“Yes. I still believe I’m on the right track,” said Janis rather defiantly. “Do you still have doubts?”
“You’re the doctor,” said Danny.
“That’s not an answer,” Janis said, a little annoyed.
“I’m working on my own theory,” said Danny. “There are solid, normal reasons for these killings. I think I’ve already met the killer on my interviews. I just need to narrow it down.”
“Well, let me read the profile to you,” said Janis. “Perhaps I can change your mind.” She cleared her throat. “‘I am a black man, twenty to forty years old. I’m intelligent, possibly possessing a secondary college degree. I have had a tortured childhood, possibly traumatized or abused at an early age. As a young adult, this continual abuse mutated my normal pattern of thinking, and I began to experiment with venting my rage, first on inanimate objects, then on small animals. I found that violence lessened the pain I felt inside, so I kept killing animals and destroying things, changing my life to revolve around this occupation. I learned to appear normal to others, and I am even considered charming among my friends. I may have turned my tortured self into another personality, an avenger who carries out my will against my enemies. I plan each kill meticulously, and I am searching for an answer to the end of my internal pain. I am not insane. I am special.’”
Janis looked at Danny, pleased with herself. She slid the papers over to him, and took a drink of coffee from a cup on her side of the desk.
“And what about the color thing?” asked Danny. “How does that figure into your profile?”
Janis took a moment, and for the first time Danny noticed that they were in the place alone. The lights were kind of low, and she looked good with her hair falling down around her face.
“That may be part of the trauma,” said Janis. “If he has a color fixation, it came about in a bad way.”
“A friend told me all about colorism last night,” said Danny.
“I don’t like that word,” said Janis. “I’d prefer a more clinical term for it. Prejudice is prejudice to me. So, what did you learn?”
“That everybody has a story,” he said, then before she could respond, he asked, “What’s yours?”
Janis’s face took on that look of remembered pain for a second. Her brows fell and her smile faded a little. Danny didn’t know if he was asking to continue his education, or if he just wanted to know more about the lady herself.
“Well,” she began. “Your friend is right. As a psychologist, I can tell you that there is no greater sublimation in the black community than the problems with color. It has gone from overt conflict to a kind of foundation of the subconscious. When I used to take patients, I found that many of the problems of black people, particularly women, were at least in part linked to the issue.”
“I’m waiting on the story,” said Danny. He smiled a little to let her know that she had not deterred him with her interesting and clever digression.
“It’s personal,” said Janis.
“How about I tell you mine?” said Danny.
“I can’t stop you, but I doubt it will change my mind.”
“When I was a kid my father put me in a school where there were only three other white kids. I was the only one in my class. To say I caught hell would be an understatement. I…what do you call it when you adopt ways that ain’t really yours?”
“Assimilated,” said Janis.
“Yeah, I did that,” said Danny. “And in the process, I guess maybe I lost myself. I was angry, I had a bad temper, and I was always looking to prove myself, even if I didn’t have to, because I’d been doing it all my life. I’ve shot and killed men in the line of duty, but I wonder if I would have chosen another way if I wasn’t so messed up inside. In the end, my attitude almost cost me everything, and now I’m in therapy trying to figure all this shit out.”
Janis just stared at him for a moment, analyzing. Danny felt that she was assessing the truth of his story as well as its worth in trade for hers.
“In college, I dated this guy, Nelson, a teaching assistant in the psych department,” Janis started. “We got along fine until his parents came to visit from Nigeria. When they saw me, I knew something was wrong. They were short with me and refused to make eye contact. Well, a week later, Nelson and I broke up. It seems his father and mother thought I was too light, ‘too mixed up,’ is what he said. They didn’t understand American blacks, didn’t know what they were. I argued with him, but his parents held the purse strings on his education. Then a month later, I saw his new girlfriend.”
“Darker,” said Danny knowingly.
“No,” said Janis. “She was white. It seems the problem was that I wasn’t pure. Nelson’s parents could accept a dark black girl, or a white one, but not one who was somewhere in between. So, I thought to hell with him, right? I mean, if he couldn’t accept me for what I was, then screw him, only I was the one who felt screwed. Like—”
“Like you were nothing?” said Danny, recalling what Erik had told him.
“Something like that,” said Janis.
Danny let some time pass before he spoke again. The silence was almost poetic as he felt himself move closer to Janis. Even though she was kind of prissy and elitist, she was strong, and more interesting than he’d first thought.
“So,” she said, breaking the beautiful silence. “Did that help you?”
“Yes,” said Danny. “The killer is linked to the Internet scam New Nubia as well as the color of the victims. If we have another victim, he or she will be fair-skinned and in the same groups of investors.”
“So where will you start?”
“I’ll have Jim get security on everyone on the list. Then I want to see a lady named Virginia Stallworth. I think there’s an elite secret society within the black upper class in Detroit, and I think she knows about it.”
“So, when can we talk to her?” asked Janis.
“Erik will be checking with the Fraud guys on the Internet company when he comes in. Today, it’s just me. I was planning to catch her early.”
“Great, let’s go.”
“I thought you were stuck on the serial killer angle,” said Danny. “I guess I’ve convinced you to give it up, huh?”
“No. I just want to see you in action,” she said. “I want to see this deductive mind your partner talked about.”
Danny and Janis got a car and drove out as thirteen hundred was filling up. He was hoping to take on Virginia Stallworth alone, but he didn’t mind Janis coming as long as she didn’t mess up his flow. If Virginia Stallworth would cop to there being a new Castle Society, then maybe he could find the next victim before it was too late.
Danny got on the Lodge Freeway and headed uptown. They passed the tangle of cars going into downtown.
“The freeway, thank God,” said Janis. “The city looks so much better from here.”
“You’re a guest,” said Danny. “Be nice.”
“I can see why your childhood was so traumatic. Detroit is a hard town.”
“Traumatic. Didn’t nobody say nothin’ about that,” said Danny. “The city changes you, but it don’t make you sick.”
“If you say so,” said Janis.
“We probably have some time to kill,” said Danny. “In the meantime, let me show you what I mean.”
“How?” asked Janis.
“I didn’t have breakfast. I need a piece of fruit.”
Danny got off the freeway at Grand Boulevard. They drove to Woodward Avenue. Danny watched as Janis looked at the area with amazement and scorn. This was the world her parents warned her about, and here she was in the middle of it.
“The mayor has a lot of work to do on this town,” said Janis.
“Black people have run this town for the last thirty years or so. What do you think of that?” asked Danny.
“That’s a complicated question,” said Janis. “We’re just now getting to the root of the problems of large urban areas. And there was a lot of trouble we inherited t
hat was started by other people.”
Danny turned left on Clairmount and headed west. The neighborhood was rough. Old gray buildings, potholed streets, and unkempt sidewalks, hopeless-looking old black men and dangerous-looking young ones. He felt invigorated by the sight of all these things. Janis’s eyes narrowed and her face took on a look as if she smelled something bad. She could see that there was no joy on Joy Road in Detroit.
Danny stopped at a shabby-looking market on Joy. The parking lot had a few cars in it by the building. Two cars filled with black men sat in a corner away from the store, engines running.
“Why are we stopping here?” asked Janis.
“They have good fruit here,” said Danny. “Come on in.”
They went inside the market and Danny immediately smelled the strong aroma of fresh onions and produce. There were a few customers already in line. A young black girl holding a handcart of goods talked on a mobile phone. A white woman about thirty scolded her two kids in a voice that sounded decidedly black. Danny looked at her for a moment and saw the contrast. That was how people must react to me, he thought. He had to admit it was weird.
“This place is in a bad neighborhood,” said Danny. “In fact, the crime rate here averages twenty percent higher than the rest of the city. But this store gets one of the first runs from the market, so their produce is the best.”
Danny and Janis went to the produce section and took in the lush beauty of the fruit and vegetables piled high. The rest of the market looked shabby, but this section was immaculate.
Danny and Janis picked out fruit while behind them at the service counter a heavyset black woman argued with a Chaldean man of about forty. Danny noticed the man passed the woman a few bills then she stomped off, her big necklace swinging and making a jangling noise. The man laughed and put something in a drawer.
“Andy,” said Danny to the man, walking over to him.
Andy looked alarmed at seeing Danny then locked up something behind the counter.
“A friend?” asked Janis.
“Not this time,” said Danny.
“Danny the cop,” said Andy. His Middle Eastern accent was thin, but noticeable. “What do you want?”
“I want to know why you just bought two Social Security checks off that lady who stomped out of here.”
“Ain’t no law against cashing a check,” said Andy.
“Give them to me,” said Danny.
Andy mumbled, then handed Danny the colorful checks.
“I think I’ll call the owners of these,” said Danny, “and see if they’re missing their monthly. They’re probably getting replacements from the government, but by the time they do, these will be processed, right? What did you pay for them, ten cents on the dollar?”
Andy frowned at Danny and said something in another language, which Danny took to be cursing.
“You have a nice day, too,” said Danny. He left Andy some money for the fruit then walked out with Janis.
“Now when we get back out, both of the cars with those brothers in them will be gone.”
When they got outside, sure enough, the two cars had vanished.
“Neat trick,” said Janis. “So what’s the deal?”
“I saw the government check paper flash when the big woman passed it to Andy. But there was a lot more than just that going on in there.”
“I’m listening,” she said. “Dazzle me with this gift of yours.”
“The white girl with the two kids,” began Danny. “The kids were black, but they looked nothing alike. Different fathers or she was babysitting for a friend with a job. And she was buying enough groceries for ten people. She could have more at home, which is not likely, or she stole food stamps and is buying the food to sell it, also unlikely. It’s easier to just sell the food stamps. Or she’s buying groceries for people who can’t get out of the house and charging them a fee. That’s the most likely thing. She was harmless. The young girl on the phone was a drug dealer. She had three pagers on her belt and two cell phones. Her jewelry was expensive and flashy, bling, bling. In her basket she had hot dogs, beans, white bread, and a large Faygo red pop. Her kids are about six or seven, and she don’t like to make complicated food for them. When I busted Andy, she hung up one phone and dialed another. That was her calling whoever those men were in one of the cars and telling him some detectives are around. That’s why both cars ghosted.”
Janis was impressed. She took all this in with a measured and analytical look. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were making this all up to impress me.”
“Let’s just say that I wanted you to see that I’m not traumatized like you say. This is just life, the life I’m used to. The ghetto don’t discriminate. It’s an equal opportunity muthafucka—” Danny stopped as he saw something across the busy street.
“What?” asked Janis.
“I don’t know,” said Danny. “Come on.”
Danny and Janis got into the car and pulled out of the parking lot. He drove down a residential street, trailing a young black man wearing a warm-up jacket and a baseball cap.
“Who is it?” asked Janis.
“Jordan Grace,” said Danny. “His father is—”
“Hamilton Grace,” said Janis. “I saw his name on the suspect list.”
“This kid Jordan is Grace’s illegitimate son. He adopted him, but I get the feeling that he’s still treated like an outsider kid by Grace.”
“What’s he doing in this neighborhood?” Janis asked almost to herself.
“That’s what we’re going to find out.” Danny kept following him, trying to keep a good distance back.
Jordan Grace whipped out a cell phone, then got into a new SUV, and roared off down the street. Danny followed him until he got to the freeway, then Danny stopped and turned around.
“We’re not going to follow him?” asked Janis.
“No,” said Danny. “Whatever he was here for, he finished. He’s headed back home.”
“So what does it mean, Sherlock?” asked Janis.
“I’m not sure,” said Danny. “Not yet.” He didn’t mind Janis calling him Sherlock because she said it with something akin to admiration.
Danny remembered how Jordan Grace was kind of the stepchild in that family, but eager to please his father. What if he wanted to take out the Bakers and Olittah Reese because of the embarrassment they caused his father? Danny noticed for the first time that Jordan was lighter in skin tone than Hamilton Grace and his legitimate son, Logan.
“I think maybe Jordan Grace has another life his family doesn’t know anything about,” said Danny. “I just wonder where that life takes him every night.”
Danny headed back uptown, wondering what terrible thing could have lured a proper, polished kid like Jordan Grace into the worst part of Detroit.
27
THE CASTLE
Virginia Stallworth’s backyard was filled with well-heeled supporters eating eggs and drinking mimosas around a sparkling pool. Water rushed from a marble fountain in a corner of the yard. The water’s sound mixed casually with Ella Fitzgerald scatting a jazzy tune from small Bose speakers on the perimeter of the yard.
Danny and Janis entered the crowded party and looked for the Stallworths. Danny was already figuring out what he would say. He’d have only one chance at getting the information he wanted. He hoped it would work. If it didn’t, he’d be back to shooting in the dark.
“Man, these people throw a lot of parties,” said Danny.
“The NOAA convention is in town,” said Janis. “She’s courting the out-of-state voters. I recognize Mel Vinson, the civil rights leader from D.C.”
Danny didn’t spot Virginia in the crowd. He tried not to notice the color of the mostly black partyers, but he was programmed for it now. They covered the spectrum of colors, so he didn’t think anything particular of this gathering.
Danny and Janis moved toward the house. In the kitchen, he saw Cal talking with his sister Gwen. Danny noticed again the differenc
e in the color of their skin. Gwen’s dark skin stood in stark contrast to Cal’s. He realized that he couldn’t stop himself from these observations anymore.
Gwen was talking urgently to her brother, who listened without a word. Gwen held a prescription pill bottle in her hand. She raised it then gestured with it wildly.
Suddenly, Gwen spotted Danny and Janis. She said something to Cal, who turned and looked at them. Gwen ran off. Cal stood a moment then followed.
“Looks like we’re being announced,” said Janis.
“Yeah,” said Danny. “Let’s wait here.”
A moment later, Virginia Stallworth came out, dressed in a stunning white dress and sun hat. She was pissed off and didn’t mind showing it. She scowled at Danny and Janis as she approached them.
“I can see that I’m going to have to call the Chief again about you,” she said. “You don’t seem to take hints very well.”
“And you’ve been lying to me and impeding my murder investigation,” said Danny harshly.
“I’m Special Agent Janis Cates of the FBI,” Janis broke in. “I’m here because of Detective Cavanaugh’s concerns.”
“FBI?” Virginia said with visible fear. “Why would the FBI be involved with me?”
“We should talk inside,” said Danny, wanting to get her alone to grill her about his suspicions.
“Yes, that would be best given the setting here,” said Janis.
Virginia turned to Gwen, who was standing behind her looking upset and concerned. Danny didn’t even remember Gwen coming back in the room. Virginia said something to her, and Gwen reluctantly walked off. Cal was gone, apparently not wanting any part of the confrontation.
“Is your husband around?” asked Danny. “We’d like to talk to him, too.”
“He’s in his study,” said Virginia. “We can talk there.”
They walked into Oscar Stallworth’s well-appointed study to find him having a drink with another man. Oscar’s face turned sour at the sight of Danny. He recovered, continuing to smile at the man he was talking to. Oscar made an excuse to his guest, who left after saying a friendly hello to everyone.
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