Andrew Vachss - Sacrifice

That was true, they should give cabdrivers free rent.

I turned to the race results.

94

"You not want soup?" Mama materialized at my elbow.

"I was waiting for you."

"Cook not come out?"

"Nobody came out."

"Cooks nervous— strangers in the basement."

"Luke?"

"Luke not a stranger. Woman…Teresa…come every day."

"I know."

"Alone with the boy. Every day," she said, eyes narrowing. Mama doesn't trust citizens."

"I'll go talk with her."

"Not now. She come up here, finished. Talk then, okay?"

"Okay. Could I have some soup, then?"

Mama smiled with a corner of her mouth, spewed out a torrent of Chinese with the other. One of the waiters came through the back door. Bowed, nodded, went away.

"You bet horse?" Mama asked, pointing at the open newspaper.

"Maybe. If I see something I like."

The waiter came back with the soup. Also some hard noodles and a plate of dim sum floating in clear sauce with tiny flecks of green. Mama watched me eat, taking only token sips herself, tapping her long fingernails on the cheap Formica tabletop. I waited— she wouldn't say anything she didn't want to.

The waiter came back. Said something to Mama. She nodded.

"Woman coming up," she said to me.

I stood up to greet her. Silver-streaked blonde straight hair parted in the middle, hanging down almost to her shoulders. Brown eyes, nose slightly off-center, small nostrils, tiny jaw at the bottom of an oval face. Dressed in a camel's-hair blazer over a silk turtleneck, wide dark blue skirt, sensible bone pumps.

"Hello, I'm Dr…ah, Teresa. You must be Burke— Lily described you."

"But I'm even better-looking than she said, right?"

"No." She laughed gently. "You're not."

I made a sweeping gesture and she sat down across from Mama, who showed no sign of moving. I slid in next to her.

"What can you tell me?"

"In a way, it's good news. Luke is very young to have gone full multiple. We can get to fusion a lot easier if the behavior isn't calcified over time— if the membrane between the personalities doesn't harden. For a child, there's no real investment in any of the alternates. So when the situation changes…Are you following me?"

"The safer he is, the easier it is for him to come together."

"Yes." She smiled. "That's a good way to put it."

"How long?"

"I don't know. There's no schedule for these things. But I don't feel it will be that much longer."

"What did Lily tell you about his…situation?"

"Luke is a patient, I'm a physician." Meaning she knew the whole story.

I lit a smoke as the waiter came to clear away the plates. Noticed Mama didn't offer Teresa anything.

"Lily tell you how I fit in?"

Teresa let her gaze trail across Mama's face. "There are…confidentiality issues. If Mrs. Wong would…"

"Mama is my family," I told her. "I have no secrets from her." Mama smiled— at the truth and at the lie.

Teresa watched my face. I dialed sincerity right up into my eyes. Waited.

She took a breath. "Lily said you were her friend. That you specialized in some sort of currency transfers…she wasn't specific. And she said you could be trusted."

"She tell you I was in the middle of a goddamned war between her and one of her sisters?"

"Yes. Wolfe."

"Yeah, Wolfe. And this Wolfe has a pack, understand? I'm about out of time. What I need is to have you talk to her. Let her see where things are. Back her off a bit."

"I'm on shaky ground with that," she said. "I can't reveal information about a patient."

"She doesn't have to know your name— she'll play square."

"You think if she believes Luke is close to recovery, she'll give him more time."

I dragged deep on the cigarette. Mama's face was bland, like she didn't understand English.

"Wolfe's gonna give somebody some time, Doc. Somebody has to pay. I know that's not your department, but that's the game. I'm no psychologist, but I know Luke wasn't born like he is, right?"

"Yes."

"Somebody did something to him. Something bad. You go far enough, you'll find out, yes?"

"Probably. Not for sure."

"That's what I need you to tell Wolfe. Just like that."

"I don't understand what good that will do."

"Wolfe's a hunter. That's what she does. Sometimes she does it by trading, you understand? Gang rape, four punks involved, okay? The evidence is weak…dark in that alley, hard to make a stand-up ID, like that…but they nail one of them— say with a DNA match. The rest are gonna walk. Rape's a B felony here: twenty-five max on top. So she offers the one freak she has cold maybe four-to-twelve…and he rolls over on the others, nails them down."

"Yes, I know. Plea bargaining."

"No, you don't know…not the way Wolfe plays it. When she deals, it's a bargain for the victim, not the rapist. She'll take any case to trial, go the limit. She makes a deal, it's gotta be a good one."

"So…"

"So whatever Luke did, he was just the messenger. The freaks who turned him out, Wolfe'd take them in exchange, see?"

"Yes. All right, tell her to call…"

"That's not the way it's done. I'll bring her here. You'll talk to her here."

"Why not just…?"

"I think I know Wolfe, how she'll act. But if I'm wrong, if she won't play, then I'll take her away …she won't find this place, she won't know your name."

I ground out my cigarette, waiting for her answer.

She got up to leave. Turned to speak to me. "I am treating a patient. A seriously disturbed patient who also happens to be a child. If someone shows up in my office…wherever that is…and I believe it to be in my client's interests to discuss the matter, I would do that."

"Thanks."

She offered her hand. I shook it. "Goodbye, Mrs. Wong," she said to Mama.

Mama inclined her head a fraction of an inch.

Teresa went out the back, one of Mama's waiters just behind her.

95

I took the Manhattan Bridge to the BQE, heading for Queens. Shoved a cassette into my tape player. Judy Henske. Making a comeback now, playing clubs on the Coast. She wasn't back in the studio yet— the bootleg tape cost me fifty bucks. Fucking thieves. It was like she'd never been away-still had all the chops-wailing, growling, cooing at the crowd, owning the audience. Shining her torch. "Duncan and Brady," her own take on "StagoLee." Perfect. The Plymouth hit one of those lunar craters they call potholes here— I just caught the tail end of some Primo Bitch piece I hadn't heard before.

I've had just about enough of your love

It's time to take it on the road

It started out with a hug. darlin'

But now it's a stranglehold

You say you've been saving for our future

You say you got some Master Plan

Well, you can keep your Social Security, sonny

What I need now is a man

I listened to the end-tape hiss, thinking about the waiter in Mama's joint, the one following Teresa. Sword or shield?

96

I found a pay phone on Queens Boulevard. They put her through.

"This is Wolfe."

"It's me. Could you spare a few minutes to talk to me about something?"

"You don't want to come here?"

"No."

"Remember where we last had lunch?"

"Sure."

"One-fifteen, more or less, okay?"

"Okay. Remember what I brought you— last time we ate there?"

"Sure."

"Can you bring it with you?"

"Why?"

"I'll explain."

"I'll see."

97

They were in the same place, Wolfe and Lola. I sat down, ordered another chef's salad. It wasn't much— the restaurant's produce buyer had gotten to the market after the Koreans that day.

"You bring it?" I asked her.

"Tell me why you want it."