sightings.â
âWhere?â
âLetâs see, there was a story in some little throwaway and there were some circulars posted and ⦠kid who went to school with him said he was pretty sure he saw Charles Randolph shooting baskets over at St. Patrickâs playground the weekend after he disappeared. Then a woman, a former neighbor of the Randolphs, said she thought she saw Charles standing in front of the Pizza Hut at Dadeland Mall.â
âWhen?â
âSame weekend.â
âWally, theyâre more than twenty-five miles apart. Any true sightings?â
âSome kid came forward after a PA announcement at his school, says he saw Charles at a video game parlor at Northside. Says he chased after him and the kid threatened him with big trouble if he mentioned seeing him.â
âWhat do you think?â
âEhhh, maybe a combo of being too eager to help, and an overactive imagination. At the time, though, it seemed like the kid could be out there playing cat and mouse. Now ⦠who knows?â
âAnything lately?â
âNah. This oneâs been gathering dust. We get new cases every day.â
âHe didnât run away,â I said accusingly. âWhat happened?â
âAll I know is a kid is walking down Garden in broad daylight, then poufff! You tell me. You got a good imagination. Could be heâs some smart-ass still out there playing cat and mouse.â
I made a derisive sound.
âOr,â he continued, âfor all I know the father walloped the hell out of the kid for sassing âim, hit âim too hard, buried his mistake in the backyard, and then reported him missing. Itâs been done before, ya know.â
âSure,â I said. âThat explains why he came to the News looking for help. Explains why theyâve given thousands of dollars to phony psychics and Pls trying to find their son.â What I really wanted to tell Soams was that he couldnât find a fish at Sea World and was stealing his paycheck.
âHey,â he said affably, âif you turn up anything, let me know.â
Cassie Randolph answered on the second ring.
âMy husband said you might call. Thank you, Ms. Montero, for what youâre doing.â
âWell, I havenât done anything yet.â
âWe need to bring Charles home.â Her soft voice had a razor edge. âSome people, even friends, say we should accept the fact that heâs gone, that weâll never see him againâbut itâs not true. Heâs alive. Mothers know these things. Heâs out there somewhere and he needs us. We have to find him before itâs too late.â
âIf heâs out there,â I foolishly promised, âweâll find him. Somebody must know something.â
So I got carried away, but I meant every word, and we did have a good shot at it. The Newsâs circulation is more than half a million. Wire services, radio, and TV pick up our stories, circulating them even more widely. If I reported this well enough, we probably could bring Charles home, one way or the other. I hoped her maternal instincts were right. I prefer happy endings.
The doctor whose boat he had cleaned on his last job was out of town. The housekeeper was new. Vera Verela was in New York cutting an album. I caught her at the Westbury Hotel.
Her memory needed jogging, but once she knew what I was talking about, she was effusive and quotable. âThat beauuutiful boy,â she trilled. âSo quiet, so polite, and so hardworking. He still has not been found? ¡Dios mio! ¿Qui pasa en Miami? People donât just disappear.â
âThis one did.â
âHow terrible for his parents. Tell them I pray for them and their beautiful son.â
âDid he ever say anything to you about wanting to go somewhere or talk about anything that was troubling him?â
âBritt, I never really spoke to the boy. He comes once a week to
Learning to Kill: Stories