Read Online Sara Paretsky - V.I. Warshawski 08 by Tunnel Vision - Free Book Online Page B

left. I thought the woman could live in one of the
vacant offices for six weeks, instead of down below with the rats—as you can
imagine, the basement is full of them. But when we took her three kids to the
hospital last night, she got scared they’d be taken from her and disappeared.
    End
of story.”
    “You
didn’t think to consult the owners?” Donald Blakely, the Gateway banker, called
over.
    “That’s
why I was working in the basement: the owners haven’t cared enough about the
tenants to do routine maintenance. I certainly didn’t care enough about them to
tell them about this woman: all they would have done is called the cops and get
her arrested for trespassing.”
    “They’d
be within their rights,” Gantner said.
    “The
real problem is liability,” Eleanor Guziak said. “I think Donald’s point is
that if the woman gets hurt, or injures someone herself, the owners are still
on the hook for damages, even if they’ve let the building run down.”
    I
didn’t think that was Donald’s point at all, but Eleanor was following the
first law of corporate advancement: make the boss look good at all times.
Donald seconded her warmly, then demanded to know where the building was.
    “So
you can call the cops yourself? No, thanks. Anyway, the woman has disappeared.
I don’t know if she’ll come back to my building because it’s familiar, or stay
away because she thinks she’ll be arrested.”
    “Donald
doesn’t want to call the cops. He wants to help the woman out, don’t you,
Donald?” Deirdre said.
    “Deirdre.”
Fabian’s voice was heavy with warning.
    “No,
don’t you ‘Deirdre’ me. I know what I’m talking about. Gateway Bank is the
biggest booster of housing for the homeless in town. We studied them at Home
Free.” She lifted her glass to toast Blakely. “So Vic shouldn’t feel shy about
giving Donald her office address. It’s the Pulteney Building, isn’t it, Vic,
down near Monroe.”
    I was
surprised that she could recall that chance-dropped fact, and furious that she
had made my private problem public.
    Blakely
smiled blandly at Deirdre and looked at Fabian. “The real problem is the number
of drunks and crazies who are wandering the streets.”
    “Funny
how we only got drunks and crazies in such large numbers in the last decade,” I
snapped.
    Gantner
and Blakely affected not to hear me. Gantner turned his back on me again and
loudly reported on a conservative think-tank study that proved most homeless
people roamed the streets by choice. I snapped my fork down on my plate so hard
that a piece of salmon ricocheted from it and landed on my silk blouse.
    As I
got up to ask one of the staff for a glass of club soda, I saw Emily looking
anxiously from me to Deirdre.
    I
went over to her. “What’s the problem, honey? Worried that I’m arguing with
your folks?”
    She pulled
on the ends of her tangled hair. “Would the cops arrest the mother if they
found her?”
    I
didn’t think that was what was really bothering her, but I answered her
seriously. “They might. Most people would say she was being a bad parent,
letting her kids live down there.”
    “But
you don’t?”
    “I
don’t know enough of her story. I keep thinking she may be doing the best thing
she can when she doesn’t have very many choices.”
    “What
were they doing there?” she muttered.
    “You
mean, how did they get there? I don’t know—I’ve been wondering about that
myself. I walked around the basement earlier today but couldn’t see any
openings into it.”
    “But
what do they live on?”
    “I
don’t know that either. She does manage to find food for the children.”
    “Aren’t
the rats dangerous?” Her gray eyes were painfully large in her anxiety.
    “Rats
won’t bother them unless they have food,” I said with more conviction than I
felt. “I go down to that basement a lot to work on the wiring and they never
come near me. I think the mother is too smart to let her children eat