“Why didn’t Neda respond to your message, you think? Did you fall out?”
“Dad must have poisoned her mind against me, that’s the only thing I can think of. She was twenty years older than me, and by the time I was born, she was in college in Boston and then got a job in Philadelphia for a couple of years, so we never saw much of each other. She came home for the holidays, but less and less. For most of my childhood it was just me and my dad, and we never got on. He was a strict disciplinarian, and I rebelled against that. The fact that he blamed me for the death of my mom also didn’t help.”
“Your mom died when you were little?”
“She died in childbirth,” Titta explained, “so I never knew her. She was in her early forties when she got pregnant, and even though my dad told her not to carry the pregnancy to term, she refused to get rid of me. She died three days after giving birth from an infection. Which Dad blamed me for.” She shrugged. “A hell of a sob story, huh?”
“And now your sister died,” said Odelia, whose eyes had turned a little misty.
“Can you give me the name of your friend?” said Chase, who didn’t appear affected by Titta’s story. “Name and number, please. Just routine,” he added in a low rumble.
“Sure. You can call her. She’ll confirm my story,” said Titta.
“So what are you going to do now?” asked Odelia, whose hands had stolen across the tabletop and had enveloped Titta’s hand in hers.
“I’m seeing the executor of the estate after this,” she said. “It’s the same lawyer who visited me at the boarding school. He’s worked for our family for years. I guess he’ll tell me what formalities need to be taken care of and how long that will take. I’ll probably sell the house and all of Neda’s belongings, and then I’m off again as soon as possible.”
“Back to India,” said Odelia softly. “To your orphans.”
“Yeah,” said Titta, a smile breaking through the clouds as she was reminded of her life’s work. “At least I’ll be able to do some good with the estate’s money. The orphanage is in urgent need of a fresh influx of cash. There’s a lot of work to be done.” She seemed to be lit by an inner glow, and spoke at some length about the orphanage and about her work there. She really had found her place in the world, after a pretty rough start in life.
“I like her, Max,” said Dooley, when Titta finally stood to leave, to keep her appointment with the lawyer. “She’s doing a lot of very important work in India.”
“Yeah, I like her, too,” I said. “Amazing to think that Neda had a little sister no one knew about.”
“She kept her a secret all these years,” Dooley said. “As if she was ashamed of her.”
“She probably was ashamed of her—or ashamed of the way their dad treated Titta, and didn’t want to be reminded of that.”
“Sad business,” said Dooley. “And now she’ll never see her sister again. Or her dad.”
We watched as Titta shook hands with Chase, then shared a hug with Odelia, and left the coffee shop, her backpack slung across her shoulder, a look of determination on her young face. Chase had picked out his phone and was putting through a call to Titta’s friend in Brooklyn. Moments later he disconnected the call after a short conversation and nodded. “She confirms that Titta was with her all day yesterday.”
“Well, that’s it then,” said Odelia as they both got up. “Another dead end.”
“So now what?”
“Now we get our asses over to my uncle.” She held up her phone. “He’s asked for a progress report.” She grimaced. “Unfortunately we don’t have any progress to report.”
20
Once again we found ourselves in the pleasant company of Uncle Alec, going over recent events, with Chase and Odelia giving the chief of police their frank view on the state of the investigation.
“So what have you discovered so far?” asked the Chief as he sat back in his creaky office chair.
“Well, turns out that Neda had a sister no one seems to have known about,” Odelia said. “Her name is Titta Riding, and she’s been living in India for the past fifteen years, after her father sent her away and decided to cut all ties with his daughter.”
“I’ll be damned,” the Chief grunted, as surprised by this denouement as the others. “So how about Neda? Didn’t she and her sister ever get in touch in the last decade and a half?” It was clear Uncle Alec was as intrigued by this family feud or rift as the rest of us.
Chase shook his head.“Looks as if Neda followed her father’s cue and had no contact with her little sister ever since she was sent away to boarding school.”
“Titta does admit that she was a handful when she was still living under her father’s roof,” said Odelia. “And also that Neda, being twenty years older than her, had already left the house at that point, so they never actually spent a lot of time together as a family.”
“Sad story,” said Uncle Alec, shaking a weary head. “Very sad.”
“If only she’d come down here three days ago she would still have been able to see her sister. And now the killer, whoever he or she is, robbed her of that opportunity.”
“She didn’t seem broken up about it,” Chase remarked as he placed his notebook on the desk.
“She hasn’t seen her sister in years, Chase. They may have been family, but as far as I can tell they were complete strangers to each other—no thanks to their cruel father.”
They all spent a moment ruminating on the circumstances that surrounded Titta’s childhood. Then Uncle Alec placed his hands on the desk and said, “So what now?”
Now, apparently, was Dolores Peltz barging into the office again, like a parrot repeating its message to anyone who would listen:“About that witness, Chief.”
“What witness? And how many times have I told you to knock and wait?”
“The witness of that car crash yesterday,” Dolores said, blithely ignoring her boss’s outburst. “The witness on the red bike who saw that accident on Groveler Street?”
But the Chief had no time for car crashes or mystery witnesses on red or other bikes, so he waved an impatient hand and said,“Just give it to Murphy.”
“She’s busy.”
“Or Jones.”
“He’s doing a training.”
“Just pick anyone! How hard is it to deal with a simple traffic accident!”
Dolores shrugged.“Pretty difficult, apparently, since no one has given these people the time of day since they came in yesterday.”
But seeing the look on the Chief’s face must have told her she was treading on thin ice, for she quietly closed the door and retreated back to her own lair.
When I looked up, I found Uncle Alec staring at me intently. I innocently returned his intent perusal of my noble visage.
“What are those cats doing here?” he asked irritably.
“You told me I could bring them into the station,” Odelia reminded him.
Uncle Alec produced a sound halfway between a snort and a grunt, and it told me, along with the unfavorable look he was still casting in my direction, that he was on the verge of rescinding his permission. But Odelia, who must have seen the way the wind was blowing, now promptly got up and said,“So what do you want us to do?”
And Uncle Alec had just opened his mouth to issue his instructions when another knock sounded at the door and immediately Dolores popped her head in.
“What did I tell you about knocking and waiting?!” the Chief bellowed.
“Neda Hoeppner’s house was broken into again,” said Dolores, once more ignoring her boss’s outburst, as probably she’d been ignoring his outbursts ever since she first started working at the station.
Odelia immediately sank down again, looking stunned.“Broken into? When?”
“Just now,” said Dolores. “A Cher Shorn called and said she went over to Neda’s place to drop off some stuff and discovered that the backdoor had been forced open.”