Most Wanted

45

ONLY ONCE SHE HIT THE STREET DID MELANIE ask herself where she was going. New York was a big town. Slice could be anywhere.

The basic principles of investigation counseled starting with his last known location. That would be Mount Sinai Hospital, last night, wielding a nine-millimeter. The way things had fallen to shit on this case, she doubted anybody had even canvassed the hospital staff to pick up leads. She hailed a taxi. She’d do it herself. And if somehow she managed to find him, then she’d figure out how to take him down. No point worrying about that now.

Settling back into the seat, finally catching her breath, she noticed a red cardboard tube protruding from her handbag. The blueprints. They reminded her of Sophie. She’d never heard back from her friend about the problem in the park. Checking her watch, she saw it was nearly three o’clock. Sophie should have delivered Maya to Melanie’s mother some time ago. Quickly, Melanie dialed home.

“Hello?” her mother answered.

“Hi, Mom. It’s me. Everything okay?”

“No, as a matter of fact. I’ve been waiting for over an hour, but your friend hasn’t showed up yet. I don’t know why I had to leave work early to sit around your apartment all alone, Melanie. I have a real job, too, you know.”

Melanie went cold with fear. Sophie had been gone for hours longer than she should have been. Had something happened?

A persistent clicking could be heard on the line.

“Oh, hold on,” her mother said. “It’s this damn Call Waiting.”

“No, Mom, wait-”

Her mother put her on hold. Outside the taxi window, the blocks flashed by. Inside, Melanie sat utterly still, frozen in time, each second lasting a lifetime. She wouldn’t breathe again until she knew that her daughter was safe.

Her mother came back on the line.

“Melanie?”

“Yes! What is it?”

“Don’t snap. That’s your friend. What’s her name again? Lucy?”

“Sophie!”

“Right. Sophie says she needs to talk to you.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell her to hang up and call my cell phone?”

“Watch your tone of voice, please. She can’t very well call you while I’m talking to you.”

“Mom, whatever, just tell me. Did Sophie say anything was wrong?”

“It’s not like we had a whole conversation, for Pete’s sake.”

“Okay, okay.” Melanie took a deep breath, telling herself that shouting at her mother at this juncture would not be productive. “Please. Just have her call me on this phone right now. You have the number, right?”

“Give it to me again?”

She gave her mother her cell-phone number, then hung up and waited another eternity for her phone to ring.

Finally it did.

“Sophie?” she practically shouted.

“Melanie?”

“I didn’t have your cell number with me, so I couldn’t call you back before. Is everything okay?”

“Never mind that. Thank God I got you this time!”

“Why, what’s the matter?”

“There’s a guy following me.”

“You mean, like a mugger? Where are you? Is there a cop around? Is Maya okay?”

“No, I don’t think he’s a mugger. We were sitting in the park before, and he was watching us. After a while it creeped me out. Thank goodness more people came, so I was able to walk out to the street. But we’ve been walking around for a while now, and wherever I go, I see him.”

“So Maya’s okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine, although her diaper needs to be changed. You know I hate to let her sit with a dirty diaper. But I didn’t want to go back to your apartment and lead him there. I think he has bad intentions.”

“What do you mean, bad intentions? Can you see him? What does he look like?”

“No, I can’t see him right this second, but I know he’s here. I’m in a supermarket. He’s probably waiting outside. He’s thin, not super tall. Fade haircut, sharp features. And a big tattoo on his arm. Like a knife dripping blood.”

“Oh, Jesus! That’s the C-Trout Blades’ gang tattoo! Sounds like Slice!”

“Who?”

“The man who murdered Jed Benson.”

There was complete silence on the other end of the line.

“Sophie? Are you there? Sophie?”

“I was afraid of that,” Sophie said quietly.

“Of what? Sophie? Why on earth would Jed Benson’s killer be following you? Following me I can understand, but you? Do you know something about the murder you haven’t told me?”

“I can’t talk over the phone, but yes. It has to do with the Bensons’ house.”

“The Bensons’ house? What about it?”

“Listen, Melanie, this is serious. I did something wrong. It’s why I was running away to Vancouver. I need to meet you somewhere to explain.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, for one thing, the blueprints I filed with the Buildings Department, they were fakes. I mean, that was part of it. Part of what I did.”

“Fakes? I don’t understand.”

“I knew I shouldn’t have, but that job was so important to my career, and Jed convinced me it would be all right. I should never have listened to Jed. He was bad, Melanie.”

“Yes, I know. What do you know about that?”

“Oh,” Sophie exclaimed, “I think I see that man! He’s in here, inside the supermarket! What should I do?”

“Okay, okay. Where are you exactly?”

“In a Food King a few blocks from your apartment.”

“Take Maya home. Those are crowded blocks between there and my house. You’ll be safe. You might even see a cop along the way if you’re lucky.”

“But this man will see where you live.”

“I don’t care about that. He probably knows anyway. I just want her safe. Give her to my mom and wait in the lobby. I’ll come as fast as I can, with the police, and we’ll arrest him, okay?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! You can’t keep walking around forever, and he’s not gonna just go away.”

“Okay, that’s what I’ll do then.”

“Try to act natural, so he doesn’t realize you know you’re being followed. And call me right away if there’s a problem. Or better yet call 911!”

MELANIE TOLD THE CABDRIVER TO DROP HER at the corner across from her building. She thought about calling the local precinct for backup. She thought about calling Dan. But she couldn’t decide. Going through normal channels with the PD could bring Ramirez down on her head. Calling Dan…well, that would bring Dan down on her head. Much as she hated to admit it, either option sounded more dangerous than going it alone.

She jumped out of the cab, deliberately refusing to look back over her shoulder. She assumed that Slice was somewhere in the vicinity. Because of the mug shot, she would recognize him if she saw him, but she had no reason to think he knew what she looked like, not yet anyway. She wanted to keep it that way. Years of writing arrest warrants had taught her that glancing around furtively like you thought you were being followed attracted people’s attention. She didn’t need Slice to notice her.

Sophie was not in the lobby as they’d discussed. Had they made it safely home? Melanie tried to shut off her mind until she got upstairs, so she wouldn’t go crazy with fear. She acted normal the whole way up in the elevator, making conversation with an elderly lady who lived on the floor above her. But when she got to her apartment, her hand trembled violently as she turned the key in the lock. She raced down the hall to Maya’s room, where her mother was just lifting her baby, freshly diapered, off the changing table. Melanie swept Maya from her mother’s arms and held her close, putting her lips to Maya’s silky dark hair.

“¡Nena preciosa! Mommy missed you so much!”

“Mama!” Maya said for the first time.

“Did you hear that? She said ‘mama’!” Melanie cried, tears standing out in her eyes.

“Oh, Melanie, she’s just babbling. Babies that young can’t talk,” her mother said impatiently, crossing tanned arms over her pink polo shirt, pursing her coral lips. “What I want to know is, if you were planning to be home so early, why did I have to upset all my plans and come into the city? I try to help out, but you abuse the privilege.”

“Sorry we’re such a burden on you,” Melanie said, squeezing Maya even tighter.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it. I’m just saying, I’m the one who’s always here for you, unlike your father, who’s never even bothered to make the trip to meet Maya. And you don’t give me credit.”

“Do we have to get into all this now, Mom? Where’s Sophie?”

“Oh, yes, your friend. A very sweet girl, that one. Very polite, unlike some people I know,” she said, casting Melanie a reproachful glance.

“Where’d she go? Is she in the bathroom?”

“Oh, no. She left.”

“Left? When? Did she say anything?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. She said to tell you not to worry, that she would lead him away from here, and to come find her at the model-boat pond. I thought that was odd. Who was she talking about, do you know?”

Before her mother had even finished the question, Melanie sprinted into the kitchen to get Sophie’s cell-phone number, then ran straight out the door.