on. I carried her home more times than I can remember. In the end, I couldn’t take any more and it broke her heart. I had to say to her, ‘Ba-’
‘Barbara,’ said Rufo, smiling to a woman in an emerald green gown, taking her hand and guiding her past Danny towards him. He kissed her on the cheek. ‘This is my… partner, Barbara Stenson. This is Danny Markey. And you’ve already met Joe.’
Danny opened and closed his mouth twice before he spoke. ‘Uh, nice to meet you, Barbara.’
‘You too, Danny,’ she said, squeezing his hand too tight.
‘Can I get you anything to drink?’ said Joe.
‘This is my third soda and lime,’ said Barbara, ‘and there’s only so many you can drink. I quit drinking a few years back and I still wonder how I could physically put away so much liquid in one night.’ She laughed.
‘There was Barbara spending years knocking back vodkas while I was busy eating all the pies,’ said Rufo. ‘I wonder would we have liked each other if we met back then.’
‘Sad thing is we wouldn’t, because back then when my nights were all a blur, I wound up with the biggest losers.’
Joe laughed louder than anyone.
Barbara squeezed Rufo’s arm. ‘I needed to wait a few years to catch myself a good guy.’
‘Joe, why don’t we leave these two lovebirds alone?’ said Danny.
Joe was still laughing as they walked away. ‘So you think you broke her heart?’
‘Can you fucking believe she’s with Rufo?’
‘As a matter of fact, I can,’ said Joe.
‘There’s too much love in the room tonight,’ said Danny. ‘I can not handle it.’
‘Let’s see what food’s on offer here,’ said Joe, wandering to the top of the buffet table.
‘I’m in the mood for a little roast beef,’ said Danny. ‘Lots of it.’
‘I’m thinking turkey,’ said Joe.
Joe and Danny sat at a table with two beers and two plates piled with food. Danny was eyeing Barbara Stenson smiling and laughing with Rufo.
‘What does she find so funny?’ said Danny.
Joe glanced over. ‘Probably the fact that you keep staring at her. That you treated her like shit and now she can come back to haunt you. That you might actually be at her wedding to your boss… there’s lots of things she could be laughing at right now. The idea that-’
‘Shut the fuck up.’
‘Think about it,’ said Joe, ‘she marries Rufo, he’s at home bitching about work, she’s never going to take your side-’
‘I’ve got to tell him-’
‘Are you out of your mind?’
‘Is that your phone?’ said Danny.
Joe stared at him.
‘I’m serious,’ said Danny, ‘it’s vibrating against my chair.’
Joe reached back to his jacket hanging on the back of his chair. He pulled out his phone and answered.
‘Hello? Hello? Hello…’ He shook his head at Danny. He was about to hang up. ‘Mary? I can’t hear… you’re where?’ He listened. ‘OK. Your door’s locked, right? Stay right where you are. Don’t move, OK? And when you hang up what I need you to do right away is call 911. Can you do that? They’ll keep you on the line-’ He paused. ‘No, no. They’ll send some patrol officers over. And we’ll be right behind them. You hang in there, OK? You’ll be fine.’ Joe turned to Danny. ‘Jesus Christ, that was Mary Burig. She said something about the perp being in her building. And she’s on her own. But… you know, it’s Mary
…’ Joe shrugged. ‘Come on. We better go check it out.’
Mary’s thumbs hovered over the buttons 9 and 1. Outside in the hallway, someone was calling her name. Her heart pounded. She put the phone down.
Joe and Danny pulled into the empty parking lot outside the Colt-Embry Homes. There were no patrol cars. The building was in darkness.
‘What the fuck?’ said Joe.
‘Maybe they pulled up around the back,’ said Danny.
‘Why would they?’ said Joe. He turned to Danny. ‘Shit. She never fucking called them.’
He grabbed the radio. ‘Manhattan North Homicide portable to Central K. Be advised we’re at Colt-Embry Homes on 21st Street in Astoria. We have a possible murder suspect at the location. We need backup.’
They ran to the side of the building. The front door was ajar. The lobby was empty, the lights off. Joe pointed behind the desk to where the ceiling of the short corridor was exposed, its floor tiles hanging by thick cables along both sides of the wall. Behind it was the fire door and stairs that would take them to Mary’s apartment on the second floor.
Joe walked up the stairs first, trying to limit the noise from his new dress shoes. Danny followed him.
‘We’re going direct to her place?’ Danny whispered.
‘Yeah,’ said Joe.
They reached the second floor landing. Joe stopped to retie the laces of his left shoe.
‘Fuck these shoes.’
They walked down the hallway. Twice, his right foot lost its grip, but he managed to keep his balance. He forgot to give his shoes to Anna before he came out. She would have scored the bottom of them with a pen-knife or roughed up the surface with an emery board. He brought his mind back to focus. The only thing he could hear were Danny’s footsteps beside him and the buzz of the fluorescent light above.
Mary heard footsteps approaching from the end of the hallway and the jangle of Stan’s keys. She pushed open the door slowly and placed one bare foot onto a tile she was expecting to be cold. It was warm and wet. Her foot slid from under her. As her head hit the cold hard floor, the last thing she saw was Stan’s utility belt… covered in blood.
Joe and Danny opened all the vacant rooms along the second floor hallway and found no-one. Mary’s apartment door was wide open and her belongings strewn everywhere. Drawers were opened, cushions were turned over, bags were emptied.
‘This does not look good,’ said Joe.
‘Mary?’ said Danny. ‘Mary?’
It didn’t take long to search the small apartment. They found nothing. They ran upstairs to the floors above, throwing open the unlocked doors. They moved down the stairs, pushing through the back door into the lobby.
‘Whoa,’ said Joe, pointing at a streak of blood on the tiled floor.
‘That was not here when we got here.’
‘No way,’ said Joe.
They ran towards the door.
‘Where is she?’ said Danny.
Joe glanced out into the dark. ‘And where the hell’s our backup?’
‘Look at that,’ said Danny.
Two uniforms were taking their time walking up the path. Danny gestured them forward. They ran towards him.
‘The woman who called this in is not here,’ said Danny. ‘But we haven’t searched the entire building. Perp goes by Preston Blake or Alan Moder, he’s six foot tall, mid thirties, medium build, dark hair, heavily scarred chin, may be accompanied by a female, Mary Burig, late twenties, five four, slim build, long dark hair, very pale blue eyes. Unknown method of escape.’
Magda Oleszak ran through the parking lot of the Colt-Embry Homes, past the patrol cars that had just arrived and straight into a uniform standing at the door.
‘What’s happened?’ she said.
‘Who are you?’ said the officer.
‘I work here. My name is Magda Oleszak. I’m looking for my friend. We were going to the movies, over two hours ago. I thought she was in the group. Someone said she was. I should have checked. Is she OK? Is she in
