Cure

34

March 26, 2010

Friday, 5:38 p.m.

In the family ID room Laurie, Jack, and Lou had sat back down in their seats. Lou had been the only one who’d spoken. He had said he wanted a copy of Ben’s full address and phone numbers. Laurie hadn’t answered, but rather had tapped Satoshi’s completed identification form with her middle finger, indicating that the contact information was there.

For several long minutes no one spoke. They looked at one another as if dazed. From outside in the foyer there was a sudden burst of voices that penetrated the closed door. No one moved, despite the apparent commotion. Laurie was the first to break the silence in the ID room. “What did you guys think?”

“An oddball,” Jack suggested. “A very uncomfortable oddball. On the one hand, he seemed overly confident, on the other the proverbial banjo wire, ready to snap. He was actually shaking at one point.”

“Could it have been because of identifying Satoshi Machita? Was it a kind of grief reaction, do you imagine? I saw the shake, too. I also got the message that being here, talking to us, was the absolute last place on earth he wanted to be.”

“I should probably recuse myself from this discussion,” Lou said. “I’ve seen him before.”

“Really!” Laurie said, surprised. “Where have you seen him?”

“I don’t mean I’ve seen him specifically. I mean I’ve seen his type. He’s one of those snooty Ivy League guys. They act so entitled, like rules don’t apply to them.”

“Careful,” Jack said. “You’re hitting too close to home.”

“I don’t mean like you,” Lou explained. “You question some rules from the angle of an enlightened philosophy, whether they make sense and serve everybody equally. This type of guy questions rules selfishly. It’s about whether they make sense for him. As long as they make money, it’s okay. He’s a me, me, me kind of guy.”

“I think he knows more than he’s telling,” Laurie said.

“For sure,” Lou said. “I would have asked him a lot more pointed questions.”

“I wanted to,” Laurie said. “But I didn’t think I could get away with it. He was here on his own accord and could have walked out whenever he wanted. Maybe you’ll have a go at him someday when you’re in charge.”

“I suppose you are right,” Lou said. “I can tell you this: During the investigation of these two homicides, I’m going to have Dr. Corey’s company looked into with a fine-tooth comb. There has to be an interesting explanation why one of his employees was killed by several organized-crime hit men, especially with both hit men and the mark being Japanese.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Laurie said. She reached out and put a hand on Jack’s forearm and looked him in the eyes. “It’s been enough of a day for me. What say you? Want to leave your bike here and ride home with me in a nice, safe, warm taxi?”

“No, thank you,” Jack said. “I want my bike at home for the weekend.” He stood up.

“Hey, what about the threatening letter?” Lou questioned.

“Fine!” Laurie said airily. But she was not looking forward to defending what had been, in retrospect, a bad decision. She realized she should not have dismissed it so cavalierly, even though at the time she was convinced it was an in-house prank of sorts by her husband. The wording had not been funny in any way or form, but it had been so different from all the other various and sundry threatening mail she had gotten that she’d immediately questioned its authenticity, and considered that it was not beyond Jack in one of his juvenile moods.

Laurie went through the door leading out into the reception area first, followed by Lou and then Jack. Jack was saying that he had all his stuff already downstairs at his bike. “I’ll see you at home,” he called to Laurie, and to Lou, “I’ll see you when I see you.”

Lou waved over his head to indicate he’d heard and then bumped into Laurie, who’d stopped abruptly. There was a flood of people in the foyer, some sitting, most standing. OCME employees had already left after finishing their good-byes to one another, and a new group of people had come in. With some of those new arrivals sobbing, it was obvious they had come to make an identification of a deceased family member. Another identification clerk was standing by the door to take over the ID room as Laurie, Lou, and Jack emerged. OCME had only one ID setup. Laurie apologized for holding things up.

Jack, who was still talking about heading directly down to the morgue level rather than returning to his office, had to stop suddenly to avoid bumping up against Lou. He noticed Laurie was staring off to the left as if paralyzed. Following her line of sight, Jack saw an African-American woman sitting on the couch. She was in her mid-forties with heavy features on an otherwise narrow face completely overcome by grief. Grouped tightly about her were at least a half-dozen people. All were maintaining contact by touching her in an attempt to console her. Jack immediately found the woman familiar, but he couldn’t recall where he’d seen her.

For Laurie it was another matter entirely. She knew the woman instantly, despite having met her only two or three times. It was Marilyn Wilson, Leticia Wilson’s mother.

A sense of panic and fear spread through Laurie like a lightning bolt. With a kind of tunnel vision blocking out the periphery, Laurie started toward Marilyn, insinuating herself between other mourners. She was not to be detoured. With some effort and irritating a number of people, Laurie positioned herself in front of Marilyn. By squatting down Laurie got her face at the level of Marilyn’s and asked the woman what had happened.

At first Marilyn stared back at Laurie with an expression of pure grief. Her eyes were awash with tears.

“It’s Laurie,” Laurie said, trying to break through the veil of anguish surrounding the woman. “What happened? Is it something about Leticia, or someone else?”

Mentioning her daughter’s name had a profound effect. The moment it escaped Laurie’s lips, the woman seemed to wake from a daze. The eyes that had been blankly staring into the middle distance now converged and the pupils constricted. When she finally recognized who Laurie was, her intense grief turned to intense anger. Shocking everyone, but particularly Laurie, Marilyn screamed, “You! You are the one to blame. If it weren’t for you, my Leticia would still be alive!” Marilyn leaped up from the couch, causing Laurie to spring up and take a step back.

The people who’d been trying to comfort Marilyn had also been shocked and had recoiled. The next instant they tried to restrain her but were only partially successful. Marilyn, in a burst of tears, managed to get her hands on the sides of Laurie’s neck, and when the women were pulled apart, Marilyn’s nails dug into the skin below Laurie’s chin, leaving a number of streaks of reddish abraded skin with a few tiny dots of blood.

Jack and Lou immediately went to Laurie’s aid, wanting to check the extent of the damage. Also coming to Laurie’s aid was Warren Wilson, Jack’s regular basketball buddy. Jack, Laurie, Warren, and Warren’s girlfriend, Natalie Adams, had been close friends for more than a decade.

Jack had no idea Warren had even been in the room until he’d appeared at Laurie’s side seconds after the scuffle. He started to explain to Jack and Lou what was going on when Laurie bolted away without warning or explanation.

With a set, determined expression, she pushed her way through the crowd to the receptionist.

“Buzz me in!” Laurie demanded to the security man at the desk before dashing over to the main entrance door of OCME. She shook the doorknob impatiently until the guard hit the proper button.

“Laurie!” Jack yelled out over the tumult of voices. He’d detached himself from Warren and Lou with a quick “I’ll be back” the moment Laurie had darted away to the receptionist with no explanation. Reaching the door into the building, Jack managed to grab it before it had a chance to close behind Laurie. Pulling it open, he could see that Laurie was already far down the hall, nearing its end.

“Laurie!” Jack called out, with mild irritation that she was deliberately ignoring him. Picking up his speed, Jack pursued her. When he got to the end he could see the stairwell door was closing. Slapping it open, he could hear her footfalls descending below. In hot pursuit he reached the morgue level as the lower door was closing.

Laurie ran into the mortuary office. One of the techs was in the process of logging in a recently arrived body. “Where are you putting the bodies that have been coming in recently?” she demanded, out of breath.

“In the main cooler,” the mortuary tech said. He tried to ask Laurie whom exactly she was looking for, but Laurie was already gone, racing down the morgue’s composite-tiled corridor with her heels clicking loudly on its rock-like surface. Jack had joined up with her as she emerged from the mortuary office.

“What on earth are you doing?” Jack panted. “Why are we running?”

Laurie merely shook her hand to indicate she didn’t want to talk; instead, she concentrated on making a sharp left-hand turn in the corridor in her slippery leather-soled shoes. By the time she was at the main cooler, she had to skid to a stop. Grasping the meat locker- style latch, she pulled open the heavy, insulated door. Stepping into the cold, misty interior, she snapped on the lights, which consisted of bare bulbs in metal cages that cast complicated crisscrossing shadows over the scraped and soiled white walls.

Jack entered as well and let the door click shut behind him. He shivered momentarily in the chill. Laurie was yanking down the sheets covering the bodies near the door, exposing the corpses’ faces and upper chests. There were nearly twenty gurneys angled every which way, each with a shrouded body.

“Can I help?” Jack questioned. He was still in the dark as to what Laurie was doing, although having seen Warren upstairs, he was beginning to have a very disturbing idea.

Laurie didn’t answer. She was intent on exposing each corpse’s face and leaving it exposed as she went on to the next to avoid having to do it again. She had to move the gurneys around as she worked her way into the room.

Finally she hit pay dirt. As she flicked back a sheet, she caught her breath. It was definitely Leticia Wilson staring vacantly at the ceiling. Her pale, sallow face appeared nestled into a cumulus of dark, curly hair. The only defect other than the pallor was a small oval entrance wound in the center of her forehead, which to Laurie’s practiced eye angled downward toward the base of the brain.

Laurie slapped her hand over her mouth and shuddered. Jack put his arm around her.

“Oh my God!” he said.

“Where’s my baby?” Laurie questioned plaintively.

“Was that Leticia’s mother upstairs?”

Laurie nodded as if in a daze. She had no idea what to think. Was this truly happening, or was it some kind of nightmare trick that her mind was playing on her?

“Come on!” Jack said. “Let’s get Lou involved in this. We’re lucky he’s here.”

Jack led Laurie out of the cooler and to the elevator. “I’ll take you up to your office and then go down for Lou. Okay?”

Laurie nodded but didn’t speak. She tried not to think about where JJ was at that moment or what he was doing or how he was feeling. She wasn’t very religious, but she found herself bargaining with God for his safe return.

As if reading Laurie’s mind, when they got to her office, Jack said, “Try not to think too much until we get advice.” After taking JJ’s photo from the top of her desk and stashing it in a drawer, he got her to sit.

As quickly as he could, Jack went back to the registration area, where there were significantly fewer people. Family members had gone into the identification room while some of the other visitors had left. Jack found Lou and Warren sitting together on the couch. They both stood when they caught sight of Jack.

“Sorry about all this,” Lou said, as soon as Jack was in earshot. “Is Laurie holding up?”

Jack acknowledged Lou’s concern and said Laurie was extremely upset but hanging in there.

“I checked up on the situation while you were away,” Lou said. “JJ has been kidnapped. If it’s any consolation, the police are taking this very seriously, declaring it a major case with all that entails. Even the commissioner has been apprised. The whole force is participating, and they’ve already put out an Amber Alert. The entire city is going to know about this. I just talked with the current head detective running the case as the case agent. His name is Bennett, Mark Bennett. He’s out of the Major Case Squad using help from detectives from the Manhattan North Borough. He’s a good man, and you should be happy to have him on board. There are a number of other people involved as well, but Mark is the lead guy who will be pulling everything together.”

“What about the FBI?”

“The FBI has been alerted, too. Everyone is taking this very seriously.”

“So it’s definitely considered a kidnapping?”

“Absolutely,” Lou said. “A homicide and a kidnapping. Surprisingly, there was only one witness: a mother with her toddler. She was headed for the Hundredth Street playground when she glimpsed a gunman walk up to your nanny, shoot her, and with four accomplices calmly carry JJ and his stroller off to a waiting white van. The van’s already been located, thanks to the Amber Alert. It was found abandoned in Garden City and hauled off to a crime scene lab to be thoroughly processed.”

“Anything of interest obtained from the crime scene?”

“Crime scene unit is still working the crime scene. If there’s anything to be found, they’ll find it. I haven’t seen this kind of mobilization in years. There’s going to be enormous public interest.”

“Any demands yet from the abductors?”

“Not a word, which I must say is somewhat disturbing. Demands are healthy, if you know what I’m saying.”

“I can imagine,” Jack agreed.

“We need to get into negotiation with the bastards.”

“Why weren’t we notified earlier?” Jack asked. He wasn’t blaming, just questioning.

“Initially, the first responders had no identity on JJ, nor did they have it on the nanny, for that matter. She was not carrying any ID. They figured out who she was from her cell phone, and even that was more difficult than usual.”

“Let’s get back up to Laurie,” Jack said to Lou. “I don’t want her to be alone too long. If I know her, she’s probably going to blame herself for JJ’s disappearance.” He turned from Lou to say a fast good-bye to Warren, when Warren spoke up. “I know this is a difficult time, but I’d like to come with you. I want to assure Laurie that the family doesn’t hold her in any way responsible for Leticia’s death, despite what my aunt Marilyn said. She’s obviously distraught out of her mind.”

Although Jack was frantic and hardly thinking clearly, he tried to consider Warren’s request in view of what he thought Laurie’s best interests were. He almost immediately thought it would be good for her to hear what Warren wanted to say. Anything that could keep Laurie from falling into a self-critical despondency was going to help the situation. “Do you need to say anything to anybody before you leave here?”

“I don’t,” Warren said.

“Then come on up with us!”

As they ascended in the elevator, Warren told Jack what he knew while Lou called Mark Bennett back to say that the Stapletons were now aware of their child’s disappearance. Lou tried to keep his voice as quiet as possible.

“Where are they at the moment?” Detective Bennett asked.

“They are still here at OCME.”

“Ask them to get home ASAP,” Mark said. “We haven’t heard from the kidnappers, which worries me. I’m hoping they’ll initiate contact through the Stapletons’ home phone, and I want to get the phone wired up so we can listen in on it and also track the incoming calls. As you probably know, in child kidnap cases with no demands, seventy or so percent of them are dead in the first three hours.”

“Thanks for the information,” Lou said, making sure Jack was not listening in on his conversation and thinking that he would not pass on that particular statistic to Laurie and Jack.

“I just wanted you to know, since you said you’d be hanging around with them,” Mark added.

“I’ll get them home right away,” Lou promised. “And if you want to talk with me before then, you have my mobile number.”

“I have it, but I’m coming over to the Stapletons’ myself to make sure everything is done right.”

“Will you be willing to talk to the couple and explain everything that is being done on their behalf to retrieve their son?”

“Absolutely. Maybe I’ll call Henry Fulsome and have him drop by as well. Do you know Henry?”

“Can’t say that I do.”

“In my book he’s the best crisis negotiator the NYPD has. He has a hundred percent record of resolving hostage situations without the loss of a single life.”

“That sounds like something they’d love to hear. Of course, it means getting to the point of having a hostage situation to negotiate.”

“You’re right in that regard. We have our investigative work cut out for us. There’s no time to waste.”

Up in Laurie’s office the three men found her sitting at her desk, looking blank and pale, as the enormity of her situation had fully set in. She was holding the threatening letter, which she wordlessly passed on to Lou. Having reread it herself, she was even more embarrassed that she’d not taken it seriously. Lou read it quickly, shaking his head.

Warren stepped up to Laurie as she stood. They hugged for a moment, and then Warren apologized for his aunt’s behavior. Laurie managed to thank him and said she understood.

“I’m going to hang on to this letter,” Lou explained. “And now let’s head on to your house. I’ll explain what’s happening on the way.”