Eye of the Witch (20 page)

“
All right, then. Spinelli, after you give Benjamin a ride, I want you to go to the Hartman, Pierce and Petruzelli building and reexamine their surveillance equipment. Find out if anyone could have manipulated the video to make it look like Bridget Dean worked alone the night she died.”

“
I did that,” he said.

“
Then, do it again. I don’t know why, but the stink of guilt keeps pointing back to Piakowski at every turn. If he was in that building when her gun went off, then I want to know about it.”

“
Got it.” He punctuated the air with his fingertip before going to Benjamin and helping him to his feet.

I turned to Carlos. “You go back to Anna Davalos’ apartment and sift through it with a fine tooth comb. If Piakowski found a way into her apartment through some other means, then I want you to find it.”

“
What about you?”

“
I’m going back to Karen’s place. Piakowski said that he and Karen had a date Friday night, which tells me he’s probably been in her apartment before. I’m betting there’s a way in and out of there that doesn’t involve going through the front door or going over the balcony. In the meantime, we have enough probable cause to haul Piakowski in for questioning. Get dispatch to put out an APB on him. If anyone finds anything, call it in. I want everybody in the loop on this one. Any questions?”

“
Just one.”

I looked Carlos in the eye with a squint. “I hope this isn’t about eating.”

“
Oh,” he said, and his face grew long. “Then, never mind.”

Ten

I got the building super to let me in to Karen Webber’s apartment. No one had been there since Carlos and I stopped by the day before, but already I thought the place was beginning to get that rummaged through look. The first thing I did was walk out onto the balcony and look over the railing. Four stories up seemed a lot higher when you imagine yourself falling from such a height. I saw some young boys gathered out in the street. It was getting dark, but the net they set up under the streetlight made me think they intended on playing street hockey there all night. One of the boys spotted me and hollered up that he would give me a dollar if I jumped. I swung my leg over the railing and they all began howling like Indians. So much for sensitivity, I thought.

I came into the apartment and started really looking around. I didn’t know what I was looking for, other than another possible way in or out. I guess I hoped to find something that might support Gregory Piakowski’s claim that he and Karen were dating. I wanted to believe he started on a path of straight and narrow. I think if Karen knew of his past, she would have had to believe he rehabilitated. On the other hand, finding anything to support Piakowski’s innocence meant I was barking up the wrong tree and that perhaps Karen did commit suicide after all, something I don’t think I could ever have come to grips with.

Off in the corner, opposite the kitchen was a sofa with a pull out bed. Being that there were no other rooms in the apartment, I assumed that was where Karen slept. I pulled the bed out, and right away noticed something odd. All the corners of the spread were neatly tucked in, but one. I pulled back the spread and the sheet and found a USB storage device for a computer. I looked around and confirmed that Karen had no computer in her apartment. She did, however, have access to several at work. It seemed reasonable to assume that if she’d been working on an unassigned case, she would only want to store documents, pictures or whatever on a removable drive that no one at work could access. I pocketed the device and continued looking.

When Carlos and I were there the day before, I noticed a small closet by the front door. Neither of us bothered to look inside it, if for no other reason than because we expected the investigating officers already did so. Still, what they were looking for then, differed from what I hoped to find now. I opened the closet door and stuck my head inside. The first thing I noticed was the smell: nice, I mean. Karen owned some very fine leather jackets and a pair of leather cowboy boots that would have kicked up a storm on a rowdy night of line dancing. I thumbed through the pockets of her jackets, shook out her boots and felt along the top shelf above the hangers. Nothing seemed out of place or unusual. I almost closed it up again when I noticed something. Above all the boxes piled high on the shelf, was a door or access cover, I guessed to an attic. I pushed on it to reveal a crawlspace up among the ceiling trusses. I phoned Carlos at once. He was working Anna Davalos’ apartment and told me that he was about to give up hope of finding anything significant.

“
You found nothing at all?” I said.

“
Nothing that’s not already in the report. It’s an old building, Tony, with no way in or out except for through the front door.”

“
Listen to me, Carlos. Is Anna’s apartment on the top floor of her building?”

“
Yeah, but it’s only three flights up.”

“
That’s not the point. Do you see anything on the ceilings that looks like an access panel to the attic?”

“
I don’t know. I—”

“
Look! Walk around. Check in the closets.”

I heard the phone go static a few times as he walked the apartment, reporting his negative findings room-by-room until finally, “Hey, wait! What’s this?”

“
Do you see a panel?”

“
Yes, in the bedroom up in the corner. It looks like an access panel.”

Great!” I said, pumping my fist in the air. “Can you lift up on it and see where it goes?”

“
Yes, wait. Let me find something. Here’s, a broomstick. Just let me…. That’s it! Yes, it’s quite large up there, plenty of room for someone to move about.”

“
Can you get your head up there to look around?”

“
It’ll take a minute, Tony. I’ll have to stack some furniture up or something. Let me get back with you.”

“
All right, do that. I’ll wait for your call.”

After hanging up, I called Spinelli. I hadn’t expected him to have near as much luck as Carlos and me, but I wanted to keep him in the loop.

“
Detective Marcella,” he said. “Glad you called. I was just about to phone you.”

“
Why, are you having some luck?”

“
Maybe. I’m here talking with Jake. He’s the security guru here at HP&P. This guy knows the security equipment here like the back of his hand.”

“
So, what can he tell you?”

I heard a little side talk and then Spinelli coming back to the phone. “Right. Jake tells me that if someone knew what he was doing, then he could easily change the time and date stamp on a video.”

“
How could someone do that? Isn’t it electronically stamped onto the image?”

“
It works a little different with digital, Detective. But with the proper access, the easiest thing one might do is reset the time and date on the equipment before taping a new sequence of video. That way if anyone looked to see if the video had been tampered with, it would look like it wasn’t.”

“
Amazing,” I said, partly because the concept intrigued me, and partly because I actually understood what he said. “Spinelli, listen. If someone provided the police with new video shot after Bridget Dean’s death, then that means the original recordings might still exist somewhere. See if Jake can find it. In the meantime, Carlos and I are working another lead. I want you to drop what you’re doing and meet me here at Karen Webber’s place right away. Oh, and bring a flashlight?”

“
Got it,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”

I hung up the phone and almost immediately Carlos called back.

“
Tony. I’m up in the attic now. It’s plenty large enough for a grown man to move around up here. I see more access panels leading to other apartments on the third floor. Anyone could easily come up through one of them to gain entry into Anna’s apartment and then slipped out the same way.”

“
Yeah,” I said. “That’s what I’m thinking might have happened here, too. I’ve got Spinelli coming over now. I’ll have him scoot up there and check it out.”

“
Do you want me to look around some more while I’m here?”

“
No, Carlos. I think we need to send forensics up there to look for evidence linking Piakowski to the scene. The less hair, prints and fibers you leave behind, the better. Why don’t you come meet me here at Karen’s? I have a feeling we’re going to Rivera’s together after this.”

“
Got it, Tony. On my way.”

Spinelli arrived at Karen Webber’s place about ten minutes after I hung up with Carlos. I gave him a ten-finger boost up into the attic and then tossed him the flashlight.

“
What do you see?” I asked.

“
Someone’s been here. There’s fresh cigarette butts crushed out on the planks.”

“
What brand?”

“
Marlboros.”

That set off bells in my head. “Hey, isn’t that the brand—”

“
Piakowski smokes? Yes.”

“
Nice. Do you see another way in or out?”

“
Wait a minute, yes, I think I see a small door. Let me check it out.”

I stood outside the closet with my head craned through the doorway looking up towards the hole. After a while of not hearing from Spinelli, I began to wonder what he was doing up there. I called his name repeatedly, but he wouldn’t answer. Worried, I took my phone out and dialed his number. He answered on the second ring.

“
Spinelli! Where the hell are you? I’ve been calling your name. What did you do, fall through the ceiling into another apartment?”

“
No, I’m right here.” I turned around and there he was, standing right behind me. “I found a door,” he said. “It leads out onto a fire escape and to an unlocked window down the hall.”

“
Nice work.” I patted him on the shoulder. “This changes everything. Now we have a means for the killer to have gained access and egress through the apartment. I talked to Carlos a few minutes ago, and he’s found a similar way in and out of Anna’s place, as well.”

“
So, what does this prove?”

“
By itself, not a lot. But it shows that Piakowski could have gained access to Karen Webber and Anna Davalos right up to the times of their deaths.”

“
And to Bridget Dean, too, if someone with a key to the building let him in.”

“
Someone like Ricardo Rivera?”

“
Exactly.”

“
That’s what I’m thinking.”

“
So, what do we do now?”

“
We don’t do anything,” I said. “Carlos—”

“
Someone call?” Carlos poked his head through the door, smelling suspiciously of burger and fries.

I looked at my watch. “Where were you? You should have been here ten minutes ago.”

“
I stopped for gas.”

“
Gas?”

His eyes darted between Spinelli’s and mine. “Yeah.”

I decided not to call him on it. Besides, I’ve ridden with him after he’s had a burger and fries from one of those quickie McDrive-thrus. He wasn’t lying. It does give him gas.

“
Carlos and I are going to pay a little visit to Ricardo Rivera,” I told Spinelli. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and find Piakowski there. In the meantime…” I dug into my pocket and handed him the flash drive I found tucked among Karen’s bed sheets. “Take this.”

He took the device and examined it closely. “It’s a four-gig flash drive. Where did you get it?”

“
That’s not important. Take it back to the box and see what you can learn. I suspect it holds all of Karen’s notes and maybe some more pictures. Give me a call as soon as you find something.” Spinelli took the devise and headed out. I turned to Carlos. “You ready to go?”

“
Sure, let’s get it.”

“
You want to stop on the way and get a bite to eat somewhere?”

I saw his eyes bulge, as though an eruption deep inside his belly had swelled to the top of his throat and then settled back down. “Ah, no, I’m good,” he said, thumping his chest with his fist. “Maybe later.”

“
Ah-huh. That’s what I thought.”

On the way to Rivera’s I asked Carlos if he could take a little detour first so that I could get something off my chest.

“
No problem,” he said. “Where to?”

“
Just drive. I’ll give you directions.”

I didn’t want to tell him where we were going, not right away. If I had, I knew he would want to know why. That would have been a tough one to answer because, frankly, I didn’t really know myself. Carlos is a funny guy sometimes, sharp about some things, a little dim about others. I couldn’t recall if I had ever taken him to Lilith’s with me before. My few visits there still spark memories too dramatic to include such details. But I believe I shall never forget his reaction when we pulled up in front of her house this time. After pulling into the driveway, he took one look over the steering wheel and said to me, “Tony, that gnome behind the windmill, he just gave me the finger.”

“
So?” I said.

He answered back seriously, “Tell Lilith to expect his resignation in the morning, because I’m going to kick his little green ass from here to Ipswich.”

“
Carlos.” I grabbed his wrist and squeezed it until I forced his eyes off it. “That gnome is smaller than you, but trust me, you don’t want to do it. Now, maybe you ought to wait out here for me. I’ll run in and have a chat with Lilith while you sit here and…”