Murder at St. Mark's

by Priscilla Baker

  “No problem,” Lucy replied. “Thank you for coming by. I appreciate it. We haven’t had any problems here at the restaurant. Everything has been running smoothly. Of course, we were closed yesterday, so things couldn’t have gone too poorly!” Lucy smiled and chuckled a little at her joke, and the officer responded with a chuckle of his own.

  “Good, I’m glad. You said no problems here, though. Does that mean there have been problems outside the restaurant?” he asked.

  “No, nothing really. It’s just that yesterday, I thought I saw a kid wearing the same hat that went missing from Donovan’s locker. The one you and I saw in the morning that day, and that was gone when you were back in the evening. I tried to talk to him, to see if maybe he knew Donovan, but he ran away—literally ran—as soon as I tried to talk to him. It was nothing, just a little weird.” Officer Fitz watched her intently as she spoke, his face suddenly serious.

  “No, that’s not nothing. You’re right, it’s strange. Where did you see the boy?” he asked, pulling out the small notebook that he seemed to perpetually keep in his left pocket.

  “Down by the water, in the part at the end of Hull Street. He ran back into the city, away from the water. He was running so fast he almost got hit by one of those tour busses.”

  Officer Fitz nodded as he jotted down notes.

  “Very interesting. I think that might be important. If I gave you my phone number, would you be willing to keep an eye out for this boy again, and call me if you see him?” he asked.

  “Of course. I appreciate you taking this seriously. I know Detective Carter didn’t seem to think it was very important,” she said.

  “Detective Carter sometimes spends too much time looking at the big picture, and not enough time looking for details,” Office Fitz said, clearly trying to be professional when speaking about his boss. Lucy noticed a little smile pulling at the corner of his mouth while he spoke.

  Officer Fitz continued, “I know I gave you my business card the other day, but the only phone number on that is for the precinct. I’ll give you my cell number—call anytime. I live in the area so even if I’m off duty I can swing by.”

  “Oh no, I’m sure that won’t be necessary. But thank you.” Lucy took the piece of paper he offered, with his cell phone number jotted under his name, and slipped it into her pocket.

  “My pleasure. Has anything else strange happened?” he asked as he stood up.

  “No, nothing at all. Thank you very much for coming by, I really appreciate it,” Lucy said as they left the office. Several of the cooks watched curiously; police officers were pretty unusual in the kitchen at Alba.

  “Would you mind if I go out the back door? Seems a little quieter. And besides, you don’t need people seeing cops come in and out of your restaurant. No offense, but it’s not really a great look,” Office Fitz said, smiling again.

  “Of course not. It’s right over there—well, you know where it is. Just be careful walking, the floor is probably slippery. Thank you again for coming out. I’ll be sure to call you if anything strange happens, or if I see that kid again.”

  “Hey, protect and serve, that’s what we’re here for. Have a good night, now.” Office Fitz waved as he left through the back door.

  Lucy meandered over to where Ally stood waiting for her, having finished her unique critique of the new cook—part dressing down, knocking back his overconfidence a bit, and part encouragement, show him that he still has potential. Her ability to teach cooks like that was one of the many reasons Lucy had asked Ally to join her in Boston.

  “Well? What did he want? Did someone else get murdered?” Ally asked expectantly.

  “No, Ally, no one else got murdered, no one else got murdered,” Lucy responded, rolling her eyes. “He just came by to see if anything else had happened. Said he was in the neighborhood.”

  “In the neighborhood? That’s a flimsy excuse if I’ve ever heard one. I think he has a crush on you. He’s kind of cute, in his own way,” Ally teased.

  “Oh, shut up! He’s just being nice. Besides, something did happen. That weird kid in the park, remember?” Lucy prodded her friend.

  “Luce, that was nothing. He ran away because a crazy lady in the park yelled at him. You would have run away, too.” Ally replied.

  “Whatever! He gave me his phone number to call if something else happens. Besides,” Lucy paused, “Look over there. Is that supposed to be on fire?” she said, pointing across the kitchen to where a rag sat on the stainless steel counter next to the gas range, merrily burning.

  “Shit!” Ally cried as she took off across the kitchen. “Alberto! Where is Alberto? Get over here! You can’t light things on fire!”

  Lucy smiled as she headed back out to the dining room. Ally had things under control in the kitchen.

  The rest of the dinner service passed quickly and uneventfully. A few ruffled feathers with customers, which Lucy smoothed over with kind words and comped dinners. One customer, who fussed over her order, insisted that the server note her allergy to plums, which they didn’t even carry in the restaurant, and another who was desperately upset that he couldn’t order French toast, for dinner, in an Italian restaurant.

  Oh well, Lucy thought to herself after leaving the table with the omelet man. Can’t please them all. She had offered him the pasta carbonara, which at least had eggs and cheese and meat in it, all the same ingredients, if presented totally differently. But he had pivoted completely, ordering the bucatini topped with shrimp, scallops, and mussels.

  After sending all the servers home, Lucy headed upstairs, leaving work at her ‘regular’ time for the first time in days. Of course, being the owner who lived above the restaurant, no less, she was never truly done working. But,after the last few days, Lucy was just exhausted. There would always be more work, but for tonight all she wanted was a hot shower and to spend some time alone in the apartment, maybe clean up a little. She certainly knew the apartment could use some love.

  Locking the door behind her, Lucy sighed and leaned against it, kicking off her non-slip clogs and pulling off the sweater she was wearing over her blouse. She left both next to the door and headed straight to the shower. It always made her feel better to rinse away the heat and smells of the kitchen. No matter how good she knew the food tasted, it always lost some of its charm once all that was left was the smell on her clothes.

  After she stepped out of the shower and slipped into her pajamas, Lucy surveyed the apartment. Saying it could use a little love was definitely an understatement. More like it needed a bulldozer.

  Man, did it look like this when Officer Fitz was here? Lucy wondered to herself as she started to straighten up. Some dirty dishes to the kitchen, dirty clothes to the hamper, and the contents of the hamper to the washing machine Lucy was lucky enough to have in the apartment. It was rare in the North End, but her father had been sure to install one when he still lived there.

  Lucy checked the clock. It was getting close to two in the morning. Probably time for bed, Lucy thought to herself. Just a little more cleaning. I’ll go to bed when the washing machine finishes.

  She kept straightening up, wiping down the dust and food crumbs in the kitchen. For a spot that only got used once a week by Ally, the kitchen sure did manage to get messy. Lucy ate almost all of her meals down in the restaurant.

  Lucy moved on to the bedroom, where more dirty clothes piled up in the corners and the bed hadn’t been made in weeks. She straightened out the sheets and grabbed the dirty glasses littering the night table. She only brought a glass of water to bed about once a week, so who knew the last time she had cleaned them up.

  The washer dinged, letting Lucy know it was done. While she had a washing machine, there was no matching dryer. There were two hooks in the living room, one on either side, installed by her grandfather before Lucy was even born. A clothesline strung between them. The only reason Lucy remembered to take it down in between loads of laundry was that it went right across the living room, it was imposs
ible to cross the room without running into it.

  Lucy quickly put up the clothesline, making sure to leave herself on the right side of it to go to bed. She had made that mistake plenty of times before, forcing herself to either play limbo or take all the clothes back down and undo the line.

  She hung the clothes quickly. At this point in her life, having lived in this apartment for most of it, Lucy was pretty sure she qualified as an expert at clothesline hanging. Within ten minutes she was switching off the lights and heading to bed.

  Chapter 11

  The next morning started off much the same as the previous day, nice and relaxed. Lucy headed down to the restaurant around noon, when the first cooks started coming in. Ally usually got to work bright and early, around nine o’clock, but left earlier than Lucy. Lucy liked to be the last one out at night, and make sure the place was locked up tight.

  Lucy walked through the back door and waved at Ally. “Morning, Chef!” she called out.

  “Good morning!” Ally called back, without looking up from the pepper she was slicing into delicate strips. “All good last night?” Ally asked.

  “Everything was nice and slow. Steady business, happy customers, for the most part. All good. I even got back upstairs early enough to straighten up a little, do some laundry.”

  “Good for you!” Ally exclaimed, sweeping the sliced peppers up off her cutting board and dropping them into the pot next to her.

  “What are you working on?” Lucy asked, “Family meal?”

  “You got it,” Ally responded, picking up the sliced pepper and adding it to a big stainless steel bowl. “Pasta with red pepper sauce, that sauce we did for the special over the weekend. I’ll grill some chicken or something to go with it, too.”

  “Well, hey, it sure smells good!” Lucy commented as she walked past, inhaling the spicy red peppers mixed with garlic and onions.

  She headed out to the dining room, which was dark and still this early in the day. None of the employees would be out in the dining room, which was already set for dinner, until they sat down to eat family meal later that afternoon. She headed over behind the bar and set the coffee machine to brew herself a cup. While she waited, she wandered over to the big picture windows out onto Salem Street, watching the early afternoon tourists walk by. This was when the street outside started to get busy, although it was nothing compared to how busy the street would be later that day, around dinner time.

  She watched the tourists go by, first a family with young kids, then a couple holding hands and smiling at each other. A few delivery people, bringing packages to and from the various businesses. Then, across the street, a now-familiar sight caught Lucy’s eye. A blue and purple baseball cap on the head of a tall, skinny boy who was moving quickly.

  “Ally!” Lucy shouted. “Ally, the kid is back!” Lucy ran back to her office, where she had left the slip of paper with Officer Fitz’s phone number.

  “Ally!” she called again as she dialed.

  “What? What is it?” Ally reappeared from the walk-in cooler at the end of the kitchen.

  “That kid is back,” Lucy said as she listened to the phone ring, “The one with the hat. He was outside!” Lucy ran back out to the dining room, still holding her ringing cell phone up to her ear. As she watched the boy disappear down the street, she heard the sound of Officer Fitz’s recorded voice start to play.

  “You have reached Charlie Fitz. Please leave your name and number and I will return your call as soon as possible.”

  Charlie, huh, Lucy thought, I wouldn’t have guessed.

  “Officer Fitz,” she said into the phone, “This is Lucy Moretti, from Alba. I wanted to let you know that the boy I described to you, with the hat, is outside my restaurant right now, walking down Salem Street towards the Greenway Park. It’s around one o’clock right now. I’m going to follow him—please call me back as soon as you get this.”

  With that, Lucy hung up the phone, calling again to Ally, “Ally, I’m going to go follow him! I left a message for Officer Fitz. I’ll be right back!”

  Not bothering to wait for a response, or to grab her jacket, Lucy slipped out the front door of Alba. The boy was almost out of sight by now. She walked quickly, trying to catch up with him without getting too close.

  Chapter 12

  Lucy had never followed someone like this before; it was kind of exciting. If only I had had time to grab my coffee, Lucy thought to herself. It was still chilly outside and a nice warm cup of coffee would sure help her keep warm.

  She followed the cap, and its wearer, all the way down Salem Street to where it intersected with the Rose Kennedy Greenway, a long skinny park that circled nearly half of the city. After the Big Dig, back in the nineties, took the highway system underground, the leftover space was turned into a park.

  The boy turned south along the Greenway, continuing until he reached another section of waterfront, this one where the ferries, whale-watch boats, and the tourist cruises docked.

  Where is he going? Lucy wondered. The boy walked straight past the long lines and the tourists, down the ramp to where the small, local commuter ferry to Charlestown was waiting. He walked right on, ignoring middle-aged man checking tickets.

  Lucy waited a second at the top of the ramp, digging through her pocket. She pretended to come up empty-handed, ignoring the fact that there had never been anything in her pockets in the first place, and went over to the ticket booth to buy a ticket. The boy may have snuck on, but it didn’t seem like Lucy could get away with the same trick.

  Ticket in hand, Lucy boarded the small ferry, sitting as far from the boy as she could. He was slouched over in his seat, baseball cap pulled down low over his eyes. He had his cell phone out and was typing furiously.

  Lucy leaned back against her seat, wondering if maybe she shouldn’t have boarded a boat with a mysterious teenager she knew nothing about. Oh well, no going back now, she thought as the boat pulled away from the dock. It navigated slowly away from the wharf, past the much larger boats still being boarded. As it cleared the dock, it picked up speed, bouncing in the various cross-wakes that filled the harbor. The boy pulled his hat down even farther over his face and leaned back. It almost looked like he had fallen asleep.

  Ten minutes later, the boat docked north of Boston at Charlestown, near the Navy Yard. Up here the Navy ran a few museums, including two that were on ships. Lucy had been there a long time ago on school field trips, but not since middle school. Remarkably, it still looked exactly the same. Lucy paused for a second while the boy disembarked, taking the opportunity to pull out her phone and shoot a quick text to Officer Fitz. Took the ferry to Charlestown. Still following the boy.

  The boy got off the boat, turning away from the crowds, up past the various docks and the wharves until he reached the Charlestown Marina. Lucy continued to follow him, wondering if she should be worried he hadn’t seemed to notice her, at all. I guess I’m better at this than I expected, she thought.

  The boy slowed down and turned onto one of the wharves. Lucy paused just past the entrance, unsure of what to do. Should I follow?

  The boy stopped and turned onto one of the boats, turning towards Lucy in the process. In a panic, she turned to the boat she was standing next to her and climbed aboard, praying that no one else was on the boat. It was a little fishing boat, with a small enclosed cabin and a tiny below deck area for storage. Lucy ducked into the cabin, where she could pretend to be busy while she watched the boy through the windshield. He was on a small speedboat, with nowhere to hide.

  Suddenly there was someone else—a man-- on board the boat with the boy. He must have been sitting down, Lucy thought. That’s kind of weird. Was he hiding?

  Lucy watched as the boy and the mystery man spoke. They seemed to be arguing, waving their hands around. Lucy fiddled with a map that was lying next to the navigation system in her borrowed boat. Gosh, I hope the person who owns this boat doesn’t show up.

  The man who had been hiding was angry now, ja
bbing his finger at the boy. His face was turning red as he shouted. Lucy could almost make out the words,the man definitely wanted something from the boy. And she could hear a name, Jordan. That must be the name of the kid, Lucy realized. The big man kept taking steps forward, until Jordan was backed up against the edge of the boat and man had a fistful of the boys dark green T-shirt. Finally, the kid seemed to give in, throwing his hands up and shaking his head.

  The man took a step back, still gesturing violently at the boy. The boy, Jordan, reached up and took off the purple and blue baseball cap, turning it over so he could reach inside. He was fiddling with something. It almost looked like he was unlatching, or unzipping, or undoing something inside the hat. He pulled something out of the hat and held it up to the man, letting him examine whatever it was that was in his hand. Jordan tilted his hand a little, and Lucy spotted something shiny. It was almost glimmering as his fingers held it.

  Is that...jewelry? Is that what this whole thing has been about? Lucy wondered.

  The big man grabbed whatever it was out of Jordan’s hand and shoved it in his pocket. He turned to leave the small speedboat when suddenly, he was staring directly at Lucy. They made eye contact and his face turned an even darker shade of red. He lifted his fist and shook it at Lucy, his rage obvious even across the water between them.

  Chapter 13

  Screaming, “Go get her!” in a deep voice, trembling with anger, the big man turned and pointed at Jordan. Cramming the hat back on his head, Jordan leapt over the edge of the boat, moving with a sudden urgency that he certainly had not displayed earlier in the day. Lucy rushed out of the cabin and onto the small deck of the boat, but it was too late. Jordan was already on the dock, and she had nowhere to go. Panicking, Lucy spun and faced the water. She paused for a second, weighing her options before making a decision and diving right over the edge of the boat into the cold, choppy water where the Charles River met the Mystic River before both spilled into Boston Harbor. She swam down under the shallow keel of the boat, holding her breath. Lucy came up on the other side of the boat, where it gently bobbed against the dock next to Jordan. She surfaced quickly, hearing both men shouting, and took another deep breath before quickly diving under again, this time swimming under the dock.