Every Second

39

Roseoak Park, New York

Officer Rocco Campisi downed the last of his coffee as he turned into the Empire Coastal Mall.

Tonight was going to be sweet.

His brother-in-law had scored tickets to the Mets’ game behind home plate. It was all Campisi could think of as he neared the end of his tour on patrol in the 111th Precinct. He’d swing through the mall and scope the lot for cars on his hot sheet. That would take him to the end of his shift.

Campisi guided his blue-and-white patrol car into the north entrance where the lot was pretty much at capacity.

Two cars topped his list.

The first was a red 2013 Toyota Corolla, wanted in the hit-and-run of a three-year-old boy in Brooklyn this morning. The boy was in critical condition, and Campisi was eager to grab the asshole who’d taken off and left him for dead. The second was the car from the bank heist. They’d been screaming for that one all day-a 2015 blue Ford Taurus.

Campisi and other patrol units had already searched this lot earlier, but he wasn’t confident the other unit had been as thorough as he’d like, which was why he’d decided to swing back and double-check.

Campisi crawled through every zone in the lot, concentrating on red Corollas and blue Tauruses. Shoppers pushing carts to their cars cleared the way for him, while people walking to the mall gave him a cursory glance.

He drove slowly up and down rows of sedans, vans, compacts, hybrids, SUVs and pickup trucks, working his way from one section to the next.

In Zone 11, he came across two red Corollas that were candidates, but the year and partial plate didn’t match. Rolling through Zone 12, he discovered a blue Taurus, but the year was way off.

He got zilch in Zone 13.

Zone 14 was farthest from the others and held fewer vehicles. It would be a fast search, Campisi thought, threading around shopping carts and vehicles dotting the area.

What’s this?

His focus shifted to a sedan in the back corner. It was a blue Ford, a Taurus, and his breath quickened as he approached.

It was a 2015 blue Ford Taurus SEL.

His eyes widened as he read the plate.

“Bingo!”

Campisi reached for his radio.

Varner was alerted to the discovery of Dan Fulton’s car, which had set off a chain reaction of fast-moving investigative events.

Instructions for the Taurus were sent with an extreme caution-explosives may be present-and Varner was glad to see the officer had cordoned off a large area around it using yellow tape tied to shopping carts. Soon sirens wailed as police, fire and paramedics arrived.

As the NYPD bomb squad examined the car, Varner and Tilden made their way inside to obtain the mall security video.

“I’ll bet my pension they used a switch car, or took Fulton with them in their vehicle,” Tilden said as they hustled to the security office.

Empire Coastal’s security chief took Tilden and Varner into the dimly lit security control room where they viewed footage taken of Zone 14 in the time after the robbery.

“And there it is,” Tilden said.

Cameras had captured crisp images of Fulton leaving his Taurus with a duffel bag and getting into a green Chevy Impala.

“Go back even earlier,” Varner said. “We need to see how the Impala got there.”

The security chief reversed, then slowed the footage, showing the Chevy as it emerged in the lot. It was parked there about an hour before the heist and would not have drawn suspicion. The driver was wearing dark clothing with a hoodie and ball cap, making identification a challenge. It appeared he was wearing gloves. The cameras recorded the driver walking off the lot after leaving the Impala.

“Pull in on the car,” Tilden said.

The mall’s security cameras were first-rate and easily captured the Chevy’s plate, a New York tag, which Tilden and Varner noted. A few quick calls resulted in Empire Coastal volunteering the security video and sending it electronically to the NYPD’s forensic experts for further analysis.

Several hundred yards from the mall control room, bomb squad techs cleared Fulton’s Ford. They’d found no explosive devices in the vehicle and the forensic team moved in to process it for evidence.

After the latest information was assessed, a new lookout with key details was blasted to law enforcement agencies, urging them to locate a white male in a green 2014 Chevy Impala, possibly wearing a suicide vest.

The Impala was registered to Roxanne Butler, age sixty-four, of 28 Rugged Shore Drive, Alexandria Bay, New York.

There was no response when a New York State Trooper checked on the residence, but a neighbor said that Roxanne and her husband, Jeff Butler, had left five days earlier for Florida for a ten-day Caribbean cruise. They’d driven to Ogdensburg, where they’d flown out of Ogdensburg International Airport.

Homeland Security confirmed the Butlers’ flights and the Ogdensburg Police Department determined that the Butlers’ Chevy Impala had been taken from the long-term parking lot at the local airport.

They had no GPS on the vehicle.

A lot of planning had gone into the heist, Varner thought while driving back to Federal Plaza. Blaine and his associates had made a few mistakes-the fingerprint on the tape was practically rookie-but they’d thought this through. Taking the Impala from long-term parking had given them time, and who knew what they planned to do with it?

Varner was nearing the Brooklyn Bridge when his phone rang. He took the call using hands-free.

“Varner.”

“Nick, its Marv. Port Authority and the Real Time Center tracked the Impala crossing the Throgs Neck Bridge into the Bronx, then taking the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey. Then New Jersey has him on the Four north, where we lose him for a bit, but we pick him up again heading north on the New York Thruway.” Varner could hear the excitement in Tilden’s voice. “This is a huge break, pal.”

“We’re gaining on them, Marv.”

“Damn straight. Talk to you soon.”

The break was encouraging, but Varner couldn’t shake off his underlying fear arising from Jerricko Blaine’s connection to Lori Fulton.

This case gets darker at every turn and we just don’t know where it’s going to lead.