Page 91 of The Five Year Lie

“Maybe,” he hedges. “Tell me what Amina said about it.”

Omar starts wiping his fingers individually with the napkin. “I don’t like talking about it.”

“I’m sure you don’t. But what if Amina needs you to?”

The kid looks three years younger when he glances up. And scared, too. “Don’t know what good it will do.”

“Let that be my problem. Come on. Tell me.”

Omar drops his head. “It was after school when he showed it to her. Maybe a week after the party.”

“When was the party?”

“Uh, April? And it was muggy for April. That’s why we hung out outside. Seemed fun. We lit a fire in the barbecue. Odie brought some marshmallows. There was beer, too.”

He nods, trying to keep his face neutral. But his neck is tinglingwith foreboding. He knows how this story ends, and he knows he won’t enjoy hearing it.

“Amina and the girls stayed inside, mostly. But her girls left first, and her boyfriend went inside to hang with her.”

“Hang with her?” he repeats.

“Yeah, Netflix and chill. But then me an’ Cedric went in to watch TV, and I guess they wanted their privacy, because they went outside. I thought he was leaving, but he didn’t. And Amina didn’t come back inside.” Omar swallows.

“Where were they?”

“On the, uh, porch. On that couch. She forgot about the camera.” His eyes are cast downward.

“When did she remember it?” he asks gently.

“A week later the cop calls her over to his car window. On our own street. He did that a lot. She always tried to ignore him, but he didn’t give up.”

“What did he say to her when this happened?”

He swallows hard. “‘Come here, pretty girl. I got something to show you.’” Omar averts his eyes. “She probably knew he could make a scene. So she went over to talk to him.”

“And then what?”

Omar sighs. “I shoulda done something. Anything. Way before that.”

“Hey, no way. This is not Blame Omar Day. Just tell me what happened.”

“Ward talks to her. With that evil smile of his. Then he holds his phone out the window to show her the screen.”

“Is that something he’d done before?”

Omar shakes his head. “Nah. He just used to talk to her andsmile like a creeper. This was different. And she had a real bad reaction. She freaked, but quiet like. Then she turned her back on his ass and came right back to the sidewalk.”

“You ask her what happened?”

“Of course I did.” Omar shakes his head. “I said—What did he show you?And she said—Something nasty. But she was really shook up after that, you know? After that, she stopped coming out of her room except for school. Then she stopped going to school. It was bad. Ernie was so freaked. He asked me to try to talk to her. Figure out what happened.”

Omar takes a slow breath. It’s mean to ask him to relive this, but it could be important.

“So I knock on her door, and I sit down on her bed, and I ask her why she’s so upset.” He puts his head in his hands. “She said—I did what Ward asked me to, because I thought I had to. And I asked what did she mean? And she told me—” Omar swallows hard. “He asked her to get into the back seat of his car with him. To, uh, blow him. And she did it.”

Jay’s stomach drops. “Holy shit. You didn’t tell Ernie that, did you?”

He shakes his head. “She made me promise. And it’s, like, the last thing she ever asked me to do, you know?” His dark eyes are glossy with unshed tears. “And then she said—Now he’ll never leave me alone.He has a video of me and my boyfriend. From the back door camera. And if I don’t do what he says, he’s going to send it to everyone in school. Then she started crying real hard and told me to leave her room. So I did.” His voice cracks on the last word.