The Burning Bush by Kenya Wright

in love, the next she’d started wearing black and becoming disobedient, but I thought it was a little phase.” She wiped her face with the napkin. “Later, I found out she’d dropped out of school. And got involved with other things.”
    Like prostitution?
    “Can you tell me exactly when she started wearing black or perhaps give me some of her friends’ names?” I asked.
    Harriet fixed her eyes to some distant view that no one else could see. “She even had men in this house.”
    I cleared my throat and said, “What do you mean she had men in the house? Mrs. Fife?” But she was silent. “You said she had men in the house?” I repeated.
    Harriet didn’t even look at me as her lips pressed together in an angry line. What the fuck? We all sat there in awkward silence for another minute. The only noise I heard was Cassie’s stirring on the couch’s plastic covering. I glanced at my watch and decided to forget about any more questions. Harriet was in shock. She’d lost her husband and now her daughter. I needed to hurry and get out of here immediately, give this woman some peace.
    And then all of a sudden Harriet stood up and seized her coffee cup. “Do you have any more questions?”
    “No.” I didn’t think she would answer my earlier question. “Can I look through Onyx’s room before we go?”
    I stood up. Cassie and Angel followed.
    “Yes.” Harriet plodded to the kitchen. “Let yourselves out when you’re done. I may lie down and rest.”
    She disappeared through the bamboo curtains before I could say goodbye or thank her for the coffee. Angel and I exchanged looks.
    “Should we just wander through the apartment, searching for her room?” I whispered.
    Angel shrugged. “You’re the lead detective.”
    “Oh shut up.” I spotted a dimly lit hallway near a tiny dining room with a small wooden table and two chairs. I headed that direction. “It’ll probably be easy to spot Onyx’s room.”

Easy was an understatement. Black spray paint decorated every wall. The bed sheets, dresser, carpet, and lampshades were all midnight black, as if an evil lord had vomited darkness over the whole space. The only colors in the room came from beautiful butterflies in various shades of the rainbow. And even those cute, little creatures hung in the air by black chains wrapped around their necks.
    “This was more than a teenage phase.” Cassie tiptoed around the room as if we had no permission and were trespassing.
    “Definitely not a phase.” I closed the door behind us.
    “You smell the gin on Harriet’s breath? It’s eight in the morning.” Angel sat on Onyx’s bed and stuffed her hands into my fuzzy, purple coat. A blue color crept around her pale lips.
    “Lanore,” Angel said.
    “What?”
    “Would you please stop looking at me like I’m about to die.”
    “Well, maybe if you didn’t look like you were about to die, then it wouldn’t be a big deal.” I stomped over to Onyx’s dresser drawers and opened them. I spotted sheer crimson panties, ivory silk bras, several metallic-colored thongs, and even two tiny boxes of edible underwear, watermelon flavor.
    “I doubt Onyx was a virgin.” I gestured to the drawer.
    Angel stood up and peeked at the drawer’s contents. “She probably was a hooker, but not street. Most likely delivery. I would have recognized her if she’d tricked for the strip club scene.”
    “Wait a minute. Maybe those are just for her boyfriend.” Cassie approached the drawer and dug through it. “Maybe they’re adventurous. A girl doesn’t have to be a hooker to have edible panties in her drawer.”
    Cassie picked up the packet and studied it. She noticed me smiling at her and dropped the edible undies.
    “Not that I know anything about this stuff.” Her eyes shifted back to tiger. “Zulu would kill me.”
    “And the guy that got to eat the underwear would get his heart ripped out of his chest.” Angel collapsed back onto Onyx’s bed.
    “Okay, both of you,