Page 26 of Two Kinds of Stranger (Eddie Flynn #9)

Eddie

‘Eddie, call on line three. It’s that guy again from The New York Times ,’ said Denise, hollering at me from her desk at reception.

I was in my office, working on my third coffee of the afternoon, feet on my desk, pen tumbling through my fingers as I thought about Elly’s case.

‘You know you can call me on my office phone and tell me that. You don’t need to bellow it out across the whole office.’

‘I called your phone three times,’ said Denise. ‘You didn’t pick up. You’re miles away.’

She was right. When I get lost in thought, I go somewhere deep. The building could crumble around me and I probably wouldn’t notice.

‘Sorry, Denise. I’ll pick up next time.’

‘What do I tell the guy from the Times ?’

‘Tell him we’re not ready to make a statement yet, and I got today’s Wordle on my second try.’

Swinging my feet off the desk, I got up and took my coffee to Harry’s office.

He was behind the desk, a stack of files on one side, which he was ignoring, a cup of coffee in one hand, his phone in the other.

Clarence lay in his bed in the corner, dosing.

The Rolling Stones were playing from Harry’s work laptop.

Kate had set him up on Spotify. Harry liked listening to music as he worked, but didn’t want to haul his records and record player into the office.

‘Working hard?’ I asked.

‘Hardly working. I’m watching Elly’s TikkyToks.’

‘I don’t think that’s the right term.’

‘I’m old. What’s up?’

‘I’m going slightly crazy thinking about this case. I don’t like prosecutors keeping me in the dark. We can’t build a defense if we don’t know what case we have to fight.’

Harry put down his phone, took a sip from his coffee, said, ‘You have no patience. Just wait for the indictment.’

‘If we’re going to trial at lightning speed then every day we spend sitting on our asses while Castro’s office builds a case against Elly is against my religion.’

‘She should be out on bail tomorrow, if your bondsman comes through. There will be plenty to do then. Just try to relax. Wait for Bloch and Lake to come back.’

‘I can’t sit here. I’ve got to do something.’

‘What can you do?’

I thought for a moment. Looked at Clarence.

He wasn’t bothered by any of this. His master was at peace in his chair, he’d been fed and walked, and all was right with the world.

I needed to think. Which meant I needed to move.

There was one thing I could do that might help us get a jump start on Elly’s defense.

‘I’ve got to know more about the murders, but it might get us into trouble,’ I said.

‘What kind of trouble?’

‘The serious kind. Want to come?’

Harry thought for a moment, asked, ‘Whose car are we going to take?’

Harry drove.

I needed to make some calls on the way.

He still maneuvered his green convertible sports car way too fast. It was very old and very British.

Harry loved this car. Nobody else did. It had a suspension system that I guessed was made out of old boots and tree branches, the steering made a horrible noise if you turned left hard and the brakes were either fully on or fully off, which made stop lights damn dangerous.

We drove with the top down, despite the cold.

Having the top up was an arcane puzzle that Harry had never quite mastered.

Even with it up, it leaked and sent concentrated icy drafts of air across your face.

‘Why don’t you get this car fixed?’ I asked, holding my cell phone to my ear.

‘I can’t. This thing was hand-built in England. If it broke down in the factory, surrounded by the guys who built it, they still wouldn’t be able to put it back together.’

‘Then buy a new car. This one is dangerous.’

‘I like this car. It has character.’

‘You mean you like it because it doesn’t work properly?’

We were coming up on a red light. Harry touched the brakes, throwing us forward as the wheels locked up. The seatbelt bit into my shoulder.

‘Yeah, that’s kind of the point,’ said Harry.

‘Think about our office. You think any one of those people function properly? You never left the con game, not even when you’re on your feet in court; Kate is an obsessive workaholic; Bloch is the best investigator I’ve ever seen, but she’s like an AI robot most of the time; and Lake is a bumbling mass of anxiety who likes to shoot people every now and again.

If it wasn’t for Denise, the whole place would collapse.

None of you can function properly. We’re all flawed, Eddie.

That’s what makes us human. That’s why I love this car. ’

We drove on in silence.

I called the prosecutor’s office. Bernice was out and her secretary said she was on her cell and gave me her number.

It took almost thirty seconds, but Bernice answered the call.

‘You know, you shouldn’t keep your cell phone in that handbag,’ I said.

‘My life is in this bag, Eddie. What do you want? I already told you I can’t divulge anything about this case. Grand Jury empaneled tomorrow. You should have discovery in a week or two.’

‘I need something else. My client is going to make bail in the morning. I need to get some clothes and essential items from her apartment. I’m on my way there now.’

‘Her apartment is sealed. She can’t stay there. You want in there you need to file a motion.’

‘A lady from my office wants to go over there and pick up some of Elly’s clothes and personal items. I don’t need to file a motion for my client to access her underwear drawer.’

‘It’s a crime scene, Eddie.’

‘You’ve gotten all the forensics you need from that apartment. Or are you telling me there’s evidence in that apartment you’re not showing to the Grand Jury? Maybe I should ask Kate to file a motion to dismiss on grounds of withholding evidence.’

Bernice sighed, said, ‘I’ll ask the detective to meet you there. Give me an hour. And don’t screw me on this.’

She hung up.

We were almost at Elly’s apartment building.

I called Bloch. She was in her car, with Lake, on speaker.

‘I need you and Lake at Elly’s apartment. Police will be here within an hour to supervise. They’re letting us inside to grab some stuff for our client. You’re going to pack up some clothes and personal items for Elly.’

A pause.

‘You want to tell me what we’re really doing?’ asked Bloch.

‘The apartment is still sealed. We need access and time to examine the crime scene alone . You and Lake can grab our own forensics. I just need to get rid of the detective who’s supervising the visit.’

‘How are you going to do that?’

Harry pulled up across the street from Elly’s apartment building.

She lived on the fifth floor. I glanced up, checked out the four windows of her apartment.

Construction workers were on the sidewalk and the street outside the building, with about thirty feet coned off, taking up one of the eastbound lanes.

I said, ‘When you’re on your way here, stop by Times Square and pick up some flyers for whatever’s hot on Broadway right now. Maybe a dozen should do.’

Bloch didn’t ask questions. She just agreed and hung up.

‘You gonna bribe the cop with tickets for a show?’ asked Harry.

‘Not exactly,’ I said.

Con artists, like lawyers, have to be able to adapt and improvise on their feet.

Quick thinking. Fast hands. Ideally, you should have both. That’s what my father used to say. And if your head ain’t as quick as your hands you can still get out of a tight spot, just with a little less elegance.

Harry leaned on his cane outside Elly’s apartment building, Bloch beside him.

I was across the street in the driver’s seat of Harry’s car, Lake beside me in the passenger seat.

I’d put on Harry’s overcoat and turned up the collar.

I added his Yankees baseball hat and my sunglasses.

Lake put on a beanie and folded up the collar of his overcoat.

It was just a precaution. I didn’t think for a second our mark would ask someone to check the city cameras.

He would likely want to forget the whole episode. Still, it paid to be careful.

Lake had an old canvas shopping bag between his legs filled with an assortment of latex gloves, bottles of chemicals, evidence baggies and forensic kits. He fished out a pair of gloves and started putting them on.

‘How much time do you think we’ll have?’ he asked.

‘Best guess, eight minutes. Maybe longer.’

The elastic at the base of the glove snapped over his right wrist and he began wriggling his left hand into the next one.

‘That’s not a lot of time.’

‘It’ll have to be enough. Right now, the cops and the DA are holding all the cards and the trial will be right in front of us before we know it. The longer they hold out on us the less time we have. We need to get ahead of this.’

The second glove snapped over the skin on the back of his hand.

‘I get the feeling we’re already too late,’ he said.

‘The subway footage?’

He nodded, said, ‘Someone knew we were going looking for that footage. Either the police or the guy with the suitcase.’

‘Can you find out who it was?’ I asked.

He looked at me, asked, ‘Does it really matter? The footage is gone either way.’

‘It matters. If we can prove the cops deleted the footage, then we have grounds for a dismissal. Shaky grounds, but it gives us a shot at killing the case against Elly. If it was the man with the suitcase, then maybe we get a step closer to finding him.’

A Silver Ford Taurus pulled up outside Elly’s building, in a no-parking zone, about twenty feet from the construction barriers.

Before Detective Bill Sacks got out of the Ford, he reached into the passenger footwell and came back up with a laminated, letter-sized card, which he laid on the dash.

The suspension rocked as he got out of the car and stepped to the curb, shortly joining Harry and Bloch on the sidewalk.

I could see a clear, plastic evidence bag in Sack’s hands containing Elly’s keys and the fob to access the front door.