Tracking Time

'Where have you been?' He snapped at her as if she were the one to blame for everything.

A woman with big red hair and a tight yellow suit, who'd been yakking a mile a minute in haughty Spanish, raised her voice even higher and blocked April's advance with her curvy body. She screamed at Iriarte that she needed her matter attended to pronto!

Even April got it. Iriarte gave the woman a quick formal bow, assuring her that he was attending very seriously. Then he turned to April and jerked his head at his office. April was momentarily blinded by flashes of sparkly light from the boulder-sized diamond rings on the fingers of both the men and the women.

'Move.' Her boss gestured angrily at her again, but before she could navigate around two gesticulating women in pink and red, Woody marched in with John James. Simultaneously, the agitated Spanish-speakers recoiled from his stench.

The unctuous lieutenant was galvanized into action. He led the Latino crowd into his office himself, came out, and spoke to Hagedorn. Hagedorn's Spanish left something to be desired, but he was the only one in the squad room at the moment other than April who knew how to talk to nice people. Hagedorn went into the office. Iriarte shut the door on them, then advanced on April and her malodorous troublemaker.

'What the hell are you up to? I've been trying to rouse you for two hours.'

'I tried to reach you. But something came up.'

'I don't give a shit. You know where these people come from? One of them got mugged on Fifty-seventh Street. Who the fuck is this?' he pointed at Pee Wee.

'This is John James. He hangs out in Central Park. I know him from the Two-O.'

'Oh yeah, he one of their street crime boys?' Iriarte took time out for a joke. Ha ha.

Woody, who was a little sensitive about his past, looked the other way.

'I help out, don't I, Sergeant?' Pee Wee looked hurt.

'Yeah, sure you do,' April told him.

'What do you think you're up to, Woo? I have something important for you to do here.' Iriarte's Spanish contingent was keeping his temper in check, but only just.

'You gonna give me something to eat?' Pee Wee whined.

'Later,' Woody told him.

'What'd you bring him in here for? Get him out of here,' Iriarte growled.

Woody glanced at April. She nodded toward the door and mouthed, Wait for me. When the two of them were out of sight, she spoke.

'I know it's unusual, sir, but I need to keep him here for a few minutes. He's a witness in the Atkins case.'

Iriarte's fingers traveled nervously to the gray silk square in his jacket pocket. 'What are you talking about?'

'Woody and I are following up a 911 from last night.'

'What are you talking about?' His irritation escalated.

'That call for help last night didn't turn up anything, but there's a report of a missing person. I'm checking it out.'

Iriarte's eyes narrowed with suspicion. 'What report?'

'We were covering the area last night, sir.'

'What report? I have no report!'

'It's a missing doctor, sir.'

'Are you hard of hearing or something? This is not your case.'

'I'd just like to clear it up since Woody and I checked out the missing doctor's apartment, made a preliminary search of the area, and requested more help.'

'What! Why don't I know about this?' Iriarte started to scream.

'I called in, sir. You weren't available.' April lied with a straight face. Now she was floundering, looking for a lifesaver. There wasn't one.

'I don't have any message of this. We have a mugging here. You have no business working out of the area. Who knows about this? Are you crazy, bringing some park bum in here?'

'It wouldn't look bad if we broke the case, sir. And I'd like to find the doc; he's a student of Jason Frank.'

Iriarte smacked his forehead. 'A fucking head-shrinker case? Is that what this is? Ay Dios! That fucking Frank again. What are you, crazy?' He screamed some more.

Shouting erupted from the lieutenant's office. He turned to her. 'Get rid of this. I'll give you an hour.'

'Thank you, sir.'

A few minutes later, April had John James sitting in a room downstairs, tapping his foot and waiting impatiently for a feed.

'Pee Wee, how would you like a nice shower and some clean clothes?' she asked sweetly.

'I'm fine. I can take care of myself,' he said, glancing sullenly at Woody.

'Doesn't look to me like you're doing too good a job of it.'

'I have new clothes on order,' he quipped.

'A comedian,' Woody responded.

'Detective Baum is right. We don't have time for a comedy routine. What's going on with you?'

'Like I told you. About a year ago, I got recruited by those Doe people.' Pee Wee licked his lips.

'Recruited?' April gave him a surprised look.

'They come around looking for people, you know how it is-'

'That's not the way I hear it. I hear you have to get cleaned up and apply, isn't that what you did?'

'Nah, some lady recruited me. I know what I'm talking about,' he insisted.

'Maybe you got in some kind of trouble back then. You want to tell me about that?'

'I didn't do nothing. You know I don't get in no trouble anymore. I'm an old man.'

'I can check it out, Pee Wee.'

He shifted uncomfortably. 'I was part of a program. I didn't like it, that's all. Now I have other people take care of me.'

'Doesn't look like that to me. Who are these people?'

'I'm down good,' he insisted.

April shook her head. 'Okay, says you. We'll get back to that. Tell me about last night. Did you make that 911 call?'

'Yeah, right.' Woody interjected.

April gave him a warm smile. 'Never underestimate, Detective. John James here used to be one of our best people. Always knew what was happening in the area. If there was trouble, he'd be the one to make a call, isn't that right, Pee Wee?'

'Used to be a lotta trouble. Those gay boys and the wildings-they were bad. Once those monsters from uptown set a friend of mine on fire. Behind the museum…' Pee Wee's dirty hands trembled. 'You got a cigarette for Pee Wee?'

April shook her head. 'You'll have to wait. Detective Baum here has asthma.'

Woody blew air out of his nose. Yeah, right.

'So what happened last night? You make that call or what?'

'No. There were two faggots out there. One of them must have made the call. Had to be a cell phone, didn't it? The nearest call box is practically in the Bronx,' he muttered.

Not true. There was one close by, on a tree. 'Come on, Pee Wee, I haven't got time for this. What happened?' April demanded.

'I don't know. Two faggots were doing each other in the bushes beside the lake. I fucking hate that. I told them to get away from my place, but they were too into it, didn't give a damn. Live and let live, I say. So I took off for a while. When I came back one of them was laying there. Looked dead to me.' Pee Wee rattled his foot. The soles of his old sneakers flapped. He had no socks, and his feet were black. April didn't believe a word he was saying.

'How did you know he was dead?' she asked.

'I seen a lotta dead people in my time.'

'You see a girl in a pink sweater?' Woody asked.

Pee Wee shook his head. 'A girl? I didn't see no girl. Just the two faggots. Then the body. I turned away for two seconds and then there warn't no body.'