Linda Fairstein - Hell Gate

Leighton was beginning to understand that there was no possibility that the child would be released to his care at this point in time. It wasn’t clear that he trusted us, but he seemed to get the fact that we needed to look for Salma’s friend.

We learned from him that her name was Anita Paz, and that she was twenty-two years old. She had not landed in quite the kind of luxurious lap that had cushioned her friend Salma recently. She shared an apartment with a distant cousin on the Upper West Side, in the vicinity of Columbia University.

“When did you meet Anita?”

He was gnawing on a toothpick. “Why does that matter?”

“Maybe something you say will help us find her.”

“I met her when Salma came back from Texas with the baby. She lived in the apartment for a while, sort of helping out until she got her own place. She was so grateful to Salma for getting her out of-you know-the business, and the way she could repay the kindness was by taking care of Ana.”

It was becoming more and more obvious to Mercer and me that Anita was the likely birth mother, loaning her child to Salma in order to blackmail the congressman.

Leighton had been ringing Anita’s cell number every fifteen minutes. It went right to voice mail and she hadn’t returned any of the calls.

“She’ll cool down and get back to me.”

“Mind if I try her on my phone? The number’s blocked so she won’t know who’s calling.”

“Suit yourself,” he said, extending his hand to give me the phone.

I made note of the number and dialed it. The voice mail message was in English. I left her my name and number and told her that I was a friend of Salma’s who wanted to help her.

“How does Anita support herself?” I asked.

“It’s not what you think, Alex. She’s not in the sex trade anymore. She’s-she’s just an escort. Very occasionally. Nothing sexual, just conversation and company.”

Put that in the category of wishful thinking.

Mercer and I were both trying to restore ourselves with hot coffee. “Now, why would Anita go and accuse you of hurting Salma?” he asked, as though the thought itself was the height of absurdity.

“I can’t fathom it myself. She knows how good I was to her.”

“That little display you put on, throwing the law books around, is that typical for you?”

“Not at all. I’m-I’m just horribly frustrated by what’s going on tonight. I want that child to be safe. I’m prepared to take whatever legal steps are necessary to have her with me.”

“Like Alex says, you’re free to leave. The baby goes nowhere.”

When Mike walked into the squad room, Leighton stood to greet him but I took him aside first and told him what we’d learned.

He and Mercer picked up the conversation while I sat a few desks back, out of Leighton’s line of vision. They were going to do the “guy thing,” persuading him to open up about his relationship with Salma and her circle of friends.

Mike started the conversation and I pretended to busy myself in paperwork. He was at his most proper and polite, trying to get into the low-down sex life of Ethan Leighton.

“Look, Ethan,” Mike said. “We’re going to find Anita and we’d like to do it sooner rather than later. What happened tonight, huh? What’s this all about?”

He rambled for minutes before telling the story. “After I heard about Salma’s death, I knew Anita was out of control. And I knew she had the baby and that I had to reach out to her.”

“Didn’t Lem think that was dangerous?”

“I didn’t tell Lem. My father keeps a suite of rooms at the Waldorf that he uses to entertain business guests from out of town. I told Anita to move in to one of them for the weekend. To bring Ana there.”

“Because of your concern for her well-being and the baby, or because you were worried about how she was spinning things?”

“Both. Fair to say it was both.”

“More worried about yourself-your reputation-than about her?” Mike asked.

“Anita’s made of tougher stuff than I am, Detective. I also needed a place where Claire could go to meet the baby,” Ethan said, dropping his voice. “I mean, in case she was willing to do that.”

“And did she go?”

“No. Not yet. She-uh-she wasn’t ready for that.”

Score one for Claire Leighton.

“Did Anita actually move into the hotel with Ana?”

“Yes, she did.”

“Did you visit them there?”

“Briefly.”

“You didn’t think that was stupid, I mean in the event the paparazzi sniffed it out?”

“My family is well-known at the Waldorf. No one would think twice of my coming or going there.”

“So was the purpose of your visit to see Anita, or-?”

“Anita went out for a while. I gave her some cash so she could shop for some things she needed. I hope you understand this, Detective. I have to get to know my daughter, spend time with her. Let her get used to me.”

“Let me figure this,” I said. “Even though Anita suspects you had something to do with Salma’s murder, she left you alone with her-with the baby?”

“Not alone. She left her cousin there, sort of babysitting, in case I needed help.”

“A cousin?”

“Yes, a seventeen-year-old named Luci. Anita lives with Luci’s family.”

“What do you know about Luci?”

“Well, she comes from a good stock. Decent people. Hardworking. Her mother’s a nurse’s aide at one of the hospitals on the West Side.”

“I’m missing something here,” Mike said. “How’d you wind up in this dogfight on Edgecombe Avenue tonight?”

No answer.

“The stork drop the baby out of the sky?”

No reaction.

“Let me tell you something, Mr. Leighton. This is a neighborhood where the men are men and the women don’t have teeth, okay?”

The congressman’s head jerked up.

“A pretty young thing like Anita on the loose here in the middle of the night-well, it doesn’t always have a happy ending. I’m going out for a spin around the block. Kinda like looking for a needle in a very rotten haystack, so anything you can do to make things a little easier for me would be greatly appreciated.”

Leighton reached for his cell phone to see if there were any messages. “Anita lied to me.”

“Story of my life, Mr. Leighton. Everybody lies to me. Deal with it.”

“I thought she had gone home for the night to be with her family, like she told me she planned to do. About one o’clock this morning I got a call at my apartment from the front desk at the hotel. Anita’s cousin was in the lobby, with the baby. I raced over there.”

I wondered where Claire stood with this mess that must have turned her life upside down.

“What’d she want?”

“Anita had gone out around eight o’clock. Said she’d be home by midnight. When she didn’t show up, her cousin called her cell. She said Anita answered but was crying hysterically. Told her to have the desk find me. She doesn’t have our home number, but she wanted to get the baby to me so Ana would be safe.”

“Safe with you? Have you ever freaking diapered a kid?”

“That’s the least of my problems, Detective. I can pay any idiot to do that. I was in the hotel suite with her cousin, whom Ana adores.”

I stood up from the desk and moved closer to Mike and Mercer. “Did you call her? Did you speak to Anita on the phone?”

“She finally answered about the third time I called.”

“What did she tell you?” Mike asked.

“She was only worried about the baby. She was afraid someone was going to try to take the baby away.”

“Someone specific?”

“Yes. A man. She wouldn’t tell me who.”

Maybe it was the guy who had shown up at Salma’s apartment earlier on the night she was killed-the guy who claimed to be the father of the baby.