Lawrence Block - The Burglar In The Closet

Craig Sheldrake’s voice.

“Hello? Anybody there?”

Nobody here but us burglars, I thought. And what are you doing there ?

King Street lies just below the southern edge of Greenwich Village, running west from Macdougal Street toward the Hudson. SoHo’s a commercial district that’s been turned into artists’ housing, but the stretch of King where Grabow lived had always been primarily residential. Most of the block was given over to spruced-up brownstones four and five stories tall. Here and there an old commercial building newly converted to artists’ lofts reminded me I was south of Houston Street.

Grabow’s building was one of these. It stood a few doors off Sixth Avenue, a square structure of dull-red brick. It was four stories tall but the height of its ceilings put its roofline even with the five-story brownstones on either side. On all four floors the building sported floor-to-ceiling industrial windows extending the full width of the building, an unarguable boon to artists and exhibitionists.

A boon, too, to the veritable jungle of plants on the second floor, a tropical wall of greenery that was positively dazzling. They were soaking up the afternoon sun. The building was on the uptown side of the street so the windows faced south, which was probably terrific for the plants but less desirable for artists, who prefer a north light. On the first and third and top floors, drapes prevented the south light from screwing up masterpieces. Or perhaps the tenants were sleeping, or out for the day, or watching home movies-

I opened the door and stood in a small areaway facing another door, and this one was locked. The lock looked fairly decent. Through a window in the door-glass with steel mesh in it, they weren’t kidding around here-I could see a flight of stairs, a large self-service freight elevator, and a door that presumably led into the ground-floor apartment. This last was probably a safety requirement, as the ground-floor place had its own entrance in front from the days when it had been some sort of store. The downstairs tenant got his mail through a slot in his front door, because there were only three mailboxes in the hall where I stood, each with a buzzer beneath it, and the middle box was marked Grabow. Nothing fancy, just a scrap of masking tape with the name printed in soft pencil, but it did get the message across.

So his loft figured to be the middle one of the three, which would put it two flights up. I reached for the buzzer and hesitated, wishing I had a phone number for him. After all, I had a whole pocket full of dimes. If I could call him I’d know whether or not to open his door. Hell, if I called him anything could happen. His wife could answer the phone. Craig Sheldrake could answer the phone. He was answering all sorts of phones these days-

But I didn’t want to think about that. I’d cabbed downtown trying not to think at all about Craig and his surprising presence in Jillian’s apartment. If I started thinking about that I’d start wondering why he was there instead of in a cell, and just when they had started letting persons charged with homicide go dancing out on bail. I might even wonder what had led the cops to drop charges against Craig, and who they were looking for to take his place.

God, why would anyone want to think about that?

I pushed Grabow’s button. Nothing happened. I pushed it again. Nothing happened again. I gazed thoughtfully at the lock and touched the ring of cunning implements in my trouser pocket. The lock didn’t scare me, but how did I know there was nobody home upstairs? Grabow was an artist. They keep odd hours in the first place, and this guy didn’t have a listed phone, he might not have any phone at all, and maybe he was a temperamental bastard, and if he was sleeping or working he might just let the bell ring and say the hell with it, and then if I came hopping into his place he might be as tickled by the interruption as a hibernating bear.

“Help you?”

I hadn’t even heard the door open behind me. I made myself take a breath and I turned around, arranging my face in what was supposed to be a pleasant smile. “Just looking for someone,” I said.

“Who?”

“But he doesn’t seem to be home, so I’ll-”

“Who you looking for?”

Why hadn’t I noticed either of the other tenants’ names? Because I somehow knew who this man was. I had no logical reason for assuming the specter looming before me was Walter Ignatius himself, but I’d have bet all my dimes on it.

And he certainly did loom. He was immensely tall, a good six-six, and while that might make him a backcourt man in pro basketball it certainly placed him squarely in the forecourt of life. He had a broad forehead beneath a mop of straight blondish hair cut soup-bowl style. His cheekbones were prominent and the cheeks sunken. His nose had been broken once and I felt sorry for the idiot who’d done it, because Grabow looked as though he’d known how to get even.

“Uh, Mr. Grabow,” I said. “I’m looking for a Mr. Grabow.”

“Yeah, right. That’s me.”

I could see him attacking a canvas, dipping a three-inch brush in a quart can of porch paint. His hands were enormous-a little dental scalpel would have disappeared in them. If this man had wanted to kill Crystal, his bare hands would have been more lethal than any weapon they might have held.

I said, “That’s odd, I expected an older man.”

“I’m older’n I look. What’s the problem?”

“You’re Mr. William C. Grabow?”

A shake of the head. “Walter. Walter I. Grabow.”

“That’s odd,” I said. I should have had a notebook to look in, a piece of paper, something. I got my wallet out and dug out Jillian’s hair appointment card, holding it so Grabow couldn’t see it. “ William C. Grabow,” I said. “Maybe they made a mistake.”

He didn’t say anything.

“I’m sure they made a mistake,” I said, and referred again to the card. “Now you had a sister, Mr. Grabow. Is that right?”

“I got a sister. Two sisters.”

“You had a sister named Clara Grabow Ullrich who lived in Worcester, Massachusetts, and-”

“No.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You got the wrong party after all. I got two sisters, Rita and Florence, Rita’s a nun, Flo’s out in California. What’s this Clara?”

“Well, Clara Grabow Ullrich is deceased, she died several months ago, and-”

He moved a large hand, dismissing Clara Grabow Ullrich forever. “I don’t have to know this,” he said. “You got the wrong party. I’m Walter I. and you’re looking for William.”

“William C.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Well, I’m sorry to bother you, Mr. Grabow.” I moved toward the door. He stepped aside to let me pass, then dropped a hand on the doorknob, just resting it there.

“Wait a minute,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” Had the hulk suddenly remembered a long-lost sister? Oh, God, had he decided to try to glom onto some nonexistent legacy?

“This address,” he said.

“Pardon me?”

“Where’d you get this address?”

“My firm supplied it.”

“Firm? What firm?”

“Carson, Kidder and Diehl.”

“What’s that?”

“A law firm.”

“You’re a lawyer? You’re not a lawyer.”

“No, I’m a legal investigator. I work for lawyers.”

“This address isn’t listed anywhere. How’d they get it?”

“There are city directories, Mr. Grabow. Even if you don’t have a phone, all tenants are-”

“I sublet this place. I’m not the tenant of record, I’m not in any directories.” His head jutted forward and his eyes burned down at me.

“Gag,” I said.