by Blake Banner
I smiled. “My personal feelings? You mean the way he comes on to you?”
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“Of course it does. And it bothers me how close you are to the model of his victim of choice. And it bothers me that you can’t see that.” I glanced at her. “But it doesn’t bother me enough to cloud my judgment. We’ll follow the evidence, Dehan. Wherever it may lead. And if I am wrong, so be it.”
We didn’t touch on the subject again, though it played on my mind all the way to Berwick, and by the time we had pulled into East 8th Street and parked outside Elisa Fernandez’s house, I was still no clearer in my mind as to the explanation for Wayne’s apparently paradoxical behavior.
From the front the house looked like a cute, clapboard cottage, with a veranda cluttered with potted flowers and plants, a white, wrought iron table and a couple of rocking chairs. It was set in a broad expanse of lawn, with an uneven paved path that led through it to the house.
The door opened before we reached it and a woman who was no more than five foot two, with neat, permed silver hair and a face that was still pretty but must once have been beautiful, greeted us with large, smiling brown eyes.
I returned the smile. “Mrs. Fernandez?”
“That’s me.” She had no accent. “You the police from New York?”
We showed her our badges. She glanced at them and said, “Come on in. I made some lemonade for you, but you can have coffee if you’d rather.”
Lemonade sounded good and we told her so. She had a living room cum diner that was spotlessly clean and neat. Every cushion and every ornament was positioned with precision, and there was not a trace of a crease or dust anywhere. She sat us at the dining table where, I guessed, she thought we’d cause the minimum of disruption to her order, and went to the kitchen. She came back with a large glass jug of lemonade on a tray and three glasses. When she had poured and mopped up the drips she sat and looked at us. She had a smile fixed in place, but you could see the fear and apprehension in her eyes. It was the expression of a person who has become habituated to being hurt by life, and is just waiting for the next blow to fall.
I took a deep breath and made eye contact. “Mrs. Fernandez, I’m afraid I have very bad news for you. We have found your daughter Angela, and she is dead.”
She gave a small gasp and crossed herself. Her eyes went red and spilled tears. She took a handkerchief, dabbed her eyes and blew her nose. “It’s OK,” she said. “She is with the Good Lord. I’ve known for a long time that He had taken her.”
Dehan frowned. “How did you know that?”
She shrugged and smiled again, like the answer was obvious. “She would have called, or written. She was such a good girl. She was a saint. She was too good for this world. That is why the Lord took her. When a week went by, I knew it was serious. After two weeks, I knew something real bad had happened. After a month, I knew she was dead.” She reached out and covered Dehan’s hand with her own. “When you called I knew you were coming to tell me you had found her. She is with God, and with the angels, my little Angel.”
Suddenly she was sobbing violently, with her eyes closed and the handkerchief pressed over her mouth. She didn’t say anything, just made wrenching, visceral noises while she sat, stiff and erect, weeping into her neatly folded handkerchief. Dehan pulled her chair over and sat with her arm around her shoulder, not saying anything, just holding her gently. I wondered for a moment what Mo and the guys at the station would make of it: Carmen Dehan, the cop nobody wanted to work with because she had such a bad attitude.
After a while, the sobbing subsided and Elisa began to take deep, shaky breaths. She opened her eyes and put her hand over Dehan’s again. “Thank you,” she said. “I’m OK now. The Lord sends these trials to test us, but I know my Angela is with him, in Heaven.” She braced herself and said, “You had better tell me what happened.”
Dehan answered. “She was murdered, Mrs. Fernandez. I am so sorry…”
She shook her head. “I knew she would be. I told her not to go to New York. She was an innocent. I gave her my mother’s cross to protect her. But it was no good. Please, don’t tell me the details. I don’t want to know. Just tell me, was it quick?”
I nodded and told a small, white lie. I said, “It was quick, Mrs. Fernandez, and she was unconscious.”
“Thank the Lord for his mercy.”
“Why was she in New York?”
She stared at the white tablecloth, at the place mat on which her glass was standing. For a moment I wondered if she had heard my question. Then she said, “She went to live with her boyfriend. I advised her not to. Father Byrne advised her not to also. But she said they were going to get married, just not yet. She told me not to worry, that everything was going to be OK.”
Dehan took out her notebook and her pen. “What was her boyfriend’s name, Mrs. Fernandez?”
“He was a local boy, Irish. Good boy, I liked him. Michael.” She gave a small laugh. “The Irish have so many beautiful names, but they only ever use four! Sean, Patrick, Michael and James.” Her eyes drifted to the window. “Michael Shine. He was so in love with her. Every man who met her fell in love with her. She was so beautiful, and good and kind.”
Dehan asked, “So Michael moved to New York?”
“He worked for a bank, here in Berwick. I can’t remember which one. But he applied for a better job in New York, with a big bank, maybe HSBC, I can’t remember. It wasn’t a magnificent job, but for his age, you know, it was good. So he moved to New York.”
I asked, “How long ago was this?”
“It was the beginning of March, 2016. And on April second she went to join him.”
Dehan was frowning at her pad. “So let me be sure I have this right. Angela went to live with Michael in New York on April second, 2016?”
“That’s correct.” She nodded.
I scratched my head. “Is Michael still there?”
“Yes, he still writes to me, old fashioned letters because I don’t use a computer. At Christmas he comes to see me, too.”
“Could you give us his address? We are going to need to talk to him.”
“935 C, Castle Hill Avenue. He has the top floor of one of those big red brick houses. She was very excited because it was next door to the public library, and she loved to read.” She took a deep breath. “I am sorry, Detectives. This is very difficult for me. The thing is, she didn’t stay with Michael. That is, she stayed with him for only about three weeks.”
I was surprised and my face said so. “Oh?”
“Apparently she met somebody else. I am ashamed to admit it. It was certainly not the behavior I would have expected from her, and I am at a loss to explain it, but that is what happened. She moved out of Michael’s apartment and moved in with this new man.”
“Who was this new man, Mrs. Fernandez?”
“I have no idea.”
I leaned forward, with my elbows on the table. “I want you to think very carefully, because this could be of vital importance. Is it possible that Michael was mistreating Angela? Was he hurting her? Is that why she moved out?”
“Oh, Lord no! Not at all. She said she felt very bad for him because he had been such a saint and a gentleman, but she had met another man and she had fallen head over heels in love with him. And he with her. And it would be wrong to stay with Michael when she felt that way about this other man…”
“A name, Mrs. Fernandez, she must have mentioned a name.”
“She did, just a first name. She said she would write me with more details of her new address, and they would come and see me, but I never heard from her again.”
Dehan said, “The name?”
She stared out the window for a long time. I was about to ask again, but she took another deep breath and looked down at the table, biting her lip. “I’ll never forget the name as long as I live, but it makes me sick to my stomach to say it. Jimmy. The man who killed my daughter is called Jimmy.”
TEN
/> We left her a little while later. She had called friends who were going to come over and spend the evening with her. Dehan rested her ass on the hood of the Jag and pulled out her cell while I unlocked the door. She dialed and waited, squinting in the afternoon sun. After a moment she said, “Hey, Teddy, it’s Detective Dehan, remember me?” She waited, sucking her teeth and looking up at the sky. “Yeah, OK, listen, Teddy…” He obviously kept talking because she paused, then repeated, “Teddy, listen to me. We really need that information. It has become a matter of extreme urgency, you understand me? I need to know Jimmy’s last known address by tonight… Good, that’s what I wanted to hear. You’re a good man, Teddy. Bye.”
I smiled as she opened the door and climbed in. “He was real busy,” she said. Then she eyed me up and down. “It’s looking like Jimmy, Sensei.”
I turned the key and the engine roared into life. “It always did, Little Grasshopper. It always did.” As we pulled away I said, “You want to call Shine and ask him to come in tomorrow? Early as he can. I want to talk to him before the DA arranges a deal for Wayne.”
“You still think Wayne is our guy…”
“I don’t think anything, Dehan. There are things about Wayne and his testimony that don’t make sense.” I smiled at her without rancor and added, “And honestly, I think the inspector, the DA and you are jumping at the easy solution. There are things here that don’t make sense, and I want them explained.”
“Like the place where he says he was lying…”
“Amongst others. I’d also like to know why these girls kept falling in love and giving themselves body and soul to a guy who was, and I quote, ‘not the sort of guy you’d notice’.” I glanced at her. “That from Pam and Teddy. Well, so far, this guy you wouldn’t look twice at has got three attractive young ladies to A, fall out with her best friend so she could see him at the bar and then arrange to meet him Saturday instead of going home to Mom; B, spend a naughty weekend with him in the belief he could get her a job and C, leave her boyfriend so she could move in with him because it was love at first sight. Now, I want you to tell me something, and I want you to be really honest.”
“Oh God, what?”
“Wayne Harris, is he sexually fascinating?”
“No.”
“Be honest, Dehan. I am not asking you, personally, if you find him attractive. I am talking in general. Has he got sexual magnetism?”
She sighed. “OK, Stone, I guess to some women that kind of uninhibited, predatory bad boy stuff might be a turn on.”
“And he is intelligent enough to put himself across as a misunderstood good guy.”
“Yes. But it still does not explain, A, why he would implicate himself and B, as I keep telling you, he has no record of this kind of crime. You are fixating on him, Stone. What is it? Do you feel jealous or threatened by him?”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Should I?”
“Good Lord, Stone! No!”
“Then I don’t.” I frowned. “Hey, we’re investigating. We’re following the leads where they take us. Have I done anything unprofessional at any stage?”
“No. No you haven’t, not at all. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“What was the last thing I asked you to do?”
She sighed. “Call Shine.”
“And what is the first thing I am going to ask him?”
She was beginning to look pissed. “I don’t know Stone, what?”
“Seriously? What would you ask?”
“Where can we find Jimmy?”
“And that is what I am going to ask him. And as soon as we get the information from Teddy, we are going to see if they are in fact one and the same Jimmy. Is there anything irrational, negligent or unprofessional about that plan?”
“No, Stone! OK! You made your point!”
“So call.”
She stared at me. I ignored her and after a moment she found the number and made the call. He agreed to come into the station first thing in the morning and she hung up. She stared out the window for ten minutes at the passing countryside, then said, “Stone, don’t get mad at me. We don’t get mad at each other.”
I smiled at her. She smiled back. “I’m not mad at you, Dehan. Forget about us for a minute, be as objective as you can be, as a detective, an investigator, OK?” She nodded. “What made you ask me if I felt jealous or threatened?”
“C’mon, Stone! Let it go!”
“Be objective. You’re not my… whatever you are. Just stand back and examine it. What made you ask that?”
She sighed and after a while she shook her head. “I don’t know. It was a stupid question.”
“You’re still thinking like Carmen Dehan in love with the enigmatic and irresistible Detective John Stone.”
“Yeah? Am I?”
“What made you ask it was that, unconsciously, you were acknowledging that he is a very magnetic, sexual animal that is capable of seducing women and making men feel threatened. Something in which he is the polar opposite of Jimmy the barman.”
I glanced at her. She was staring fixedly at the dashboard. After a while she nodded several times with her lips pursed. “Yup. You’re right.” She looked at me. “You can do that, can’t you?”
“What?”
“Disconnect like that. Ignore your emotions. Be objective.”
“Yes.”
She thought about it, then said, “But I still think you’re wrong. He’s a scumbag, but he is not our guy. Maybe there are two Jimmies and the second one is irresistible. But Wayne is not the guy.”
“Let’s see where the evidence leads us, Carmensita.”
And we drove on, into the gathering dusk.
* * *
Michael Shine was small and thin, with floppy blond hair and an agreeable face, and heels that tapped energetically when he walked. He wore a suit that was not expensive, but did not look cheap, and you could tell he had already decided at twenty-one exactly where he wanted to be at thirty-one. Now, at twenty-six he was about half way there and looking pleased with himself. As we came into the interrogation room he smiled without warmth and said, “I have to tell you, detectives, right off, I haven’t seen Angela, or heard from her, in over two years.”
We sat opposite him and Dehan said, “Yeah, you guys broke up, right?”
He shook his head emphatically. “No. She broke up with me. I didn’t break up with her.”
She frowned. “Her mom told us you two were crazy about each other.”
“That’s what I thought. But the fact is you just don’t know people till you live with them, and even then you can’t be sure. I wouldn’t tell Elisa this because to her Angela was, well, just that, an angel. But the truth is, as soon as she arrived in New York she began to change. Seems she was only using me.”
I said, “Using you for what?”
“To get away from home. Elisa is a sweet lady, but man!” He laughed. “She is really controlling!” He nodded several times, watching us, still smiling. “She is one controlling woman. You know? She’ll have you sit at the dining table so you don’t mess up the cushions on the couch. If you go to have dinner at her house, if she knows you at all, she’ll have you eat in the kitchen so’s not to mess the table. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. She controlled every aspect of Angela’s life. And I guess that included me. Elisa wanted Angela to marry an Irish Catholic, so Angela picked me, took me home, got me approved by her mom, and right away started telling me we should move out of Berwick to New York.”
Dehan leaned back in her chair. “So, you are telling me that Angela only moved in with you to get away from her mother.”
“That’s the way it seemed to me! I think we’d lived together for a week, maybe ten days, when I first noticed she was seeing another guy.”
“How was that?”
“It was Saturday morning. I’d been to the gym. I usually have a good work out on Saturday morning.” He gave a smile that was rueful and shook his head. “It’ll show you
what a sap I was. I was just starting my routine and I thought, ‘What the hell! I got the most beautiful girl in the world, just moved in with me, and I’m working out at the gym? I’m going home, and I’m going to take her out for lunch in Manhattan!’ See the sights. Have a magical day to remember. So I get in the car and I’m driving up Zerega, and I pass a bar, and who the hell do I see in the window, but Angela, sitting with a guy. Deep in conversation. You know, like they had a lot to talk about.”
I said, “What did this guy look like?”
He shrugged. “Hard to say. It was fleeting and I was looking at her.”
“So what happened?”
“Well, at that stage I was still crazy about her and trusted her. So I parked the car and called her, and I said, ‘Baby, I’m not doing my workout today. I’m going to take you out on the town.’ ‘Oh, don’t do that!’ she says. ‘Don’t do that just for me. You need your workouts.’ So I say, ‘Well, I’ve already left. I’m at home. I’m just wondering what you’re doing.’ Because I’m beginning to think maybe there’s something wrong. And she says, ‘Well, I’m at the hairdresser. I won’t be home for another hour at least.’ And then I knew she was cheating on me.”
Dehan asked him, “What did you do?”
“I said, ‘Baby, I want you to come home right now ’cause I’ve got something real important I need to talk to you about.’ And she could tell from my voice that it was serious. So she came right home. And I told her I had seen her at the bar and I had seen her with a man. And I wanted to know why she had lied to me, and who that man was.”
I held up a hand. “Before we go on, Mr. Shine, what was the name of the bar?”
“Oh, Teddy’s All Night Bar.”
“And the man you had seen her with, was this Jimmy?”
“That’s what she said. She said she only lied because she didn’t think I would understand. There was nothing romantic or sexual between them. He was just offering her a job.”