City of the Dead by Sara Gran

Author:Sara Gran [Gran, Sara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective, Women Sleuths, Mystery Fiction, New Orleans (La.), Investigation, Thriller, Women Private Investigators, Mystery, Missing Persons, Gang Members, Public prosecutors, Missing Persons - Investigation, 2005, Hurricane Katrina, 2005 - Social Aspects
ISBN: 9780547428499
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

When we finished with the pictures the boys went back to their conversation. Nicholas, the cute boy, came and sat next to me.

"That was fucked up," he said, pretending to laugh.

"Thank you," I said.

"So," he said, looking at the floor. "My sister. You know where she's at?"

I looked at him. He didn't look like a boy anymore. He looked like a little old man, with the burdens of an unfair life on his back.

"You been looking for her?" I asked.

He nodded. He looked bone-weary tired.

"Few years now," he said.

"You didn't lose her in the storm?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"Foster care?" I guessed.

He nodded. "I ain't seen her in five years," he said.

"I don't know where she is," I said. "But I can tell you how to find her. But the thing is—people change. You know that, right?"

He nodded.

"She might not be the person you're thinking of. She might not even be someone you want to know. You understand that?"

He nodded again, his old-man face serious.

"Okay. You know that guy over there, Mr. Mick?" I asked, pointing at Mick.

"Yeah."

"Well, you give him everything you know about her—her full name, her date of birth, her Social if you have it—and he'll find her for you. Shouldn't take him more than one, two days. But he probably can't get to it until he's done with this thing he's helping me with, 'cause I'm keeping him pretty busy. You tell him I promised, okay? Tell him I promised."

The boy nodded and thanked me. I didn't know if he would do it or not. I would've offered to help him myself, but Mick would do it faster—he knew the ins and outs of the system in Louisiana. Besides, why steal his chance to be a do-gooder?

The boy wandered off and I pretended to read a magazine for a while, all the while keeping my eyes on the tall boy who'd lied about not knowing Vic. After a while he got up to use the bathroom. I was waiting for him when he came out.

"Hi," I said.

The boy jumped.

"What the fuck?" he said. "You waiting for me?"

"So you knew Vic," I said.

His whole body tensed. You didn't have to be a detective to know something was wrong. He frowned.

"You seem like a nice lady," he said. "But everyone around here know. You talk to the crazy lady about the DA, you dead."

"Really," I said. "Where'd you hear that from?"

The tall boy laughed and shook his head.

"Sorry," he said. "I ain't fucking around with that."

"Thanks anyway," I said. He nodded.

I turned to walk away. Then I heard the boy inhale and I turned back. He had something else to say.

We looked at each other. His long, serious face looked tired. Tired of fighting, tired of keeping secrets, tired, probably, of living in a world where if you say the wrong thing to the wrong person, you die.

"If you wanna find Lawrence," he said. "He hangs out at this park up in the Irish Channel. Third and Annunciation, around there.

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