Rick Moody - The Diviners

The construction site where the incident took place is on the corner of Third Avenue and Fortieth Street. Under normal circumstances, a construction site is secure. Permits for construction at this address were up to date. However, there were reports that early in the construction process, the Third Avenue site was in dereliction of union agreements, such that a large rubber rodent was deposited at the site, indicating an ongoing union action. In recent weeks, disputes with unions were apparently resolved amicably. It follows that the site could not be easily burgled for the purposes of obtaining a weapon, and yet, according to eyewitnesses, this is exactly what happened.

Eyewitnesses describe the perpetrator as male, African American, riding a bicycle. Most witnesses believe that the suspect is a bicycle messenger because he was apparently wearing bicycle racing apparel, that is, nylon shorts. This clothing, according to witnesses, was dark in color, except for a red bandanna worn around the neck. The bicycle itself had few distinguishing marks. It may have been stolen. The bicycle messenger was riding quickly, perhaps thirty-five miles an hour, when he came upon the victim and used his weapon, a brick or cinder block, on the back of the head of the victim as he passed her, knocking her to the ground. The brick or cinder block was carried away from the scene. The assault is therefore described as blunt force trauma, probably with a conventionally sized brick. Witnesses report the suspect then going east on Forty-first Street, against traffic, leaving the scene. The victim rolled to one side, with her brace parallel to the curb, as shown in the drawing. She was bleeding heavily. In no account was there verbal exchange between suspect and victim. The victim, who fell into unconsciousness almost instantly, did not have time to register surprise.

Pedestrians notified 911, which dispatched the ambulance. The paramedics arrived within three minutes, from Bellevue. They do not report any recollection of passing a bicycle messenger on their way to the scene. Nor are there reports of a man on a bicycle, in that area or otherwise, carrying a brick. In all likelihood, the perpetrator fled the immediate environs of the attack, perhaps into East River Park or even onto the subway.

The victim was unconscious when paramedics arrived. As of Friday morning, the victim is stabilized. The prognosis for recovery, according to physicians at the hospital, is guarded but positive. Full recovery of memory and brain function is possible but not certain at this time. At present, the victim, when conscious, which is only occasionally, is suffering from long-term and short-term memory lapses.

There is no evidence of rape or sexual trauma at the time of the attack. Indeed, if the accounts of witnesses are credible, there could not have been time for sexual battery. Parents report that the victim was known to date young men but is not at present involved with any male romantic or sexual partner on an ongoing basis. Her last significant romantic attachment occurred with a male, aged thirty-nine, but he and the victim separated about six months prior to the attack. This particular romantic partner is described as a painter of Caucasian ethnicity, living in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Detectives are investigating the painter to rule out conspiracy and have made contact. This romantic partner works in galleries in Manhattan (including the 905 Gallery) as a transporter and hanger of artworks prior to openings and exhibitions in local galleries, so it is unlikely that he was in the neighborhood in question at the time of the attack. He works afternoons and evenings. Parents of the victim describe her as basically a “normal young woman” in matters of romance. She had boyfriends in college and was serially attached to men in her early twenties. In some of these cases, according to the parents, she was hoping the relationships would “go on longer” than they did. Other inquiries into the personal life of the victim are pending. The possibility of an attack by a disgruntled lover is not ruled out but at the present moment seems unlikely.

Police officers and detectives thereafter inquired of the parents whether the victim was a known frequenter of drug locations or a user of illegal drugs. The mother of the victim, to the marked discontent of her husband, indicated that the victim had occasionally smoked marijuana in college and that on at least one occasion the victim had marijuana-related anxiety, including feelings of depersonalization and alienation. Her experiments in this direction were short-lived. No other illegal drugs were known to be used by the victim. Acquaintances from the victim’s workplace also professed no knowledge whatever of any drug problems. Nor were any prescription medications — OxyContin, Vicodin — obtained illegally by the victim. It’s therefore possible to rule out an attack related to a drug deal or an assault otherwise perpetrated by a drug dealer of any kind. In fact, the general demeanor and biography of the victim do not suggest fraternizing with dealers or crime syndicates or known criminal elements.

It’s worth noting, however, that among the doctors listed in the address book of the victim is a psychopharmacologist. The detectives assigned to the case do indicate that the victim was being prescribed a “cocktail” of medications, including an antidepressant, a sleep aid, and an antianxiety medication, BuSpar. Some of these substances were found in the shoulder bag of the victim. All the prescriptions were legally obtained. Preliminary observation indicates that the victim is now and always has been “very thin,” her weight being just over a hundred pounds. Whether this information bears upon the attack is doubtful.

According to the above information, any public attack by the most likely constituencies — lovers or dealers of controlled substances or employees of organized crime syndicates, et cetera — is unlikely. The most credible theory, therefore, would suggest random attack. The perpetrator, according to this theory, was unknown to the victim at the time of the attack. Random attacks, exclusive of sexual assaults, where they have occurred in the past (as in the Eighty-eighth Street attacks or the recent Fort Greene assaults), are usually tied to the homeless population or to other persons disenfranchised from the workforce.

Detectives have also spent some time studying an important piece of evidence among the effects of the victim, namely the victim’s diary of the last few months, which is described as a book of unlined paper with a black leather binding, such as would be available in any number of high-end stationery stores downtown. Obviously, obtaining this information from a person who is likely to recover either partially or entirely is a sensitive matter. At the prompting of the father, however, who is described as extremely emotional about his desire to bring to justice the perpetrator of the crime, the diary was made available in this developing case.

The victim’s handwriting is small and precise, cursive, bending slightly to the right. Some letters are tall and willowy, as if blown across the page by a gust from the margin.

Some of the victim’s remarks concern the weather and the pleasantness of temperatures still in the sixties in the first week of November. Some remarks concern films currently in release, including what is described as a tirade on the subject of the film known as Pay It Forward. The film, it should be noted, is not without favor among detectives. The victim, however, is apparently disappointed with the career choices of the lead actor in the film. To continue, the victim can’t believe that she agreed to go to this movie entitled Pay It Forward. The people who made the film “should be towed out to sea on a barge,” according to the diary. The victim writes favorably about other film releases.