by Raven Snow
It was Willow who reminded her of the time. Rowen thanked Ms. Coldgrove for her answers and hurried out of the elementary school and back to the high school parking lot to try and intercept Billy. They hadn’t actually been told where to meet him aside from “outside.” Rowen was worried they were going to miss him.
She needn’t have worried. Billy came to them. He was wearing jeans that were a couple of sizes too big and a graphic t-shirt emblazoned with the logo of some band she didn’t recognize. His hands were shoved in his pockets, and his book bag was slung over one shoulder. “The lady in the front office said a couple of women were waiting for me out in the parking lot. You them?”
“We are them,” said Willow.
“They,” Rowen corrected, reflexively. “We’re from the Lainswich Inquirer. I don’t know if you’ve read our publication.”
“I haven’t.” Billy looked bored, like he didn’t want to waste his time with this, like he had better things to do. “What do you want? An interview? Ask my parents. They love interviews.” He turned to go.
“We were hoping to do an interview with you,” Rowen said quickly, taking a step after him. “If you don’t mind.”
“I do mind. I don’t have time for one of these today. I just did, like, three in a row with Channel 2. I’m sick of this interview crap.”
“We’ll give you fifty bucks,” Willow said. “Fifty bucks for, like, fifteen minutes of your time. If that.”
Billy hesitated. Money seemed to speak to him. He stopped walking away and faced them again. He held out his hand to Willow. Willow looked at Rowen. Of course she didn’t have that money on her. She was entirely too willing to volunteer Rowen for stuff like this. Rowen sighed, but she shelled out. Willow was just lucky she had that kind of cash on her right now. “I only have a hundred.” She handed that over. “I don’t suppose you have change?”
“Nope.” Billy pocketed the hundred. “Your fifteen minutes start now.”
“Let’s go somewhere more private.” Rowen headed for the edge of the parking lot. She would have invited him to sit in their car, but that seemed a little shady on school grounds. She still felt more than a little morally iffy about all of this. Rowen found a nice out of the way place near the curb and beneath a tree. With all the teenagers leaving the parking lot in chaotic order, she felt safer being as far away from all that as possible. “So, how are you holding up?” That seemed like a safe enough question to open with.
Billy smirked. “What? You mean with my sister’s murder being dredged back up into the spotlight? Sure, I’m great.”
Rowen winced. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to –”
“No, I’m serious. I’m glad it’s being brought up. I was mad when everyone forgot about it and moved on like it never happened.” Billy dropped his book bag in the dirt. “For a long time there, it was a huge deal. After that, no one really talked about it anymore. You’re not supposed to just sweep this kinda thing under the rug, you know?”
Rowen opened her mouth to say something about how it was important to move on from these things, but Willow beat her to it. “It’s weird how people forget about things when they aren’t in the news. I think that’s really messed up. You know what else is messed up?” Willow had a casual way of talking to people. It was like she had never quite left high school.
“What?” asked Billy.
“That the woman who killed her just got to change her name like that. I mean, I know my outrage doesn’t mean much here, but that kinda rubbed me the wrong way. If this hadn’t happened, no one would have even known she changed her name. No news outlet covered it, so she might have gotten out and no one would have known what she did. That was so sneaky!”
Billy looked at Willow like he wasn’t sure she meant what she was saying. Finally, he nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that was really messed up. I e-mailed Channel 2 and stuff, but they weren’t interested. It was like they were all over the story one minute and couldn’t care less the next.”
“You giving them the cold shoulder now?” asked Willow.
“Naw. I don’t see the point. I mean, they reach a lot of people and, well, people should know about this.” Billy shrugged, like he really didn’t have anything new to say on the matter despite his insistence that people needed to be made aware.
“What do you want the people to hear?” asked Rowen, taking out a pencil and notepad. She didn’t bother with the tape recorder. She would prefer not having much evidence of this exchange. Not recording the conversation would make it easier to explain to Rose later.
Billy didn’t look like he had an answer. He shrugged. “People need to know that you can’t kill a kid and just get away with it.” He said it like that should be obvious.
“It was an accident.” Rowen couldn’t help but point that out. As if on cue, a couple of teenagers rear-ended each other in the parking lot. She pointed. “Like that.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Billy didn’t look swayed, though the fender bender did draw his attention.
“And she is doing her time. Last I checked, she had nine more years to go for this. That’s a sizable chunk of time.”
“It’s not enough.” It was obvious Billy wasn’t going to see reason on this one. He was too emotionally invested in what had happened. It was understandable. His parents probably weren’t great examples to follow in this.
“So, how do you feel about someone trying to kill Jessica Landis?” asked Willow.
Billy shrugged. “I wish they’d done a better job. I was hoping they’d try again, but it doesn’t look like it, huh? So, basically, they botched their first try and now they’ve ruined it for everyone. They’re not going to get a second chance.”
“So, you think she deserved the death penalty?” Rowen wasn’t sure why she even asked. If anyone thought that, he did.
“Obviously.”
“And do you have any idea who might have been the one who tried to kill her?”
“If I did, I wouldn’t tell you!”
“But they killed an innocent woman. Rhonda Doolittle. Did you hear about her? She didn’t deserve to die, did she?”
That gave Billy some pause. “I didn’t know her.”
“She was in jail for selling drugs.” By the look of Billy, she imagined he knew one or two people he could say the same about. “She was doing her time, had a husband who loved her. The prison says she was a model inmate and was showing real interest in turning her life around. She was taking classes in there. She had a plan for when she got out and everything. Did she deserve to die?”
Billy hesitated again. “No, but like I said, whoever tried to kill Jessica was a screw up.”
“And you’re sure you don’t have any idea who might have been responsible?” Rowen thought she might get a slightly different answer this time.
She was right. Billy seemed to deflate a bit. His shoulders sagged slightly, and some of his bravado disappeared. “I don’t know.” It sounded like he meant it, which was almost a bit disappointing. Rowen didn’t get a sense that he was lying to her right now. If that was the case, then what did they have to gain from talking to this guy at all? Why had Grammy even suggested that they come here?
“Do you see the Landis boys around a lot?” asked Willow, steering the conversation in a different direction. Rowen was glad to have her along. She really did have a way with people. She could really stay on someone’s good side while keeping a conversation going.
“I guess.” Billy glanced back toward the school like he might see some of them now. “I’ve got Biology with Terrence. I hate that guy.”
“Why’s that?” Rowen was interested to see the logic here. As far as she was aware, he had no reason to hate the sons. “Terrence doesn’t even seem to like his stepmother.”
“Yeah, but Trevor does. He’s always sticking up for him.” Billy pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced down at it like he was checking the time. “Trevor is always getting up in my face about how his mother didn’t do anything wrong. Yeah, right
. I set him straight, and then that brother of his gave me crap.”
“Yeah, but you’d do the same though, right?” Willow asked. “I mean, it’s his family.”
“I guess.” Billy stayed noncommittal. “I don’t think he’s worth defending, myself. I think he’s a scumbag. I don’t think he’s worth the trouble… Well, that’s close enough to fifteen minutes. I’m out of here.”
Willow started to say something, but Rowen interrupted her. “I appreciate your time,” she said, even though she’d just lost a hundred dollars for it, and it certainly hadn’t been worth that. They hadn’t learned anything new, had they? Rowen watched him go, feeling more lost than ever. “I don’t think I’m even going to use this for an article.” It wasn’t worth it. Rowen didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that they had interviewed him without his family being around. That could very well open up a whole new can of worms.
“That was a waste of time,” Willow grumbled, pulling her own phone out to goof around on it.
“It was,” Rowen agreed.
“Grammy really is losing her edge.”
“Don’t say that.” Rowen didn’t like to hear it, but she was afraid Willow was right. She had been hoping for a little more guidance from Grammy. From here, she wasn’t at all sure where to go.
Chapter Thirteen
“Are you kidding me?” Rose wasn’t one to lose her temper, but she seemed awfully close to it now. They were at the office. Rose had been eagerly awaiting the audio from the Jessica Landis interview. She had been immediately sidetracked by the news that they had taken a detour to interview Billy Nielson.
“We got an interview with Stephanie’s old teacher, too,” Willow offered. “She had a lot to say.”
“She did,” Rowen agreed. “She had a lot of personal insight on Stephanie. A human piece on her might be good, I think. Put a positive spin on her life, you know? Like really showcase her as a person.”
Rose didn’t look convinced. “Yeah, because that won’t be depressing at all.”
“Plus, we got confirmation that the Nielsons weren’t the best parents,” Rowen added, because that did seem like some pertinent information.
“Well, we’re definitely not publishing that.” Rose gave her a wide-eyed look like she’d lost her mind. “And it’s not like that wasn’t something you didn’t already strongly suspect, so I’m not sure how useful that information actually is to you.”
Rowen couldn’t say that she didn’t have a point. Willow stepped in. “Grammy was the one who suggested we go to the school and talk to Billy.” That was something Rowen had planned to leave out. Mentioning that meant talking about the other things they had discovered today. Rowen had hoped to avoid that until things had calmed down a bit.
Rose looked surprised to hear it was Grammy who’d made the suggestion. “Did she say why?” Grammy always had a reason for telling them to do things. At least, she usually did. Before now, she had had a near flawless track record.
“She said it was just a gut feeling.” Rowen sighed. There was no avoiding telling her the rest. “The staff said her health has been poor lately.”
“What?”
“I don’t think it’s anything to worry about. They would have contacted us if it was. It’s just… I think her instincts are slipping a little bit.” Rowen fidgeted in her desk chair. “These things happen. And it’s not like the prison is the easiest place to hone your witchy abilities. I know you don’t feel it, but the whole family really has issues with cutting through all those negative, oppressive emotions that are there.”
Rose winced at that. Rowen shouldn’t have made a mention of her not knowing what those sort of senses were like. Rose could be a little sensitive about being adopted. She couldn’t do the things a lot of her family did. It wasn’t technically in her blood even if she was as much a part of the family as any of them. “We should say something to our parents.”
“Are you kidding?” Willow sat up very straight. “They’re insufferable enough right now with us moving out. How do you think they’d handle this? My mom would start crying. And your mom would just implode, Rose. You’d think we moved to another continent the way Aunt Lydia sulks about this stuff.”
Rose looked like she was going to take offense at that but backed down. “We should mention this to Margo and Peony, let them weigh in on what we should do.”
The little bell over the door rang. Rowen and her cousins looked up as Margo, Norman, and Tiffany all made their way inside. “My ears are ringing,” Tiffany complained.
“That means someone’s talking about you,” said Norman, giving his nieces a wink. “What are you three lovely ladies doing? Gossiping about your family? All good things, I hope.”
Margo and Norman’s arms were laden with shopping bags. Even Tiffany had a couple bags of her own. It looked like she had joined them on their little outing. “We were just saying that we hope you bought us something.” Willow smiled sweetly at her uncle. “You got us presents, right? We love presents.”
“Sorry, today was completely selfish, I’m afraid.” Norman sat his bags down on Margo’s desk.
Margo did the same. “How did today go?” she asked, her tone guarded. It was like she wanted to know she had been missed but didn’t want them to think she cared that much.
“It went great,” Willow blurted before Rowen could reassure her that it would have been useful to have her around as well. “We got all the interviews we needed and then some. How was your day?”
“Oh, it was fine.” Margo nudged her bag. “We went to the mall. They don’t have much at the one here in Lainswich, but it was nice to spend time with my dad.”
Norman gave his daughter a side hug. Tiffany smiled wistfully. “Margo was telling us how great the shopping was in Europe. Can you imagine? I can’t imagine. Wouldn’t it be fun to go travel the world?”
Rowen pointedly ignored her mother. As far as she was concerned, her mother had done plenty of traveling. She needed to settle for a while. She wasn’t going to encourage any more globetrotting. “We need to sort through our tapes from the interview and decide what we’re going to use if you want to help with that, Margo.”
Margo’s face fell at that. She might want to help around, but not with something like that, it seemed. “Sure,” she muttered like she felt obligated. “I mean, if you really need me to.”
“It would be a big help.” Rowen was thankful she was at least willing to put in an effort. She just hoped that she kept it up for a while.
The little bell over the door rang very loud all of a sudden. Everyone looked up and turned their heads to see Peony standing there wide-eyed and breathless. She had slipped out when she heard Rowen and Willow were headed back. She was still avoiding her sister. Rose had said she was across the street taking her lunch break at the Italian place. Whatever had sent her high tailing it away so fast had to be important. “What’s wrong?” asked Rowen, feeling her chest tighten up in preparation.
Peony was looking at her sister. She frowned but recovered quickly enough, putting their differences aside for the time being. “Where’s the remote? You need to turn on the television.”
There was a flat screen fastened high up on the wall in front of the desks. They didn’t normally turn it on, but when they did it was usually to see what Channel 2 was up to. Rose found the remote and pressed the power button. The first thing they saw was Julia Martinez’s face as she clutched her microphone. She was talking about something or another in a very accusing way. …and what we need to ask ourselves is whether this sort of behavior is something we want to encourage.
“What’s she talking about now?” asked Margo with a weary sigh, like she was prepared for the worst.
“They’re doing a segment about, like, journalism tactics or something,” Peony explained, still a little out of breath. “It hasn’t been on for long. I rushed right over here when I heard them mention us.”
“Us?” Rowen looked at the television with renewed interest. Julia Mar
tinez wasn’t alone, she realized. She was sitting in a studio with an older gentleman wearing glasses. Small white print beneath him said that his name was Jordan Fitzroy, and he taught journalism at Terricville Tech.
Well, Julia, obviously you have to be delicate with victims, said Fitzroy, speaking in a deep, monotonous voice. I never encourage my students to engage in any gotcha or tabloid journalism, if you will.
“What?” Rowen looked at everyone around her, uncertain. “Is this a slight at us?”
Julia nodded as he droned on. We at Channel 2 try to keep that sort of thing in mind. Even when it comes to older tragedies, those emotions can still be fresh, you know?
Fitzroy nodded. Oh, yes. Absolutely.
You have other publications in Lainswich that aren’t as mindful. Not to name names, but I heard a recent report that the Inquirer approached Billy Nielson, the young brother of the deceased Stephanie Nielson, in his school parking lot today.
Fitzroy pursed his lips. Absolutely out of line. And this on the heels of the recent news that Beatrice McCarty has passed away. Pressure from media can really be overwhelming. That kind of stress can certainly be detrimental to people’s health.
Rowen wasn’t sure what to take away from this first. She looked back at Rose who had gone rather pale. “Beatrice died?” She looked around to see if anyone else had heard this. “When did that happen?” It seemed like only yesterday that they had been at her house. She had seemed like a sweet old lady. Of course, she was stressed about playing a part in the accidental murder of Rhonda Doolittle. Channel 2 camping outside her door probably hadn’t done wonders for her mental health either. And they had the nerve to do a segment on this like the Lainswich Inquirer were the villains!
“I told you,” Rose hissed. “I told you this would come back to bite us. I didn’t expect it to happen so quick, but-”