“Commissioner Davis just told me there used to be an inlet off the shore of the Lake, and you could row right up to it.”
“That must have been the part of the cave that’s on higher ground, where Wicks set up his noose,” I said.
“Yeah. Then there’s that steep flight of stairs that you found, kid. The lower chamber. But Davis said this cave in particular was such a hot spot for men harassing women back in the 1920s that the entire thing was blocked off-both entrances-as though they had never been open. The Park records suggested to him that no one would ever be able to penetrate it without getting a bulldozer up there.”
“They were certainly wrong about that,” I said. “It’s a pretty sinister place.”
“There are Indian caves-really ancient ones-in Arizona, not far from Payson. Janna wrote about how they fascinated her, and so when Wicks told her about this one, she wanted to see it. He even let Janna stay there, sleep there a few nights. None of the other kids in the homeless crew, just Janna.”
“Without-?”
“No sexual overtures, Coop,” Mike said. “At least nothing she wrote about, although there were plenty of references to what her father had done to her. But then Janna found the box with Lucy’s bones, which Wicks had hidden in a corner, under a blanket.”
“And he went berserk, I’m sure. Did she write about it?”
“It looks like she never had the chance to do that. She sketched a picture of the box, and then one day she must have looked inside it and seen the bones. She drew those, too.”
“Then Eddie Wicks must have found the drawings and knew Janna had seen Lucy’s bones. That’s what set him off on killing me, too,” I said. “Did he admit anything to you?”
“Yeah. In his own way. He killed Janna because she was afraid she was going to tell someone about the bones. That they didn’t belong in a cave.”
“He said that to me, too. Called her ‘impetuous,’ though I don’t know who he thought she was going to tell. Do you figure it was Verge?” I asked.
“Wicks doesn’t seem too worried about Verge and his stories. He said he knows no one takes the guy seriously. That’s why no one believed him about people living in houses in the Park or finding the angel in a churchyard.”
“That’s why no one would have listened to Verge if he said they dug up a body together,” I said. “What did he kill her with? Janna, I mean.”
“It’s been a long day, Coop.”
“Give me the rest of it, please.”
“He hit her with the same piece you used to crack his skull.”
I lifted my head and looked across the Lake at the regal figure of the beloved statue on the Bethesda Terrace. “Death angel, Mike. You weren’t wrong about her.”
“Well, the silver miniature of her is on its way to the lab. Maybe we’ll get some of that mixture DNA you’ve been talking about.”
“Janna Dixon, Eddie Wicks, and me all over that precious little statue.”
The water gently lapped at the edge of the Lake. It hardly seemed the same deadly site that it had a week ago. But the Park was treacherous that way, pulling you in with its beauty and betraying you with the dangers that lurked in its darkest recesses.
“Maybe it’s true,” I said. “I mean, the story he tells about Lucy and how she died.”
“Yeah, but if you’re saying he didn’t kill her, he was still a mutt way back then-and a despicable criminal-for taking the body and disposing of it. Think how it tormented Lavinia not to have any idea what became of the child for the rest of her life.”
“I’m not on his side, Mike. Do you get that? I’m the one who just spent a few hours in a spider hole with the man. He’s as responsible for Lucy Dalton’s death, in my view, as if he put his hands around her neck instead of the scarf. It was totally reckless of Wicks-even though he was only a kid himself-to put that little girl in a dumbwaiter and send her off to her death. And now there’s Janna.”
“Janna wrote about the silver objects, too,” Mike said. “She had no idea they were valuable, but she had a habit of stealing things-food, clothes, and maybe things she thought she could cash in. She tried to barter with Wicks-brought him food and stuff, and then she asked for one of the pieces-but he said no. She wrote that two days before she found Lucy’s bones.”
“Did Wicks carry Janna’s body down to the Lake?” I asked.
“He kept her in the cave for a while. He wouldn’t give it up to me completely,” Mike said, “but I’m betting Verge helped him do that.”
“Is that what Verge is saying tonight?”
“He’s doing his rope-a-dope, make-no-sense dance for the detectives right now,” Mercer said. “I think we’re going to find out that Wicks trusted Verge to help him dispose of Janna in the Lake. Maybe promised to give him back the black angel. Janna claims in her journal that Verge did give it to her. Like a talisman, a spirit to watch over her. I’m thinking once he was in the cave and saw that statue again, along with the silver pieces, he tried to steal them out from under Wicks’s nose.”
“You’re probably right,” Mike said. “Maybe Verge carried them with him. Got as far as the bushes near the Lake when Wicks went after him. Then couldn’t go back for them because of all the cops around the Lake when Janna’s body was found. I’ll have you that news by morning.”
“Morning? I’m ready to go to work on those other cold cases you have from the Park,” I said. “Will you let me in on them?”
Central Park was the most seductive place in New York City. It offered the magnificent vistas, public thoroughfares, private pathways, and natural scenes of great physical beauty. But it wasn’t a place to enter alone in the dead of night, and I had seen far too much evidence of that fact in my decade as a prosecutor.
“I don’t think Battaglia’ll be too keen on that idea. But I like your style, Coop. All cred to you for that crater you put in Eddie Wicks’s head.”
“My footwork was even better.”
“I’m not surprised.”
Mercer pushed me forward and stopped kneading my shoulders. A uniformed cop was coming toward us, and he was carrying things in both hands.
“What’s up?” Mercer asked him.
“Sergeant Chirico sent this out to you.”
The boathouse was an elegant restaurant as well as a police staging area. The officer had two bottles of white wine and three glasses, along with an opener.
“Thank him for us, will you?” I asked.
Mercer uncorked the bottle and poured us some of the chilled wine. I reached out to Mike with one of the glasses. He took it from me, eased off the seat and put the oars inside the boat, then sat down on the bottom of it. He rolled up the legs of his jeans and hung his feet over in the water.
“Now all we need to find is Raymond Tanner, and we’ll have a trifecta,” Mike said.
“Let’s take a couple of days off, guys,” Mercer said. “Let the task force deal with Tanner.”
“But-”
“Not to worry, Alex. I’m on the task force. You’ll know everything the minute that I do.”
“But I’ve got ideas about him, Mercer. I bet his next hit is Van Cortlandt Park.”
“What’s your hunch?” Mercer asked.
“He’s doing parks in each of the boroughs. Manhattan’s over for him. Too many cops on his tail here. He’s tried Brooklyn. I’m guessing the Bronx is next. I wish I could warn every young woman in town not to venture in after dark.”
“Listen to her, Mercer,” Mike said. “Coop isn’t wrong till she’s wrong.”
“I’ve been listening to her for years, Detective. Time for you to tune in.”
I got up and gave Mercer a hug, then stepped into the boat. I sat facing Mike, my back against the other side of it and my feet up on the gunwale. I sipped the wine and rested my head back.
“Will you take me home tonight?” I asked.
“I’d like to, Coop. I really would. Didn’t Mercer tell you?”
“Tell me what?”