Measure of Darkness (5 page)

M
aybe it was all that talk about Randall Shane's sleep disorder, or the slice of strawberry rhubarb pie and the glass of ice-cold milk I quaffed an hour before bed (it can be dangerously tempting, having a superb chef living under the same roof), or the thought of a child so missing that people doubt he even exists, but for whatever reason, I can't sleep a wink. Staring at the ceiling won't work. Counting sheep, or anything, puts me in mind of bookkeeping, a wakeful activity. My mind is bright and will not shadow—lie awake long enough and I'll start obsessing on my fake husband, and that leads to the money he swindled, the house we lost, hurtful things my sister said and so on, into an endless loop.

Times like this, the only thing that helps is to get up, don a robe and soft slippers and pad through the residence taking deep, restful breaths. The central lighting system has switched to the sleep mode, meaning the equivalent of night-lights at ankle height, providing soft illumination. Passing the room Jack Delancey uses when he's spending the night in town, I detect the dirty-sock scent of the cigar smoke he carried home on his clothing, and smile to myself. Boys will be boys. Doubtless
Jack was out with his cop buddies, sampling various bad-for-his-health potions. Did he learn anything interesting or useful? If so, he'll make it known in the morning meet, which is something to look forward to.

Farther down the hall there are lights on under Teddy's door, and the faint electric-train hum of the fans that cool his computers. He'll be deep into the hunt. Ignoring the impulse to drop in, see how it's going—our barefoot boy doesn't need the distraction—I head on down the long hallway, over intervals of thick Persian carpets and cool hardwood flooring and take the back stairs, descending to the ground floor.

Despite the fact that we'd been invaded by armed thugs a little more than fifteen hours ago, I feel safer in the residence than anywhere else; safe because I know it intimately, the specific physicality of the place, and because my posse is within shouting distance. Naomi and Jack and, just lately, young Teddy, and even Mrs. Beasley. No, especially Mrs. Beasley, who I'm confident would defend me with her life, as I would her. Maybe this is what marines feel like, at night in their foxholes, surrounded by mortal danger but in the company of true, take-a-bullet buddies.

This wing of the residence has unusually high ceilings. On account of a very unusual architectural feature, a fifteenth-century Japanese Zen sand garden courtesy of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The original that was for many decades located in the Asian Gallery, not to be confused with the modern, picnic-friendly version located outside in the museum courtyard. According to Jack, who was already here when I came on board, the exact reproduction of the ancient garden was a gift of the Benefactor, who had loved it as a child. That's his theory—when asked, Naomi manages to be quite vague
on how the garden happened to move from the museum to the residence. Vague or not, she frequently seeks a kind of meditation there, although she refuses to use the word.

Relaxing, she calls it. Thinking.

And there she is in her favorite silk kimono, sitting on a stone bench in the lotus position, scratching in the recently raked sand with a long stick. Nocturnal lights of the city shaft through the skylights, softening the shadows. Already I'm feeling a little more relaxed, knowing that boss lady is adhering to routine, finding a pattern.

“Welcome,” she says, not the least surprised to see me wandering the residence at this time of night. “Be seated.”

“Ah,” I sigh, and park my butt on the unforgiving stone. “Have you ever considered cushions?”

“It's more comfortable cross-legged.”

“Sorry, I don't pretzel.”

“You need to learn to relax, my dear.”

“I need to know if there's a missing kid. If there isn't, I can relax. If there is, I relax by getting to work. Either way, I need the knowing.”

Naomi takes a long, slow inhale, as if savoring the slightly minty air, then exhales slowly, deliberately. “Me, too,” she says. “We'll know more tomorrow but for now I'm thinking, yes, there is a missing child, based on nothing more than gut instinct.”

“How so?”

“I've been going over all the stuff Teddy found on Randall Shane. Shane doesn't seem to be the type who is easily fooled. Quite the opposite. Plus he's always been discerning, not to say cold-blooded, about the cases he agrees to work. If he's not convinced a child is alive, he won't proceed. Really, it's the only way to fly. Otherwise
you get sucked into the vortex of desperate parents who cling to hope, despite all evidence to the contrary.”

The way she says it makes me think, for a moment, that she's been there, in the vortex. Then in the darkness she smiles and the certainty dissipates. She's merely speaking from professional experience. Nobody is as cool and calculated about accepting cases as Naomi Nantz, who I have seen turn down weeping mothers camped out on the doorstep, begging for help. Generally speaking, a case must first be brought to Dane Porter, where it gets rigorously vetted as to merit and the possibility of success. Often there's nothing to be done, or we can't improve on what's already being accomplished through normal law enforcement channels. But every now and then, a glimmer of hope shines through, and that seems to be happening now, based on nothing more than experience and judgment of character.

“I want in on this,” I say. “I want to help.”

“You're always helpful, Alice. That's why I hired you.”

“I mean out in the field.”

Her left eyebrow arches slightly. “What did you have in mind?”

“Let me chat with the neighbors. If the professor ever had a kid around, somebody must have noticed. Jack has more than enough ground to cover—this is something I can handle. Just chatting.”

Naomi draws a few more lines with her funny little rake. Looking up to meet my eyes she finally says, “Why not? You don't look like a typical cop or an investigator and that may prove useful. Just be careful.”

“I'm always careful.”

“Except when you aren't,” she says with a smile.

There's no reason at all that our brief conversation
should help ease me into sleep, but for some reason it does. That and the sense, mostly unspoken, that if a child is missing, we'll work the case until the child is found, or the sun goes cold, whichever comes first.

T
aylor Gatling, Jr., the young founder and CEO of Gatling Security Group, likes to think that no matter how rich he gets, how much wealth and power he accumulates, a man should still empty his own spittoon. Unpleasant as it might be—and the thing has a vile smell, no question—it's not a job to be delegated. Even if the man happens to have thousands of employees depending on his every whim, some of whom would no doubt consider it an honor to flush away the boss's effluents, and scour the antique brass receptacle, and return it with a snappy salute and a brisk “Yes, sir! No problem, sir!”

Nope. He'll handle the spittoon himself, thank you very much. A leader has to take responsibility for certain unpleasant tasks, something his own father never quite learned. And in this case it means he gets to spend a few moments by himself, out on his boathouse deck in New Castle, New Hampshire, overlooking the deep and roiled waters of the Piscataqua River, racing in the moonlight like a band of undulating mercury. Across the broad tidal river, shadowed and stark on its own few acres of island, rises the concrete carcass of the old Portsmouth Naval Prison, now abandoned, a fairy-tale castle with towers
and turrets. Beyond that, the spiky tree line of the farther shore, interrupted by the occasional and very tasteful colonial mansions peeking out at the water from behind ancient guardians of spruce and fir. Elegant yachts moored in the cove, masts tick-tocking as hulls absorb the swell. Gatling smiles to himself when he recalls the real estate agent who handled the sale standing in this very spot and saying, “You can't buy a view like this.” Pure salesman's babble, and nonsense, because of course that's exactly what Gatling was doing, he was buying the view. At the time the original century-old boathouse was falling into the mud, and would take half a million or so to restore to the current state of comfortably rustic, his own personal and very unofficial bad boys club. A luxury shack, lovingly restored, where he and his buds gather late into the night, playing poker, drinking and jubilantly spitting dip into their personally inscribed spittoons.

From inside comes a roar of laughter. A filthy joke has been told and celebrated. Gatling upends the spittoon, dumping the noxious contents into the tidal currents that curl around the deck pilings. No doubt in violation of some law of the current nanny state. No spitting in the river. Lift the seat before peeing. Women allowed everywhere. Not here, though. No wives, no girlfriends. Y chromosomes required, no exceptions.

When he steps into the card room, all eyes meet his. Taylor A. Gatling is the alpha wolf in this particular setting, well aware of his status. Thirty-eight years of age and just recently edged over into the billionaire level. Fit and trim, focused and self-contained, confident of his rarely expressed but deeply felt opinions. This is his place, his party, and the endless ribbing and mutual insults are all part of the camaraderie. The world being what it is, he keeps a security detail outside on the
grounds, but here in the boathouse he's just one of the boys, and he's careful never to play at being the owner, or to show his cards unless called.

“You in?” asks one of his boys, dealing smartly, snapping the cards.

“Next game. I need a refill.”

He puts down the spittoon to mark his seat—that's become the tradition—and heads over to the bar. Nothing fancy about it. Just a thick mahogany plank, three feet wide—hewn from a single tree, of course—a few wooden stools, a standard bar cooler for beer, a shelf of liquor displayed against a mirrored backing. Mostly high-end vodkas and some ridiculously overpriced bottles, a few oddly shaped, of single malt Scotch. Gatling pours two fingers of Macallan 18 into a fat-bottomed glass, and is about to return to the table—Jake the Snake is calling five card, jacks or better—when Lee Shipley sidles up the bar, puts a hand on his arm, briefly.

Lee, a retired New Castle cop old enough to be his father, keeps his raspy voice low and says, “Something you should know.”

Gatling sips from the glass. “Lay it on me, Chief,” he says, ready to make a joke of it, knowing the old man's penchant for one-liners.

Lee glances at the table, where the first round of betting is under way—cash is the rule, no effing chips—and says, “I got a call from a brother officer, an old pal of mine who's still on the job in Cambridge, Taxachusetts, and you'll never guess who's just been named in a murder inquiry.”

“No idea,” Gatling responds, playing along. “Mother Teresa? Martha Stewart?”

“This is serious, Taylor,” Lee says. “Randall Shane. They expect to have him in custody any moment.”

Taylor looks blank. “Sorry, Chief, I don't get it.”

“Shane. That FBI jerk who testified against your dad.”

“That was twenty years ago. Lots of witnesses testified against him.”

“Yeah, but this guy Shane, he was the one got your father convicted. That's what your dad believed. Told me so himself.”

“Yeah? Well, he never told me. If you recall, we weren't exactly on speaking terms at the time. I was eighteen that summer—I'd just enlisted with the Marine Corps so I could get away from all that crap.”

Lee looks at him, can't quite meet his eyes. They both know how it ended for Gatling's father.

“Just thought you'd want to know.”

“Thanks, Lee. Best forgotten, though. Water under the bridge, or over the dam, or wherever it's supposed to go.”

“Sorry,” the old man says, shrinking a little, now embarrassed.

“Hey. No need to be sorry. I appreciate your concern. You were his good and loyal friend when times got tough, and I'll never forget that. Get yourself a glass, we'll have a little toast.”

Lee Shipley, relieved, pours a splash from the same bottle, raises his glass.

“To the old man,” Taylor says. “May he rest in peace.”

“Amen to that.”

They sit down to play poker, and not another word is said about his late father. But inside, behind his bad boy smile, Gatling is very pleased by the news. Randall Shane, the so-called hero, is down for a count of murder in the first degree, a charge long overdue.

Good.

T
here's nothing very grand about the neighborhood where Professor Keener lived and died. The modest two-story house is one of a hundred similar wood-framed dwellings situated along this particular stretch of Putnam Avenue, some with actual white picket fences, in the area dubbed “Cambridgeport” because the Charles River winds around it like a dirty shawl. Keener's place, built narrow and deep to fit the lot, appears to date from the 1940s, but it could easily be considerably older, having been renovated a few times along the way. Asphalt shingle siding removed, clapboards repaired and painted. Inside, carpets and linoleum have been taken up to expose the original hard-pine floors, a few interior walls taken down to open up the downstairs—I can see that much by peering through the windows from the narrow, slightly sagging front porch.

The front door has been sealed with yellow crime tape, but it doesn't matter. It's not like I'd attempt a break-in in broad daylight, or at any time, for that matter. The place has been thoroughly searched by professionals, and if there's any evidence that Professor Keener had a son, surely it exists in the minds of neighbors,
colleagues, friends. Memories can't be so easily erased. Anyhow, that was my argument to boss lady, who normally doesn't approve of me playing investigator, as she calls it. The homes on this block are close together, barely room to park a vehicle between them, and my plan is to prowl around the porch playing looky-loo until someone in the neighborhood responds, if only to tell me to mind my own business.

As it happens the watchful neighbor is a retired school bus driver, Toni Jo Nadeau, recently widowed, and she couldn't be nicer. Pleasantly pear-shaped in velour loungewear, big hair and with the keen eyes of a nosey parker—in other words, exactly the person I was hoping to find.

“Excuse me,” she begins, having come out to her own little porch, right next door. “Are you looking for the professor?”

“Oh dear,” I say, clutching my handbag, acting a bit frazzled, which isn't difficult. “No, no, I know he's gone. Murdered, I should say, but that's such an ugly word. Awful! No, I'm looking for his son? His five-year-old boy?”

Mrs. Nadeau gives me the once-over, decides I'm okay and introduces herself, including the part about her late husband. Then she glances up and down the street, as if to check if we're being observed. “You mean the Chinese kid? Come around the back,” she says, gesturing down the narrow driveway. “My cats own the front rooms, we can talk in the kitchen.”

Unlike some of the other homes in the neighborhood, Toni Jo's house has not been upgraded in the last few decades, and the kitchen still has the feel—and smell—of a place where cooking happens. Most recently, roast lamb with a few cloves of fresh garlic, if my nose hasn't failed
me. She urges me to have a seat at her little counter, offers coffee, which I decline, having already topped up on caffeine, courtesy of Mrs. Beasley. “I'm good, thank you. Alice Crane,” I say, offering my hand. “I work in the physics department. As a secretary slash office manager, I wouldn't know an electron if it bit me on the ankle! This is so nice of you. I'm at my wit's end. Did you say Chinese boy? I've been so worried.”

“Oh yeah?” she says cautiously, attempting to suss me out.

“Couldn't sleep a wink last night, worrying about that poor little guy.”

“Wait,” she says, her eyes hooding slightly. “You know the kid?”

“No, no,” I say, shaking my head and keeping up the frazzled bit. “Never met him myself, and nobody in the department seems to know where he is, or who has legal custody. But everybody says Joe had a little boy, so he must be somewhere, mustn't he?”

“Everybody, huh?”

“You know how it is. People talk.”

“And they say the kid is Professor Keener's son, do they?”

It's easy enough to look befuddled. “Do I have it wrong? Oh dear, maybe I'm worried about nothing. But you said—what was it you said?”

“Haven't yet,” she says, going all cagey. “Joe, is that what his friends called him? Really? He was always Professor Keener to me. Very formal man, very private about himself. First time I went over there and introduced myself he looked at the ground and said, ‘Professor Keener,' and that's how it stayed. It fit him, too. He was the perfect neighbor, really. Anyhow, he used to have a little kid that came around on a regular basis, but that
stopped a couple of years ago. Not every day, but like on weekends. A toddler, couldn't have been more than three years old, the last time I noticed. Played in the backyard a few times, but mostly they kept him inside.”

“They?” I ask, genuinely surprised.

“The Chinese lady I assumed to be his wife. Or ex-wife, or whatever. She was always here with the boy and she was obviously his mother. She's a real beauty, an exotic type, wears those formal Chinese dresses, doesn't speak a word of English. At least not to me.”

“But you haven't seen her or the boy for the last two years?”

“Something like that. At first I thought maybe she was just a friend of his. They didn't look like a couple, if you know what I mean. Not even a divorced couple. But one day one of my ninjas got out.”

“Excuse me?”

“My kitty cats. Ninjas, I call 'em. I'm owned by four cats, shelter cats, and they like to hide under the furniture, whack your ankles as you go by. Anyhow, Jeepers got out and bolted over to Professor Keener's yard, and the little boy was sitting in the sandbox, playing with a scoop, and wouldn't you know, Jeepers was interested in the sandbox, or that's what I thought. I go running out, afraid the kid might get scratched, but the cat was sitting there, perfectly well behaved, letting the little boy pet her. Very cute, I wish I'd had my camera. The professor came out at the same time, and I retrieved Jeepers and he retrieved the boy, and we had ourselves a little conversation. Which is all you ever got with the professor. I said, what an adorable child, I can see he takes after his father, and he smiled and said, ‘He's my keyboard kid,' and that was all. Not another word. I mean, what does that mean,
‘keyboard kid'? I asked, but the conversation was obviously over. He never even told me the boy's name.”

“But you took him to mean the boy was his son.”

“Absolutely. You could tell, the way he was holding him, the pride in his eyes. He actually looked me in the eye that one time, just for a second, and I could tell how much he loved the boy. And close-up like that you could see the resemblance, I wasn't kidding about that.”

“You haven't seen the child in at least two years. Did you ever ask Professor Keener where his son was? Why he didn't come around anymore? What happened to the boy's mother? Anything like that?”

Mrs. Nadeau shakes her head, gives me a flinty, dismissive look, almost scornful. “Who are you really?” she wants to know. “If you worked with Professor Keener, you'd know what he was like. You'd know not to ask him personal questions like that. What are you, some kind of reporter?”

Boss lady always says that when you're engaged on a case, it's best to season your prevarication with just enough truth to make it edible—and be ready to alter the recipe on the fly. “Not a reporter, no, absolutely not,” I say, backpedaling in place. “And to be totally truthful with you—I'm so sorry I fibbed—I never actually worked in the physics department and I never met Professor Keener personally. But before he died, before he got killed, Keener hired a friend of mine to help him find his missing five-year-old son. It was my friend—he's a former FBI agent who specializes in child recovery—it was my friend who found the body, okay? And my friend who is now a suspect in the murder.”

To my surprise, Toni Jo Nadeau grins at me. “This is a much better story, sugar,” she says, eyes bright with interest. “Some of it might even be true.”

“Please don't tell the police. They'll think I'm meddling.”

“Describe this ‘friend' of yours and I'll think about it.”

“You want to know what he looks like?”

She shakes her head. “I know what he looks like. I want to know if you know what he looks like.”

“You know… Oh, I get it. You happened to notice when he visited Professor Keener, is that it?”

“I'm waiting, sugar.”

“Okay, what he looks like. Here goes. Well, for starters, he's a hunk, big and lean and tall. Way over six foot—I mean, I barely come up to his shoulders, you know? Soulful eyes. And a cute little salt-and-pepper chin beard.”

Mrs. Nadeau nods along with the description. “You had me at
hunk,
sugar. That's our boy. I saw him ringing the bell over there last week and my first thought, I wish he was ringing the bell over here, you know what I mean? No offense, but your man is
tasty
.”

As you may have noticed, I'm rarely at a loss for words, but that pretty much stops my tongue. Mrs. Nadeau notices my discomfort and reaches out to pat my hand. “Wispy little thing like you, I'm guessing he really is just a friend. Don't look so worried, these things take time.”

Wispy? I'm wearing what I call my librarian glasses, Target clothing and a cloth handbag, going for the non-threatening mousy look. But wispy? Really?

“Man like that, he'd want a woman with some meat on her bones,” Mrs. Nadeau says. “Somebody with a little bounce in her jounce. But he may come around. You just hang in there.”

When my power of speech finally resumes, I say,
“Yesterday morning, when it happened, did you notice anything wrong?”

Mrs. Nadeau explains that because of her allergies—she's allergic to cats, why is that no surprise?—she takes an antihistamine before bed and sleeps, in her words, like a dead dodo bird. Therefore she has no awareness of what happened in the early hours, or who might have murdered Joseph Keener.

“The sirens woke me. That's the first I knew something was wrong. The cops wouldn't tell me what happened, but when I saw that body bag coming out I knew it was bad. The worst. The poor, poor man. I wonder who'll get the house.”

On my way out the narrow driveway, I stop to take a gander at the dead man's backyard. And there, partially obscured by fallen leaves, is a child's sandbox, covered with a plastic turtle lid. Looks like it hasn't been used in a while, but that fits with what the cat lady said, and as far as I'm concerned proves beyond doubt that a child once played here.

A little boy, missing.