Alex Barclay - The Caller

‘Better than that. You can come in for coffee. She’s on her way over.’

Marjorie Ruehling’s apartment was a bland colour chart of creams, beiges and browns flowing between carpets and sofas and cushions.

‘How did Mr Valtry seem to you on the phone last night?’ said Joe.

Mrs Ruehling shrugged. ‘Like I said, I don’t know the man, but… I guess he seemed… he was talking quickly. That was the main thing I noticed. The phone call was over quickly after he told me to get her to call.’

‘Was he speaking clearly?’ said Joe.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘He seemed impatient, that’s all.’

‘OK,’ said Joe.

They all stopped when they heard keys in the front door.

‘Oma?’ Sonja called from the hallway.

‘German for grandmother,’ said Marjorie. ‘We’re in the living room,’ she shouted to her daughter.

Sonja Ruehling walked in. ‘Hello… what’s going on?’

Her mother smiled. ‘It’s OK,’ she said. ‘These are detectives. No big deal. Just about last night.’ Sonja frowned.

‘Someone called your mother’s home looking for you last night,’ said Joe. ‘Dean Valtry?’

‘Dean Valtry?’ She turned to her mother. ‘What did he want?’

‘He didn’t say,’ said Mrs Ruehling. ‘Just you were to call him.’

‘Did he leave a number?’ said Sonja.

‘No,’ said Mrs Ruehling. ‘It’s all very funny. Why don’t you ask him?’ she said to Joe.

‘How do you know him?’ said Joe to Sonja.

‘We… look, why don’t we go into the kitchen?’ said Sonja. ‘Oma, you don’t mind, do you? There’s no point in you getting into all this.’

‘As long as you fill me in later, I’m fine right here.’ She took an apple from the table beside her and started peeling it with a knife.

Joe, Danny and Sonja moved into the kitchen.

‘OK,’ said Sonja. ‘This is all strange. I know Dean Valtry because I dated his friend. But years ago, when I was twenty-one, twenty-two.’

‘I’m sorry to have to inform you that Mr Valtry was the victim of a homicide last night,’ said Joe.

‘Oh my God.’

‘Yes. And he tried calling your mother’s house several times yesterday. He was looking for you. She didn’t want to give out your number. We just want to know why he would be calling you.’

‘I have no idea.’ She lowered her voice again. ‘We weren’t even particularly close. I mean, to be honest, we didn’t really get on, God rest him.’

‘Tell us some more about how you met,’ said Joe.

‘I worked at Feelers, this bar in the East Village. One of the guys I worked with, his name was Alan Moder and we got together and Dean Valtry was his friend. That’s how I knew him.’

‘When was the last time you saw Dean?’

‘Years ago. What has he been doing?’

‘He was boss of one of the top dental laboratories in New York.’

Sonja leaned back in her seat and smiled.

‘You look surprised,’ said Joe.

‘I am. He was ambitious, so from that point of view, I get it. But from what I gathered, he wasn’t that good.’

‘Where did you get that idea?’

‘Alan. They were in college together. It was funny, Alan dropped out and he was the one with the talent.’

‘But Valtry opened the lab.’

‘Yes, but Alan did a lot of what got Dean’s company noticed. Alan worked for Dean.’

‘Does Alan have his own lab?’

‘I have no idea where Alan Moder is or what he does.’

‘It ended badly,’ said Danny.

‘Very. Let’s put it this way – last time I saw Alan Moder, he was screaming obscenities at me in front of my work colleagues in a beautiful French bistro on 29th Street, seven years after I dumped him in the most shitty way possible, so he would never come near me again.’ Her laugh was bitter.

‘Yikes,’ said Danny.

‘I should be over it, I mean, I am over it, obviously,’ she said, ‘but you know when you just think – what a shit. I was twenty-two years old, madly in love. I thought he was too until I caught him with a woman over twice his age, some fat, wealthy woman who even I knew he didn’t give a damn about. So that’s my Alan Moder story. I’m going into way too much detail. It’s just I’ve never got it off my chest. I’m married now. Alan showed up that time in the restaurant, trying to get me back after that witch he went off with died. So there you have it.’

‘Back to Valtry,’ said Danny. ‘Can you think of any reason he would have wanted to get in contact with you?’

She shrugged. ‘No. The three of us hung out together all the time, but it was more that he was Alan’s, like, only friend and so I was lumbered with him. He was – we just weren’t close. I’m still shocked he’s dead.’ She shook her head. ‘It’s so weird he tried to call me. That’s going to bug me. Let me know when you find out.’

‘Sure,’ said Joe. ‘What was Valtry like?’

‘He was fine,’ said Sonja. ‘Boring, if anything. Bookish, but dumb. Terrible combination,’ she laughed. ‘The type who tries to seem more intelligent, better than everyone at everything…’

‘Was he ever violent?’

‘Dean?’ She laughed. ‘No. Why do you ask?’

‘Just covering as much ground as we can, now that we have you here,’ said Danny.

‘Seeing that Alan Moder is the only link you can think of to Valtry,’ said Joe, ‘do you know how we could get a hold of him if we needed to?’

‘I wouldn’t be surprised if he still worked for Dean.’

‘No,’ said Danny. ‘We’ve been through employee records. He’s not there.’

‘I don’t know then. Let me think. He was from Maplewood, New Jersey, but I’d say he’s never been back there. He had a major falling out with his family. It was all very dysfunctional. But you could try them. His father’s name was Tony.’ She shrugged.

‘OK,’ said Joe. ‘Thanks a lot for your help.’

Shaun Lucchesi walked into the kitchen past his mother and grabbed a carton of juice from the fridge. He drank from it, then put it back in.

‘You will be pleased to hear it’s over between me and Tara.’

‘What?’ said Anna. ‘Why would I be pleased to hear that?’

Shaun stared at her. ‘Are you for real?’

‘What? I… she was cute,’ said Anna.

‘Sure,’ said Shaun. ‘You now think cute is, like, emaciated.’

‘She had a pretty face.’

‘Under all that makeup.’

Anna turned to him. He smiled and shrugged.

‘Want to hear something funny?’ he said.

She nodded.

‘I bought her a special edition of Romeo and Juliet because she told me how much she loved it and when I gave it to her she said, “Oh my God. It was the movie I liked. Leonardo di Caprio is so hot.”’

Anna laughed. ‘Oh la la.’

‘I know.’

Bobby Nicotero sat at his desk in the twentieth precinct. He worked well there. His shift had finished three hours earlier, but he didn’t want to go home. He read through copied pages of statements, making notes, highlighting, cross-checking. Nothing new was showing up. He sat back in his chair and started thinking about his two boys. He had a day off the next day – his first for weeks. They were going to the Sea, Air and Space Museum. He smiled. Then he turned back to his notes, drawn to a section of text, highlighted roughly in blue. Something finally clicked into place. He just needed to check one more thing.

Anna was lying on the sofa watching television and flicking through an oversized book of fabric samples. Joe arrived home and went straight upstairs to the bedroom. She followed him up.

‘Hi,’ she said.

‘Hi.’

‘How are you?’

‘Fine. How are you?’

‘Fine.’

He pulled off his suit jacket, then his shirt and tie.