Trip Wire by Charlotte Carter Page A

tell you somebody was trying to get something out of that boy he didn’t want to give up?” he said.
    I nodded.
    “Must have been a pretty big secret he was keeping.”
    “Wilt didn’t keep secrets.”
    “You sure about that?”
    I hesitated before answering. I was thinking about what Klaus had revealed yesterday—the old relationship between Mia Boone and Dan Zuni. That was a secret, wasn’t it? But I didn’t know whether Wilt was party to it.
    Almost as if he was reading my mind, Woody said, “Cass, you were devoted to this boy. But you have to ask yourself some hard questions. You say you knew him so well. But is that really true? What kind of things was he doing when you weren’t with him? Who all was he associated with? What about his friends?”
    “His friends were my friends. We all lived together.”
    “I don’t mean them. The boy lived in Chicago all his life until he went to school, didn’t he?”
    “Yes.”
    “Did he get into any kind of trouble while he was away?”
    “He never told me about anything like that. Neither did Taylor. They were at school together. I’m sure the police asked him about that.”
    “Maybe he had enemies here in the city, people you don’t know about.”
    “It’s hard to think of Wilton having enemies.”
    “Don’t be childish. Everybody’s got enemies. Young men get up to things they don’t want other people to know about. Especially colored boys in these times.”
    “Oh, look, Woody. Wilt was no criminal. His mother and father have money, and they sheltered him all his life. He went to the Lab School and Francis Parker. His dad is Oscar Mobley, one of the biggest, richest lawyers in the city.”
    “You don’t have to tell me who Oscar Mobley is, girl. I’m the one can tell you about him. And one thing I’ll tell you is, it’s a good thing he is a smart lawyer, because he was able to get your boy out of trouble with the law.”
    “What trouble?”
    “Drug trouble. Wilton Mobley was arrested for selling dope to his classmates.”
    “Oh.”
    “You didn’t know that, did you?”
    “No. But so what? Selling a little grass. That’s no big-time crime. I know lots of people who do it.”
    “Is that so?”
    “I mean, he couldn’t have been a major—Wilton didn’t have a lot of money. His mother slipped him cash sometimes. And he worked sometimes at the bike shop. People who sell in a big way make thousands.”
    “You know all about it, I see.”
    “All right, Woody, don’t blow your top over this. I only meant that . . . that lots of people are into smoking marijuana. Respectable people. Wilton probably gave away as much as he sold. I mean, it’s not the same as heroin. I mean, there are some places where it isn’t even illegal.”
    No way to back out now. Oh, what a pile of shit I had stepped into. I might just as well have come out and said I smoke dope on a regular basis.
    “You see what I’m talking about, Cass? You didn’t know this fella near as well as you thought you did. Just like you didn’t know the white girl he lived with had been with that boy who’s missing.”
    “I see Jack Klaus has been bending your ear.”
    “Yes. Isn’t that what you want? Somebody on the inside who can tell us the straight story?”
    “Straight? You think he’s giving me the straight anything? I don’t trust him, Woody.”
    “That’s too bad. Because you need him.”
    “I don’t know if that’s the kind of help I need.”
    “Well, I do. If you think you’ll get anywhere without him, you’re crazy. It’s only because of Jack that the homicide man didn’t pull you in for being uncooperative. This Norris fella thinks maybe you haven’t told him everything you could.”
    To put it mildly.
    I sat tight. Norris was going to have calico kittens when he got to the apartment and heard the third-hand account of the break-in and assault on me. Most likely he was looking for me now. Cliff was the only one I’d told where I was going. I knew he