Burning Man (7 page)

My grunt of acknowledgment was interpreted as encouragement to speak further. “I got a newborn of my own,” he said. “As soon as I saw the kid, I knew the mother was felony stupid and didn’t know jack about babies.”

The officer knew a lot more about newborns than I did and my eyes dropped south to his tag. “What told you that, Officer Alvarez?” I asked.

“The damn box wasn’t level, and the baby was just left facedown in it,” he said. “That’s an invitation for disaster. My wife would kill me if I put our newborn to sleep on her stomach. And the pediatrician must have told us a dozen times that you never wrap a newborn in a blanket, and you especially don’t put a pillow in the crib.”

His comments made me look harder at the angle of the box, and at what was left inside it. You don’t usually think of a pillow and blanket as being instruments of death.

“The mother must have been worried about the baby getting cold,” I said.

Alvarez did his imitation of Dr. Spock: “That’s what sleepers are for.” Then he added with cop disdain, “Of course the mother’s probably a wasted teenage tweaker who didn’t even know she was pregnant.”

He knew his newborns but not his profiling. From working the last dumped baby, I’d learned that women who abandon their newborns don’t fall into any neat category: they can be any race, creed, or color. College students are as likely to offend as high school dropouts.

“You were the first on the scene?” I asked.

Alvarez nodded. “After determining the baby was dead, I cleared the area and made sure nothing was disturbed.”

“You want to name her?” I asked.

The officer rubbed his hands on his thighs, leaning one way and then the other, clearly uncomfortable with my question. “It doesn’t seem right, naming the dead.”

“No, it doesn’t, but the baby’s going to need a name before she’s buried.”

“I’ll pass, if you don’t mind.”

“No problem,” I said and then thanked the officer before returning my attention to the baby in the box.

My adoptive parents were churchgoers with an abiding faith in God. One of my father’s favorite quotations was from the Sermon on the Mount, and he would often repeat Christ’s words to me: “Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His care.” I looked at the fallen sparrow; by naming the baby I would provide her with an identity. The memory of my last trip to a unique and troubling graveyard made me remember roses.

Rose, I decided, and my victim had a name.

I checked with the crime scene unit, making sure it was okay for me to do a close-up study of Rose. The blue blanket surrounding her was a polyester blend. A woman’s white cotton T-shirt, size medium, swam over the baby. As I lifted the shirt, I was surprised to see that Rose was wearing knit pink bootees. Rose wasn’t wearing a diaper, and her pink-streaked body made it appear as if she had been hurriedly washed before being clothed and deposited in the box.

There was some food residue on the blanket, crumbs of some sort. Forensics was probably already on it, but I’d double-check to make sure they bagged it. I removed the pillow, rested Rose on it and then made sure there was nothing else in the box.

The coroner’s office would decide how Rose had died, but I was betting they would rule her death as an accidental homicide. Dumped babies aren’t usually clothed or blanketed, and this was the first time I’d ever heard of an abandoned baby wearing pink bootees. My gaze lingered on her tiny feet. Someone should have been playing with the little toes and spouting nonsensical words about a piggy going to market.

“The mother hedged her bet.”

I turned around and saw Della Tomkins, a veteran of the Forensic Field Unit. We had met at several crime scenes. On those other occasions, Della had been bright and cheery, but this time she couldn’t even force a smile.

“We found a pair of blue bootees on the steps,” Della said. “Mom must not have known the sex of the baby she was going to be abandoning.”

I had heard that Della and her life partner, Abby, had been going to fertility clinics for the past year in the hopes of Abby’s conceiving. They were doing all that they could to have a baby.

“Find anything else?” I asked.

“A few steps away from the box we found some crumpled cellophane wrapping with the remains of some partially eaten bread. We think the crumbs in the box match the bread. At first I thought it was banana bread, but judging from its aroma I’m now leaning toward pumpkin bread.”

Halloween had come and gone a few months back. I thought of pumpkin bread as a seasonal offering, but maybe it was a popular item in the trendy bakeries or bistros that I never patronized.

Della stood next to me and the two of us contemplated the newborn. “I’m identifying her as Rose in the book,” I said, referring to the casebook.

“I thought Lisbet named the newborns.”

“She encourages the detectives to come up with a name. It’s her way of getting us emotionally involved.”

“Does it work?”

I didn’t say, but Della already knew the answer. It’s easy to depersonalize a baby Jane Doe, but not as easy to forget a forsaken newborn that you’ve given a name.

“Has anyone called the Saint?” I asked.

I offered up Lisbet Keane’s nickname for what it was, a term of respect. An outsider had earned the begrudging high opinion of the coroner’s office and the LAPD.

“I just finished talking with her,” Della said. “She’ll pick up Rose after the coroner releases her.”

Before Lisbet had come on the scene, newborns had been cremated and placed in a mass grave in East LA. A decade earlier, Lisbet had seen a news spot on an abandoned newborn and felt called upon to attend to the baby’s burial. While she was negotiating for a plot, two other dead newborns turned up. Though only a college student at the time, Lisbet had decided she would somehow find the money to bury all three. In the years since she had gathered up every abandoned newborn and seen to their burials. Lisbet’s caring didn’t stop with the dead—she had been the driving force behind establishing California’s Safely Surrendered Baby Law. In only a few years, most of the country had followed California’s example, and as a result nationwide there are now fewer throwaway newborns.

“I’ll call her later,” I said.

Even saints need to make a living. Lisbet was a freelance graphic artist, a job that allowed flexibility for her unusual calling. As far as I was concerned, she was too young and too attractive to be a saint.

I looked at Rose and said in a voice kinder than my own, “Don’t worry, your adopted mom will soon be picking you up.”

“Amen,” Della said.

My eyes turned to the rail of Angels Flight spanning the heights. The railway didn’t operate in the evening, but I hoped that sometime during the night it had made a special ascent.

CHAPTER 4:
THE CRY IN THE WILDERNESS

From inside the rectory office, I heard a familiar and comforting voice announce loudly enough for me to hear, “Well, we can’t keep one of LA’s finest waiting, can we?”

Father Patrick Garrity, known by everyone as Father Pat, was the pastor at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament on Sunset Boulevard. When people think of the Sunset Strip, they don’t usually envision a church, but for more than a century the church has been a part of a neighborhood better known for its sinners than its saints.

“Get in here, Michael,” Father Pat shouted. “I’d like to embarrass you in front of a few people.”

I have never visited Father Pat without him telling the story of our first meeting to at least one person. As I entered the rectory, he stood up from his chair and opened his arms to the prodigal son. His hair was completely gray now, but the blue eyes behind his thick glasses were still young. There had been a time when I was sure Father Pat was ten feet tall. The physical reality was that he was half of that and resembled in build a well-fed friar. As he squeezed me tight, my holster pressed hard into him; for
a moment his face wrinkled in distaste at his recognition of the weapon, but then he patted my shoulder and his smile returned.

He turned and made eye contact with a young Hispanic man wearing vestments who I guessed was the latest fresh-faced pastoral intern. “This is
the
Michael Gideon,” he said. “You might have heard me mention his name a time or two.”

Barbara, the church secretary, had followed me into Father Pat’s office and stood there beaming and nodding, but the young priest didn’t know me from Adam. Or Eve.

“This is ‘baby Michael,’” Father Pat said, “the gift left on our doorstep.”

“Oh, that Michael,” the intern said.

“Yes,” Father Pat said. He turned his eyes on me and said, “Your reputation precedes you.”

“There’s a reason I’ve never invited you to my workplace.”

“I met Michael more than thirty years ago,” he said, “back when I was svelte, handsome, and quite full of myself.”

“It’s hard to believe the svelte and handsome part.”

Father Pat motioned for Barbara and me to sit down. He never let anything get in the way of his telling a good story, even if everyone had heard it before.

“In my early years at Blessed Sacrament,” he said, “I was the low man on the totem pole. Part of my duties included giving the eight o’clock Monday mass, which always seemed a bit of an anticlimax after the weekend services, at least to this wet-behind-his-ears priest. On Monday I knew that only a small number of regulars attended mass, and it was always a rare Monday when I didn’t think that my talents could be put to better use.

“As I was getting myself ready in the sacristy, I suddenly took notice of a strange sound, but because this has always been a neighborhood of strange sounds I decided to pay it no mind. The plaintive cry only lasted for a few seconds, and I was glad of that. I tried to convince myself that it was a stray cat, but I still couldn’t shake this uneasy feeling.

“I told myself that I had no time for any wild goose chase, what with a mass to prepare for, but the truth of the matter is that I didn’t want to be bothered. Still, I suppose I continued to listen out of one ear, for it was only a minute or two later that I again became aware of some faint crying. The sounds were weaker this time around and were gone so quickly I wondered if I had imagined them.

“Because the homeless and transients have long been a part of this neighborhood, I suspected the cries were human, but that wasn’t enough to make me act. ‘It’s probably a maudlin drunk,’ I told myself, ‘grieving because he’s run out of liquor.’ On that self-righteous note, I tried to convince myself to not be bothered, but there was something oppressive about the silence. I didn’t hear the quiet so much as I sensed this void. When I think back to that time, I am sure I was being given a test, and had I turned my back, I believe I would have failed it to the detriment of my soul. That is why, when I tell this story from the pulpit, I suggest that all of us need to listen to what we don’t hear as well as that which we do, and cocksure priests most of all.”

Father Pat gave a side glance to the intern and winked. “It was a cold January morning, much like the mornings we’ve been having this week, and I remember as I hurried outside my breath produced a vapor trail. I started in the direction I thought the sound had come from, making my way to the back lot, but I was stopped by a metal chain that was strung up to keep cars out. I was wearing my robes, and as I stepped over the chain I tripped on it. My fall was almost deterrent enough to send me back. As I lay sprawled on the ground, I remember bemoaning the state of my vestments and thinking how it wouldn’t do for me to officiate mass with a tear in the left knee of my pants, and how I needed to go back right away so that I would have time enough to hurriedly change into other clothing. I knew full well that the regulars would not like it if the service started late, and that these particular parishioners would be sure to give me an earful if mass did not
begin on time. Just as I convinced myself that I had to turn back, I heard a sound. It wasn’t loud enough to be a wail but was more like a fading whistle. I turned my head and scanned the entire back lot but saw nothing.

“With a few very unholy words and an aggrieved limp, I decided that I couldn’t leave without at least a cursory look of the area. It’s probably a bird, I told myself, and I am just a birdbrain on a fool’s errand, but my recriminations didn’t stop me from inspecting the blacktop. I scanned the area and was just about to give up when I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye. The breeze was blowing along some leaves, pushing them to a spot in the corner where other leaves and trash were piled high by the wind. Back then my eyes were sharp, but I did not want to believe what I was seeing. I found myself staring at a small, still hand.

“Without thinking—perhaps afraid to think—I sprinted to the little one’s side. I swept away the leaves and debris, and feared I was too late. The baby wasn’t moving, and his skin had a bluish hue. I lifted the babe up and felt how cold his body was, but even as I despaired that I had come too late, my prayers were answered, for I saw him take the slightest of breaths.

“I tucked the naked baby into the folds of my robes and took off running as fast as I dared. On that morn it felt as if I sprouted wings, for the ground seemed to fly by under me. I rubbed the baby’s arms and legs as I ran, but he did not respond and made no sounds.

“I raced in through the side entrance of the church, and when I appeared to the congregation I am sure that I looked every inch a madman, what with my bulging eyes, heaving chest, and torn clothing. I hurried through the sanctuary, pausing only for a moment to genuflect, and then ran through the nave. The organist stifled a scream and stopped her playing, and the congregation stood up to get a look at what I was carrying, but I didn’t take notice of any of that.

“I made it to the front of the church and tried to remember what to do. I had only assisted in baptisms, and for a moment I froze before gathering my wits. I could not have this baby die before receiving the First Sacrament, and I was sure his young life hung in the balance.

“I reached into the baptismal font, and my hands were trembling so much that I spilled more holy water on the ground than I did the baby’s head. Three times did I make the sign of the cross, giving unto the newborn both name and blessing: ‘I christen thee Michael in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit.’