Page 51 of They Never Tell


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“When was the last time you saw her that night?”

“I bet you’re a Virgo.”

Detective Webb stared at her.

“Fine. I last saw her…now let me think…we danced a lot. We had our own toast with just us two. I think she was talking to Jace.”

“Jace Gordon?”

“Yeah. She told him she had something to ask him and they talked. In the kitchen, I believe.”

Webb wrote furiously. “And did you see her go outside at any point?”

Danielle paused and looked at Will. He gestured for her to continue, but he had misunderstood. She wasn’t looking at him for guidance or approval. She was wondering how much he knew and if he was aware that she was expected to lie. “I saw her go outside. People were going in and out later in the night.”

“And did you go out at all?”

“I did. Not with Nyleah. Probably a few minutes after she did. But I went out there for the same reason she did. We went out to smoke.”

“I see. And—”

“I’m not gonna get in trouble am I?”

“We’re not here about that.”

“Good. Because honestly, weed doesn’t need to be criminalized anyway. And don’t you think it’s interesting that all these states are starting to legalize marijuana?”

Webb frowned and rolled his eyes. “Actually—”

“And even more interesting than that—maybe not toyou, but to me— is that there are all these black people in jail for non-violent drug crimes, like possession of marijuana. When it’s legal here, are y’all gonna let those people out?”

The two detectives rolled their eyes in unison. “Ms. Baptiste,” Ackerman said, “we aren’t in charge of sentencing people.”

“No, but you arrest them.”

“Ms. B—”

“I don’t expect y’all to actually have an answer that would satisfy me. Maybe just think about it. That’s all I ask,” she said with a dimpled smile.

“Ms. Baptiste. That’s enough,” Webb said. He sounded just like her father did when he got fed up. “Let’s focus on why we’re here. Now, did you at any point in the evening see her talking to Demetrius Branch, the security guard? Yes, or no?”

For the first time since she’d been there, Danielle was quiet. She was thinking carefully about her answer. She wasn’t opposed to lying from a moral standpoint, but she was conflicted about lyingonsomeone. Although to be fair, she wasn’t absolutely certain that it was a lie. Demetrius Branch very well may have done it. The odds were equally divided among all of the partygoers. What was the harm?

“Yeah, I saw her talk to him. They were standing together at one point.”

“Did you happen to hear what they were saying?”

“No. But he looked like he was into her.” A brief wave of remorse washed over her.

Webb was writing. Ackerman was looking at her. Her mother was bouncing her knee under the table, and Will was staring off into space. Nobody else in the room understood how she felt at that moment. She barely understood it, herself.

Just last week, she’d saged her bedroom in a desperate attempt to cleanse both it and herself of bad thoughts. She’d lit candles and read cards, and had even done a 24-hour water fast to cleanse her body of toxins. She succeeded in making herself pee every twenty minutes, but she failed miserably at the task of feeling better.

Her cousin Soleil (real name Kanika) had brought over her Ouija board—secretly, of course, because both of their mothers considered it demonic—and together, the girls tried to contact Nyleah. Soleil just wanted to see if something creepy would happen, but Danielle wanted Nyleah to tell her what happened to her that night. She even asked for the name of the person who killed her. She thought if she could figure out who did this to her best friend, maybe both of them could get some peace. Unfortunately, her little sisters came in and made a joke of the whole thing.

And now she was in a police interrogation room surrounded by folks who wanted something from her. Her mother wanted what she always did, for her to give up on who she was in favor of becoming the person her mother wanted her to be. The lawyer just wanted to get paid by the hour. And the detectives wanted her to tell them who killed Nyleah. And if she didn’t tell, they’d settle for tripping her up and getting her to give up something by accident, which they would be happy to use so they could lock up one of her friends.

Nyleah never wanted anything from Danielle except friendship, and that’s a rare thing. Everybody wants something. But not her. And she was fiercely loyal to Danielle. She remembered how Nyleah always supported and defended her ridiculous whims without judgment. When Bria called her a weirdo, just jokingly, Nyleah was pissed and told Bria to keep Danielle’s name out her mouth.

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