'Are you Toby's attorney?'
'I have a degree but no. I'll call the attorney if I think we need one. Do we need one?'
'Not my call to make,' she said with a bit of push-back in her tone. Then she thought, what the hell, and left Ripton in his chair to take a bar stool facing Mills. 'Toby, I want to ask you about an incident last week at the residence of Cassidy Towne.'
The PR handler shot to his feet. 'No, no, no. He's not answering any questions like that.'
'Mr. Ripton, I am a New York City homicide detective on official business. If you'd rather have me conduct this interview at the Twentieth Precinct, I can arrange that. I can also arrange for those news trucks on 78th Street to roll four blocks north for some choice video of your client's arrival for questioning. Now tell me, exactly what point would that be along your value chain?'
'Jess?' Toby broke the silence. 'I think we should just clear the air and get this behind us.'
Nikki didn't wait for Jess. Toby was willing, so she grabbed the moment. 'An eyewitness says a few days ago you kicked in the door at that residence. Did you?'
'Yes, ma'am, I sure did.'
'And may I ask why you did that?'
'Easy. I was pissed off at that bitch for dickin' with me.'
Jess Ripton must have bent over and picked up the face that he'd lost, because he got back in the mix, albeit with more diplomacy. 'Detective, would it be all right if I told the story? Toby's here to correct me if I miss anything and you can still ask him all your questions. I think it will go a lot smoother for all of us, and, as Tobe says, we can put this behind us. Looks like the team is going to advance to the ALCS next week, and I want him focused on getting his hammy better so he can be ready for the opener.'
'I am a baseball fan,' said Heat. 'I'm a bigger fan of a direct answer.'
'Of course.' He nodded then continued as if she had never spoken. 'I don't know if you've noticed, but Toby Mills isn't found in the scandal sheets. He has a wife, a young child, and one on the way. His brand value is family friendly, and he not only has multiple top-tier endorsements, but a thriving charitable foundation.'
Nikki turned her back on the suit and faced the client. 'Toby, I want to know why you kicked in the door of my murder victim.'
That got Ripton on his feet. He took the bar stool between her and Rook and drew it back so he formed the center of a semicircle around his client when he sat. 'It's a simple story, really,' said the manager. 'Toby and Lisa just moved into this place two weeks ago. They wanted to be in the heart of the city he plays in instead of Westchester County. What does Cassidy Towne do? She prints the story, including the street address, right? So there it is in the New York Ledger, a full half page of her column. A picture of Toby. A picture of this house. And the street address for every nutjob in the world to see.
'Well, two guesses what happened. Toby has a stalker. Last week, a couple mornings after they move into their new dream home, Lisa takes her son for a walk to Central Park. The sailboat pond is, what, a block away? They're crossing into the park, and this stalker rushes up, starts yelling his crazy talk, and scares the crap out of both of them. Her security guy intervened, but the guy got away.'
'Do you know the name of the stalker?'
'Morris Granville,' said Toby and Jess together.
'Is there a police record of this?' Heat asked.
'Yes. You can check it out. Anyway, Toby was at the stadium when Lisa calls him, crying, and he goes ballistic.'
'I tell you, I freaked.'
'Do I need to school you about stalkers? Do I need to tell you what happened to John Lennon less than a mile from where we're sitting? So, forget the baseball star crap, Toby Mills is a man. He did what any good husband and father would do when the primal threat comes. He charged over to Cassidy Towne's place to read her out. And what does she do, but slam the door in his face.'
'So I kicked it in.'
'And left it at that. Game over.'
'Game over,' echoed Toby.
The manager smiled and reached out to the bar to pat his client's arm. 'But we're much calmer now.'
Jess Ripton escorted Heat and Rook out to the sidewalk and paused to chat. 'Have you found her body yet?'
'Not yet,' said Nikki.
'Tell you something. In my career, I've had to handle my fair share of PR nightmares. I don't envy One Police Plaza today. Although, at my fee, I could get over that, if anyone asks.' He laughed at his own joke and shook Heat's hand. 'Listen, sorry I gave you a slam at first,' he said. 'It's my protective instinct. It's how I got my nickname.' Asshole? thought Nikki. 'The Firewall,' he said with no small measure of pride. 'But now that we're on the right foot, let's keep it that way. Anything you need, call me.'
'I'll tell you what I would like,' she said.
'Name it.'
'Any communication this stalker had with Toby. Letters, e-mails, anything.'
Ripton nodded. 'Our security boys have all that on file. You'll have copies on your desk by the end of the day.'
'You guys have a lot of security cameras. Do you have a picture of him?'
'A couple, unfortunately. I'll include them, too.'
He started to go back to the town house, but Rook said, 'I've been thinking about something, Jess. I'd been working pretty closely with Cassidy on a profile I was doing of her and she never told me about Toby's door kick.'
'Your point?'
'That was the same afternoon he pulled his hamstring,' Rook made air quotes, ' 'in the game,' right?'
'You're going to have to spell it out for me, Jameson, because I'm not following.' But Ripton's look of innocence was unconvincing.
'The math I'm doing suggests maybe he injured himself before the game. Or his stunt contributed to it later. That would have an impact on his contract, not to mention a few family-friendly endorsements, if it came out, wouldn't it?'
'Don't know about any of that. If she chose not to be open with you, that was her choice.' He paused and gave the mirthless smile again. 'What I do know is we apologized and compensated her for her damage,' said The Firewall. 'And her trouble. You know how this song goes. She got a little money and a few pieces of gossip I happened to be privy to. That's how we fill the favor bank. Trust me, Cassidy Towne was not unhappy with the results.'
Nikki smiled. 'I'll have to take your word for it.' Nikki Heat heard the hissing and turned from her desk. Rook. Across the bull pen, steaming milk. She resumed her reading, and when she finished a no-foam latte arrived blotterside.
'I primed it,' said Rook. 'By myself.'
'A skill you will, no doubt, find useful.' She called, 'Hinesburg, you there?'
'Yo,' came the voice from the hall. It bugged Nikki that Detective Hinesburg spent so much time away from her desk, hanging out, and she made a mental note to discuss it with her privately.
When the roaming detective entered, Heat said, 'I'm looking for that record I asked you to run on Holly Flanders.'
'Look no further. Just came in.' Hinesburg handed over a manila interoffice envelope and snapped her chewing gum. 'Oh, and I screened the calls on Cassidy Towne's answering machine. It produced no leads, although I did learn a few new curse words.'
While Nikki finished unwinding the red string from the cardboard button on the interoffice envelope, she said, 'Trade ya,' and handed Detective Hinesburg the sheet she'd just been reading. 'This is the incident report from a stalker assault last week.' She made an aside to Rook, 'Toby's story checks out, as advertised.'
'Are we working this?' asked Hinesburg between gum snaps.
Heat nodded. 'Central Park Precinct owns it, but the victims live in the One-Nine. Let's make it a party and join in. Don't get in a turf contest, but stay close. I'm especially interested in any leads on the stalker.'
