York swallowed, looked toward the father. 'Mr. Perez?'
He managed a nod, cleared his throat. 'There's not even much of a resemblance.' His eyes closed and another quake ran across his face. 'It’s just…'
'It’s the right age,' Mrs. Perez finished for him.
York said, 'I'm not sure I follow.'
'When you lose a son like that, you always wonder. For us, he'll be forever a teenager. But if he had lived, he would be, yes, the same age as this husky man. So you wonder what he'd be like. Would he be married? Have children? What would he look like?'
'And you're certain this man isn't your son?'
She smiled the saddest smile I had ever seen. 'Yes, Detective, I am certain.' York nodded. 'I'm sorry to bring you out here.' They began to turn away when I said, 'Show them the arm.' Everyone turned in my direction. Mrs. Perez's laser gaze zeroed in on me. There was something there, a strange sense of cunning, a challenge maybe. Mr. Perez spoke first.
'Who are you?' he asked.
I had my eyes on Mrs. Perez. Her sad smile returned. 'You're the Copeland boy, aren't you?'
Yes, maam.
'Camille Copeland's brother.'
'Yes.'
'Are you the one who made the identification?'
I wanted to explain about the clippings and the ring, but it felt as though I was running out of time. 'The arm,' I said. 'Gil had that awful scar on his arm.'
She nodded. 'One of our neighbors kept llamas. He had a barbed-wire fence. Gil was always a good climber. He tried to get into the pen when he was eight years old. He slipped and the wire dug deep into his shoulder.' She turned to her husband. 'How many stitches did he need, Jorge?'
Jorge Perez had the sad smile now too. 'Twenty-two.'
That was not the story Gil had told us. He had weaved a tale about a knife fight that sounded like something out of a bad production of West Side Story. I hadn't believed him then, even as a kid, so this inconsistency hardly surprised me.
'I remembered it from camp,' I said. I gestured with my chin back toward the glass. 'Look at his arm.'
Mr. Perez shook his head. 'But we already said-'
His wife put a hand up, quieting him. No question about it. She was the leader here. She nodded in my direction before turning back to the glass. 'Show me,' she said.
Her husband looked confused, but he joined her at the window. This time she took his hand and held it. The bearded man had already wheeled the gurney away. York knocked on the glass. The bearded man startled upright. York beckoned him to bring the gurney back toward the window. He did.
I moved closer to Mrs. Perez. I could smell her perfume. It was vaguely familiar, but I didn't remember from where. I stood maybe a foot behind them, looking between their heads.
York hit the white intercom button. 'Please show them his arms.'
The bearded man pulled back the sheet, again using that gentle, respectful technique. The scar was there, an angry slash. A smile returned to Mrs. Perez's face, but what type, sad, happy, confused, fake, practiced, spontaneous?, I couldn't say.
'The left,' she said. 'What?' She turned to me. 'This scar is on the left arm,' she said. 'Gil's was on the right. And Gil's wasn't that long or deep.'
Mrs. Perez turned to me and put a hand on my arm. 'It's not him, Mr. Copeland. I understand why you'd so much want it to be Gil. But it's not. He isn't coming back to us. And neither is your sister.'
Chapter 6
When I got back to my house, Loren Muse was pacing like a lion near a wounded gazelle. Cara was in the backseat. She had dance class in an hour. I wasn't taking her. Our nanny, Estelle, was back today. She drove. I overpay Estelle and don't care. You find someone good who also drives? You pay them whatever they want.
I pulled into my driveway. The house was a three-bedroom split-level that had all the personality of that morgue corridor. It was supposed to be our 'starter' house. Jane had wanted to upgrade to a McMansion, maybe in Franklin Lakes. I didn't care much where we lived. I'm not into houses or cars and would pretty much let Jane have her way on that kind ofstuff.
I missed my wife.
Loren Muse had a something-eating grin locked onto her face. No poker player was Muse, that was for certain. 'I got all the bills. Computer records too. The works.' Then she turned to my daughter. 'Hi, Cara.'
'Loren!' Cara shouted. She jumped out of the car. Cara liked Muse. Muse was good with kids. Muse had never been married, never had any of her own. A few weeks ago I met her most recent boyfriend. The guy wasn't in her league, but that again seemed to be the norm for single women of a certain age.
Muse and I spread everything out on the den floor-witness statements, police reports, phone records, all the fraternity's bills. We started with the frat bills, and man, there were a ton. Every cell phone. Every beer order. Every online purchase.
'So,' Muse said, 'what are we looking for?' 'Damned if I know.' 'I thought you had something.' 'Just a feeling.'
'Oh, gag me. Please don't tell me you're playing a hunch.' 'I would never,' I said. We kept looking.
'So,' she said, 'basically we're going through these papers looking for a sign saying, 'Big Clue This Way'?' 'We are looking,' I said, 'for a catalyst.' 'Good word. In what way?'
'I don't know, Muse. But the answer is here. I can almost see it.' 'Ooookay,' she said, managing with great effort not to roll her eyes. So we searched. They ordered pizza pretty much every night, eight pies, from Pizza-To-Go, directly billed to their credit card. They had Netflix so that they could rent regular DVD movies, three at a time delivered to your door, and something called HotFlixxx, so they could do the same with dirty ones. They ordered fraternity frat-logo golf shirts. The frat logo was also on golf balls, tons of them.
We tried to put them in some kind of order. I don't have a clue why. I lifted the HotFlixxx bill and showed it to Muse. 'Cheap,' I said. 'The Internet makes porn readily accessible and thus affordable to the masses.'
'Good to know,' I said.
'But this might be an opening,' Muse said.
'What is?'
'Young boys, hot women. Or in this case, woman.'
'Explain,' I said.
'I want to hire someone outside the office.'
'Who?'
'A private eye named Cingle Shaker. Have you heard of her?'
I nodded. I had.
'Forget heard,' she said. 'Have you seen her?'
'No.'
'But you've heard?'
'Yeah,' I said. 'I've heard.'
'Well, it’s no exaggeration. Cingle Shaker has a body that not only stops traffic, it pulls up the road and bulldozes highway dividers. And she's very good. If anyone can get lawyered-up frat boys to spill, it's Cingle.'
'Okay,' I said.
Hours later-I can't even tell you how many, Muse started to rise. 'There's nothing here, Cope.' 'Seems that way, doesn't it?' 'You have Chamique's direct first thing in the morning?' 'Yes.' She stood over me. 'Your time would be better spent working on that.'
I did a mock 'yes, sir' salute in her direction. Chamique and I had worked on her testimony already, but not as hard as one might imagine. I didn't want her to sound practiced. I had another strategy in mind.
'I'll get you what I can,' Muse said.
She stomped out the door in her best lick-da-world mode.
Estelle made us all dinner, spaghetti and meatballs. Estelle is not a great cook, but it went down. I took Cara out for Van Dyke's ice cream afterward, a special treat. She was chattier now. In the rearview mirror, I could see her strapped into the car seat. When I was a kid, we were allowed to sit in the front seat. Now you had to be of drinking age before that was permissible.
I tried to listen to what she was saying but Cara was just yakking pure nonsense the way kids do. It seems Brittany had been mean to Morgan so Kyle threw an eraser and how come Kylie, not Kylie G, Kylie N – there were two Kylies in her class, how come Kylie N didn't want to go on the swings at recess unless Kiera was on one too? I kept glancing at her animated face, scrunched up as though imitating an adult. I got hit with that overwhelming feeling. It sneaked up on me. Parents get it from time to time. You are looking at your child and it is an ordinary moment, not like they are onstage or hitting a winning shot, just sitting there and you look at them and you know that they are your whole life and that moves you and scares you and makes you want to stop time.
I had lost a sister. I had lost a wife. And most recently, I had lost my father. In all three cases I had gotten off the canvas. But as I looked at Cara, at the way she talked with her hands and widened her eyes, I knew that there was indeed one blow from which I could never rise.
I thought about my father. In the woods. With that shovel. His heart broken. Searching for his little girl. I thought about my mother. She had run away. I didn't know where she was. Sometimes I still think about searching her out. But not that often anymore. For years I had hated her. Maybe I still do. Or maybe now that I have a child I understand a little better about the pain she must have been going through.
When we walked back into the house, the phone rang. Estelle took Cara from me. I picked it up and said hello. 'We got a problem, Cope.'
