Bad Moon On The Rise by Katy Munger Page B

who
came to get Tonya had on jackets with something about Silver Top
Detention Center printed on them in the front and big initials on
the back. I remember because we couldn’t believe those guys were
dumb enough to walk around with jackets that had ‘STD’ on the back
of them in big letters. I thought maybe they were parole officers
or something.”
    “ Silver Top?” I knew the
name from the records Marcus had given me. “That was where Tonya
did most of her time. It’s in the mountains.”
    The woman shrugged. “Maybe they sent
her back there?”
    It didn’t make sense. There were no
records indicating Tonya had been sent back to jail anywhere. I
sighed and I guess I sounded as frustrated as I felt. The woman
shot me a look of sympathy before she stood up.
    “ I got a class in five
minutes,” she said apologetically. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more
help.”
    “ You helped,” I assured
her. “Believe me, you helped.”
    “ Listen,” she said. “When
you find her son, will you do me a favor?”
    “ Sure.”
    “ You tell him that his
mother was a good woman and a smart woman, that she was working
hard to make something out of her life. I always wondered why she
was working so hard, why she studied so many hours, what was
driving her, you know?”
      I nodded.
    “ Now I know. She was doing
it for him. Will you let him know that?”
    “ Yes,” I promised. “When I
find him, I’ll let him know.”
    I hoped it was a promise I could
keep.
     
    Marcus was mortally offended when I
implied his search of official records had been lax.
    “ I do not make mistakes,”
he snapped, his voice rising like it always does when his pride has
been wounded. “I practically wrote the code for the reporting
system. If my data says Tonya Blackburn completed her parole two
years ago, then the woman completed her parole two years
ago.”
    “ Her roommate says some
guys who looked official came in without warning and dragged her
away.”
    “ Perhaps you should be
poking around Guantanamo Bay?”
    “ Very funny. Are you sure
you didn’t miss something?”
    “ Look,” he said archly.
“I’m just going to pretend that you are unaware of my stellar
reputation for thoroughness. And I am just going to explain that if
Tonya Blackburn was taken into custody for any reason, there would
be a record of it. Even if it was just for questioning and she was
later released. Gone are the days of gunny sacks over people’s
heads and us black folk disappearing in the night.” He hesitated.
“At least in most parts of the state.”
    “ Maybe those guys were
renegades?” I suggested.
    “ Well, obviously they were
renegades, Miss Casey,” Marcus said, slathering on the sarcasm like
cream cheese on a bagel. “I suggest you get your big old butt up to
Silver Top Detention Center and find out what’s going
on.”
    “ Oh, god, you’re right,” I
said. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
    “ Because you need to get
laid properly. Your blood is congealing somewhere a lot further
south than your brain.” He hung up without waiting for my reaction.
I wasn’t done paying for doubting him, I knew.
    My next call was to Bobby D. For
someone who was as big as Jabba the Hut, the man was a master at
blending in. He’d be the perfect cover when I went up to the
mountains and poked around.
    Plus he had a cooler head about this
case than I did—when I’d told him about Burly being Trey’s father,
he’d just laughed at how smart Corndog Sally had been to hook me in
the way she did. He said I had no right to feel betrayed, that I
wasn’t the one who had lost a daughter and was in danger of losing
a grandson.
    He was right, of course.
    So I asked him to go with me to the
mountains. When I explained where I was going and why, there was a
long silence. I heard the sound of cellophane being torn off a
Little Debbie snack cake—Bobby was addicted to them and ate them
like other people ate pretzels.
    “ Well?” I asked, before
his mouth