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“As I said, I was trying to locate ht knohere she was” I nodded at Detective Tamara Harris, a short, solid woator on Shanae Jackson’squestions fro On behalf of the State’s Attorney’s Office, ood friend” Ray Mardovich was there He wore the remnants of the bruise I’d inflicted To uilty pleasure in having broken it Ray sat next to Detective Harris, but I ignored him

“Little did I know,” I went on, “that Tina ith her uncle What’s going to happen to her, now that her father and Bill Jackson are

in the hospital?”

“Don’t worry,” Harris said “We’re taking care of that”

Jackson had fled the scene, like a stock car racer on speed, only to wreck his car a few blocks away He’d veered to avoid a pedestrian, bounced off another car and smashed into a telephone pole

Harris spoke in rapid, no-nonsense bursts “Fisher was a potential suspect from the start, but he had an alibi” Ray started to say so and pretended to sneeze, to cover it

“Given the way Shanae Jackson was killed,” Harris continued, “we started looking at the gang angle Girls usually don’t use guns They tend to go with bats or razor blades Anyway, the forensics seeirl who looked like Tina at the house around the tiured we probably had our killer If it wasn’t Tina, we thought itWe hoped Tina would squeal on her”

“But Tina and her gang were busy that night,” I said “Detective Willard should have the DVD that shohat they were doing” I looked at the tay

“Yeah, I saw it Even if Tina left before her friends did, I think the recording probably gives her an alibi She was at Beaufort’s place about twenty ht she saw her at the house That doesn’t give her o home and kill mom So, we’re left with the ten-million-dollar question: ‘If she didn’t do it, who did?’”

“I’ve been trying to figure that out,” I said “I think itPossibly the janitor, Greg Beaufort, though he would have had to sneak away from the party first Fisher seeht-skinned black men, but Fisher looks a lot like Tina If he’d dressed in the right clothes, he could have passed for her”

“But Fisher had an alibi,” Harris repeated

“Right,” I said “Before he was shot, though, Fisher said soe Beaufort I’d been wondering all along how these people got together I think Fisher kneho it was I knoasn’t a white man, but that’s about all Whoever it ould have been threatened by Shanae’s knowledge of the setup”

While I was talking, Detective Willard walked in and leaned against the wall A dark-haired white man in a navy blue suit stood by his side “Ms McRae, this is Detective Norris fro base on Darrell Cooper’s homicide and how it may relate to the Jones murder”

“Nice toto feel like I’d walked into a cop convention “So it was a homicide?”

“We have reason to believe so,” Norris said Apparently, he didn’t want to talk about those reasons