Мэри Кларк - Молчаливая ночь [with w_cat]

[455] Even so, Jimmy began to swear, a low steady stream of words, most of which Brian had never heard, even from Skeet, the kid in his class who knew all the good swear words.

[456] The spinning car confirmed Jimmy’s growing sense that near as he was to escaping the country something could still go wrong any minute. It didn’t sound as though that prison guard he shot was going to make it. If the guard died… Jimmy had meant it when he told Cally that they wouldn’t take him alive.

[457] Then Jimmy tried to reassure himself. He had a car that probably nobody even realized was missing yet. He had decent clothes and money. If they’d been stuck back there when that crazy fool caused the accident, the kid might have managed to jump out of the car. If that jerk who just spun around had hit the Toyota, I might have been hurt, Jimmy thought. On my own, maybe I could’ve bluffed it, but not with the kid along. On the other hand, nobody knew he had the kid, and in a million years no cop was on the lookout for a guy in a nice car with a bunch of toys in the backseat and a little boy beside him.

[458] They were near Syracuse now. In three or four hours he’d be across the border with Paige.

[459] There was a McDonald’s sign on the right. Jimmy was hungry, and this would be a good place to get something to eat. It would have to last him until he reached Canada. He’d pull up to the drive-in window, order for the two of them, then get back on the road fast.

[460] “What’s your favorite food, kid?” he asked, his tone almost genial.

[461] Brian had spotted the McDonald’s sign and held his breath, hoping that this meant they were going to get something to eat. “A hamburger and french fries, and a Coke,” he said timidly.

[462] “If I stop at McDonald’s, can you look like you’re sleeping?”

“Yes, I promise.”

[463] “Do it then. Lean against me with your eyes closed.”

[464] “Okay.” Obediently Brian slumped against Jimmy and squeezed his eyes shut. He tried not to show how scared he was.

[465] “Let’s see what kind of actor you are,” Jimmy said. “And you’d better be good.”

[466] The St. Christopher medal had slipped to the side. Brian straightened it so that he could feel it, heavy and comforting against his chest.

[467] It was scary to be so close to this guy, not like being sleepy when he was driving with Dad and curling up against him and feeling Dad’s hand patting his shoulder.

[468] Jimmy pulled off the highway. They had to wait on line at the drive-in window. Jimmy froze when he saw a state trooper pull in behind them, but had no choice except to stay put and not draw attention to himself. When it was their turn and he placed the order and paid, the attendant didn’t even glance into the car. But at the pickup spot, the woman looked over the counter to where the light from behind her shone on Brian.

[469] “I guess he just can’t wait to see what Santa Claus is going to bring him, can he?”

[470] Jimmy nodded and tried to smile in agreement as he reached for the bag.

[471] She leaned way forward and peered into the car. “My goodness, is he wearing a St. Christopher medal? My dad was named after him and used to try to make a big deal of it, but my mom always jokes about St. Christopher being dropped from the calendar of saints. My dad says it’s too bad Mom wasn’t named Philomena. She’s another saint the Vatican said didn’t exist.” With a hearty laugh the young woman handed over the bag.

[472] As they drove back onto the highway, Brian opened his eyes. He could smell the hamburgers and the french fries. He sat up slowly.

[473] Jimmy looked at him, his eyes steely, his face rigid. Through lips that barely parted, he quietly ordered, “Get that goddamn medal off your neck.”

[474] Cally had to talk to him about her brother and the missing child. After promising to be right over, Mort Levy hung up the phone, stunned. What possible connection could there be between Jimmy Siddons and the little boy who disappeared on Fifth Avenue?

[475] He dialed the lookout van. “You recorded that call?”

[476] “Is she crazy, Mort? She can’t be talking about the Dornan kid, can she? Want us to pick her up for questioning?”

[477] “That’s just what I don’t want you to do!” Levy exploded. “She’s scared to death as it is. Sit tight until I get there.”

[478] He had to inform his superiors, starting with Jack Shore, about Cally Hunter’s call. Mort spotted Shore leaving the chief of detectives’ private office, was out of his chair and across the room in seconds. He grabbed Shore’s arm. “Come back inside.”

[479] “I told you to take a break.” Shore tried to shake off his hand. “We just heard from Logan in Detroit again. Two days ago a woman whose description matches Siddons’s girlfriend got a ride from a private car service over the border to Windsor. Logan ’s guys think that Laronde told her girlfriend about California and Mexico to throw them off her trail. The girlfriend was questioned again. This time it occurred to her to mention that she offered to buy Laronde’s fur coat because it wouldn’t be needed in Mexico. Laronde refused.”

[480] I never bought that Mexico story, Mort Levy thought. He didn’t relinquish his grip on Shore’s arm as he shoved open the chief’s door.

[481] Five minutes later, a squad car was racing up the East Side Drive to Avenue B and Tenth Street. A bitterly frustrated Jack Shore had been ordered to wait in the lookout van while Mort and the chief, Bud Folney, went upstairs to talk to Cally.

[482] Mort knew that Shore would not forgive him for insisting that he stay out of it. “Jack, when we were there earlier, I knew there was something she was holding back. You’ve scared her to death. She thinks you’d do anything to see her back behind bars. For God’s sake, can’t you look at her as a human being? She’s got a four-year-old child, her husband is dead, and she got the book thrown at her when she made the mistake of helping the brother she’d practically raised.”

[483] Now Mort turned to Folney. “I don’t know how Jimmy Siddons ties into that missing child, but I do know that Cally has been too frightened to talk. If she tells us now whatever she knows, it will be because she feels that the department… you… aren’t out to get her.”

[484] Folney nodded. He was a soft-spoken, lean man in his late forties, with a scholarly face. He had in fact spent three years as a high school teacher before realizing his passion was law enforcement. It was widely believed among the ranks that one day he’d be police commissioner. Already he was one of the most powerful men in the department.

[485] Mort Levy knew that if there was anyone who could help Cally, assuming she had in some way been forced to cover for Jimmy again, it was Folney. But the missing child-how could Siddons be involved in this?

[486] It was a question they were all frantic to ask.

[487] When the squad car pulled up behind the surveillance van, Shore made one last appeal. “If I keep my mouth shut…”

[488] Folney answered, “I suggest you start right now Jack. Get in the van.”

[489] Pete Cruise had been about to call it a day. He’d discovered where Cally Hunter lived when he tried to interview her after she was released from prison, and now he was hoping her brother would show up. But there’d been nothing to watch for hours except the on-again-off-again falling snow. Now at least it seemed to have stopped for good. The van that he knew was a police van was still parked across the street from Cally’s apartment, but probably all they were doing was monitoring her calls. The likelihood of Jimmy Siddons suddenly showing up at his sister’s house now was about the same as two strangers having matching DNA.

[490] All the hours of hanging around Hunter’s building were a waste, Pete decided. From the time he’d seen Cally come home shortly before six, and the two detectives stop in around seven, it had been a big nothing.

[491] He’d kept his powerful portable radio on the whole time he waited, switching between the police band, his station, WYME, and the WCBS news station. No word of Siddons at all. Shame about that missing kid.

[492] When the ten o’clock news came on WYME, Pete thought for the hundredth time that the anchor in that slot sounded like a wimp. But she did have some real emotion when she talked about the missing seven-year-old. Maybe we need a missing kid every day, Pete thought sarcastically, then was immediately ashamed of himself.

[493] There was a lot of activity in Hunter’s building, people coming and going. Many of the churches had moved up the midnight services to ten o’clock. No matter what time they schedule them, some people will always be late, Pete thought as he saw an elderly couple hurry from the building and turn up Avenue B. Probably heading for St. Emeric’s.

[494] The woman who had brought Hunter’s kid home earlier was coming up the block. Was she headed for Hunter’s apartment? Cally planning to go out? he wondered.

[495] Pete shrugged. Maybe Hunter had a late date or was going to church herself. Obviously, today wasn’t the day to get the story that was going to make his name as a reporter.

[496] It’ll happen, Pete promised himself. I won’t always be working on this lousy ten-watt station. His buddy who worked at WNBC loved to ride Pete about his job. A favorite put-down was that the only audience for WYME were two cockroaches and three stray cats. “This is station Why-Me,” he’d joke.

[497] Pete started his car. He was just about to pull out when a squad car raced down the block and stopped in front of Cally’s building.

[498] Through narrowed eyes, Pete observed three men emerge. One he recognized as Jack Shore crossed the street and got into the van. Then in the light from the building entrance he could make out Mort Levy. He didn’t get a good look at the other one.

[499] Something was breaking. Pete turned off the engine, suddenly interested again.

[500] While she waited for Mort Levy, Cally took Gigi’s Christmas presents from their hiding place behind the couch and set them in front of the tree. The secondhand doll’s carriage didn’t look that bad, she decided, with the pretty blue satin coverlet and pillowcase. She’d put the baby doll she’d picked up for a couple of dollars last month in it, but it wasn’t nearly as cute as the one that she’d wanted to buy from the peddler on Fifth Avenue. That one had Gigi’s golden-brown hair and was wearing a blue party dress. If she hadn’t been looking for that peddler, she wouldn’t have seen the wallet, and the boy wouldn’t have followed her, and …

[501] She put that thought aside. She was past feeling now. Carefully, she stacked the presents she’d wrapped with candy-cane paper: an outfit from The Gap-leggings and a polo shirt; crayons and a coloring book; some furniture for Gigi’s dollhouse. Everything, even the two pieces of the Gap outfit, was in separate boxes so at least it looked as though Gigi had a stack of gifts to open.

[502] She tried to avoid looking at the largest package under the tree, the package that Gigi thought was their gift for Santa Claus.

[503] Finally she phoned Aika. Aika’s grandchildren always went home to sleep, so she was sure she could come over and stay with Gigi in case the cops arrested Cally after she told them about Jimmy and the little boy.

[504] Aika answered on the first ring. “Hello.” Her voice was filled with her normal warmth. If only they’d let Gigi stay with Aika if they put me in prison again, Cally thought. She swallowed over the lump in her throat, then said, “Aika, I’m in trouble. Can you come over in about half an hour and maybe stay overnight?”

[505] “You bet I can.” Aika did not ask questions, simply clicked off.

[506] As Cally replaced the receiver, the buzzer from the downstairs door resounded through the apartment.

[507] “The switchboard’s on fire, Mrs. Dornan,” Leigh Ann Winick, the producer of Fox 5 Ten O’Clock News told Catherine as, carefully avoiding the floor cables, she and Michael left the broadcast area. “It looks as though everyone in our viewing area wants you to know that they’re rooting and praying for Brian and your husband.”

[508] “Thank you.” Catherine tried to smile. She looked down at Michael. He had been trying so hard to keep up his spirits for her sake. It was only when she had listened to his on-camera plea that she had fully realized what this was doing to him.

[509] Michael’s hands were in his pockets, his shoulders hunched under his ears. It was exactly the same posture Tom unconsciously fell into when he was worried about a patient. Catherine squared her own shoulders and put her arm around her older son as the door from the studio closed behind them.

[510] The producer said, “Our operators are thanking everyone in your name, but is there anything else you’d like us to tell our audience?”

[511] Catherine drew a deep breath, and her arm tightened around Michael. “I wish you’d tell them that we think I dropped my wallet, and that Brian apparently followed whoever picked it up. The reason he was so anxious to get it back is that my mother had just given me a St. Christopher medal that my father wore through World War II. My father believed the medal kept him safe. It even has a dent where a bullet glanced off it, a bullet that might have killed him. Brian has the same wonderful faith that St. Christopher or what he represents is going to take care of us again… and so do I. St. Christopher will carry Brian back to us on his shoulders, and he will help my husband get well.”