Transparency Charles Royce (phonics reader .TXT) đ
- Author: Charles Royce
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âAre you sure youâre not just being paranoid? Like the first guy coulda just been some peeping pervert lurking around your block. And maybe the guy this morning was just a tourist taking a picture of that building. Itâs pretty iconic.â
âMaybe. Thatâs why I didnât say anything to my cop friend.â Micah rests his head against the window glass. âI think Iâm just freaking out.â
Haylee starts the car. âI think maybe weâre both just freaking out.â
She drives the black SUV out of the parking lot, onto the road. She stops at the intersection and waits for a green light.
âThatâs where my windshield got busted.â Her finger brushes Micahâs chest. âRight there.â
âThatâs the car wash. The car wash? Where you sawââ
âGhost. Yes.â
C h a p t e r 2 5
THE ONLY KNOWN pictures of Bastien Morrell, aka Ghost, that have been taken in the past ten years are the two that are now front and center on Tracyâs computer screenâa blurry pic of him in a wheelchair photographed by a deceased drug addict, and a much clearer photo of him taken from what looks like a car with a cracked windshield. The latter was taken by Haylee Connelly, wife of Micah Breuerâs defense attorney, Shawn Connelly. Ghost is in profile, holding what looks like a dark jacket, wearing a dingy white tank top. Above his right shoulder blade is a tattoo of a ghostlike figure and fragments of cursive writing, the full transcript eaten away by a bullet-wound scar. Tracy zooms in on Ghostâs tattoo.
Since Josh chickened out of their plans to play amateur sleuth for the evening, Tracy has reclaimed the rest of her night to resume her latest passion project in defiance of company orders. Even though a Press-sanctioned article on the investigation into Ghostâs past was thwarted by her company, she has opted to do one anyway, perhaps for her blog, or maybe just some simple fodder for Twitter. What started as a regular edit job of her Ălan-endorsed interview with Lilith McGuire, who was essentially crucified to a door by Ghost in a mad dash to clear his name, has turned into a crusade of sorts for her. She has taken on a personal mission to find out who Bastien Morrell really wasâhis background, his family, his life before selling drugs.
Working in editorial for Press magazine, Tracy has access to databases all over the world. Printouts of obscure articles surround her deskâold French newspapers, military photos of Bastienâs service in a Secret Ops division in the French Foreign Legion, the article on Lilith McGuireâs attack. As she continues reading the obscure Internet article on Ghost, her phone rings.
âWhat?â she answers.
âGod. Such disdain,â Josh says. âYou still mad?â
âNo.â
âThen why are you so shorty short?â
âYou ever seen this picture of Bastienâs tattoo?â
âWhat? You mean Ghost?â
âHe has a name.â Tracy uses her shoulder to secure her phone, and then hits print. âWeâve talked about this.â
âSorry, yes, Bastien Morrell. Are you still working on that article?â
âYou remembered his full name. Thereâs hope for you yet.â
âThe tattoo is the European symbol for an intersection, according to Jenna,â Josh says. âThe words around it she doesnât really know, canât make sense of it.â
âLilith McGuire thinks itâs an address. When we interviewed her, she said Bastien mentioned âhomeâ when he talked about it, but she doesnât remember what else he said.â
âI donât know what to tell you,â Josh says. âBastien is gone now. Does it matter?â
âIâm gonna pretend you didnât say that. You of all people should want to know more about Mr. Bastien Morrell. If the company hired him to kill Lennox, we need to know how and why so we can help Jenna.â
âYouâre right, I wasnât thinking,â Josh says.
âNo one else thought about him either. Do you know thereâs only one article that even asks the question Who was Bastien Morrell? And I had to dig for that little fucker. Itâs from some obscure publication in the depths of LA, by a black woman of course.â
âOf course.â
âYour understanding is breathtaking.â
âHey, Iâm trying here. Look, I applaud anything that will help Jenna prove her case. We know she didnât do any of this. Not one single part of Lennoxâs death.â
âI know.â
âBut is that what this is really about?â Josh asks. âGetting information that will help our friend Jenna?â
Tracy stalls. âYes.â
Josh laughs. âIâve known you for what, twelve years now? I can tell when youâre passionate about something. It blinds you. Itâs okay, though; I love you for it. So letâs hear it. What else have you found out about Bastien Morrell?â
Tracy reaches for the Lilith McGuire Press article. âIn our article, Lilith mentions seeing Home Schooling for Dummies on Bastienâs bookshelf, and a school photo of a child, maybe five or six years old. A police report lists contents of Bastienâs bedroom, and mentions a few items of childrenâs clothing, sized for a small child, maybe five or six.â
âRight. In his letter that implicated Bastien, Lennox mentioned that Ghost had a son.â
She picks up another sheet of paper. âBut Iâm looking at the childâs birth certificate. Name is Dennison R. Morrell, a boy, born January 7, 2009. Parents are Bastien L. Morrell and Dawn Elizabeth Gerard. Thereâs a handwritten note in French, which translates to âmother died during childbirth.ââ
âI donât get what youâre saying.â
âLilith told us that just before he got suspicious of her motives and pinned her to the door, Bastien mentioned heâd just taken his son to the airport. At that time, Bastienâs son would have been ten. Ten years old. Not five or six. Do you know how much a child grows from age five to age ten?â
âMaybe he was short for his age.â
She stares at the photos on her
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