Page 110 of Concealed in Death

“No, ma’am.” Teesha shook her head slowly from side to side while her eyes trained on Eve. “She loved me, even with the wild, she loved me. I know that in my heart, too. She always let me know she wouldn’t be home awhile, whether I said okay to that or not, she’d tell me. Not that day. I couldn’t find her. She had a ’link, but she didn’t answer. The crowd she ran with didn’t know, said they didn’t, even after the police came into it. She was seeing a boy. Thought I didn’t know about him, but I did.

“Pretty girl like Shashona,” Teesha said with a sad little smile. “Well, there’s going to be a boy. He wasn’t a bad boy either. Smart like her. I talked to him myself, and he said how they were going to the vids that weekend, on a date. How they’d gone and had some pizza after school the day she didn’t come home, even though I’d asked her to come straight on home that day. And he’d walked her to the corner, gone his way. And hadn’t seen her again.”

“I have his name from the Missing Persons report,” Eve said.

“He’s a loan officer now, works in a bank. He’s engaged to be married next spring to a fine, well-mannered young lady. We keep in touch. I knew he never hurt her. Do you know who did?”

“We’re investigating,” Eve said.

“Did she know the other girls? Do you know?”

“You might be able to tell us. We’re not releasing their names yet. I have to ask you not to mention them to anyone.”

“I can promise that.”

Eve handed her a list. Peabody offered her photos. Teesha studied them, shaking her head.

“I don’t know these names, or these sweet young faces. There’s only eleven names here.”

“We haven’t officially identified the twelfth.”

“Poor thing. She had a lot of friends, my Shashona. I don’t know if I knew them all, or if she brought them all around, but I don’t know these girls.”

“Do you know if she ever went around The Sanctuary? The building where she was found?”

“Seems she may have. She knew about it. Once when we were arguing about how she wasn’t doing right, she said she could just go live there. She said it to hurt my feelings, or rile me up. I guess it did both. But she wouldn’t have gone there asking to be taken in. If not for me, and under it she loved me, but she wouldn’t have left Leila. Her baby sister. Leila, she worshipped Shashona. Every year, on the day she went missing, I say a prayer for Shashona, and I say one thanking God Leila hadn’t gone with her. I kept her home from school that day, took a sick day off work.”

“Was Leila sick?” Peabody asked.

“She started her cycle. The night before she had her first period. I always let my girls stay home that first day of the first cycle, pampered them a little, so Leila wasn’t with her sister. Now she’s a doctor. She’s going to be a fine surgeon. She’s a beautiful young woman. She’s safe, and she’s happy. And our Shashona, she’s found now. I’ll have to tell Leila.”

For the first time, her eyes sheened with tears. “I’ll have to tell her. I’ll have to tell their mama when she gets in touch again. She does, every now and again.”

“Ms. Maddox, did Shashona go to church?”

She smiled a little at Eve. “Every Sunday, whether she wanted to or not. As long as they lived under my roof, they’d respect the Sabbath. She didn’t mind church too much. Lots of singing. She liked singing. Had a fine, clear voice, too. When can I have her?”

“It’ll be a little while longer,” Eve told her. “We’ll notify you. Did you ever see any of these people around Shashona, around the neighborhood?” At Eve’s signal, Peabody drew more photos out of the file bag.

Teesha studied them in turn. Nashville Jones, Montclair Jones, Philadelphia Jones, Sebastian, Clipperton.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t recall these people. Are they suspects? I do like watching the police shows on the screen.”

“We’re looking into anyone with a possible connection.”

“I don’t know why people do the things they do to each other. We’re all here to live our lives, to do our work, to raise our families, to love who we love. We’re all here for the same things, but some, they can’t let that be. They can’t be happy or content with that. I don’t know what that is.”

She handed the photos back to Peabody. “Do you?”

At a loss, Eve shifted. “No.”

“If you don’t, I don’t suppose anybody really does.”

•••

She must be really good at her job,” Peabody commented. “The way she has. It’s soothing. She was brokenhearted, even though she’d resigned herself her granddaughter was gone a long time ago, it hurt her to hear it. But she still had that soothing way.”

“The kid probably would’ve turned out all right. Like Linh. She just never got the chance to grow out of the snotty phase. Another church connection.”