‘Nada,’ said Rencher.
‘A hangover,’ said Martinez. ‘Already.’
‘Yeah, and some grandma’s phone number,’ said Rencher.
‘Anyone get a hold of Stanley Frayte?’ said Joe.
‘No.’
‘All the other squads have been told what to look out for,’ said Danny.
‘So,’ said Joe, ‘we’ve got no Stanley Frayte. No Mary Burig. No Preston Blake. Fucking great. Blazkow – can you do a victimology on Stanley Frayte?’
‘Sure. But I can sleep now, right?’
‘We all need to get some sleep,’ said Joe.
His cell phone rang.
‘Joe? It’s Taye Harris, fire marshal.’
‘How you doing?’ said Joe. ‘Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier. Things have been crazy.’
‘I heard. That’s why I’m calling so late, early, whatever. Joe, I don’t think your perp made it out of the building alive. I think we got your perp.’
‘What?’ said Joe. ‘Can’t be…’
‘Well, we got a body…’
‘But the scene was clear. I thought there was no-one-’
‘I know. I know. I’ve talked with the officers involved and because it was a crime scene and the search was expedited, the primary and secondary search reports were given as negative. They didn’t have a lot of time. The body was in the curve of the bay window at the front of the house. Behind a large sofa. When my men went in to ventilate the place, they had to pull down some heavy curtains covering the window to get the air circulating. No- one saw him. He was concealed there for several hours.’
Joe paused. ‘The bay window. He was in-’
‘Yeah,’ said Harris. ‘The dead man’s room.’
TWENTY-NINE
Joe and Danny drove to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
‘We have been up twenty-four hours,’ said Danny as they walked in.
Joe yawned. ‘I know.’
Dr Hyland came down and led them into the room where a body was laid out under a white sheet.
‘Just to warn you, he’s in pretty bad shape,’ said Hyland. He lifted the sheet. The first thing Danny and Joe saw was a badly burned arm and hand. Something gold glinted on the finger. They both leaned closer. It was their high school ring. They locked eyes.
‘Jesus Christ,’ said Danny.
‘It’s Bobby.’
At the twentieth precinct, Pace checked Bobby’s desk where his notes were still laid out. He had come to the same conclusion as Cullen about Blake’s address.
‘He must have just decided to call into Blake on his way home from work,’ said Joe. ‘Blake freaked, knew we were on to him.’
‘I should have been with him,’ said Pace.
‘If he didn’t say anything to you…’ said Joe, shrugging. ‘Jesus Christ. He’s got two little boys.’
Danny shook his head.
‘I better take care of notifying Old Nic,’ said Joe.
Most people knew that Bobby Nicotero and his father weren’t close. But everyone knew that didn’t matter today and it would never matter again.
Victor Nicotero knew when he saw Joe at the door at 8 a.m. His hand was shaking as he let him in.
‘Nothing about this is right. It’s all wrong,’ he said, struggling. ‘I’m at the wrong end of a notification here. Jesus Christ. What happened?’
Joe tried to clean up the details. Old Nic didn’t buy it, but pretended he did. He sat in silence, staring.
‘Patti’s up there, sleeping away her last night before her whole world is turned upside down. I don’t ever want to wake her up, Joe.’ His voice cracked. ‘When he was a kid, Bobby worried about me all the time,’ said Nic. ‘Used to drive me nuts. He’d cling on to me, wouldn’t let me go.’ Tears welled in his eyes. ‘I know how he feels.’ He let out a desperate, mourning sob. ‘I don’t want to let him go.’ He searched his pocket for the handkerchief. ‘We were getting somewhere,’ he said. ‘I think we were getting somewhere.’ He looked up, his eyes red and watery. ‘What was his problem with me, Joe? Where did I go wrong? I don’t mean with him, he’s a good kid, but…’
‘Families,’ said Joe, handing him a Kleenex. ‘We don’t ever know, do we? But I know when a son loves his father, Nic. I do. And Bobby did. He looked out for you. In his… his own way.’
Nic smiled. ‘Angry way.’
‘I’m not saying that,’ said Joe. ‘But yeah, he wasn’t straightforward about it. But he gave a shit. You know, he went crazy with me last week.’
‘He did?’
Joe nodded. ‘Yup. Made me take it outside.’
Nic smiled. ‘That’s my boy.’
‘He wouldn’t do that if he didn’t give a damn,’ said Joe.
The office was quiet. No-one knew what to say.
Pace had gone home. Cullen had arrived in.
‘I can’t believe they just didn’t find him,’ he said.
‘It was chaos,’ said Joe. ‘We didn’t want them tramping all over any evidence. We didn’t know what could be in there.’
‘Yeah, Blake’s whole life was run from that home. The dental work for Valtry, the-’
‘Whoa,’ said Joe. ‘Did you see any dental stuff down there?’
‘Yeah,’ said Danny. ‘Remember? The pliers, the burrs-’
‘Yeah, but there were no teeth, no models, no porcelain – none of the shit we saw in the lab.’ He looked at Danny. ‘We need to get back to the house… I think he’s got Mary in there.’
Danny and Joe parked the car on Remsen Street and walked to Willow Street. They stopped a short distance from Preston Blake’s house.
‘Our only way in is through the basement door under the stoop,’ said Joe, pointing. ‘The collapse has blocked everything off from the back entrance.’ They walked up to the door – it was padlocked and had a Gravoply tag slapped on it from the fire department and a number to call if you wanted to gain access.
‘I’ll call ESU,’ said Danny.
Fifteen minutes later, two Emergency Services guys showed up and broke through the door into the damp basement, the smell of smoke still strong in the air.
‘There it is,’ said Joe, ‘the trapdoor down to the basement he doesn’t fucking have.’
An overpowering stench hit them as soon as they lifted it. They jerked their heads away. Danny clamped a hand over his mouth.
‘Jesus Christ,’ said Joe. ‘That is fucking-’
Danny took his hand down, wiping the tears that streamed from his eyes. ‘Unbelievable. That is…’ He breathed out. ‘Christ.’ He stared down at the vertical ladder.
‘I’ll go first,’ said Joe. ‘Shine that flashlight down there.’
He held the beam steady as Joe climbed down. He handed him the flashlight and followed him into the small cramped space.
‘What the fuck is this?’ said Danny. Joe swept the flashlight left to right, its beam broken up by the bars of a prison cell. A TV was mounted on the wall in front of it. Joe reached out for the light switch beside it.
‘No!’ shouted Danny. ‘No switches.’
