Brad Parks - Eyes of the Innocent

The explaining got a little easier when my detective pals, Pritchard and Raines, showed up. I laid out everything for them chronologically-from the illegal campaign contributions, to the falling-out between Windy and Primo; from the creation of the thumb drive to all the horrible things Primo did to find it.

And yes, I told them Akilah Harris fired the fatal shot into Primo’s skull. I wasn’t worried for her. Even if they charged her-and I doubted they would-no jury would convict a mother for killing the scumbag who torched her children, kidnapped her, and broke her arm.

About an hour later, having gone through everything a few more times, Pritch gave Sweet Thang, Tommy, and me a ride back to the newsroom. We were mobbed when we entered-everyone, by that point, had heard some version of what happened-but Tina was having none of it and immediately turned into her own crowd-control unit.

“Everyone back, back!” she shouted. “These three have work to do.”

It was, after all, coming up on deadline. I settled down to write and the words flowed quickly. Explaining it to the cops had been a useful exercise in helping me order my thoughts. And besides, I had lived a lot of it.

Sweet Thang stayed by my side the whole time, making useful suggestions here and there. Tommy wrote the section about the campaign contributions and their link to Primo’s various LLCs-after all, it was his reporting that discovered it. Then we cobbled it together in a long, hopefully coherent, narrative. By the time we were finished, I was pleased with the story. It hit all the pertinent facts. It read well.

And there was no mention of a space heater anywhere.