Public Secrets

not the ID. “I need to ask you some questions.”
“Can’t this wait, Lieutenant?” Pete Page took a long, hard look at the identification. “Mr. McAvoy’s not in any shape to deal with this now.”
“It would help us all if we got the preliminaries over with.” Lou sat. After replacing his badge, he spread his hands on his knees. “I’m sorry, Mr. McAvoy. I don’t want to add to your grief. I want to find out who’s responsible for this.”
Brian lit a cigarette from the butt of another and said nothing.
“What can you tell me about what happened tonight?”
“They killed Darren. My little boy. The took him out of his crib, and left him on the floor.”
Sick at heart, Johnno snatched up his Styrofoam cup of coffee and turned away. Lou reached in his pocket for his pad and freshly sharpened pencil.
“Do you know of anyone who might have wanted to harm the boy?”

“No. Everyone loves Darren. He’s so bright and funny.” Brian’s throat locked up, and he looked around blindly for his own cup.
“I know this is difficult. Can you tell me about tonight?”
“We had a party. We were all going to New York tomorrow, and we had a party.”
“I’d like a list of the guests.”
“I don’t know. Bev might …” He trailed off, remembering that Bev was in a room down the hall, heavily sedated.
“We should be able to put together a fairly accurate list between us,” Pete put in. He tried to drink more coffee, but it was burning a hole in his gut. “But you can be sure that no one Brian invited to his home would have done this.”
Lou intended to find out. “Did you know everyone at the party, Mr. McAvoy?”
“I don’t know. Probably not.” He rested his elbows on his knees a moment to rub the heels of his hands hard against his eyes. The pain was the closest he could get to comfort. “Friends and friends of friends, and like that. You open the door and people come. It just happens.”
Lou nodded as if he understood. He remembered the parties Marge planned. The careful guest lists, RSVPs, the detailed checks and rechecks of food. Their fifteenth-anniversary party had been planned as meticulously as a state dinner.
“We’ll work on the list,” Lou decided. “Your daughter, Emma, is it?”
“Yes, Emma.”
“She was upstairs during the party.”
“Yes. Asleep.” His babies, tucked away, safe and sound. “They were both asleep.”
“In the same room?”
“No, they have separate rooms. Alice Wallingsford, our nanny, was upstairs with them.”
“Yes.” He’d already had the report that the nanny had been found bound, gagged, and terrified in her own bed. “And the little girl fell down the steps?”

Brian’s hand jerked spasmodically on his cup, his fingers pushing through the Styrofoam. Coffee spilled out the holes and onto the floor. “I heard her call me. I was coming out of the kitchen with Bev.” He remembered, clear as a bell, that quick, horny kiss they’d shared before the scream. “We ran in, and she was on the floor at the foot of the steps.”
“I saw her fall.” P.M. blinked his red-rimmed eyes. “I looked up and she was tumbling down. It all happened so fast.”
“You said she screamed.” Lou looked back at P.M. “Did she scream before she fell, or after?”
“I … before. Yes, that was why I happened to look up. She called out, then seemed to lose her balance.”
Lou noted it down. He’d have to talk to the little girl. “I hope she wasn’t badly hurt.”
“The doctors.” Brian’s cigarette had burned down to the filter. Dropping it in the ashtray, he switched to the inch of cold, bitter coffee that was left in the mangled cup. “They haven’t come out again. They haven’t told me. I can’t lose her, too.” The coffee spilled as his hand began to shake. Johnno sat beside him.
“Emma’s tough. Kids take tumbles all the time.” He sent Lou a vicious look. “Can’t you leave him alone?”
“Just a few more questions.” He was used to vicious looks. “Your wife, Mr. McAvoy, she found your son?”
“Yes. She went upstairs after we heard the ambulance. She wanted to check on … She wanted to be sure, you see, that he hadn’t woke up. I heard her screaming, screaming, screaming. And I ran. When I got into Darren’s room, she was sitting on the floor with him, holding him. And screaming. They had to give her something to put her out.”
“Mr. McAvoy, have there been any threats against you, your wife, or your