He freed up two officers who were working on an urgent case to catch a man who had masturbated in front of a few homes early in the mornings and who had tried to sexually assault a young girl as she returned home. Luckily, the girl had resisted and was able to escape. He assigned various tasks to the others. He looked at Duquesne as if he were apologizing that she would have to take a break in her case, and he left another officer and Fernandez in the station to handle any emergencies so that the rest of them could look into the alleged missing man, Richard Kron, who was forty-five. Before leaving, Fernandez and Duquesne exchanged an intuitive look. She knew that he would find the time to keep making calls on the case they were working on together and that they were finally getting some solid clues.
The three days that followed were intense. Maria went to the gym often and kept herself in good shape, but being on a boat or in a helicopter and spending hours with binoculars looking at the immense ocean searching for a body or a survivor was a much more exhausting job than she could have imagined.
On the second day, they found out that the alleged missing person was facing legal charges for money laundering and other crimes. They feared that he might have created a false scenario so that they would presume him dead and he would flee, but it was also possible that they had killed him. They continued the search. On the fourth day, they arrested Kron in a motel in Louisiana on his way to the Mexican border. They had spent about a half million dollars on the investigation because of the fugitive’s little stunt. Maria regretted even more having lost four days of work on her case.
It was already three o’clock in the afternoon when they closed the case, thanked all the officers for their help, and dismissed them. When Maria got home, she was so tired that she fell asleep without listening to messages or checking the mail.
Chapter 19
Day 22—Monday, November 23, 2015
She woke up startled, as if she were going to be late somewhere. The clock showed four o’clock in the morning. She had slept for almost twelve hours and knew that she would never fall back asleep. She listened to her voicemails on both her cellphone and landline. The first one was from her father telling her that he had seen her on TV in a helicopter and that she could have given him a heads up; David was aware of her mission, he wished her luck, and asked her to give him a call him when she could; Lourdes announced she was going to New York; Patrick was going to get in on Wednesday for Thanksgiving but needed to leave early Saturday because there was an important football game back at school, and he asked if he could bring a friend. Maria glanced at the calendar. Thanksgiving was this coming Thursday, four days away. Where would she find the time to buy and cook a turkey? She would have to order it. She was looking forward to seeing her son, but she was anxious to focus on finishing the case. Of course, if Patrick came with a friend, he would take up less of her time… How could I possibly think such a thing, especially with how much I’ve been missing him? On the other hand, if my son were the one who had disappeared, wouldn’t I want a detective who was wholeheartedly devoted to finding him? All these thoughts were swimming in her head while she waited for her black coffee to finish brewing. She would drink it on the way to the office. She realized she was hungry and poured herself a bowl of cereal only to discover that the milk was sour. She ended up eating an energy bar with her coffee.
She opened her laptop and looked through her email. Most of them were unimportant except for three. The first one was from Dr. John Erwin who told her that they had the results of Lazo’s DNA tests; another from Aldo del Pozo, who told her that he wasn’t sure if he remembered the couple but would circulate the sketches around to other people; and the last one, a concise, mysterious, and encouraging message from Fernandez—“Good leads. Call when you can.”
She showered and got dressed even though it was still too early to go into the office or call anyone. She picked up the paper as soon as she heard it land in the front yard. On the front page was a picture of some Cubans in New York who had ended their hunger strike seemingly at the request of some dissidents that claimed they needed them for “the cause.” In the photo, Lourdes appeared smiling and satisfied with Ramon’s arm around her. That didn’t last long! Maria thought to herself sadly. She sympathized with men like Ramon Morales. They were still stuck in the psychological trauma that the Revolution had caused them. Their pain was genuine and along the way, their lives had passed them by.
She felt her phone vibrate with a text message. It was David asking her to call if she was up. It was six thirty. She did so immediately and without even thinking. She had been disconnected from all her loved ones, and it made her happy to talk to people she cared about.
After asking about the failed rescue attempt in the bay, David told her the real reason for his call.
“Listen, the boys are going to be with me for Thanksgiving, and I thought it would be great if your dad, your son, and you could come over too… The three of us are going to cook, and I can’t guarantee how it’ll turn out, but…”
“Patrick’s coming with a friend.”
“No problem, where there’s enough food for six, there’s enough for seven. I’ve already bought a turkey. It’s huge. I just took it out to thaw, and I can marinate it tomorrow.”
“Great, let me ask them and get back to you later. That should be fine…”
Maria liked the idea of not having to fix dinner, but she wasn’t sure if mixing two families was the best idea…or how the boys or even David might interpret it.
At seven o’clock, she called her father knowing that he was an early riser. She told him about the rescue operation and explained she hadn’t called earlier because there wasn’t any cell service.
“Papi, I thought so much about you and the stories you told me during the balseros crisis.”
“Yeah, but it seems like your supposed ‘castaway’ was a son of a…”
“I know. That’s why I’m so mad about all the wasted time and effort…”
“That’s part of the job, mija…”
She asked her father if they should accept David’s invitation for Thanksgiving.
“I’d love to! But offer to make the stuffing for him. Nobody’s tastes better than yours.”
“That’s not it, Papi, it’s just that I don’t know…”
Her father always knew how to read her thoughts.
“Mariita, where’s the harm in two families with boys the same age celebrating dinner together? You’re not signing a contract for life. Don’t fret the small things. David is a good friend and colleague. Whatever happens next is up to God…”
Her father couldn’t see that Maria’s eyes had teared up. She was thankful that in the last few years she could keep having conversations with him that she previously would’ve only had with her mother.
When she got to the office at eight o’clock, Keppler was already at his desk. She poked her head in to greet him, and he invited her in to have a seat.
“Thanks, Mariita. Everyone did good work on this case and even though it looks like we’ve lost some time and resources, there was no other way to do it. I know the pending case is what’s on your mind. Here, this arrived by email from Cuba. I printed it for you to read.”
Keppler handed her some papers.
“Take these to your desk. Sometimes you might have to read between the lines. Let’s see if you read it the same way I did.”
Duquesne carefully read the ten-plus page file. She came to three important conclusions: in effect, Lazo’s real name was Alberto Gonzalez, and he was seventeen when he left Cuba. A year before, he had been expelled from school for “ideological diversionism” and was sent to the fields to work. There were charges pending against him for selling horsemeat. Maria wasn’t sure what the cause of his “ideological diversionism” was. The papers mentioned that he listened to the Beatles, had long hair, wore baggy pants, and that he had put a little paper boat out to sa
il on a puddle of water! All of this seemed more fictitious than any work by Padura, and she thought that if she could avoid it, she’d prefer not to travel to Cuba in the current climate. She thought she had all the information she needed. The couple was blackmailing Lazo (or Gonzalez) because they had provided him with falsified papers when he was young, and he didn’t want his criminal record known, even though the charges against him were absurd. Still, this didn’t prove that they had killed him.
As soon as Fernandez arrived half an hour later, they sat down together to compare notes. From the calls her colleague made they knew that Soledad and her daughter, Sole, had lived in various cities. They never stayed in one for more than two or three years and never left a trace of where they would be going next or a forwarding address. He had finally figured out that El Oso’s real name was Manuel Garcia—or maybe that was yet another alias—and that there had not been any activity on his social security number since 1994. Odalys—the woman who had taken care of Sole—had told Maria that they were living somewhere in the New York area, so Fernandez looked for death certificates and accident and missing persons reports until he finally found the information. Manuel Garcia had died in a strange accident. He had fallen off the ferry from Staten Island to Manhattan. The notice in the newspaper showed the widow with her face covered by a handkerchief and a child with her face hidden in her mother’s jacket. Nevertheless, they identified them as Soledad Garcia and her daughter Soledad Alexandra. This information coincided with the rumors that El Oso had died and explained why Soledad would have left New York so quickly. Maybe she had changed her last name?
Suddenly, an idea emerged from some dark corner of her mind and she called her father:
“Hey Papi, who was the guy known as the ‘King of the Cuban countryside’?”
“Mija, always asking such strange questions…he was a man who kidnapped the rich to take their money and buy weapons during the wars for Independence. Some people thought of him as a hero, others as a bandit.”
“A type of creole Robin Hood…”
“More or less,” her father chuckled.
“What was his name?”
“Manuel Garcia. Why do you ask?”
Now Maria was certain that El Oso had also used an alias.
Chapter 20
Day 23—Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Maria felt content and well rested. Last night she had spoken with Patrick and then accepted David’s invitation.
“You realize you’re going to be the only woman among five guys?”
“As long as you don’t expect me to wash all the dishes…”
“No, none of that, we’re going to spoil you and wait on you, just like you do for everyone else all year long.”
Maria smiled. There was so much enthusiasm in David’s voice! She hung up and went to Publix to buy all the ingredients for the stuffing.
Next, she headed to the station with that same uneasiness in her stomach that she always felt when making progress on a case. She had a feeling that they were going to find the lost girl very soon.
What must he want now? she asked herself when her phone rang, and she saw that it was Bill.
“If you don’t have plans, I would really like it if Patrick spent Thanksgiving with me this year…”
“Sorry Bill, but it’s my turn this year and we have plans.”
“If you’re going to be at home, could I swing by for a bit?”
“No, we won’t be there…”
“And what about your father’s place?”
“He won’t be home either, and besides, I’m done explaining things to you.”
“Don’t be that way. I have the right to know where my son will be spending such an important day… He isn’t old enough to…”
“What? First of all, you don’t have the right. Second, you can’t think that I would take him anywhere dangerous or indecent. And third, you’ve gone your whole life saying he’s old enough to be more independent, and now…”
“Ok, ok I get it… You woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.”
“Not at all. I was perfectly fine until you called. And look, if you want to see him Thanksgiving Day and you can manage to get him up early enough, you two can have breakfast together, but he needs to be back before three o’clock.”
The dinner at David’s house wasn’t until five o’clock, but Maria knew how Bill tended to run late when it came to these things.
“No, I was hoping he could come with me and have dinner somewhere.”
“So he could meet somebody special?” Maria asked maliciously.
“Well, kind of…”
“It’ll have to wait. Maybe he can go Friday… He goes back to school early Saturday for the football game in Gainesville.”
“Come on Maria, this is important to me. I’ll trade you Thanksgiving for Christmas.”
“I would do it if I could Bill, but I also want him to meet someone special, and we’ve already made plans.”
This wasn’t entirely true because Patrick already knew David well, but she wanted to irritate her ex-husband.
“Fine, have a good time!” he yelled and hung up the phone without saying goodbye.
When Maria got to the station, her good mood had changed. And, to make things worse, Fernandez had been assigned to another case and wouldn’t be at the office for the entire day. She had thought about trying to put together a timeline of all their leads and a chronology of everything they already knew, but she preferred to do it with him. What’s more, Fernandez’s handwriting was chicken scratch, and although he had left his notes, it was difficult to read them.
She decided to call Gladys Elena Lazo and to go see her in Hialeah. On the phone, she told her they didn’t have any concrete news, just a few leads, so that she wouldn’t get her hopes up.
At that hour of the morning the woman was alone and welcomed Maria with a traditional Cuban coffee. When they finally sat down, Maria told her point-blank:
“Look Gladys, I’m not going to turn on the recorder. Last time we saw each other, I got the impression that you were hiding something from me. It might seem insignificant to you, but you never know what might be useful in solving the case.”
The woman seemed troubled, but answered firmly.
“I’m not sure why you have that impression. I have no reason to lie to you… What do you think about my mother’s dream?”
“Well, for the police a dream isn’t evidence…but we have other leads. I’d like to ask you something.”
“Yes?”
“We finally received the DNA results for your husband Lazo.”
Maria didn’t want to reveal that his real last name was Gonzalez.
“It took quite a while didn’t it?”
“Yes, but these types of tests can take a long time and that’s why I wanted to ask for your authorization for someone to come tomorrow at a time that works for you to take a DNA sample from your saliva.”
“What for?” asked the woman with a touch of uneasiness in her voice.
“Well, I don’t want to give you any false hopes, but if we find someone who we think could be your daughter, before you can know for sure, we have to run DNA tests to confirm that you and Lazo are her parents. The wait will be shorter if we already have your DNA. Perhaps you could also give me something of the baby’s to extract DNA. Maybe if you have a little hairbrush?”
“But have you found someone?”
“Not yet.”
“Then?”
“This is so we can be prepared.”
“It’s not a problem, they can come tomorrow.”
The woman had a worried look on her face and Maria didn’t want to leave until she found out what secret she was hiding.
Indeed, after an awkward silence, the woman covered her face with her hands and began sobbing.
Maria
let her cry for a moment before saying:
“I can’t even imagine the stress and pain over all these years… I didn’t want to give you any false hope…”
Finally, Gladys stood up, left the room, and returned blowing her nose with a Kleenex and confidentially, told Maria:
“You’re a wonderful detective. It’s true, I haven’t told you the whole truth. No one knows what I’m about to tell you, not a single soul.”
“Tell me, I won’t record it or take notes. I’m only going to keep in mind what can help me with the case.”
“The baby isn’t Ray’s…”
Maria wasn’t surprised. What’s more, she suspected it from the beginning.
“Is it your husband’s?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Instincts that we develop as detectives… Tell me what happened and why you’ve lied for all these years.”
“Well, I was a virgin, but on the night before I left Cuba, Mauricio and I made love for the first time. When I realized I was pregnant, I didn’t know what to do. My mother hadn’t come from Cuba yet, and Raulito and I were alone in this country. I learned that Mauricio was going out with someone else and, in any case, how was he going to help me all the way from Pinar del Rio? That’s when I met Ray. I wasn’t sure if I should tell you, but he was so in love with me and so anxious to protect me that I didn’t think twice about getting married to him. That’s why people thought the baby was born early. I couldn’t have told my mother because she still believed in the old-fashioned ways, that women should be virgins when they get married. Besides, she would’ve told Mauricio. Ray was so happy with the little girl…and later, after they disappeared and Mauricio finally came here and we got married, how was I going to tell him? He would’ve thought I didn’t know how to take care of our daughter… He would’ve held it against me for not telling him… In the long run, I thought it was better to continue with the lie. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do. Maybe if he had known she was his, he would’ve helped me with the search all these years.”
The Miracle of Saint Lazarus Page 11