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“Are you seeing that cop?”
“No! I was never seeing him. Why do you care, anyway? Why are you calling?”
“I have news. The cops figured out what might have happened to Myrla.”
“I thought they’d confirmed that she was murdered.”
“They did. I meant they figured out how. After looking at her phone records, it looks like she had a date with a guy she met on lovematch.com. The neighbors said they heard a struggle with shouting and some thumps but didn’t think to call the police.
“They heard a baby crying after two. She cried for an hour, and the same neighbors were just about to go next door to see if there was a problem when a white Escalade pulled up. A man fitting the description of Emory Bryant got out, and five minutes later, he came running out of the apartment with the baby, got into the car, and sped off.”
It made little sense to me. “Are you saying someone else killed Myrla?”
“I’m not saying it, but it sounds like that was the sequence of events. Eimy thinks the superintendent who lives in the unit on the other side of her apartment, who didn’t know about the animosity between the couple, might have called Emory to tell him about the baby crying for so long. He knew that Eimy was out of the country. Why else would Emory show up at just the right moment? And he might have found Myrla there, already dead, and took off so he wouldn’t be blamed for it.”
“Did Eimy tell the cops about the super?” I asked.
“She did. They are going to contact Emory’s mother in Mexico City to see if she has the baby. The police are going to her house unannounced so if the kid is there, no one will try to hide her.”
“Why didn’t Eimy call me?” I asked, seething. “I’ve been worried about it.”
“I can’t answer for her,” he said.
“You’re calling for her now, correct? Why? What’s going on, Ryan?”
“You’ll probably hear about it soon enough, but I’m seeing her.”
“Of course you are,” I said, disgusted.
I certainly didn’t want Ryan, but it ticked me off that Eimy, who was so gung-ho about being my friend, would hook up with him, of all people. Oh well, she’d find out his true colors soon enough.
“I thought you’d want to know what the police are saying about Myrla.”
I barked out a laugh. “You’re so fucking predictable.” And with that, I hung up on him.
In order to move on, I spent the rest of the day painting my bedroom while the workmen tore up the kitchen. They finally wrapped things up at five so I could lock up and get into the shower before Will came over at six.
The awful conversation with Ryan reverberated through my mind. I was sure there was more to the story, facts only a cop would know. I sat on the edge of my bed in a towel and keyed in Detective Spinoza’s number, forcing a smile to my face when I spoke to him. I’d do just about anything at that point to manipulate the guy to get the information I wanted.
“Hey, Laura Long,” he said. “I went over to the hospital to see you yesterday, and they said you’d left.”
“I did. I need to be close to my stepmother, and commuting into the city wasn’t an option.”
“Are you on Long Island, then?”
Cringing, I realized I had slipped, but it was too late. “Yes. Long Island. Mark, Ryan Maddox called me today and gave me some disturbing news. I’m hoping you can clarify it for me. He’s dating the mother of the baby I found on the street.”
“Jesus, that guy gets around.”
“He really does. Anyway, he is telling me that Myrla, the nanny, might have been killed by a date she had from an online dating app and that the building super who knows the father might have called him when the baby cried for an hour the night of the murder. Can you confirm that?”
“For you, yes. We are sure it was the guy she had a date with. His fingerprints are all over the tiny apartment. I shouldn’t repeat this, but the Mexico City Police confirmed that Emory Bryant’s mother now has a baby at her home that she didn’t have a week ago, and supposedly, she is telling neighbors it’s her American granddaughter.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” I said, overwhelmed with relief. “That is the best news I’ve had in a while.”
“I’m so glad,” he said. “Please keep it to yourself for now. If you speak with Ryan, especially don’t tell him.”
“I won’t. That jackass is on my last nerve.”
