Michael Baden - Skeleton justice

"The mailbox explosion, the Vampire-it's all related, and it all goes back to your family's past in Argentina, isn't that right?"

Paco's glowing olive complexion seemed a little grayish now, his lips pale and pressed to a thin line. His head swiveled left, then right. "We can't be seen together," Paco said, his voice low and urgent. "Don't you understand? If they see me talking to you, they'll kill Travis."

"Who will? Who has Travis?"

Paco stopped on the path. The old ladies who had passed Manny earlier were now sitting on a bench, taking a breather. Two joggers passed in iPod-induced oblivion. The only place for anyone to hide was in the trees overhead. They were near Fifty-ninth Street and Manny spotted a red-and-black carriage pulled by a dappled mare clopping along.

"C'mon, Paco." Manny tugged his arm. "Let's see the park like the tourists do." Mycroft looked at her as if to say I was just there this morning. Boooring…

After finally settling Mycroft at their feet, Manny leaned forward and spoke to their driver, who only seemed interested in stating the duration and price of the ride.

Manny turned to look directly at Paco. "Tell me where Travis is now."

Paco shook his head. "I don't know, honestly. But I'm worried. I haven't heard from him in two days." He leaned forward and dropped his head into his hands.

"Travis contacts you regularly?"

"No." Manny had to strain to hear him. "They do."

"Who?"

"The Vampire. Sometimes it's a man, sometimes a woman."

Paco straightened and faced Manny. His dark eyes glistened with tears. "I got Travis into this mess. I was supposed to be the one to get arrested."

"What do you mean?"

"The first contact came about two weeks ago." Paco closed his eyes as he spoke, as if he couldn't bear to see his confessor. "A text message saying I needed to call this number to get important news that would affect my family."

"Who answered?"

"It was a recorded message directed to me. The voice said they had information that would destroy my father's career, put him in prison. They told me to go to that club in Hoboken, said that someone would make contact with me there. I wanted to go because I needed to protect my mother from any harm, but I was nervous, so I asked Travis-"

"If he wanted to go clubbing." Manny sighed. Her poor client. He wasn't even supposed to have been there. The Vampire had set up the mailbox bombing as a trap for Paco, but the wrong little mouse had stumbled into it. And Paco had stood by and watched his friend go down and did nothing to help.

"Let me get this straight," Manny said in the tone she reserved for liars on the witness stand. "You let your friend be arrested on a charge of terrorism and you said nothing to the police about the strange phone call that brought you two to Club Epoch?"

Paco bit his lip, but to give him credit, he didn't look away from her. He met her gaze and held it. "By that time, I knew what they had called me there to tell me."

"Which was?"

Paco held his hand up to deflect her question. "I couldn't speak up on that night. I had to have time to think. Travis and I were separated by the police. They let me go, so I assumed they'd let him go, too."

"But they didn't. And you still didn't speak up. So do the right thing now. Come forward and tell everything you know to the police."

"No!"

Paco's shout made the carriage driver glance back over his shoulder. Then he turned discreetly away. Manny guessed he'd probably witnessed plenty of lovers' quarrels in his career.

"The next day, the Vampire contacted me again. He told me they would kill Travis and his mother if I went to the police. After Travis got out of jail, he told me the same thing. Every time I speak to him, he begs me not to tell the authorities. He says if we wait it out, everything will be okay."

The gentle sway of the carriage should have been relaxing, but Manny had never felt more tense. "And you believe that? Paco, these people have attacked six people and tortured and killed two more. You can't possibly trust anything they say."

"I don't trust them, but I trust Travis. He says the FBI won't believe anything he says. They're convinced he's a terrorist."

Manny took a deep breath. She could hear an edge of hysteria building in Paco's voice. She needed to calm him down and get his story straight from the beginning. Then she could talk some sense into him.

"We need to talk about the past, Paco," she began. "What were your parents doing during the Dirty War?"

Her sudden about-face startled Paco. "Nothing," he said loudly. "My parents are good people."

"The Vampire knows something about your father's past, doesn't he?" Manny continued. "Something that would destroy your dad's diplomatic career. This killer is using you, Paco. He's taking advantage of your desire to protect your family. I understand you don't want anything to happen to them, but this has gone on long enough. Innocent people are getting hurt."

"Innocent?" Paco spat the word out like a piece of bad meat. "Amanda Hogaarth wasn't innocent. Raymond Fortes wasn't innocent. They got what they deserved."

Surprised by his intensity, Manny considered her next move. Clearly, she was on to something here, but she had to tread carefully to keep him talking. She had no idea why Paco claimed Ms. Hogaarth deserved to die, but she could guess why Dr. Fortes had met his grisly end.

"Dr. Fortes was tortured because he was a torturer himself during the Dirty War, right?"

"The worst kind." Suddenly, Paco wanted to tell her more. He glanced around, but no one was near but another carriage ten feet behind them. Paco's face shined with recently awakened idealism. "He supervised the torture. Told the soldiers just how far to go so the person wouldn't die. So that he would live to be tortured some more the next day. This is how he used his medical training."

Manny shivered. She had seen the autopsy photos of Fortes's rat-gnawed body, imagined his slow, agonizing death. At the time, she couldn't fathom how one human being could do such a thing to another. But Paco's claim, if it was true, made Fortes's death seem, if not justifiable, maybe understandable. How chilling to think that Fortes had coolly directed the torture of young people for maximum effectiveness, then left that life behind and came to New York to take up legitimate work as a researcher. Imagine developing fertility drugs to create new life when you were a cold-blooded killer.

She began to think out loud. "Back in Argentina, Fortes was an obstetrician. He delivered babies."

Paco stiffened. Manny sensed he might be about to leap out of the slow-moving carriage, so she shamelessly threw her arms around his neck, locking her fingers tightly, yanking up poor Mycroft on his leash. To anyone passing by, they were lovers engaged in a flagrant public display of affection.

Their faces were inches apart. "Raymond Fortes delivered the babies of the Desaparecidos," Manny said, her eyes locked on Paco's. "Then he took them away to be adopted by strangers."

Paco's eyes filled with tears. He squirmed away from Manny's embrace.

"You know someone whose baby was taken," Manny said. "Your parents… long before you were born…" But then she thought of the photo she'd seen in Paco's room. That photo, a recent photo, showed him with a man old enough to have been born during the Dirty War. Who was that?

Manny released her grip. Paco slumped on the carriage seat. He looked young now, much younger than the sophisticated eighteen-year-old she had waylaid fifteen minutes ago. He had seen the world, more of it than most people his age, but he didn't know the world. He was a child, a frightened child.

Manny took his hand. "Paco, in your room there's a photo of you and another man, a man about thirty. Who is that?"