"Parmantie, Peter A - Joe Angello - Thoroughbred" - читать интересную книгу автора (Parmantie Peter A)

Thoroughbred
A Joe Angello Story
by Peter A. Parmantie


.......Whenever I want information from city hall I don't dirty my hands, I call Sammy--Oliver Sammons. He gets me what I need, when I need it. But he'd never sought out a private detective until one evening when he sat across from me at Torelli's. It was unusual that he wanted to see me--it was more unusual that he had an RN, Latricia Owens, in tow.
.......They turned down my offer to buy them dinner, settling on coffee, which they sipped halfheartedly during our conference. While they talked, I ate.
.......They were concerned about Stevie Sammons.
.......The two sitting across from me were an odd pair. Sammy is thin. Latricia Owens, a black lady built like a fire hydrant, is a registered nurse who checks on the health and welfare of the children placed by the private adoption agency where she works. She rides herd on Sammy and his wife to ensure she doesn't make a second mistake with Stevie, now seven.
.......The first almost turned him into a psychiatric basket case. She and the agency fell for the line of a couple who proved about as decent as Lady Macbeth married to Charles Manson. They adopted the year-old Stevie Doe, abandoned by his mother as soon as she could sneak from the hospital. The adoption had Nurse Owens' half-hearted approval. When a neighbor told her that the couple was abusive and on the verge of leaving the state with Stevie, she and the agency petitioned the courts to remove him from the home. By the time they got Stevie away, he shied like a nervous horse whenever an adult looked at him or spoke to him. With time, the welt marks on his body faded; the invisible damage was slowly fading too under the love of Sammy and his wife.
.......The couple, originally from some state with a lot of mountains and little else, left town without the boy, who was almost a year old.
.......I came into the case two months after Sammy and his wife adopted Stevie. Nurse Owens--to her glee I nicknamed her Nurse Ratchet for her persistence in the Stevie case--visited him twice monthly for two months until she collided with Mrs. Sammy's mother hen instincts. Unable to bear children, Mrs. Sammy showered a desperate maternal affection on the boy and resented what she saw as an intrusion by another childless woman.

.......Together with her husband, Mrs. Sammy barred Nurse Ratchet from visiting her son. Given her husband's influence, she could have made it stick. Nurse Ratchet saw me, I saw Sammy, and Nurse Ratchet resumed her periodic visits.
.......My job was to ensure access to Stevie. For the first few months Nurse Ratchet and I visited Sammy and wife regularly. After a year or so I tagged along on occasion, maybe once a month, just to see how Stevie was doing; I found myself developing a bond with Stevie, who as a toddler liked to pull at my nose to hear me honk-honk.
.......Mrs. Sammy, given name Joanna, hates Nurse Ratchet and me, but she may hate me more because she knows I have a hold over her husband. Not to put too fine a point on it, I blackmail him. Sammy does what I tell him because I have financial records he'd just as soon not be made known at city hall, where he works. He's a virtuoso accountant and an asset to be pampered if you're a politician and think of dishonesty as a virtue. One time only he was dishonest to the wrong people, and I dug up the documentation. If this became known, there would be severe consequences at city hall. Sammy knows I'll keep his secret as long as he comes when I call and gets me whatever I happen to need. Why does he know? He realized that when I was near bankruptcy I did not demand money.
.......Stevie's name is now legally Steven Sammons, and he has a devoted father and an overprotective mother. He is seven and in the fourth grade of a school for bright kids and doing fine except for occasional nightmares. I give Nurse Owens credit for following up leads and getting Stevie out of that disastrous first family, and she in turn is grateful to me for using my leverage with Sammy.
***
.......Now, at Torelli's, Sammy seemed a bit uncertain of himself: he'd never been to see me before unless I ordered him into my presence. It was Nurse Ratchet who spoke first. "Angello," she said, "Mr. Sammons here came to see me, and I think we need you." She has a drill sergeant voice when she wants to use it. At other times it is rich and nicely modulated. Her gold earrings and glasses with their gold wire frames gleamed under the restaurant light. She's a friendly woman and smiles often when not worried. She was not smiling as she recalled the coffee at her elbow and took a sip. As she lifted her cup to her lips, she said, "It happened to your wife, Mr. Sammons."
.......Sammy twitched nervously, then said, "She's home. She won't leave the boy. This afternoon someone tried to approach Stevie. Jo thinks maybe kidnap him." My nod and raised eyebrows signaled him to go ahead. I kept eating. He glanced at Nurse Ratchet and went on, "Today Jo was running late to get Stevie. When she got to the school, Stevie was walking away from a car and a tall thin man was hurrying around the rear to get inside. She saw him for an instant before he got in, but he drove away in a hurry. Stevie told her that the man wanted him to get into his car. Said he was a polite man."
......."How does he know?"
.......Nurse Ratchet said, "He spoke courteously and gave Stevie a candy bar." She spoke with quiet fury. If that man were to appear in Torelli's and she could identify him for a certainty, she'd kill him. She is fond of all the children she oversees, but especially of Stevie.
.......Sammy and wife didn't want her around before, but they want her now, I reflected as I ate and listened. They even want me. When I asked about the candy bar Sammy said, "Jo threw it away."
......."Tell me about the car the man drove."
......."She said it was dirty and beginning to rust out."
......."Where?"
......."Trunk lid and one of the doors."
......."Color?"
......."Two-tone brown."
......."More."
......."Beige top, the rest dark brown."
......."More."
......."Some travel stickers on the rear window."
......."License plate?"
......."Out of state, she said. Anyhow, she didn't think to read it, too agitated. Besides, she was watching Stevie get in her car." Like Nurse Ratchet, Joanna Sammons is a big woman. If she had got out of her car, her size alone would have scared him off. But she's not fast on her feet.
......."Did this guy see her pulling up?"
......."She thinks he did. Jo said he was leaving because Stevie was walking away, toward her. She's told Stevie often never to talk with strangers."
......."But he took a candy bar from this one."
.......Nurse Ratchet said, "A sort of reflex, Angello."
......."Stevie said that?"
......."Told me he didn't want to take it, but this man was smiling and courteous and tucked it into his backpack like he knew Stevie was expecting it."
.......Sammy broke in, "Stevie feels bad about that."
......."Did he say anything to Stevie?"
.......Deep concern on Nurse Ratchet's face and fright on Sammy's as he said, "Mentioned something about his people."
......."That's all?"
......."Stevie was uncomfortable," Nurse Ratchet said. "He knew he shouldn't have taken the candy bar. He was confused and he turned away just as Mrs. Sammons pulled up."
......."Did this man leave because Stevie walked away or because his mom arrived?"
.......She looked at Sammy. He said, "Because she pulled up. He left real fast, she said." He anticipated my next question. "She didn't get a good look at him, too disturbed, and he had on this big-brimmed hat. But Stevie did."
.......Nurse Ratchet said, "Angello, we need you to look into this."
.......I said to Sammy, "What does your wife say?"He nodded slowly. "She wants you to investigate."