What Have You Done(63)

Liam approached them and, as he got closer, noticed the grandfather pull his eye away from the viewfinder. The old man looked at him and then called to his grandson in his native language. The boy ran back, and they both watched as he split the current of bodies walking back and forth from the water.

“Hi, Mr. Liam!” Kiki shouted, waving. “You want Grandpa to take your picture? One picture, one dollar.”

“No,” Liam replied. He held up Kerri’s photograph.

“You already paid us for that one. Big tip. Nice man.”

“Yes, I know. You told me you took this picture here, but I know you didn’t. Tell me who gave you this picture to sell me.”

The boy’s demeanor changed. He smiled again, but this time it seemed forced. “Grandpa take that picture. We sell to you.”

“No,” Liam said. “This was taken on the other side of the city. That’s the Schuylkill River in the background, not the Delaware.” He moved in closer so they could both see. “Who gave you this picture?”

Kiki shrugged. “We don’t remember.”

“What?”

“We don’t remember. Sorry.”

Liam showed the picture to the old man. “Ask Grandpa.”

“He don’t remember, either.”

“You haven’t asked him.”

The boy leaned over and said something in Cantonese. The old man responded in kind.

“No,” Kiki replied. His eyes were darting in both directions now, nervous, uneasy. “He don’t remember. Sorry.”

The boy tried to leave. He went to push past Liam as he began calling for other possible customers, but Liam put a hand to Kiki’s chest and gently pushed him back toward his grandfather. “I’m going to ask you one last time. It’s important. Someone got hurt, and I need your help. You won’t be in trouble, but it’s important you tell me who gave you this picture to give to me.”

The boy looked at the photograph and then began shaking his head furiously. “I don’t know picture! I told you! Leave us alone! Go!”

The boy’s shouts began to draw the attention of others in their vicinity. Liam put Kerri’s photo away. He left without saying another word, making his way into the tackle shop, where Bud was waiting on three customers.

“Hey!” Bud cried. “Back again?”

Liam ignored him and pushed through the swinging door at the end of the counter. “I need to borrow something,” he said. “Just for a sec.”

Bud stopped what he was doing with his customer. “You can’t come back here,” he said. “What do you want?”

Liam reached up on the third shelf.

“Hey, man! What’re you doing?”

He pulled a flare gun down and held it in his hand. The imperfections of the weapon were as plain as day, but it looked real enough, and he doubted the boy would know the difference. “I’ll give it right back.”

“Hey!”

The screams that carried through the air as he walked back across the dock, gun in hand, were piercing, but he was so focused on Kiki and Grandpa it didn’t register that the tourists and others on the dock were screaming and running from him. For a moment, the boy looked as if he was going to flee, but as Liam approached, he simply fell back against the old man, both of them watching him.

“I’m going to ask you one final time,” Liam said calmly. He held the flare gun up against the boy’s skinny chest. “I’m not fooling around anymore. I like you, Kiki. I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to because people I care about have been hurt. Badly hurt. And I have to find out what happened. This isn’t a game. I want to know who gave you that photo of the girl, or I pull this trigger. Do you understand? If you don’t tell me, you’re going to die right here, today.”

Grandpa began waving his hands frantically. “Okay! Okay!” He started talking in Cantonese as he rifled through his box of pictures.

Liam could hear more screams behind him and now realized what was happening. “Hurry up.”

The old man came away with a picture and gave it to the boy. The boy quickly looked at it and handed it over. “We don’t know who he is. He came up to us and gave us the picture to give to you. He pay us two hundred dollars to do it and keep it secret. We didn’t know anyone would get hurt. Please don’t shoot me. I don’t want to get arrested. You go away now. Please. I won’t ask for picture from you anymore. I leave you alone.”

Liam took the photo and studied it. The figure appeared to be a man. He was dressed in a gray pullover sweatshirt and black sweatpants. The hood on the sweatshirt was up over his head, and his face was covered with a scarf. The figure had been in the process of turning away when Grandpa had taken his picture. Who was this man?

“You don’t know who this is?”

“No.”

“Did you see his face?”

“No,” Kiki replied. “He come to us like that. That’s all we see.”

Liam stuffed the picture in his pocket and ran down to the edge of the dock. He stopped and looked back toward the street. The police would be approaching from both directions, and SWAT would be dispatched. There was only one place to go, although his legs refused to take him any farther.

“Come on,” he urged himself.