Alex Barclay - The Caller

‘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.