The Fixer

35

As soon as I hear the news, I went to the Cabreras’ apartment to try… to see, to help them,” Manuela Guzman said.

“To console them.”

She nodded. “Oscar’s sister Estrella was there and also Dolores’s brother Ernesto and his wife and everyone was… well, they were in shock, and everybody crying. How could this happen? Everyone is saying, how could this possibly happen? They were… upset and angry, out of their mind, you understand?”

“Of course.”

“The police say maybe Oscar is drinking, but everyone knows this is not so. Oscar never drinks. Picking up his wife and daughter from the airport? Oscar is so careful! And then Dolores’s brother Ernesto said he talked to Gloria Antunes, who is like leader in the Dominican community.”

“I know who she is.” How could he forget: the imperious woman who didn’t want to talk to him.

“Gloria Antunes say she want to start an investigation, the accident is not what people say. But then a man come to the door, a man who look just like you. He must be your father, no?”

“It’s possible.”

“He say he’s with chamber of commerce, and he say he want to do anything he can to help them out in this terrible time. He want to help them with funeral expenses. He say anything we can help you with, here’s my card, you call me.”

Chamber of commerce? Rick thought. It must have been someone else. His cell phone rang, but he let it go to voice mail.

“He want to help out. He was the nicest man. He called me ‘doll.’”

Calling a woman “doll” was almost Lenny’s signature. Maybe it was him.

“And then I take this man-your father?-to my house and I showed him Graciela’s recital, just like I show you. And he start to cry. He say it is a tragedy. Wait. A moment.”

She put a hand on his shoulder and turned around and began looking in a dim corner of the apartment, rummaging through a bookcase. She pulled out a small green plastic box, the kind used for index cards or recipes. “I know I have the card. Wait.”

Several more minutes passed by. Suddenly she said, “Ah! Yes!” She handed Rick a dog-eared white business card that said, as he knew it would,

THE LAW OFFICES OF LEONARD HOFFMAN

He looked up at her. “That’s my dad.” It didn’t say chamber of commerce. He had the decency not to use fake business cards. But he was dealing with immigrants who would be easily misled. A lawyer’s business card had its own kind of authority. He gave a sad smile. “How did he want to help out, did he say?”

She shook her head. “The family will never talk about it. I think this man paid them money. Maybe a lot of money.”

“For their silence?”

“No one talks about it. But all of a sudden”-she rubbed her palms together as if dusting them off-“No more talk about the car accident. They never want to talk about it. They live in that house, all three floors, all the family. I don’t know what they do for work. And Gloria Antunes-suddenly the Hyde Square Community Partnership becomes this big thing with an office and a secretary. I think they gave her money, too. And even all this time… nobody talks.”

As soon as he left the old piano teacher’s apartment, he checked his phone. The call that had come in was from an exchange he recognized as Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Mr. Hoffman, this is Dr. Girona from Mass General Neurology,” the message said. “Could you give me a call as soon as possible?”

To Rick’s surprise, Dr. Girona left his personal cell phone number.

Standing outside a convenience store, Rick called the doctor back.

“Yes, Mr. Hoffman, thanks for calling,” Dr. Girona said. “I’ve just been looking over the new MRI scans we ordered for your father, and I’m troubled by something.”

“Okay?” he said.

“Your father’s chart indicates a hemorrhagic stroke, obviously. But the scans we just got back-well, they’re quite a bit more sophisticated than the scans we got twenty years ago-and they indicate the legacy effects of forceful traumatic brain injury. I mean, consistent with grievous battery.”

“I don’t understand.” Rick felt his mouth go dry.

“I’m saying that we’re picking up something that was entirely overlooked when he first was admitted back in 1996. The likely cause of his condition.”

“You’re telling me he was beaten,” Rick said.

“I’d say so, yes.”

“I’ll be right over.”