“Where was he?”
“In Peru.”
“And what about Kitty?”
“What about her?”
“Was she with him?”
“I assume so.” Now his father turned and faced him. “Why?”
“I think I saw Kitty last night in New York City.”
His father sat back. “I guess it’s possible.”
“Wouldn’t they have contacted you if they were in the area?”
“Maybe. I could e-mail him and ask.”
“Could you?”
“Sure. Do you want to tell me what this is about?”
He kept it vague. He’d been looking for Lex Ryder when he saw Kitty. His father nodded as Myron spoke. When he finished, Dad said, “I don’t hear from them much. Sometimes months go by. But he’s okay. Your brother, I mean. I think he has been happy.”
“Has been?”
“Excuse me?”
“You said ‘has been happy.’ Why didn’t you just say he’s happy?”
“His last few e-mails,” Dad said. “They’ve been, I don’t know, different. Stiffer maybe. More newsy. But then again, I’m not very close to him. Don’t get me wrong. I love him. I love him as much as I do you. But we aren’t particularly close.”
His dad took another sip of iced tea.
“You were,” Myron said.
“No, not really. Of course, when he was young, we were all a bigger part of his life.”
“So what changed that?”
Dad smiled. “You blame Kitty.”
Myron said nothing.
“Do you think you and Terese will have children?” Dad asked.
The subject change threw him. Myron wasn’t sure exactly how to reply. “It’s a delicate question,” he said slowly. Terese couldn’t have any more children. He had not told his parents about this yet because, until he got her to the right doctors, he still couldn’t accept it himself. Either way, this was not the time to raise the issue. “We’re on the old side, but who knows.”
“Well, either way, let me tell you something about parenting, something none of those self-help books or parenting magazines will tell you.” Dad turned and leaned in closer. “We parents grossly overestimate our importance.”
“You’re being modest.”
“No, I’m not. I know you think that your mother and I are the most amazing parents. I’m glad. I really am. Maybe for you, we were, though you’ve blocked out a lot of the bad.”
“Like what?”
“I’m not going to rehash my mistakes right now. That’s not the point anyway. We were good parents, I guess. Most are. Most are trying their best and if they make mistakes, it’s from trying too hard. But the truth is, we parents are at the most, say, auto mechanics. We can tune up the car and make sure it has the proper fluids. We can keep it running, check the oil, make sure it is road ready. But the car is still the car. When the car comes in, it’s already a Jaguar or Toyota or Prius. You can’t turn a Toyota into a Jaguar.”
Myron made a face. “A Toyota into a Jaguar?”
“You know what I mean. I know the analogy isn’t the best and now that I think about it, it doesn’t really hold because it sounds like a judgment, like the Jaguar is better than the Toyota or something. It is not. It’s just different with different needs. Some kids come out shy, some are outgoing, some are bookish, some are jocks, whatever. The way we raise you doesn’t really have much to do with it. Sure we can instill values and all that, but we usually mess up when we try to change what is already there.”
“When you try,” Myron added, “to turn the Toyota into the Jaguar?”
“Don’t be a wise guy.”
Not long ago, before running off to Angola and under very different circumstances, Terese had made this exact same argument to him. Nature over nurture, she insisted. Her argument was both a comfort and a chill, but in this case, with his father sitting on the deck with him, Myron wasn’t really buying it.
“Brad wasn’t meant to stay at home or settle down,” his father said. “He was always itching to escape. He was meant to wander. A nomad, like his ancestors, I guess. So your mother and I let him go. When you were kids, you were both amazing athletes. You thrived on competition. Brad didn’t. He hated it. That doesn’t make him less or more, just different. God, I’m tired. Enough. I assume you have a very good reason for trying to find your brother after all these years?”
“I do.”
“Good. Because despite what I said, you two falling out has been one of the biggest heartaches of my life. So it would be nice to see you reconcile.”
Silence. It was broken when Myron’s cell phone buzzed. He checked the caller ID and was surprised to see that the call was coming from Roland Dimonte, the NYPD cop who’d helped out in Three Downing last night. Dimonte was a friend/adversary from way back. “I need to take this,” Myron said.
His father signaled for him to go ahead.
“Hello?”
“Bolitar?” Dimonte barked. “I thought he stopped pulling this crap.”
“Who?”
“You know who. Where the hell is the psycho Win?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, you better find him.”
“Why, what’s up?”
“We got a big freaking problem, that’s what. Find him now.”
9
M
yron looked through the metal-meshed window in the emergency room. Roland Dimonte stood to his left. Dimonte reeked of both chewing tobacco and what might have been a rancid bottle of Hai Karate. Despite being born and raised in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen, Dimonte liked to go with the urban cowboy look, sporting right now a tight shiny shirt with snap buttons and boots so garish that he might have stolen them off a San Diego Charger cheerleader. His hair was a reformed mullet by way of a retired hockey player who now did color commentary on a local television station. Myron could feel Dimonte’s eyes on him.
Lying on his back in the bed, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling, tubes coming out of at least three locations, was Kleavage Kyle, head bouncer from Three Downing.
“What’s wrong with him?” Myron asked.
“Lots of stuff,” Dimonte said. “But the main thing is a ruptured kidney. The doctor says it was caused by—and I quote—‘precise and severe abdominal trauma.’ Ironic, don’t you think?”
“Ironic how?”
“Well, our friend here will be pissing blood for quite some time. Maybe you remember earlier last evening. That’s exactly what our victim told you would happen to you.” Dimonte crossed his arms for effect.
“So, what, you think I did this?”
Dimonte frowned. “Let’s pretend for a brief moment that I’m not a mentally dehydrated numb nut, okay?” He had an empty can of Coke in his hands. He spit tobacco juice into it. “No, I don’t think you did this. We both know who did it.”
Myron gestured with his chin toward the bed. “What did Kyle say?”
“He said he was mugged. A bunch of guys broke into the club and jumped him. He never saw their faces, can’t identify them, doesn’t want to press charges anyway.”
“Maybe that’s true.”
“And maybe one of my ex-wives will tell me that she no longer wants her alimony check.”
“What do you want me to say here, Rolly?”
“I thought you had him under control.”
“You don’t know it was Win.”
“We both know it was Win.”
Myron took a step away from the window. “Let me put it another way. You don’t have any evidence it was Win.”
“Sure I do. There was a surveillance video for a bank outside the club. Gets the whole area. It shows Win approaching our pectorally gifted friend here. They talk for a few moments and then they both go back into the club.” Dimonte stopped, looked off. “Odd.”
“What?”
“Win is usually much more careful. Guess he’s slipping as he gets older.”
Not likely, Myron thought. “What about the surveillance tapes inside the club?”
“What about them?”
“You said Win and Kyle here walked back into the club. So what do the interior tapes show?”
Dimonte spit into the can again, trying hard to cover up his obvious body language. “We’re still working on it.”
“Uh, let’s pretend for a brief moment that I’m not a mentally dehydrated numb nut.”
“They’re gone, okay? Kyle says the guys who jumped him must have taken them.”
“Sounds logical.”
“Take a look at him, Bolitar.”
Myron did. Kyle’s eyes were still on the ceiling. His eyes were wet.
“When we found him last night, that Taser he nailed you with was lying on the floor next to him. The battery was empty from overuse. He was shaking, nearly catatonic. He’d crapped his pants. For twelve hours he couldn’t form words. I showed him a picture of Win, and he started sobbing to the point where the doctor had to sedate him.”
Myron looked back at Kyle. He thought about the Taser, thought about the gleam in Kyle’s eyes as he held down the trigger, thought about how close he, Myron, had come to ending up in a bed like that. Then Myron turned and looked at Dimonte. His voice was pure monotone. “Wow. I. Feel. Just. Terrible. For. Him.”
Dimonte just shook his head.
Myron said, “Can I go now?”
“You heading back to your place at the Dakota?”
“Yes.”
“We got a man waiting there for Win. When he arrives, I want to have a little chat with him.”
“Good evening, Mr. Bolitar.”
“Good evening, Vladimir,” Myron said as he breezed by the Dakota doorman and passed through the famed wrought-iron gate. There was a cop car sitting out front, sent by Dimonte. When Myron arrived at Win’s apartment, the lights were low.
Win sat in his leather club chair with a snifter of cognac. Myron was not surprised to see him. Like most old buildings with a storied past, the Dakota held secret underground passageways. There was one Win had shown him that started in the basement of a high-rise near Columbus Avenue, another from a spot a block uptown bordering Central Park. Vladimir, Myron was sure, knew Win was here, but he wouldn’t say anything. The cops didn’t give Vladimir his Christmas bonus.
Myron said, “And here I thought you went out last night in search of casual sex. Now I found out it was to beat up Kyle.”
Win smiled. “Who said I couldn’t do both?”
“It wasn’t necessary.”
“The sex? Well, it never is, but that never stops a man, does it?”
“Funny.”
Win steepled his hands. “Do you think you’re the first guy Kyle dragged to that maroon room—or just the first to escape without a hospital visit?”
“He’s a bad guy, so what?”
“He’s a very bad guy. Three assault beefs in the past year—in all cases, witnesses from the club helped clear him.”
“So you took care of it?”
“It’s what I do.”
“Not your job.”
“But I so enjoy it.”
No point in getting into this now. “Dimonte wants to talk to you.”
“As I’m aware. But I don’t want to talk to him. So my attorney will contact him in about half an hour and tell him that unless he has an arrest warrant, we will not be chatting. End of story.”
“Would it help if I told you that you shouldn’t have done it?”
“Wait,” Win said, starting his mime act. “Before you start, let me tune up my air violin.”
“What exactly did you do to him anyway?”
“Did they find the Taser?” Win asked.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“What do you mean, where? Next to his body.”
“
Next
to it?” Win said. “Oh. Well. He must have been able to help himself a little bit at least.”
Silence. Myron reached into the fridge and grabbed a Yoo-hoo. The television screen had the Blu-ray Disc logo bouncing across it.
“How did Kyle put it?” Win said, twirling the cognac in its snifter, his cheeks flushed red. “He will be pissing blood for a while. Maybe he broke a bone or two. But in the end he’ll recover.”
“But he won’t talk.”
“Oh no. He won’t ever talk.”
Myron sat. “You’re a scary dude.”
“Well, I don’t like to brag,” Win said.
“Still this was not a wise move.”
“Wrong. It was a very wise move.”
“How so?”
“There are three things you must remember. One”—Win lifted a finger—“I never hurt innocents, only those most deserving. Kyle fit that category. Two”—another finger—“I do this to protect us. The more fear I instill in people, the safer we are.”
Myron almost smiled. “That’s why you let yourself get caught on that street video,” he said. “You wanted everyone to know it was you.”
“Again I don’t like to brag, but, well, yes. Three,” Win said, holding up the third finger, “I always do it for reasons other than vengeance.”
“Like justice?”
“Like getting information.” Win picked up the remote and pointed it at the television. “Kyle was kind enough to provide me with all the surveillance tapes from last night. I’ve spent most of the day looking through them for both Kitty and Brad Bolitar.”
Whoa. Myron turned toward the screen. “And?”
“I’m still going through them,” Win said, “but so far, it isn’t good.”
“Explain.”
“Why explain when I can show?” Win poured a second snifter of cognac and showed it to Myron. Myron shook it off. Win shrugged, put the snifter down next to him, and pressed the play button on the remote. The screen’s bouncing logo vanished. A woman appeared. Win hit pause. “This is the best view of her face.”
Myron leaned forward. One of the fascinating things about surveillance videos was that they were shot from cameras set up high, so that you rarely got a great look at the face. This seemed counterintuitive, but perhaps there was no better alternative. This particular shot was a touch blurry, a close-up, and Myron imagined that someone had cropped and zoomed in on her face. Either way it ended any doubt about identity.
“Okay, so we know it’s Kitty,” Myron said. “What about Brad?”
“No sign of him.”
“So what—to use your vernacular—isn’t good?”