Free Sacrifice by Andrew Vachss

join you ladies?"
    "Sure," she said. "Have a seat. We haven't ordered yet."
    The waitress came by. They ordered chef's salad. I did too. Listened to them talk until the food came…the waitress would be too busy to stop back after that.
    "Sorry about the call earlier."
    "The private line is tapped," Wolfe said, no expression in her voice. Like she was giving me a weather report.
    "The only one who could do that is…"
    "Yes. It's not your affair. What do you want to show me?"
    "You're looking for a baby. Derrick is his name, right? Disappeared from the Welfare hotel over by La Guardia?"
    Wolfe looked at Lola, nodded.
    "Somebody asked me to look for him too."
    "And?"
    "I think I know where he is."
    "Alive?"
    "No."
    "You've seen the body?"
    "No."
    "Is there anything to connect this to…?"
    "Emerson?"
    She nodded again.
    "Emerson beat the baby to death. In that room. Right in front of the mother. Then he went out to get rid of the body."
    "How do you know this?"
    "Just a guess. But if you found the body, it would be enough?"
    "Depending on what shape it was in…"
    "You got wants out for Emerson?"
    "No."
    "How come? Don't you even want to talk to him about this?"
    Wolfe lit a smoke. I felt Lola's body shift next to me. "He's locked up," Wolfe said. "On another charge. In the Bronx."
    "So you can't question him?"
    "His lawyer says no."
    "Or her?"
    "She hasn't been arrested." Meaning she
could
talk to her, but she didn't have enough ammo to do it yet.
    "Let's say, just to be talking about it, that you knew he left the hotel room with the baby's body…came back in an hour or two, what would that tell you?"
    "Nothing much. You can cover a lot of ground in a couple of hours."
    "And if he didn't have a car…or access to one?"
    "Okay. You going to give us a nice sworn–to–under–oath affidavit about this? Be a confidential informant?"
    "I can't do that…I don't know anything, see? I'm just talking about a theory."
    "We can't get a search warrant on a theory," Lola tossed in, trace of a Brooklyn accent coming through for the first time.
    "You don't need a warrant to search some places."
    Wolfe's eyebrows rose.
    "Public places," I said.
    Wolfe leaned forward. "What do you have to show us?"
    "It's in my car."
    We finished our meal. They spent the time talking about Lola's new boyfriend. Sounded like he wouldn't be around long.
    They picked up my check.

44
    "I 'm parked against the back fence. An old Plymouth. Pull your car next to mine, open your trunk."
    I caught Rocco and Floyd in the edge of my vision. Wolfe's Audi pulled in. Lola went around the back to open the trunk. Wolfe snapped a lead on the Rottweiler, walked him over to my car.
    "Bruiser, stay!" The beast dropped into a sitting position the way a sprinter settles into the starting blocks, eyes only for me.
    I opened the duffel bag in the trunk, pulled out the blanket inside. Uncovered the leather bag.
    "You know what this is?" I asked.
    Neither of them said anything.
    "I traced Emerson's path from the hotel. Found this along the way."
    "The way to where?"
    I told them about the dark water surrounding Rikers Island. Step by step.
    "You think the baby's in that bag?" Wolfe.
    "Maybe some pieces of him, but I doubt it. I think he's in the water. You can get divers without a warrant, right?"
    "Yes. But it's a long shot. Unless he weighted it down, it could be anywhere."
    "Worth a try."
    "Sure."
    "I'll put the bag in your trunk. The coroner will tell you the rest."
    "And how did we come by the bag?"
    "I figure, maybe Rocco and Floyd were doing some investigating, ran across it, cut it down. Tagged it in an evidence sack, all the right stuff."
    "When would they have done this?"
    "Why don't you ask them," I said, flicking a glance to my left.
    Wolfe spotted them. "Get over here!" she shouted. Lola giggled. They walked over, looking everyplace but at Wolfe.
    "One of you two clowns put this in my trunk," Wolfe said, pointing at the bag.
    "What is it?" Rocco.
    "We don't know yet.