Page 1 of Justice for JoElla
Chapter 1
Oh my god,I wish they’d shut up!JoElla checked the clock?six fifteen. Too damn early, but she felt powerless to do anything about it. The next door neighbors had been fighting for weeks, and their raised voices had kept her up too many nights. She’d thought about complaining to management, but it wouldn’t do any good. They rarely did anything about rowdy tenants in subsidized housing.
Besides, she felt sorry for the woman. Her son was an older teenager, and it was a sure bet that he’d been born when she was a teen herself. They seemed friendly enough, although her latest boyfriend totally creeped JoElla out. There was something about him that didn’t sit well with her. Maybe it was the way he seemed to glare at her anytime she encountered him outside. It was most definitely the way he bellowed at the woman through the wall. Josie? Wasn’t that her name? JoElla was pretty sure it was, and the boy’s name was Derek. She knew that because she’d seen the back of his soccer jersey the summer before. He seemed like a good kid, polite and always neatly dressed.
It was all she could do to stumble to the coffee pot. Once that was started, she headed back to the bedroom to find clothes for work later in the day. At least she didn’t have to dress up, but she wanted to look like she gave a shit about herself. It wasn’t much of a job, just cleaning for a local hotel there in Taylorsville, but it paid the rent?barely. It had been a lucky day for her when she walked into the thrift store to find that someone her size had brought in a ton of scrubs. Those kept her regular clothes from being ruined by bleach and the other harsh chemicals they used to clean the rooms. At least it was a more upscale hotel. She’d heard other members of the cleaning crew talking about jobs they’d held at cheaper motels in town, and she didn’t think she had the stomach for that, even considering her previous vocation.
By the time the coffee was done, she had her clothes laid out and was ready for her shower. That was something else she hated about the micro apartment. It had a hot water heater that held about a gallon and a half. Good thing her dad had taught her about “Navy showers” when she was a kid or she’d freeze to death. With her robe hung on the back of the bathroom door, JoElla stepped into the tiny shower stall and tried to get through her shower as quickly as possible.
She was almost finished when she heard the firstbang. Had someone broken in? “Hello?” she called out, but no one answered.I must’ve imagined it, she told herself as she soaped up a little more. Then it sounded again?bang.“Stop fucking fighting,” she mumbled under her breath, convinced they’d slammed a wall and knocked something off hers.
But when she checked, there was nothing out of place, and her door was still locked. Better still, they’d quieted down, and she was thankful for that. JoElla turned on her favorite morning news program and sat down to watch it. She didn’t have to be at work until eleven, so she had plenty of time. When the show went off, she poured another cup of coffee and sat back down, that time to a talk show. The female hosts were discussing a book they’d read, and JoElla grabbed a pencil and a piece of paper from the coffee table to write down the title and author’s name. It sounded pretty interesting. If the library had it, she could borrow it eventually. That usually meant waiting for a couple of weeks, or maybe months, but that was okay. There wasn’t money to buy books, and the Spencer County Public Library was pretty good about carrying most of the things she looked for. She’d almost finished that cup of coffee when someone knocked on the door.
In a glance through the peephole, she could see a younger woman, so she opened the door, expecting to be handed a religious tract of some sort. But instead, the woman was wringing her hands, and her face was tense. “I’m so sorry to bother you, but I wanted to ask about your neighbor.” Then she gestured toward the apartment next door.
JoElla was instantly suspicious. “Are you the police?”
“No. She works with us, and she hasn’t shown up to work this morning.” It took a split second for JoElla to scan the parking area, and the woman’s car was there, sitting in its usual spot. “We’re really kind of worried.” For the first time, JoElla noticed the other two women standing at the apartment door, knocking and getting no answer.
“That’s her car right there,” JoElla said, pointing at the little burgundy sedan. “She should still be there. Not answering the door?”
“No. I’m kinda scared.” The woman’s face was pale, and the flesh around her lips was white. Her hands were visibly shaking, and something about her demeanor made JoElla’s breath catch in her chest. “Have you seen her?”
Oh, god. This is bad. This is really, really bad, a little voice whispered in JoElla’s head. “No, but they were fighting this morning. And I heard a couple of sounds while I was in the shower, but I figured it was just them banging on the walls.”
“Banging on the walls?”
She nodded. “Yeah. You know, like somebody being slammed up against the wall.”
For a split second, JoElla thought the woman would faint. “They fought likethat?”
“All the damn time.”
“Oh, god. Tracey!” the woman called out to one of the others. “Keep knocking! Do you by any chance have an emergency key, ma’am?” she asked JoElla.
“Nah. We weren’t that kind of neighbors. But I can probably get into the apartment. These doors are super easy to pick the locks on.” She knew that for a fact. She’d locked herself out before and had no trouble getting back in. That didn’t make her feel a bit more secure in the cracker box, but the chain she’d installed on the inside did, at least while she was home.
“Could you? I mean, we’re worried about her. And her son.”
That was the moment when JoElla’s mind spiraled. She’d seen the school bus through the window, and it hadn’t stopped. The kid hadn’t been waiting outside for it. There was one thing she knew about him. He attended school regularly. If he hadn’t gotten on the bus, something was definitely wrong, especially since the mom’s coworkers couldn’t get her to the door. “I’ll get you in there.” The drawer in the table right by the door had an ice pick, a small screwdriver, and a piece of flat metal in it, and JoElla grabbed all three.
“Oh, god, Megan, I’m scared,” one of the other women said when the two of them reached the apartment door.
“I am too,” the young woman who’d been talking to JoElla answered.
“I’ll have this open in just a minute.” JoElla squatted in front of the doorknob. She looked it over, then started working. If she could get that piece of metal in there while she held the screwdriver right there… success! It popped open about an inch and stopped. “There ya go.” She stood to leave, but she heard the third woman speak.
“I can’t go in there.”
The woman named Megan shuddered. “I can’t either.”
“Oh, god, I’m so scared,” the one called Tracey added.
Oh, for fuck’s sake!JoElla wanted to yell, but she didn’t. It was obvious the women were terrified. “I’ll go in. I’m sure everything is fine.” With her hand on the doorknob, she swung the door inward and stepped into the darkness.
From somewhere behind her, she heard one of the women scream and another one join in. The third one was mumbling something, a prayer of some sort, but JoElla wasn’t. There, before her, his vacant eyes staring at the ceiling, was the teenage boy, the clothes on the center of his chest soaked with blood. She didn’t give it a second thought, just stooped down and checked his pulse, but he was gone. She’d known that already just from the amount of blood pooled around him.
The women were still screaming and crying behind her, and JoElla reached for her back pocket, but she’d left her phone on the kitchen table. “Hey, one of you! Shut the hell up and call the cops! Now!” She took another glance around and didn’t see a weapon, so she slowly backed out of the apartment, careful to touch nothing on her way out. That was an active crime scene, and she needed to remove herself before she left evidence behind that would contaminate it and slow the investigation. JoElla knew exactly how all of that worked.
