Necessary Decisions, A Gino Cataldi Mystery (23 page)

Replay the Tape

L
ucia came back a moment later, tears in her eyes.

“Where did Lonny go?” I asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s very upset.”

“What did he say?”

“That he had to get out for a while.” She headed for the family room and lay on the sofa, her head buried in the pillow, bawling.

I didn’t know whether to go to her or leave. My heart ached for this woman. As the crying grew worse, I risked going to her. I knelt on the floor and stroked her hair. “It’s going to be all right, Mrs. Hackett. I won’t let anything happen to her.” I hated saying that, but I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t stand to see a woman suffer like this.

She shook her head and cried harder. “Things
won’t
be all right. They’ll
never
be right again.”

I fought my own tears. And I fought the urge to grab her and hug her. Assure her that I’d take care of things. Instead, I did what I thought would help the most—bring it back to Lonny. “Why did Lonny leave?”

The heavy tears turned to sobs, then sniffles. She sat up and wiped her eyes on her sleeves. Her voice was shaky, not like the Lucia I had come to know so well in just one day.

“Things have been rough for him. He’s been struggling to find enough work to feed us.” She shook her head, fighting more tears. “And now this.”

She rested her head on my shoulder. I didn’t resist. I didn’t know if it helped me or her more, but in the end, I think it helped us both. After a moment, I leaned back, stared into her eyes, and did what I always told rookies not to do—I made a promise. “We’ll get her back, ma’am. I promise.”

She nodded. “Thank you, Gino.”

I left Lucia and went to the kitchen. “What time is it, Delgado?”

“Ask me one more time, and I’ll kick your ass.”

“I’ll keep asking until we find Mary’s watch. So what time is it?”

“Eleven.”

I looked around, did a quick count. Almost everybody was here. The few who weren’t could catch up on details later. “Four hours until the drop,” I announced. “I want everyone’s head in this. Be thinking at all times—what could we do to help this girl? If you have ideas, bring them up. Nobody’s going to make fun of you, so don’t be afraid to look stupid.”

Delgado grabbed a bottled water then came back with the digital recorder. “We’ve got the last call here. You can listen to it all you want afterward, but right now, I want you to hear one part that’s bothering us. What you’ll hear is the kidnap victim speaking.” He hit play. We already had it set to the part with Jada speaking.

“Daddy, listen. I don’t have much time. I don’t want you coming yourself with the money. Not with your blood pressure and heart. Send Uncle Eddy. You know how calm he is. Even my friends say that about Uncle Eddy.”

“What’s bothering you about it?” one of the new guys asked.

“First off, as you all know, this girl is
not
Mr. Winthrop’s daughter. But she obviously understands the situation and has somehow managed to convince them she is.”

“So she’s smart.”

I nodded to whoever said it. “No question there. But here’s the kicker—there
is no
Uncle Eddy.” I looked at my notes. “And her father doesn’t have blood pressure or heart problems. The man is a picture of health. Winthrop has none of these problems either.”

“Does the family know anybody named Eddy?” that from Sameena, one of the better surveillance experts.

“A former neighbor was named Eddy. He was a cop.”

That drew strange looks from a few of them. “You think one of them is a cop?” Sameena asked.

“We’re considering it,” Delgado said. “But we can’t figure out how she’d know that.” He looked around, probably to make sure Lucia wasn’t in hearing distance. “I can’t see a cop giving himself away unless they planned to kill her.”

“Why mention her friends?” Delgado said. “She says ‘even my friends say that about Uncle Eddy.’” He looked around. “It doesn’t fit. Why would she mention either her friends or Uncle Eddy? She wouldn’t. This kid is scared shitless, probably wondering if she’s going to get killed, or…” He looked around, then whispered, “Or raped. And she brings up what her friends thought about a mysterious Uncle Eddy, who may or may not exist.”

Delgado’s words struck me hard. It had only been a few hours since the call, so I hadn’t had time to digest it. “Delgado is right. Even if she’s sending us a signal with Uncle Eddy, why bring her friends into it? Something’s wrong.”

Delgado looked to the other room. “Only one way to find out.”

“Ask her friends,” I said, and walked to the bottom of the steps. “Alexa!”

“What?”

“We need you down here.”

“Couple of minutes.”

“Now!”

***

Lonny Hackett drove his old Chevy truck across the freeway and into an old subdivision. Despite the sense of urgency, he drove slow, careful not to attract the attention of the cops hiding on the side of the road, waiting to give someone a ticket. Most tickets were for going a couple of miles over the limit or for not coming to a standstill at a stop sign. You couldn’t just stop at the sign; you had to almost put your car in park then shift gears to get going again. Meanwhile, a store was getting robbed somewhere nearby, or a person mugged. Or a house broken into.

Or a girl kidnapped.

He looked at his watch again, resisted the urge to go faster. About two miles later, he pulled into the corner store where he had gotten the phone to arrange that first meet with Boss. The guy inside
must
know something. Lonny parked by the dumpster and walked inside. He got in line behind two customers. The clerk was the same one as the day he got the phone. The same day he called Willard looking for work. He didn’t know if it was Willard who had hooked him up. The man had never said he was, and had even denied it. But if he wasn’t, how had that person known to call Lonny? And where did he get his number?

It was Willard. I know it.

The first customer left with a newspaper and cigarettes. The guy in front of Lonny got some milk and five Texas Lotto tickets.
Good luck with that.

Lonny looked at the skinny little prick behind the counter. Some damn foreigner probably come here to do no good. Lonny’s arms ached from wanting to hurt this man. He tensed, muscles taut.

Lonny once lifted three bags of cement at the same time and carried them fifty yards. That was almost three hundred pounds. Breaking this little prick into pieces wouldn’t be half as hard.

The man in front of Lonny left, leaving him standing at the counter with nothing in his hand. The clerk looked at him, eager to help. “Good morning, what can I get you?”

He grabbed the clerk by the collar and yanked him forward. He slammed his head into the counter. The man yelled. His arm shot toward the back, reaching for something. Lonny tugged harder, pulling him over all the way over the counter. “Where’s Willard?”

“Who?”

He punched him in the gut. The man gasped, doubling over.

“Where’s Willard. Tell me, or I’ll kill you. I swear.”

The clerk took a few breaths then leaned against the counter, hands protecting his face. “I don’t know any Willard.”

“I came here a few weeks ago asking about Willard. You told me to go to the dumpster and get a phone from a bag.”

The clerk nodded. “I get calls sometimes. A man I don’t know tells me what to do and…and…”

Lonny raised his fist. “And what?”

“He buys my phones and pays me good money.”

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know.”

Lonny punched his face, twice.

The man almost cried. “I swear I don’t know.”

“How do you get the money?”

“He leaves it in a bag under the dumpster.”

Lonny grabbed him by the neck.

“That’s all I know. I
swear.
”

“And you don’t know anybody named Willard?”

“I never heard the name Willard before you came in today.”

Lonny kicked the counter. “Goddamn! Goddamnit.”

He shoved the clerk back then walked in a small circle around the store, stopping in front of the clerk. He grabbed a pen from the counter and wrote his cell number on a piece of paper. “If you hear anything from this guy again, or think of any way to reach him, you call. I swear, if I find out different…”

“I’ll call you. I will.”

Lonny ran from the store, got in his truck and drove off. He looked at his watch—11:15. Not much time left. He stopped at another corner store he had visited the day he got the call, but that guy knew nothing either. Then he went to the spot where people waited for jobs in the morning. Rumors were that notices on the outside board sometimes directed people to get in touch with the mysterious Willard, but Lonny knew it was in code, and he didn’t know what the code was. He stopped anyway and asked questions of about ten guys who were waiting on work. Nobody knew anything.

Lonny headed back to the Winthrop’s. He didn’t want to face Lucia or her questions. Or the detective and his suspicious looks. But he had nowhere else to go, and he was out of ideas.

***

Connors followed Lonny back over the freeway, halfway to Scott’s house. When it was obvious where Lonny was going, he called Gino. “It’s me,” Connors said. “He’s on his way back now.”

“Where did he go?”

“Nowhere, really—a corner store. Must have stayed in there five minutes or so.”

“What did he buy?”

“That’s just it—he didn’t buy anything, at least nothing he carried out. Guess he could have gotten cigarettes or lottery tickets or something like that, but he had nothing in his hands.”

“That’s odd. What else?”

“After that, he went to another corner store, but only stayed a few seconds. Nothing purchased there either. Then he went to a spot where day labor waits to get hired. He talked to everybody there, went inside, but again came out with nothing.”

“After that?”

“He’s on his way back. Pretty damn strange, if you ask me.”

“
Very
damn strange. Go back to that first store and find out what he did in there. If they have video, ask to see it.”

“But sir, we—”

“I don’t give a shit about warrants. Tell whoever is running the place that we’ve got a kidnapping and need answers. Go, Connors. Go!”

Chapter 34

Uncle Eddy

I
hung up with Connors, more puzzled than when Lonny had left.
What the hell is this man doing?
His daughter was being held hostage and he was…what? Running around to corner stores? Why did he go? What did he do?

I thought about asking Lucia again but decided against it. She would blindly support her husband no matter what. She didn’t see, or refused to see, his faults. She was a lot like Mary, who never saw my faults. She never complained or griped, even when we had no money.

God, I miss her.

Some nights I dreamed of cloning Mary. I’d bring her back just as she was. Wouldn’t change a thing. Not her lazy eye or the extra twenty pounds she always complained about.

I was brought out of my contemplation by the thought of the Uncle Eddy reference. “Alexa!”

“What?” She said as she stormed into the kitchen, Lucia right behind her. Alexa marched to the table, positioned herself with an attitude, and gave me her standard “What?” yet again.

I let her sit for a few seconds. “Who’s Uncle Eddy?”

She feigned an I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about look. It was good.

I wanted to take her pretty little head and bash it into the granite countertop; instead, I asked again. “Who is Uncle Eddy?”

“I already told you. I don’t know an
Uncle Eddy
. Who’s he supposed to be?” She’d answered too fast. All denial.

Lucia stood close by, intently focused on Alexa.

“Who is he, Alexa?” I asked, raising my voice. “
Who
is Uncle Eddy?”

Lonny walked in the door right then. He looked at me then at Alexa. “What’s going on? Why are you asking her?”

“Because she knows something.”

“I
told
you.”

I grabbed Alexa’s arm and dragged her to the other room. She seemed to be struck with that particular kind of fear common among teenagers—the kind they got when dealing with adults. In most cases, no matter how bad things were or how much trouble they’re got into, they wouldn’t open up to parents or
any
adult. I got as close as I could to her face and whispered.

“Your best friend is in deep shit. If you care
one fucking bit
about her, you better tell me what you know.”

She looked at the floor then shot a glance toward the Hacketts. “Not here. On the patio.”

I took her outside and sat her down, forcing calm on myself before I continued. “Before you say anything, know that if you need this to be between the two of us, it will stay that way.”

“Sure.” She said it with the same disgust and sarcasm I had heard from a hundred kids before.

“This is no shit. If I say it stays between us, it does. But I’m telling you now that you’ll have to handle the Hacketts on your own. If they ask me, I’ll tell them to ask you.”