Wednesday afternoon, Mandy steps out of the Pearl Coffee and Tea shop a few blocks from school. Her hair is in a messy bun again, and a black apron’s still tied around her waist. I wait in the parking lot for her.

“I don’t have a lot of time. I’m on a break.” Mandy’s dark circles under her eyes share all too much of her pain.

“We both want the truth,” I say. “I know Angela went out to the Pike, but she went alone. Without Jamal. Why?”

She scans the lot, a nervous look bouncing in her eye.

I lean on the driver’s side of my car until Mandy gets the courage to speak.

“Chris caught her in a lie, and she was trying to backtrack what Scott was saying about her messing with Jamal.”

“But the Pike, alone?”

“The first time Angela went to the Pike, it was back in April. Angela thought Chris was up to something out there because he was saying some real wild stuff and hanging with a new crowd.”

“Like racist things?” I say.

Mandy nods. “Chris kept going out to the Pike all secret-like. Hushed conversations and cryptic texts. She decided to go out there, see for herself what was going on.”

The photos on the SD were back in April; the timeline matches up.

“Angela realized Chris was part of some new hate group. She didn’t know exactly what but called it a bunch of angry white boys.”

A shiver runs down my spine thinking about the flyers in Richard Brighton’s SUV.

“A few weeks later, Chris demanded Scott give back a gun of his. Chris had let him mess around with it after he found it in his uncle’s storage. Scott gave it back, but before Chris could get a chance to return it, it went missing from his truck.”

“What happened to it?” I jump in.

“Angela. I told her to mind her business, but when Angela was determined about something, there was no stopping her. Scott suspected it was her, so he told Chris about the rumors going around that Angela was seeing Jamal. And…and it sounds like you already know Chris confronted her the same day she died at the Pike.” Mandy’s voice cracks, her hands shaking.

“I saw them arguing that morning,” I say.

“She told him she was worried that he was planning on doing something dangerous. That he’d changed since he’d been hanging with a new crowd by the Pike. She’d seen the gun in his glove compartment and took it. Chris wanted to prove to her they were ‘good guys.’ That they were just pushing back on ‘liberal PC bullshit.’ That there was ‘nothing wrong with wanting to protect their own.’ ”

I shift uncomfortably.

“His words. Not mine,” Mandy says. “She told him she’d return the gun if what they were doing at the Pike was harmless.”