The Finishing School

39

MELANIE SCREAMED with terror as the giant SUV hurtled straight for the spot where she sat. She threw herself sideways, rolling over and over on the cold, hard pavement as fast as she could until she reached the subway entrance. The Escalade screeched to a stop mere inches from the stairs, its driver throwing it into reverse to get into position for a second go at her. Melanie leaped to her feet and bolted down the icy steps two at a time, gasping for breath and praying she wouldn’t fall. The familiar, pungent odor of the New York City subway rose to greet her like an old friend.

She reached the turnstile and swiped her MetroCard with a shaking hand. As she sprinted for the ramp to the uptown express, the presence of the clerk in the glass token booth gave her little comfort. What could he do except call the cops to come collect her dead body?

Thank God! An uptown number-four train sat waiting on the platform. Melanie bounded aboard just as the doors closed, then turned around and leaned against the glass, catching her breath, looking back at the empty platform. Just as the train pulled away, she spotted him. Bulletface, running down the ramp she’d just come from, his head swinging back and forth as he scanned the station for her. Until that very moment, she’d been cherishing the illusion that this whole ordeal was nothing more than some paranoid overreaction on her part. Well, qué lástima, it wasn’t. Jay Esposito had just tried to have her whacked.

IT WAS HARD TO SAY what made Melanie carry on with her plan to confront Luis Reyes about his false statement. Maybe she was in a state of shock. Maybe she was just plain stubborn. If somebody was trying to kill her for doing her job, then she’d damn well do it just to spite them. Nobody was going to stop her.

At the Sewards’ Park Avenue building, Melanie flashed her creds at the doorman. A minute later she was leaning on the Reyeses’ buzzer down in the basement. It was after eleven now, but a sliver of light under the door told her that she wouldn’t be waking anybody up.

“Yeah, who’s there?” Reyes called gruffly.

“Melanie Vargas, Mr. Reyes. May I come-”

He ripped the door open before she could finish her sentence, a wild look in his eyes. “You find her?” he asked desperately.

“No, no, nothing like that. Please, I need to speak to you.”

“Come.”

She followed him into the living room. Reyes turned to her as they sat down on the threadbare sofa, and she saw that he’d been crying.

“I can’ stand it no more,” he said. “I don’t eat or sleep since she gone. At first I waiting for her to walk in the door, but now, a coupla days gone by, and I don’ know, I got a very bad feeling.” He put his head in his hands. “Please,” he said through his fingers, “please tell me she okay. Because I don’ know how I’m gonna go on if sonthing really happen to her.”

Now, how was she supposed to confront a man in this condition? Only by reminding herself that getting the facts was key to finding Carmen.

“Mr. Reyes,” Melanie said gently, patting his shoulder, “you have to be strong. I promise you, I’m doing everything in my power to locate your daughter. But I need your help.”

“Yes, of course,” he said, straightening and wiping his eyes. “Anything I can do, I do.”

“What you can do is be completely truthful with me,” Melanie said, giving him a hard look. “I’m concerned that when you gave your statement the other night, you lied.”

Reyes didn’t even try to deny it.

“Ma’am, I very, very sorry about that. Yes, I lie to you, but I swear it wasn’t about nothing important. I wanna tell the truth, but I stuck, like they say, with a rock and a hard place.”

“It’s not up to you to decide what’s important in this investigation, Mr. Reyes. For all you know, the things you lied about may have a direct bearing on what happened to Carmen.”

“I never lie about sonthing with mi hija! Never. The only thing I do is cover for Mr. Seward, because he ask me to. What I supposed to do? I need my job!”

“Cover for him for what?”

“Please don’ tell him I tell you this, but he got a little sonthing on the side. I’m not saying is okay, but a lotta guys do that. He don’ want it in the newspapers, so he ask me be quiet about how he with his lady friend when I tell him about Whitney.”

Wait a minute now. There was more to this than she’d originally thought.

“So when you first called Mr. Seward, you actually spoke to him?” she asked, keeping her voice calm, as if this were no surprise. But, man, she was pissed.

“Yes. Maybe ten-thirty I fin’ the girls dead, then I call him and speak to him. So, okay, I lie about that part, when I say I only leave a message. I told him wha’ happen, but he say he can’ come right then, he busy. I know what he mean, because I seen him with his lady friend before.”

“Did he actually say he couldn’t come because he was with another woman?”

“No, he never say that. But what else, right?”

“So you’re just guessing.”

“Yeah, okay, but…” Reyes waved his hands and gave her a knowing glance, implying they were both worldly creatures who understood these things.

“How long was it before Seward showed up?”

“Like I say, maybe a coupla hours. A while.”

“Doesn’t that seem strange? You tell a man his stepdaughter and her friend are lying dead in his apartment, and he wastes two hours on some tryst?”

Reyes shrugged. “Amor.”

Please. As a betrayed wife herself, Melanie felt like smacking Reyes.

“You say you’d seen him with this woman before?” she asked.

“One time she come here when Mrs. Seward away for treatment. See, I got a little sympathy, because Mrs. Seward, she drinkin’ too much all the time. Is very difficult for a man to have a drunk for a wife.”

Or maybe Charlotte Seward drank because James Seward cheated? Steve’s infidelity would’ve driven Melanie to drink if she hadn’t gotten her act together to leave. But Luis Reyes didn’t see things that way. It was the woman’s fault.

“By the way,” Melanie asked, “where was Charlotte Seward while all this was happening?”

“Okay, I not tell the truth about that either, and I’n very sorry. Mrs. Seward was pass out in her bed. I go in there and find her. I wake her up, and she run in the bathroom to throw up. I come back later and fin’ her pass out again on the bathroom floor.”

To be so wasted that your daughter dies in the next room and you don’t even know? Melanie couldn’t begin to imagine the grief and humiliation. But the bottom line was, Charlotte Seward had been at home during the events in question. She needed to be interviewed-the sooner, the better.

“This other woman. What does she look like?” Melanie asked.

“Oh, very nice. A real lady. She older, too, maybe forty, forty-fibe, blond hair, dress real expensive.”

“What’s her name?” Melanie asked.

“Patricia.”

Melanie’s jaw literally dropped. “Are you sure?”

“Yes. I hear him say it to her.”

“And you’re sure they were…involved? ¿Amantes? ”

“Oh, yes. Because that time before, she was here, like, four o’clock in the morning. I working in the basement getting the recycling ready for the Sanitation, and he sneaking her out the back door. He wink at me, so on the way back, I give him high fibe. You know, like a guy thing. He give me an extra-big tip for Christmas this year, because he know he can trust me.”

Barf. What a thing to be proud of.

“So, just to make sure I’ve got this all straight, you called James Seward around ten-thirty, right when you discovered the bodies. He said he was too busy to come home immediately, but he asked you not to call the police. Two hours went by before he showed up, at which point he called the police himself.”

“Yes.”

“Did Seward specifically ask you to lie about the missing two hours?”

Reyes avoided her eyes.

“Mr. Reyes, answer my question! Truthfully.”

“Yeah, okay. He never say to me, lie. He say he always appreciate how trustworthy I am. I got a lotta discretion. That kinda thing. But I know what he asking me to do.”

So she had James Seward on obstruction. It was leverage, at least.

“You not gonna tell him I say that, are you?” Reyes asked nervously. “I lose my job.”

“Mr. Reyes, has it ever occurred to you that since Mrs. Seward was at home when Carmen was abducted, she might have seen or heard something that could help find your daughter?”

Reyes opened his mouth and then closed it again. Confusion and grief chased each other across his face. He dropped his head into his hands again and rubbed his bloodshot eyes. When he finally looked back up at Melanie, though, he was resolute. “You right,” he said. “Go tell Mrs. Seward what I say and get her to talk to you. God help me if she know sonthing and I coulda find Carmencita faster.”

MELANIE WAS WAITING for the service elevator when she saw the Reyeses’ door swing open again, silently this time. Lulu Reyes emerged, then turned and closed it so carefully that it didn’t even click. Melanie would’ve spoken, but Lulu put a finger to her lips and beckoned Melanie to follow her down the dank gray hallway. Lulu led her to a basement laundry room painted an angry mustard yellow. Fluorescent lights buzzed overhead.

“What is it? What’s the matter?” Melanie asked.

Lulu looked at her with huge, solemn eyes. “I did a very bad thing,” she said softly.

“Does it have to do with Carmen?” Melanie asked.

Lulu nodded miserably. “I know something I didn’t say. You won’t tell Papi, will you?”

“No, of course not. Prosecutors are very good at keeping things confidential. What matters is that you tell me now so I can use the information to find your sister. She’s in danger, and every second counts.”

Lulu started to say something, then hesitated. Indecision and fear flickered in her eyes.

“Lulu, it’s okay. You can tell me.”

“I want you to know, I’m just doing this to help Carmen. That’s the only reason.”

“Of course, sweetie. I understand. I have a sister, too. In fact, you and Carmen remind me a little bit of my sister and me.”

“Carmen’s, like, a really good girl. But she doesn’t have common sense. She got mixed up in stuff that was too big for her to handle.”

“Nobody’s blaming Carmen for anything, okay? All we want is to find her. I need to know what kind of stuff she got mixed up in.”

Lulu paused again, then drew a deep breath and blurted, “Okay, this girl Whitney, right?”

“Yes?”

“She was really messed up. Like, totally.”

“In what way?” Melanie asked, pretending ignorance in order to draw Lulu out.

“Heavy into drugs. Not just using either, but, like, maybe even selling or something. I’m not sure. Carmen found out, and she was really upset about it. I said she should mind her own business, but that one always has to be a good citizen.”

“So did Carmen do anything with the information?”

“I don’t know for sure. But she might’ve. I’m thinking maybe what happened to her has something to do with that. Oh, and one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“You should check out a guy named Jay Esposito. They call him Expo.”

“What’s he got to do with all this?”

Lulu shrugged. “Carmen mentioned him, is all.”

“Anything else?”

Lulu hesitated for another moment, studying Melanie’s face as if looking for answers there. “No,” she said finally. “That’s everything.”

“You did the right thing by coming forward, Lulu. I want you to know, we’re already checking out Jay Esposito.”

“Really?” Lulu seemed surprised.

“Yes. And the information you just gave me is very important. Because it helps us know we’re on the right track with Esposito and that we should continue devoting resources there.”

“Oh.”

Lulu looked almost disappointed. Melanie couldn’t tell exactly what was going on with the girl, but she had the sense it was more than met the eye.

Melanie gave Lulu a hard look. “You sure there’s not something else you want to tell me.”

“Why would there be?” Lulu said, her mouth settling into a stubborn pout.

Melanie sighed. “You have my phone numbers. If anything occurs to you, or even if you just want to talk, call me. It could mean the difference between life and death for your sister. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, whatever.”

They walked back down the hall, and Melanie buzzed for the service elevator again. Lulu turned to go back inside.

“Hey, c’mere,” Melanie said, determined to reach out one last time. She opened her arms. Lulu hesitated, then walked over and let Melanie hug her.

“You’re a brave girl for coming forward, Lulu. You should be proud of yourself.”

Lulu nodded and mumbled her thanks. The elevator arrived. As Melanie got on, she looked searchingly into the girl’s face, but it was clouded and closed.