Alex Barclay - The Caller

‘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.’

Joe and Danny drove to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

‘We have been up twenty-four hours,’ said Danny as they walked in.

Joe yawned. ‘I know.’

Dr Hyland came down and led them into the room where a body was laid out under a white sheet.

‘Just to warn you, he’s in pretty bad shape,’ said Hyland. He lifted the sheet. The first thing Danny and Joe saw was a badly burned arm and hand. Something gold glinted on the finger. They both leaned closer. It was their high school ring. They locked eyes.