Mystic River / Таинственная река. Деннис ЛихэйнЧитать онлайн книгу.

      Whitey Powers nodded, “You're with me, kid. For now.” He turned Sean toward the car with the open door, then pointed at the weeds and the park beyond. “I guess we'll find her over there somewhere. But, you know, we just started looking, and Friel says we call it a Missing Person till we find a body. Want to look at the car?”

      “You said 'her,'” Sean said as they went under yellow crime scene tape and headed for the car.

      “The CSS found her registration. Car's owner is a Katherine Marcus.”

      “Damn,” Sean said.

      “Know her?”

      “Might be the daughter of a guy I know.”

      “You guys are close?”

      Sean shook his head. “No, not anymore.”

      They reached the car and Whitey pointed at the open driver's door as a CSS tech stepped back from it. “Just don't touch anything, guys.”

      Sean took one look at the weeds leading up to the park and knew if they found a body, they'd find it in there. “What do we have?”

      “Door was open when we found it. Keys were in the ignition, headlights were on,” the tech reported.

      Sean noticed a bloodstain over the speaker on the driver's door. Then he saw another spot of blood on top of the steering wheel. A third stain, longer and wider than the other two, was around the edges of a bullet hole in the driver's seat at shoulder level. Sean was looking past the door at the weeds to the left of the car, then he looked at the outside of the driver's door and saw a fresh dent there.

      He looked at Whitey, and Whitey nodded. “Someone probably stood outside the car. The Marcus girl – if that's who was driving – hits him with the door. He shoots her, uh, I don't know, in the shoulder, maybe? The girl starts running anyway.” He pointed at some weeds flattened by running feet. “They head for the park. Her wound couldn't have been too bad, because we've only found a few bloodstains in the weeds.”

      Sean said, “We got units over there in the park?”

      “Two.”

      Sean stepped back. “You found any ID besides the car registration?”

      “Yeah. Wallet under the seat, driver's license of Katherine Marcus. There was a backpack behind the passenger seat. Billy's checking the contents now.”

      Sean looked at the guy on his knees in front of the car, a dark blue backpack in front of him.

      “How old did her license say she was?” Sean asked.

      “Nineteen,” Whitey said. “And you know the father? The poor man probably has no idea.”

      Sean turned his head, watched the sun cut through the clouds, and remembered that wild aloneness he'd seen in eleven-year-old Jimmy Marcus's face when they'd almost stolen that car. Sean could feel that aloneness now, standing by the weeds leading to Penitentiary Park.

      He thought of Lauren who'd been in his dream this morning. He thought of Lauren and wished he could just get back into that dream and disappear.

      7

      Nadine Marcus, Jimmy and Annabeth's younger daughter, had her Holy Communion for the first time on Sunday morning at Saint Cecilia's church in the Flats. Her hands pressed together, white veil and white dress making her look like a baby bride or snow angel, she walked up the aisle with forty other children.

      Jimmy put his arm around Annabeth, and she leaned to him and whispered: “Our baby. My God, Jimmy, our baby.”

      Jimmy and Annabeth were crazy about their girls. They worked hard to keep them happy, and the girls knew they were loved. Jimmy, who'd hated his old man, preferred the old ways of raising children. A kid knew the parents loved him but were still the bosses, rules existed for a reason, no really meant no, and just because you were cute didn't mean you could do what you wanted.

      Of course, Jimmy thought, you could raise a good kid, and later have troubles anyway. Like with Katie today. Not only had she never showed up for work, but now it looked like she has missed her younger half sister's First Communion. What the hell was going on?

      Katie was nineteen, okay, so the world of her younger half sisters probably couldn't compare to guys and clothes and bars. Jimmy understood this, but missing this event, especially after all Jimmy had done when Katie was younger to mark the events in her life, was so wrong. That's why it made Jimmy angry.

      By the time Nadine and the other kids walked out through the back door of the church, Jimmy started feeling less angry but more and more worried about Katie. She wasn't one to let her half sisters down. They worshipped her, and she loved them – taking them to movies, out for ice cream.

      So why would she miss Nadine's First Communion?

      Maybe she had met a handsome new guy. Maybe she'd just forgotten.

      Annabeth touched his hand and, as if reading his mind, said, “I'm sure she's fine. With a hangover, probably. But fine.”

      Jimmy smiled and nodded. Annabeth was Jimmy's foundation, plain and simple. She was his wife, mother, best friend, sister, lover, and priest. When Jimmy had gotten out of prison, at first the things were tough, and he had to choose between a car payment and Katie's Christmas present. People said it was in his blood – stealing, crime. But then, when he'd met Annabeth a year after, Jimmy bought Al DeMarco's corner store and became a shopkeeper – all for his little girl. She couldn't go through another two years if he went to prison again. So he stayed straight.