CHAPTER 34
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Surf Avenue and Twenty-First Street Coney Island, Brooklyn
12:45 p.m.
Zochi knew that although homeless people usually lacked structured and scheduled days, unhoused locals often had reliable patterns that could be divined, spots they frequented at similar times during the day. One was the Brooklyn Medicaid Office and Department of Social Services building on Twenty-First Street, just south of Surf Avenue. A square brick structure on an otherwise flat, featureless street. There were no trees, so there was no shade. Wilomena had found some, though, inside a little alcove near the front entrance. She was seated on a plastic milk crate, one heavy arm resting on her shopping cart.
“Wilomena, how are you?” Zochi asked, hiking up her waistband as she walked over.
Wilomena rolled her eyes but otherwise did not make a move to leave. “Who killed Lois? Why ain’t he in jail?”
“We don’t know who it is yet,” Zochi said. “We don’t know if it was a ‘he.’”
“It’s always a ‘he.’ Wake up.”
“Usually, yeah. So, listen, there’s something we found.”
“Yeah, just not who did it. Here you are anyway, hassling old Wilomena.”
“Nah, not hassling. So you know what’s weird?”
“What?” Wilomena said, suddenly without guile, like she’d been taken off guard, and genuinely curious.
“The bra that was wrapped around Lois’s neck that night,” Zochi said, looking down at her cell phone to avoid direct eye contact. “The thing is, we don’t know if it was really hers.”
“Oh yeah? Why not?”
“To the medical examiner, it didn’t look like it would have fit her,” Zochi said. She made eye contact but then flicked her eyes down the block toward the boardwalk. “And there was something else. On the bra strap, there was an inscription.” For a fleeting moment, Zochi thought about quickly defining “inscription,” then thought better of it.
“What was the inscription?” Wilomena asked, stressing the word to acknowledge that she knew what it meant.
“Six letters. F-W-Y-D-T-M.” The next line was a fib, but such was detective work. “We found those letters on other clothes Lois had on too. It was like a label or something that she put on her stuff. You know, like maybe some combination of letters that meant something to her. Did she ever talk to you about that? Those letters? Their meaning?”
“F-W-Y-D-T-M. That’s it, right?”
“It is,” Zochi said, concealing a grin. Wilomena was many things that Zochi would never understand, but intellectually compromised was not among them.
“Right. Six consonants, not even a goddamn vowel. And yeah, I know—‘sometimes Y.’ But this ain’t the sometimes. So, no, I don’t know what the fuck it means. But see, to me, that ain’t the point anyway.”
“Okay. What’s the point?”
“She didn’t have no bra on that night.”
“What?”
“You heard me.”
“How do you know?”
“How would you know something like that? You look at a woman. You’re not blind, yo. So you can see nipples stickin’ out and titties swingin’ back and forth. That clear enough? Lois didn’t have no bra on that night.”
“Gotcha. Thank you, Wilomena.”
CHAPTER 35
Mermaid Avenue near Twenty-First Street
3:00 p.m.
“Where you at?” Zochi said into her phone when Len Dougherty picked up. She was in her city car, slurping the last of an iced latte and watching a hand-to-hand drug deal proceed near an old storefront church on Mermaid Avenue. She could not have been more apparent to them as a cop had she pulled her sunglasses off and waved her shield, but both men seemed unconcerned.
“Avenue X, by the train.”
“Way up there? Did you get lost?”
“I’m under the El; there’s shade at least.” As if to confirm this, the roar of the F train sang through the phone. “What’re you up to?”
“Watching a buy.”
“Where?”
“Between the Beulah church and a deli.”
“Gonna do anything about it?”
“Yeah right. You talk to Robbie DeSantos?”
“Yep. Drove out there last night. Found him at work.”
“Does he have an alibi for either body?”
“Yeah, but they’ve gotta be confirmed. There’s a guy from the One-Two-Two who’s helping me run them down.” The 122nd was the precinct that covered most of Staten Island’s South Shore. “They’re similar, so it shouldn’t take long.”