Dead by Wednesday

“I think the school nurse told her. I got sick a couple times at school. The nurse thought I had the flu and wanted to send me home. I had to tell her the truth.”

“But you haven’t told your parents?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Alexa chewed her lip. “My dad works in some little factory and he hates his job. He gets mad when my sister or I get a B. Says that if we’re not careful, we’re going to be trapped in some dead-end job. When he finds out that I’m going to quit school to take care of the baby, he’s not going to be happy.”

“So, you’re planning on keeping your baby?”

The girl nodded.

“What about the father of the baby?”

This got a shrug. “He’s a junior, too, so we’re not, you know, getting married or anything, but he’s cool with it.”

“He hasn’t told his parents?”

“There’s only his mom. And no, we both agreed that we wouldn’t say anything to anybody.”

Alexa was mature, but was she mature enough to handle a child? “Have you considered adoption?” Carmen asked.

Alexa shook her head. “So that she can be raised by somebody like my parents? No, thanks.”

Carmen nodded. Not much to say to that, was there? “Have you had any prenatal care?”

Alexa nodded. “At the health department. Everything is fine. I’m twenty-eight weeks. The baby is due April 15.”

“How much longer do you think you can hide your pregnancy from your family?” Carmen asked.

“Probably not much longer. In a week, I have a family wedding. I’m not going to be able to wear a sweatshirt and baggy pants or my coat. I think the cat is going to be pretty much out of the bag.”

“You should tell your parents before then,” Carmen said.

“I know. That’s why I’m here. Frank doesn’t do so good with surprises. Goes a little crazy sometimes.”

“What kind of crazy?” Carmen asked. “Crazy yelling or crazy something else?”

“When my mother hit a post with the fender of our car, he slapped her so hard that he split her lip.”

Carmen felt sick.

“You were the counselor who helped my neighbor, Angelina. She said you were wonderful. I was hoping you could be there when I tell him.”

Chapter Two

Raoul almost dropped his trombone when a skinny man stepped out of the dry cleaner’s doorway, right into his path. His dark hair was slicked down on his head and pulled back into a short ponytail. His skin was really pale and he had gray eyes.

“Hi, there,” the man said.

He was about six inches taller than Raoul, which basically wasn’t all that tall. His shoulders were wide and he had on a really ugly plaid coat.

Raoul tried to step around him.

The man stepped with him, blocking his path.

“Hey, man,” Raoul said. He’d already had a really bad day and all he wanted was to go home.

“Is that how you treat your friends, Raoul?”

Friends? “Who are you? How do you know my name?” Raoul asked, feeling uncomfortable. He looked around. There were other people on the sidewalk, but nobody seemed to be paying any attention to him.

“I know a lot about you. Your brother Hector and I were friends. Real tight.”

Hector had been dead for eleven years. Whenever anybody said Hector’s name, his sister, Carmen, got a real funny look on her face and she got sad. Once, when he asked her about it, she said that she was just so sorry that Hector had died.

That made him feel even worse that he couldn’t remember Hector. He’d only been four when he’d died. He couldn’t tell Carmen the truth. That would probably make her even sadder.

“You really knew Hector?”

“Oh, yeah. One time, before he died, he told me that if anything ever happened to him, that I should watch out for you.”

Raoul didn’t know what to say to that and anyway, his throat felt tight.

“Your brother used to talk about you all the time. Said that having a kid brother was cool.”

Hector would have understood how hard it was to be the smallest kid in the class. He’d have known how humiliating it was to have someone jam your head into a toilet. He’d have known how ridiculous it felt to be tripped going down the hall and have your books fly everywhere.

He’d have known how much it hurt when everyone laughed.

“What’s your favorite song?” the man asked, giving Raoul’s shoulder a light punch.

Raoul didn’t want to talk music. Even though this guy had been a friend of Hector’s, he sort of gave him the creeps. “What’s your name?” he asked again.

The man shook his head. “We’ll talk soon, Raoul. I know what your brother wanted for you. I’m here to make sure you get it. Now, go home. Practice your music like a good boy.”

* * *

BY THE END of the day, the police knew just a little more than they had that morning. The boy had not been killed on site. No, somewhere else, and then brought into the alley. One of the neighbors said that he’d left the neighborhood bar and walked home, cutting through the alley shortly before two in the morning. He swore that the body hadn’t been there. If he was right, then the drop-off had occurred sometime between two and four, which was earlier than the other three killings. Those bodies had been found late in the day, and the coroner had estimated time of death to be late afternoon, early evening.

Was the killer getting more anxious?

That thought kept Robert and Sawyer and a half dozen other detectives knocking on doors, for six blocks in every direction, in the hopes that somebody had seen something. Maybe they’d also walked through the alley, maybe they’d seen a car idling nearby, maybe they’d heard something unusual.

It was the proverbial looking for a needle in a haystack, but dead kids got feet on the street.

Early evening, Robert and Sawyer returned to the parking lot behind their police station. They parked the department-issued cruiser and walked toward their own cars. “I’m starting to really hate Wednesdays,” Robert said.