August ,
Tell mama I'm going to play.
You better be home before the streetlights come on, girl.
fireflies turn into fairies at the end of summer.
Why fairies?
'Cause, they do.
You made that up.
You never see fireflies in the winter, right?
In brooklyn, we never saw them ever.
'Cause they turn into fairies, that's why.
Yeah?And go where?
Their castle in the sky, where nothing ever dies.
But not all fairies make it.
Why not?
'Cause the trolls catch them.
Where do the fireflies really go, melanie?
I don't know.
My brother said when summer ends,
you won't play with me anymore.
Why?
'Cause you're white, and I'm black.
But we're best friends.
- Forever?
- Forever and a day.
Maybe when summer ends, the fireflies go to heaven.
Yeah, maybe.
Let's get forensics in here,
see if they can pick anything up.
- Lil.
- Morning, boss.
What do you got?
Ever hear of a letter arriving years too late?
Too late for what?
Save the life of a young girl.
Former postman lived here?
d*ed last week.
Refused to deliver mail to blacks on his route back in ' .
Welcome to the U.S.Postal service.
His family found bags of mail stashed in the basement.
The inspector's been sifting for hours.
This was in one of them.
From an eight-year-old girl, melanie campbell.
Went missing in ' .
Body never found.Presumed homicide.
Postcard's addressed to her best friend,
next door neighbor,
cherise pierce, black girl.
Take a look.
"The trolls got me.
" Some kind of message?
It was postmarked the day melanie disappeared.
Cry for help.
years too late to save her.
Maybe not too late to catch her k*ller.
Melanie campbell, age eight.
Abducted from her bedroom,
night of october , .
Her bloody ballet shshoe found in a nearby park.
Tender-age search.
Lot of time, manpower on this one.
Body never recovered.
Theory was an intruder came in
through a broken basement window.
A postcard was sent to her neighbor, cherise pierce.
Never made it.
These kids were tight.
Best friends, hung out / .
Not the only pierce in here.
Prime suspect at the time was cherise's
teenage brother, terrell pierce.
Based on what?
Kid had no record, straight-a student, Mr.Clean.
Neighbor id'd terrell in the campbells' backyard,
night of the abduction.
In these words: "Saw that colored boy
monkeying around on
the side of their house.
" That's credible.
Lifted a partial palm print from
the campbells' basement window.
No match to terrell.
Didn't stop them from interrogating him.
Six times.
Parents were questioned, too,
but dismissed as suspects.
'Cause once the black kid was id'd,
it was all about him.
Brewerytown was lily-white back then.
Pierces were the first black family to move in.
That some kind of excuse?
Not an excuse, the times.
Aka white flight.
Families hightailing it to the burbs,
terrified that their property values would t*nk.
One way to spin it.
At least one white family stayed: The campbells.
Families of missing kids do that, refuse to move.
Yeah, waiting for their child to walk through the door.
Lily's gonna talk to the parents.
You want to take cherise and terrell?
Sure.
Could be terrell didn't deserve any of this.
Neither did melanie.
"The trolls got me.
" It was addressed to the girl next door,
cherise pierce.
You think melanie wrote that?
Possibly.Could "the trolls"
have meant something?
Melanie was always going on
about fairies and trolls and fireflies.
Quite an imagination.
But it was just child's talk.
Melanie did not write this.
How do you know?
She just started the third grade,
and she didn't know cursive.
Of course melanie wrote that.
These are her words.
But anyone who heard her
playing would've known them.
Who wrote it, then?
Maybe the person who took her.
What kind of a monster would do a thing like that?
That's what I'm here to find out, mrs.Campbell.
- So you'll find melanie, too?
- Oh, frances.
She is alive.
It's been years.
I don't care if it's years.
Melanie is out there.
Can I walk you out?
We are prisoners in this house
because my wife believes
our daughter's gonna walk through that front door.
Just thought you should know we're reopening the case.
All I want is to bury my child.
I understand.
Then bring her home.
It was a lifetime ago.
I barely remember that girl.
You were best friends back when
blacks and whites didn't exactly mix.
Take a look around.
Still don't.
I know you probably got an unfair shake in ' .
Probably?
Cops had me in the box for hours at a time.
That's rough.
Should've seen the ' s and ' s,
you want to talk rough.
You were id'd in the girl's yard
the night she disappeared.
By an old busybody who thought blacks
should go back to africa.
So that was a flat-out lie?
Flat-out.
Talk about you and melanie.
Like I said, it was long time ago.
"The trolls" mean anyone in particular?
Could be the difference between
finding melanie's k*ller or not.
Trolls were people we didn't like.
Go on.
We had codes for everything.
I'd say something like: "Alvina lights a spark.
" Alvina lights a spark?
Code for: "I left a note on our clothesline.
" So who were the trolls?
Almost everyone.
Our friendship wasn't looked on too kindly.
By who?
The whole neighborhood had it out for us,
from the start.
Everyone except melanie.
Leave...!
get out of here, critters!
Leave...!
What does "critters" mean, terrell?
Dad told you to go inside, cherise.
"Critters" means bugs and stuff.
Oh.
Want to see my fireflies?
Are those...bugs?
Their booties light up at night.
they do.Like magic.
I mean, if you believe in that stuff.
Quit talking to that girl!
Go home, melanie!
You're not the boss of me, Mr.Wilson!
I told you to go home.
Now!
Leave...!
My mom said you can come over after dinner.
I live right here.
We can catch fireflies when it gets dark.
Okay.
See you later, alligator.
After awhile, crocodile.
Quite a welcoming committee.
Courtesy of hank wilson, head of the civic club.
Civic club?
More like a lynch mob.
Racists parading around as
neighborhood associations.
Who was this bozo?
He owned the local hardware store.
To him, the only thing worse than us
were whites who didn't go along.
Like melanie.
Our friendship might have cost her her life.
It was our neighborhood, not theirs.
Your family was there for years,
then, here come the coloreds.
And to make matters worse, little melanie
campbell gets all buddy-buddy with the black girl.
Could make a die-hard r*cist like you blow a gasket.
Whoa, hold on there.
When melanie disappeared, all the
white people got spooked, moved out.
Had to sell my house at a loss.
Boo-hoo.
We were working people.
House was all we had.
b*at up your own kid regular for looking at you funny.
What's that got to do with anything?
Maybe you let the fists fly with melanie.
Lippy little kid must have pissed you off.
I was working at the hardware store
the night she disappeared.
We'll check that.
Go ahead, and while you're at it,
check out a guy by the name of wes floyd.
Who's he?
Real estate scumbag that was creeping
around the neighborhood back then.
Tried to scare all the white folks into moving.
Why?So he could clean up?
Type like that would do anything for a buck.
You hear about that break-in the other day?
Right down the street.
Thank goodness no one was hurt.
Imagine what would happen if that family was home?
That's terrified!
Known fact-- blacks move in, crime goes up.
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten...
" bad things happen to decent people.
Well, we all know one another here.
Oh, for now, sure, but once the dam breaks,
no stopping who comes in.
You don't want to be the last to leave, do you?
I guess not, but...
place like genessee creek offers a safe
environment for families like yours.
State-of-the-art kitchens.Big yard.A pool.
This heat, a pool would be nice.
Huh?
Don't you fall for it, frances!
Get out of here.
I know what you're doing.
Just doing business.
Showing the nice lady the homes I have for sale.
You're trying to scare whites
out of this neighborhood,
but nobody here's leaving.
Except the spooks over there.
It's our neighborhood.
Sure it is.
My husband would never agree.
Neighborhood's gonna tip one day soon,
and you'll be the last white face around.
Not if I can help it.
And if one bad thing happens to some nice little white kid?
Won't be up to you.
His houses in the suburbs
weren't selling worth squat.
Then melanie disappears and he makes a k*lling.
Neighborhood tipped in, like, eight seconds.
Thanks for sharing.
Now get before i drop-kick you out of here.
Genessee creek.
It's that tony subdivision over near abington.
Lot of people made a k*lling off of white flight.
Sounds like this wes floyd guy was one of them.
I see your real estate ads all over the place, wes.
Bus stops, billboards.
I do well.
And to think, it all started with genessee creek
and the abduction and m*rder of a little girl.
I'm a businessman, not a k*ller.
You made out like a bandit after
melanie campbell disappeared.
Sold homes in one week.
They say you make your own luck.
Maybe you made yours.
The timing was fortuitous, so arrest me.
Already have a record, wes.
Silly trespassing charges for putting
a few "sold" signs in people's yards.
To make it look like people were
moving when they weren't.
Smashed a few windows, too.
Made people think crime was going up.
Scare them out of brewerytown
into your white suburb.
It was business.
And it was the neighbors that
had it out for melanie, not me.
Neighbors like who?
The kibbitz on that block.
Saw the troubles myself at the bus stop.
Fairies like sweet stuff.
Like honey?
What if we put some in a jar?
Yeah, and if they like it...
first day of school and melanie's
already got a show-and-tell.
you gonna talk jive for us, huh?
Dy-no-mite.
Shut up, dale.
Come on, mel, we don't got to listen to him.
What'd you say, darkie?
Um...nothing.
Then say you're sorry.Or I'm gonna smack you.
Like your daddy smacks you?
Second thought...
maybe melanie should get in the first lick.
- Hit her.
- No.
- Hit her.
- Stop it!
- Hit her!
- I said stop!
Little bitch.
Come on.
Stupid troll.
Saw that kid picking on the little ones all the time.
You know his name?
Dale wilson.Hank wilson's son.
Runt-of-the-litter type.
Humiliated by a little girl.
Infront of the other kids.
And if dale was anything like his pops, not exactly the
forgiving and forgetting type.
How'd it make you feel, dale?
Getting popped by melanie campbell in front of everybody.
Not long after, she goes missing.
I was just young, dumb.
Can't argue there.
Held back twice.
So?That don't mean nothing.
Your old man was damn near burning crosses on lawns back then.
You telling me you didn't get even?
I'm not my father.
Sure acted like him at that bus stop.
and I felt bad about it.
No one knew better than me
what it's like getting picked on
by someone twice your size.
Oh, so you just let it pass, then?
Let bygones be bygones?
I went to melanie's house the next day.
To even the score?
To apologize.
we can leave notes to
each other here from now on.
Where no one'll see 'em.
- In the storm pipe?
- Yeah.
What are you doing?
Get away from us, dale.
I'm sorry for what I did, okay?
Sorry to both of us?
Yeah.
Now get down from there before you hurt yourself.
Why are you crying?
My mom took down the clothesline.
She said we can't play together anymore.
Her mom said they're going to move, too.
Why?
'Cause the neighbors don't like
fireflies and bugs and stuff.
Who doesn't?
Them.
That isn't about your fireflies.
It isn't?
It's about cherise.
She's the critter, stupid.
I'm a bug?
No, not a bug.
- A critter's like...
- like what?
Like not us.
A critter's like...not a person.
But I'm a person.
Yeah.
Look, you don't see horses
and chickens playing together, do you?
I like horses and chickens.
But they don't pl together, do they?
That's a hell of a thing to tell a kid.
That's the way the world was.
I was just the messenger.
Someone vandalized their house?
That's, uh, the story, anyway.
What, you disputing it, dale?
All I know...
Mrs.Campbell came into my dad's hardware
store asking about paint removers.
To get rid of the graffiti.So what?
So that was two days before her house got vandalized.
Are you saying Mrs.Campbell
knew it was gonna happen?
I'm saying she wrote those words herself.
Melanie and cherise were best friends.
That's right.
It concern you at all?
Your daughter hanging with a black girl?
No.Why are you asking?
"Critter lovers.
" Remember that?
Someone spray-painted
those words on our house.
Never reported it.Wonder why.
It was nothing, it was just a couple of pranksters.
Co why stir up more trouble?
We know about the visit to
the hardware store, Mrs.Campbell.
What are you talking about?
Things were heating up.
You wanted to get out of the neighborhood.
Get to genessee creek.
That's why you vandalized your own home.
People were so angry.Hank, all the rest.
I was afraid.
Of what they'd do to you.
Not me.Melanie.
There was so much hatred.Ugliness.
You wanted to shield her from all that.
So I...told her not to play with cherise anymore.
That sometimes it's best to stick with your own.
Aw, for god's sake, frances!
You refused to leave.
I didn't have a choice.
They were decent, hard-working people just like us.
I know.
I was just trying to protect my little girl.
I had no idea what damage it would cause.
Dale?
What happened?
It's nothing.
Who hit you?T-tell me.
My dad.Heard about that "critter lover.
" Said it's my fault all the white people are moving out.
Crazy, huh, mrs.C.?
Be sure and get an ice pack from the school nurse.
Alvina lights a spark.
Mel, you hear me?
Alvina lights a spark.
I'm not playing that anymore.
It's little kids' stuff.
You don't wanna see the fireflies?
No.
They're gonna leave, turn to fairies.
Fireflies aren't fairies, okay.
But you said...
and horses and chickens don't play together.
You said we'd be friends forever.
No such thing as forever.
That night, my little girl was gone.
I thought our child was in danger.
And she was.
"Alvina lights a spark.
" That meant cherise left a note for melanie.
But the clothesline was down.
So they were leaving them in the storm pipe, right?
The note never turned up.
Oh...that's a reach.
Need some leverage.
Same basement window the doer used in ' .
Lifted a partial palm print off of that ledge.
wasn't a hand print on the ledge.
It was a foot.
Neighbor spotted you in the campbells' yard
night melanie disappeared.
Already told you...
r*cist old bat made that up.
Got a print off that window ledge.
From a heel.
Tell me it's not gonna match yours, terrell.
I didn't hurt that white girl.
I said...tell me it's not
gonna match yours.
You made me a fool.
I defended you to my boss, believed in you.
Maybe you shouldn't have.
what were you doing in her yard?
Getting the note back for my sister.
Then why not say that?
A black boy in a white girl's yard
same night she goes missing?
No one's going to believe me.
I would!
You're the police.
I learned years ago what that means.
Guilty till proven innocent.
They treated me like I wasn't even human.
Times change, terrell.
Not so much.
I just wanted to protect my little sister.
I did what I had to do that night.
Go on.
I told cherise the truth.
Heard about what went down
at the bus stop today.
Sorry.
I left a note for her in the storm pipe.
For melanie?
Maybe she'll find it and want to be friends again?
Cherise...
she's never going to be your friend.
You see, white people, they look at us,
and they see ugliness.
They do?
They don't see how pretty you are,
or how smart or how cool.
But I do.
And you gotta see that, too.
Melanie thinks I'm cool.
You can't trust 'em.
Not even melanie.
I can't?
Emmett till learned that the hard way.
Who's emmett till?
Boy who whistled at a white girl.
After, these dudes dragged him out of bed
in the middle of the night, sh*t him.
He wasn't even that much older than you.
Now I'm not trying to give you
nightmares or nothin', cherise.
I'm just lookin' out for my little sis.
Will you get the note back for me?
Please?
Sure thing.
Now to bed, okay?
Terrell?
Yeah?
Asdid emmett go to heaven?
all kids go to heaven.
I never forgot the look in her eyes
when I told her that.
She grew up faster than she should have.
Sounds like you both did.
So...you got the note?
It was gone when I got there.
Gone?Who took it?
I guess melanie.
You tell cherise that?
Yeah.
Do you know what the note said?
You gotta make this right, terrell.
By me.
Cherise ju wanted her friend back.
What'd the note say?
"Meet me in the woods...tonight.
" So melanie went into the woods that night.
And so did cherise.
Melanie wasn't abducted from her bedroom.
She went to the woods that night.
The woods?
You asked her to meet you there, cherise.
In your note.
That's ridiculous.
"Alvina lights a spark.
" Your secret code.
Meant you left her a note.
"Meet me in the woods tonight.
" You were waiting for her there.
We were best friends.
For forever and a day.
But melanie didn't believe in forever anymore.
The bus stop.She abandoned you.
Quite a betrayal.
It was.
What happened in the woods that night?
I spent my whole life trying to forget.
But you couldn'T.
we moved to an all black neighborhood,
a world away from brewerytown.
And it just got easier to pretend like it never happened.
What never happened?
I should have listened to terrell.
Black and white, never meant to be.
And I have spent my enre life living like that.
Never trusting another white person.
We believed fireflies were fairies
and friendships lasted forever.
But we were wrong.
Look.Fairies.Last of the season.
Thought you didn't believe in fairies.
I'm sorry I was mean to you at the bus stop.
Why'd you do that?
My mom said it was better to stick with your own.
Terrell said that, too.
But I don't want to stick with my own.
I want to be with you, cherise.
Me, too, mel.
You're my best friend.
- Forever?
- And a day.
Can't keep away from that critter, can you?
What do you want, dale?
I drive to this critter's house to
scare her, and what do I see?
This one trying to sneak off.
Thought you could get away, huh?
I got b*at because my dad thinks
I spray-painted your house.
- Did you?
- No.
And now the whole neighborhood's gonna
move out and he says it's 'cause of me.
He hates me.
You're scaring us.
None of this would've happened if you hadn't moved here.
I wanna go home.
Melanie, run!
I heard the g*nshots, and I knew,
and I did nothing.
Just kept running.
Anyone would have.
It's my fault we were in the woods.
it's my fault she d*ed.
You weren't the one with the g*n.
Every night I would dream about him
coming into my room and taking me.
And then the dreams finally stopped.
Until now.
The postcard.
Just the other night I had a dream.
Melanie was with the fireflies.
In a better place.
Heaven.
We got an eyewitness who saw you sh**t melanie.
That's crazy.
Is it?
Cherise didn't see me sh**t nobody.
Never said it was cherise, dale.
You sent the postcard.
Insurance, to keep cherise quiet.
Your old man b*at the crap outta you.
You were lookin' to get even.
You followed cherise into the woods
that night, with your father's g*n.
I never meant to hurt...
oh, cut the bull!
You sh*t at cherise!
To scare her.
But then...she screamed...
"and I thought...I thought I k*lled her.
And I panicked.
So, you had to k*ll melanie, too--
she was a witness.
Point of no return.
My dad b*at me every night for that critter lover thing.
If he found out about this...
he'd k*ll me.
So I did what I had to do.
What, dale?
I put her in the car and drove...For hours.
Till we got to the west virginia state line.
Then what happened?
Then I pulled off the road.
It was dark and there was no one around.
Just us.
stop.
Right here.
Why'd you have to be friends with that critter?
why?
I just want to go home.
This is all your fault, you hear me.
'Cause you had to be friends with her.
Please.
Close your eyes.
I want my mommy.
You can't tell on me.
Please.
Not anymore.
And then I just...drove away.
No unidentified child m*rder victims
that age in west virginia, .
Doesn't make sense.
Rural area.
Animals could've carried her off.
Or the body was never found.
Interstate files are a joke.
No national database on missing kids back then.
Kid crossed state lines, easy to fall through the cracks.
So even if the body was found, no way
to connect it to our missing philly girl.
Needle in a haystack.
Police report, west virginia, october ' .
State trooper found a girl just off route .
She was sh*t but alive.Head injury.
No memory of who she was or where she came from.
Transported to the county hospital in critical condition.
Then put in foster care.
Melanie's still alive?
Excuse me?
Are you jennifer robinson?
Yeah.
Philadelphia pd.
Okay.
You were a g*nsh*t victim in ' .
Ain't you folks a little late to the party?
Hmy you don't remember the sh**ting?
Or where you're from?
Couldn't have been good, right?
Family was probably the reason
I was in those woods.
You're wrong.
Your mom and dad never stopped looking for you.
Never stopped hoping you'd
walk through their door again.
Is that right.
Their names are norman and frances campbell.
Good people.
I don't remember.Sorry.
They never forgot you, melanie.
Is that my name?
And your best friend was a girl named cherise.
She was with you that night, in the woods.
A lot of people still waitin'...
for you to come home.
I should get back to work.
You and cherise left notes for each other on the...
on the clothesline.
You believed in fireflies and fairies.
Please.Stop.
That's why he brought you into the woods.
Because you were brave.
In a world that wasn'T.
I remember...I wasn't alone.In the woods.
Because the fireflies were there...
telling me heaven had to wait.
'Cause I had to live.