Chapter 25

They filled Elaine Rocka’s dining room, Bwana silent and large at one end of the table, Bear bookending at the other end, and Roger, Broker, and petite Chloe in the middle.

Elaine sat in silence, her eyes narrowed, her dogs, German shepherds, sitting either side of her, ready to attack at a word. Shawn had called the number every day, increasingly in despair than hope, and she had seen his face transform when the phone was finally answered.

‘So run it past me again. Just who the fuck are you?’

No one was going to meet her babies without her approval.

‘Ma’am, we’re friends of Zeb. We all served in the army together, and once we left the army, we set up a security services firm.’ Broker was economical with the truth with strangers, and this was the strangest situation he could recall having been in.

 

They had blurred through the city after hanging up, each one of them lost in their own worlds.

‘Zeb’s phone was dead and lying in my room for ages. Looks identical to the phone Roger had. I must have charged it by mistake and brought it with me,’ Broker said after a long while.

No one replied, and he sped faster, allowing the traffic to imprint itself back on them, keeping the memories at bay. His phone rang just as they reached the Bronx.

‘Tony, what’ve you got?’

‘Elaine Rocka, early forties, lives alone in the Bronx, owns her house. Divorced several times, received quite a payoff from the last one. No kids. Works part-time in the mayor’s office, in the payroll department. Now, get this. This is where the connection could be.

‘Has a sister, Coralyn Rocka, who was married to one William Shattner. Shattner was an E-5 in the army… was dishonorably discharged. Served in Iraq at the same time as Zeb.’

Tony paused and carried on when there was no reaction. ‘Shattner and his wife separated when he was in Iraq; she’s now in Miami with some other dude. Shattner got custody of the kids, two of them, a boy, eleven years old, and a girl, eight years.’

Chloe broke in. ‘Tony, any specific connection to Zeb? We had enough feet there to populate a small city, and Zeb would have interacted with many.’

‘As of now, nothing’s come up. Will keep digging and call if I get anything. Broker, let me know if you need anything else.’

 

Elaine Rocka lasered Broker. ‘So why isn’t this Zeb here?’

‘He’s dead.’

Elaine Rocka didn’t like it one bit. It showed in her face, in her body language, and the dogs sensed it. One stood and walked around them, the other growled.

‘So if he’s dead, why are you fuckers here? You could have said that on the phone.’

‘Ma’am, we wanted to see what the connection to Zeb was. Why would the boy call Zeb?’

‘He called because the SOB who passed for his dad left him a message to call this Zeb if anything happened to him. He doesn’t know anything else.’

‘Did he say how he knew Zeb?’

Elaine Rocka shook her head. ‘You aren’t hearing me, mister. Shawn doesn’t know anything else. The prick, his dad, didn’t say much in his entire life.’

Broker chose his words carefully. ‘The boy’s father, he’s not around?’

‘Prick disappeared three months back. Left the babies here and said he had some work to attend to.’ She snorted. ‘Work! Asswipe never did an honest day’s work in his life.

‘Not a peep from him since then. No way to contact him. My babies… just as I got them on the mend, you fuckers show up.’ Her look burnt the air around them.

Broker kept his voice neutral. ‘He’s been missing for three months? Ma’am, have you reported his absence to the police? Do the children know he’s missing?’

If a glare could burn, Broker would have been ashes.

She spat. ‘William Shattner is a thief. He was sacked from the army for stealing and selling arms. When his wife, my sister, broke up with him, he conned the judge into granting him custody of the kids. He drifted all over the country with the kids in tow, never stayed in one place for long, doing odd jobs. I kept track of him because I wanted the kids, wanted to bring them up. He started dealing in arms again, supplying them to gangs.

‘When he brought the kids here, they came home.’ The word filled the room.

‘I go to the police, they’re going to want to speak to the kids, go to their school… you think I’m going to subject my babies to that? I’ll tell the police in good time. My good time.’

Chloe broke the silence gently. ‘Elaine, we’re here just to understand the connection to Zeb, not say or do anything that will hurt the children. We aren’t here to change any circumstances. Perhaps we could speak to them? Talking might help them remember.’

The lasers turned on Chloe. ‘Honey, I work in the mayor’s office. I deal with smooth-talking scumbags all the time. I know all the tricks in the book and those that aren’t. I know what you’re doing with your sweet-as-syrup voice. Won’t work. You aren’t talking to my babies. I’m going to make life good for them, not remind them of that worthless piece of shit, their dad.’

She glared at each of them, the dogs barking once to punctuate her.

Roger’s voice rumbled in the room, surprising them all. ‘Ma’am, we lost Zeb over a year back, and while we are moving on, the pain is still fresh. If you were in our place, wouldn’t you want to know what the connection was?’

‘Just what do you guys do? If your Zeb was that no-account’s help line, then I’m guessing you guys are up to no good too.’

Broker was unruffled. ‘Ma’am, I’m taking a leap of faith here. We are a Special-Ops unit… we do stuff that cannot be done by any government agency. Commissioner Forzini and Deputy Commissioner Rolando know us and know me personally. I can give you more references if you wish.’

Elaine Rocka studied him, thinking it over. Shawn and Lisa meant the world to her, and her rage at the way the kids had been brought up was matched by her determination to give them a happier life. Broker had mentioned those names easily, an ease that came with familiarity. The quicker she got them out of her house, the sooner she could get back to her kids and restore normalcy, and maybe it was the only way.

She got up abruptly and left the room, signaling the dogs to stay behind.

She came back shortly leading a tall, brown-eyed, brown-haired boy with her, holding his hand. The boy walked hesitantly and glanced up at Elaine, who smiled at him reassuringly.

Bwana leaned forward, a broad smile splitting his face, lighting up the room. ‘Hey, I’m a Yankees fan too. This guy here’ – he glanced pityingly in Roger’s direction – ‘he supports the Sox.’

Shawn relaxed immediately and, patting his sweatshirt, grinned in return. ‘All of us can’t be perfect, I guess.’

Bwana chuckled and exchanged high fives with Shawn. ‘Damned right.’ He apologized immediately. ‘Excuse my language, ma’am, Shawn. What can I say! These heathens with me lack refinement and try their best to drag me down to their level.’

Broker had his game face on but smiled inside when he noticed the almost imperceptible relaxing in Elaine Rocka. That was almost an approving nod.

Bwana introduced all of them, Broker last. ‘Yes, he’s really called Broker. He peddles information, so we all started calling him that, and the name stuck.’

Broker deadpanned, ‘They couldn’t remember my real name, had to call me something.’

‘Does your dad have any nickname for you, Shawn?’

He shook his head. ‘He says he wouldn’t have named me Shawn if he wanted to call me something else.’

Elaine Rocka shifted subtly in her seat, the pleasantries were over.

‘Honey, what did your father tell you about Zeb?’

Shawn’s smile faded. ‘Dad left a note along with a phone in my school bag. It said if there was any trouble and he wasn’t around, I should call Zeb. He would know what to do. He wrote Zeb’s number on it.’

‘Did he mention where he was going, Shawn?’ Chloe asked him.

Shawn shook his head, his eyes glimmering. ‘No. He worked in a garage and tended to keep late hours, but he never went away for days. He said there was some work stuff he had to attend to and got Lisa and me out of school so that we could stay with Aunt Elaine.’

He bit his lip to keep it from trembling. ‘I waited a couple of days to hear from him, and when I didn’t, I told Aunt Elaine, and she said we should try calling Zeb. We’ve been trying for more than two months.’ He looked accusingly at Broker.

Broker looked pained. ‘Shawn, your aunt might have mentioned, Zeb died over a year back. After that, I just stopped charging his phone. I juiced it up by mistake yesterday and got your call.’

He gave Shawn a searching look. ‘Your father say anything about how he knew Zeb?’

‘No. He never talked about his past. He said just once that if there was anyone in his life who he would go to for help, it was Zeb. I asked who that was, but he didn’t say anything. Is he really dead?’ His voice trembled slightly, his eyes bright with unshed tears.

‘Yes, honey, he died a while back,’ Chloe said gently. ‘Where did your dad work? Did he leave you with anything else, other than the phone?’

‘He was a mechanic in Brownsville Autos, over in Brownsville.’

The bright eyes turned to all of them, struggling to find hope in a world gone bleak. ‘I don’t know what’s happened to my dad… Lisa cries at night and asks me, and I tell her he’s gone for work.’ His hands balled into fists and angrily brushed away the tears rolling down.

Elaine Rocka crushed him in a hug, her eyes shut tight, and when they opened, she reduced all of them to the size of insects.

Chloe cleared her throat, meeting her eyes, hoping she understood, but knowing she didn’t care about their reasons. She turned to Shawn. ‘Honey, I’m sure there are good reasons why he’s been away. We’ll ask at the garage. Maybe they’ll know.’

The battle-axe broke her silence. ‘Did. They’ve shut down. Checked records.’ She nodded in the direction of One Police Plaza, the NYPD headquarters. ‘They’ve disappeared.’

She glanced down at Shawn. ‘Shawn, why don’t you go play with Lisa? I’ll finish up with these people and join you soon.’

He stood slowly, glancing at them, hope dying in his eyes, knowing what that usually meant in adult-speak, and turned to leave. He stopped when he saw the head peeking through the door.

They all turned to look.

Blonde curls framing her expressive eyes, Lisa asked them, ‘Will you find my dad?’