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Names Like Prayers

The Dark Hollow Series — Book 4
Gene Scott

Some prayers are meant to be said out loud.

Marcus Thompson was seventeen. He asked for his pills. Nobody came.

Three years after his brother Malik died at Black Hollow, Desmond Rios still carries Malik’s recorder. He has watched the footage of Marcus’s murder so many times he sees it in his sleep.

The night before Desmond testifies before Congress, Senator Patricia Martinez hands him logs of withheld medication, wire transfers, and a note Malik left behind: Black Hollow was a test site. Twelve states. Same grants.

Mama E keeps a red leather ledger of the dead, with their names, their ages, and what they loved. Tariq Webb, Malik’s friend, turns down tuition money to stay quiet. The man who offered it leaves a card with no name on it.

After the hearing, Desmond drives to an abandoned juvenile center in Tennessee, where someone has been stripping out the wiring. A teenage girl has been photographing everything they take. Her cousin Jordan died there at fifteen. The records say Jordan was transferred. The girl spent eight months finding the grave. The marker says Jane Doe.

Desmond starts naming the people responsible. Some of them have never been charged. A journalist asks what happens if he’s wrong.

Mama E has more names to write.