Chapter 75
MAGGIE AND I spent another couple of hours running down old addresses for Leonard Barr.
We got most of them from some of his various booking sheets and stints on probation.
Nothing really panned out. We found a couple of former neighbors who vaguely remembered a big guy who wasn’t terribly friendly and who smoked cigarillos all the time. He sounded like a delight.
Maggie and I sat in the front seat of her car. She let out a long sigh.
I said, “I know it’s frustrating. But this is how we’ll finally crack this thing.”
“It’s not that.” She held up her phone so I could read a text. She’d been ordered to federal court in lower Manhattan for an emergency hearing on one of her other cases.
Before I could even suggest that she drop me at my car, I got a text of my own from Juliana. She was taking Rob Trilling’s roommate Katie to another job interview somewhere near Times Square.
In an effort to relieve Maggie’s frustration, I said, “See? We both need a break. I know this case is important, but my family is more important to me. After what happened last time she went on an interview, I’m going to tag along. If that’s okay with you.”
Maggie agreed to drop me off near where I could meet Juliana and Katie, and I found the girls waiting only half a block away.
Juliana waved her arms and then ran to me.
I guessed being away from home a few days had had a positive effect.
Katie was more reserved but polite. She smiled and gave me a little wave.
It was hard to picture this young, sweet, unassuming Pakistani girl beating up on anyone.
I hadn’t heard anything more from Internal Affairs and was hoping the case might simply disappear.
But that wasn’t how things usually worked.
It made me worry about Katie’s and the other roommates’ futures.
Juliana downplayed the nervousness I thought we all shared after the previous close call. “Thanks for coming, Dad. I know it’s no big deal—it’s just a job interview a few blocks away at a courier company.”
“My partner got called away to court so I had time to kill anyway. Besides, how often do I have the opportunity to see my daughter while I’m at work?”
“Based on my experience, quite a bit. When we were little, you used to always find time to take us to the movies on Wednesday afternoons.”
“Well, back in those days I wasn’t working homicides and had a little more free time.”
The three of us walked a few blocks, cutting through an alley and a questionable courtyard.
The company was a courier service located on the ground floor of an office building.
I saw all the bicycles out front and wondered if they would want Katie riding all over Manhattan, delivering packages and paperwork.
The building wasn’t in bad shape, but the courier office had seen better days. There was a poster for the release of the movie Les Misérables, which had come out back in 2012.
A heavyset man in his forties was slapping the side of a computer monitor as we walked up to the counter. He looked up at us. “We only accept assignments via our website.”
Juliana smiled as she stepped all the way to the counter and said, “We’re here about your job opening.”
The man smacked the monitor one more time and stepped away from it in disgust. He looked at Juliana for a little bit too long. It made me uncomfortable. “It’s a warehouse job, sweetheart. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. You don’t look like you could handle that.”
Juliana didn’t miss a beat. “I’m sure I could handle it. But it’s actually my friend here, Katie, who’s applying.”
The man cut his eyes to Katie. She smiled.
“You can speak English?”
Katie nodded but didn’t say anything.
I knew that Katie understood English quite well, and spoke it well too, though with a pretty thick accent.
The only thing that stood out about her English was that instead of curse words, she tended to use phrases Trilling had taught her over the past few months, like “Shucks” or “Shut the front door.” Her intonation and delivery were always right on the money.
The man motioned her to the counter and handed her three small packages. He asked, “Which package is going to the Lower East Side?”
Katie responded to him in a low voice I couldn’t hear. The man leaned in closer and she repeated it. He shrugged and urged her around the counter to his computer. I could see the screen but not where she was navigating to with the mouse. After a moment, she pointed to one of the packages.
The man said, “Wait a second. Do you think you could learn how to work our delivery program? It’s supposed to organize the couriers.” Katie nodded and, after a few clicks, was back in the program that had apparently been giving the man problems when we walked into the office.
In a matter of minutes, he was convinced and hired Katie for her computer skills, not to work in the warehouse.
Juliana and I stood watching in absolute amazement as Katie now showed her new boss why she should get a raise immediately, then my daughter turned to me and asked, “Tell me how Rob is really doing. He sounded so stressed when I talked to him on the phone.”
“He’s okay, but there’s a lot going on with his family. I’m sure you could call him again and find out.”
“I don’t want to seem like I’m prying.”
“That’s what dating is all about.” I smiled, but she still punched me in the arm.