Authors: Robert W. Walker
Jana confided, "I had the chance to shoot the bastard down like a dog when we busted in on him. He raised a gun to me. I should have let him have it."
"Don't worry. He's bound for the execution chamber— eventually."
"Yeah, but it's the eventually that pisses me off. Ten fucking years eventually, if not more, while the victims' families have to relive their grief and anguish over and over again. Man, I hate the creep's lawyer almost as much as I hate him."
"Understood," said Lucas, squeezing her hand.
"Got to tell you, this is my first case where all we have are eyeballs and teeth to go on."
"Don't forget the salami slices sent to me."
"Strangest nutcase you ever chased, I'll bet, hey, Lucas?"
"Watch for the address, will you? Don't want to miss it."
"By the time we get to the third address on your list, it'll be after hours for dentists."
"Then we'll just have to continue this tomorrow morning, if you're free, that is."
"After Dr. Sullivan's, I'd suggest Mira Lourdes's address."
"Right, it's closer than the Nance place."
The stop at Dr. Sullivan's for Helga Muncie's dental records went quickly, and they pushed on. They found Mira Lourdes's live-in boyfriend at the address in the file, disappointed on learning he was not her husband and so could not grant them access to medical records.
Dwayne Ira Stokes told his own tentative version of how Mira had simply disappeared without a trace. Their last conversation had been about a car that sat glumly neglected out in the driveway, a car she was trying to sell.
Stokes repeated himself a lot, Lucas observed. "My last conversation with her was like over the g'damn phone, and it like centered around that damned cursed car of hers."
"What about the car? Why do you say it was cursed?" asked Lucas.
"Because it was! Like everything that could go wrong with it, like did, man. So finally, I like convinced her to like sell it, you know, put a sign on the damn thing, place an ad in the Penny Saver, see."
"And she was showing the car when she disappeared?" asked Jana.
"A neighbor saw her talking to a couple of people, yeah, and like she looked away to wipe a dish or something, and she looked back out to where Mira and these people were, and they were gone, but they left their car behind, so she— the neighbor—she like didn't think anything of it, you know. Why leave your car behind if you're going to abduct somebody, you know? That's like how Mrs. Paulis was thinking, she said. Me, I was at work at the time. I work retail, odd hours, always being called in even on what's 'spose to be my day off, which it was that night."
"Mrs. Paulis is the eyewitness I told you about," Jana told Lucas.
"They all three took off in the cursed car," added Stokes.
"And supposedly the abductors left their car behind?" Lucas asked, his tone incredulous.
"That's right."
"But the car she was selling is sitting in your driveway right now," began Lucas, pointing at the unfortunate, sad- looking Saab, its body littered with rust and dents. The FOR SALE sign was still in the rearview window.
"Right, that's it. Damn car has a curse on it. Like a bad penny, it keeps coming back, but not Mira, she didn't come back. She took off with this couple and like never came back! I mean, at first, I thought maybe she just ran off; like we haven't been getting along too good lately, like sniping and backbiting, no biggy, but like annoying twenty-four-seven all-the-time stuff, you know."
Lucas thought if he heard the words like or you know come once more out of Dwayne's mouth, he would strangle the kid. Dwayne appeared much younger than Mira's twenty-eight years. Lucas guessed him at "like twenty-two or three."
"Maybe we should talk to this neighbor of yours, Dwayne," suggested Jana. "Get more details from her. You say it was a couple. Do you mean a man and a woman or two men?"
"A man and a woman. That's what was so bizarre about it, why like Mrs. Paulis didn't think much of it, you know."
"There's no record of any of this in the Missing Persons file, Dwayne," Lucas pointed out.
"That's 'cause Mrs. Paulis's on vacation. The only one here having fun—in the Caribbean Sea someplace they say. Missing Persons people talked to me. Told the same story, but they said they needed to hear it from the party of the first part, some shit like that, but Mrs. P, she was booked on a cruise, and now she's in Jamaica, 1 think." He laughed lightly, displaying a missing tooth. "Where I'd like to be," he added, "Yeah, baby, Jamaica...."
"You don't remember me, Dwayne?" asked Jana. "I was - with the two detectives who questioned you that night."
"Oh, yeah, wait on a minute...sure, now I recall. You kinda stood back, and you checked out the car."
Lucas exchanged a side glance with Detective North, his accusing eye stem on hearing that Missing Persons officers had already gone over this ground and it seemed nothing had come of it. Jana ignored the accusatory glint in Lucas's eye and said to Dwayne, "Do you have a copy of the ad Mira placed in the newspaper?"
"I got a copy on the porch, yeah." He went to fetch it. Returning with the thin local Penny Saver, he pointed out the ad. Jana began reading for any clues that might help them. It merely gave the year, model, and make of the car, condition, mileage, and contact number. Call Mira or Dwayne at 555-1220.
Lucas had stepped away from Dwayne and Meredyth, stepping down from the steps of the brownstone home and going toward the small car on the lawn with the FOR SALE sign on it, staring at the Saab, wondering if anything in the interior or the trunk might tell a tale of violence. "Do you know it's against the law to park a car on your lawn, Mr. Stokes?"
"It is?" he said from the steps. "Didn't know that, but look-it, it's not on the lawn. It's in the driveway."
"We'll have to impound the car, Dwayne. Any objections?" Lucas asked, his own instincts leaning toward Dwayne's having made Mira disappear. "Any objections to us hauling off the car, Mr. Stokes?" he shouted.
Dwayne stood shaking his head, saying, "Oh, hell, no. Haul it off anytime. I got nothing stashed in that ol' thing."
Lucas ciphered it out. Mira had placed an ad in the local Penny Saver, had had a few interested calls, and she felt certain she was on the way to unloading the Saab, according to Stokes, when she simply vanished after a male/female team interviewed her, not for the car but for Mira. It seemed a bit far-fetched and fortunate for Dwayne that the only so- called witness to the abduction was gone to Jamaica. The story seemed a well-orchestrated fiction, the clever twist in it being that a couple and not an individual had abducted Mira.
"Are you sure Mira isn't simply hiding from you, Dwayne?" Jana asked.
Her question was dripping with sarcasm, but it went well over Dwayne's head, and he excitedly answered. "No way. Like I checked with every member of the family— hers and mine—and like every single friend, close and like not so close even. I tell you, I'm worried shitless about Mira. She's a good woman, certainly my better half."
Lucas had studied Dwayne's body language and speech, his hands and eyes. His concern appeared genuine; he was shaken and certain something awful had happened to Mira. His act, if it were an act, was well rehearsed and performed; either that or the weed Dwayne had been smoking was good stuff.
Jana reminded Lucas of the reason they had come, and she suggested they not bother with the car at the moment.
Overhearing, Dwayne said, "I told her mom to forward the medical records card thing you guys left with me when I filed the report."
"Well, Mrs. Lourdes has failed to carry through," Jana assured him.
"The woman thinks Mira wanted to get shed of me, and that Mira ran off and doesn't wanna be found. She's sitting around waiting for a phone call from her," Stokes confided about the mother.
He gave them a phone number and an address, and as they walked away from Stokes, he added, "Crazy mother of hers thinks maybe I did something to Mira! Don't listen to none of her bullshit. It's a lie!"
They left for the mother's house, and along the way, Lucas got on the phone to the CSI unit downtown, getting Nielsen on the phone. "I've got a Saab story for you, Dr. Nielsen."
"Oh?"
He explained that he wanted Mira Lourdes's Saab impounded and detailed for possible clues in her abduction, whether she was a match to his case or not. He gave her the address. "The boyfriend has okayed our taking the car, but you best get a warrant anyway, to cover our behinds."
"Will do."
"And please contact me should you get there and find the vehicle mysteriously gone."
"I will call you in such an eventuality, Detective."
Once at the home of Mira Lourdes's parents, they went through a similar tirade as with Dwayne, except here both parents had nothing but vile words and suspicions sur-rounding Dwayne. They had a hatful of stories illustrating Dwayne's mistreatment of Mira that included physical and emotional abuse. Finally, the parents allowed Jana to get what they had come for, the release signature and the name and address of the dentist they must see.
Lucas and Jana arrived next at Irma Nance's home, as it was closer than Mira Lourdes's dentist. The seventeen- year-old's parents were a pair of drunks who talked over one another, trying to top each other for stories of how Irma was no good, but that she always came home with money from her job. When asked about the type of work she did, neither parent knew anything of how she earned "enough to keep them in booze." This was followed by a gaggle of laughter. The Missing Persons report had been filed by an aunt and uncle, while the mother and father "expected Irma to walk through the door at any time." They hadn't filed a dental release form because they didn't think she was truly missing, claiming that Irma was in the habit of disappearing for days at a time.
"Probably at a friend's house. She sleeps over a lot." Mother took another sip on her beer bottle.
"You guys like a beer?" asked Father.
"Do you know her friend's address or phone number?" asked Jana.
Lucas looked on stoically holding onto his calm. The father, scratching beneath his T-shirt and ogling Jana, replied, "She don't tell us who her friends are. How're we supposed to know who they are, much less have a number on 'em. Could we interest you two in a cold one?" he repeated.
"No, just please sign the medical release for her records, sir, and we'll be on our way," Jana said, her skin crawling.
Lucas escorted her off as soon as Mr. Nance released the pen and returned the signed card. When they got out of earshot, Jana whispered, "Missing Persons runs the entire gamut of human experience, Lucas, trust me. We see all kinds."
"Sad part is that they're parents. Ought to have a DMV- type office where people have to register before having r kids."
Now they raced to a Dr. Patel's office for Irma's records, getting there just at closing. The Pakistani doctor didn't want to be bothered, something about his kid's soccer game, but Lucas urged the doctor into cooperating, pointing out that he could be liable in a lawsuit if someone's child died because he was too busy to cooperate with police. They got the records.
Calling ahead to Mira's dentist, Dr. Edward Palmer, they got the answering machine. Too late for office hours, but in case of emergency dial Dr. Palmer at 555-9293.
Lucas made the emergency call, and got Palmer on a cell phone in his sports car, Lucas listening to the rev of the powerful engine in the background. Palmer, in sharp contrast to Patel, was instantly curious and interested in helping in any way that he could, promising to meet Lucas and Jana at his office.
"I'm turning around right now," he said. "Mira's a lovely, wonderful person, beautiful bicuspids."
They met Palmer outside, and he eagerly opened his office to them without question, hardly glancing at their badges. "I got a call earlier from her mother, but when you guys didn't show, I guessed you'd get around to it tomorrow. Any rate, here are her records. I had them pulled earlier." He lifted the file filled with Mira's charts from his desk and handed it to Lucas. "God, I hope she's all right. She's a great soul, that one. Full of life, always with a bright smile and kind word for everyone, you know? Wonderfully cared-for teeth."
Not any more if she's our girl, Lucas painfully thought.
"Thanks for your cooperation, Dr. Palmer," said Jana, who caught the doctor eyeballing her straight, bright teeth as if he wanted to get a closer look at them.
Outside, Jana congratulated Lucas on achieving the impossible, gathering up three dental records in one afternoon.
"I owe it all to your help," he countered. "Couldn't have done it without you. Fact is, if you hadn't like been with me to like deal with Dwayne Stokes, I might have like shot him."
She laughed at this. "I'm thirsty. Let's stop for a drink somewhere, shall we?"
"First things first. Next step, get all the data into Dr. Davies's hands and hope for a match."
"All work and no play, Lucas. You haven't changed."
Lucas drove Jana back to the precinct and thanked her for her help. It had grown late, and Jana decided to call it a night, so they parted on the street in front of the station house. "I hope you find the bastard who set you and Meredyth up, Lucas. And if there's anything else we can do over at Missing Persons, don't hesitate. Fact is, should there be a match with one of our girls, you'll have to include us."
"Will do."
"Good luck and good night."
"Thanks again, Jana."
"Nothing succeeds like results, Lucas, and you get results. It's why people respect you. You're no ordinary detective on the force, you are a force."
Lucas caught a light in her eye and a curl to her lips, a subtle invitation to call her at any time. She waved as she stepped away, again saying good night, adding, "It's been fun."
Overhead, in a precinct window, other detectives stared down on the scene, and Lucas could almost hear their catcalls and whistles behind the windowpane. He saw several of his colleagues raise hands and wave in the universal gesture that all men recognized as "go get 'em." Lucas knew instantly that rumors would be flying about Jana and him.