Chapter Twelve
Eliza didn’t like Alison. “Stop whining; you wanted to meet new people, didn’t you? Well you did; just not the kind you figured on. I want another drink before we start looking for the ballerina.”
Michael was in danger of losing leadership to her, and his balled fists seemed to confirm it. “The Silver Man never wanted us to behave like a community. To be a real community, you have to care about your neighbors. He wants to keep us angry and divided; that’s how he got us there in the first place. But once we’re off the drug and away from his influence, we can think for ourselves again, so what’s happening here, right now, is something he didn’t count on. That little mistake is going to cost him.”
“Cut the crap. We’re a temporary alliance, Michael, and that’s all. Look, I’m not risking anything for the two of you or anyone else. All I have to do is call the cops on the Silver Man and it’s over. No one’s following us. No one has any diabolical plan. This isn’t Goddamned Russia, you know.
“How is it you two never thought of that, Mike? Or did you? All I have to do is make one phone call and tell the cops everything I know, including Clara’s name and address. They can test my blood for the drug; I’ll bet it’s still in my system.”
Alison dropped her coffee mug on the hard kitchen floor.
“Alison, didn’t it occur to you that you didn’t have to help Michael steal the killing drug? Once he brought you to me, you didn’t need him anymore! God, you’re a moron. Look, he said he wanted us to help him get the killing drug, first. God, Alison, that’s all he wants! The minute he got it, he was going to ditch us. He needs us, but we don’t need him.”
Michael picked up a chair and heaved it down on the tabletop no more than an inch from Eliza’s head. Eliza never moved, but Alison was crying again. “So I was right. Neither of you know which end is up. All right, I’m in charge, now. Alison helps us or we kill her, plain and simple. Michael, I’ll help you get the drug, but I get half the take. We leave just enough there for the cops to bust the Silver Man, and then Michael and I disappear. Alison and Clara can take care of themselves.
“Don’t even think about double-crossing us, Alison. The Silver Man may not be interested in you anymore, but I’ll find you wherever you go. You’ll have to watch your back as long as you live.”
Alison was nearly hysterical. “If you want to call the police and just turn him in, do it. I don’t want any of those killing drugs, and I don’t want to be around either of you any longer than I have to.”
“But I don’t want to turn him in, Allie. I liked the way that drug made me feel. I liked it a lot. With a whole bag of it, I can do anything. I’ll have one big fling, take everything I ever wanted, live like a queen, and die like a gangster.”
***
Carter issued an order to canvass all the ballet schools and academies in the tristate area. They were looking for a student who hadn’t shown up to class, might have mentioned having an enemy, or seemed afraid.
Deeprose pointed out the Florence Gould Hall on a map of Manhattan. “There. That’s the school we want, sir.”
“I hope so; it’s the last one on the list. Let’s head over there now and talk to this, uh…” Carter scanned his list for a name. “Uh, Clara Dumont.”
The pretty, petite dancer was shocked to find they wanted to know who she’d been mentioning to the other girls in class. “I don’t understand why this is important. I had a falling out with my girlfriend. Big deal. For goodness sake, why would she want to kill me?”
Deeprose tried a different approach. “Ah’m Agent Deeprose, honey. We’re not lookin’ for your friend. We’re askin’ everyone the same thing – if they have any real enemies, that’s all. Is there anyone in your life that y’all are particularly afraid of for any reason?”
“No ma’am, there isn’t.”
“Can you tell us what the fallin’ out was about so we can cross her off our list?”
“Sure. I suppose so. We’ve known each other for years. We trained together. Several months back we both auditioned for the American Ballet Company. It’s a very big deal, you know. She fell during her performance and broke her ankle. It ended her career. I was invited to join the troupe next season, so she got angry and stopped speaking to me. I guess I’m a reminder of what she can’t have.” Clara shook her head, looking very sorry for the girl.
Carter and Deeprose looked at each other.
“Ah’m so sorry to hear that, Clara, but like you said, it wasn’t your fault. You worked hard to make the pros. Congratulations on your acceptance. By the way, since she was a dancer too, we should really ask her the same thing we’ve asked every other dancer in God’s country. Would you give us her name and address, please?”
“I’ll give you her address, but I heard she moved. It may not be so easy to find her now.”
Back out in the fresh air, Carter decided to move ahead with this line of investigation. “I’ll get a team together to track down the girl, and we’ll check back with them later. It may be something, and it may be nothing. Right now, I’d like to take a ride around the Upper West Side. Jill did a great job on the enhancement of the museum photo of the killer, but whoever he is, his face doesn’t match anything on file. No priors. If he lives around there, maybe we’ll get lucky and spot him on the street. At any rate, it’s a beautiful day. We can look for him and sight-see at the same time. Want a hot dog?”
Deeprose did a little happy dance. “With everything, sir.”
***
Michael dropped off the two women and went to find a place to park. Eliza didn’t want Michael to scare Clara, so she told him to wait in the car until they came back. “Let someone else do the thinking for a change.” Eliza slammed the car door in his face and the two girls went into Clara’s building on West 59th Street.
Clara opened her apartment door to a voice that said she had a special delivery. Alison and Eliza introduced themselves on her doorstep as they pushed their way inside.
“Hey, hey, what’s this? Who are you?”
Alison began. “We came to talk to you about the girl who broke her ankle during your audition. She hired someone to kill you.”
“Is this a joke?”
Neither woman answered.
“Well?”
Silence.
“You are…joking, aren’t you? Is she trying to scare me or something? Look, who are you two and what do you want?” Clara moved slowly backwards while she talked, buying a few precious seconds of time to reach her stationery desk and a letter opener.
“Clara, we’re here to help you. Eliza was supposed to kill you two nights ago night, but she didn’t. Michael and I tracked her down and brought her home and stayed there until this morning. When she came out of it, she remembered everything about you and the reason she was given for killing you. It had to do with the girl whose ankle you broke after her audition.”
Clara looked incredulous. Her eyelids fluttered, and she became very pale. Alison knew just how she felt. “Where in the world did you hear a thing like that? I wasn’t responsible for her broken ankle! She knows that! It was broken during her audition, not after. Who told you it was broken afterwards? If this is a joke, it’s not funny! I think you two need to leave. Right now.”
“Clara, if we leave now, someone else will be given the assignment, and this time he may succeed. Eliza was given your name, photo, and address. They know where you live.”
Clara dropped the letter opener and fell into an arm chair like a graceful sack of potatoes. She cried piteously, “This can’t be happening!”
Alison knelt on the floor at Clara’s feet. “We’re going to help you. I swear it. Eliza knows how we can help the police catch the Silver Man, but we need your help to do it. We won’t let you down, Clara, but you’re going to have to trust us. Trust me.”
After a long moment, Clara took Alison’s hand and sniffled. “What about the girl who paid for the hit? She’s still out there. She’ll just get someone else to do it. I can’t go to the police about a woman with an intention to kill me; that’s no crime, and I can’t wait until she tries it, either. You’ll help me, won’t you, Alison? Because I’m so afraid, and there’s no one else I can turn to. If I help you and the police get the Silver Man, will you both help me to make sure this girl doesn’t hurt me ever again?”
Eliza chimed in. “Hold on. Why are you afraid of her if her accident wasn’t your fault? Did you do it, Clara? Is that why she wants you dead?”
Clara burst into tears. She cried herself out and then told them the truth. “All right, she did break it afterwards. I was picked for the troupe, and she wasn’t. We had an argument, and it got a little ugly. We were about to go down the stairs to the subway when she shoved me. I shoved her back. She fell down the stairs and broke her ankle. But it wasn’t my fault! It’s not my fault that I was chosen and she wasn’t, and I didn’t mean for her to fall and break her ankle. Alison, pleeeaase! Don’t let her kill me! We have to get her before she gets me. Be my friend, Alison; be my friend!”
Alison had been waiting to hear someone say that to her for a lifetime. “Sure, Clara, we’ll help you. It’s going to be all right.”
“So what happens now?”
“Call her so she knows you’re still alive. Ask her to meet you somewhere private so you can talk things over. Tell her you want to apologize. If she shows up, we’ll make sure the cops catch her. Eliza knows she hired the Silver Man to kill you. That ought to be enough to get an investigation going. If a new killer shows up instead, the cops will catch him in the act. First, though, Michael is downstairs in Eliza’s car. He wants us to help him steal the killing drug. If we take away the drug, we take away the Silver Man’s assassins. We’ll leave just enough there to get him caught with it.”
“Who is Michael?”
“He was the first one to realize he’d been drugged and where and when. He remembered who he was sent to kill. Then he found me and Eliza, and we found you. Right, Eliza?”
***
Eliza just kept staring straight ahead with those cold, dead shark’s eyes. She was thinking about the killing drug and about Clara’s thinly veiled request to help her commit a murder of her own.
I understand that one, all right. She never once mentioned speaking to the police. What she wants is to get to that girl before she gets to her. As long as she helps us get the drugs, I’ll play along, but I’m not lifting a finger for Clara. If Alison is so hot to make a friend, let her learn the hard way that there’s no such thing.
“You got any whiskey?”
Clara shook her head. She looked fresh as a daisy now that Alison promised to help her. “Nope. I never keep it around. Too many calories can ruin your figure, you know.”
Eliza snorted. “Right, like that’s your biggest worry right now. I’m going out to meet Michael and get a bottle. We’ll come back and wait for you both in the car. Alison, tell her all about Michael and why he’s going down once he helps us get the drug.” She left without another word.
“What did she mean by that?” Alison bit at her lower lip in response to Clara’s inquiry.
***
“Oooooo! Zabar’s! Ah could eat my way through there from one end to the other and still want more.”
Carter and Deeprose were driving up West 59th Street in an unmarked car. “You and Jill would have a ball together.”
“What makes you say that, sir?”
“Same appetite for life.”
“She invited me to go to a blues bar with y’all after work someday soon. She says we need to play a little more.”
“Looks like you made a conquest.”
Deeprose answered nonchalantly. “Oh, it was nothin’, sir. I owed her an apology anyway, so I bought her a coffee with lots of chocolate in it, ate a little crow and asked her a whole lotta questions Ah already knew the answers to.”
Carter shot her a surprised look and then back at the road.
I tried that once, and she knew I was full of it in one minute. How’d Deeprose manage it? .
He scanned the sidewalks as he drove. The out-of-body sensation he experienced before a shootout began to overwhelm him, but he didn’t want to alert her to it.
Breathe slowly…in through the nose. Hold it for one, two, three, four, and five. Out through pursed lips, one, two, three, four, and five. Again…
***
Deeprose pointed at an electronic billboard. “Hey, there’s an ad for the Cloisters. Ah wonder if the killer got his idea from that billboard. Sir, Ah appreciate your backin’ me up after Ah pulled that boner with the deputy director.”
“I always have my partners’ back.” Carter peered back at the billboard in the rearview mirror. It had changed to an ad for Bustan’s. The idea that a billboard or some other kind of suggestion could have prompted a murder stayed on his mind.
A few blocks ahead Carter slammed on his brakes and pointed at his rearview mirror. A man with dark hair rested against the front of a liquor store. “There he is!”
Deeprose shot out of the car. Carter was stuck in a traffic jam but he put on his siren, called for back-up, and said a prayer for patience as he crawled along after her.
She sprinted toward the suspect who bolted in the opposite direction. Carter forced himself to remain tethered to the vehicle despite his concern for Deeprose. Horns blared at Carter from all sides.
They’re honking at me! Unbelievable!
The suspect ran across the street about two hundred feet behind him. Deeprose attempted to cross the street but was stopped by a passing car. She reached for her weapon. Carter beeped his horn to distract her. Firing a weapon on a crowded street was against protocol. In the moment it took to honk his horn and get Deeprose’s attention, the suspect disappeared from sight.
He might have gone into a building or store. He might have even gotten into a…
Carter opened the window and shouted to the rookie. “He’s in that parked car! Shoot the tires if you can! Back-up’s on the way.”
Deeprose zig-zagged across the street and took cover behind the bumper of the car parked in front of her suspect. She sat tight and waited for him to make his move.
Carter turned on the car’s loud speaker. “F.B.I.! Move out of the way! F.B.I.! Move! Now!!”
These people wouldn’t move for an ambulance carrying their own grandmother to the hospital!
Carter made an executive decision. He gripped the wheel and drove up onto the sidewalk, vaguely aware of screaming men, women, and children running into shops and scrambling to take cover in doorways. Carter yelled into his car radio, “Where’s my back-up?! Block off 10th Avenue between 40th and 72nd in all directions!”