Faye Kellerman - Street Dreams

I stared back. “Okay, I confess. I do have a motive.”

He waited.

“We were cleaning out some open files, trying to breathe some life into the dead cases. Belinda Syracuse came up. I was asked to run through the sprinklers one more time.”

“What specifically?”

“Nothing too heavy. Just to reinterview anyone who knew her, who saw her on a regular basis. I started with Klinghoffner, then went on to the secretary, Jamie Hostetter, then Myra Manigan. You’re next in line.”

“Why are you wasting time with people from Fordham?” Buck said. “She was killed on a weekend pass.”

“Apparently, her brother said something about a phone call, that someone from Fordham had offered to pick Belinda up from her brother’s and take her back to the center.”

Buck shrugged.

“Did you ever take her anywhere?”

“Me?” He acted as if he were taken aback by the absurdity. “I write papers, I file papers, and I organize papers. I have basically nothing to do with the students.”

“Never take them out for coffee or…”

“Occasionally, I bring in doughnuts. Does that count?”

“I don’t mean to annoy you, Buck, just trying to give the girl some justice.”

Our eyes met. Buck broke the contact. He finished one bagel half and started on the other. “I believe we covered this ground before. I don’t know who would want to harm Belinda or any of the kids.”

An interesting answer, especially since I hadn’t asked the question.

“None of them ever confide in you?” I asked.

“I don’t have a relationship with them. My job is strictly administrative.”

“But you’re around. Surely they talk to you.”

“Not really…” He shrugged and finished his bagel. “Not beyond an occasional ‘Hello’ or ‘No, it’s not time for lunch,’ or ‘Who stole my stapler?’ The kids really don’t notice me. I’m more or less a fixture like the corner coffeepot.”

That wasn’t what I saw. I said, “I think you sell yourself short.”

“Ah, a weak stab at charm.”

But he was unnerved by the comment.

I laughed. “Remind me again-what were you doing on the night Belinda was hit?”

“Frankly, I forget.”

“Before you mentioned a girlfriend to me. You took her out to brunch that day? At Café Romano.”

“If you say so.”

“The name of the girlfriend?”

“Back then it would have been Erica Tross. The comely lass has moved back to New York.”

“When?”

“A month ago.” He smiled. “But don’t get your hopes up, Officer. I’m currently dating someone else. Are you going to eat that bagel?”

I slid the plate over to him. “You said that day that you had rented a movie, In the Bedroom ?”

He devoured half of my bagel. “Why are you asking me all these questions?”

“Leaving no stone unturned. Can you play along?”

He glanced at his watch. “For another minute or so. Then I have another obligation.”

“Where do you rent movies from?”

“I probably rented In the Bedroom from Crystal Video, but that went out of business a few months back. Now it’s just plain Blockbuster.”

“Your girlfriend moves back to New York; your video store goes out of business…”

“I have the Midas touch.” He stood and gathered up his Sunday paper. “Thank you. It’s been charming, but I have to go.” As he walked away, he said, “You can clean up after me.”

I watched him walk away. Then I stood and carefully gathered up his discards.

Help you clean up?

Gladly, Buck. Gladly.

?

Buck was Bradley Durvain.

His DNA was not a match.

So much for my gut.

But since I was the one who had instigated this interviewing charade, I dutifully went through every working member associated with the Fordham Communal Center for the Developmentally Disabled. When it came to gathering genetic information from José, the center’s janitor for two years, I interviewed him at Fordham, talking to him during a smoke-and-coffee break. Afterward, I picked up the Styrofoam cup and the two cigarette butts and placed them into two separate evidence bags.

It was only after the DNA match came through that I recalled Sarah’s words and kicked myself mentally. She had given me the information when we first found out about the gang rape, but I hadn’t been paying attention. Dad and I had asked her to describe her assailants. She had said they were Mexicans… like the school’s janitor, José.

But he’s a nice Mexican. Sometimes he gives us candy and treats.

His real name was actually Hasan Fazul Al-Liby and he was from Iraq, not Mexico. But he called himself José because in the present political climate, being Hispanic rather than Arabic increased his prospects of employment. His being a scumbag did nothing to improve the standing of his people.

Hasan not only gave the girls candy and treats, he took them to the movies. Afterward, he’d take them to his apartment in downtown Los Angeles and have sex with them in front of a video camera. A search warrant produced a cache of snacks and six tapes with compromised women-two mentally disabled girls, including Belinda (the other wasn’t from Fordham) and what looked like four homeless women. At least, they weren’t little children. With the tapes entered as evidence, Brill brought the DA enough for the case without Sarah Sanders having to make a confession, saving wear and tear on the poor girl’s psyche. My father, ever deliberate and methodical, had once again called the correct shots.

When the news of Hasan’s “detainment” reached Fordham, another girl-his current “girlfriend”-came out of the woodwork, much to Klinghoffner’s dismay. The case began to grow exponentially. It took on a life worthy of newspaper coverage. Brill, along with the assistant DA, began to appear in front of television cameras. I had managed to avoid any kind of association, other than being the first officer at the scene of the hit-and-run. Fine with me: Let Brill take the credit. I figured I had paid off my debt to him and then some. By the time I left for Israel, Hasan was on remand. Denied bail, he was being held at County jail pending trial and was being investigated by both the FBI and CIA for terrorist links. My opinion, for what it’s worth, was that Hasan was just your ordinary rotten scumbag with no political affiliations.

He had lured Belinda out only to mow her down because Belinda was going to report his bad behavior after he had stopped “being her boyfriend.” I had the correct reasoning, but the wrong suspect.

And I was so damn sure.

It gave me pause, how fortunate it was that the law required evidence to back up hunches and intuition. One day-hopefully sooner rather than later-I’ll get a gold shield. Hasan’s arrest was one of those seminal events, one of life’s lessons that I’d carry with me long after I got used to being called detective.

?

A week later, Koby and I were scrunched into two coach seats on El Al Airlines headed for the Holy Land. Nervously, I rehearsed my imaginary conversations with his family. In the end, it didn’t matter. I was with Koby; I was automatically fine with them. I truly adored his kinfolk, but there were just so many of them, something I wasn’t used to having grown up as an only child. The minute we walked into his parents’ apartment, my brain went into overload.

The scene could have been a fraternity prank for rush: Exactly how many people could you cram into a tiny speck of an apartment? It was two parents, nine siblings-including twin teenage sisters who kept asking me about all the stars I see working in Hollywood-spouses, assorted cousins, and dozens upon dozens of children of all races and ethnicities. One stepbrother had married a Russian woman, another a French Moroccan, and a third had hooked up with an American dentist. His two brothers had Ethiopian wives, but his sister had married a Yemenite Jew whose father was a policeman. It was a living, breathing United Nations, but the good part was they all spoke some English. Still, their sheer number was simply overwhelming.