Left for Garbage

Meantime, there’s a little girl out there somewhere, and all that was needed, I felt, was for someone who could talk straight to cut through the lies and obfuscations, find out where Deeley was, and bring her home. To accomplish this I needed to give the kid, Denise, someone she not only trusted but someone she would be grateful to.
    So I hook up with my nephew the bail bondsman, throw my investigator Grace into the car, and head over to Florida. I cut through th e red tape, get Denise home to Mom and Dad, sit her down on the couch, and say, “Okay, Kid, let’s cut the lies and talk the truth. Where is the baby?”
    She didn’t like my asking. I could see that straight from the get-go. And, me, well I didn’t like her not liking me asking.
    I mean, wasn’t that the point? I’d come all the way down to Florida, left my ho und at home, given her a get-out-of-jail-free card and she’s pissed that I want to help find her child? I suppose my hinky meter began ringing right then, but I persevered.
    “C ome on, Denise, you can tell me. Did you get into a little trouble with someone, maybe give the baby to them to cover a bad situation?” I ask.
    I think, to be honest, she would have stayed silent , except right about then, her brother and her old man, Keith, come into the living room where we’re sitting having our little talk. Now, I’m getting ready to ask them to leave because, see, that’s my whole premise on why this kid Denise has been silent. I was thinking she didn’t want to tell what she knew in front of her people, especially that mother of hers.
    Margaret Brown is the sort of woman who could put the fear of God into just about anyone. Not me, mind you, but two minutes with her poor s.o.b. of a husband and you can see she got the job done on him long ago. At any rate, I’m getting ready to tell them to take a hike, but before I do, old Keith walks up real close to her and leans down and whispers. “Yes, Denise, please tell the man where Deeley is, why don’t you?”
    By this time I’m starting to wonder about these people. I mean, we got Margaret sobbing on the TV, but inside the house she’s as happy as the day is long, making little salmon patties for her daughter and not saying a word about Deeley. And now here’s old Keith whispering to his daughter and looking over his shoulder to make sure Margaret doesn’t hear him expressing a word of interest. And the cherry on top of the sundae is brother Seeley who’s grinning like a lovesick dog at Denise while stroking her arm and sa ying, “If you can, tell us, DMB, if it’s not too hard for you.”
    That’s what he calls her, DMB, like she a legal firm or some nonsense. It’s their little thing , I guess. Stands for Denise Margaret Brown. It’s also the baby’s actual initials. Weird, I know.
    So, the second he touches her it’s like me and Keith disappear. Those two are in their own world, and it’s him out of the three of us she answers, all soft and sweet, showing a side of herself I sure as hell hadn’t seen.
    “Okay, Seel, yes, I’ll tell you what really happened, you and Mr. Daley, but he has to go,” clearly meaning poor Keith.
    Now me, if one of my kids talked to me like that, well they’d be wearing sheetrock tuxedos, but poor old Keith, he just slinks out of the room and starts pacing around the kitchen. It’s a small house, damned small, so I could hear his sandals flapping on the linoleum and him sighing in there. But what I was focused on was what Denise was about to confess, and I’m waiting, and Seel’s waiting and patting and stroking any inch of her he could get his hands on. And Denise, she’s starting to just glow from the attention, and here’s the big inside scoop she gave us.
    Tells us how she’d never taken Deeley to Manny’s apartment that day. Instead, she’d met him over at a place called Kay Ranch Park, planning to later rendezvous there to pick up Deeley. Says when she got there, though, what went down was that this Manny starts going off on her about what a lousy mother she was and then jumps her and holds her down with the help of his boyfriend, Ferdinand Marcos. She says this Ferdinand tells her it’s Manny’s opinion that Denise is an unfit mother too, so with his - Ferdinand’s - help, they’re going to take Deeley to teach Denise a lesson. Then Manny instructs her not to go to the police and not to try and stop him and Ferdinand.
    Denise said she obeyed because she didn’t want these