This morning I saw that Aurora had finished one of her grimmer streetscapes. They don’t sell as well as her florals and lighter street pieces, but Robin keeps a few on hand for the odd fan of all things dark and drear. I was thankful there were no snakes in it.
Aurora paints the city as a battered queen whose beauty is not in her surface glitter—the shop windows, the galleries and museums or gilded skyscrapers—but in the freedom she grants to the different, to the strange and the estranged; in the volunteers who serve people they don’t know for no other reason than the oxygen they get for doing good, which makes the flame inside them burn brighter; in her window boxes and courtyard gardens and in the care people have for their dogs and cats and parakeets; in her block parties and festivals; in the hearts of the workers who remain with their colleagues while a building falls and crushes them to dust. All this sings on Aurora’s canvases, and that is why she pays our rent.
I went back for my second cup of coffee. My headache was gone. Now I could think. I had a gauzy sense of what had happened in the Keating household. I couldn’t grasp the details. But what I knew was only a part of it, and I couldn’t tell Leo till I had the rest, because, in its parts, it didn’t make sense, even to me. Yet.
I also had to deal with the pressure this case was putting on the Company. Of course, the unexpected sight of the snake had driven all of us, except Sugartime, back to the gyre. But that might have happened even without our involvement in a child-abuse case.
Why do people keep snakes? Multitudes are terrified of snakes, so there must be some kind of rush in walking the streets with one of these animals draped around your neck. The cruelty is also to the snake, keeping it in a small apartment or aquarium, so far removed from its natural home. But mostly, the cruelty is to its food. A living creature is placed in a container with the snake. This is not natural selection with a predator culling the weak or the old, the sick or the slow. Just a poor creature with no chance, forced to wait in absolute terror—
The phone rang.
Chapter 10
The answering machine kicked in. “This is Shiloh and Company. Please leave a message. One of us will call you back.”
Then I heard a thin, tentative, “Ehhm…hello. This is Claudia Keating.”
I picked up the phone. “I’m here, Mrs. Keating.”
“Oh... I think if you want to talk to Miriam, it should probably be…now. She’s having a few good minutes. I don’t know…how long…”
“I’ll grab a cab and be right there.” I abandoned my last cup of coffee, pulled on some clean clothes, slipped into loafers and ran out. Cootie hailed a cab.
Victor was expecting me and sent us up without seeming to notice Cootie’s adolescent rasp, or what Olive calls his ever-present, shit-eating grin.
Claudia was waiting for me in the doorway. Bungee barreled out and gave me a raucous but amiable escort down the hall. He shut up as soon as we were both inside with the door closed.
I said, “Thank you for calling.” I smelled coffee, and heard the arrhythmic bouncing of the soccer ball and what sounded like television cartoons coming from the family room.
Claudia, looking even more exhausted and hollow-eyed than she had yesterday, pointed me to the kitchen but did not come with me. Miriam was finishing a bowl of cereal. Vin was filling her cup with coffee. He greeted me with, “Hey, there. Want a cup?”
I shook my head and he paused, for a moment uncertain as he looked at Miriam, then back at me. “Well, give a holler if you need anything.” He replaced the pot to the coffeemaker and left the kitchen.
I pulled out the chair opposite her and sat down. “Do you know who I am?”
She nodded.
“Did they tell you I was coming over to talk to you?”
She nodded again. Hair that had never known a shine was pulled back tight in a rubber band with bobby pins holding the sides. Her gray sweatpants and white cotton blouse didn’t do anything to streamline her chunky physique. She’d probably always been heavy, from a poor family who had lived mostly on starch, and fat when they could get it.
“Do you think you can answer a few questions? The police might have already asked you, but I need to ask again.”
She glanced up at me but her eyes dropped again as if the pull of gravity was more than she had the strength to resist.
“How do you like living here?”
Her shoulders unhunched a little. “I like it very much. We are happy here, Anna and me. I expected to be treated like a servant, you know. But this is America. Claudia…Mrs. Keating, she has treated me well. Like a friend. I felt, you know, at home here.”
“Does everyone treat you that way?”
“Everyone? You mean, Vin? He is quite wonderful. I had never known anyone…you know, like him in Russia. But he is quite wonderful. Anna loves him very much.”
“How about the Burkes. Do they treat you well?”
“Oh, yes. It was Mr. Spencer who paid for my way over here. He said that it was worth it to have someone trustworthy to stay with his daughter and help her. She lost her husband you know. She was so sad when I arrived. So sad.” She stared at her coffee cup and empty bowl. She was not drugged, and she was not sobbing. But I felt this was only a temporary condition, as Claudia Keating had advised, so I pressed on.
“According to the police file, the day Anna disappeared she was wearing purple overalls, a purple shirt and a purple corduroy jacket. When I looked in your closet yesterday, I saw an outfit like that. Not the jacket, but the overalls and the shirt.”
“Her playsuit. She has two. Purple is her favorite color.”
“The purple clothes looked brand-new. Her other clothes didn’t.”
“She got them for her birthday last week. Mr. Spencer gave them to her. One to wash and one to wear, he said.”
Miriam’s English was good but careful. She had come here to study and was probably a diligent student.
Roses are red, violets are blue…
“Maybe I will have a cup of coffee. I’ll get it.” I got up from the table and took a clean cup out of the dish drainer and filled it up. “Do you think they have any cream?”
“No cream. They have the skimmed milk.”
I decided to drink it black and sat back down. “Did you have a party for Anna’s birthday?”
“Yes. Claudia had cake with many candles, and ice cream. The Burkes were here. And Vin. She asked if I wanted to invite anyone else. But there is no one else.”
“Did Anna get lots of presents?”
“Yes.”
“What did she get? Besides the purple clothes.”
“Vin gave her a book. Mr. Manfred gave her a paint set. You know, finger paints for a small child. Victor even came up with a big doll for her. Danny and Joey gave her a puzzle. She was so happy.”
I was afraid she was going to break down any moment so I kept the questions coming. “What did Mrs. Keating give her, besides the cake and ice cream and the candles?”
“It was quite wonderful. She made up a little book of tickets. They were to the Children’s Museum, and one for the Natural History Museum, and to movies and to a play. And a coupon for a dancing class to see if she liked it.”
“Yes. That is a wonderful gift for both you and Anna. What did you give your daughter?”
“I gave her a doll. She loves dolls, my Anna. Victor asked me what she would like. I said she likes dolls. That is why he brought her the big doll. She was so excited. So happy. Two brand-new big dolls on one birthday.”
“What time were you at the playground?”
“About eleven.”
“How do you know the time?”
“We always go at the same time every day. I get home from my class at ten o’clock. We have something to eat, and we go to the park. Just the two of us. Every day. Except Saturday and Sunday.”
“And the sun was in your eyes for a moment and you couldn’t see her. What did you do then? Put your hand up to shield your eyes from the sun or change your pos
ition so the sun wasn’t in your eyes anymore?”
She hesitated only a second. “I moved over on my bench. And I put my hand up. I did both.”
“Do you know who she was playing with in the sandbox?”
“She was by herself.”
“The police wrote down that she was with another child.”
“I…I...no…I don’t think so.”
“Where is Anna’s father?”
“I don’t know. He is in Russia.”
“Are you sure?”
“But he wouldn’t take her.”
“Why not?”
“I never told him. He never knew that I was with child.”
“Could he have found out?”
“How?”
“People you knew in common. Your friends in Russia.”
“I have no friends in Russia.”
I knew that Leo was checking that angle as well as the Russian mafia to see if there was a connection of any kind to Miriam. The police hadn’t found anything yet, but I had to ask, “Miriam, do you know anyone in the Russian mafia, either here, or in Russia?”
“Mah fee ya?”
That was a word she hadn’t learned in her English class.
She’s never heard of Estee Lauder either, Hester cracked.
What?
Well look at her! She’s positively scaly!!
She’s not scaly. Olive always objected to Hester’s forays into hyperbole.
She will be if she doesn’t moisturize, and soon.
You are, as usual, Hester, inappropriate.
Well, our face would look like hell if it weren’t for me. There’s lip gloss in your pocket, Isadora, why don’t you put some on?
“Russian criminals,” I said, rubbing my forehead hard. “They are organized and make money and do very bad things, including kidnapping.”
“I don’t know anyone like that. I don’t know anyone…except Claudia and Vin. And the little boys.”
“Do you have friends from school?”
“No. I go to my class and come right home to study and take care of the children.”
“How about other nannies or mothers at the park. Are any of them your friends?”
She just shrugged and kept her eyes down. “Will you find my Anna?”
“I am trying. And the detectives are trying. Lieutenant Gianetti is very good at his job. If anyone can find her, he can.”
“Thank you. Miss…”
“Just Shiloh.”
I left the kitchen and made my way to the door, pausing to listen. The TV was still on. The soccer ball was quiet. Claudia and Vin were in the living room. Bungee barked and Claudia held on to his collar.
Roses are red, Violets are blue.
I ducked into Miriam’s room and closed the door.
Why do they say violets are blue when violets are more of a light purple? Olive, the queen of verisimilitude, rode over the voices of Bethy-June and Sula.
“I don’t know,” I snapped. “It’s a mystery of etymology or botany. When I have time, I’ll look it up.”
I moved the dolls over, sat on the window seat and looked out. Across the street was Riverside Park. Through the trees that were beginning to show their leaves, I glimpsed sparks of sun reflected off the metal swings and monkey bars. I checked the clock on Miriam’s dresser. It was passing ten thirty.
Roses are red, Lavender’s blue. If you will have me, I will have you.
“Can we not do old English poetry now? Thank you. I get it.”
I remembered something from yesterday. Maybe I wasn’t getting it. I jumped up and opened Miriam’s closet and shoved hangers to the side till I found the purple overalls. Across the bib was embroidered in darker purple thread, a perfect violet. “Well, I’ll be damned.”
You need to pay closer attention, Isadora. Olive. I hate her when she gets all Mother Superior on me. Especially when she’s right.
There was a rap at the door. “Come in.”
Vin Parrish stuck his head in. “You all right? I heard some—”
“Tell me about Miriam.”
He took a deep breath and said on the exhale, “She was starting to get happy. Then all this happened. I don’t think she had what you’d call a wonderful life in Russia. We’re all afraid she isn’t going to survive this if they don’t find Anna.”
“Do you ever wear women’s clothes?”
His nostrils flared slightly, and his face flushed in anger. “Do you?”
I didn’t respond.
“Not unless I’m getting paid for it. I can be pretty convincing—especially if I shave before I put on my blush.”
“So you have performed as a woman?”
“Well, I’m not a female impersonator. I’ve just donned the occasional caftan on stage as a goof.”
“Do you own women’s clothing?”
I saw him sag, sadness replacing anger. He knew why I was asking.
“No. I don’t do my cabaret act anymore, and I didn’t keep any of the costumes except some of my Elton John glasses. I used to do a wicked Elton.”
The resemblance was there even though Elton John now had more hair and quite a few more pounds.
“Sorry I got hissy,” he said.
He let me pass him going out. Claudia was sitting on the sofa. Miriam was in the chair across from her, still clutching her coffee cup. They weren’t talking, but I sensed no awkwardness. Claudia was in a pair of blue slacks with a striped blue and white top.
Mary Mary quite contrary how does your garden grow?
I walked down the hall to Claudia’s room. Vin didn’t follow me. He just leaned against the balustrades and watched me. With silver bells, and cockle shells, and pretty maids all in a row.
I looked in Claudia’s closet. She had clothes in black, white, gray, brown, greens and a variety of blues. There was nothing red, or pink or yellow…or purple.
I checked the clock on her nightstand. I had to go.
When I came out of Claudia’s room, Vin was still leaning against the balustrade. “I have to run out and check something. Ask them not to go anywhere for a while.”
Chapter 11
Behind their bars, the parents and nannies were nervous as chickens with a fox sniffing around the henhouse. By the time they were discreetly dialing their cell phones, I had seen what I’d come to see. I didn’t blame them. I do look suspicious. Even when I’m not prowling around a playground. I decided to wait.
Can we go in and play on the jungle gym? Sula’s shy little voice hurt. She was used to getting “no” for an answer, but none of us took any pleasure in it.
No, baby. We can’t. We can do something else, later. I promise... Sugartime would have to think of something. I was out of ideas.
I really would like to play on the jungle gym, though.
In about four minutes a blue-and-white came cruising quietly, brushed on either side by the bushes that flanked the down-sloping lane, which was just wide enough to accommodate a four-wheel vehicle.
I don’t know all the officers in the Upper West Side precincts, but I know quite a few. I knew this one. Her name is Nicole and she has more of the ingénue about her than Warrior Princess, but she’s a very good cop. She grinned when she recognized me—a rosy, Irish girl grin that didn’t go with the badge, gun and nightstick. “Hey, Shiloh, we got a call about a suspicious character. Guess that’s you.” Her voice was as sweet as her face.
“Guilty,” I said.
She had put two and two together as soon as she saw me. “You assisting Gianetti on this one?”
“Not officially. I was hired by the mother of one of the kids. But if I come up with anything, Gianetti gets it. You responded to the calls when Anna Stern was taken?” I already knew she had.
“Uh-huh.”
As with everyone else I had questioned so far, I knew what she had already told the police, but people remember different things at different tellings, and I was a different sort of listener. “Did anything strike you that day?”
“Well
, everything struck me. It was impossible, for one thing.” She gestured toward the high bars and sturdy chain-link fencing that enclosed the playground. “There are no gaps, no weak points. Anyone forcing his way through there would have needed wire cutters or a tank. He would have attracted attention. There’s only one entrance.” She pointed to it. “With a sign that clearly states no adults admitted unless accompanied by a child. And the parents here are pretty observant.” She was thinking out loud more than talking to me.
I said, “Not everybody is a parent. There are a lot of hired nannies. I imagine some of them are less vigilant than a parent.”
“Mm hm.”
“What else?”
“It doesn’t make sense. How did someone get out of here with a kid? It’s not likely they drugged her and threw her over the fence, though we considered it. They’d probably have thrown her to land in the bushes over there. Might have been hurt, but probably not killed. And wouldn’t somebody notice a kid being tossed?”
“Anna is a small child.”
“Yes, very small for her age. Still.”
“Can you swing me by the station? I want to talk to Leo.”
“Aren’t you afraid people will think we’re arresting you?”
“Does it matter?”
“Guess not.”
“Do you mind calling and seeing if he’s there?”
Nicole dialed the station as we walked to the car. Leo was there and advised I was coming in.
To my chagrin, Hester climbed into the backseat. I had wanted Cootie. He was easier to get rid of.
“You’re Nicole, aren’t you?” Hester leaned forward, eager for a chat.
Quick glances were exchanged between Nicole and her partner in the front seat. Nicole’s said, I told you about this. Just keep driving. Her partner’s look had the words freak show in it somewhere. Nicole smiled over her shoulder and said, “Yeah. Who are you?”
“I’m Hester. I don’t think we’ve met. And you are?” She flashed a smile at the male officer at the wheel.
“That’s Officer Faylo,” Nicole volunteered.
Command of Silence Page 9
