Missing Brandy (A Fina Fitzgibbons Brooklyn Mystery Book 2) (37 page)

Jane smirked.

“My daughter’s questioned here or not at all. Don’t forget the strain she’s been under. She’s a child. She’s all I’ve got.”

After Brandy wrote a brief statement, she took a shower and changed while the rest of us completed paperwork in Trisha’s conservatory. Denny left my side long enough to help make coffee.

“You understand I’ll need to talk to your daughter,” the agent said when we returned to the room.

Jane folded her arms. “After school tomorrow is soon enough.”

“What day is it tomorrow?” Brandy asked.

“Monday.”

She slumped in her chair. “Got that History test to make up. I haven’t studied, and I’ve lost my books. No shoes in my closet, not anything I’d be caught wearing. Life sucks.” She bent forward, hugging her sides. “I’m not feeling so good.”

“No school for you tomorrow, I’d better call the office.”

Brandy slid me a quirked-up look, but only for a second.

“And that means no friends, either,” Trisha said.

Brandy swung her eyes from me to her mom. “So wait until morning to call. Who knows, I might feel better by then.”

Epilogue

Fina’s Afterword

I was morose, removed, in pain. I got like that after a case was finished.

I’d had time to visit the stone carver on Elizabeth Street, the one who’d sent me his brochure. With his help, I bought the perfect monument for Mom’s grave, paid for with the money I’d earned from Brandy Liam’s rescue.

It took me a while to find Mom’s resting spot, not that I hadn’t been to the cemetery many times before, but lately, life had gotten in the way. Face it, the place gave me the spooks, tucked in a remote corner of the grounds. And one plaque began to look like another. There were no cut flowers, no flags, no ornamental candles, no guideposts.

So I came upon it all at once, like a revelation. I stared at the light dappling the freshly carved angel overlooking the family plots. Mom’s and Gran’s had been settling in for a few years in the old section of Brooklyn’s Holy Cross Cemetery, where my ancestor Serafina Florio had purchased ten plots at the turn of the last century. Eight were now full—six sprouting lichen and two recently filled. Two were still empty, perhaps for me and Denny.

Whatever, it was time for me to pay tribute. Hence, the statue. Not your ordinary weeping angel, but a joyous woman clothed in flowing robes, pirouetting, wings catching sunlight, one leg in the air, forever precariously placed. I’m surprised she passed the cemetery committee’s narrow gaze.

I thought of how Brandy’s kidnapping had baptized life, especially for Brandy and her mother. Henry Gruber was locked up, remorseless but represented by a good defense attorney—Trisha Liam saw to that. And Freddy was in a private school for children with special needs in Upstate New York. Again, Trisha Liam’s doing.

I breathed in the dampness and knelt in front of Mom. We were just starting a conversation when I heard a voice. I swear I did. It was coming from someplace close by. I spun around, peering into green stillness. “Never, ever give up,” the leaves seemed to whisper. I looked around. No one was in sight. The stone angel continued with her dance, but there was something new about her face.

My phone began to buzz. I rose to retrieve it, brushing grass from my knees.

Characters & Places

Characters

Fina Fitzgibbons
, protagonist

Carmela Fitzgibbons
, Fina’s mother (deceased)

Fina’s father
, unnamed and estranged

Fina’s gran
, unnamed (deceased)

Denny McDuffy,
Fina’s boyfriend, NYPD patrolman

Jane Templeton
, NYPD detective

Willoughby
, Jane’s partner, NYPD detective

Cookie
, Fina’s lifelong friend, sidekick

Mr. Baggins
, Fina’s cat

Minnie
, Lucy’s office manager

Lorraine McDuffy
, Denny’s mother

Robert McDuffy,
Denny’s father

Zizi Carmalucci
, Denny’s old flame

Tig Able
, FBI agent, Fina’s former colleague at Brown’s Detective Agency

Brandy Liam
, 13, abducted

Trisha Liam
, her mother

Mitch Liam
, aka C. Mitchell Liam, Brandy’s father (deceased)

Granny Liam
, aka Madeleine Liam. Brandy’s grandmother

Angel
, her maid

Aunt Caroline
, Brandy’s aunt

Phillipa Olinski
, Trisha Liam’s housekeeper

Freddy
, her son

Gladys Delucca
, her landlady

Forsythia
, Gladys Delucca’s sister

Henry Gruber
, man on the train

Susan Gruber
, Henry’s wife (estranged)

Stuart
, their son (deceased)

Ben Small,
Henry’s friend

Molly Blanchot
, Susan Gruber’s friend

Mr. & Mrs. Hallowell
, neighbors of Henry & Susan Gruber

Joe Catania
, small-time thug in witness protection

Heather Chang
, Brandy Liam’s best friend

Heather’s mother

Brandy’s Friends,
Julia, Frankie, Sylvia and others, mentioned by Brandy in her diary

Al
, a medical examiner

Places

Lucy’s,
Fina’s cleaning establishment on Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights (fictitious)

Liam, Trueblood & Wolsey
, Trisha Liam’s boutique law firm on Wall Street (fictitious)

Smith, Jarvis & O’Leary
, Lorraine’s former employer on Court Street (fictitious)

Brite,
a messenger service on Court Street in downtown Brooklyn (fictitious)

Brown’s Detective Agency, Fina’s former employer (fictitious)

Vinegar Hill
, Brooklyn neighborhood where Fina & Denny live

Dumbo
, Brooklyn neighborhood fronting the East River

Brooklyn Heights,
Brooklyn neighborhood where Brandy lives

The Promenade
, an overlook in Brooklyn Heights

Teresa’s
, a coffee shop in Brooklyn Heights

Carroll Gardens
, Brooklyn neighborhood where Denny’s parents live

Packer Collegiate
, Brandy’s school in Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Hospital Center
, where Fina takes Denny to have glass taken out of his left arm

84th Precinct
, Denny’s, Jane’s, Willoughby’s assigned precinct

Vinegar Hill House
, a restaurant in Vinegar Hill

Holy Cross
, cemetery in Flatbush where Fina’s mother is buried

Timeline

June 2013
Story begins

Events Before Story Begins

June 2, 1990
Susan & Henry Gruber are married

May 26, 1991
Fina Fitzgibbons is born

June 15, 1991
Cookie is born

July 1992
Stuart Gruber is born

Aug 1998
Stuart Gruber dies

Feb 1999
Henry Gruber meets Ben Small on Hamilton Station Platform

May 2000
Brandy is born

Sept 11, 2001
Fina and Cookie were 10 years old

June 2001
Gruber vs. Hamilton Hospital

June 2002
Freddy is born

Aug 2003
Blackout. Phillipa meets Henry Gruber in Bensonhurst

Sept 2003
Fina’s father leaves (Fina is 12 years old)

Sept 2008
Fina’s mother is murdered (Fina is 17 years old)

Sept 2009
Fina’s grandmother dies (Fina is 18 years old)

May 2011
Mitch Liam dies

Sept 2011
Fina & Denny meet

May 2013
Brandy is 13. Freddy is 11. Stuart would be 21. Fina & Cookie are 22.