Guardian Angels – Ambivalent - 14

Dizzy looked down, scuffing one ragged shoe against the floor. "He was… A man who said he was a new person here asked him if he knew where the door to the basement was. Which was weird." He looked up at the detective again. "I mean if you work here wouldn't you know? But anyway, Micky said he did and went off with the man."

Detective Massey had his notebook out by then. "Can you describe him?"

"Umm, he's old, like Mr. Jones old, about"—he looked around—"as tall as him." He pointed to Paddy. "He's got real dark hair and a really skinny mouth."

"Skinny mouth?"

"Yeah, like his lips are really…skinny."

"Whoa," Mike whispered, causing the detective to look at him.

"You know him, Mr. Desmond?"

"No but… If it's the same man, he was here looking for someone. A runaway named, umm, Michael…" Mike pretended to try to remember the last name. "Michael O'Donnell."

"Did he give you his name?"

"Yes. John Keefe. He said he'd been hired to find the kid."

"Did he describe the kid?"

"Better than that, he had a photo, an old one he said." When the detective looked questioningly at him, Mike replied honestly, "The kid was sort of plump, with long brown hair and dark-framed glasses."

Dizzy drew in a breath. "That sounds like Micky a year ago, sorta. Not the glasses but the rest and he told me he was blind as a bat because he lost his glasses and couldn't afford new ones so when he needed to see he"—he chewed his lip, ducking his head—"he copped a pair of reading glasses from a store."

Detective Massey didn't look particularly surprised at that revelation. "Was he wearing them today?" Dizzy nodded. "Did Micky ever tell you his real name?"

Dizzy shook his head. "We just always went by Micky and Dizzy." He looked defiantly at him. "That's my name…now. Dizzy. Oh, yeah, what you asked. Micky was wearing his glasses 'cause he was reading a comic book."

The detective smiled slightly. "It's okay, I won't press the name thing." Tapping his pen thoughtfully against his jaw, he said, "Micky could be short for Michael, or Mike."

"So this Keefe guy could have thought he'd found the kid he was looking for," Paddy said. "But why push him down the stairs, if that's what happened? And how did he get the door unlocked?"

"Both good questions, for which I don't have an answer yet," Detective Massey replied. "It definitely does look like the fall down the stairs wasn't an accident. But we won't know until we can talk to Micky." The detective looked at the assembled group of people. "Does anyone have anything to add that might help?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"All right. Then I'll be going." He handed a card to Mike and the two other shelter employees standing there. "If any of you think of anything, or hear anything, please give me a call."