Brooklyn Blood Read online

  “Did you call the police?” Max asked.

  “Just you and Mads. Armando thinks it was a drug hit.”

  After Amy led us over to the building, then let us inside the apartment, we found Armando in the kitchen, talking on his cell phone. Bobo’s body was lying on the blood-soaked carpet in the living room. There was a gun on the floor next to the body.

  “He was shot from behind,” Max said, after examining the body. “Looks like a single shot, 9mm, close range. He probably never saw it coming.”

  “Did you see anyone besides Bobo coming here or leaving?” I asked Amy.

  “No, but there’s another entrance to the building from the alley.”

  “Did you hear the shot being fired?”

  She shook her head. “We were on the street when it happened, and there’s lots of traffic.”

  “It was probably a professional hit,” Max offered.

  Armando ended his call and came over. “Maria just call me. She say Alex been holding Sophia hostage. She think she might be in the basement at his gym.”

  “Any thoughts on who did this?” I asked him, glancing over at the body.

  “It probably had something to do with drugs. From what I heard, Bobo been losing his territory and not happy about it.”

  “Sophia never told us she had a sister. Why do you think that is?”

  “I think she want to keep her out of things between her and Alex. She worried he might try and hurt her if she cause problems.”

  “I think we need to go check the gym out,” Max said.

  I motioned to the body on the floor. “What about this situation?”

  “We need to stay out of it.” She looked at Amy. “Can you call this in?”

  “Yeah, but I’d just as soon stay out of the fray as well. I’ll make the call anonymously.” She said to Armando. “You touch anything? We can’t leave prints.”

  He shook his head. “I want to go with you guys, help look for Sophia.”

  ***

  After managing to find one of the few pay phones left in the city and making the call to the police, Amy rode with Max and me to Warren’s Gym in Harlem, while Armando followed in his own car. As I drove, I asked for her thoughts on what happened.

  “I think it probably had something to do with drugs, like Armando said, but I also think there’s a whole lot more to this story. Maybe if we find Sophia, she can fill us in.”

  Max had been on her phone and ended the call. “That was Rosie. She said Dr. Atmore Pierce was transferred to the Binghamton Psychiatric Hospital, where he was the administrator until it closed in 1989. He then became the minister of a church in the city, before passing away in the late nineties.”

  “What’s going on?” Amy asked from the back seat. “Who’s this Pierce guy?”

  I filled her in on everything, including our discussion with Rosa Washington, what we had learned about Pierce’s two sons, and what Thorndike had said.

  “I’m not surprised that little ghoul kept everything from us,” Amy said. “You think this Pierce guy could be the Phantom?”

  “He was dead before the Raleigh killings, but it could be his sons carried on his legacy.”

  “What do we know about them?”

  Max answered. “Rosie said their last known address is in Binghamton, so maybe we can drive up there and check it out after we look for Madison’s mom.” She looked at me. “Looks like our trip will have to wait until tomorrow.”

  I glanced at her and nodded. “What are your thoughts on notifying Jenkins and Hammond?”

  “I say we hold off until we check things out upstate. Knowing those two, unless we have something concrete, they’ll just say we’re interfering in their case.”

  We got to Warren’s Gym as darkness was settling in. After circling the block several times, we finally found parking and waited until Armando parked on the next block over and joined us. We went inside the gym, where we saw a couple boxers sparring in the ring.

  We then heard a familiar voice behind us. “Hey, guys! You wanna go a couple rounds?”

  We turned and saw Mojo. He had on a boxing glove. Amy’s new assistant flashed a dopey smile as she asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Just a little OT, keeping an eye out for...” He lowered his voice, his droopy eyes shifting around the gym. “...you know who. I’ll be sending you my bill.”

  “Like hell you will.” Amy pulled him over to a corner of the gym, and we followed. “Have you seen any sign of Alex’s wife?”

  “I’m not sure. What’s she look like?”

  “About five-seven, dark hair and brown eyes. Very pretty, like her sister.”

  “Maria say she in the basement,” Armando said. “How you get down there?”

  “This is Armando, Sophia’s godfather,” Amy explained.

  Mojo took off the boxing glove and scratched his head. “I didn’t even know there was a basement.” His gaze drifted across the gym. “Let me go ask Jimmy about it. He’s the janitor here.”

  Amy grabbed his arm. “Can we trust him? Alex can’t know about this.”

  “Of course. He’s my bud.”

  We waited while Mojo went over and met with the janitor. While he was gone, I took a look around the gym. The place seemed small for a gym where a well-known boxer would train. Besides the men in the ring, there were only a handful of guys working out, and a woman, who looked like she was on steroids, jumping rope.

  Mojo came back over after a couple minutes. “Jimmy told me there’s a door to the basement at the rear of the gym. He said it’s always locked, and he doesn’t have a key.”

  “Show us,” Amy said.

  We followed Mojo as we made our way past the boxing ring and down a hallway at the rear of the gym. The janitor watched us as we left the main workout area, then went back to mopping the floor. We turned a corner where the hallway abruptly ended and found the door.

  “This must be it,” Mojo said, after jiggling the locked handle.

  “Stand back,” Amy said. She found what looked like a lock pick in her purse, got on her knees, and set to work. It took her less than five minutes to unlock the door.

  Mojo started down the stairway ahead of her, but Amy grabbed him by the shirt. “You stay here.” She looked at Max and me. “One of you wanna babysit him?”

  “I’ll stay behind,” Max volunteered.

  I heard Mojo protesting the arrangements as the rest of us made our way downstairs. Amy found a light switch at the bottom of the stairway and flipped it on.

  We heard muffled cries coming from behind a pallet of supplies. We went over and found that Sophia was chained to a back wall of the basement. She was nude and had a gag in her mouth.

  Amy removed the gag as Armando placed his coat around her.

  When she was freed and had recovered enough to talk to us, Amy said, “Who did this to you?”

  “Alex,” Sophia sobbed. “He chain me up, rape, then beat me.”

  When we got her on her feet, we saw that she had several abrasions on her back.

  “Where is Alex?” Amy demanded.

  “He leave a couple hours ago. He say he find out where Bobo is and he going to kill him.”

  FORTY-SEVEN

  While we got Sophia cleaned up and dressed, Armando called Maria. After he explained that Bobo was dead and that he’d freed Sophia, Maria agreed to meet with us at a nearby hotel where she said she’d been staying to avoid Bobo. Amy’s client’s sister was beautiful, with long raven hair and wide innocent dark eyes. She had a body that—let’s just say that Mojo was salivating like a starving dog as we took seats in the small suite where Maria was staying.

  “I need some answers,” Amy began. She looked at Sophia. “Why didn’t you tell us you had a sister who was involved in what’s been happening?”

  “I sorry,” Sophia said, dabbing her eyes with a tissue. “I scared of everything.”

  Maria spoke up. “It’s my fault.” She ran a hand through her dark hair and exhaled. �
�As you probably know, I become involved with Alex’s manager, Bobo, a few weeks back. I soon realize he a violent, abusive man and I try to end the relationship. I now know that wasn’t possible with a man like him.”

  “But you stayed in the relationship,” Max said.

  “Yes, until a couple days ago when I manage to get away from him and stay here.”

  “Who do you think killed him?” I asked.

  Maria shook her head. “Maybe someone in the drug business who he crossed, or someone he was stealing from. I not sure.”

  “Maybe someone like your sister’s husband?”

  Sophia controlled her emotions and spoke up. “Alex realize Bobo stealing from him to pay his bills. He make some threats, so it maybe possible.”

  “Do you have any idea where Alex is tonight?” Amy asked.

  She shook her head. “No. He very angry when he leave me today.”

  Armando spoke up. “I would not put it past Alex to kill Bobo. He no good, just like his manager.”

  “What about the Sanford Apartments, where Bobo’s body was found?” I asked. “Do you have any idea why he might have been there?”

  Maria answered. “I think he meet other women there sometimes. He a cheating bastard.”

  We went on for a few minutes, going over their story from different angles. Sophia Puig and her sister were consistent in painting a picture of them both being involved with abusive, controlling men. Maria said she knew that Bobo was having financial problems, but had no idea he was stealing from Alex. She also said it was possible that one of the women her former boyfriend was involved with might have killed him.

  Before leaving, Amy told them, “You both need to go to the police and tell them what’s been going on, but leave me and my friends out of the discussion.” She looked at Sophia. “If you see or hear from Alex, you need to contact the authorities right away. I don’t know if he was involved in Bobo’s death, but if he was, he’s dangerous and unpredictable.”

  “I be sure to call the police and stay away from him,” Sophia assured her.

  “I could stay with you both for protection,” Mojo offered. He looked at Amy. “I’d be willing to help out, just to keep them safe. You wouldn’t even have to pay me.”

  Amy took him by the arm. “I’d sooner throw them into a pit of crazy rapists.”

  “I stay with them tonight,” Armando offered. “They be safe with me.”

  As Amy dragged Mojo out of the room, she turned back to Sophia and her sister. “Lie low. We’ll be in touch.”

  ***

  When we got home that night, we gathered in our living room to process what we knew over drinks. We settled in on the sofa with Manhattans that Max said she’d learned to make when she’d worked an undercover assignment as a bartender. We then heard a knock on our door.

  “I saw you coming home and would like to visit,” Katerina said when I answered the door. “I be lonely with only Uncle Lola to talk to.”

  “Come in. We’ll get you a drink.”

  Katerina said hello to Max and Amy, then declined the offer. “I not much when it come to alcohol. It make me feel bad the next day.”

  “How ‘bout a beer?” Amy asked, tipping up her bottle. My friend had declined Max’s offer of a Manhattan earlier, telling us Jersey Girls drink beer.

  “No, thank you. I’m okay.”

  After getting her a soda, we took turns telling her about Amy’s case and about Bobo being found dead.

  “Bobo sounds like a bad man,” Katerina said. “Maybe he got what he had coming.”

  “I have no doubt that Bobo deserved what he got, but I’m having some doubts about my client and her hottie sister,” Amy said to us.

  “Why is that?” Max asked.

  “It’s just the way everything’s gone down. First, Sophia ends up missing, apparently kidnapped by her ex. Then we find out her sister has been involved with her husband’s manager, who has been stealing from him. And now, it looks like Sophia’s husband is the prime suspect in Bobo’s murder, with the perfect motive.” Amy chugged her beer. “It’s all too logical and easy. And, believe me, nothing in this world is easy.” She looked at me. “We’re living proof of that.”

  “If Alex didn’t kill Bobo, then who do you think did?” I said.

  “Dunno.” Amy got up and went over to the closet. She came back wearing a baseball cap that said Brick City. “This is my Jersey thinking cap. It always boosts my street IQ by a couple dozen points. I gotta take some time and mull stuff over.”

  “I need to borrow it one of these days,” Max said. “I’m getting me some bad vibes ‘bout our other case.”

  “Max gets vibrations from the spirit world,” I explained to Katerina, seeing her confusion.

  “Oh, you mean like gypsy. I have cousin like that. Sometimes she scare me.”

  “I ain’t scary, sweetheart,” Max said. “But right about now, I got me some scary feelings those two brothers are at work again.”

  “Tell us about them,” Amy said, going to the fridge for another beer. “Which one of the little trogs is the head killer?” She popped open her beer and, before Max could answer, said, “Tell me something. Am I starting to look like a grenade?”

  “A what?” I said.

  “It’s a girl that has a fat bomb blowing up her behind.” She turned, showing off her rear end. “Is it getting bigger, or is just my imagination?”

  After assuring her that she didn’t have a grenade in her butt, Max went back to our case. “Based on the vibes I’m getting, I think the brothers are working together and they’re gonna kill again—soon.”

  “There’s something I should be telling you about,” Katerina said.

  Max regarded her. “What’s that, hon’?”

  “Uncle Lola tell me a man come by the cemetery a couple weeks ago. He be asking about burying bodies.”

  “You mean, how you go about arranging for a burial?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “He want to know when the ground be unfrozen. Lola think he might know about what happened to the girl who was killed.”

  “Damn it,” Amy said. “He’s been holding out on us again.”

  “Don’t tell him I say anything to you. He not happy with me lately.”

  “Did Thorn...Lola, did he say what this man looked like?”

  “I not sure, but he say he only have one eye.”

  “You mean he had a glass eye?” I asked, as Max’s phone rang.

  “No. He wearing eye patch, like something pirate would have.”

  “Or a psycho killer,” Amy said.

  We all waited as Max held up a hand and spoke to whoever was on the line. When the call ended she said, “That was Rosie. She said Alex Puig was just arrested. His prints were on the gun used to kill Bobo Calderon. He’s going down for first degree murder.”

  FORTY-EIGHT

  We got an early start for Monticello the next morning, since we also planned to make the drive to Binghamton to check out the Pierce brothers. Rosie had determined the brothers lived in the same house their deceased father had owned, a couple blocks from the closed psychiatric hospital.

  After we got on the road, I told Amy and Max what was on my mind. “I wonder if the brothers have any past connection to Raleigh, where the Phantom was at work.”

  Max munched on a muffin in the back seat as I drove. “Rosie said there’s nothing in their background that ties them to that area, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t involved. It might be they do their killing in other areas so no one is suspicious of them.”

  Amy glanced at me from the passenger seat. “What do we know about that Jeffers guy that Sam said might have been involved in the disappearance of...? I forget the girl’s name.”

  “Dorothy King. She was in the drug program with my mother. There’s nothing in the system on Jeffers since King went missing. He’s either dead or way off the radar, maybe living under a false identity.”

  “Speaking of Sam, what’s the latest with you two?”


  “He called me last night and wished me good luck on finding my mom. We’re still on for that picnic next weekend.”

  “I think it’s time you sealed the deal.”

  I regarded her. “What does that mean?”

  “It’s time you introduced him to Puffy Chucky.”

  “Who?”

  “Your vagina.”

  Max burst out laughing. I looked in the rearview mirror as she nearly choked on her muffin.

  When she recovered, Max said, “I got me a visual on how that’s gonna go. Mads says, ‘Sam, I want you to meet my close friend, Puffy...’” She broke down laughing again and didn’t go on.

  Amy looked at me. “You don’t gotta be that formal about it, in case you’re wondering. I know you’re a little out of practice.”

  I chuckled. “I don’t think I’m ready for him to meet Chucky, just yet.”

  Amy turned to Max. “What about you and Sonny?”

  Max regained some control and chuckled. “I’m just wondering how I explain to him I got someone named Chucky in my pants.”

  “I think you and Mads need a Sex Ed refresher course. Come to think of it, I could use one too, since I wasted the last decade with Stinky.”

  “I doubt they’ve got a Meet Puffy Chucky class at the local community college,” I said.

  “I’ll ask around. You never know. By the way, Ladybird is coming by to do our makeovers this Monday night. I’m thinking about going blonde.”

  “Why is that?”

  “If you did a line-up of three women, the blonde would be the first to be noticed, then the brunette, and the ginger would be a distant third. I read somewhere that guys who like gingers have a shitload of baggage.”

  “That’s ridiculous. Guys are always noticing you. Even Mojo said you’re hot.”

  “Now there’s a vote of confidence.”

  Max spoke up. “You guys got any ideas ‘bout finding a guy for Katerina? I’m worried if we don’t set her up with somebody soon, Mojo’s gonna swoop in on her like a vulture in a graveyard.”

  “What about somebody at your precinct?” Amy said.

  I laughed. “I hate to say it, but reform school really is full of losers.”