Steven just shook his head again. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too. But John said he wanted to stay on the streets to show the homeless guys that he was with them – that he understood what they were going through. Those were his words."
He shrugged. "Billy's an okay guy once you get to know him. Sometimes he'd try to help us on the streets when we met people who were strung out. He eats that black li
corice to distract himself from using. And yeah, he can be rude when he wants to be." He laughed a little. "To be honest, he’s rude most of the time."
"What about that dealer, Ricky Thomas?" I asked. "Do you know him?"
Steven's mouth twisted. "Ricky’s another subject all together. He sells for a living. He was the one who got me hooked to begin with and I was glad to see the last of him, even if it meant I had to be in here.
"Of course, Ricky didn’t like it that I was clean. He threatened me once that if I didn’t leave his customers alone, I'd be sorry."
"Do you think he was the one who planted the drugs in your apartment?"
"No. I don’t think that at all. He didn't like it that we tried to get some of his customers to stop using, but the truth was he had plenty of business. And John and I usually met people outside the shelter and talked to them there anyway."
I thought for a moment. "Tell me – what was John really like? I’m thinking that maybe I only saw his best side."
"Well... " He hesitated, and I could see that he didn't want to say anything bad about his brother. "He could be pretty tough when he was on a mission. He didn’t mind laying it all out for the people he tried to save."
"Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt John?"
He sighed. "I don't really know. He upset some people when he talked to them about a better life and started pushing them about it. On the other hand, I don’t think John died by shooting up heroin. He absolutely was not on drugs. I've seen enough people who are to know the difference."
Steven’s jaw set in a tight line. "I don’t know who did that to him. I wish I did."
He started to speak again, but clamped his mouth shut.
"What do you want to say?" I asked.
He looked at me closely, as if trying to decide how much he could trust me. Then he made his decision.
"John told me once that he felt like someone was on his tail. He didn’t know who or why. He talked to me about it, but I never picked up on anyone doing that."
"Was he able to help many of these people get clean?"
"Well... some. But to be honest, most of the ones John thought he saved eventually went back to using sooner or later. He motivated a handful to find odd jobs, like I did. But that was about all."
I rifled through my notes. My time was limited with Steven and I'd better think fast. But at least I'd found out that we did agree on one thing: Someone did kill his brother.
Then I remembered something. "Why did you and John have different last names?"
Steven looked bewildered, and shook his head slightly. "We didn't. John’s last name was Wilkins, same as mine."
Now it was my turn to look confused. "I thought his last name was Collins."
"No. He – " Steven was forced to stop when the guard tapped his shoulder and indicated his time was up.
We both hung up the phone receivers and got to our feet. "I'm sorry you lost your brother, Steven," I said, even though he couldn't hear me, but he nodded once and seemed to understand. Then he was led back towards the cellblock and was gone.
I drove away from Maxfield Correctional Facility with more questions than answers. Steven Wilkins appeared to be on the up-and-up, though I reminded myself that he was in prison for stashing enough cocaine to be a dealer himself.
And I couldn’t figure out how there could be a cocaine stash in his apartment without him knowing about it. Maybe he'd started using again without John knowing about it.
I wished I'd had more time with him. I wanted to ask him who else could have gotten into his apartment and planted cocaine there. I wanted to see his reaction when I asked him about the name "Collins." And I sure wanted to know about the subject of Linda Henson.
I would have to see him again – the sooner, the better.
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