Saints Of New York (27 page)

'And you drank because you wanted
to?'

'Sure.'

'So when did you drink because
you
needed
to?'

'Since I started visiting with
you.'

'Enough being cute already.
Answer the question, Frank.'

'God, I don't know. I was married
maybe. The kids came. The job got tougher.'

'And your father's death?'

'What about it?'

'Did you drink more after he
died?'

'I don't remember.'

'Try, Frank. Try and remember.'

I remember the funeral. I
remember the number of crews that were there. Seemed like everyone he'd ever
known from Brooklyn Organized Crime and the OCCB and the precincts he'd worked,
all of them . . . even a couple of Federal suits and some reporters from
The New York Times.
They had a big picture of him,
just a head and shoulders shot, on an easel up at the end of the church where
his coffin was. He was looking back at everyone, and there was that same
expression on his face.'

'What expression?'

'Like everyone but him was a
schmuck. Everyone but him was two-bits' worth of bullshit. He looked like that
a lot, like he
knew
he
was smarter than everyone else.'

'But he wasn't?'

'Wasn't so smart that he could
avoid getting whacked.'

'Did you have any ideas about who
killed him?'

'Sure I did.'

'Any that still stand up after sixteen
years?'

'Hey, it's like all of these
things . . . the longer it goes on
the
more
theories you get.'

'Were there any theories that
scared you?'

'Like people in the department?
That kind of thing?'

'Yes, that it might have been
someone in the department
who
was
protecting their own interests.'

'That's very cynical of you.'
'But very credible, perhaps? Considering what he was involved in for all those
years.'

'I
was being ironic. Of course he was killed by someone in the department, or at
least someone who was set up to do it.'

'You're
a conspiracy theorist?'

'Everyone
is a conspiracy theorist, but I know he was murdered. He took and took and took
all of his working life, and finally someone decided to take something back.'

'Well,
I guess it wasn't as a result of Lufthansa. I don't think someone would have
waited all those years to get him for that.'

'Unless
someone was inside for all those years, and then got him after they were
released.'

'So
it could have been someone other than a police officer.'

'It
could have been anyone. It doesn't matter now.'

'So
- do you remember drinking more after he died?'

'No.'

'After
your divorce, maybe?'

'No.'

'What
about when your partner was killed last year?'

'I
don't want to talk about that.'

'I
think we need to talk about it.'

'Need
and want are not the same thing.'

'I
think
you
need to talk about it, Frank.'

'I'm
not going there, Doctor.'

'Why?'

'Because
it's finished. It's the past. I don't see the point of dragging everything out
into the daylight only to realize why you packed it away so tight.'

'You're
talking about your father. That's the past, too.'

'So?'

'And
you said you felt better as a result.'

'I
said I didn't feel worse. I can't say that I feel a great deal better.'

'What
was your partner's name?'

'You
know his name.'

'I
want to hear you say it.'

'Why?'

'Because
it's a start.'

'Michael
Vale.'

'There, that wasn't so hard, was it?'

'Don't patronize me.'

'How old was he?'

'Younger than me.'

'How long had you been partners?'

'Four years. Back since May of 2003.'

'And you were both Homicide right from
the start?'

'Robbery-Homicide until the fall of
2005, and then Homicide.'

'And he was Gold Shield too?'

'He was, yes.'

'He got his shield before you?'

'A month later.'

'Were you competitive?'

'This is a homicide unit, not a college
fraternity.' 'So there was no rivalry between you?'

'No, there was no rivalry. Where the
hell did you get that idea from?' 'I'm just asking.'

'I think you've asked enough for today.
I have six dead girls to deal with.' 'I understand, Frank.' 'What's that
supposed to mean?'

'It means that I understand, Frank.
There's only so much time that you can spare.'

'So why make it sound like I'm finding
reasons not to be here. I have a lot of work to do. A helluva lot of work—'

'I
apologize. I know you have a heavy workload, I really do. I just wish that
you'd be a bit more forthcoming when you're here.' 'Hell, Doc, how long have we
been meeting?' 'We started on September first, so ten days, give or take.'
'Well, in a week and a half you've got more out of me than
my
wife
did in sixteen years. You should take that as a compliment.' 'Okay, Frank.'

'I'll see you tomorrow, okay?' 'Tomorrow
it is.'

There was another message on his
desk from Father Briley. Did the guy not have better things to do? Once again
Parrish threw it in the trash.

There
was still no progress on phone records. Parrish believed that such information
might be unavailable for Melissa, Jennifer, Nicole and Karen due to the length
of time that had elapsed, but he still held out a thin hope for Rebecca and
Kelly. Obviously those two girls' clothes and personal effects - cell phones
included - had been taken by the perp, and more than likely been destroyed. It
was simply a question of how long their phone companies retained an account
record once the customer ceased using the service. One month? Six? A year
maybe? The fourth victim had died in December of 2007, eleven months earlier.
Nicole had been dead fifteen months, Jennifer twenty-two, and Melissa had
vanished off the face of the earth more than two years before.

The
warrant for access to Family Welfare records came down at eleven-thirty.
Parrish and Radick walked together to the South Five office, where it took
little more than half an hour to determine that Kelly had been dealt with by
the new South Two office. Rebecca featured as nothing more than a filed note
regarding a possible transfer back to Williamsburg's office, South Nine. The
South Two offices were up on Adams near the High Street Metro station. Parrish
stayed where he was while Radick walked back to fetch the car from the
precinct.

'You
could walk with me,' he told Parrish. 'Use the exercise, you know?'

'Single
most common cause of premature death is exercise,' Parrish replied. 'If you
knew the number of people who got seizures and strokes while jogging and
weight-training you'd never go in a gym again.'

Parrish
made small-talk with the security guy in the lobby, until his partner pulled up
to the curb. He got in the car, and Radick turned right onto Adams at the end
of Fulton. Borough Hall on the left, the Polytechnic on the right, a little way
further and they passed the Supreme Court building across from NY Tech. Made
him think of Caitlin; a paper she'd sat a while back at one or other of those
colleges.

'So
Kelly was dealt with by the South Two office, but Rebecca was dealt with by
South Nine over in Williamsburg,' he said, reviewing the state of play. 'And we
know that the earlier four were all dealt with by the original Family Welfare
South District Office, as it was before they all split up. Which means,
perhaps, that our guy was in the original South section and is now in either
South Two or South Nine . . .'

Just
before Adams became the Brooklyn Bridge, Radick turned left and came back on
himself down Cadman Plaza. He parked up, put a Police notice in the front
window, and he and Parrish walked across to the South Two building.

By
a quarter after twelve they had the undivided attention of the unit's deputy
supervisor. Supervisor was attending a 9/11 memorial for two City Family
Welfare staff who had died in the North Tower collapse, but Deputy Marcus
Lavelle seemed all too eager to assist with whatever questions they had.

Ten
minutes of Lavelle's time, and they had further confirmed that Karen Pulaski,
Nicole Benedict, Melissa Schaeffer and Rebecca Lange had all been under the
aegis of the original Family Welfare South District.

'Of
course, not all of them would have wound up with us here at District Two,'
Lavelle explained. 'As my colleague explained to you, and as you have learned
with Rebecca, it all goes by zip code now.'

'We
found a file note over at District Five regarding Rebecca. I didn't really
understand what it meant.'

'Let
me take a look,' Lavelle said. 'As deputy supervisor I have access to the entire
system regardless of district.' He typed, paused, scrolled, paused again, and
then he nodded his head. 'This explains it. Rebecca should have been
transferred
to

Williamsburg, which is South
District Nine, but her brother was registered as her legal guardian and he is
South Two. The note was from someone who thought she should go to Nine. What
was decided was that she should stay in Two because of the brother. We kept
tabs on him because he was adjudicated a risk. According to this it seems he
had a drug problem.'

'And how many
employees do you have here?' Parrish asked.

'A hundred and
nineteen,' Lavelle replied.

'And of those,
how many are men?'

'Including
myself and Supervisor Foley, forty-eight.'

'And do you have
temporary staff?'

'God
no,' Lavelle said. 'This is all strict security clearance stuff. We manage
records for thousands and thousands of minors. Once you're in it's very hard to
get fired, but it's even harder to get taken on in the first place.'

Parrish
was quiet for a moment. He breathed deeply, wondering how much he really wanted
to tell Marcus Lavelle.

'I
am going to tell you a couple of things,' he began, 'but you have to understand
that I am telling you only because I need to, and that I am relying on you to
maintain the utmost confidentiality.'

'I can assure
you, Detective—'

Parrish
raised his hand and Lavelle fell silent. 'This is a tough deal, Mr Lavelle, a
really tough deal, and you might not want to hear this, but you're going to,
and you have to really understand the importance of keeping this to yourself.'

Lavelle nodded.
His expression was sober and matter-of-fact.

'We
have six girls,' Parrish said. 'Five of them are dead, one of them is missing,
believed dead. Three of them were registered with the original Family Welfare
South District office - directly in the case of Melissa Schaeffer and Karen
Pulaski, and indirectly in the case of Nicole Benedict who was connected to
South through her step-sister, Alice Forrester. Nevertheless, Nicole's personal
details and pictures were held in Alice Forrester's file so she might as well
have been here herself. As you have just told us, the last two victims -
Rebecca and Kelly - were both registered with you here at the new South Two
office. Then we have one more, a girl called Jennifer Baumann. Now, we haven't
yet been able to trace Jennifer on file, but she fits the physical attributes
and MOs of the others. You understand what I'm saying?'