Twenty-Three

“Clare, I’d like you to meet someone...”

Vicki Glockner approached me with a shaky smile; her hazel green eyes, so much like her dad’s, were still red and puffy from the moving memorial service we’d attended in the storefront church above. We were now mingling in the church basement—a brightly lit space with colorfully painted walls and a big Christmas tree in the corner.

At least two hundred Traveling Santas packed the place. Homeless men and soup kitchen workers had come, too, people who remembered Alf from his entertaining “stand-up Santa” visits in the shelter system. Even some of Alf’s old Staten Island friends were here. Omar Linford was not among them, and I wasn’t surprised. Shelly Glockner wasn’t here, either. But Vicki had warned me a week ago that her mother probably wouldn’t come to today’s service.

Like me, Vicki had worn a simple black pantsuit for the event. Her mass of caramel-colored curls was tied back in a tame ponytail. Walking close beside her now was a big, bald man. Tall and only slightly paunchy, he was dressed simply in black slacks and an open-neck black shirt. The man’s cheeks were cheerfully ruddy, his brown eyes lively under bushy brows, and the soft brown beard, trimmed close to his face, was shot with only a bit of sliver.

“Clare,” she said. “This is Peter Dominick.”

“Just call me Brother Dom,” the man insisted. He smiled down at me from his substantial height. His voice was very deep but soft and kind. “I understand you’re the lady to thank for the delicious boxes of cookies and muffins and all those hot thermoses of coffee.”

“She’s the one!” Vicki nodded, her jingle bell earrings ringing.

Vicki had been wearing those same earrings a week ago, the day after Alf had died. I suspected they’d been a gift from her dad, which probably meant they wouldn’t be coming off her ears anytime soon.

“Clare’s been great,” Vicki said. “She’s doing a lot for Dad right now.”

“How’s that?”

Vicki lowered her voice. “She found Dad’s killer.”

Brother Dom’s bushy brown eyebrows rose. “So you’re a policewoman, too?”

“No, no! I’m a coffeehouse manager. I just asked a few questions and helped the police out.”

“Vicki!” One of the Traveling Santas was waving for her to come to the goody table. “There’s a girl here asking for you!”

“I’ll be right there!” she called. “Excuse me.”

Brother Dom and I talked for a few minutes about Alf—and I was glad to have this chance to question the man. Dom had founded the Traveling Santas a few years before. A former Franciscan monk, he now worked with the city and several of the city’s churches to bring aid to the homeless and hungry.

“It’s funny,” I told Brother Dom. “The more I pieced together about Alf’s life, the more I wondered about the gaps in it. There are so many things that make no sense about the man.”

“Like?”

“Like I know he was a failed restaurateur. I know he had an alcohol problem and his marriage fell apart—”

“Yes, Alf was an alcoholic, struggling to work through the twelve-step program. When I first met him, he had a lot of problems.”

“But when I met him, he wasn’t struggling at all. He seemed so certain about life, so happy, so together. He was full of optimism and purpose. His primary concern whenever I spoke with him was helping others. I just can’t reconcile the stories I’m hearing about his past—and his past actions—with the living man I knew. Or thought I knew.”

“You have questions, Clare. Ask and you shall receive answers—” He laughed. “If I can provide them...”

“Okay—what do you think turned Alf around? I mean, what made him suddenly want to do charitable work?”

“A Christmas Carol.”

“A song?”

“The book.” Brother Dom’s attention wavered when someone came up to speak with him.

Just then, my cell phone went off, vibrating in my pocket because I’d silenced the ringer for the service. I saw from the Caller ID that it was Quinn.

“Mike?”

“I have bad news.”

I braced myself—suddenly remembering Matt’s ugly story about some redhead. But Quinn’s news wasn’t personal.

“Dwayne Linford’s going to walk, Clare.”

Crap. “What happened?”

“There’s nothing we can hold the kid on. The cameras in the St. George Terminal parking area confirm his story. Dwayne picked up a man on the incoming ferry—a college counselor from NYU that his father set him up to meet. His dad wants him to get a degree in music instead of trying to make a living as a club DJ. That’s what Dwayne claims you overheard them fighting about. His father wanted him to keep the appointment with the counselor.”

“Did you confirm his alibi?”

“Of course. The guy checks out—Grant Bass works at NYU. We spoke with him. As a favor to Omar, he took the ferry over to meet with Dwayne. The kid was angry, but he didn’t disobey his dad’s wishes. He picked up the man at the ferry for their meeting. There’s no way Dwayne was on that ferry so there’s no way he could have stolen the blackmail note and thrown you overboard.”

I closed my eyes, tried to think. “Linford had a secretary. A woman named Mrs. MacKenzie. She didn’t pull out after she dropped me off. She parked her BMW in the lot.”

“I don’t know, Clare.” Quinn exhaled. “A woman wouldn’t have had the strength to toss you the way you described.”

“This woman was big, Mike. I think she could have.”

“Come to the Sixth as soon as you can and take a look at these digital recordings. If you know what she looks like, you’ll have a better shot at spotting her movements.”

“Okay, I’ll come to see you within the hour.”

“I won’t be here. Sully and I have a meeting uptown. Ask for Hong or Franco. They’ll help.”

I shuddered at the thought of seeing Emmanuel “Do-Rag” Franco again. “I’ll ask for Hong,” I replied.

“Fine—just be careful, Clare. Do not go anywhere alone today. Okay? Are you hearing me? Whoever threw you off that boat is not in custody. Do you understand?”

“I understand, Mike. I do. I won’t take any chances.”

After saying good-bye to Quinn, I noticed that Brother Dom was still hovering close by. He turned away from another conversation to get back to ours.

“Have you ever read it, Clare?” he asked me, motioning me toward the goody table.

Read it? “I’m sorry?” I said. My mind was still spinning from Mike’s news. “Read what?”

“Have you read A Christmas Carol?”

“Oh, right. You were saying that book was important to Alf... No, I’ve never actually read the Dickens story. But everyone knows about Scrooge, right? The terrible misanthrope who hated Christmas?”

Dom filled two paper cups with hot coffee and handed me one. “What else do you remember, Clare? About Scrooge?”

“Well, let’s see... he was a rich man but he was also very unhappy—and greedy and selfish and cynical. He loved money and had no use for humanity or humanitarians. Bah humbug.

Dom smiled and sipped his coffee. “Go on.”

I paused, trying to remember the story, and took a long caffeinated sip from my own cup—as mystified as ever how the simple sharing of a warm cup o’ joe could be both comforting and fortifying at the same time.

“I think Scrooge had a business partner, didn’t he?”

Dom nodded. “His name was Marley.”

“Yes, I remember now... the story opened with Marley already dead. It was Christmas Eve and Scrooge went home alone. That’s when Marley’s ghost comes to his home to haunt him. And then what happens?”

“Marley warns Scrooge that he’s going to be visited by other specters—”

“Oh, right! The spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future.”

Brother Dom nodded. “And through those visits, Scrooge is made to remember the man he once was, examine the man he truly is, and consider the man he might still be. Most important of all, Clare, Scrooge makes a decision about the man he no longer wants to be.”

“And you’re telling me that single book changed Alf’s perspective?”

“A single chapter, actually. You see, Alf lost everything—his worldly clothes were stripped away. And when that happens to a man or woman, he or she has nowhere to hide any longer. That human being must face the ultimate question of identity: Who am I? Without my clothes and job and worldly goods? Without even my friends and family? What is it that makes me who I am? And more important, who do I want to be in this life and in this world?”

Brother Dom’s voice was deep and strong and full of earnest passion. I could see the fire in his eyes, the certainness of his purpose and place in the world. He was a natural minister, and hearing him speak helped me understand something more about my late friend. Alfred Glockner hadn’t gotten out of the dark woods all by himself. He’d followed in the footsteps of a man who knew the way.

“When we crossed paths,” Brother Dom continued, “Alf was simply looking for work. The Traveling Santas do make money for their time. They work hard and they take a percentage of what they collect. But before one of my Santas puts on that beard and red coat, I have a long talk with him over coffee—”

He lifted his paper cup and winked at me.

“I then ask our aspiring Santa to read A Christmas Carol. Alf took the book the day we talked and came back to me. He stopped reading after one chapter.”

“Why?”

“Because that’s all he needed to read.”

“I don’t understand.”

Brother Dom motioned for me to follow him. I did. We moved out a door, away from the loud hum of the talking crowd and into a long, quiet hallway that had been whitewashed clean—but then covered anew with colorful posters and photos. There were families and children beaming at me, smiling elderly people, waving groups of men. I got the impression they were people that Dom’s organization had helped. He confirmed it. Finally, the man opened another door, ducked inside, and came out again.

“Read the book, Clare,” he said, handing me a worn copy of Charles Dickens’s beloved tale. “I think you’ll see what Alf saw. There’s a passage at the end of the first chapter that moved the man to tears, made him understand that it wasn’t too late for him to change his perspective. I’m glad he had that reconciliation before he died.”

“Thank you for this,” I said, holding up the book. “My life’s been crazy busy lately, but I’ll read it soon.”

“That’s the trouble with the holidays,” Dom said with a smile. “People forget the reason—”

“—for the season, I know!”

As we walked back to the wake, I glanced again at the array of faces on Dom’s hallway walls and asked about this year’s donations. Given the economy, I expected the news wouldn’t be great, and it wasn’t.

“Donations are low this year, I’m afraid. I doubt very much we’ll meet our goal.”

“I’m sorry to hear it.”

“A sad irony—with the top rungs feeling the pinch, hands remain clenched. But the people on the bottom rung need help more than ever. Losing Alf is tough for that reason, too. His collections were among the highest in the city, right behind his roommate, Karl Kovic.”

Karl—that’s right. “I’ve wanted to talk to Karl, Brother Dom. But I don’t know what he looks like. Can you introduce me?”

“I wish I could, but Karl didn’t come to the service today.”

I stopped walking. That sounded wrong. “He didn’t come to the memorial service of his own roommate?”

“That’s right.” Dom turned to face me.

“Why not? Do you know if they were estranged?”

Brother Dom sighed and folded his arms. “The two were longtime friends—since high school. It was Karl who introduced Alf to me and got him the job as a Traveling Santa.”

“Then why isn’t he here?”

“I’m afraid it’s my fault.”

“Your fault?”

Dom nodded. “Word came to me a few days ago that Karl has been rather, well—naughty.”

“Naughty?”

“It’s not a sin what he did, you understand, just not something I approved of. He was shooting YouTube celebrity sightings while on duty as a Traveling Santa.”

“Celebrity sightings?”

Dom shook his head, obviously embarrassed. “The Traveling Santa suit let him blend into the background on the Upper West Side—the area Karl’s been covering for several years now. Because he was roaming the city streets all day, he decided to keep his eyes peeled for celebrities, actors, TV stars entering boutiques and shops or eating at restaurants. He filmed them with a small camera, and then he’d approach those establishments and ask if they wanted to buy the footage. Many of them did, and then they’d release it—usually to the Internet for viral publicity.”

“Karl took kickbacks for celebrity photography?” I remembered that footage the guys at the Blend were discussing of actor Keith Judd shopping at some Upper West Side boutiques.

“It’s legal,” Dom pointed out. “He was filming in public places. And whether the store owners paid or didn’t pay was entirely up to them. It was simply a form of advertising. But I didn’t consider it a good reflection on our charity. So I decided to clip his wings. I told him I was taking him off the street and putting him to work in our offices. He didn’t like that. We argued and he quit. Karl’s not the most patient man. I’ve tried ministering to him, but he’s remained hard—a much harder case than Alf ever was.”

As we returned to the party, more people came up to speak with Brother Dom. I thanked him for his time and the book, and stepped away, considering his words.

If Karl Kovic was filming video on the Upper West Side for money, was Alf doing the same thing in the Village? The two men were old friends. They shared the same apartment. They were both Traveling Santas...

The economic downturn meant retail businesses needed every advantage to pack shoppers into their stores. Most would pay for that advantage. Alf probably saw that kind of thing as helping the stores anyway—it certainly helped mine.

It was all legal, too, just like Dom said, but what if Karl and Alf wanted a bigger payday? Ben Tower was a professional photographer who was able to get big payoffs for celebrity photos like the ones Madame had just shown me in Gotham Gossip of James Young and Phyllis Chatsworth.

Could Karl and Alf have gotten involved in that kind of photography, too?

That’s when it hit me. The pictures of Young and Phyllis, the timing of that day—it all added up! Suddenly, I knew why Alf was on James Young’s balcony—it wasn’t to burglarize his place! Pulling out my cell phone, I strode swiftly back to that quiet hallway and speed-dialed Madame’s cell.

She answered immediately. “Yes?”

“It’s Clare. Are you with Ben Tower, by any chance?”

“Why, yes. We’re having drinks right now at a bar on—”

“Tell Tower you’re hearing from a source right now who’s confirming that he’s been buying photos from Alfred Glockner and Karl Kovic.”

“Yes. Hold please.”

I heard some low voices in the background. Then Madame’s voice more clearly. “I cannot reveal my source, Ben.”

Madame came back on the line. “Yes, Ben is confirming what you’ve discovered.”

Oh, my God. “Put me on with him.”

“Are you sure, dear? I thought you were trying to remain anonymous?”

“It doesn’t matter now.”

“Hello? Who is this?” Ben’s voice was familiar—a little tentative and also a little slurry. Madame wasn’t stupid. Treating a man like Ben to a liquid lunch would loosen his tongue in record time!

“This is Clare Cosi, Mr. Tower.”

“Oh, God,” he muttered. “The coffee-slinging snoop.”

“Charmed, I’m sure.”

Our exchange wasn’t pleasant or long, but it did yield what I’d suspected. Alf Glockner had been sending digital images to Ben Tower the day he was killed.

“Alf sent me photos of James Young and Phyllis Chatsworth in the afternoon. He lost the pair for many hours, then caught up with them again going into a bistro across from the White Horse Tavern. That’s the last photo I got from Alfred.”

And that explained why Alf had been sitting in that tavern and abruptly rose and ran. He hadn’t been following James Young to rob him. He’d been following James Young and Phyllis Chatsworth back to Young’s apartment building to get more photos of them.

I remembered the night I found Alf’s body. His boot prints in the snow had led into the courtyard, where he appeared to pause and loiter. He probably stood out there in the dark, watching for a light to go on among the building’s windows. Then he climbed the fire escape hoping to get some pictures of the couple together in Young’s living room.

It all made sense now—Omar Linford had told me Alf was paying him back a little at a time: one thousand here, a few hundred there. Alf was also doing the twelve-step program; and one of those steps was to make amends. He was obviously trying to pay back his neighbor, pay off a loan that Omar had made him in good faith.

Although I couldn’t condone what Alf had done, I could understand why he’d done it. Making money on those photos wouldn’t just help him make amends to Omar. As long as he was continuing to pay back the man, Alf could feel that he was protecting his wife and daughter from being pressured in any way to sell their house and repay that loan.

The only question now was, who shot Alf? Did James Young do the deed after all? Phyllis Chatsworth? How the heck was I going to prove that? And who the heck threw me off that ferry? Linford’s amazon of a secretary still seemed the most likely suspect for that.

“There you are!”

As I reentered Brother Dom’s crowded basement, I looked up to find Vicki coming toward me with Esther Best in tow.

“Hey, boss!” Esther greeted me with surprising energy. “I’ve had exams all morning—and, man, am I glad my finals are finally over!”

“Is that why you missed the service upstairs?”

“Yes, but I made it for the wake—” She put an arm around Vicki’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “Anyway, I should have called you last night, but I was cramming.”

“Called me about what?” I asked. Esther still didn’t know about the ferry incident, but this wasn’t the time and place for that particular update.

“I have something weird to show you.”

“Show her! Show her!” Vicki pointed to Esther’s cell phone.

I studied the images on the little screen. “What is this?”

“It’s some guy coming out of the side door of Vicki’s mother’s house. When you went in the front door yesterday, I was still warming up your old car, but I noticed this guy coming out. See...”

Esther reached over and toggled the photos forward. Frame by frame they showed a man who looked a lot like Alf. He was about Alf’s height and weight with longish gray brown hair and a mustache. He wore a long, white terrycloth robe and slippers, and the digital photos showed him moving out the side door of Shelly Glockner’s ranch, then toward the back of the house—where there was a glass-enclosed hot tub and sauna.

“Who is this guy?” I whispered.

“Karl!” Vicki blurted out so loudly that a number of heads turned our way. “That’s my father’s roommate, Karl Kovic!”

Alarms were going off in my head. “Your mother is involved with Karl?”

“If she is, it’s news to me,” Vicki said looking fairly freaked. “And I can tell you I’m not happy about it. That guy is so mean. I can’t stand him!”

I stepped closer. “Mean how? Could he have hurt your dad?”

“Oh, no. I don’t think so. They were good friends. Karl never said much to me when I visited my dad at their place. He mainly kept to himself. It’s the kitten. That’s why he’s mean.”

“What kitten?” Esther asked.

“My dad found a little white kitten a few weeks ago, in an alley—”

“Oh, the kitten!” Alf had told me about the little thing. He’d been forced to sneak it into Karl’s apartment because the building didn’t allow pets.

“I asked Karl to keep the kitten for a short while,” Vicki explained. “My mom won’t let me have a pet at home, but I’m planning on moving into the city in a month or so. Then I’d be able to take care of it. Karl’s refusing to keep it for me until then! He says he’s just going to dump it in the city shelter.”

I scowled. “That is mean.”

Vicki’s hazel green eyes, still red from crying upstairs, began welling once more. “Can you help me again, Clare?”

I nodded. “Of course, I’ll stop by this evening and pay a visit to Karl. I have a cat already—I can certainly take care of another for as long as you like. And anyway, it seems to me Karl Kovic and I have quite a few things to talk about.”

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