Should Have Looked Away (5 page)

EIGHT

It was just
after one when Dan finally arrived at the office. Eddie had been back from Queens about an hour; May had instructed him to pick up his lunch on the way back, and now she had herself just gotten back with her own lunch and a salt beef sandwich for Will. Will was struck by the difference in how their two employees spent their lunch break. Eddie was always out for the full sixty minutes, normally entertaining a girlfriend in a coffee shop or deli somewhere; May, on the other hand, was never out for more than ten minutes: just a quick trip to the 7/11 on the corner.

In some ways, Will seemed sorry for May: her husband had been in the Army and seemed to be always away on tours of duty; three years back he was killed by an IED in Iraq, and since then May devoted all her time to C & G Estates.  She never discussed any social life she might have, never any mention of anyone she might have been seeing. She had always been a private person, and Will did not want to jeopardise the good working relationship they had, or her value to the company, by going somewhere she clearly did not want to go. Such a shame, he always thought, she was still on the right side of fifty: she and her husband had had no children, and to be alone at such a young age was just not right.

Will heard Dan’s voice outside as he was halfway through his sandwich. He was wiping his mouth with a napkin as Dan stuck his head round into his office.

‘Hey there, buddy,’ Dan said cheerfully. ‘Sorry I was so long.’

‘I’ve not been here long myself.’ Will told Dan what he had been doing that morning. ‘We were all out yesterday afternoon – well, Chrissy, Louise and me; I needed to take Loulou to the bathroom, and while we were in the stall, this guy got attacked. Well, more than attacked - he died later. So I had to go Uptown first thing to make a written statement.’

‘Jesus!’ Dan exclaimed, stepping into Will’s office and flopping down in one of the chairs across the desk. ‘And all this was because of a trip to the mall?’

‘That was a good guess,’ Will said. ‘Yes, we were in the mall. The one up by Columbus Circle. All because of a trip to the mall, and all because Louise needed to take a wiz. How was your morning, by the way? May said you had to take care of some personal business.’

Dan adjusted his jacket collar. ‘Yeah, it’s an account I’ve been trying to court. A guy’s trying to sell some warehouse in Jersey, but the buyer’s mortgage company’s disputing the value of the place. We were talking about how to smarten the place up; you know, raise the value a tad.’

Will laughed. ‘Sounds promising. And there was me thinking you were with some broad.’

Dan laughed too, reddening slightly. ‘Funny.’ He stood up. ‘Any calls for me while I was out?’

‘May has yours, I think. Although there was one urgent one - a guy called Clay. I tried -’

‘I got him earlier. He called me on my cell this morning.’

‘Okay. As long as you got him.’

Just then, Dan’s phone chirped. ‘I gotta take this,’ he said, leaving Will alone with the remains of his salt beef sandwich. He finished the sandwich and the bottle of water May had brought back for him. Then returned to his personal computer and pressed a few keys. Dan had inadvertently made a valid point: since the 2008 recession, both prime and sub-prime lenders, those that were still in business, were far more cautious than they had been before. Sub-prime lenders were those who cared very little about the status of the people to whom they were lending money, relying more on the assumption that the value of the property would increase. Prime lenders, such as Fannie Mae - a colloquial name for the Federal National Mortgage Association - and Freddie Mac - the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation – had always been more prudent, but these days they could be more cautious than Will would have liked. They were particularly pedantic around values of properties, which could and frequently did affect the selling price, and therefore the commission C & G Estates earned.

Will called up a spreadsheet of his pending clients, and filtered down to those where they were waiting for a positive answer from the mortgage company. Then he would check to see if the property value had been questioned. There were twenty-eight cases to review. Will groaned and clicked on the first.

After the thirteenth, he sat back and stretched. He checked the time - it was 3:05 - and dialled home. It rang half a dozen times before going to voicemail. Will left no message, just hung up and dialled Chrissy’s mobile.

‘Hey there,’ Chrissy breathed down the phone.

‘Hey back,’ replied Will. ‘You out?’

‘U-huh. We’re just walking back from Gelson’s.’

‘But you went shopping yesterday.’

‘I know, but there were a few things I still needed.’

‘Hm. Get everything done this morning?’

‘Er – yes. Yes, I did.’

‘What did you do?’

‘Nothing much. Just a few things about the house. Why?’

‘Just wondered. Is Louise with you, then?’

‘She is, yes, skipping on ahead as usual. I picked her up just before two, then we went to the store. We’re on our way to the park right now. How did this morning go? With the police, I mean.’

‘It went, I guess. They kept me waiting around some, I told them the same as I told them yesterday, and they told me I could go.’

‘You got another ride in a police car? Did they sound the siren?’

‘Not after my statement. They said - Roberts and her partner - they had to go to another crime scene, and there were no uniforms to spare. So I walked.’

‘Walked?’

‘Why not? It’s only nine blocks. Small blocks at that.’

‘Guess so. We’re at the park now. Louise – do you want to talk to…?  No, she’s running off to the swings.’

‘No sweat. Tell her I love her and I’ll see her tonight.’

‘I will. What time you finishing?’

‘I’ll be done around five-thirty, I guess.’

‘So we’ll see you six-thirty?’

‘Around then. Love you.’

‘You too,’ answered Chrissy.

Will hung up and stretched again. Made a quick trip to the men’s room; as he walked past Dan’s open door, he noticed his partner chatting to Eddie. May was busy at the Xerox machine. He slumped back into his chair and turned his attention to case number fourteen. He had reached case twenty-four when his own phone rang. It was one of his clients. As he spoke to the client he noticed May peer into his office; she was talking to somebody outside. Once he had finished the call, May appeared again.

‘Your wife’s on the outside line,’ May said. ‘She said she’d tried your cell, but you were busy.’

‘I was on a call,’ said Will. ‘You’d better put her through.’

‘Just about to. She sounded rather stressed.’

Hoping that nothing had happened to Louise, Will grabbed the phone as soon as it rang.

‘What’s up?’ he asked.

‘Will, you need to come home. Now.’

‘What’s happened? Nothing’s happened to -’

‘It’s not Louise. We just got home from the park, and – oh, Will…’

‘What is it?’

‘Will, we’ve had a break-in.’

NINE

By the time
Will got back home, the police were already there. This time he took a cab, and as the taxi turned into Will’s street, he could see the white patrol car parked alongside his house.

‘Pull up anywhere here,’ he said to the driver. The cab pulled up next to the patrol car, Will thrust a twenty into the driver’s hand, leapt out of the cab, and ran up to his house. The door was already open, and a uniformed officer was walking down the steps.

‘Are you Mr Carter?’ the officer asked.

‘I am, yes,’ Will replied breathlessly.

‘Your wife’s in the kitchen, with one of my colleagues.’

Will ran indoors and into the kitchen. A female uniformed officer was in the kitchen talking to Chrissy, and Will could see two non-uniformed officers in the lounge, both on all fours checking the floor. Will headed straight for the kitchen, but as he went past the lounge door he could see the place had been ransacked, books pulled down from their shelves, contents of drawers spilled everywhere.

‘Will! Thank God!’ cried Chrissy when she saw him. They embraced.

Will looked around. ‘Where are the kids?’

‘Jake’s at an after school club. I called him on his cell and told him to go round to see Clyde. I called 911 after I rang you, then Mary. Louise is at hers.’

‘So what happened?’ Will asked.

‘We got home from the park around four. We came indoors, and I noticed, well – all the mess in there.’

‘Is it just in there?’

‘No. Some drawers and have been turned out in here, and they went through our bedroom.’

‘What about the kids’ room?’

Chrissy shook her head. ‘No, they don’t appear to have been touched.’

‘That’s weird. I wonder why not.’

The female officer spoke. ‘The most likely explanation is that they ran out of time, or they got disturbed. Maybe one of them acted as a lookout: you know, watching for somebody to return.’

‘How did they get in?’ asked Will.

‘Through the back door,’ the officer replied. ‘It had been forced.’

‘What’s been taken?’ asked Will.

‘I can’t really tell right now.’ Chrissy ran one hand through her hair. ‘Everything’s in such a mess. But they haven’t touched stuff like the TV, BluRay player, even my laptop. And none of Jake’s stuff’s been touched.’ She pointed to a shelf. ‘I did leave some money there this morning - about fifty dollars - and that’s been taken.’

Will turned to the officer. ‘This is new ground for me. What happens now?’

The officer said, ‘Well, you need to let the crime scene officers do their job. They’re going to be checking for – well, for anything, really; anything the perpetrators might have left behind. Fingerprints, DNA traces. They’ll also get samples of yours and your family’s.’

‘You already have my DNA,’ Will muttered.

‘Excuse me?’

Will explained the events of the last twenty-four hours.

‘Oh, I see. We didn’t know. Different precinct. Different type of crime.’

‘What then?’ Chrissy asked.

‘I take it you have insurance?’ the officer asked.

Will and Chrissy both answered at the same time. ‘Sure.’

‘Once our guys are done, you need to carry out an inventory. Check for anything that might be missing. We’ll give you a crime reference number, for you to give to your insurance company. And of course you’ll need to get that door fixed. Make sure the back yard’s secure as well. They probably climbed over one of your fences. You don’t have an intruder alarm, I see?’

Will shook his head.

‘You might want to think about getting one installed. It might help you save on insurance costs, as well.’

‘Yeah,’ Will sighed, looking at the messy kitchen.

‘Do you have to get all that stuff from the children?’ Chrissy asked. ‘Fingerprints, DNA? They’re only thirteen and five: won’t any prints they’ve left be smaller than adult prints?’

‘At this stage we don’t know if the intruders were adults. It’s your decision, Mrs Carter, but the more elimination evidence we have, the more likely it is we can catch up with whoever it was.’

‘What is the clear-up rate?’ asked Will.

‘Will!’ chided Chrissy.

‘Reasonably high,’ the officer told Will.

Chrissy said, ‘Our son’s over at a friend’s, but he’ll be back later, and I’ve arranged for my daughter to go to one of hers. Do they need to come back here?’

‘The crime scene officers will talk to you about that. They can take yours while they’re here, then arrange something with you about your children.’ She looked over to her colleague, who had just come back into the house. ‘What is it?’

‘We have to go,’ the male officer said.

She addressed Chrissy. ‘Sorry. Another call, but the crime scene officers will remain here until they’re done.’

‘No problem,’ said Chrissy. ‘Thanks for all your help.’

‘You take care now. And remember to secure your door and back yard. And get an intruder alarm.’

‘We will,’ Chrissy said, walking the officer to the door.

‘This is all we need,’ Will said as she returned.

She ran her hands through her hair again. ‘Yeah.’

‘And the hits keep rolling in,’ Will added. ‘Godammit!’

*****

The forensic team finished about seven-thirty, the last tasks they performed being the taking of Will’s and Chrissy’s fingerprints and DNA sample. Will pointed out that their Midtown North colleagues had already taken a DNA sample, but the CSI explained that it would make any investigation speedier if he could take a sample too. Not entirely convinced, Will complied. The CSI said there was no need to bring Jake and Louise home that evening to take their samples; either Will or Chrissy could take them to the station house over the next few days.

Once the police had left, Chrissy said she would walk round to Mary’s house and pick up Louise. Will said he would start to clear up downstairs and start a list of what was missing. He had been doing this for about ten minutes when Jake arrived.

‘Hey,’ Jake said, looking around the mess. ‘You and Mom had a party or something?’

Will sat up. ‘No, we’ve had a break in.’

‘My stuff!’ Jake yelled and rushed upstairs.

‘Don’t worry,’ Will called upstairs. ‘They didn’t touch your room.’

Will carried on clearing up; Jake came back downstairs a couple of minutes later.

‘They didn’t touch my stuff.’

‘That’s what I said. Nor Louise’s.’

‘Yours and Mom’s room’s in a mess, though.’

‘I know.’

‘What did they take?’

‘Can’t tell yet, apart from fifty bucks Mom left in the kitchen.’

Jake paused, watching his father clean up. ‘I’m going upstairs to watch TV.’

Will looked up. ‘Don’t put anything about this online, will you? Not yet, anyway.’

Jake nodded. ‘Okay.’

‘I mean it.’

‘Relax. I said I wouldn’t.’

‘Thanks,’ Will said. ‘You eaten?’

‘Had something at Clyde’s,’ Jake replied, running back upstairs.

It did not take Will long to clean up downstairs: most of the mess was superficial – just a matter of putting books back on shelves and papers back in drawers. Then he went upstairs. He put his head round Jake’s bedroom door: his son was playing a computer game.

Jake looked up. ‘Don’t worry, Dad: I’m not uploading crime scene photos onto Facebook or anything.’

Will nodded. ‘Good,’ he muttered and went into their bedroom.

As with downstairs, the mess probably looked worse than it was. Much like Jake’s room at the best of times.

He was halfway though clearing up when he heard Chrissy and Louise return. He went downstairs to meet them.

‘Hello, Loulou,’ he said as his daughter ran up to cuddle him. ‘How is she?’ he asked Chrissy.

‘Fine. She doesn’t know anything’s happened.’

Will nodded. ‘Good. Jake’s home, by the way. He’s in his room, playing on his consul.’

‘Has he eaten?’

‘He said he had something at Clyde’s.’

‘Mary gave her something to eat, but you haven’t eaten anything, have you?’

Suddenly Will realised he was hungry. ‘No. No – I haven’t. I’ve done down here; I was just upstairs clearing up our room. I’ll just go finish off.’

‘I’ll fix us something momentarily. Is anything…?’

‘Not yet.’

Back upstairs, Will continued clearing up. They kept very little in the way of valuables in the house: passports, and other documents were in a filing cabinet kept in a closet under the stairs: that had not been touched. Up here, there were just a couple of watches and some jewellery of Chrissy’s. He looked around the drawers and the floor. No jewellery, no watches. Bastards. Not much monetary value, just sentimental. Chrissy had a necklace which had been her grandmother’s, and Will had a watch left to him by his father.

He finished clearing up and went downstairs. Louise was asleep on the couch. Chrissy was in the kitchen, cooking.

‘French toast?’ she asked.

Will nodded and slumped onto a stool. He yawned.

‘How was upstairs?’ she asked.

‘All the jewellery and watches gone.’

She paused from mixing the eggs. ‘Shit. Damn them.’

‘Quite. But it could have been a lot worse.’

‘I know.’

‘Look, I’ll take her up to bed, then I’ll fix that door. Something temporary, just for the night. I’ll get someone in tomorrow.’

After they had eaten, Chrissy said she wanted a bath. While she was upstairs, Will fixed the door, and wandered around the yard. The fences looked secure, but maybe not high enough. The bastards must have stood on something the other side and climbed over. Done the same on the way out: Will had a small bicycle shed next to one of the fences: that would need moving.

He was right about one thing, though: it could have been a lot worse. For one thing, Chrissy and Louise or Jake on his own could have interrupted them; or a lot more than some jewellery and money could have been taken.  And God knows what could have gone on in Louise’s room.

Just lousy timing.

But as Will went indoors he had a niggling feeling that, despite what the police said, the events of the last two days might not be unconnected.