Page 77 of Two Kinds of Stranger

Harry took his phone back and paused the video.

Kate and Bloch came in, Elly followed behind wearing the clothes Bloch had picked up from her apartment. She looked as if she had lost ten pounds and hadn’t slept in days. Kate introduced her to Denise and the three of them went to the kitchen.

Bloch came into Harry’s office holding her phone.

‘My lab guy came back. That stain on the bedroom floor is vomit. There was enough saliva to do a DNA comparison – he believes it’s a strong match for Harriet Rothschild. And there’s something else. The vomit residue contained high levels of. . .’

‘Tetrahydrozoline,’ said Harry and Bloch, simultaneously.

‘How did you know?’ said Bloch.

‘It’s a vasoconstrictor,’ said Harry. ‘We got Elly’s medical records and talked to the doctor. He thinks at least one of the drugs she was given was a vasoconstrictor. Look at Elly’s Instagram. . .’

Harry wound the video back on his phone, and hit play.

Elly’s voice resonated from the speakers on Harry’s phone. Bloch and I stood beside him to watch the video.

‘Everybody needs a good toothpaste. Turns out they’re pretty much all the same so I just buy one with a flip top so I don’t lose the cap. Next, eye drops. If you’re living in a city like New York, yes you will have an amazing time, but air quality is just not great and my eyes tend to dry out. These eye drops, just once or twice a day, total game changer. No point in havinggorgeous eye make-up if your actual eyes make it look like you’re in a zombie movie. Moving on, facial wash. . .’

‘I don’t get it. What am I looking at here?’ I asked.

Harry sighed, said, ‘You’re looking at evidence that will convict Elly of double homicide.’

27

Logan

Logan entered the Wholefoods store, and took the escalator up one level to the Amazon lockers. He keyed in the PIN to the locker and retrieved his items, opened the packages and dropped the boxes in the recycling bin.

He placed the items in his backpack and returned to the street, stowing the bag in the trunk of his rental car before driving uptown.

The situation with Elly Parker had to be managed.

No loose ends.

Joe Novak, the homeless person who had helped Elly, was priority one. He had spent every available minute searching for the man along street corners, in homeless and migrant encampments all over the city, and so far there was no sign of him. Bloch and Lake, the investigators who worked for Flynn, were also looking for this man.

Logan was not a trained investigator. He was smart, but finding people who didn’t have an address was not something he had experienced. It had felt hopeless, these past few days. A day after Elly had been admitted to hospital, Logan had begun scouring that area of Manhattan, and when he didn’t spot the man he began to talk to other people who lived on the street, asking if they had seen him.

It would have been more useful to simply bang his head against a wall.

There are many mistakes and errors that can occur in planning a murder. Logan had covered most eventualities. Two elements had gone wrong in these murders.

Elly had survived.

And before she had gotten to the apartment she made contact, in Logan’s presence, with another human being: the homeless man whom she had given money. He had seen Logan with Elly. After Elly managed to get out of his apartment before Logan could cut the cast off his leg, the homeless man had come to her aid. Logan had made it down the stairs, and onto the street. And he had seen the man leaning over Elly. Asking other passers-by to call a paramedic. Before Logan had turned and fled back upstairs to clear and clean the apartment, he had watched from the entrance to the building.

To this day, he didn’t know why, but Joe Novak had glanced up and seen Logan.

Not the genial, clumsy young man with the broken ankle and crutches.

The real Logan.

It was the last time Logan had seen Joe Novak. He had to leave the scene, clear the apartment. He would find the homeless man later.

But, so far, Logan had not laid eyes on him.

No one else in the city would remember Elly and Logan’s walk from Grand Central to his apartment. But this man, Novak, he would remember.