The Caller

TWENTY-EIGHT

The banquet hall was a sea of pink balloons, floating out of the centre of round tables with bright white cloths. The tables were starting to fill with women and young children. The older teenagers and men gathered at the bar.

Rufo stood alone near the buffet table, dressed in a three-button tuxedo, drinking a vodka.

‘Boss,’ said Danny, slapping his back, ‘now’s the time to get that “after” picture taken for the slimming magazine.’

Rufo cupped a hand around his ear. ‘Is that a compliment I’m hearing?’

Joe walked over, ‘Jesus, Sarge. Nice threads. New hair cut.’

‘See?’ said Rufo turning to Danny. ‘That’s the way to do it.’

‘Brown-nose one-oh-one,’ said Danny.

‘You got to admit that’s a great tux,’ said Joe.

‘Get a room, you guys,’ said Danny.

‘This,’ said Rufo, ‘is Armani. Two thousand dollars, I swear to God. This guy I was doing security work for? When he saw me drop all the weight, gave it to me as a gift.’

‘Sure,’ said Danny. ‘No strings attached. Rrrrring rrrring, rrrrrring rrrring.’ He put an imaginary phone to his ear. ‘Hello? Sergeant Rufo? Hi, yeah, listen I got a few parking violations, first degree murder charges I could use your help with…’

‘No-one can just do a nice thing for someone in your world,’ said Rufo.

‘I’m going to the bar,’ said Danny. ‘Drink? That’s a nice thing.’

Joe nodded.

‘I got one on the way,’ said Rufo.

‘Maddy’s a sweet little kid,’ said Joe. ‘I hope she’ll make it.’

‘Doesn’t bear thinking about otherwise,’ said Rufo.

Danny was surrounded on all sides by oversized college kids gripping their ID, their golden ticket to getting wasted. He was grateful only when they hid him from someone he really did not want to see. He grabbed his drinks and rushed back from the bar with his head bowed.

‘I just saw one of my exes,’ he said, handing Joe his beer.

‘Yeah?’ said Rufo.

‘It happens all the time,’ said Joe.

‘Someone from when Gina and I were on a break,’ said Danny. ‘This girl was nuts. Every night out with her, she would end up, a drink in each hand, dancing on a table. You could be at a wake, she’d find a table to dance on. I carried her home more times than I can remember. In the end, I couldn’t take any more and it broke her heart. I had to say to her, ‘Ba-’

‘Barbara,’ said Rufo, smiling to a woman in an emerald green gown, taking her hand and guiding her past Danny towards him. He kissed her on the cheek. ‘This is my… partner, Barbara Stenson. This is Danny Markey. And you’ve already met Joe.’

Danny opened and closed his mouth twice before he spoke. ‘Uh, nice to meet you, Barbara.’

‘You too, Danny,’ she said, squeezing his hand too tight.

‘Can I get you anything to drink?’ said Joe.

‘This is my third soda and lime,’ said Barbara, ‘and there’s only so many you can drink. I quit drinking a few years back and I still wonder how I could physically put away so much liquid in one night.’ She laughed.

‘There was Barbara spending years knocking back vodkas while I was busy eating all the pies,’ said Rufo. ‘I wonder would we have liked each other if we met back then.’

‘Sad thing is we wouldn’t, because back then when my nights were all a blur, I wound up with the biggest losers.’

Joe laughed louder than anyone.

Barbara squeezed Rufo’s arm. ‘I needed to wait a few years to catch myself a good guy.’

‘Joe, why don’t we leave these two lovebirds alone?’ said Danny.

Joe was still laughing as they walked away. ‘So you think you broke her heart?’

‘Can you fucking believe she’s with Rufo?’

‘As a matter of fact, I can,’ said Joe.

‘There’s too much love in the room tonight,’ said Danny. ‘I can not handle it.’

‘Let’s see what food’s on offer here,’ said Joe, wandering to the top of the buffet table.

‘I’m in the mood for a little roast beef,’ said Danny. ‘Lots of it.’

‘I’m thinking turkey,’ said Joe.

Joe and Danny sat at a table with two beers and two plates piled with food. Danny was eyeing Barbara Stenson smiling and laughing with Rufo.

‘What does she find so funny?’ said Danny.

Joe glanced over. ‘Probably the fact that you keep staring at her. That you treated her like shit and now she can come back to haunt you. That you might actually be at her wedding to your boss… there’s lots of things she could be laughing at right now. The idea that-’

‘Shut the fuck up.’

‘Think about it,’ said Joe, ‘she marries Rufo, he’s at home bitching about work, she’s never going to take your side-’

‘I’ve got to tell him-’

‘Are you out of your mind?’

‘Is that your phone?’ said Danny.

Joe stared at him.

‘I’m serious,’ said Danny, ‘it’s vibrating against my chair.’

Joe reached back to his jacket hanging on the back of his chair. He pulled out his phone and answered.

‘Hello? Hello? Hello…’ He shook his head at Danny. He was about to hang up. ‘Mary? I can’t hear… you’re where?’ He listened. ‘OK. Your door’s locked, right? Stay right where you are. Don’t move, OK? And when you hang up what I need you to do right away is call 911. Can you do that? They’ll keep you on the line-’ He paused. ‘No, no. They’ll send some patrol officers over. And we’ll be right behind them. You hang in there, OK? You’ll be fine.’ Joe turned to Danny. ‘Jesus Christ, that was Mary Burig. She said something about the perp being in her building. And she’s on her own. But… you know, it’s Mary

…’ Joe shrugged. ‘Come on. We better go check it out.’

Mary’s thumbs hovered over the buttons 9 and 1. Outside in the hallway, someone was calling her name. Her heart pounded. She put the phone down.

Joe and Danny pulled into the empty parking lot outside the Colt-Embry Homes. There were no patrol cars. The building was in darkness.

‘What the fuck?’ said Joe.

‘Maybe they pulled up around the back,’ said Danny.

‘Why would they?’ said Joe. He turned to Danny. ‘Shit. She never fucking called them.’

He grabbed the radio. ‘Manhattan North Homicide portable to Central K. Be advised we’re at Colt-Embry Homes on 21st Street in Astoria. We have a possible murder suspect at the location. We need backup.’

They ran to the side of the building. The front door was ajar. The lobby was empty, the lights off. Joe pointed behind the desk to where the ceiling of the short corridor was exposed, its floor tiles hanging by thick cables along both sides of the wall. Behind it was the fire door and stairs that would take them to Mary’s apartment on the second floor.

Joe walked up the stairs first, trying to limit the noise from his new dress shoes. Danny followed him.

‘We’re going direct to her place?’ Danny whispered.

‘Yeah,’ said Joe.

They reached the second floor landing. Joe stopped to retie the laces of his left shoe.

‘Fuck these shoes.’

They walked down the hallway. Twice, his right foot lost its grip, but he managed to keep his balance. He forgot to give his shoes to Anna before he came out. She would have scored the bottom of them with a pen-knife or roughed up the surface with an emery board. He brought his mind back to focus. The only thing he could hear were Danny’s footsteps beside him and the buzz of the fluorescent light above.

Mary heard footsteps approaching from the end of the hallway and the jangle of Stan’s keys. She pushed open the door slowly and placed one bare foot onto a tile she was expecting to be cold. It was warm and wet. Her foot slid from under her. As her head hit the cold hard floor, the last thing she saw was Stan’s utility belt… covered in blood.

Joe and Danny opened all the vacant rooms along the second floor hallway and found no-one. Mary’s apartment door was wide open and her belongings strewn everywhere. Drawers were opened, cushions were turned over, bags were emptied.

‘This does not look good,’ said Joe.

‘Mary?’ said Danny. ‘Mary?’

It didn’t take long to search the small apartment. They found nothing. They ran upstairs to the floors above, throwing open the unlocked doors. They moved down the stairs, pushing through the back door into the lobby.

‘Whoa,’ said Joe, pointing at a streak of blood on the tiled floor.

‘That was not here when we got here.’

‘No way,’ said Joe.

They ran towards the door.

‘Where is she?’ said Danny.

Joe glanced out into the dark. ‘And where the hell’s our backup?’

‘Look at that,’ said Danny.

Two uniforms were taking their time walking up the path. Danny gestured them forward. They ran towards him.

‘The woman who called this in is not here,’ said Danny. ‘But we haven’t searched the entire building. Perp goes by Preston Blake or Alan Moder, he’s six foot tall, mid thirties, medium build, dark hair, heavily scarred chin, may be accompanied by a female, Mary Burig, late twenties, five four, slim build, long dark hair, very pale blue eyes. Unknown method of escape.’

Magda Oleszak ran through the parking lot of the Colt-Embry Homes, past the patrol cars that had just arrived and straight into a uniform standing at the door.

‘What’s happened?’ she said.

‘Who are you?’ said the officer.

‘I work here. My name is Magda Oleszak. I’m looking for my friend. We were going to the movies, over two hours ago. I thought she was in the group. Someone said she was. I should have checked. Is she OK? Is she in there? Why are you here? Her name is Mary.’

‘We were responding to a possible break-in. Please, ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to step back. If you could go talk to one of my colleagues.’ He pointed to a second patrol car that was pulling into the lot. ‘They’ll take care of you. It’s not safe for you to be in the building right now.’

Joe dialled Rufo’s number from his cell phone.

‘Boss? It’s Joe. We’re at Colt-Embry. Looks like Blake was here. No sign of Mary Burig. We got some blood on the floor. That’s it.’

‘You think the perp’s still in the building?’

‘We don’t know. We’re waiting on more backup from the One-One-Four.’

‘Let me round up the guys from the bar. Be right over.’

Julia Embry pulled up to the scene in her car and jumped out. Magda got out of the patrol car and ran towards her.

‘Is it Mary?’ said Julia. Her eyes were sunken in her pale face.

‘I don’t know,’ said Magda, crying. ‘I don’t know what’s happening.’

‘Oh God, I hope Mary’s OK,’ said Julia. She started to run towards the building.

Magda held her back. ‘They’re not going to let you in.’

‘Why not? I need to get in there. I need to see what’s going on.’

‘Everyone’s at the movie. Mary had left but was to follow on from the church. I left one of the girls to wait for her in the foyer. She said Mary was there. I mean, it was the cinema, it was dark, I should have checked.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ said Julia.

‘I should go to the church-’

‘Don’t go anywhere,’ said Julia. ‘The police will tell us what we need to do.’

‘I’ve been trying Mary’s phone, but she’s not answering,’ said Magda.

‘This is so terrible,’ said Julia. She watched the detectives moving around inside the lobby. ‘There’s nothing we can do. Someone has to tell us something.’

Joe ran through the lobby and hammered on the glass door for the uniform to stand out of the way. He jogged down the path to Julia and Magda.

‘Detective Lucchesi,’ said Julia. ‘What’s going on? Where’s Mary?’

‘We’re trying to find her,’ said Joe. ‘She called us. Someone broke in-’

‘Oh my God,’ said Julia.

‘Mrs Embry, are there keys to all the apartments?’

‘Yes. They’re in my office.’

‘I can’t let you go in there right now, but if you could let me know where they are…’

‘Bottom left-hand drawer of my bureau, inside a makeup bag.’

‘OK. That’s great. Are your security cameras operational?’

‘No,’ said Julia. ‘Sorry. They’re temporarily down because of the rewiring.’

‘OK,’ said Joe. ‘What I’m going to need you to do is one of the uniformed officers is going to take you and Miss Oleszak to the hundred and fourteenth precinct. If you could wait for me there, I’ll come by and speak with you in a couple hours, OK? I know that’s hard at this time, but I’m afraid that’s what we’re going to have to do.’

Julia nodded. ‘That’s OK. We can do that.’

Rufo stood in the lobby with the rest of the task force. Most of them were straight from the benefit.

‘I’m feeling a little overdressed for this particular party,’ said Rufo. ‘March of the fucking Penguins. And someone, open the door, get the fumes out. Jesus.’

Joe walked over.

‘What happened?’ said Rufo.

‘We got here – no Mary,’ said Danny. ‘And she hadn’t called 911.’

‘We called it in to the One-One-Four twenty minutes later when we got here,’ said Joe. ‘We’re waiting for more of them to show.’

Rufo looked down. ‘One streak of blood, that’s it.’

‘Crime Scene’s on the way,’ said Joe.

‘So talk me through this again,’ said Rufo. ‘She called, said there was someone in the building, said specifically it was Blake?’

‘Yeah,’ said Joe.

‘I have to ask the question. This Mary is… challenged. So can we believe what she’s telling us? I mean could this be all in her head?’

‘No way. I heard her voice,’ said Joe. ‘She was terrified. I don’t think she’s going to be that freaked out by something she’s imagined.’

‘If I find out I could have stayed at the bar…’ said Rencher.

‘How many apartments are there?’ said Rufo.

‘Twenty – some of them are empty, they’re being renovated,’ said Joe. ‘Then there’s a communal room on every floor opposite the elevators – a library, a dining room, a TV room.’

‘Right,’ said Rufo. ‘They haven’t all been searched. Let’s go.’

‘Where’s Bobby and Martinez?’ said Joe.

‘Martinez is not exactly in great shape. I told him to stay where he was,’ said Rufo. ‘I left him hanging out with some old lady.’

‘Bobby didn’t show,’ said Pace. ‘I think he’s doing security at a runway show in Bryant Park.’

Joe shook his head.

Mary lay in the darkness, deprived of most of her senses; her body was cold and numb, her eyes useless, her ears ringing with the endless drone of an engine. ‘Just a short trip, everything will be fine, nothing to worry about,’ he had said. Twice. But he was shaking and he knew she’d made the phone call and he couldn’t look at her. When he reached over her, a droplet of sweat had trickled down his face and landed, stinging, into her eye. He didn’t notice.

She could not stop crying. ‘Where are you taking me? Where?’

‘Please be quiet, please, please.’ He kept saying it over and over.

‘I can’t,’ she screamed. ‘I can’t.’

He stayed silent, just glancing back at her every now and then to make sure she hadn’t twisted her way out of the restraints. She was curled on her side, her legs tied together at the ankles, her hands bound tight at the wrist.

‘I am all alone in this world now,’ she roared. ‘I have no-one! I have no-one! Why are you doing this to me? Why? Why? Why?’ She started retching.

‘Try not to throw up. You’ll have to stay that way. I can’t stop.’ He hadn’t gagged her because she looked so fragile. He knew she was the type to be sick.

She pitched forward and retched again. Her mind couldn’t handle any more. Her body was taking up the fight. She had felt so close to being taken away from danger. And now she was in total blackness with rain hammering loudly on the roof and on the windows, drilling into her head, making her struggle harder and harder to be heard. Words didn’t work. He didn’t want to hear them. She knew she could stop speaking. But she had no control over the rest. Her sobs cut right through him, agonizing wails that trailed off into whimpers, like a sick child without the voice to express her pain. But Mary did have a voice, she just lost the will to use it.

Hope was a white light to Mary. It was a guide. It was visitation and resurrection and redemption and ascendance. It was all good things. Here in the dark, she searched for it inside. There was no other way. Prayers ran quickly through her mind; to St Joseph, St Pio, St Anthony, St Jude. She moved on to the rosary, ten decades, fluent words her memory had never let go of. She finished with the Confitior; ‘I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters / That I have sinned through my own fault / In my thoughts and in my words / In what I have done / And in what I have failed to do…’

She thought about what she had done and what she had failed to do.

It was 5 a.m. when Joe and Danny got back to the office. Rencher, Blazkow, Martinez and Pace were all still at their desks. Joe rubbed his eyes.

‘Anyone got anything?’ said Joe.

‘Nada,’ said Rencher.

‘A hangover,’ said Martinez. ‘Already.’

‘Yeah, and some grandma’s phone number,’ said Rencher.

‘Anyone get a hold of Stanley Frayte?’ said Joe.

‘No.’

‘All the other squads have been told what to look out for,’ said Danny.

‘So,’ said Joe, ‘we’ve got no Stanley Frayte. No Mary Burig. No Preston Blake. Fucking great. Blazkow – can you do a victimology on Stanley Frayte?’

‘Sure. But I can sleep now, right?’

‘We all need to get some sleep,’ said Joe.

His cell phone rang.

‘Joe? It’s Taye Harris, fire marshal.’

‘How you doing?’ said Joe. ‘Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier. Things have been crazy.’

‘I heard. That’s why I’m calling so late, early, whatever. Joe, I don’t think your perp made it out of the building alive. I think we got your perp.’

‘What?’ said Joe. ‘Can’t be…’

‘Well, we got a body…’

‘But the scene was clear. I thought there was no-one-’

‘I know. I know. I’ve talked with the officers involved and because it was a crime scene and the search was expedited, the primary and secondary search reports were given as negative. They didn’t have a lot of time. The body was in the curve of the bay window at the front of the house. Behind a large sofa. When my men went in to ventilate the place, they had to pull down some heavy curtains covering the window to get the air circulating. No-one saw him. He was concealed there for several hours.’

Joe paused. ‘The bay window. He was in-’

‘Yeah,’ said Harris. ‘The dead man’s room.’