His tongue darted out as he thought it over. “Before. Yeah, before. Bitch up and gone a week, two week later. I figure he took her. Lucy talk about him all the time.”
Amanda’s dictation was rusty, but it came back to her as she scribbled notes across the page. “So, Hank Bennett approached you before Lucy disappeared?” Another lie they’d caught the lawyer in. “What did he want?”
“Wanted to tell me my bidness. Brother better be glad I didn’t beat down his skinny white ass.”
“What business?”
“Told me cut Kitty loose. Said he’d pass me some bills if I stop givin’ her the Boy.”
Amanda was sure she’d heard wrong. “Kitty? You mean Lucy.”
“Naw, bitch. It was Kitty he wanted to talk about. Dude had a hard-on for her.”
“Why would Hank Bennett care about Kitty?”
He shrugged his shoulders, but still answered, “Her daddy some big-time lawyer. Disowned the bitch when he found out she was sippin’ some Juice.” He gave her a lurid grin, making sure she got his meaning. “She got another sister somewhere. She the good one. Kitty always been bad.”
“Kitty’s father is Andrew Treadwell.”
He nodded. “You finally gettin’ it, bitch. Ain’t the mayor tell you this already?”
Amanda flipped back through her notes. “Hank Bennett offered you money to stop giving Kitty heroin.”
“Why you keep repeatin’ everything I say?”
“Because it doesn’t make sense,” Amanda admitted. “Hank Bennett comes to you about Kitty. He doesn’t ask about his sister? Ask to see her?” Juice shook his head. “He’s not worried about Lucy?” Again, Juice shook his head. “And, a week later, Lucy disappeared?”
“Yeah, an’ about a week after—” He snapped his fingers. “Kitty gone.”
Amanda remembered Jane’s words. “Just disappeared.”
“Thass right.”
“What about Mary?”
He snorted. “Bitch gone, too. ’Bout two, three months later. Ain’t been a while since I lose that many girls at a go. Usually some other pimp tryin’ to poach me off.”
“You had three girls disappear in as many months.” Amanda wasn’t asking him a question. She was trying to get her head around what had happened. “Did you ever see Lucy with a letter from her brother?”
He gave a curt nod. “Had it in her purse.”
“Can you read?”
“Bitch, I ain’t ignert.”
Amanda waited.
“Some bullshit ’bout how he missed her when I knowed that ain’t the truth. Said he wanted to meet with her.” Juice thumped the table with his fingers. “Shee-it, brother wanna see her, he coulda spent five mo’ minutes on my corner. I tole him she be right there.”
Amanda scribbled down his words as she tried to think through her next question. “Was there anyone hanging around who was …” “Scary” wasn’t the right word for a man like Juice. “Who wasn’t right? Someone who was dangerous or violent? Someone you wouldn’t trust with your girls?”
“Bitch, I charge extry for that.” He smiled. One of his front teeth was missing. The gum was raw. “They some weird motherfuckers out there.” He cleared his throat. “ ’Scuse me.”
Amanda nodded at the apology. “What weird people?”
“They’s a dude likes to fist ’em.” He pumped his fist in the air. Amanda guessed he meant punching the girls. “They’s one use a knife, but he all right. He never stick nobody. Least not with the blade.”
“Anyone else?”
“They’s that tall dude runs the soup kitchen.”
“I’ve heard about him.”
“He real tight with the dude at the mission.”
So, Trey Callahan had lied to them, too.
“Dude always comin’ ’round at night, trying to preach to my gals.”
“The man from the soup kitchen?” Juice nodded. “Were the girls ever afraid of him?”
“Shit. They ain’t afraid’a nothin’ when I’m around. That’s my job, bitch.”
She made yet another slash on the paper. “This man from the church came at night to your street corner and tried to preach to Lucy and Kitty and—”
“Nah, they gone by then. Mary, too.” He sat up in his chair. “Lookit, that salvation shit okay during the day, but don’t come shootin’ off ’bout Jesus while I’m tryin’ to do my bidness. You feel me?”
“I do.” Amanda leaned forward. “Tell me who killed Jane Delray.”
“You get me outta here?”
Amanda was getting good at this game, but she wasn’t quite there yet. Juice obviously read her expression.
“Shit.” He slumped back in his chair. “You cain’t do nothin’, bitch.”
“If I could find someone from City Hall to talk to you, could you tell him who killed Jane?”
“Another slit?”
“No, a man. Someone in charge.” Amanda didn’t know anyone downtown except for a bunch of secretaries. Still, she kept her shoulders straight, put some threat into her tone. “But you have to tell him something meaningful. You have to give him a name that can be followed up on. Otherwise, that deal you made with Butch and Landry goes out the window. I promise you, the state will bring back the death penalty. By the time it goes to the Supreme Court, you’ll be dead.”
There was a tapping sound. His leg had started moving up and down. The heel of his patent leather shoe clicked against the concrete. “I gotta deal. Done made my confession.”
“That doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Whatchu mean?”
“I mean, you confessed to killing Lucy Bennett, not Jane Delray. Once I tell them about the mistake—” She shrugged. “I hope they remember to shave your head before they strap that metal cap on.”
He was nervous. His breath whistled through his broken nose. “Whatchu mean, bitch?”
“You hear about the last guy they executed? His hair caught on fire. The switch was too hot. They couldn’t turn it off. He burned alive. Flames went as high as the ceiling. He screamed for two whole minutes before they found the junction box and shut it down.”
Juice’s throat worked. His leg was shaking so hard that his knee bumped the table.
“Give me a name, Juice. Tell me who killed Jane.”
His fist clenched and unclenched. The table trembled.
“Give me a name.”
He pounded his fist against the table. “I ain’t gotta name!”
Amanda clicked her pen. She closed her notebook. She hadn’t flinched. She kept perfectly calm, waiting.
“Got damn.” He spoke through clenched teeth. “Got damn them bitches. Gettin’ me on the hook for this shit.”
“Who would want to kill Jane?”
“Ever’body,” he said. “She mouth off all the time. Make enemies on the street.”
“Anyone who would murder her?”
“Not without gettin’ they throat slit. Bitch kept a knife in her purse. All them do. Girl knew how to use it. Cain’t turn your back on her fo’ a minute. Bitch mean as a snake.”
“That’s pretty rich coming from her pimp.”
He didn’t respond. His shoulders rounded. He gripped his hands in his lap. “What’d that other bitch say? ’Bout Kitty knowin’ the mayor? You think he can give a brother a hand? Get me outta this mess?”
“I told you, if you tell me the truth, maybe I can help you.”
He stared at her, eyes going back and forth as if he was reading a book.
“Shee-it,” he mumbled. “You think they gone lissen to you?” He pushed himself up from the table. Amanda’s body tensed, but she stayed seated as he loomed over her. “Look ’round you, bitch.” He held out his hands. “They let a black man run this world ’fore they let a slit do.”* * *