City Dark(84)

“This can’t be,” Zochi said, barely above a whisper. It was just a verbal reflex. She had a feeling it was all very doable, and that Mike Carroll, whoever he was, had done it.

“You might think it’s crazy, but you had to be there,” he said, as if he’d read her mind. “In the early ’70s, when the city was broke, the state was cutting staff, and it was all just coming apart. Getting a severely disabled boy named Charles DeSantos from one place to another with a new name would have been difficult but not impossible. There were all sorts of things you could pull off, particularly if the kid was left for dead.”

“Dead,” she said, looking up from her notepad. “That’s how Lois viewed him by the time he was five or six, I guess. Dead.”

“I don’t know. Mike said Lois wasn’t the one who wanted to walk away from Charles. It was the father, Reggie. I never met him.”

“It was Lois who abandoned the other two, though. Just a few years later.”

He nodded. “I know. I never understood it. Mike never understood it. He never heard from her again that I know of. He just made do and hoped she’d turn up one day. I guess she never did.”

“What about her bringing the boys to the city in the first place, the night of the blackout? Did Mike know she was coming?”

“It was very short notice. Lois called him that morning, I think. I hadn’t heard from Mike most of the day; it’s not like we texted back then. All I knew was, the lights went out. Then I’m getting a call from my boyfriend in Staten Island, like, ‘Hey, can you give these two kids a hand and get them to the ferry?’ It was crazy. The whole night seemed like a dream. Then it just wasn’t discussed. It was Mike’s secret to tell, not mine. And our whole lives were secrets back then. We presented ourselves as friends. I think Robbie knew better, but he never said anything. Joe was just a nice kid. They missed their mother, and Mike and I didn’t know what to say. What do you tell two boys when their mother just disappears like that? We talked about all sorts of things. Maybe she got sick. Or a bump on the head.”

“Sounds awful,” Zochi said.

“Sometimes I wish that I would have stuck it out with Mike and been easier on him. I wish I had known Joe was still in the dark about his twin brother.”

“Wait,” she said quietly. Her pulse was thrumming in her ear. She had never felt so tired and yet so energized at the same time. “If Charles was in state care, it would have been in Staten Island, right?”

“Yes, that’s where Mike had all his connections. The facility was a small one. Private, but they took state funds.”

“Do you remember the name?”

“I don’t,” he said. “You could probably track him down, though. If I had to guess, I’d say that Mike kept his birthdate the same. The facility would have records, even if he’s deceased.”

“I’ve gotta run.” She looked at her watch. It was a little after 6:00 a.m., nearly sunrise. Nate’s cat was on the windowsill, silhouetted against the pink dawn. “I’ll follow up when I can, but . . . thank you.”

“Is Joe a murderer?” he asked as she packed up. The question was blunt, dropped into the little living room like a stone. “I guess maybe you can’t say, but I had to ask. It’s the one thing we haven’t talked about.”

“Maybe not,” she said. “If he isn’t, he might have you to thank.”

“I don’t know what for. I feel like I held back something terribly important that seems to have ruined his life, one way or the other.”

“Actually,” she said, “if it’s what I’m thinking, it might save his life.”





CHAPTER 68


6:22 a.m.

Zochi stooped under police tape on her way out of the building. Out front, with her butt resting on a bike rack and looking red eyed, was Letty Clark.

Letty yawned. “Anything good from my witness?”

“I think so,” she said. “I’m trying to get my head around it, but . . . I don’t even know how to explain it.”

“Give it a try. Do you think our cases are related?”

“It’s possible, yeah.” With that, she gave Letty the shortest version she could manage about her suspect, Joe DeSantos, who had been prosecuting a case against Letty’s victim, Evan Bolds. DeSantos was in jail on unrelated murder charges, but now the case was getting stranger with an identical twin out there who maybe Joe didn’t know about. The twin was severely disabled, though, and Zochi had no idea if he was still alive.

Joe also had a brother, Robbie. Both Robbie and Joe had an ancient but powerful history with Nate Porter, Letty’s surviving witness. Now, if Zochi could connect Robbie to Evan Bolds? Then yes, her and Letty’s cases could be related.

“Wow,” Letty said after Zochi had spit that all out. “Okay, so it is likely Bolds came here looking to kill Nate Porter.”

“I think so,” Zochi said. “Unless we figure out some other history between Bolds and Porter, I think it was my suspect’s brother Robbie who set it up.”

“So this guy, Robbie, wanted Nate Porter dead?”

“I’m just guessing, but that’s what’s gelling for me, yes.”

“Well, it’s consistent with Porter’s description,” Letty said. “Porter doesn’t know anything about Bolds, but he was attacked by him anyway. There was also this homeless guy who Porter tried to shoo away.”