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That was likely to continue because why would a woman vanish in order to reinvent and leave her given name intact.
Detective rule number one: without knowing your victim, your chance of solving a murder is dismal.
No sense reminding my friend.
—
I took a coffee break then got to work on a nearly completed report, interrupted myself by answering the phone because of the caller.
Judge Julie Beck said, “Morning, hope it’s not too early.”
“Been up for a while.”
“Good,” she said. “New development on Ruffalo hates Ruffalo: neither of them wants Derek evaluated.”
“Why?”
“The one thing they agree on is any emotional analysis would be irrelevant. Which would be the end of it if I was willing to sign off but they got the wrong judge.”
A beat. “Now I’m going to tell you something off the record, Alex: I have credible information about therealreason they’re trying to prevent an eval. Once they cash out, neither of them has the slightest intention of ever doing any parenting of this poor boy. They don’t want anything on the record that will get in the way of ditching him. Let alone paying his bills.”
“Ditching him how?”
“Best guess some sort of fraud claim about the adoption. The big bad Russians and all that. Meanwhile, the poor kid goes to foster care and all the wonderfulness that entails.”
“Unbelievable,” I said. “Credible information as in one of the lawyers doesn’t like it.”
“Off the record? Neither of them likes it. As I told you the first time, these are decent people, have kids of their own and donotwant to be parties to abusive abandonment. One has adopted kids, that’s really given her a reality check.”
“Sounds like the worst abuse could be leaving Derek with either Ruffalo.”
“Of course,” she said. “He clearly needs to get away from them but not the way they want to do it, basically throwing him away. Not if I can help it. I’m going to do my darndest to see that there’s a generous, long-term care plan in place. As in trust fund, these idiots can afford it. It’s nuts, right? Usually people drive us crazy because they see the kids as property and stake claims. These bastards can’t wait to get rid of their child.”
“Good for you, Julie.”
“I may not be able to pull it off but I’m going to try, starting with tabling any requests to bifurcate money and custody. The big risk is the evil ones try to get a different judge and the lawyers end up wussing out. But so far, I’m not getting that feeling from them. So you’re still in?”
“Of course. What do you need me to do?”
“Nothing right now but be available when the time comes for the evaluation. Your input will be vital. Not just for the emotional stuff, also actuarially. I want this boy’s living expenses comprehensively taken care of and one of the biggest-ticket items will be education. You’ll give him an IQ test and if he scores average, we’ll go for funding through a bachelor’s degree. If you tell me he’s smart—and from what I hear from the attorneys, both of whom have talked to his prep school, he’s super-smart—we’ll make sure he can go to med school, get a Ph.D., whatever.”
“How about a postdoc?”
She laughed. “Sure, why not? Notice I didn’t say law school, Alex, because cases like this remind me the law truly is an ass.”
—
Milo called at two p.m.
“Just had another charming chat with Dougie. What an asshole, he’s still bitching about the jewelry. I informed him he’d get it when he got it and if he had a complaint, file it with Nguyen. Whose name I spelled for him. Then I phoned John and he said, ‘What a dick, like I’d take his call.’ The only other thing to report is Moe did find another neighbor who saw a little dark car that night. Nervous woman, lives midway between Gio’s and Meagin’s. She was walking her pooch and it zoomed by, going south.”
I said, “Away from Gio’s. What time?”
“Within the range of the shootings.”
“The bad guy leaving.”
“If it’s anything, it’s that, Alex. Unfortunately, she had nothing on make, model, or tags. Car was moving too fast, that’s why she noticed it in the first place. The kids are still out there doorbelling, maybe we’ll get lucky.”
