He hung up and exhaled loudly.
“Trouble?”
“Not too bad. At least, she was open to suggestion. I must spend half my time telling young assistant DAs how to do their job.”
“You should have been a lawyer.”
My dad smiled at the joke. His eyes went to my face. “I want to ask you a question, Cindy.”
I leaned back, curious. “Sure.”
“I want to know what is the purpose of your having voice mail on your cell phone if you never return messages.”
My face went warm. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“I understand you dropped by yesterday. Rina said you looked upset. That gave me concern. So I called you three times. But you didn’t answer. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Daddy. Again I’m sorry.”
“Were you sleeping off a depression or something?”
At this point, I could have gotten annoyed with him, but that wouldn’t have helped at all. “No.” I leaned over and kissed his nose. “No, I was with Koby and it was a rather emotional afternoon and evening, and then the time slipped away. It was wrong. For the third time, I apologize.”
“Why are you here, Officer?” he grumped at me.
“To aggravate you.”
“You’re doing a fine job at that,” he groused. “I heard about your bust. Congratulations.”
“Thank you. Have you heard good or bad things?”
“Mostly good. A couple of nasty comments about the convenient bag of X.”
“Scum is scum.”
“Did they hassle you?”
“Yes, but the one good thing about being honest is you have only one story. It’s easy to repeat and you don’t get mixed up in your lies.”
“You want to tell me about it?”
I told him about it. “I looked up the two names El Paso spit out. Joseph ‘Juice’ Fedek is not living at his last listed address, but Pepe Renaldes is. He works on a construction crew with a posh West Side builder-”
“See why I do my own renovation work?”
“Not all of us can build houses, Dad. Ideally, I’d like to bring Sarah Sanders down to the station and have her look through some six-packs from mug books and see if she picks out El Paso or Fedek or Renaldes. If she does, I’d like to check Renaldes’s employment record. I also want to hunt for Fedek. I want to do all those things, but no one’s letting me do anything. So I’m here, taking out my frustration on you.”
“Why not? Everyone else is. What is the status with the case right now?”
“Russ MacGregor and Justice Brill are waiting to see if there’s a drug plea. They tell me that El Paso’s willing to roll, but the DA would rather put him away with a sure thing than take a chance on an iffy six-month-old rape case.”
“That makes sense, Cin.”
“Yes, it does. Unfortunately, if they do it, it means that two very vicious men are out there, able to prey on the public instead of being locked up behind bars.”
“If Sarah’s story is true.”
“That’s why I’d like to show her the mug books and see if she could pick them out.”
“I’ll tell you the same thing I just told the young DA over the phone. Have patience.”
“Do you see me going behind anyone’s back? In the meantime, just because I’m obsessive and dedicated, I’m still looking for David Tyler. I figure if I find him and if both he and Sarah independently ID Fedek and Renaldes, then the rape/assault case is on much more stable ground.” I sat back in my chair. “At first, I thought the bag was good, something we can use to really squeeze El Paso. But I think they’re going for the slam-dunk drug conviction. Better for the statistics.”
“You’re too young to talk that cynically.”
“I’m not cynical, I’m practical. And I’m in a fine mood. A good date makes everything seem a little less hopeless.”
Dad faced me with unreadable eyes. “If you two are still speaking, you can bring him around again forShabbatdinner. I promise I won’t glare at you this time.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
“Have you told your mother?”
“It hasn’t come up.”
“You haven’t brought it up. What are you worried about? Your mother’s much more liberal than I am.”
“I’m not worried, Dad. I just want to see how it goes before I even bother.” We both knew I was stalling. I checked my watch. “So I guess I’m off to serve and protect and look for David Tyler.”
“Any leads at all with him?”
“Goose egg. For all I know, he may be dead. Sarah Sanders did say he wasn’t moving when she left the bathroom.”
“Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. David could be dead, but I doubt if he was dead from the assault. Cindy, the City changes the trash. People do use the john in the park. If there had been a dead body in it, someone would have noticed.”
“Unless the boys killed him, then came back to take him away and dump him in a less obvious spot.”
“I don’t think so, Cindy. It would draw way too much attention. This sounds like an impulsive type of rape. Why hassle with coming back? All it could do is screw them up.”
“Because David could identify them.”
“He’s mentally disabled. How much credibility would he have even if hecouldidentify the perps? And that’s a big if.”
I saw his point.
Dad said, “I know you’re working your way through the decidedly unglamorous part of detective work: the shelters, halfway houses, drug rehab, missions, Salvation Army, other areas that have homeless. It’s a tedious chore, but it’s your best bet right now.”
There was a knock on the door and in walked Oliver. He was holding up my tie. It was a nice one-a gold-and-sky-blue Mimi Fong print that I had gotten at deep discount. Furthermore, it went with the navy suit he was wearing.
“What do you think?” I asked him.
“It’s beautiful, Cin. Something I would have picked out. What is it? Battle pay?”
“You might say that.”
My father’s face held a sour look. “You bought him atie?”
“Yes, I bought him a tie when I bought Koby a shirt.”
“You bought Oliver a tie and Koby a shirt, but your father gets nothing.”
I got up and hugged him around the neck. “Daddy, you’ll always be my number one guy.”
“You’re choking me,” Dad grumped.
Oliver said, “So you and the guy are back together?”
“For the time being, and theguy-like you, Scott-has a name.”
“Yeah, he’s got a name. Theblackguy. OrifI feel like being politically correct, the African American guy.”
“If you want to get technical, then he’d be just the African guy. Or the Asian guy, because I think he’s an Israeli citizen. Now if he were an American citizen, then you’d have to call him African Asian American guy. Sothat’swhy it’s much more convenient to call him Yaakov.”
“You call him Koby.”
“That’s reserved for friends, Oliver.”
He smiled. Dad drummed his fingers on his desktop. “Anything official you need to talk to me about, Detective?”
“No, not really,” Oliver answered.
“Then close the door on your way out.”
Oliver laughed and left.
I said, “So it looks like my weekend is booked. On Saturday, I’ve got my workout at the gym, afternoon is lunch with Mom, and then I’ve got bowling practice from six to eight in the evening. Then maybe if Koby’s off, we’ll go out. Sunday morning is brunch with my friend Hayley. I’ll look for David in the afternoon, then Sunday evening if Koby and I are still in good standing, we’ll go out again.”
“I’m getting tired just listening to you. You’re hyperactive, Officer Decker.”
“Loo, it’s better than crying in my beer.”