Boldt - 05 - Pied Piper, page 33
“I told you: It’s original. It’s mine.”
“There’s one missing,” Boldt stated.
“I don’t think so.”
“It’s missing. Maurice,” Boldt encouraged, making a point of the fifty, “it showed an eagle on a forearm, not a biceps.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Someone else was here ahead of me,” Boldt suggested to the man.
Boldt handed him the fifty. It had come out of his and Liz’s joint account using the ATM card. The account was seventeen hundred dollars in the red, thanks to the hospital. More now with the airfare. “Guy looks like a surfer but has an attitude. He tell you who he was?”
Maurice considered the money. “Like I gotta ask? A suit like that?”
“He took a photo with him,” Boldt stated. “He paid you how much?” Boldt asked.
Maurice pocketed Boldt’s cash. “Not enough. Fucking prick Fed.”
“Threatened to bust you.”
“The half of it,” the man said. Boldt produced another fifty. Maurice said, “I gave him the picture and I kept my door open for business.”
“He told you how to reach him in case your memory came back.” Boldt knew the routine. He pulled a third fifty out of his pocket.
“He might have mentioned the Hyatt.” The fifty disappeared into the jeans.
“Anything you left out? Anything you forgot to tell him?” Boldt’s time at the Intelligence desk had not been for naught.
The big stump of an index finger pointed out several other photos on the page. He flipped forward a page, then back two, and pointed out another row of photos. “You see that gray wall? The background? You know what that cement wall means?”
Many of the photos were shot against the same gray background. “Tell me, Maurice. What is the significance of that wall?”
“Couple times of year they bring one or another of us inside. Ends up like a fucking arts and crafts fair, know what I mean?”
Boldt felt his system charge with adrenaline. “We’re talking about the penitentiary, Maurice. The guy with the eagle on the forearm—he was doing time.”
“You got it.”
“When?”
Maurice slipped out a photo and flipped it over. “Nineteen ninety-five.”
“The suit … does he know this?”
“He didn’t ask,” Maurice said, his face spreading into a smile.
CHAPTER
“Jesus, su-gar, what da hell dey got going up in Seattle we ain’t got down here? You ever consider yourself a transfer, how ’bout looking down our way?”
NOPD’s detectives division was a mismatch of gray metal government furniture, paddle fans and noisy, window-mounted air conditioners. Half the building had been remodeled, but they were working from the top down—from the chief to the garage—and the detectives division was low in the building and low on the list.
Daphne bristled at the man’s sexist attitude but played to him rather than make trouble. Priorities.
Detective Broole was white, thirty-five, modestly good looking, with acne scars and sleepy brown eyes. He wore his hair like a Las Vegas showman and talked with a Dixie drawl that she had to mentally replay to understand.
“He was in your medium lockup in ’95. He’s white, with an eagle tattoo on his left forearm. Six foot, maybe six-one. In for fraud or bunco—”
“A confidence artist?” Broole said, planting his swagger down in front of an outdated computer terminal. “Well, hell, if that don’t describe half the population, sugar.” He hooked another chair with his toe and pulled it close to him on its casters. He lit up a nonfilter and blew the smoke away from her. “Shitty habit,” he said, “but somebody’s got to die young.” He motioned for her to sit in the chair, but she remained standing.
“Maybe kiddie pornography. Stalking.” She couldn’t mention the abduction of children without risking connecting herself to the Pied Piper. “He may work with a female accomplice,” she said.
“We’d all like one of those,” he conceded, turning his sweaty face toward her.
“Maybe ran a telephone scam using nine-one-one,” she suggested.
“That dial-back scam?”
“Which one is that?” she asked, hanging on his every word.
“That one didn’t reach Seattle?” he asked. “Fella puts himself up as a cop. Was an embezzlement scam involving the elderly. To insure he really is a cop, he tells the mark to hang up and quickly call him back at the station using the nine-one-one line. Never mind that ain’t possible. The mark hangs up. The line stays open—it won’t go to dial tone on the receiving end. Did you know that? So the confidence man plays a recording of a dial tone into the phone; mark picks up the phone, hears the dial tone, dials nine-one-one. Trickster turns off the recording of the dial tone. Some of ’em use another voice, some an accomplice, but the line is answered something like, ‘Emergency Services,’” he said, feigning a woman’s voice. “The mark asks to speak to the cop; the con man comes on the line, and the mark is absolutely convinced from that moment on that she’s talking to a cop. And that’s all it takes. A person’ll do just about anything for a man carrying a badge.” He looked her body over a little too closely. “A woman carrying a badge too, I imagine.”
“Do we know who went down for that one?”
“Su-gar, we got so many damn scams crawling out of the swamp, we don’t hardly keep track. Holding down a job is the most common one we see. You know somebody’s crooked if they got a nine-to-five job.”
“Including cops?”
He smiled. He enjoyed his own company. “Last name? First name? You got anything more than nine-one-one for me?” He looked at her chest again and then lowered his eyes to her waist. “Anything at all?”
“I’ll take everyone serving time in ’95 for fraud and bunco. That’s a good place to start.”
“A better place to start is dinner at Commander’s Palace. Then maybe a ride up the river on a jazz barge and a nice long, lazy look at the stars from around the pool at a little bungalow I know just outside the parish. In too close to the city the sky is all lit up and glowing and you don’t see no stars at all. And let me tell you, there ain’t nothing as pleasing to the eye as the Louisiana night sky.” Having properly loaded his own statement, he added, “Excepting, that is, maybe you, su-gar. Seattle gotta be damn proud have you carrying their shield.”
“Alphabetized. Fraud and bunco. If there’s a way to isolate it to telephone scams—”
“There isn’t,” he fired back, the smoke peeling up his face and over his eyes. “This system is the Model T of networks. New system going on-line in another year or two. They’re calling it an intranet. Now ain’t that clever! We’re calling it late.” He confirmed that he was also the single greatest fan of his own jokes. “Give me overnight. You really ought to think about that dinner.”
“I can call you?” she asked.
“Anytime, su-gar. Though I’d prefer to call you.” He faked a smile for her. His teeth belonged to a heavy smoker.
She wasn’t giving this guy any way to find her.
“I have a feeling we work together on this, and it might speed things up,” he said. “Two heads are better than one.”
She suggested, “What about I drop by later and we see what, if any, progress you’ve made.”
“I just love incentive programs.”
CHAPTER
Consumed by an unrelenting, twisting knot of worry, Boldt understood the criminal mind-set as never before. Lies started small and out of sheer necessity; they then mushroomed into gross untruths driven by selfishness and greed. Boldt’s greed was centered around his daughter; the hunger a criminal felt for money or control, Boldt felt for an intact family. He held her in his arms and made up stories for her; he sat her on his lap and played jazz to her. He missed her in a way he had never missed another.
Daphne made contact with the most well-known, most active home for children, believing them experts on every aspect of adoption, legal and otherwise. For Boldt, this visit lit the candle at both ends: pursuing the Pied Piper from the evidence surrounding the kidnappings and from the result of the kidnappings—adoption. Sarah and Trudy Kittridge and ten other children remained in the candle’s middle, flames licking toward them.
The Louis Charlemagne Home for Boys, an imposing stone edifice set back from the road by a semicircular gravel driveway, dominated the city block. It looked more like a country club than a halfway house. The towering door occupied a space between two tall Corinthian columns. A cheap electronic doorbell had been fitted alongside—a wart on an otherwise pretty face.
A black man with skin that shone with sweat answered the doorbell. He had thick forearms, a large head and a jutting brow that partially hid pinprick dark eyes. He ushered Boldt and Daphne into a cavernous stone foyer that carried the sour smell of a dull Skil saw burning its way through a two-by-four. A cloud of gray smoke hung heavy in the air.
“Dr. Montevette,” Daphne said.
“Right down here,” the man said, abandoning his small construction project. “He expecting ya?”
“Yes, we have an appointment.”
“Whoa, Cardinal!” he shouted to a spotted puppy that appeared out of nowhere and peed onto the floor as the handyman snagged him. “What-cho doing loose?” He called out for “Evelyn,” but received no answer. “Just down on your left,” he advised his guests, raising his voice. “I best handle the Cardinal and his little mistake.”
A professorial man wearing a checked shirt, brown corduroy pants and brown bucks greeted them from a distance, drawn by the handyman’s voice. “Bernard Montevette,” he introduced himself.
They shook hands all around. Montevette was a short man with kind eyes, half the hair he wanted and a delicious New Orleans slur to his words. A chandelier fan paddled the air languidly, gently cooling the rich, wood-paneled walls, the fading green carpet and the few antiques. The slow, lazy propeller strobed soft shadows down onto the room’s walnut table that sat away from Montevette’s enormous partners’ desk. “Don’t get out-of-town police as a rule. Can’t think of the last time, and I’ve been involved with Charlemagne—well, I am, in fact, only the home’s fourth director in its one-hundred-and-seventeen-year history; the first and only director to have been a former resident here.”
“One of the boys?” Daphne inquired.
“Exactly. And the Charlemagne has the proud distinction of being the only boys’ home in the country not to accept public funds. We operate privately from an endowment established just after the Second World War.” The way he regarded them, Daphne had the uneasy feeling he was considering them as a couple intent on adopting a son. This was the first time the idea came to her of how to save Trudy Kittridge. It struck her all at once—a whole and complete plan—as only the best ideas hit her. She wanted to steal Boldt away immediately and run it by him.
“We’re involved in an active investigation, Dr. Montevette,” Boldt said, “that requires some discretion.”
“Yes, so Ms. Matthews informed me earlier.” He met eyes with each of them; his were an icy gray blue. “I am at your service, sir.”
“Illegal adoption,” Daphne reminded.
“Yes, so you said.”
Daphne explained, “How one might go about it here in New Orleans. Successfully, that is. The way the law works—”
“Or doesn’t,” Boldt added.
“Private adoption,” Montevette supplied, nodding. “I believe I have someone on my staff who might be able to help us. If you don’t mind?”
“Not at all,” Daphne answered.
He summoned a “Miss Lucy” over the phone. Announcing that she would join them shortly, he added, “The fact of the matter is that private adoption is something we all must contend with—that is, adoptions not arranged through a state organization. Private adoption is less regulated than state-arranged, although it still requires court appearances and proper paperwork. It is far more susceptible to human greed and abuse. What I think you will find here in New Orleans,”—Naarlans—“and I say this only because I’ve heard the stories myself, is that what you might call the lower end of the economic strata is far more familiar with this kind of practice than others.”
“Paperwork?” Daphne asked.
“More than just paperwork,” Montevette explained. “In the surrender of a child, the biological mother is required to make a court appearance in front of a sitting judge. She is advised by the judge that she is surrendering the child in perpetuity, and in a court of law, and that she is also surrendering her right to any legal recourse in the future. This is a fairly recent law, and one that has proved to simplify and qualify the process—a great improvement, I might add. At the time of adoption, a birth certificate is required, along with the document attesting to this court appearance and the surrender of the child. If the mother’s medical costs are to be reimbursed, a copy of the medical bills are submitted. Ah! Miss Lucy! Come in, please. Won’t you join us?” Montevette jumped to his feet and pulled back a chair for the young black woman. Miss Lucy Penneford wore a soft yellow dress and too much violet eye shadow. Her skin wrinkled when she smiled widely.
“Pleased to meet you,” she said to them.
Montevette caught her up to date. “… how an illegal adoption might be carried out … And I was recalling that shake-up we had down to City Hall last year and how you—”
“Oh, yes. I think I can explain that,” she said. She had an even thicker accent than Montevette. Her voice played musically in the room. The fan worked dark shadows across her face. The air smelled faintly of lavender. She had brought it with her.
She said, “It had evidently been going on for years. They worked down to the city office … what is that called?”
“The Bureau of Vital Statistics,” Montevette supplied.
Daphne had the feeling Montevette knew more of the story, more of the answers, than he was willing to admit. She wondered why.
Miss Lucy continued, “And you know all those girls work for minimum wage down there, and it’s just plain tough on minimum wage. Some man comes along and offers you a hundred dollars to process a birth certificate, and there’s not a lot of thought that needs to be done on the subject.”
“Which is just what was happening,” Montevette contributed.
“Been going on for years, come to find out. Decades maybe. You need a birth certificate for a child, you simply come up with the hundred dollars.”
“No adoption at all,” Daphne said, amazed at the simplicity of the scam.
“No need,” replied Montevette. “You obtain a fraudulent birth certificate for the child in your name, and he or she is legally a member of your family. Who’s to question it?”
“It allows the mother to be paid for more than just hospital costs,” Miss Lucy explained.
Boldt said, “It creates a viable black market.”
Montevette agreed. “But it was closed down.”
“I knew some of them girls,” Miss Lucy told them. “Some of them is still doing time for that. And believe you me, that was the last of it. Don’t even ask, Miss Matthews, because I can see you’re about to, aren’t you? That was the last of it. Honestly. They cracked down hard on those girls.”
“But there are other ways,” Boldt said, fishing for a back door through which he might locate the Pied Piper or his accomplice.
“Oh there are!” Miss Lucy said cheerily. “Another one I’ve heard about is this missing father thing.” She explained to blank looks, “A single mother has a child and does not list a father on the birth certificate. Happens all the time. Either she wants no part of the man that put her in that condition, or she don’t know who done it to her anyway. Maybe she’s a drug addict, or in some other way where she don’t exactly want the child no more. The way they do it, she sells a man—a complete stranger—the chance to put his name onto the birth certificate as the lawful father. Now this is the legal birth certificate we’re talking about. This stranger is now the legal father of that child and has custody rights to that child, custody rights that she is willing to surrender for a price. It’s a common means of adoption in the minority communities, believe me. Middle-class Cajun or blacks buy a blood right to a child. Cheap and easy.”
“But not only with blacks,” Daphne said.
“No, you’re right. White trash, too. Maybe some suburban teenage kids. Thing is, it’s legal of course,” she smiled, “as long as you ain’t found out by no DNA test.”
“Do the attorneys need special training, licenses, anything like that?” Boldt asked.
Montevette answered. “As far as I know, in Louisiana there are court fees to be paid, paperwork that must be filed. It’s a specialty field, but by choice, not requirement.”
“And if an attorney desired to bypass certain elements in the process?” Boldt asked.
“I see what you’re driving at. Sure do. But he couldn’t arrange a legal adoption without a judge on his side because of the requirement of a court appearance. Flat out, could not do it.”
“But with a judge in his pocket?” Daphne asked.
Montevette and Miss Lucy exchanged looks. Miss Lucy said, “Miss Matthews, Louisiana ain’t exactly like other places. An expression like that—it’s offensive.”
Montevette explained, “Let me tell you how we operate in New Orleans, Ms. Matthews. I have a little family farm not far from here. Not even an hour’s drive. I own a farm vehicle, an old 1960 Ford half-ton. Use it on the farm to haul fallen limbs, move fence, that sort of thing. Run it into town on the odd day for groceries. The law requires I get that truck inspected once a year. Everything on it must function correctly in order for me to obtain my permit to operate the vehicle. It has been a long, long time indeed since everything on that truck has functioned properly, Ms. Matthews.
“Now there’s a man named George,” he continued, “whose job it is, for the price of a twenty-dollar permit fee, to inspect vehicles in our parish. I have known George for many, many years. Nearly as many as I have been driving that old Ford. I see him exactly once a year. For an extra twenty dollars George issues me my permit. Always has, always will. And that’s just the way it’s done around here. Guys like George, like me, we’re everywhere. No one is hurting nobody. It is just the way business,”—bidness—“is done.”
