Don't Hate Da Playa

Chapter 3

Penny Johnson and I spent the next two hours going over her son's life. I learned a lot about the kid during those two hours. I learned he graduated with high honors from Auburn High School. I learned he was taking a bunch of business classes at Rock Valley Community College. I also learned about what happened at his two previous jobs before he came to Carl's.

Jacob had previously worked for two grocery stores, both of which I remember he did list on his job application. He was fired from both of them. His mother claimed they were racist. The first grocery store fired him because, after a customer complained about him, Jacob got into an argument with his manager about it. "The white bitch," as Penny called her, fired Jacob the next day. The second job went about the same way of getting rid of Jacob as the first. Jacob didn't show up for work one day because he claimed he had the day off. He did have it off, but the assistant manager changed the schedule the day before so he could have the same day off as a co-worker he was screwing around with. Jacob came into work the next day, was called into the office, got into an argument with the management, and was immediately terminated. After Penny told me nothing was filed, I dismissed the possibility of one of Jacob's former co-workers having it out for him.

Any old acquaintances from high school were ruled out as well (or at least according to his mother). Penny painted the picture of her son being the type of person who got along with everyone he met.

"What about from college?" I asked her. "Does Jacob have the same reputation there? Does he get along with his teachers and classmates? How is he doing in his classes?"

"Oh, I don't know too much about that," Penny confessed. "But, I do know he is very dedicated to his studies. If you don't believe me, you can check his computer."

Before I did, I asked Penny to leave the room, just in case there was something on there she didn't want to see. I asked Penny to leave the room while I played with her son's computer. She understood what I was getting at and left me to do my job.

I was able to get into the kid's computer quite easily. He didn't have a complicated password and he didn't need one either. As I went through his internet history, I found all the sites he visited were ones he used for researching whatever he was working on in school.

Even the kid's social media accounts were pretty clean. All of his pictures were either of him by himself or of him with groups of people. His posts were nothing but typical teenage junk.

There had to be something I was missing, I could feel it. I went through all of his files. Most of his documents were recent assignments he had done for a teacher named Miss Blue. When Penny returned to the room an hour later, I asked her about the teacher.

"That's Jacob's English teacher," she told me. "She gives her students a ton of homework, but Jacob was able to complete them without any problem."

I took a second to think. "I should probably have a talk with her."

"Mister Slim," Jacob's mother said in a humble manner. "If you don't mind, I really have to get going. I need to meet with my preacher, so we can plan Jacob's funeral."

I gave her my cell phone number and told her if she needed anything to give me a call. As I headed down the stairs and towards the door, I thanked her for her hospitality and told her it was probably best that I met with a preacher too, so being Catholic, I went to a Catholic church.

Even though I have committed a lot of sins, I never once missed Mass on a Sunday. That was something my parents emphasized. They emphasized it even more after my younger brother became a priest.

Even though he was from Rockford, the bishop had sent my brother all over the diocese until recently. In a way it is ironic. A man is sent from one side of the state to the other and then just before he is about to retire, he is allowed to come back to his hometown.