“We’ll come. We’ll be there, me and Tony, but… I need to go home now. Please, I just… I need to tell Sophia that I’m not feeling well, and need to go home.”
“All right. Mrs. Franco,” Eve said as Teresa rose. “Why did Lino leave New York at seventeen?”
The dark eyes that had been so rich and warm were dull now. “To get rich, to be important. ‘When I come back,’ he said to me, ‘I’ll be a rich man, and we’ll live in a big house. A big house like Mr. Ortiz. I’ll be somebody.’ ”
“One more thing. Can you give me the names of friends he was closest to? Other gang members?”
“Steve Chávez was his closest friend, and the worst of them. He and Steve left together.” Teresa pressed her fingers to her eyes, rubbed hard. “Joe Inez, Penny Soto. Penny was his girlfriend. Others, there were others. Some are dead or gone. I’ll think, and write them down for you. But please, I need to go home.”
“I’ll meet you tomorrow.”
Eve stepped out of the office behind Teresa, watched her hurry to the woman who’d seated them. “I guess we should leave her a big tip,” Eve observed. “But either way, I pretty much ruined her night.”
14
EVE RAN THE THREE NAMES TERESA HAD GIVEN her as Roarke drove home. “Chávez, Steven, has himself a long, crowded sheet, in various states. Assault, assault with deadly, couple of illegals pop, sexual assault-acquitted-grand theft auto, fraud, robbery. Crossing lots of state lines, and gracing many state facilities to do his penance.”
“A traveling badass,” Roarke commented.
“Arrested numerous times and/or questioned and released. A bit over seven years ago he got popped for possessing stolen goods, made bail and walked away. That was in Arizona.” She glanced over at Roarke.
“And the last time Teresa had contact with Lino was seven years ago, in Nevada. A neighbor of Arizona.”
“What do you bet he and Lino hooked up and had some old times’ sake over a brew?”
“Only a sucker would bet against it. Where is he now?”
“Dropped off the grid, just about the same time Lino did. Inez and Soto are still in New York. Inez is a maintenance mechanic at an apartment complex in the old neighborhood. Did some time for robbery in his late teens. A slap for drunk and disorderly after his release. Scans clean since, more than a decade of clean since. Soto has hits on illegals-sale and possession, sexual solicitation without a license, assault. She’s recently off parole-and, isn’t this handy, is employed at the bodega next door to St. Cristóbal’s. I’m really enjoying the coincidences.”
“Who could blame you? Which one are we going to see?”
It was a pretty lucky cop, Eve thought, who hooked a guy that easy about the work and the hours. “I could catch them both in the morning, but… since Inez lives in the building where he works, he’s a pretty sure bet.” She reeled off the address. “Thanks.”
“You’ll owe me, as this sort of cop work is fairly tedious. All this talking, and no one’s trying to kill us.”
“Well, it can’t be fun all the time. But maybe Joe will pull a sticker and try to take us out.”
“Don’t placate me, Eve.”
She laughed, stretched out her legs. “You want to talk deadly? Peabody had a meet today with Nadine and Louise, about planning this prewedding girl party. I’m hosting it, apparently, but they’ve relieved me of any actual duties.”
“That doesn’t sound deadly. In fact, it sounds quite sane and safe.”
“I guess. I drew the line at games and strippers. Figured I can handle anything else. Which means probably sitting around drinking girly drinks and eating cake.” At least the cake part was a good deal, Eve thought. “I probably have to buy Louise a present.”
She slid a look in his direction.
“No,” he said definitely. “I won’t be taking on that little chore for you as I have no more idea than you what would be the appropriate gift for a wedding shower.”
As that small hope dissolved, her shoulders slumped. “There are entirely too many presents attached to too many things. And after this, we’ll have to buy them a wedding present, right? What the hell do you buy for two adults who both already have everything they want-or can buy it themselves-anyway?”
“They’re outfitting an entire house,” he reminded her. “I spoke with Peabody’s mother about making them a tea set. Pot, cups, saucers, and so on. She’s an excellent and creative potter.”
“Huh. That was a good idea. Why didn’t I think of that idea for the Louise present?” She brooded over it for a short time. “Inez is the only one of the group Teresa named who ever married.”
“And how we wind around,” Roarke commented.
“It just made me think-you know, showers, weddings. He’s the only one who got married, had kids.”
“And the only one who, at least, appears to have rehabilitated himself.”
“I don’t know if one has to do with the other, but it’s interesting. Then there’s Teresa herself. The way it reads, she got knocked up, married a wrong guy. Got kicked around, did what she could, or did what she thought she had to. Guy takes off, and she raises the kid on her own. Supports them, but she can’t keep the kid out of trouble. Then the kid takes off. She gets married again, to a decent guy, and has another kid. Makes a decent life, and this kid stays out of trouble.”
“Is it nature or nurture?”
“It’s both. It’s always both, and more, it’s about making choices. Still, Lino spent the first few years of his life watching his mother get knocked around, watching the father abuse her. So he hears about the Solas bastard beating on his wife, sticking it to his daughter, he breaks out of the priest mold long enough to kick some ass. His weak spot. He carried that medal-didn’t see his mother, didn’t come home to her, but he carried the medal she gave him.”
“And sent her money occasionally.”
“Yeah. Going to come home a rich man-important. Nothing like that bastard who knocked his mother up. That’ll be an underlying factor in his pathology. If we give a rat’s ass.”
“Why do you?”
She said nothing for a few moments. “She knew he was lost. Teresa. She knew there was something in him that she could never pull out, get rid of. Something that made him take the course he did. She’s got her good life now, and still, she’s going to grieve for him. Hell, she already is.”
“Yes. She is.”
“And when I can clear it and give it to her, she’ll keep that medal for the rest of her life. Her reminder of her little boy. I’ve interviewed people who knew him these past few years, worked closely with him, and they liked him. Respected him, enjoyed him. I think he was a stone-cold killer, or at least someone who killed or did whatever he wanted when it was expedient. But there was something there, something buried under the hard case. Sometimes you wonder why, that’s all. Why it gets buried.”
“He wanted more,” Roarke said. “Wanted what he couldn’t have, or didn’t want to earn. That kind of desire can overtake all the rest.”
She paused a moment. “You were going to be a rich man. Important. That was the goal.”
“It was.”
“But you never buried who you were under that goal.”
“You see the parallels, and wonder. For me, the legal lines were… options. More, they were challenges. And I had Summerset, as a kind of compass at a time when I might have taken a much darker path.”
“You wouldn’t have taken it. Too much pride.”
His brow winged up. “Is that so?”
“You always knew it wasn’t just the money. Money’s security, and it’s a symbol. But it’s not the thing. It’s knowing what to do with it. Lots of people have money. They make it or they take it. But not everybody builds something with it. He wouldn’t have. Lino. If he’d gotten the rich, he’d still never have gotten the important. And, for a short time, he stole the important.”