Tuesday 22nd April

Goren's Apartment, Brooklyn

Goren lay on the sofa staring at the ceiling. Defying his head to start aching or his stomach cramping after the day he had and after bolting down too much lasagne too quickly between working. Mom always said it was bad for the digestion and used to make him quit reading at the dinner table. Almost as often as she told Frankie she wished he would read more. Like his brother.

He wasn't prepared to dismiss that the early symptoms of a headache and indigestion were down to Frank as well. He assumed it was Caro returning his call when the phone rang. So his brother from Florida was a surprise and not necessarily one of the pleasant kind. At least he wasn't in trouble or wanting money, but the conversation was very one-sided.

Lots of cheery words and enquiries from Frank like it were not more than a year since they last spoke. When he'd told Frank in effect he wanted nothing more to do with him. Everyone had their limits, he was turning his life around and didn't need Frank dragging him back into the slough of guilt and despair he had been in since Mom died and which he was partly responsible for.

And that Frank was stupid not to realise he didn't just mean then and that moment, as he more or less threw him out of the apartment. For nigh on thirty years and now Mom was gone, there was no reason for him to feel obligated to him any longer.

Once or twice in the brief conversation, when Frank talked about coming back to New York and some plans he had for the future, Goren sensed his sibling bite down. The temptation to start to whine or more likely become abusive because he wasn't responding positively to all his vague notions about them getting together and being "one happy family" again. There had been little of that at times in his life and whilst he knew Caro would almost certainly go along with what he wanted, it would take more than one call not asking for money, before he'd be rushing to invite Frank for dinner.

That had been the frosting on the cake on a day of frustration. Needless to say "The Pelican" had not been spotted and the Harbor Patrol Division whilst helpful, had not built up his and Eames hopes. With a terrifying list of moorings in their jurisdiction it could be holed up. Never mind the calculations they made of how far a boat suitable for coastal waters could have travelled in two days.

Linton Pearce, as expected had drowned, though with hairline crack in his skull and bleeding beneath he would have been lucky to survive unaffected even without the East River filling his lungs. So far a Glock was the closest CSU came to identifying what hit him and it tied in with the vague description of the gun Mrs Pearce was able to give them.

Or rather Eames, who had worked patiently with a shrink and occasionally him, now she was over her initial trauma. But a hospitalised and badly distressed witness was not the best when it came to descriptions. Especially as all the men she really saw were masked. She turned out to have been in the galley getting lunch when Linton slowed the boat saying he was going to see if he could help this couple.

It meant her view of the people who flagged them down was restricted and she was overpowered whilst still below decks. Tied hands and feet over a small table she wasn't in a position to see or hear a lot of went on. But the threat of raping her was used to force Linton to explain the boat controls and some other things. June Pearce was obviously not the sailor in the family, but her distinct impression was none of the three or maybe four men, knew much about boats. And the only one she really heard speak was the "big man". The one closest to Goren himself for height and weight.

The description of him sounding like "Don Corleone" was interesting, in the sense both he and Eames had known people stuff cotton wool in their cheeks to disguise the voice. It might suggest there was something distinctive about it. Like a lisp he wanted to disguise. The database had not thrown up any "knowns" with speech defects fit the rest of the description. Among the general criminal population currently at large or that section with "previous" for crime involving boats.

How large that was and that there was a market in "stealing to order" the same as luxury cars was news to Goren. Perhaps that explained the headache? He was in an area of crime, despite growing up in sight of the New York waterways and almost the Atlantic, which was alien to him. As an environment anyway, since you had assume material gain was the reason for stealing the boat.

But no one they or the State Police found amongst the Pearce's social and business circle suggested the sort of people would know about "The Pelican" and aim to steal it. If anything, their friends owned bigger boats themselves and the one slim possibility had temporarily alienated a major source of information in Dobbs Ferry. Thanks to some heavy handed State cop discovering the housekeeper's elder son had previous for car theft.

He was alibied flipping burgers and despite the local enthusiasm, there was nothing in his record Goren or Eames could see suggested he had the sort of criminal contacts necessary. To organise a small and ruthless gang that probably had a buyer lined up for the boat. But it stalled things temporally with his mother who was being asked to think of anyone strange making enquiries or any unusual telephone calls.

Eames and he had also struck out at the boat builders. The place in New Jersey had supplied the boat and done some customising mainly of the interior, after taking delivery of a standard model from the builders who were in Maryland. No one there had a criminal record, they were open and helpful and didn't make them feel any better as a result.

Showed them how quickly and easily the boat's appearance could be changed temporarily. With the use of the same sort of "peel off" stripes and motifs you could buy for doing a quick "customise" on a car. The type of thing a professional like Lewis abhorred, but spotty teens and boy racers did all the time to make small five doors look "hot rod".

Usually to impress women, though the number of places sold such things to the public didn't impress Eames, assuming they even used decals and stripes aimed at the marine market. Temporarily, if the gang had disguised "The Pelican" to moor it up somewhere, they could have bought and used supplies from auto parts stores.

That left one avenue for them to chase tomorrow. The origin of the boat "the young couple" had. From the vague description from the soup-stirring Mrs Pearce and the best guess of the Harbor Patrol, it was one of those small day cruisers. The sort dozens of places hired. Though when you aim to steal a half million-dollar floating "gin palace" buying one used or even stealing it, wasn't out of the question.

The person who got the best look at them was dead and maybe that was why, though from what June Pearce said she suspected Linton who had been in the Reserve, might have made an attempt to fight. It was when the man began to rape her and she screamed that she heard scuffling "up top". Her beliefs that her husband was tied up in one of the other cabins more hope than expectation she now realised. When the "big man" began to funnel booze into her and make her put on a lifejacket, she assumed they would do the same to him and then push him overboard too.

As his phone rang, Goren hoped to hell it wasn't Frank trying again, though he had earlier said he had to head to work. He didn't believe he was some kind of deputy manager or whatever yarn he spun for one minute and when he picked up, it was the person he hoped it would be.

Caro told him she had been called back to the General earlier and by the time the call ended Goren felt better. For one thing she had news that she was getting a meeting at Bellevue next week about a job. That world was a relatively small one and the possibility of something opening up there was the news she had for him last weekend. She had put out "feelers" among her contacts and he knew Bellevue, world renown for its work in psychiatry and psychology, would please her.

As usual she made him laugh even though because of that, she would not be in New York at the weekend as originally planned. Offered to make it up to him with phone sex and said things made him both blush and mentally turn on. Before making out he was some kind of pervert for responding. And then when he stopped, saying he was not to. Forget him, she needed it and to keep talking "dirty" to her.

Caro really was "a headache" to him at times and one he wanted to have with him every day. And as soon as possible.

To be continued…