One Way or Another

by Rhonda Bowen

  “Besides, he’s just gonna look at the case and let you know what Jerome’s chances are and what kind of representation you’re gonna need,” Toni finished.

  A small spark of hope lit up inside Adam, but he squelched it before he could get too optimistic. “So you’re saying there is an actual criminal lawyer who is willing to work with Jerome on this case, free of cost?”

  “No,” Toni said with a small smile. “There is an actual topnotch criminal lawyer who is willing to work on this case, free of cost.”

  Adam tried not to smile, but the muscles in his face were already relaxing.

  Okay, God, I see you.

  Suddenly his eyes narrowed at Toni. “So what do you get for your part in orchestrating all this?” he asked suspiciously.

  Toni smiled sweetly. “I think you already know what I want.” Adam cocked his head to the side and considered her, wondering all the time how someone so beautiful could be so calculating. So this was how Samson got caught.

  “Call your lawyer friend.” Adam let out a sigh, shook his head. “Is this how you get all your stories?”

  Toni grinned as she reached across the desk to use his phone. “Only when I’m being good.”

  Chapter 5

  “So why you so interested in talking to me anyway?”

  The lanky young man draped his almost six-foot frame over the chair and glanced at Toni. With his two neck tattoos, two-inch afro, and two-sizes-too-big clothes, Jerome almost seemed older than his seventeen years. But his sleepy copper eyes, which shone brightly in the blanket of his deep mocha skin, were what gave him away.

  “Maybe ’cause everyone else is so interested in making sure I don’t,” Toni said. “Kinda makes me feel like you know something worth knowing, you know?”

  Jerome laughed and stuck a fry in his mouth. The two of them were sitting across from each other outside a McDonald’s on a hazy Thursday afternoon. Adam had finally caved and let Toni talk to the boy, but he had insisted on it being a supervised session. Toni had insisted that was stupid. So instead they had come to a compromise that involved Adam sitting one table away, pretending to read the paper while Toni chatted with Jerome.

  Toni looked across at Adam. “Is he always that uptight?” she asked.

  “Pretty much,” Jerome said.

  “Too bad,” Toni said, her eyes lingering. “He might have been a lot of fun.”

  “He’s all right,” Jerome said, taking a bite out of his cheeseburger. “You just gotta get used to him.”

  Toni wrinkled her nose. “I’ll pass.”

  She looked back at Jerome, who had completely finished the cheeseburger in about three bites, and stifled a laugh.

  “So you ready to talk now? Or do I need to bribe you with another one of those?” she asked, an eyebrow raised.

  Jerome licked some ketchup off his fingers. “Not now,” he said, grinning mischievously. “But maybe later. So what you wanna know?”

  Toni leaned back and shrugged. “How ’bout you tell me how you ended up at Jacob’s House in the first place.”

  Jerome took a large sip from his soda. Then he told her his story.

  It wasn’t an unfamiliar one to Toni. He had grown up in what used to be Bankhead Courts before it was demolished in the Atlanta Housing Authority public housing wipeout.

  There were two of them, both boys, both with different fathers whom neither of them knew. His mom worked two jobs and was never home, and so he followed his older brother and his brother’s gang around on the street.

  “They never really told me anything, you know?” Jerome said, all the ease long gone from his features. “I was just Jamal’s kid brother. Wherever Jamal went, I went.

  “So, one day, we’re just hanging out as usual, me and Jamal and some other dudes, when we end up downtown. There’s this car parked on the side of the street, and Rico says, this is the one.

  “I’m asking Jamal what he’s talking about, but he just tells me to shut up. So I do, ’cause I know these dudes, and if they tell you to shut up, you shut up. So I’m just standing there, and then I see Rico pull something out of his pants and start trying to boost the car.

  “So, I’m like ‘Yo, Jamal, what are you doing?’ He tells me to shut up and go watch, make sure no one’s coming. I tell him no, but he says if I don’t do it, he’s gonna make sure I go down with them when they get caught.”

  Jerome’s eyes narrowed in anger. “My brother, my blood. And he’s about to sell me out for some niggas who don’t give a sh—”

  He stopped midway, and suddenly looked across, as if sensing Adam’s eyes. Toni looked across and found Adam glaring at him.

  Jerome cleared his throat. “Uh, sorry.”

  He took a sip from his soda and seemed to relax a notch. “So anyway, I go out and watch the corner,” Jerome continues. “At first it’s all good, but then I see five-oh cruising down the street, like they on patrol or something. I try to tell Jamal we need to bounce, but Rico’s got him in the driver’s seat tryin’ to start the thing. I don’t know what he does, but the alarm suddenly goes off and that nigga Rico takes off down the street. Jamal gets out the car, we start running but somehow we end up splitting up, and since I don’t know downtown like they do, I’m the one who gets caught.”

  Jerome slumps back in his chair, a ticked off look all over his face. No doubt still angry about everything that had happened. Toni would have been too if her brother had ditched her and let her take the rap for his mess.

  “What happened after the cops got you?” Toni asked after she had given Jerome a moment to calm down.

  Jerome’s eyes grew darker. “I was in lockup for a while before I could see a judge. That was some other sh—” He paused again. “... Was messed up. ’Cause I wouldn’t tell them who the others with me were, they charged me for trying to steal the car, and then pinned some other boost on me ’cause they said it looked like the same crew. It was probably Rico who did that other job, but I wasn’t even there. Didn’t even know nothing about that other mess, but I was the one who took the rap.

  “Since I was fifteen, they said I would probably end up in juvie, but then my lawyer told me about this program with Jacob’s House where I could live there and go to school and whatever, and if I kept clean, then at the end of my two-year sentence, they would clear my record. Since my moms didn’t want nothing to do with me, and I wasn’t feeling the juvie scene, I figured a free bed and grub, why not? So I signed up, and here I am.”

  “Just like that, huh?” Toni asked.

  “Nah,” Jerome said, his eyes going cold. “Not just like that. This is better than what could have happened to me, but it ain’t no fairy tale. My moms still won’t talk to me, and I can’t go anywhere near where I used to live. If I do, I go straight to juvie. If I miss curfew, I go straight to juvie. If I jaywalk, I go straight to juvie. It’s not prison, but ain’t nobody free.”

  Toni watched him carefully as he fiddled with the wrapper of his burger. “So what happens now?” she asked.

  “Now they want to put me in prison. Real prison. Gen pop, with the rapists, the triple murderers, and a bunch of other coldhearted brothahs.”

  “Why?”

  Jerome scowled. “They say I didn’t really serve my sentence. That the state was too easy on me.” He snorted. “I wanna meet the person who came up with that mess. Let them spend a week at Jacob’s House. Let them see how easy it is.”

  Toni glanced at Adam, then dropped her voice. “Jacob’s House—do they treat you well over there?”

  Jerome nodded. “Yeah. Bayne, Dr J, Shields, Walters, Gonzales, they’re good people. But like I said, it ain’t no fairy tale. We got chores and work and school, and some of us got jobs outside of that. And of course church is a must, and if you break any of the rules, that’s it.”

  Toni looked across at Adam. He had switched to a book Toni had never heard of. She took a sip of her own drink and turned back to Jerome.

  “Anybody ever get dropped from the program?” />
  “A couple,” Jerome said. “Not everybody is in it for the right reasons, you know? Some dudes think it’s a free ride.”

  Toni smirked. “But of course you’re in it to change, right?”

  Jerome’s eyes turned to ice as he looked her up and down. “What do you care, you just trying to make front page.”

  Toni heard a cough from her right. She didn’t need to look to know Adam had heard everything.

  “Well, I gotta write something to sell your hard-luck story,” Toni shot back.

  “Write what you want, I don’t care,” Jerome said. “It ain’t gonna change nothing. Nobody cares about me or any of us except Bayne and the rest of them. You think your little story is gonna change that?”

  Toni scowled. “Guess we’ll have to wait and see.”

  “Yeah,” Jerome said, dismissing her with his eyes as he stood to his feet. “I ain’t holdin’ my breath.

  “Yo, Bayne, can we bounce?” Jerome said, with an air of distaste as he ignored Toni. “I’m done here.”

  Toni caught Adam’s eyes as he stood, and the look there was clear: Jerome was done talking to her, and she was done talking to Jerome too.

  Chapter 6

  “Got a second?”

  Toni watched from the door as Naomi looked up from her computer. She spotted Toni, sighed, then looked back at the screen. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, not pausing for a second as she spoke. “Sorry, kid, I got an appointment in two minutes.”

  “I know.” Toni came fully into the office and closed the door behind her. “I’m your appointment.”

  Naomi’s fingers stopped moving as she glanced at Toni skeptically. Toni watched nervously as her boss swiveled her chair around to check her desk calendar.

  “You’re interviewing to be the new local arts reviewer?” Naomi asked, cocking her head to the side.

  “Well, I might as well be, with all the great stories coming my way.” Toni hoped her sarcasm had hit the intended mark. “And it doesn’t help that my boss, who used to be my number-one fan, won’t even give me the time of day.”

  Naomi sighed and motioned to the chair across from her. “Have a seat.”

  Still holding on to her attitude, Toni sank into the seat across from her boss. As she did, she noticed for the first time the age lines etched into Naomi’s pale skin, as well as the streaks of silver that seemed to punctuate her auburn hair more than before. It seemed like her boss had aged ten years since the last time she had seen her, which in all honesty was probably over a week ago.

  Ever since the fallout with Gordon over Toni’s article on the mayor, Naomi had been a lot less visible. She still came in at her ungodly hour of 6:45 a.m. and left at 7:15 p.m. However, unlike before, she was more often in her office than around the office. In fact, other than when Naomi came and went for meetings, Toni barely saw her. Which was why Toni had had to resort to unorthodox methods.

  “If you’re slick enough to sneak yourself onto my appointment calendar without me knowing, than I guess you deserve the time you stole,” Naomi said with a small smile.

  “I’m sorry.” Toni bit her lip. “There didn’t seem to be any other way. And I really need to talk to you.”

  “Okay.” Naomi put down her pen and leaned back in her chair. “Let me hear it.”

  “I’m really mad about being demoted to a regular assignment reporter,” Toni said, her forehead wrinkling in a move of its own. “I love my job, and I am really good at it. You know that. I feel like I’m suffocating here.”

  Naomi took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. “I know.” She sounded as frustrated as Toni felt. “And, Toni, it hurts me more than it hurts you, because I know you are one of my best reporters. But like I told you before, I had no choice. It was either this or a pink slip.”

  Toni felt the breath leave her body for a moment. “They were gonna fire me?” she squeaked.

  Naomi’s lip curled in distaste. “That’s what the mayor wanted in exchange for making his absurd baseless lawsuit go away. I had to convince Gordon to keep you on. The only way to do that was to promise to keep you off the front page.”

  Toni fiddled with the clasp on her watch. If that was what Gordon really wanted, then this was going to be harder than she thought.

  “That might be a problem,” Toni said, measuring each word. “ ’Cause that’s exactly what I’m here for.”

  Naomi groaned and closed her eyes. “Toni ...”

  “Come on, Naomi,” Toni whined, sitting forward. “You know I wouldn’t come to you on this unless I knew it was good.”

  Toni watched her boss roll her pen between her palms as she sat back. “Okay,” Naomi said, the apprehension still apparent in her voice. “Let me at least hear what you got this time. Although I can’t make any promises.”

  That was all Toni needed. She spilled out the entire story of Jerome, his case, and Jacob’s House to Naomi, who listened carefully but said nothing. When she had explained her angle for the story, Toni pulled out a USB memory drive and handed it to Naomi.

  “What’s this?” Naomi asked, even as she plugged the stick into her computer.

  “It’s the first draft for the story. I’ve been working on it on my laptop and didn’t want to save the files on our hard drive here.” She smirked. “You never know who isn’t minding their own business, you know?”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  They both remembered more than one story they had been working on that had been shut down halfway by Gordon, or had had its sources dry up without explanation. After that Naomi and Toni had practiced keeping the more high profile stories as independent of the office as possible.

  Naomi’s expression was pensive as she read through the piece Toni had spent hours putting together from Jerome’s interviews and information from the case she had been able to find in public records downtown. Toni was always nervous when she had to watch her boss read her work—even when she knew it was good. This time was no different.

  When Naomi leaned back and nodded, Toni knew she was done. But she had gone back to the pen-rolling routine without saying a word.

  “Well?” Toni probed when she couldn’t wait a moment longer. “What do you—”

  Naomi’s hand in the air made Toni stop short. Naomi swiveled her chair around to the window, her back toward Toni. Toni tried not to fidget as she watched Naomi go through what she knew was her mental routine for evaluating a story. Usually Toni never had to sit there as she did it. But the silence forced Toni to evaluate the situation herself. What if Naomi wouldn’t use the story on the front page? What if it got cut down to a three-paragrapher below the fold on the second page of the courts section? What would she tell Jerome? Adam? They already didn’t think much of her. This definitely would not help.

  It was just a story. They were just players. And when it was all over, everybody would walk away and go back to their life. So why then did the thought of disappointing Jerome twist her stomach into knots?

  “Okay,” Naomi said, swinging around. “This is good.”

  “Good?” Toni perked up. “How good?”

  “You already know how good. Front page good.”

  “Yes!” Toni squealed, bouncing in her chair. “I’m back!”

  “No you’re not.” Naomi’s voice had too much caution for Toni’s liking.

  Toni deflated instantly. “What do you mean?”

  “I can’t publish this in your name, Toni,” Naomi said matter-of-factly. “It would be the absolute last straw. Gordon would have us both out on our behinds before the ink could dry on the first copies.”

  Toni fell back in the chair and covered her face. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could deal with. “I can’t do this, Naomi.” Toni shook her head and stood. “I can’t live like this. If I can’t write stories that I care about here, then I might as well quit, and find something else to do.”

  Naomi rolled her eyes. “Sit down, Miss Drama Queen. I said we can’t publish this under your name. I never said we
can’t publish it.”

  Toni blinked and sat down, not quite sure where her boss was going with this, but willing to hear her out. “What are you thinking?”

  Naomi leaned in closer and lowered her voice. “Would you consider publishing this under a different name?”

  “As in giving it to another reporter?” Toni almost choked on the words.

  “No!” Naomi’s face contorted in horror. “You know I don’t believe in that mess. I mean publishing under a moniker.” Naomi sat back. “I was thinking about something like Ann Armour.”

  Toni cocked her head to the side. She hadn’t thought of that. “Who would know?”

  “That’s the thing,” Naomi said. “You couldn’t tell anyone. You would have to work on this as a freelance writer, do it on your own time, still keep up your other reporting from your beat and get paid for it separately. You and I would be the only persons who would know.”

  Toni chewed on her lower lip. She wasn’t sure about this.

  Naomi sighed. “Look, Toni, I know this will be different. You won’t get the glory and won’t be able to talk to many people about it. But this is the only way this story gets played out here. So think about it. What matters to you most, telling this kid’s story, or keeping your name on the front page?”

  Jerome’s face flashed through her mind. It was a no-brainer. “The story is what’s most important.” Toni folded her arms in her lap. “I’ll do it.”

  The first smile for the day broke onto Naomi’s face and for a moment she looked like the editor that Toni knew. Toni grinned along with her.

  “You have no idea how glad I am to hear you say that.” Naomi sat forward, looking energized. “Now we can really flesh this out.”

  The smile slid from Toni’s face. “Flesh it out?”

  “Of course,” Naomi said brightly. “Now that you are a contracted freelance author, Miss Armour, we have to decide how far we’re going to take this story. I won’t publish it unless we have two follow-up pieces. For one, we really need to get into crime as an election issue, and talk about all the manipulation happening at city hall around it. If you can get some insider scoop and drop some names, we could have a bombshell on our hands.”