Free Vanished in the Night by Eileen Carr Page B

of ways, Veronica hadn’t had a brother for twenty years. He wasn’t at family dinners. He didn’t borrow money, or help clean the gutters. He didn’t do the usual brother things. He hadn’t been able to. He’d been dead.
    In her heart, though, Veronica had always had a brother. He’d been alive there, kept that way through hope. A hope that had proved to be pathetic and ridiculous. She couldn’t decide if she was better off knowing the truth or if she had preferred operating in blissful ignorance.
    “He disappeared a long time ago. When I was just a kid. They found his body in a construction site.”
    Tina’s eyes went wide. “Wait. Your brother was the body they found downtown the other day? The bones in the pit? That was your brother?”
    Veronica nodded.
    “Wow.” Tina’s brow creased. “But wait. The picture they’re showing of that kid. He’s, well . . .”
    “Black?” Veronica finished for her.
    “Yeah. I think we’re supposed to use African American now, but you got the gist.”
    “He was my half brother.” There it was again. “He was from my mother’s first marriage. Max’s dad died in Vietnam.”
    “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t your dad pretty racist?” Tina’s brow furrowed deeper.
    “You could say that.” Oh, boy, could you ever say that. Although Veronica suspected that if Max had been Caucasian, her father would have found some other reason to hate him. It was what her father did best.
    Well, second best. He was damn good at drinking. They were intertwined. Maybe he wouldn’t hate quite so much without the booze, or drink so much without the hate. She’d given up trying to parse that one out years ago.
    “That must have been fun.” Tina stood up and started riffling through the case files. “You want the five-year-old breathing emergency in two, or the Natasha Richardson case?” Ever since the actress had hit her head while skiing and died a few days later, every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a head bump came to the emergency room.
    Veronica shot her a look.
    Tina handed her the file. “Five-year-old it is, but you owe me.” She swished away, but turned before she went behind the curtain. “And if you don’t want Tall, Silent, and Studly, I’m more than happy to take your sloppy seconds.”
    Veronica snorted. As if Tina had ever had to take anyone’s sloppy seconds. She went in to check on the five-year-old with asthma, but before she could take two steps, all the buzzers and whistles started to go off. She looked over at Tina. “I guess you got your wish.”
“Let me guess. She was thrilled to see you. She accepted the photo and expressed her deep, undying gratitude for how seriously you were taking her brother’s case,” Frank said as Zach got back into the Crown Vic.
    “Yeah. Then I proposed and we’re hoping for a June wedding. Save the date, will you?” Zach shot back.
    Frank snorted. “Gave you a hard time, did she?”
    “It’s shocking, but she resents the fact that we consider her father a suspect. Can you believe that?” Zach buckled his seat belt.
    Frank started the car, waited until the ambulance that was pulling into the lot, lights flashing and siren blaring, had gone past, then pulled out of their space. “Absolutely shocking. So what’s next?”
    “I say we start looking at this Sierra School. Maybe we can find someone who might know something that would give us a lead.” Zach leaned back in his seat. Please let them stir up a lead somewhere. Lord, he hated cold cases.
    “Sounds like a good plan for tomorrow.” Frank pulled onto I-5. “Have I mentioned that I hate cold cases?”
    “It’s like you’re reading my mind, Frank.”
    Zach closed his eyes. He wanted a hot shower and a cold beer, perhaps at the same time. He wanted a black, dreamless sleep undisturbed by sexy little nurses or old bones clutching military-issue dog tags.
    The case was getting to him, and he knew why. He hadn’t exactly been a perfect teenager. After his