AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Good idea.”
“Then I’m gonna get a warrant to get her cell phone records.”
“Obviously.”
“But as far as you and me…the usual.”
Ackerman nodded. “Victimology.”
A search for Nyleah Faust in the police database yielded nothing in the way of a criminal record. That wasn’t a surprising fact given her age and social status.
A cursory glance at her social media accounts proved equally fruitless. She was a beautiful girl with a sparkling smile, and she seemed to know it if her hundreds of selfies were any indication. But she was also modest; no twerking, no tongue-out photos whatsoever, and no backward poses showing off her ass with profound yet irrelevant captions designed to distract from the blatant thirst trapping. It was very strange for a girl her age.
She appeared to come from a good family. There didn’t seem to be any high-risk behavior in her past. Good for her, bad for Webb. No scandal usually meant no clues. Unless thelackof scandal was a clue itself. Whether that was true or not remained to be seen.
Luckily for them, Nyleah’s mother was gracious enough to receive them at her home on short notice, although grieving mothers of murder victims always have plenty of incentive to court the police. The two detectives arrived on her doorstep at dinnertime, and she welcomed them in with a half-hearted smile.
Ms. Faust was a short woman with smooth dark brown skin and a close-cropped haircut. Grey hair glistened at her temples and at her crown, but what Webb noticed first was her eyes. She had the glassy-eyed, thousand-yard stare he’d seen hundreds of times over the years. Pain, an inescapable, all-consuming pain, was practically radiating off of her. No matter how many times he’d seen it, it always pricked him right in his hardened heart.
The three of them sat at the dining room table. Ms. Faust didn’t offer anything to eat or drink, and they didn’t ask. “So tell me about your daughter, Ms. Faust,” Webb said.
She was slow to speak, but once she began, she spoke in a rapid-fire cadence. “You can call me Nicole. As far as Nyleah, she was smart. Pretty. Loved kids. Big personality. If you put her in a room with 100 other girls, she would stand out. There was just something about her. Also, loud,” she said with a chuckle. “Her voice definitely stood out.”
“Was she well-liked at school?”
Nicole tilted her head. “I loved my daughter, but I’m not gonna sit here and act like I didn’t know who she was." The fingers on her left hand twisted the gold ring on her right pinky finger. "She didn’t follow the rules, and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. Girls aren’t supposed to break the rules. Black girls, especially.”
Webb frowned. “I don’t follow.”
“No. And you wouldn’t, would you? It’s okay for you to know what you want and go after it. You get to be aggressive.” She paused and stared out the window to her right. “Nyleah was a force. If she wanted something, she set out to get it, and she didn’t give a damn who said otherwise. Youwantyour child to have that kind of spirit, but at the same time, it’s not easy parenting kids like that. I imagine it’s not easy being their friend, either.”
“So she made enemies?”
Nicole nodded at Ackerman, her face baring the lines of weariness. She produced a pink leather pouch and pulled a cigarette from inside. “It botheredmemore than it did her. She’s been jumped. She’s been cheated on. Just to teach her a lesson, you know. Bring her down a peg. That's how they do the popular girls. I mean, she did her share of dirt, but she was a good person. Really. You just had to get to know her.”
“Can I get the names of these enemies?” Webb asked, flipping his pad open.
“Of course." She took a drag off her cigarette and blew the smoke to her left, away from the detectives. "Avianna Jones is one. Some foolishness about a boy. You know how teenage girls are. Bria Lane is another. They both went out for dance team captain. There were some hard feelings.”
“Were they the girls who jumped her?”
“Oh no, those little thuglettes graduated last year. Kelly and Shaya were their names. They weren’t at that party.” Nicole took another puff. “There’s one more that I know of. Jace Gordon.”
“That’s a guy or a girl?”
“Guy. He’s had feelings for her ever since we’ve known him, and she always turned him down.”
“And he was mad about that?”
“I can’t really say. Didn’t know him well enough to know where his head was at. But something happened between them a few weeks before she died. I don’t know what it was, and I don’t know why, but something happened and he was mad at her. That’s all I know.”
“How did you know about it?”
“Nyleah was acting strange. Real agitated. Not eating well. I asked her what was wrong and she told me she was upset about a boy. I finally got the name out of her. Jace.”
“Well, that’s awfully vague, Mrs. Faust.”
“I agree. I wish I knew more. But I’m her mother. We were close, but she kept a lot of secrets from me. Kids always do. They never tell what's really going on.”
