Page 58 of Two Kinds of Stranger

‘The subway footage?’

He nodded, said, ‘Someone knew we were going looking for that footage. Either the police or the guy with the suitcase.’

‘Can you find out who it was?’ I asked.

He looked at me, asked, ‘Does it really matter? The footage is gone either way.’

‘It matters. If we can prove the cops deleted the footage, then we have grounds for a dismissal. Shaky grounds, but it gives us a shot at killing the case against Elly. If it was the man with the suitcase, then maybe we get a step closer to finding him.’

A Silver Ford Taurus pulled up outside Elly’s building, in a no-parking zone, about twenty feet from the construction barriers. Before Detective Bill Sacks got out of the Ford, he reached into the passenger footwell and came back up with a laminated, letter-sized card, which he laid on the dash. The suspension rocked as he got out of the car and stepped to the curb, shortly joining Harry and Bloch on the sidewalk. I could see a clear, plastic evidence bag in Sack’s hands containing Elly’s keys and the fob to access the front door.

A glance from Harry over Sacks’s shoulder. The slightest nod. Sacks hadn’t seen me.

We were on.

Sacks held out his empty hand to Harry for a handshake.

Harry looked at him and smiled warmly. But he didn’t take it. Before he retired from the bench, Harry would have had no trouble in shaking Sacks’s hand. It was probably Harry’s former profession that provoked the greeting from Sacks: a mark of respect for the judiciary. He certainly didn’t extend his hand to Bloch. But now Harry was a consultant in a criminal-defense firm. And you never knew who might notice you shaking hands with a cop. We had hundreds of clients, and those clients had relatives and friends, and any such sighting could look like some kind of shady deal.

Criminal clientele are the most suspicious people in the world.

I could see Sacks nodding, then waving that same hand, no doubt waving away a kind explanation from Harry on why he couldn’t shake hands.

Sacks was an old professional. He knew exactly how the game was played and would take no offense.

Harry and Bloch turned, and the three of them made their way to the front of Elly’s building.

I checked my watch, dialed 311 and gave a description of the Silver Ford Taurus and its exact location, then hung up.

I climbed out of the driver’s seat. Lake came round the car with his bag of tricks in hand. We crossed the street and I checked Sacks’s windshield.

The laminated card was blue, with the NYPD logo in one corner, the license plate of the car below it. The card said this vehicle was a property of NYPD and detectives were on call. With this card, Sacks could park anywhere in the city, any time of dayor night, and he would never get a ticket, even if he was parked in front of a fire hydrant on double red lines.

In New York, everywhere is a tow zone.

I took the bundle of flyers for theatre shows out of my jacket pocket.

Lake went to the front of the vehicle, took a knee and bent the number plate up from the bottom, bent it down again and worked it back and forth a few times. The aluminum plate didn’t take much effort to bend it out of shape.

This is the fastest way to take off a license plate. No tools required. Bending it back and forth enlarges the fixing holes on either side of the plate. Lake leaned back, pulled the plate right off over the screw heads.

Ten seconds.

Done.

I finished covering the windshield with the flyers, and Lake started on the back plate.

Ten seconds later, with the license plates in a storm drain, we made our way to the Starbucks next door to Elly’s building. Lake ordered green tea. I ordered coffee. I took my bill fold from my pants pocket to pay the cashier.

‘That’s eleven seventy-five. Sorry, we only take cards,’ she said.

I checked my back pocket, remembered I’d left my wallet in my other suit.

‘Do you have any cards on you?’ I asked.

‘I’m lucky I remembered to wear socks,’ said Lake.

‘Please, allow me,’ said the guy behind me in the line. He wore sunglasses and a bucket hat. He touched the card payment machine with his phone and it beeped.