Page 114 of The Right to Remain

The desk officer picked up the phone and called for Shondra. Another guard led Jack and Theo through a set of locked doors and left them alone in a private room at the end of the hall. They sat beside each other on one side of the rectangular table. An empty chair waited on the other side.

“You think she’ll come down?” asked Theo.

“She’s a Grove Lord,” said Jack. “I know she will.”

The original Grove Lords hailed from the ghetto side of Coconut Grove. Back in the day, when Theo’s older brother Tatum ruled the streets, Coconut Grove was a world of “haves and have-nots,” where some of Miami’s most expensive residential real estate and exclusive shopping butted up against run-down bars, crack houses, and other places that rich white people visited only to service their addictions and prurient interests. Tatum Knight—“Assassin,” they called him—had become a Grove Lord legend by the age of sixteen. Theo had shown little interest in the Grove Lords, their stupid backward caps with the price tagsdangling from the bill, and their even stupider Mercedes-Benz hood ornaments on thick gold neck chains. Theo was known mainly as the underachieving little brother—until he was arrested and convicted of the brutal murder of a convenience store clerk and became the youngest inmate on Florida’s death row. With that, the Knight brothers reached almost mythical street cred.

The door opened, and a guard escorted Shondra into the room. Jack and Theo rose, but she ignored their attempt at a greeting. The guard stepped out, the door closed, and Shondra settled into the chair with her arms folded tightly across her chest. She ignored Jack and looked straight at Theo.

“You Tatum’s little brother, huh?”

“That’s right,” said Theo.

“Hmm. Better-lookin’ than I thought you was,” she said, and then her gaze fixed on his neck. “But where’s your Grove Lord tattoo?”

“Got it removed.”

She touched the ink on her neck and smiled. “I like mine.”

“You wear it well,” said Theo.

“Thank you. There’s a prettier one on the way to the pink taco, if you’re interested.”

“Sorry, no tacos till Tuesday,” said Jack, as he leaned onto the table. “Today, we’re here for one thing, Shondra: What did you see from the top bunk yesterday when Elliott’s mother came by to visit?”

“Didn’t see nothin’,” she said.

“You were in your bunk, right?”

“Yup. Minding my own business. Elliott probably didn’t even know I was there.”

“Elliott was yanked out of his bunk and thrown onto the floor feet away from you. Mona spent five minutes drilling her knee into his back while his mother stood over him. And you didn’t see anything?”

“Just like I told the guards. Didn’tseenothin’.”

“What did youhear?” asked Theo.

Shondra smiled at him. “Cuteandsmart. Guards didn’t ask me thatquestion. Neither did you, Mr. Smarty-Pants Lawyer. I heard Elliott’s momma talking. That’s what I heard.”

“What did his mother say?”

“You don’t know what she said?”

“No,” said Jack. “Elliott won’t talk to me, and there’s no audio on the surveillance video.”

“Yeah, I had the same problem when they showed me that video,” she said. “It looked like his momma was talking for a while. But I was asleep for most of it. I didn’t wake up till they was almost done. I could hear Elliott groaning, but I knew better than to look till they was gone. All I heard was the last thing she said.”

Jack knew exactly which part of the video she was referencing. “You’re talking about when the two of them walked out. Elliott’s mother said something to Mona that made her laugh.”

“Right.”

“You heard what she said?”

“That’s right.”

“What did she say?”

Shondra glanced at Theo, then back at Jack. “Her exact words were, ‘Now I got CJ by the hairy balls.’”