“The song?” Mimi asked. She listened closer. Outside her office door sat one of the administrative staff members, an older woman named Helena. She played an easy-listening station through her computer most of the day. It was a sound that Mimi rarely noticed after a few minutes each morning, but now she could hear it, tinny and distant. The song was “Looks Like We Made It,” by Barry Manilow.
“It was big that week,” Joe said. “The week of the blackout. July 1977.” He was clad in a simple dark suit and tie, and typical of a trial lawyer, he seemed both unemotional and comfortable in a DA’s office. But now his brow was knitted, and his eyes darkened. “Wow. I swear, I really didn’t think I’d react to any of this.”
“Let us know if you need a moment,” Mimi said.
“Nah, I’m fine, thanks.” He sighed. “It was just a strange feeling all of a sudden. That song was big that summer. Do you know it?”
“My mother is a huge fan,” Mimi said with a grin. “Of course I know it. I was fifteen the year of the ’77 blackout.”
“My brother was also,” Joe said. “I was ten.”
“It was a weekday, right?” she asked. “We were out of school, but I think I remember that.”
“It was a Wednesday, yeah,” Joe said, as if relating a dream. “It was the last time I saw my mother. July 13.” His eyes met Mimi’s, and she found them profoundly deep. He was composed, but the eyes were like windows to a shrouded interior. “It was hotter than hell that day. Then it stormed like you wouldn’t believe. Then the lights went out. We were on the West Side Highway, going south.”
“We?”
“My brother, my mother, and me. We were going to Arizona. It seemed like another planet. You remember that show Alice?” Mimi smiled. Len looked at him blankly. “It was a movie too. Anyway, she figured she could move us out there over the summer, get a job, and start us in school somewhere. She needed money, though. So the plan was to stop at my uncle Mike’s place. He was a bachelor. Truth is, he was gay, but no one talked about that then. We were going to stop there for a few days, my mother was going to soak the poor guy for whatever money she could get, and then we were going to head off to Phoenix. But the lights went out.”
“And you were in the car,” Mimi said, not really a question. She could almost feel how scary that would be.
“Yeah. My mother lived through the ’65 blackout, but that was a different world. We might have made it down to the ferry anyway, but we ran out of gas. It was right around Seventy-Ninth Street, where the boat basin is. She pulled the car off the exit; it sputtered and died. Then she told us to wait in the car while she looked for a can of gas. That was it.” With this, Joe put his hands together in prayer formation and looked from Mimi to Len with an almost wide-eyed expression. “We just never saw her again.”
“So the two of you made it to Staten Island on your own?” Len asked.
“More or less, but that’s another story.”
“Wow,” Mimi said quietly, breaking the silence that followed. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s old business,” Joe said with a shrug. “I did okay, I guess. My uncle was a godsend. He helped me get into Fordham, before he died. I was eighteen when that happened. Robbie—my brother, Robert—was twenty-three. He’s still in Staten Island. He didn’t do so well, but he’s a survivor.”
“No criminal record?” Len asked.
“No. He’s kind of a scammer. Just being blunt. He’s had a string of jobs like the one he has now.”
“Which is where?”
“He’s at a long-term rehab center near SIU Hospital in Midland Beach. Before that he was mostly in nursing homes, caring for the elderly. Except in his case, that meant ripping them off, too, from time to time. I’ve had to deal with the families of two or three of his victims.”
“He got money from them?” Len asked. “How?”
“Personal effects, mostly. Jewelry, cash. It never reached the courts. I guess it couldn’t be proven, but there were a few angry family members who tracked me down and knew I was a lawyer. I tried to make it right when I could. I sent money to a couple of them.”
“Did Robbie know you were doing this—making restitution for him?” Mimi asked.
“I think he knows I did it, yeah. We’ve never really talked about it. It’s hard to explain, but I think whatever I did for Robbie, he felt entitled to anyway. I wasn’t sure if I’d hear from him again at all, but he reached out about a year ago. We’ve stayed in touch since then.”