Should Have Looked Away (3 page)

FOUR

The transit cop
boarded at Times Square. Almost by way of reflex, Will sunk down in his seat halfway down the car. He stared out of the opposite window, seeing only the reflection of his side of the car as the train sped through the tunnel. Trying to look inconspicuous.

It was now just after seven, and he was on his way home after spending three hours at the mall and in the company of the NYPD. At 6:40, the officer said he was free to go, and without delay Will headed for the subway. The officer had said he was no longer needed and thanked him for his assistance, so why was he twitchy about this cop getting on the train? It was quite a common occurrence, especially at this time of day. Maybe they had forgotten something; maybe they suspected him after all, in spite of what the other cop had said.

His head firmly facing the opposite window, Will began to watch the officer out of the corner of his eye. He had boarded the train at the end set of doors and remained standing next to the doors. Out of the corner of his eye, Will could see him looking down the car.

34
th
Street, then 28
th
. At each stop, Will silently pleaded with him to get off, without success.

Pull yourself together
, he thought. After all, the officer at the mall had said he was free to go.

It was just after the paramedic had pronounced the man dead that the security guard said to Will, ‘We’d better wait for the police in my office.’ As he spoke, he put one of his huge hands on the top of Will’s arm. Will was at least a foot shorter than the guard and felt he had no choice but to comply. As they both left the restroom, Will saw two uniformed NYPD officers reach the top of the escalator.

‘Are you Mr Carter?’ one of the officers asked. ‘You made the 911 call?’

‘Yes, that’s right. Will Carter.’ Will had a sense of relief that the officer was addressing him directly, not letting the security guard control everything.

‘Have the paramedics arrived?’ the officer asked.

Before Will could reply, the security guard said, ‘Yes, about five minutes ago. They’ve just pronounced the man dead.’

The two police officers looked at each other. Will estimated that the first officer’s partner could not have been more than early twenties; the older man did all the talking.

‘That changes things,’ said the older one. He looked at Will. ‘You told the 911 operator that he had just been beaten up.’

‘He had when I saw him. He was still alive then.’

‘Okay. Well, now it’s a murder enquiry. I’m afraid, Mr Carter, you’ll need to wait until the Detective Squad arrives.’ He asked the security guard, ‘Have you an office where Mr Carter can wait?’

‘Yes, it’s on Level 3.’

He turned to his younger colleague. ‘You take Mr Carter up there. I’ll check the scene and put in the call.’

‘Yessir,’ said the younger officer. ‘Shall we?’ he asked Will and the guard, and the three men headed for the up escalator. As they were riding up to the next level, Will looked down and saw the older officer outside the men’s room, on his radio.

‘How long do you think they’ll be? Will asked.

‘Sorry, sir; I can’t say,’ was the reply.

Once on the top floor, the guard unlocked a teak coloured door, and held it open for Will and the police officer.  The room was smaller than Will had expected, most of the floor space taken up by a large wooden desk, on which were a metal tray filled with paper and a computer monitor. A large red mug stood on the table as well. The guard hurried over to the large swivel chair behind the desk and sat down. There was one smaller chair in front of the desk, and the officer motioned Will to sit down. The officer sauntered over to the doorway when his radio crackled. He answered immediately and walked away from the door. Will could hear him talking, but could not make out what he was saying.

After a few moments the officer returned. ‘I need to see your hands please, sir,’ he said to Will. Will remained seated, but held out both hands. The officer took hold of them, turned them over and checked the back of both hands. ‘Thank you, sir,’ the officer said as he released them.

‘Checking for cuts and bruises?’ Will asked. ‘I’ve already said I didn’t do it.’

The officer said nothing; he left the room and Will could hear him on his radio once more. He returned momentarily. ‘The detectives are downstairs at the scene right now. I’m sure they’ll be up to talk to you soon.’

‘They will need me down there,’ said the security guard, standing up. ‘Have they taped off the scene?’

The officer held out his hand. ‘Everything is under control, thank you sir. Please remain here also.’

The guard flopped back into his chair, clearly disappointed that he had to remain with Will. He stabbed at his keyboard and began to check something on his monitor. Will could not help grinning slightly.

For the next thirty minutes, the guard checked his screen, Will stared into space, and the officer paced around outside.

Just as Will was suppressing a yawn, he heard voices outside. He sat up, turning round in his seat so he could see what was going on.

The detectives had arrived.

As they entered the office, Will saw that the leading detective was a woman and instinctively stood up.

‘You don’t need to stand up, sir,’ she said amusedly, but Will remained on his feet.

She was about the same height as Will - five feet eight – and around the same age. Caucasian, she had auburn hair which was long, but tied tightly into a ponytail, giving her face a rather severe look. She wore very little make-up. She was wearing a pair of black jeans and matching ankle length boots, with a pale blue blouse under a short dark coat.  The other detective looked younger than she did, but slightly older than the rookie officer. He was dressed in black trousers and a dark sweatshirt, sleeves rolled up. He had a Hispanic look about him.

‘I’m Detective Julianne Roberts,’ she said. ‘This is Detective Eric Alvarez. Detective Squad, Midtown North Precinct.’

Will shook hands with them both.

‘Sit down, please.’ Detective Roberts perched herself on the desk. Alvarez stood in the doorway with the rookie. ‘I need you to make a formal statement; but for now, I’d like you to run through what happened in the men’s room.’ She looked round to the guard. ‘Maybe you’d like to accompany Detective Alvarez down to the scene.’

‘Oh, right.’ The guard stood up and left with the other detective. The rookie uniform remained at the door.

‘In your own words, Mr Carter,’ she said.

‘Well,’ Will began, ‘I was here at the mall with my wife and daughter shopping.’

Roberts looked around. ‘Your wife and daughter? Are they here?’

‘No. No, they went home as I was calling 911.’

Roberts frowned disapprovingly. ‘Right.’ She paused. ‘Go on: you were shopping with your wife and daughter.’

‘Yes. We were almost done. Chrissy - my wife – wanted to go down to Whole Foods, but my daughter - Louise - needed the bathroom. She’s five, so I needed to go with her.’

Roberts said nothing as Will talked; just nodding now and again.

‘Well, I took her to the men’s room. We picked one of the stalls, went in, and she did what she needed to do.’

‘Was anybody else in the room?’

‘Er – I think there was somebody at one of the urinals. But he soon left.’

‘What about the other stalls? Were they in use?’

Will sat back and thought. ‘No, I think they were all empty. You know – the doors were open slightly.’

‘I see. Go on.’

‘Well, while my daughter was… you know, peeing, I heard someone come in. I pushed the door closed for my daughter’s privacy, but I could hear whoever it was kind of running around down there.’

‘Running around?’

‘No - it was more I guess pacing back and forth. Quickly. Yes, definitely in a hurry. Then two more men came in. One of them said something like “we got you now”, then started to beat up on him.’

‘“We got you now”?  Is that right?’

Will shook his head. ‘Something along those lines, I can’t remember exactly.’

‘So you say then they started to attack him. Did you see anything? Through any gaps in the door, I mean.’

Will shook his head. ‘I could just hear kicking and cries of pain. Anybody could recognise that when they heard it. Oh, and I could make out movement, shadows under the door.’

‘Okay,’ said Roberts slowly.

‘I’m sorry I can’t be more precise. I was concentrating on keeping my daughter quiet at the time.’

‘Of course you were, Mr Carter. I’m sorry.’ She paused. ‘What happened next?’

Will related how he had heard them drag the victim into the next stall and continue the beating. ‘Then one of them urged the other to hurry as somebody was bound to come in soon.’

‘Could you make out any names?’

He shook his head. ‘No. No names were used.’

‘Then?’

‘Then once they’d gone, I waited a few minutes, ventured out and saw him where he is now. I checked if he was still alive and called you.’

‘Did you touch him, feel his pulse or anything?’

‘No. I thought he was already dead at first, but he moved.’

‘Did he say anything to you?’

Will shook his head.

‘Could I just see your hands please?’ she asked.

Not bothering to protest that the rookie had already checked them, Will held out his hands. Roberts checked both sides. ‘See? I didn’t attack him.’

She let go of his hands. ‘Just routine, Mr Carter.’

‘I’ve told you everything that happened. Am I free to go now?’

She shook her head and stood up. ‘Not yet. I’m sorry Mr Carter, but I need you to stay here a while longer. Just in case we need to ask you any more questions. And have you any objections if we take a DNA sample? You know - a swab from your mouth?’

‘No, none at all.’
As long as you get on with it
, he thought.

For the next ninety minutes, Will sat in the office, the rookie officer waiting outside. Occasionally Detective Roberts returned to check some more detail with him and Detective Alvarez brought him a paper cup of coffee, then had to escort him to the men’s room on that floor.  Finally, a forensic officer came upstairs and took Will’s DNA sample. He waited a few more minutes, then  Detective Roberts returned.

‘Thank you so much for your patience and cooperation,’ she said. ‘You’re free to go now. Here’s my card. Give me a call on my cell if you recall anything else. And please call in in the next 48 hours to make a formal written statement.’

Free to go. Will felt like running down the escalators to the subway platforms, but managed to maintain a dignified exit.

Free to go. So why was he worried about this transit cop?

He needn’t have worried any more as the officer got off at 14
th
Street.

Will’s was the next stop and as he climbed the steps to street level, he recalled that he hadn’t told the police about that card the man had been clutching. The card with ONE printed on it.

Perhaps he’d add that to the formal statement. In any case, they would have seen it themselves. Better not tell the cops he had been checking out the body.

He was intrigued by it all though. Was that card something to do with why the man was murdered? Or
was
it murder? Wasn’t it just a beating-up gone too far? Didn’t that make it second degree, or something?

As he walked home down Bleeker, Chrissy’s words of advice rung in his ears. Words of advice she’d given him many times before.

‘You need to look away.’

FIVE

At that time
of year, New York City sees sunrise at six-thirty. Sunset is at seven in the evening. Will always thought that six-thirty was early enough to wake up, early enough to set the alarm clock for, but unfortunately he had to be woken an hour earlier. Every night, when he and Chrissy set their alarms for five-thirty, he would groan about it being such an unearthly hour.

However, he had been waking up at this time for so long, that an alarm clock was normally unnecessary. In the summer months, it was already light at that time, which made it easier to get up, but to do so in the dark Will thought was plain unfair. It would get even worse as the days got shorter.

One effect of being woken by a loud bleeping sound for so long was that by now Will’s body clock had gotten adjusted: more often than not he would wake ten or fifteen minutes before the alarm went off.

That was the case that morning.

Will stirred and turned round to look at the clock. The red display read 5:12. ‘Shit,’ he muttered and turned over, closing his eyes and trying to catch just a few more minutes sleep. Lying in the dark, he could hear Chrissy sleeping next to him. He could hear her breathing heavily. Not actually snoring, just a heavy, repetitive sound. Will turned again to face her. He could see her outline in the dark, lying on her side, her back to him. He could smell her perfume, old perfume which she must have put on the previous morning, but unmistakeably her smell.

Watching her sleep, Will began to feel himself get aroused. He moved closer to his wife, so they were virtually spooning. Pressing himself against her, he reached round and began to caress her leg. Chrissy mumbled something and began to stir. Will’s hand travelled around the front of her leg and upwards and inside the long tee-shirt she was wearing. He grinned as he could feel she had been wearing nothing underneath the shirt last night.

Chrissy began to stir, obviously not unaware of what was going on. Still ostensibly asleep, she murmured something unintelligible again and turned over onto her back. Will manoeuvred himself so he was on top of her, tugged at his shorts and reached down.

‘Mommy, I can’t sleep,’ came a voice from outside Will and Chrissy’s bedroom. Will made a squealing noise and quickly got off his wife and pulled up his shorts. He turned round and saw Louise standing in the doorway, clutching her teddy bear. Will sat up.

Now Chrissy was awake too. ‘What is it, baby?’ she asked. ‘Come over here.’

Louise wandered over to the bed. ‘I can’t sleep,’ she repeated.

‘Don’t worry, Loulou,’ Will said through a yawn. ‘Daddy’s alarm is about to go off. It’s time for us all to get up.’

‘Not quite yet,’ corrected Chrissy. She patted Will’s side of the bed. ‘Come here with Mommy while Daddy’s in the shower.’

Louise jumped up onto the bed and snuggled under the covers with her teddy bear.

‘I’m going to take a shower,’ Will said. He looked over at Louise, who was almost asleep again. ‘You don’t want to…?’ he asked Chrissy.

‘Get real, Buster,’ Chrissy replied. ‘I’ll go make coffee.’

Then Will’s alarm clock went off: Chrissy reached over Louise’s sleeping form to switch it off.

By six o’clock, both Will and Chrissy were downstairs in the kitchen, Will having finished his second cup of coffee.

Chrissy was by the stove. ‘Waffles or French Toast?’ she asked.

‘Oh, just regular toast for me. Loulou’ll want waffles, I guess.’

‘I guess she will, but she needs to cut down on the syrup,’ Chrissy replied.

‘Then don’t offer her waffles.’ Will checked the time. ‘I’ll go wake the kids up. What time are you two leaving?’

‘I’m not going in today; have some stuff to do here. Mary’s taking her in today.’

‘Mary?’

‘Mary Woods. You know, from -’

‘Oh, yes; I know. I’ll go get them.’

Will went back upstairs and into his bedroom. Louise was still in his bed, fast asleep. Will gently roused her, drawing to her attention that Mommy was making waffles downstairs. Louise was out of bed and down in the kitchen in seconds. Jake would be a different matter.

Will stood outside his son’s room and took a deep breath. He pushed the door open. The room was bathed in a weird green light emanating from a futuristic looking lamp in the corner. Will sniffed: there was always an unmistakable smell in Jake’s room - a combination of body odour, damp, methane, and whatever else he might have been using the night before. Will didn’t want to know. There were piles of clothes all over the floor, shoes and sneakers scattered around the room, a weird poster of some band on the wall opposite the bed. On a long desk under the poster were three computer monitors, a laptop, and two keyboards. Several computer game disc boxes were on the floor. Wires led everywhere. Every time Will looked in here, he always told himself that he and Chrissy needed to be more disciplined with their son, before he got into real trouble. Will’s father had died a couple of years back, and since then Jake, who was very close to his grandfather, had done a series of crazy stunts. The latest was in the summer, when he and Dan Gleave’s boy Clyde had been firing Fourth of July rockets horizontally along one of the nearby streets, seeing if they went faster than the traffic.

Being thirteen, Jake was an eighth grader, and attended a middle school on Tompkins Square on E 6
th
. It was a ten minute walk for Will, which meant a twenty minute one for Jake, and as school began at 7:30, Will always tried to get him off by seven.

Will stepped over the debris on the floor and pulled Jake’s covers off.

‘Fuck off,’ Jake grunted.

‘It’s me,’ Will snapped. ‘Watch your language.’

‘Oh...oh...oh,’ Jake growled. ‘It’s you.’

‘Time to get up. It’s gone six.’

‘Come back at six-thirty.’

‘No. You need to get up now. You need to leave in an hour. Get up now and have some of your mom’s waffles and syrup. Before Louise eats them all.’

Now Jake was sitting up in bed, rubbing his eyes.

‘See you downstairs.’ Will flicked the light switch on his way out.

‘Oh, Dad!’ Will heard Jake cry out as he closed the door behind him.

Jake began school at seven-thirty, finishing just after three; Louise, on the other hand, started at preschool at 8:45. Since her fifth birthday in April she had been attending the Flatiron Preschool on W 19
th
.  The preschool had been operating since the late 1990s, when it was situated on 22
nd
Street with a view of the Flatiron Building; however a problem with damp in the building around the turn of the century necessitated a move of premises to its current location. The school decided to retain the name: after all, they had only moved three blocks.

‘Are you going to use the car today?’ Will asked Chrissy as she passed him a plate of toast.

‘No, I don’t think so. Are you?’

He took a bite and shook his head.

‘I don’t know why we keep that car,’ she said. ‘We hardly ever use it.’

‘I do now and again.’

‘Now and again. But think about it: who in this town keeps a car? The subway’s so much easier. You go to work on the subway every day.’

‘Most days. But I need a car now and again through work.’

‘Hardly
need
.’

‘It looks better when I’m visiting clients who live out of the City. After all, the L Train hardly goes to Long Island, does it?’

Chrissy laughed. ‘Neither do you.’

‘Anyway, I need to keep a car for work. Period.’

‘Whatever. You off now, honey?’ she called out.

Jake was standing in the doorway, dressed for school, carrying a backpack. ‘Yeah, I’m off now.’

‘Okay,’ said Will. ‘You have a good day, now.’

Chrissy flashed Will a stare then asked Jake, ‘You want something to eat before you go?’

‘It’s all right, Mom. I got some pretzels in here.’ He tapped his backpack and left.

After Jake had left, Will stared at the door for a few moments. ‘Well, I’d better be off now.’

Will went upstairs to the bathroom, brushed his teeth and drained the last of his coffee. As he dropped the empty cup into the sink, he asked Chrissy, ‘What did you say you were doing today?’

‘I didn’t say, but I just have some stuff to do around here.’

‘Whatever.’ Will leaned down to kiss his wife, then Louise. ‘I’ll see you two just after six,’ he said, making his way to the front door. He opened the door and stepped out.

And bumped into Detective Julianne Roberts.