Along Came a Spider

twelve-year plan? Who was the other white man? The pilot down in Florida? Or someone like Simon Conklin, Gary’s friend from Princeton?
    Could there have been an
accomplice
right from the beginning?

    Later that night, I was with Jezzie. She insisted that I quit work at eight. For over a month, she’d had tickets for a Georgetown basketball game I wanted to see in the worst way. On our ride over there, we did something we rarely do: we talked about nothing but The Job. I dropped the latest bomb, the “accomplice theory,” on her.
    “I don’t understand one beguiling aspect of all this,” Jezzie said after she had listened to me tell Nina Cerisier’s story. She was still nearly as hooked on the kidnapping case as I was. She was more subtle about it, but I could tell she was hooked.
    “Ask the Shell Answer Man. I understand everything beguiling. I know beguiling up the wazoo.”
    “Okay. This girl was friends with Suzette Sanders, right? She was close to the family. And still, she didn’t talk. Because relations with the police are that bad in the neighborhood? I don’t know if I buy it. All of a sudden,
now
, she comes forward.
    ” “I buy it,” I told Jezzie. “The Metro police are like rat poison with lots of folks in these neighborhoods. I live there, they know me, and I’m just barely accepted.”
    “It’s still strange to me, Alex. It’s just too odd. The girls were supposed to be friends.”
    “It sure is strange. The PLO would talk to the Israeli Army before some of the people in Southeast would talk to the police.”
    “So what do you think now that you’ve heard the Cerisier girl and her supposed revelation? What do you make of this…
accomplice
?”
    “It doesn’t quite track for me yet,” I admitted. “Which means that it tracks perfectly with everything that’s happened so far. I believe the Cerisier girl saw
someone
. The question is, who?”
    “Well, I have to say it, Alex, this lead sounds like a wild goose chase. I hope you don’t become the Jim Garrison of this kidnapping.”
    Just before eight, we arrived at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. Georgetown was playing St. John’s from New York City. Jezzie had choice tickets. That proved she knew everyone in town. It’s easier to get into an inauguration ball than certain Big East games.
    We held hands as we strolled across the parking lot toward the glittery Cap Centre. I like Georgetown basketball, and I admire their coach, a black man named John Thompson. Sampson and I catch two or three home games a season.
    “I’m psyched to see the Beast of the East,” Jezzie supplied some basketball lingo, with a wink, as we got close to the stadium.
    “Versus the Hoyas,” I said to her.
    “The Hoyas are the Beast of the East.” She popped her gum and made a face at me. “Don’t get cute with me.”
    “You’re so smart about every goddamn thing.” I grinned. She was, too. It was difficult to bring up a subject she hadn’t read about, or experienced. “What’s the nickname for St. John’s?”
    “The St. John’s Redmen. Chris Mullin came from there. They’re also called the Johnnies. Chris Mullin plays for Golden State in the pros now. They’re called the Warriors.”
    We both stopped talking at the same time. Whatever I was about to say caught in my throat.
    “
Hey… hey, nigger-lover
!” someone had shouted across the parking lot. “Say hey, salt and pepper.”
    Jezzie’s hand tightened around mine.
    “Alex? Be cool. Just keep going,” Jezzie said to me.
    “I’m right here,” I told her. “I’m as cool as can be.”
    “Let it go. Just walk into the Cap Centre with me. They’re assholes. It doesn’t deserve a response.”
    I let go of her hand. I walked in the direction of three men who were standing at the rear of a silver and blue four-by-four. Not Georgetown students, or St. John’s Redmen, either. The men were wearing parkas, and peaked hats with company or team logos. They were free, white, and over twenty-one. Old enough to know better.
    “Who said that?” I asked them. My body felt wooden, unreal. “Who said, ’Hey, nigger-lover’? Is that supposed to be funny? Am I missing a good joke here?”.
    One of them stepped forward to accept the credit. He spoke up from under a peaked Day-Glo Redskins hat. “What’s it to you? You wanna go three on one, Magic? That’s the way it’s gonna be.”
    “I know it’s a little unfair, me against the three of you, but I might just do