Promise Me

They said good-byes, did the hug-n-kiss thing again. When he pulled away, he felt as if he were abandoning them, as if they were going to hold off the enemy on their own while he drove to safety. Having aging parents sucked; but as Esperanza, who lost both parents young, often pointed out, it was better than the alternative.

Once in the elevator, Myron checked his cell phone. Aimee had still not called him back. He tried her number again and was not surprised when it went to voice mail. Enough, he thought. He would just call her house. See what’s what.

Aimee’s voice came to him: “You promised…”

He dialed Erik and Claire’s home number. Claire answered. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s Myron.”

“Hi.”

“What’s happening?”

“Not much,” Claire said.

“I saw Erik this morning”—man, was it really the same day? — “and he told me about Aimee getting accepted to Duke. So I wanted to offer up my congratulations.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Is she there?”

“No, not right now.”

“Can I call her later?”

“Yeah, sure.”

Myron changed gears. “Everything okay? You sound a little distracted.”

He was about to say more but again Aimee’s words—“You promised you wouldn’t tell my parents”—floated down to him.

“Fine, I guess,” Claire said. “Look, I gotta go. Thanks for writing that recommendation letter.”

“No big deal.”

“Very big deal. The kids ranked four and seven in her class both applied and didn’t get in. You were the difference.”

“I doubt it. Aimee’s a great candidate.”

“Maybe, but thanks anyway.”

There was a grumbling noise in the background. Sounded like Erik.

In his mind, there was Aimee’s voice again: “Things aren’t so great with them right now.” Myron was trying to think of something else to say, a follow-up question maybe, when Claire hung up the phone.

Loren Muse had landed a fresh homicide case — double homicide, actually, two men shot outside a nightclub in East Orange. Rumor was that the killings were a hit carried out by John “The Ghost” Asselta, a notorious hitman who’d actually been born and raised in the area. Asselta had been quiet for the past few years. If he was back, they were about to be very busy.

Loren was reviewing the ballistics report when her private line rang. She picked up and said, “Muse.”

“Guess who?”

She smiled. “Lance Banner, you old dog. Is that you?”

“It is.”

Banner was a police officer in Livingston, New Jersey, the suburb where they’d both grown up.

“To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“You still investigating Katie Rochester’s disappearance?”

“Not really,” she said.

“Why not?”

“For one thing, there’s no evidence of violence. For another, Katie Rochester is over eighteen.”

“Just barely.”

“In the eyes of the law, eighteen might as well be eighty. So officially we don’t even have an investigation going on.”

“And unofficially?”

“I met with a doctor named Edna Skylar.” She recounted Edna’s story, using almost the same words she’d used when she’d told her boss, county prosecutor Ed Steinberg. Steinberg had sat there for a long while before predictably concluding: “We don’t have the resources to go after such a maybe.”

When she finished, Banner asked, “How did you get the case in the first place?”

“Like I said, there was no case, really. She’s of age, no signs of violence, you know the drill. So no one was assigned. Jurisdiction is questionable anyway. But the father, Dominick, he made a lot of noise with the press, you probably saw it, and he knew someone who knows someone, and that led to Steinberg….”

“And that led to you.”

“Right. The key word being led. As in past tense.”

Lance Banner asked, “Do you have ten minutes to spare?”

“Did you hear about that double homicide in East Orange?”

“I did.”

“I’m the lead.”

“As in the present tense of led?”

“You got it.”

“I figured that,” Banner said. “It’s why I’m only asking for ten minutes.”

“Important?” she asked.

“Let’s just say”—he stopped, thinking of the word—“very odd.”

“And it involves Katie Rochester’s disappearance?”

“Ten minutes max, Loren. That’s all I’m asking for. Heck, I’ll take five.”

She checked her watch. “When?”

“I’m in the lobby of your building right now,” he said. “Can you get us a room?”

“For five minutes? Sheesh, your wife wasn’t kidding about your bedroom stamina.”

“Dream on, Muse. Hear that ding? I’m stepping into the elevator. Get the room ready.”

Livingston police detective Lance Banner had a crew cut. He was big with features and a build that made you think of right angles. Loren had known him since elementary school and she still couldn’t get that image out of her head, of what he looked like back then. That’s how it is with kids you grew up with. You always see them as second-graders.

Loren watched him hesitate when he entered, unsure how to greet her — a kiss on the cheek or a more professional handshake. She took the lead and pulled him toward her and kissed his cheek. They were in an interrogation room, and they both headed for the interrogator seat. Banner pulled up, raised both hands, sat across from her.

“Maybe you should Mirandize me,” he said.

“I’ll wait until I have enough for an arrest. So what have you got on Katie Rochester?”

“No time for chitchat, eh?”

She just looked at him.

“Okay, okay, let’s get to it then. Do you know a woman named Claire Biel?”

“No.”

“She lives in Livingston,” Banner said. “She would have been Claire Garman when we were kids.”

“Still no.”

“She was older than us anyway. Four, five years probably.” He shrugged. “I was just checking.”

“Uh-huh,” Loren said. “Do me a favor, Lance. Pretend I’m your wife and skip the foreplay.”

“Fine, here it is. She called me this morning. Claire Biel. Her daughter went out last night and hasn’t come home.”

“How old is she?”

“She just turned eighteen.”