A Blossom of Bright Light (28 page)

Chapter 37

T
he Gonzalezes weren't home when Vega went to their door. Esme's cousin Yolanda answered. She was a chunky girl in her twenties with skin-tight jeans and fake bright orange nails with black tiger stripes across them. She said she was babysitting for the Gonzalezes and had just gotten back from the movies with the kids.

“Charlie and Esme are probably at that political dinner already,” she told Vega. She was an American-born Mexican, clearly. None of the Latinos in town would dream of referring to Charlie and Esme by their first names only.

The Wickford police had already told Vega that the Gonzalezes hadn't shown up to the country club where Schulman's fund-raiser was being held. Unless they were on their way, something was wrong. And that something was the next topic of Vega's concern. He peeked into the kitchen and counted five children with Yolanda: the three Gonzalez boys and Serrano's two younger ones: Dulce and Mateo.

“Where's Luna?”

“She didn't come to the movies with us,” said Yolanda. “I don't know where she went.”

“She didn't leave a note?”

Yolanda shook her head.

“How about Dulce and Mateo? Maybe she told them?”

“Maybe. I'll ask.” She was the least curious person Vega had ever met. Perhaps that's why the Gonzalezes liked having her around.

Yolanda went into the kitchen and asked the Serrano kids to come into the foyer. Both children took in the badge on Vega's belt and the gun in his holster. They turned quiet and shy. The law was not their friend. Vega squatted down to make himself less threatening.

“Hey there,” he said softly. “I'm a friend of Señora Figueroa's.” He suspected the connection might help ease their fears. “I'm trying to find your sister Luna. Not for anything bad. I just need to speak to her. Does she have a special friend? Someplace she likes to go?”

It was the boy who studied him most carefully, whose eyes seemed to be measuring every twitch in Vega's face. He didn't trust adults anymore. Not that Vega could blame him.

“What do you want to speak to her about?” he asked Vega.

“A couple of things. But mostly, I need to make sure she's okay.”

Vega saw the boy weighing his words. Their father had been gone only a few days, and already it seemed he and his sister had aged out of childhood.

“Get the book,” Mateo told his sister. Dulce went upstairs and emerged a few minutes later with a children's paperback. She handed it to Vega. He flipped to the inside page to see the loopy scrawl of a teenage girl:

“Where's your papi?” Vega asked the children.

The children exchanged wary glances. Vega realized they were embarrassed to tell him.

“I already know he's in a detention facility. I just want to know where.”

“Pennsylvania!” Dulce blurted out. Mateo frowned at her. He wasn't ready to trust Vega with so much information.

“Do you know where in Pennsylvania?”

They didn't.

“Do you know if Señor Gonzalez went with them?”

The children shook their heads, no. Dulce studied her feet. “I saw the señor with my sister last night,” she muttered.

“You saw him—where?”

“In a room in the basement. The one with the bolt on the door. He had his hand on her hair.”

Vega exhaled like he'd been punched. There was no time to lose. “Okay. Wait here,” he told the children. He walked outside, pulled out his phone and dialed Adele.

“Luna's gone.” He breathed it into the receiver like he'd just run a mile. His whole body felt like he was trying to outrace a forest fire that was gaining on him. He was too slow. Too slow.

“Luna left her brother and sister a note that she went to visit her father. With Esme. Where is Serrano being detained?”

“In Pennsylvania. At the Pike County Correctional Facility,” said Adele. “But Esme and Charlie are supposed to be at the gala tonight.”

“Have you heard from either of them? Do you know where they are?”

“No.” Adele paused as it sank in. “Oh my God, Jimmy. Did the DNA—?”

Vega cut her off. He couldn't divulge the specifics, not even to her. “If you hear from any of them, will you let me know right away?”

“Luna will be all right, won't she?”

Vega hesitated. “Just focus on tonight, okay, Nena? It's a big night for you. I can't be there, but—whatever you do is fine with me. I mean it.”

He hung up and asked Yolanda to gather the kids in the kitchen and keep them there pending the search warrant for the house. It finally started to dawn on Yolanda that something was wrong.

“Charlie and Esme would never deal drugs!”

“No one said they did.”

“Then what is this about?”

“I can't comment. I would just like to ask for your cooperation.”

Vega questioned Dulce a little more about Luna and Gonzalez, but the child knew very little. Whatever had gone on in that basement Luna had managed to shield fairly well from her siblings. Still, the child's account confirmed to Vega that Gonzalez had already started making moves on the teenager.

Vega conferred by phone and email with Greco, Dolan, and Captain Waring, who was on his way back from the Albany police conference. They issued arrest warrants for both of the Gonzalezes. They put out an Amber Alert on Luna. Vega still held out hope that the girl would turn up at the jail in Pennsylvania.

Within half an hour, Greco showed up with the search warrant and a squad of cops. Vega and Greco quickly found the room in the basement with the bolt on the door that Dulce had mentioned. They took pictures of the bloody mattress. They found the drawer of photos of the dead girl. And they knew:

Luna would never make it to see her father this evening.

“Charlie Gonzalez is well-known in these parts,” Greco assured Vega. “He's not likely to get far.” All around them, cops were traipsing in and out of the house, testing for blood and bagging every piece of evidence that looked the least bit valuable to the case. None of it gave Vega any solace.

“It's not Charlie I'm worried about so much as Esme,” said Vega. “Luna was in that room. She knows what they did. She's a witness. That's reason enough for Esme to kill her. I think Esme's plan was to whisk Luna away and make everyone believe she'd run off because she was distraught over her father. If she disappeared after that, no one would pin it on the Gonzalezes. They'd just say the girl was grief-stricken and she ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“There's a lotta road between here and that jail in Pennsylvania,” said Greco. “We've got a cell tower search on the Gonzalezes' phones, but nothing's coming up. I think they're turned off. They haven't used a credit card or been picked up on a security camera. Unless a trooper calls in a license plate, we're going to have to sit back and wait.”

“Maybe not.” Vega pulled out his cell phone and typed
Car Wash King car washes
on Google
.
A couple dozen came up. He zeroed in on the ones situated between here and Lords Valley, Pennsylvania. He counted four between Lake Holly and the Newburgh Beacon Bridge and another three on the other side of the Hudson River before they hit the New York-Pennsylvania border.

“Those car washes wouldn't even be open after five on a Saturday evening in October,” said Greco.

“I know,” said Vega. “That's what makes them a perfect spot for Esme or Charlie to go to. They'd have access to cash from the register and could disable the video cameras. They'd have the equipment to hose down any surface covered in blood or other trace elements. In the locations where they do detailing, they'd even have access to customers' cars so they wouldn't have to travel in their own.”

“We can ask the state troopers to swing by each and check them out,” said Greco. “But you're still talking seven locations spread over a hundred-mile vicinity. It's gonna take most of the night to hunt this down.”

Vega watched two techs maneuver the bloody mattress—now bagged—out of the house.

“I'm not sure we have most of the night.”

Chapter 38

D
oña Esme drove until they came to a small shopping center with a McDonalds, a Dunkin' Donuts, a Payless shoe store, and a JC Penny. In the far corner of the mall, Luna saw a Car Wash King. It looked just like the one the Gonzalezes owned in Lake Holly—like a drive-through bank. No one was there. It was closed for the evening.

Doña Esme pulled her big black Escalade behind the car wash. Then she reached across Luna and opened the glove compartment. She removed a knit hat, a pair of gloves, a flashlight, and a ring of keys. She slipped into the hat and gloves. It was getting colder. Luna wished she had a hat and gloves herself.

“Stay in the car,” Esme ordered. She unlocked the car wash and walked in. She didn't turn on any lights. She only flicked on her flashlight. Luna watched the pale beam zigzag across the walls. Her thoughts flew in every direction. It would be easy to get out of the car and run. She'd have to run to the other side of the shopping center to find people. But even so, they were in a well-lit public place. She could do it. But what would she say to them? She was a girl—let's face it—an undocumented girl. The police would never take her rambling accusations over Doña Esme's. And still, the biggest question remained: What would happen to Dulce and Mateo and Papi?

So she sat cursing her indecision while she watched Doña Esme walk out of the office with a small zippered case in her hands and a set of car keys. She frowned like she was concentrating hard on something as she unlocked another garage behind the car wash. Then she walked back to the Escalade and barked at Luna to get out of the car and help her roll the garage door up. The garage door was probably operated by a remote that Doña Esme didn't have. It was hard work to get the thing up manually, but they did it. It growled as it rolled into place.

There were seven cars in the garage: three SUVs and four sedans. Doña Esme squinted at the set of keys she took from the car wash and clicked them at a dark blue Honda CRV with permit parking stickers for a town Luna didn't recognize and a Dave Matthews Band sticker on the rear window. She was pretty sure this car was here to be cleaned and didn't belong to Doña Esme. The door locks popped open.

Doña Esme threw the zippered bag in the glove compartment of the CRV and slammed it shut. “Get in,” she ordered.

Luna hesitated. Her insides felt like she'd swallowed glass.

“Mami,” Doña Esme said in a soothing tone. “The señor is a bad man. We both know that. He tried to hurt you. He's trying to hurt me too. He'll be looking for my Escalade. If he finds us in it, we're both in trouble. I want to take you to see your father, but I need to do it in a different car so he can't find us. Do you understand?”

Luna nodded slowly. Did she trust her?
Oh God, oh God.
She closed her eyes and offered a silent prayer. All her years in church hadn't prepared her for this moment. She was so lost and confused. But she wanted more than anything to go to Lords Valley and see her father, so she climbed in.

Doña Esme pulled the Honda out of the garage and parked her Escalade in its place. Then she locked everything up again, and they drove off.

“That wasn't so hard, was it?” She smiled her fake white smile. Luna took no comfort from it.

They headed west again. Luna could tell this because the sky was a little less dark in this direction. Her confidence returned a little. Up until now, it had felt like they were traveling in circles.

The weather got colder. Doña Esme kept her hat and gloves on all the time in the new car. Luna sat on her hands to try to keep them warm.

“Go into the glove compartment,” Doña Esme instructed her. “There's a small bag in there. I want you to zip it open and see what's inside.”

Luna hoped it was food. Her stomach was growling. The bag was heavy, the contents wrapped in thick cloth. She pushed the cloth aside and touched something cold and smooth and mechanical feeling. A small gasp escaped her lips. Doña Esme laughed.

“It's not loaded or anything, chica. I have the cartridge separately. Go ahead. Take it out.”

“No.” It made Luna nervous. She put it back in the glove compartment without even zippering up the bag.

“We need to protect ourselves, mami.”

The gun felt like a wild animal sitting in a cage just inches from her body. Luna shook all over. Doña Esme didn't seem to notice. They were traveling on yet another wooded two-lane. Luna kept waiting for her to get onto a main highway and cross the bridge. They were eating up precious time. If they didn't make headway soon, the jail's visiting hours would be over before they arrived.

They came upon another shopping center, this one much smaller. Doña Esme turned in.

“Where are we going now?” Luna couldn't hide her frustration. It seemed to overshadow even her fear.

“It won't take long.”

This shopping center was just a concrete block of stores, all one-story, all joined together. An insurance broker's office. A breakfast diner. A computer repair shop and a secondhand clothing store. There were no cars in the lot. All the businesses were closed for the evening—maybe for the whole weekend. The entire center was surrounded by woods. The lighting was half the wattage of the other shopping center.

In the far corner was a car wash with a
FOR SALE
sign over the windows. The drive-through area was shuttered with big roll-down metal gates. The little front office was locked up tight. There were planters by the office, but they were overgrown with weeds. The rainbow sign with the crown on top that Luna saw at the Lake Holly Car Wash King was missing here.

“Charlie's worst investment,” Doña Esme muttered. “That was all I had to tell him and he knew where to come.”

Doña Esme parked the CRV behind the car wash. Then she reached across Luna to the glove compartment and pulled out the zippered bag.

“Come on, get out,” she said.

“I want to go see my father.”

Doña Esme slapped Luna hard across the face. Her skin felt like it was on fire. Her jaw tingled.

“Well, I wanted a lot of things, chica. And they didn't happen. Life is tough. Maybe if your mami and papi hadn't protected you so much, you'd know that. Now get out.”

“Where are we going?”

“Shut up and you won't get hurt.”

The full measure of Luna's predicament hit her all at once. She started to run, but Doña Esme grabbed her by her hair and pushed her down onto the pavement. Something hard smacked her skull. The world went dark and silent.

Luna's last terrible thought was that her family would think she'd abandoned them.