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She smiled and walked with him up the sidewalk.
“You’re new to this, aren’t you,” said Theo.
“How can you tell?”
“Man, is that a long story,” he said, more to himself than to her. His uncle Cy had done everything in his power to shield Theo and his brother Tatum from their mother’s work on the street, eventually raising the boys himself.
Theo changed the subject. “What’s your name?”
“Any name you like.”
“What do people call you?”
“Depends on which people you’re talking about.”
“What does your mother call you?”
“My mother’s dead.”
“What does the rest of your family call you?”
“Whore.”
They stopped at the traffic light. The rain continued to fall, the wet pavement glistening in the glowing streetlamps.
“What do you like to be called?” asked Theo.
“My boyfriend was a jerk. But I kind of like what he called me.”
“Yeah? What did he call you?”
“Goodbye Girl.”
The light for the crosswalk changed. Theo started across the street, and the girl went with him.
“We’ll have to find something better than that,” he said. “Goodbye Girl. G-G. Gigi! How’s that?”
Her legs were long but still much shorter than Theo’s, and she had to hurry to keep up. “Gigi it is,” she said.
Chapter 23
Halloween morning was their first court appearance since Imani’s plea of “not guilty” at the arraignment. Jack and his client were before the Honorable Cleveland Cookson, the circuit court judge who would preside over all pretrial matters and the jury trial in the case ofState of Florida v. Nichols.
Owens and another assistant state attorney were seated at the table for the prosecution, closest to the empty jury box. The defendants and their counsel shared the rectangular table on the other side of the courtroom, but there was considerable space between them: Imani and Jack sat at one end; Shaky and his lawyer, Jennifer Ellis, at the other. The gallery was packed with spectators, as expected, though the entire row of Imani look-alikes—young woman dressed in costume to honor their pop star idol—was a bit unnerving. It was especially weird after Sunday evening’s clash over Righley’s costume.
Jack and Andie had managed to go the entire weekend without talking about Imani or Tyler McCormick. They’d been a normal family, focused on pumpkin carving, baking cookies, and hanging spooky decorations—until Righley’s announcement that she no longer wanted to be Elsa theFrozenprincess for Halloween.
“I want to go as Imani.”
With a slip of the carving knife, Jack had robbed their pumpkin of its only tooth. “That’s probably not a good idea, sweetie.”
“Why?”
Jack hadn’t even tried to explain. But the mere injection of Imani’s name into their nice family weekend had seemed to spoil it all, triggeringAndie and Jack to take mental note of all the reasons Righley’s idea was a bad one.
“Good morning, all,” Judge Cookson said, bringing the hearing to order. Counsel announced their appearances, and the judge then turned straight to business, which was not his usual style. Cookson had a reputation around the criminal courthouse as a bit of a jokester.
“We’re here on the joint motion of the defendants, Imani Nichols and Evan Nichols. Is that correct, counsel?”
