My Brother's Keeper (27 page)

‘Oh, yeah? And how did you stumble upon it?'

‘We got a lead. From one of Joey's old acquaintances.'

‘I shouldn't have asked.'

‘Remember Candy Bell?' Mitch rolled his eyes and took a long drag off the cigarette. His sandpaper cheeks glowed red. ‘Of course you remember her. She used to work at the Arramingo Club before it got all dressed up and put a down payment on this piece of waterfront property. Mary Grace Flannery worked there around the same time.'

‘You think I could care less about what an aging stripper has to say? Unless she's a fucking witness she can tell her stories to somebody else. I couldn't care less about rumors or innuendo or ancient fucking history.'

‘She told us a very enlightening story, one that Mary Grace Flannery could attest to if she wasn't deceased.'

‘Give me one good reason why I should listen to you, Lou. Did Franny Patterson ask you to find out who killed her brother?'

‘Not exactly.'

‘Then why are you telling me all this?'

‘My civic duty?'

‘It seems like every time you do your civic duty, old Doc Harnish has another cadaver to dissect. Do you go looking for them or do they dig themselves up?'

Lou didn't answer. He was looking at the Arramingo Club. It didn't look like the same place. He'd been there earlier in the day and now it appeared unrecognizable. He'd waded through the crowd and he'd sat at the bar and watched the girls dancing on the runway and he'd spoken candidly with Brian Haggerty and he'd left thinking that the Arramingo Club must be a pretty happening place, one of the hottest nightclubs in Philadelphia. It might not be what William Haggerty had first envisioned. It had become more of a playground for decadent children than a meeting ground for hard-working men. But it did boast its share of excitement and if that's what you were looking for it was the place to be.

Now the shimmering lights had all been shattered and the front doors hung open like a gaping wound emitting the smell of charred wood, the last of the brackish water still trickling onto the sidewalk.

The smoke was slowly subsiding and some of the firemen were already rolling up their hoses and stowing their equipment onto the idling trucks. A couple of large portable fans were positioned at the open entrance. They came on with a whir like a jet engine and began sucking the smoke out of the mouth of the Arramingo Club. Most of the ladders had been lowered and it was just the fans now left to do most of the work.

‘Listen, Lou. I know you and Jimmy were old friends. And I know you feel like you owe him something, help his little sister if nothing else. But we got it. All right? We got it.'

‘I just want to make sure you get the right guy.'

‘We always do.'

The fireworks were over but Philly's finest still had their hands full keeping the crowd at a comfortable distance. They were lined against the barricades at both ends of the street. Lou could hear the cops telling the nameless faces before them that there was nothing more to see, that they could go home or to wherever it was they went when the bars closed. Most of them were young, only kids in Lou's eyes, who'd emptied out of the bars and had nowhere in particular to go, didn't have to be anywhere in the morning.

‘When you ID that French fry I'd like to get a name.'

‘You didn't hear a word I said, did you?'

‘Heard every word.'

‘There's a lot of pressure coming down on me from City Hall right now, Lou. They want this little crime spree wrapped up in a hurry. I need cooperation, not interference.'

‘I understand the concern about the Haggertys, but what's the big deal about a few dead prostitutes? No one ever cared before.'

‘It's a bit more than that.'

‘How much more?'

‘Police business, Lou. You know I'm not at liberty to discuss details of an ongoing investigation.'

‘Cut the bullshit, Mitch.'

Mitch put his arm over Lou's shoulder and led him behind one of the fire trucks, the diesel fumes warm against the backs of their legs.

‘Another body turned up. A man this time. Haven't released his name in relation to this case or any other. A big fish.'

‘Too big to throw back?'

‘The son of a federal judge.'

‘That's big enough. A little out of your league, wouldn't you say?'

‘Let's just say he was discovered in a very uncompromising position. Up in Judy Garland Park. Strictly under the radar, Lou. And we'd like to keep it that way.'

‘Uncompromising position? That's a mouthful, even for you.'

‘You've been a cop a long time, Lou. Use your imagination. Some guys like little girls and some like boys and some like a combination of the two. The sex trade is alive and well in your cherished City of Brotherly Love and there's some strange birds out there. Don't look any different than me or you, Lou. But if you keep stickin' your dick where it don't belong, you might just lose it.'

‘Care to elaborate on that?'

‘There's a bad boy out there, Lou. Someone who didn't get enough love as an egg. Someone who swings both ways, even when it comes to choosing his victims. But you didn't hear it from me.'

Lou seemed lost in thought, his eyes glued on the waves of heat and smoke still rising from the Arramingo Club. And then someone was pushing past the cops, coming toward him. It was Brian Haggerty.

‘Mr Klein, please, can you tell these officers who I am?'

‘He is who he says he is, Officers.' They looked at him skeptically. They looked to Mitch for some kind of confirmation. ‘His name is Brian Haggerty. He owns this place. What's left of it.'

Mitch nodded and that did the trick. The cops returned to their posts, leaving Brian Haggerty straightening his jacket and staring dumbfounded at the smoking shell of his precious club. He seemed more distraught about the Arramingo Club than he was about Franny Patterson.

‘What the hell happened?'

‘I don't doubt that Lieutenant Mitchell might want to ask you the same question.'

Mitch didn't say a word. He knew that if he was asking the questions he'd be required to inform Haggerty of his rights and if he failed to do that, the answers would get tossed. And if Haggerty lawyered up there would be no more questions. But if Lou was asking the questions and Mitch just happened to be within earshot, that was a different story, perfectly acceptable in any court in Philadelphia.

‘If you think I had something to do with this, you're wrong. You're all wrong.'

‘You don't get it, do you, Brian? You keep finding yourself in the position of having to deny your involvement in all sorts of crimes but you won't come clean, won't just tell the truth.' Lou stepped in front of him, blocked his vision of the Arramingo Club. ‘Tell us about Billy Sapphire.'

Haggerty shrugged his shoulders and his head seemed to fall, almost shrink like a turtle pulling his head into its shell.

‘It was only a matter of time, wasn't it?'

‘A matter of time before what, Brian? Before he kills more people? Before he kills Franny Patterson? Before he kills you? Before some ambitious cop pins a murder charge on him? What exactly are we talking about?'

‘He's my brother. My little brother. My stepbrother, really.' Haggerty's eyes, red-rimmed and raw, rose ever so slightly and looked into Lou's. ‘I hadn't seen him for a very long time. I didn't even know it was him at first. He'd changed so much. When I last saw him he was a boy, twelve years old at the most.'

‘You're saying you didn't recognize your own brother?'

‘I know what it sounds like. But it's the truth. Maybe I didn't want to believe it. I don't know. He walked into the Arramingo Club, spoke to one of my managers, asked him for a job. He hired him and I hadn't laid eyes on him until he'd been there a couple weeks.' Haggerty saw the cigarette in Joey's mouth and asked him for one. ‘He looked familiar but I thought it had to be coincidence. I mean, how could it have been William? It just seemed impossible after all this time.'

‘Why?'

‘I thought he was dead.'

‘Why would you think that?'

‘You can probably figure out the reason for that, Mr Klein.'

‘Enlighten me.'

‘I only know what I heard.'

‘From who?'

‘My mother led me to believe William was gone forever. And knowing my mother, that meant dead.'

‘But you didn't really believe that either. It was just another lie you pretended to believe because you had to, because it made life easier for your mother, because it kept so many things hidden, kept another scandal off the front page. But you knew the truth the whole time, didn't you?'

‘Yes, Mr Klein. I knew that Billy Sapphire was my brother and I knew that he had problems. But I had problems of my own.'

‘What kind of problems?'

‘He'd run away and then one day he just didn't come home. He'd been living on the street and my mother was giving him money. He was a drug addict and a prostitute, Mr Klein. What could I do?' Haggerty took a long drag on the cigarette. ‘Then I heard he was living with someone.'

‘Someone special?'

‘Someone who knew my father. Let's leave it at that.'

‘I can leave it any way you'd like. You can read that someone's obituary in tomorrow's paper.'

‘Not the first and it won't be the last.'

‘Your mother's kept tabs on him?'

‘My mother keeps a strict account on everyone, Mr Klein.'

‘Are you willing to testify to what you know?'

‘I know he killed William Haggerty and Valerie Price, if that's what you want to hear? I know he found them together and he blew their brains out with a thirty-eight-caliber pistol. I don't doubt it was my mother who gave him the gun. But that was almost ten years ago and what do you do with a twelve-year-old killer, Mr Klein? You tell me. Turn him over to the police? Lock him up? Put him on trial?' There was a tear forming in the corner of his eye but he blinked it back. ‘I knew my mother had him in her plans. My mother made a lot of plans.'

‘You think she might have put the idea into his head in the first place?'

‘You think my mother turned him into a killer?'

‘Do you?'

‘No. I think she might have used him. But she wasn't the only person who pushed him over the line. He's a troubled kid, Mr Klein. He always was.'

‘Not a kid anymore.'

‘I guess not.'

‘And now the killing has begun again. Is that part of your mother's plan, too?'

‘I don't know. You'll have to ask her.'

Mitch had been listening to every word and apparently he'd heard enough. He approached Brian Haggerty, flanked on both sides by the same two officers who'd been forced to let Haggerty slide by them, both of them liking the idea of getting another shot at him. Mitch already had the cuffs out.

‘Brian Haggerty, I have a warrant for your arrest.'

‘You're kidding me, Lieutenant. All this time you planned on arresting me and now you decide to do it.'

‘That's about it, Haggerty. Turn around and put your hands behind your back.' Brian Haggerty hesitated and the two officers were smiling at each other as if they were in on some private joke. ‘You heard me, Haggerty. Don't make me say it again.'

Haggerty looked at Lou. Joey was smiling as if he was in on the joke. Mitch was already twisting Haggerty's arm and pushing him, face first, against the hood of a police car. Haggerty struggled against Mitch's tactics, pushing himself up off the car with his one free arm and trying to spin away. He heard the click of the handcuffs and felt the cold steel clamp around one wrist. Before he could fully turn the two cops had his other wrist locked behind his back and all he could feel was the steel biting into his skin. He twisted his neck almost all the way around, looking at Lou again.

‘Jesus Christ. You didn't even tell me what I'm being locked up for.'

‘You'll find out at the arraignment.'

Mitch led him to the police car, dropped him into the back seat and slammed the door. Mitch didn't usually make his arrest with such dramatic flair. He left that to the younger cops who still had something to prove. But that slamming door did have a ring of finality to it, Lou thought, like the sliding steel door of a prison cell banging shut. It was a sound cops wanted their prisoners to learn early and often.

‘What's the warrant for, Mitch?'

‘You're a piece of work, you know that? I have a job to do. I don't have to tell you anything. I don't even have to talk to you.' Mitch looked over at one of the officers, pointing at the car. ‘Get him the hell out of here.'

‘Is it some kind of secret?'

‘What's that supposed to mean?'

‘You don't want to tell Haggerty what he's charged with. You want to make him sweat. I got it. Does that mean I have to wait and read about it in the papers like everyone else?'

‘Does it really matter, Lou? His mother'll get him the best lawyer in town and he'll be out in time for a lunch at Glassman's. He'll probably be home before you. The Haggertys don't worry about grand juries or district attorneys or indictments. Even if they're facing a murder charge.'

TWENTY-FIVE

L
ou watched the unmarked police car take Brian Haggerty away. No lights. No sirens. Just a routine transport. Kind of like a taxi with a hard plastic seat and a plexi-glass cage and set of iron bracelets on the house. If the meter was running for Brian Haggerty, he would have one hell of a fare to pay. But like Mitch said, he'd just get a receipt and turn it over to his mother.

Lou and Joey started down the empty street, back the way they came, toward the cop on the corner that seemed to be getting aggravated with the few stragglers that refused to disperse. Most of them were just hanging around like a herd of bored protesters who'd lost their signs and had grown too cold to chant. And with their signs gone and their voices muted, they seemed to have lost their sense of purpose. They huddled around each other in the cold, small groups of baby-faced boys and girls, college students from the looks of them, laughing for no other reason than they liked the sound of it.