“I’ve just got a few things to clear on my desk. I’d really like to get out of here before Battaglia shows up. Just leave a message with Rose that we’re on top of this.”
“I got calls to make. Do what you got to do.” Mercer made himself comfortable in Laura’s cubicle and I turned on the lights in my office.
There was a note on top of the center pile of manila case folders. Barry Donner was going to sum up today in the case of Denys Koslawski. The judge was giving signs that he was going to reserve decision, so there might not be a verdict in the case for a couple of weeks. I’d expected better of Lyle Keets, but I guess he didn’t want to embarrass Bishop Deegan and rule so quickly on the heels of his testimony.
I dialed Luc’s number at Le Relais, his restaurant at Mougins, and held until the hostess got him on the phone. As I waited, I took the Xerox I’d made of the letters Mike had found in Daniel Gersh’s apartment and placed the pieces in front of me, trying to move them around to form parts of words. When Luc said his faint
“
It was unusual for me to try to find him in the middle of a working day.
“I’m okay. It’s — well, another young woman was killed a few hours ago. Her throat was slit, and we’re sure it’s the same perp.”
“That’s so awful — I don’t really know what to say. Are you taking care of yourself? Do you want me to come immediately?”
“No, no. I’m fine. I just wanted you to hear it from me and not some Internet news report. I know I haven’t been easy to find, but I adore coming home to your messages.”
Luc laughed. “Less of a nuisance than coming home to me, with all this going on.”
“Probably so. Mercer’s here at the office with me now.”
“So, you can’t talk?”
“You mean tell you I love you? Of course I can.”
“I hope that’s why you called.”
“I needed to hear what you have to say. To get me through the day.”
“
Mercer whistled to get my attention, and I spun the chair around. “I hate to break this up, Alex, but you’ve got your first customer.”
“How fast can you talk, Luc? I’ve got a new case. Have to run.”
“Three days, darling. Hold tight. Tell Mercer and Mike to keep you safe.”
“That’s not their job, Luc. I take care of that myself. Talk to you later.”
“That’s Ms. Cooper,” Mercer was saying to the young uniformed cop.
“Good morning. I’m Terence Seckler. Nineteenth Precinct.”
“What have you got?” I reached for his arrest report and paperwork.
“Unlawful surveillance. Second degree. They told me to bring it up to your unit — Special Victims.”
“Thanks. I’ll look it over and we’ll assign it to someone as soon as my secretary gets in. Looks like it’s got a twist.”
“Yes, ma’am. Different angle. Technology is amazing.”
“Inside Bloomingdale’s?”
“Riding the escalators up and down all day.”
For ages, up-skirting had been a sport of many perverts. Sitting on the sidewalk or on the steps of institutions like our great museums or on crowded subway cars, these men found ways to position themselves to be able to see — and sometimes photograph — the more intimate zones of a woman’s body. The actions had never been criminal until, with the proliferation of pocket-size cameras, the conduct got so out of control that the legislators went back to work on it. Now it was a crime — section 250.45 of the Penal Law.
“He strapped a camera to his shoe?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And you recovered that too?” The jury might have to see the contraption to believe it.
“It’s vouchered. The captain told me to bring the camera on down to you, so you could view the images. It’s got crotch shots — excuse me, I don’t know what else to call them — of about three hundred girls — teenagers, mostly.”
“You find any of the victims?”
“Three. The last one sort of figured it out and attacked him. She nailed him pretty well, right on the beak.”
“Good for her. How was the camera attached?”
“I took a photo here, with my cell,” Seckler said, showing me a close-up of the image. A small device had been set into the panel of laces of one of the perp’s sneakers, held in place when the shoe was tied tightly.
“Nice job. Have a seat in the hallway. My secretary will find you an eager prosecutor as soon as she gets in.”
“Why don’t you just let me steer all this away?” Mercer asked as Seckler left the room.
“’Cause it’s what keeps me sane. Not everything that crosses my desk is a murder or a rape. It keeps things in perspective for me to handle all the daily fallout of street life in the big city. Sometimes it even amuses me. Like what could possibly be so thrilling about taking pictures up a girl’s skirt?”
“And on the downside, what does that perversion lead to? Used to be peeping Toms were the first step in a rapist’s training regimen. From peeping to break-ins to sexual assaults. How many of these fools go on to forcible touching? That’s what you’ve got to worry about.”
“I do. That and how fast our killer seems to be moving.”
“Sorry to interrupt. Ms. Cooper?”
“Yes,” I said. Mercer stepped aside and I nodded to the woman standing behind him.
“I’m Alison Borracelli. You have an appointment with my daughter this morning. At eight thirty, I believe.” She was soft-spoken, with a hint of an Italian accent.
Gina Borracelli. I had completely forgotten the Thursday-morning lineup. I flipped open my diary and saw the notation.
“Yes, of course I do. I’ll be with you in just a few minutes.”
It was only in movies that the detectives and DA caught the big case, and everything else on the table stayed quiet. In real time, rapists continued to attack, pedophiles preyed on kids, victims needed legal guidance and hand- holding, and death never took that longed-for holiday.
“But Gina — she wouldn’t come. She insisted on going to school today instead. She said you didn’t believe what she told you. That you were very tough with her. I came to talk to you about that, Ms. Cooper.”
I wasn’t completely surprised that the sixteen-year-old was a no-show. This would have been my third go- round with the arrogant teenager.
“Give me a few minutes with Detective Wallace, please, and then I’ll be happy to discuss the case with you.”
“I’ve got to get to work myself. Can we do this quickly?”
“Just step out for a moment and let me pull the paperwork,” I said, moving in front of my desk to close the door between us.
“You need me to back you up on this?” Mercer asked.
I stood up and went to the last in a wall-length row of filing cabinets and pulled out the case folder. “Alan Vandomir’s case,” I said to Mercer. “I caught this kid — Gina — in so many lies, that’s why Alan hasn’t made an arrest. She asked me for the chance to go home and tell her mother the real story herself. But she obviously hasn’t done that yet.”
“You get to be the bad guy.”
“Again. It’s wearing thin.”
It was smart to have a witness present when the possibility of confrontation so clearly loomed, and I couldn’t ask for a better one than Mercer.
Gina was a sophomore at an expensive prep school on the Upper West Side, the daughter of two professionals. The accused, Javier Valdiz, was a scholarship student at the same school. On the night she claimed a
