Afterward Laura grasped his arm. Even in grief she was a beautiful woman. 'Thank God you made it, Frank. You know how she adored you.
And then clinging to him, sobbing: 'What am I going to do without her? I can't imagine. I just can't imagine…
Outside, Janek hustled Laura into the lead limo, while Stanton walked over to the waiting press, stood stoically in the rain and addressed their microphones: 'Please, ladies and gentlemen, please give us some room for our grief.
In Queens, at the cemetery, just after they left the car, Stanton motioned Janek aside. Gravestones covered the bleak wet earth as far as the eye could see. Stanton's face, always strong, sometimes arrogant, looked weak and blotchy in the rain. His gestures, normally poised, were angular and abrupt. 'Find the animal who did this, Frank. Promise me you'll find him and bring him in.'
Janek became aware then of a new wave of pain. It rose out of the center of his belly and spread across his chest. He thought: Just think of yourself as a detective and then maybe a little of this hurt will go away.
'I'll do my best, Stanton. But you know how these things go. '
As Stanton stared at him outraged, Janek felt ashamed; what he'd said sounded so impotent. But then Stanton nodded. He understood. to live in New York was to understand all too well the vagaries of the criminal justice system and the cheap price of young human life.
When Janek met Aaron at 6:00 P.m. in the lobby of the Two-Six Precinct, he didn't have to ask for his opinion of Detective Boyce.
Aaron offered it by seesawing his hands. 'Tell you this, Frank, he ain't no Sherlock Holmes.'
Aaron continued imparting his impression as they mounted the precinct house stairs. 'He's pissed off. He denies it, but I can tell.
Chief Kopta told him you're the godfather, so naturally he's going to extend you every courtesy. But see, for Boyce a front-page homicide like this is a chance to make a big impression. Then the famous Janek walks in. He's afraid of you, Frank, afraid you'll steal his case.'
Janek's own first impression was that Boyce wasn't so much dumb as slow.
He had a beer belly and not much hair. He'd combed a few thin brown wisps back carefully across his skull as if he thought they might cover his baldness and make him more attractive-but they didn't. The base of his face had a kind of squared-off look that reminded Janek of the bottom of a paper bag. But though his manner did not proclaim great brilliance, Janek recognized a predatory look. Aaron was right:
This was a mediocre detective inflamed by a stroke of luck. The Jessica Foy case could be just the break he'd been waiting for for twenty years,
'I understand your special relationship to the victim, Lieutenant,'
Boyce began, 'but let's not start off on the wrong foot. She's your goddaughter, but she's my case. Long as that's clear, we'll get along.'
Jesus! Janek thought, but he kept his anger to himself. He knew that sooner or later a man who talked like that would blunder his way into Kit Kopta's bad graces.
'What do you really know about her?'
'Me?'
'You're her godfather, so I figured-'
This time Janek didn't bother to control his temper. 'N'at the fuck, Boyce! I know a million things about her. What are you looking for me to say?' 'Know much about her social life?'
'What about her social life?' Now Boyce was wearing a cagey look, as if he had knowledge and it wasn't nice.
Aaron casually picked up Boyce's nameplate and tested it for strength.
'Way you're acting, Ray, someone might think you're taunting the lieutenant here. Not a good idea, Ray. Why not just tell Janek what you got?' Boyce shrugged. 'I got a diary.' He reached into his center drawer, pulled out a stenographer's notebook, and tossed it casually on the desk. 'Read it, Janek. You may learn some things about her you didn't know.' He headed for the door. 'I'm going around the corner for coffee. Stick it back in the drawer when you're finished, okay?'
After Boyce left, Janek stared at the notebook, then cautiously reached for it. The sight of Jess's handwriting brought back memories of the sharp, funny postcards she'd send him whenever she traveled. He handed the notebook over to Aaron. 'Sure, I'll read it, Frank,' Aaron said.
Janek found Boyce hunched over a chipped Formica table in the back section of a dingy coffee shop around the corner from the precinct house. During the day the place was frequented by detectives. Now Boyce was the only cop there. Boyce didn't look up as Janek approached, which gave Janek a chance to observe him. Boyce looked older and more tired then he had in his office. Janek felt a tinge of pity. He has to wake up every morning and know he's Boyce, he thought.
'Okay, Ray,' he said, sitting down uninvited, '.'I know you resent me.
You saw the miniseries and you thought it sucked. Maybe it did. Who the hell cares? Right now I'm hurting. I've lost someone I loved.
So tell me what's on your mind. Who did this to her? Tell me what you think.'
When Boyce finally looked up, Janek wasn't sure he'd cut into him very deep. But he knew he'd broken skin; Boyce was ready to show a human face.
'She was an honors student.' Boyce waited for Janek to nod. 'And a member of the women's fencing team.' Janek nodded again. 'She was tops, okay? Beautiful girl, full of life, popular, ace student, competitive athlete what more could you ask? But there was a side that was unexpected. A strange unstable personal life. Boyfriends, but they weren't quite her style, she being so fastidious and all. Okay, last spring she takes up with a rich kid name of Greg Gale. And he introduces her into his crowd, where they dabble in highs-a little dope here, a mind game or two there, weird sex all the time. to get in with these kids, you have to be initiated. The initiation is you have sex blindfolded with one of them while the rest of the group watches the ceremony. Reading her diary, you get the impression she got off on it, like she wanted to roll a little in the dirt.'
Janek nodded, but every word stung. Jess, blindfolded, having sex with a stranger before an audience-the image pierced his heart.
'… but then, see, over the summer, she decides to straighten out. So early this fall, she starts going to a shrink.
Then, about the same time, she breaks up with Gale. Pretty bitterly, too, it sounds like. No, I haven't talked to him. You're thinking: Why the hell not? That's the first thing I'd do. I got no answer for you, Janek, except that's not my way. Call me methodical. I like to lay the groundwork. I don't like going in asking questions till I have a pretty fair idea what the answers are going to be. A guy like Gale whose parents have bucks-I may get one crack at him before the family lawyer butts in. Understand what I'm saying?'
Janek nodded again. He understood very well.
'Thing is, Janek, people dabble in weird sex, maybe they dabble in murder, too. So this group she was going with is going to get looked at. They're going to get a very close look from me.'
Janek sat back, shook his head. 'I don't get it. I thought this was a random park murder.' 'So did I at first. Now it turns out there's oddities.' 'Like what?' Boyce hesitated. 'Something was done to her. Afterwards.' 'What was done to her?' Boyce looked uncomfortable. 'Let's go back to my office. I'll show you the medical examiner's report and the photographs.'
Janek declined. 'Just tell me about it, Ray.'
Again Boyce seemed hesitant. 'She was glued.'
'Glued! How?'
'Guy who killed her-maybe he had a little caulking gun. After she was dead, he pumped glue into her, into an intimate area, know what I mean? It's like he was trying to, you know@lose off that part of her…
Close off! Janek felt sick to his stomach.
When they returned to Boyce's office, Aaron was waiting and Jess's notebook was back on the desk.
Janek gestured toward the notebook. 'Do me a favor, Ray. I want the family protected. Make sure nothing in there gets leaked.'
'Yeah,' Boyce said, 'but you know how it is. Stuff like that has a way of getting around.'
'I'm asking you, don't let it get around.'
