Andrew Vachss - Sacrifice

I drove over to Max's around eight the next morning. Went upstairs. He was arguing with Immaculata about something— I couldn't tell what.

"You ready?" I asked Immaculata.

"Everybody's ready. You can drop us off at SAFE, okay?"

"Sure."

Max and his woman got in the front seat with the baby, me and Luke and the puppy took the back.

"Wow, Burke! It's dark in here— I can't see outside."

"It's okay, Luke," I told him, switching on the Tensor light. "We're safe here. With Max up front and Simsa back here, nobody would dare bother us."

"Don't forget Immaculata," he corrected me gravely. "She's tough too."

"Yeah, you're right. You know you're going to see Teresa over at Max's house today?"

"It's Immaculata's house too."

"Okay, okay, kid. I got it. What are you…studying to be a feminist?"

"What's a feminist?"

"Ask Lily, okay?"

"Okay. Are you mad at me?"

"Hell no. I'm not mad at anyone. Just embarrassed that a kid's smarter than me sometimes."

"Oh, you're very smart. Lily said so."

"Lily said I was smart?"

"Tricky, is what she said."

"Oh."

"It's okay, Burke. You're my friend. Like my big brother."

"More than you know, kid."

Couldn't hear anything from the front seat. I wouldn't anyway— Max and Immaculata can battle to a fever pitch without making a sound.

"How was Simsa's first night?"

"Oh, it was good. Mac told me I could wrap an alarm clock in a towel and the puppy would feel like it was his mother's heartbeat…but she slept with me instead. My heart beat for her."

129

The cab slid to a stop. Luke scrambled out, holding his pup, eager to show everyone. Mac put a hand on the boy's shoulder, made some gesture at Max, stamped her foot. Max pointed at me, shrugged his wide shoulders. Mac stepped in close to me.

"He says you don't want Lily to be at the meeting with Wolfe."

"That's right. You guys are battling each other— I got no time for it. You asked me to persuade Wolfe to jump back— I'm trying to do that— what'd you want to get in the way for?"

"Oh, go away," she snapped. "Go someplace with your pal. Come on, Luke," turning away from me.

On the way to Queens, I tried to explain things to Max. He kept his eyes on the road, pretended he couldn't pick up my gestures.

130

We were waiting at the curb by the diner a good twenty minutes in front. I picked Wolfe up in the side mirror, stepped out and opened the back door like a chauffeur, climbed in after her. Max took off smoothly, heading for the highway. If she had people following us, they'd have an easy time until we hit Chinatown.

Wolfe threw a quick glance at the blackout windows. Her mouth twitched. "Very clever," she said.

"Better than a blindfold, huh?"

"Sure."

"Want a drink? This thing isn't air-conditioned," I said, offering her an unopened bottle of cold spring water I'd bought from the deli across from the diner.

"Thank you." She unscrewed the bottle cap, took a long pull.

"I appreciate you doing this."

She took another sip. "The baby's been positively identified."

"How'd you do that? He was in the water a long time."

"The coroner said it was Battered Child Syndrome— just about every bone was fractured, some of the old ones had healed. Derrick had been X-rayed before— the last time there was a child abuse complaint. The pictures were a perfect match."

"You know for sure what killed him?"

"He was beaten to death. Hard to tell exactly what finally did it— lungs punctured, blood in the spinal column…maybe all of that and more. Doesn't matter now, it's a homicide, not an accident."

"Who's gonna be indicted for it?"

She looked at me like I'd have to step up in class to be stupid. "Both of them— the mother's already made statements. Lots of statements. Sometimes she says the kid fell down the stairs, sometimes he choked on his bottle. Doesn't matter…the coroner said the baby was killed over a long period of time. She had to know."

"She did know."

"Yes. She'll come up with some kind of defense— they've always got new ones. She's going down for this, just like he is, once we pick him up. He won't go far. He's a Welfare vulture, living off dead-souled women. We'll find him."

"Find him? I thought he was locked up on another charge."

She looked at me squarely, faint traces of disbelief in her face. "He made bail— they never set high bail for beating up a woman."

I offered her a smoke. She shook her head, rummaged in her purse, came out with one of her own. I lit it for her.

"This won't take long today," I promised.

The cab rolled along. Felt like we were still on the highway.

"How did you know…about the water?" she finally asked me.

"I figured it out," I told her. Meaning: the mother hadn't told me.

She dragged on her smoke, pale eyes focused on something not inside the cab. "You started this…investigation, it was a job, yes?"

"Yeah."

"To find the baby?"

"Yeah."

"So the job's over…?"

"Un-huh."

"And you're not looking for Emerson?"

"I didn't even know he was out. How come all the questions?"

"You know now. The way most people would look at this, we'd need her testimony to convict him, understand?"

I nodded.

"We don't. What we need, we need his testimony to convict her. The only way they both get dropped for this is for them to point the finger at each other. Try them separately."

"Okay."

"Yes, okay. That means, we want to find this Emerson. If he turns up in the water himself…if he just disappears, it might get her off the hook."

"Why tell me?"

"You have different…reputations, Mr. Burke. Depending on who's talking."

"My record speaks for itself."

"Very funny. We've got records too. Like the visitors' logs from the jail."

"So?"

"So you visited a man named Kenneth Silver three times over the past couple of months."

"He's an old friend."

"He's an assassin. For a white supremacist gang. The way the prisons are today, he may be more dangerous inside than out."

"You don't understand the way things are in there. It's not politics, it's survival. I've known him since I was a kid. We went different ways, he got caught in a cross, but I'm not gonna turn my back on him when he's down."

"Is that loyalty…or peer pressure?"

"You put a lot of guys in there, but you don't know how it works. Inside the walls, what you call peer pressure, it's as sharp as a knife sometimes…You understand what I'm saying?"

"Better than you think. Like I said, about Emerson…"

"You think I'm some kind of vigilante?"

"No. I think you're some kind of mercenary. And I think you do what you're paid to do."

"Nobody hired me to do Emerson. I'm not looking for him."

She ground out her cigarette. "I'm sure you're not, you say so. But if you happen to run across him in your travels, give us a call, okay?"

"Okay."

131

The cab's rhythm changed. In the city now. Harsh, hypertense traffic sounds. We'd have picked up our outriders by now. If Max spotted a car too interested in us, he'd flash his high beams— maneuver so he was first off at a light. The driver of the car trailing us would never see it coming, wouldn't even have time to wonder why a pack of Chinese teenagers dressed in bright silk baseball jackets would be trying to clean his windshield. Never hear the ice picks puncture his tires.

Wolfe never glanced at her watch. Didn't make comments like she would if she was trying to give a tape recorder some clues. She'd know— no matter where we held the meeting, she wouldn't find Luke there again.

The cab was down to a crawl now, swivel-hipping its way past the potholes. One final turn, and it came to a stop. I heard Max shut off the engine.