saturday night. Maybe before too long he’d actually have a life!

* * *

The video was grainy,but at least it had shown up. They’d had to call BullittCounty three times that morning to ask for it. She and Mick sat there, waiting for the appropriate time in the video when they could see what had been reported.

As far as the vehicle went, it was the same kind of vehicle. Since the video was black and white, the color wasn’t obvious, just that it was a dark one. They kept watching and eventually, they could see the man come out of the building, carrying a sack. He opened the back door on the driver’s side, tossed it in, and opened the driver’s door, then disappeared into the vehicle and drove it away. The video was so poor that they couldn’t make out a plate number, and they never actually saw the driver’s face, but the height and build of the man was correct for their suspect.

When it was finished, Mick dropped back into his chair and sighed. “I’m calling the officer who took the call. Surely they’ve gotsomethingthat will give us a hint of what’s going on.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure. They certainly don’t seem to have their shit together. Over twenty-four hours to get the video to us? I mean, what if somebody was bleeding or dying? Would they just let them lie there for twenty-four hours before they thought to call somebody?”

Mick tossed his notepad onto the desktop. “I think the problem here is that there’s really nobody looking for her except us. Have you talked to anybody in her family?”

“No. I think we should though. I’m just curious as to why they haven’t even filed a missing person’s report. Doesn’t make sense.”

“Yeah. I agree. I think we should make a trip out to see them. Got an address?”

JoElla snickered. “No, but I bet I can get one.”

Ten minutes later, they were on their way out Taylorsville Road to find the home of Burton and EmmaCase, JosieWiseman’s parents. When they turned off the main road onto the little country road, the houses were farther apart and there was no traffic. Two miles down on the right, they spotted the mailbox with the name “CASE” emblazoned on the side. It was an average home, just a little white clapboard farm house with a front porch all the way across. Clay pots with hens-and-chicks pockets on their sides sat on either side of the front walk, and the remains of what had probably been decent-looking shrubs sat scraggly and unkempt on either side of the porch. On the side of the house where their car was parked, there was an old lattice trellis with some gnarly-looking climbing roses, their big, ruffled blooms bright against the otherwise dreary landscape. They hadn’t made it to the front door when a man’s voice called out, “Who-a you?”

“Sir? We’re from the SpencerCounty Sheriff’s Department. I’m DetectiveHovekamp and this is DetectiveTompkins.” The man they stood in front of was wearing a nasty pair of bibbed overalls, his beard was long, yellow, and wild, and his hair looked like it was making its own mayonnaise. Since the guy had his hands planted firmly on his hips, neither officer reached out to shake his hand. There wasn’t enough sanitizer in the world for that. “Wanted to ask you a few questions.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, I got one for ya. Why ain’t you caught that damn nigger what kilt my grandson?”

JoElla couldn’t see Mick’s face, but she could just imagine. “Sir,” she said quietly, “I’m going to have to ask you not to use that kind of language around us.”

“What? They can say damn on TV now. I don’t think them networks even care. That FCTC or whatever it is don’t care neither.”

“No, sir. I’m talking about the racial slur.”

“What? Nigger? ‘Cause that’s what that sumbitch is! I tol’ Josie, I said, ‘Josie, you don’t be goin’ and getting’ yerself mixed up withthem people, but no. She just had to. Nothin’ doin’. Done it ‘cause she knowed it would make me and her mama mad. That’s what she liked to do?poke at us. And it got Derek kilt.”

“Sir, can I ask you why you haven’t filed a missing person’s report?” Mick asked, his voice strained.

“Oh, she prolly went with him ‘cause she wanted to. Damn girl ain’t got no sense. She married that alkee-holic Davis. We tried to tell her, but nothin’ doin’?she had to get knocked up by him and marry him. And then it was this guy. Anton, I think. Big ol’ nigger boy that?”

JoElla was beginning to lose her cool, and she knew Mick had already lost his. “Sir, please. No more of the racial slurs. We really don’t want to have to arrest you for hate speech, but we?”

“’Rest me for hate speech? Well, now, ain’t that somethin’? A big ol’ black buck kills my grandson and?”

“SIR!I’m trying to help find your daughter, and I can’t if I can’t talk to you. And I can’t talk to you if you don’tstop it.Now!” Her voice had risen to a shout and, unprofessional as that was, she didn’t give a rat’s ass. “I will not tolerate any more of that kind of talk! Do you understand?”

“Freedom o’ speech! I can say whutever I want!”

“Not in front of me, you can’t. Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”

The man’s jaw dropped. “Whut? You can’t ‘rest me.”

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