Call Of The Witch (28 page)

“
Yes, and with these two
under raps, we should have a pretty good handle on
things.”

Dominic said, “What about Karina
Martinez?”

I looked at him strangely. “What about
her?”

“
Well…didn’t I tell
you?”

“
Tell me what?”

His face grew flush, and I knew it was
something big. “Oh, man. I thought I told you.”

“
Dominic. Spill
it.”

“
All right. You see I did
a background check on Karina this afternoon and….”

“
And what?”

“
And this isn’t the first
time that one of her employers’ kids has been
kidnapped.”

“
What!”

“
It happened a couple of
years ago, in Boxford. She was working for a wealthy family there
when her employer’s eight-year-old was abducted.”

“
Dominic! How could you
forget to tell me something like that?”

“
I’m sorry, Tony.” He
shook his head and drew back in a sheepish slouch. He fixed his
gaze on the floor, and I could see it troubled him more than any
scolding that I could dish out. “I guess my mind’s been a little
distracted with Ursula and the baby and all. I didn’t mean
to––”

“
It’s okay. Just tell me
what you learned.”

He looked up at me. I thought I would see his
eyes pooling. He seemed that shook up. But I didn’t. His eyes
remained dry, focused and sharp.

“
She was eight-years-old,”
he said. “She disappeared from her back yard in the middle of the
day. The kidnappers called that evening. They made a ransom demand.
The FBI was called in. The ransom was paid.”

“
Was the girl
returned?”

I watched his chest rise and fall as he
steadied his breath. His expression softened, but his eyes were
welling now. “No. They found her body the next day in a Dumpster
behind a McDonalds.” He shook his head. “Can you believe it, Tony?
They tossed her away like an old ragdoll.”

I heard Detective Olson gasp. Carlos sighed.
Dominic turned his attention to the two-by-four map on the table
and began tracing his finger aimlessly along the perimeter of the
proposed drop site.

“
Dominic.” I placed my
hand on his shoulder. “Are you all right?”

“
Fine,” he said. He took
another deep breath through his nose and let it out through bloated
cheeks. “I’m fine.”

“
Okay. Let me ask you. Was
Karina ever implicated in the kidnapping?”

“
No. The FBI questioned
her and Raul both, but they never found any evidence linking either
of them to the abduction. All the evidence pointed to the
employer’s hired landscaper.”

I looked to Carlos. “We better bring Mrs.
Martinez in for questioning tonight.”

“
Good luck with that,”
said Brittany.

“
What do you
mean?”

“
Karina Martinez was
packing her bags while we were there picking up Raul’s computer. I
heard her tell a neighbor before we left that she’d be gone for a
while. She asked him if he would pick up her mail and bring her
trash can in.”

“
Did she say where she was
going?”

She shook her head. “If she did, I didn’t
hear it. I knew she was upset about her son. I can tell you that
she packed a heavy suitcase, though.”

“
We need to talk to the
neighbor. Carlos?”

“
Uh-uh. Sorry.”

“
What do you mean uh-uh,
sorry?”

He looked at his watch. “I have to go see my
accountant in twenty minutes.”

Dominic said, “I’ll go with you, Tony.”

“
No. I want you to go home
to Ursula. Spend some quality time with her. Get a good night’s
sleep and then meet me back at the Justice Center in the morning.
Seven o’clock. Conference Room One.” I turned to Carlos. “You, too,
yeah? Seven?”

He nodded. “Seven’s good. I’ll see you
then.”

“
Brit?” I said. “You want
to go with me?”

She rolled her map up, tucked it under her
arm and started for the door. “Thought you’d never ask, Marcella.
I’ll drive.”

On the way out to Martinez’s place, Brittany
Olson asked me about Lilith. More specifically, she asked about my
relationship with her.

“
I guess you can say we’re
going steady,” I told her. Naturally, I avoided telling her about
the witch’s wedding we had, and about the consummation ritual
Lilith wanted me to partake in to consecrate our
marriage.

“
She’s quite the witch,
isn’t she?”

“
Excuse me?”

“
Lilith. She’s quite the
catch. I saw her last week when she came to see you at the
office.”

If I live another hundred years, I’ll never
believe that Olson didn’t call Lilith a witch. Still, I let it go,
assuming it was an honest slip and not intentional.

“
Yes,” I said. “She is
quite the catch.”

“
How does your dad feel
about the two of you?”

“
My dad?” I don’t know
why, but for a moment, I almost forgot I was supposed to be Tony
Marcella junior, son of the man Brittany had known for over twenty
five years. “Oh, he’s good with it,” I said.

“
Really? Even though he
tried to hang her on murder charges?”

“
That was then. He doesn’t
believe she had anything to do with those murders now, and neither
do I.”

“
No, of course not. I’m
sure she didn’t.”

“
Then why bring it
up?”

Her answer came back after a brief pause.
“You’re right. That was insensitive of me. So, how is he anyway?
Your dad. Is he still down in Florida?”

“
Yes, and he’s fine. We
talk from time to time.”

“
You know, for awhile we
all thought he was dead.”

“
Oh? Why’s
that?”

“
It’s just that when
Lilith’s house blew away, your father’s car was in the driveway,
but there was no sign of him or Lilith. Then three months later,
she shows up. You show up, and Carlos tells everyone he heard from
your father down in Florida. You have to admit it seemed a little
bizarre.”

“
I suppose. Is this going
anywhere?”

“
No, just making
conversation.”

She drove on. I thought––hoped even––that we
would arrive at Karina Martinez’s without further conversation. I
didn’t know why she wanted to bring up the things she was bringing
up, but I wished she’d hadn’t. We were just pulling up to Karina’s
house when she said, “Do you ever dabble in magic, Tony?”

“
Excuse me?” I can’t tell
you how freaked out I was to hear her ask me that.

She pulled the car up to the curb and threw
it in park. “It’s just that I’ve heard the guys talking.”

“
The guys?”

“
Carlos and
Dominic.”

“
What do they
say?”

“
Well, nothing to me
directly. But I’ve overheard them a few times. Like once in the
detective’s lounge I heard Carlos talking about you making
something called a zip ball.”

“
Carlos is a zip ball,” I
said. “You shouldn’t listen to him. You especially shouldn’t
eavesdrop on him. He probably knew you were listening in and was
having some fun at your expense.”

“
Hmm, maybe,” she said.
She shut off the engine and opened the car door. “You know I should
give your old man a call down there in Florida. See how he’s
doing.”

“
Yeah, you should do
that,” I said, knowing that was impossible. “He’d like that, I’m
sure.”

As we walked up to the house next door to
Karina Martinez’s place, I asked Brittany if she knew the
neighbor’s name.

“
Didn’t get his last
name,” she said, “but I heard Martinez call him Ricky.”

We stepped onto the tiny porch. I knocked on
the door, and as we waited for someone to answer, I directed
Brittany’s attention to the mailbox. Like Karina Martinez, Ricky
had his mailbox fastened to one of two wooden posts supporting the
roof. The name on the mailbox said, Lade. Brittany nodded. Seconds
later, the door opened.

“
Mister Lade?” she said,
addressing the man who answered the door in a tie-dyed T-shirt and
ripped denim jeans. He appeared to be about Brittany’s age,
mid-to-late fifties, his long hair tied back off his face.
Distinguished strands of grey flared in silver streaks from his
temples back, disappearing in the gather of his braided ponytail.
He was clean-shaven, but for a small soul patch on his chin, the
kind only jazz musicians used to wear before the girlfriends of
non-musicians realized what they were for.

“
Yes?” he said, craning
his neck to look past our shoulders after seeing our badges and
IDs. He seemed relieved to see we had arrived in an unmarked
car.

“
I’m Detective Olson,
NCPD. This is Detective Marcella.”

“
Sure, I saw you next door
earlier. Is everything all right?”

“
We’d like to ask you a
few questions if you don’t mind.”

He pushed the screen door open and stepped
back. “Do you want to come in?”

I didn’t. And I knew Brittany didn’t either.
But Ricky Lade wanted us to come in, probably because he didn’t
want his neighbors seeing him talking to the police so soon after
Martinez’s house had been busted.

The instant I stepped past the threshold, I
could smell the pot. Brittany and I both looked around the room,
but from where we stood, we could see that Ricky left nothing out
in the open for us to find.

“
Nice incense,” I said,
smiling to let him know I knew.

“
Oh, it’s not incense,”
Ricky said, dismissing my comment with a wave. “It’s
marijuana.”

I looked at Brittany. I could tell she wanted
to laugh, but she’s a professional. She kept a straight face and
let me take it. “Marijuana?”

“
Yeah, but it’s legit.
It’s medical marijuana.”

“
Massachusetts doesn’t
allow medical marijuana.”

“
I know. I get it in
Vermont. It’s legal there.”

This time I did hear Brittany choke back a
laugh. “Mister Lade. Just because you can get it in Vermont doesn’t
mean you can smoke it in Massachusetts.”

He soured his face as though he didn’t much
care. “So what now, you gonna arrest me?”

I shook my head. “That’s not why we’re
here.”

“
You want to know about
Karina, don’t you?”

“
Yes. Do you have any idea
where she went?”

“
I think she left the
country.”

“
Where did she go,
Mexico?”

“
No, I think maybe
Russia.”

“
Russia?” I crowded my
brow and gave him the classic come again look. “Why
Russia?”

“
Because of that guy that
came to pick her up. He spoke with a thick Russian
accent.”

“
Did you get his
name?”

“
Yeah, Karina introduced
him to me as…Dean or Damian, or….”

“
Dmitry?”

Ricky Lade snapped his finger and pointed at
me. “That’s it! Dmitry. She said he was an old friend. He picked
her up in a SUV.”

“
Dark blue?”

“
Yeah, I think. Maybe it
was black.”

“
Did he have luggage with
him?”

“
I didn’t see any. Karina
asked me to check her mail and take in her trash can. I said I
would. No big deal.”

“
Did she say when she’d
return?”

“
Nope. Just asked me to
check––”

“
I know, check her mail
and take in her trash can. Can you tell us anything
else?”

“
Like what?”

Brittany produced a color photo from an
inside pocket of her jacket and showed it to Ricky. “Like have you
ever seen this little girl before?”

He took the photo. “Sure, that’s Kelly. I’ve
seen her before.”

“
When?”

“
A bunch of times. Karina
works for her mom. She takes her home with her sometimes when she
does their laundry. She’s a good kid.”

“
When’s the last time you
saw her?”

He gave us a shrug. “I don’t know.
Yesterday?”

“
You saw Kelly
yesterday?”

“
Yeah…I think. Yesterday
was Friday, wasn’t it?”

“
Yesterday was Saturday,”
I said, feeling as though the wind had been knocked right out of
me.

Ricky Lade began counting on his fingers and
mouthing the days of the week to himself. “Oh yeah,” he said,
ending his count with his index finger pressed to his thumb.
“Yesterday was Saturday. I guess it was Friday then.”

I looked at Brittany and shook my head. She
took the photo from Lade and tucked it back into her pocket.
“Thanks for your help, Mister Lade.”

“
Your welcome. Hey, is
everything all right? I mean with Kelly and all. She
okay?”

“
Mister Lade.” I stepped
back and pushed the screen door open. “You make sure you smoke that
stuff in the house. You hear?”

Brittany added, “And I’d think about moving
to Vermont if I were you. Some of the other cops in New Castle
might not be so understanding.”

She smiled at Ricky Lade and offered a
parting handshake. I didn’t think much of that at first, until she
did something a bit unusual. While their right hands were engaged,
she reached up with her left and cupped his wrist so that her
fingertips were pressed against his pulse point. It might have been
nothing more than a simple reinforcement of trust, or heartfelt
thanks for his cooperation. Being a new detective, I could imagine
Brittany wanting to show her sincerity in that respect. But I also
couldn’t help notice that her hands were keenly position to apply
the witch’s pulse point spell on him, something I had just recently
learned to do myself.