Adrian Del Valle - Diego's Brooklyn (18 page)

Mary!

He couldn’t go back the way he had come. He had to think. There was another way down. He used it before when playing ring ‘o levio, a hide and seek game that utilized the entire block as a playing field. And like that game, he crossed every roof on the block toward Bond Street. There, he climbed down a fire escape into someone’s yard, jumped a fence and strode casually through an empty lot to the street as if nothing had happened.

Ding! Dong!

Larry answered the door. “Diego! Whassup, Pal?”

“Hey man, I never thought I’d be this happy to see you.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“Um, nothing Larr. You mind if I hang out for a little while?”

“Of course not. Say…you’re sweating bullets. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m all right. This jacket’s too warm, that’s why. I’ll take it off.”

“I’m watchin’ Roy Rogers.”

“Sounds good.”

“What’s in the box, Dieg.”

“Uh…nothing! My diary, why?”

“So, why’re you carrying a diary around?”

“In case I want to add something important.”

“Oh! What’re you writin’ about?”

“Me! What else! It’s a diary.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s right. But what’s it say?”

“I can’t tell you. A diary is supposed to be private.”

“Yeah, I guess so…sorry.”

6:32 P.M. 240 Dean Street

The Front Stoop

“Who called this in?” said Detective Williams to O’Brien.

“Some lady removing clothes from the line. She said she thought it was some of her clothes, you know, blown off the line by the wind? She freaked out when she took a closer look over the fence and saw Scanlon’s body laying there without a head.”

“I’d be shocked, too. Where’d they find it?”

“The dog! He was chewing on it by the back fence. Our guys nearly had to shoot the damn thing in order to get it away from him.”

“Well…here we go again. You take downstairs, Don, and I’ll see if Mary saw anything. You bring pictures?”

“Yes, but I only have one set.”

“Let me show them to Mary so I don’t have to go up again.”

“Sure! What’s in the bag?”

Ted opened a brown paper bag and showed him the packages of Twinkies crowded inside. “Don’t ask!”

“I won’t.”

Inside Mary’s room, Ted handed the bag to her. “I brought you these.”

“Thank you, detective. I heard about the cop they found in the yard.”

“So you know why I’m here?”

“Yes, of course.”

“How did you know about the cop?”

“I heard some cops in the hall talking and remembered seeing one go up to the roof earlier. So, when they were in the hall…”

“Start from the beginning, again, Mary. You saw a cop go up to the roof…what time?”

“I woke from my chair this afternoon and…”

“What time.”

“I didn’t look at the clock.”

“Then, take a guess.”

“Well, it was before the boy, downstairs, went to the store for me.”

“Okay, then, it had to be around 3:00 when the kid came home from school?”

“Yes, your right. Actually, it was before that, maybe 2:45-ish?”

“Go on.”

“I heard someone come up the stairs. I went to the door to see who it was.”

“And?”

“It was the cop. To tell you the truth, I was kind of glad, you know, with everything else that’s been going on around here?”

“Sure…did you get a good look at his face?”

“Yes, I’ve seen him before.”

“Oh! Where?”

“On the street from my window, and also the same day the maintenance man was here.”

“Val…the one who fixed the doors!”

“That’s right.”

“If I show you some pictures, do you think you could identify him?”

“The cop? Yes. I think so.”

Williams took out six pictures of policemen in uniform and placed them on her lap.

Mary looked at each one carefully and stopped at the fifth one. “That’s him! That’s the one that was here both times.”

“Both times? You’re sure?”

“Yes! Once, when the maintenance guy was here and then again today, like I said.”

“And you’re absolutely positive about that?”

“I’m positive, and the other day, the maintenance guy read the name on his uniform out loud. It was Bob something.”

“Bob Scanlon?”

“Yes! That’s it…Bob Scanlon.”

“Okay, that matches the name of the cop in the picture you just picked out. How about this last time, was there someone with him?”

“No, I didn’t see anyone…only him.”

“Not the maintenance man?”

“Definitely not! After the cop went up to the roof, I went back to my chair and fell asleep.”

“Did you actually see him climb the ladder?”

“Yes.”

“By himself?”

“Oh, absolutely!”

“Did you hear anything after that?”

“No…like what?”

“Like anything!”

“No, I dozed off.”

“Did you hear yelling or people talking up there?”

“No! When I woke up, the TV was still on, so I watched the news, and later on I heard an ambulance outside and then some people in the hall right after that. Well…the police I mean. You know, in the hall. I was by the door.”

“The Keyhole!”

“Yes. That’s how I knew about the cop in the yard. I heard them talking.”

“What about the kid?”

“What about him?”

“Did the kid go up to the roof?”

“I don’t think so. I probably would have heard him if he had.”

Williams toyed with his mustache while remaining focused on Mary. After a long pause, he finally said, “If you remember something else about that kid or anything about what we talked about, give me a call.

8:32 P.M. The Roof

“Where did Lieutenant Abrams go?” asked Captain Malone.

“The Deli to get something to eat,” said Don.

“He still has an appetite? Good for him. Did anybody talk to Scanlon’s wife?”

“We’re getting ready to drive over there, now,” said Williams.

The captain shined a flashlight on the capstone. “This was here all this time?”

“Right there inside the chalk mark, Cap.”

“Okay, what else ya got. Anyone see anything?”

O’Brien shook his head no, his lips pushing sideways into his cheek as he flipped through the pages from his notes. “No one downstairs saw or heard anything. Nope! I got nothing concrete, Cap.”

“What about you, Williams, was it Scanlon, yesterday?”

“With the maintenance guy? That was Scanlon all right. We interviewed Val Castillo at his Hardware Store up the street on Nevins. He said Scanlon had to write a report. A description of the rooms, he said.”

“Bullshit! He had no business up here. The Barnes case was nearly closed at the time, wasn’t it?”

“Not totally.”

“I’m not talking about City Hall and the 18th. I know all about that. I’m talking about right here!”

“Right, Cap. Yeah, we were done interviewing the building. Forensics was done, also.”

“Okay, so apparently Scanlon was on the hunt for the money?”

“That’s what we figured,” said Don.

“Did we get any prints off the stone?”

“No, too porous. They got some off the ladder though…and the hatch. The ones on the ladder were from Scanlon of course and some contamination from the cops that first answered the call. We also have Joe Barnes and a kid from downstairs on both the ladder as well as the metal hatch.”

“What kid?”

“Uh…a kid named Diego Rivera who lives in 1A with his mother.”

“How big is this kid? What do we know about him?”

“I know what you’re thinking, Cap, but he’s only fourteen and about this short.”

“When was he on the roof last? You interviewed him, didn’t you? What did he say?”

Don took out his note book and flipped to the page.

“Monday, April 24
^th
, 240 Dean Street, apartment 1A. Spoke to…”

“Stop! Stop! I don’t need all of that! I only want the time. When did you speak to him?”

“Oh! Almost two hours ago…6:43…in his apartment.”

Good! And what did he say?”

Don continued to read from his notes:

Likes to watch pigeons on roof across yard

Looks for pinky balls on roof

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! How about today…like this afternoon? Was the kid up here?”

“I was coming to that. I wanted to first verifying why we found his prints on the ladder.”

Don read on:

Spent afternoon at friend Larry’s house after school

Watched Westerns from 3:20 until 6:00

“Okay…so you checked that all out and the boy claims he wasn’t up here?”

“Yes, and that Larry kid’s mother was home at the time. She backed up his story, and besides her, Mary, the lady in the front room, according to Ted here, saw Scanlon go up to the roof before 3:00…by himself.”

“2:45,” Detective Williams added.

Malone took off his captain’s hat and ran his gloved fingers through greying hair. He glanced at the pigeon coop, all settled in its glow from a street light, and then stepped to the edge. Below, the neighboring yard was softly illuminated by a night lamp inside a kitchen window. In its expose lay the shepherd, curled tightly into a ball.

“Hey, so forget that. But, are you guys thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”

“He tripped on the capstone all by himself!” Williams said, matter of factly.

“Exactly! Scanlon was up here looking around, for what else…the money, right?”

“Right!”

“Right!”

“He doesn’t see the stone, or forgets that it’s there, and over he goes.”

“Then, how did the capstone get from the chimney to the back end of the roof?” said Williams.

“Barnes! Who else! You said Scanlon came up here alone, right?”

“That’s what Mary said, but that doesn’t explain the capstone. Somebody else had to be up here at one time or another.”

“The kid!” said Don.

Malone put his hands on his hips and stared into the distance. “Maybe! Did you ask him?”

“He doesn’t remember seeing it there.”

“When did you say the kid was here last?”

“I didn’t!” Don checked his notes, turning and tracing the pages quietly with a moistened fingertip. Finally, he found what he was looking for. “Oh…okay…what I wrote down was that it was a couple of weeks ago. The kid doesn’t remember exactly when.”

The captain, his hands now clasped behind his back, stared into the yard.

“He doesn’t remember?…Humph!”

“You think we should bring him in and put a little pressure on him?” said Don.

“Pressure? What the hell for? Since he apparently wasn’t up here today, we have nothing. Besides, with him being a minor and that alibi of his, we don’t have enough just cause. No, I get the feeling that this Barnes guy, or more than likely, his cohorts put that capstone there. It might have been loose already and they decided to threaten him with it.”

“But Cap, Barnes was already dead when those guys showed up here. He was found in the park, remember?”

“I’m not talking about this time, O’Brien! They could have been here way before that and threatened him with the stone sometime back then. We really don’t know how long that stone was laying there, now, do we?

“In the meantime, we don’t have anything else to go on, and I don’t see any reason to believe otherwise. Not only that, there’s no blood on it, and according to the forensic report the only injuries on Scanlon were the ones he got from the fall.”

“So, do you want us to give you the report the way it is?” said Don.

“Leave it on my desk. I’ll stall headquarters for a few more days with some bullshit before we send it downtown. If nothing else turns up, we’ll close the whole damn thing. For now, it looks like we’re finished here. Whaddya say we get some coffee and donuts before you run over to the widow’s house? They’re two for one at Herzog’s.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

Loose ends and Loan Sharks

Diego’s Apartment

“Mom?”

“What took so long, Mijo? Are ju okay? Ju done look so good.”

“I was hanging out with Larry.”

“I’m so worry! Why ju take so long? Ju done show heem notheeng, did ju?”

“Relax, Mom. No!…I didn’t!”

Exhausted, Diego locked the door. The steel box, he laid gently on the table.

To Ana, the plain steel container, tarnished and stained with soot, had a valueless quality to it. It was hard to imagine that within such an insignificant piece of tin lay nearly $10,000. She held onto the round, porcelain corner of the sink while staring at it.

“Mom..? I…I…never mind.”

Diego couldn’t hold the tragedy inside anymore. He wanted to tell her everything that had happened. If only he could say the words, but his emotions were getting in the way. He edged over to the sink and quietly put his arms around his mother, held her tightly and let a flood of uncontrolled tears spill out.

“Oh, God, Mom, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. It just happened.”

The boy’s cries became louder. All he wanted right now was to hold onto her, the only person in the whole world who had the power to make everything better. He said nothing else. For the moment, he could forget about all that had just happened. What really mattered was that he was inside his mother’s arms where he could once again be her little boy. The soft touch of her fingers ran through his dark curls. Diego Relaxed and stayed there, whimpering with his face to her warm breast.

“Mijo…thees weel all pass weeth time. There ees no-thing that cannot be feexed. Come, seet down weeth me. Let’s see what ees inside dee box.”

Ana lifted her head and leaned it back, smiled at her son’s upturned face and wiped his cheeks. “Are ju okay?”

(Sniff!) “It’s…it’s…not the money that’s bothering me.”

“Eef eet ees not dee moe-ney, then tell me what it ees?”

“Not now, please? I promise I’ll tell you. Let me calm down first, please?”

“Take all dee time ju need, Diego,” She continued to run her fingers through his hair.

Sitting next to her on the couch with the box in his lap, Diego left it closed and toyed with the metal latch. “You know something?”

Ana’s brows raised up.