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 But you lucked out. You got a spot for your employer s vehicle right in front of your apartment building.
Isn t that right?
 Yeah, that s where I parked it. I got home and got into bed and turned on Jay Leno. He was really
funny. He was talking about& 
 I don t care what he was talking about. I care about the fact that the black Mercedes vehicle owned by
Nick DeMarco wasn t there thr whole night. Your neighbor in apartment 6D saw you pulling into a space
in front of the building at about 5:15, when he was leaving for work. Tell us, Benny, where had you
been? Did you get an emergency call from Mr. DeMarco? Had there been some kind of problem?
Benny Seppini s expression became angry and mulish.  None of your business, he barked.
 Benny, do you have a cell phone with a prepaid card? Ahearn demanded.
 You don t have to answer that, Benny, Paul Murphy shouted.
 Why not? Sure I do. I place a few bets. A hundred bucks here and there. So arrest me.
 Didn t you buy one of those cell phones and prepaid cards as a joke birthday present for Nick, I mean
Mr. DeMarco?
 Keep quiet, Benny! Paul Murphy shouted.
Benny stood up.  Why should I? I ll tell you what happened that night. I got a call around midnight from
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a very nice lady who is separated from a drunken bum husband. She was scared. The husband knows
she and I like each other. He left a crazy message on her cell phone, threatening her. I couldn t get back
to sleep, so I got dressed and drove over there. Her place is about a mile away from mine. I sat outside
her building in the car to make sure he didn t show up after the bars closed. I stayed till five o clock.
Then I went home.
 You re a real Sir Galahad, Benny, Ahearn said.  Who is this woman? Who s the guy threatening her?
 He s a cop, Benny said flatly.  One of New York s finest. She has grown kids who think he s the
world s best guy and just has a small problem with booze. She don t want trouble.I don t want trouble.
So I m not going to say nothing more.
Paul Murphy stood up.  We ve had enough, he told Ahearn, Barrott, and Gaylor.  I m sure you ll be
able to confirm Benny s story, and I know my client would do anything to help the young girl who is
missing. He threw them all a scornful look.  Why don t you stop barking up the wrong tree, and go find
the abductor of Leesey Andrews and those other young women? And why don t you stop wasting your
time trying to put round pegs in square holes while there may still be a chance to save her life?
The three detectives watched the men depart. When the door closed behind them, Ahearn said,  That
story is full of holes. Sure, Benny could have covered himself by being outside his girlfriend s building for
a while, but he still had plenty of time to respond to an emergency call from Nick and get Leesey out of
that loft.
They looked at one another in an agony of frustration, each man hearing in his head, once again, Leesey
Andrews s desperate cry for help.
59
And the walls came tumbling down&  Was that an old gospel folk hymn? Something about Joshua and
the walls of Jericho? He wasn t sure. The only thing thatwas sure was that time was running out, fast.
I really,really didn t want to end up like this, he thought. It was forced on me. I really did try to stop after
the first one. That wasn t counting thereal first one, of course, the one nobody knew about. But then I
wasn t allowed to stop.
Not fair. Not fair.
The end is coming, he thought, feeling his pulse quicken. I can t stop it. It s all over. I ll be found out, but
I m not going to be arrested. I m going to die, but I m going to take someone new with me. What s the
best way the mostexciting way to do it?
I ll figure it out, he told himself.
After all, he always had.
60
Martha s Vineyard is about three hundred miles northeast of Manhattan, and slower to warm up. On
Tuesday morning when I woke up, I looked out the window at the bright cold day. Feeling physically and
emotionally stronger, I got out of bed and considered what to wear when I confronted Barbara Hanover
Galbraith. It was cool enough for the running suit I had thrown in my bag, but that was not necessarily the
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outfit I would choose for our meeting.
I didn t want to seem either overdressed or too casual. I wanted no sense of being Mack s little sister
when I saw Barbara. She was a pediatric surgeon. I was ajuris doctoris , an attorney-at-law, and had
just completed a clerkship with a civil court judge. My alternative was a dark-green cashmere jacket,
white fitted camisole, and white jeans I had taken from the closet at the last minute. Now I was glad that
I had the option of wearing them.
Although it was nearly lunchtime, I called room service to order a continental breakfast, and drank black
coffee and nibbled on a cinnamon bun while I dressed. I realized I was so nervous that my fingers were
clumsy, fumbling as they unpinned the cleaner s tags from the clothes.
I was perfectly aware that I might be on a fool s errand. Barbara and her children might be back in
Manhattan by now. But I didn t think that would be the case. I believed that she was hiding out up here
to avoid being questioned about Mack, in which case she d have stayed put. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]