Chapter 79
WE COULD SEE from the changes in the light coming from the gap in the door that there was someone moving around inside the storage unit. It was a metal rolling shutter door, the kind that slid straight up like on a garage or most New York City storefronts.
Maggie and I decided to treat the unit like we’d treat a house.
She kept her position off to one side and back twenty feet in case there was trouble and she needed to use her pistol.
I stood on the other side of the door. A freezing gust of wind cut between the buildings, and for a moment I had a flashback to Bozeman.
Then I knocked on the door with my bare knuckles.
The knock echoed through the whole complex.
I hadn’t meant for it to be so loud, but the metal door multiplied the decibels in the emptiness of the area.
The first thing I noticed was that the movement inside stopped.
It was clear someone was standing there, frozen.
It was actually a little insulting that they thought they were hiding.
I raised my voice. “Leonard Barr? My name is Michael Bennett. I’m an NYPD detective. I’d like to speak to you for a moment face-to-face.”
That got absolutely no response.
“C’mon, Leonard, I can see your shadow under the door. Open up so we can talk face-to-face.”
I tried lifting the door but couldn’t budge it.
I signaled for Maggie to keep her position as I took a quick look around.
Because the building with the five units was not connected to the rest, I saw that it had its own fuse box on the outside wall.
I opened it and cut off the power. On my way back to the front of the unit, I found a busted-up padlock.
It looked like it’d been run over by a tractor a couple of times. I picked up the loose U-shaped shackle.
When I got to the door, it was clear the light inside had been shut off. I slid the shackle into a locking bracket on the very low left side. Now I was the one making sure that the door wouldn’t open.
I said in a loud voice, “Leonard, it’s getting late. If you’re not going to answer me, I’ve decided to lock you inside until I can get a SWAT team down here in the morning. So you can sit in the dark all night with no heat.”
Maggie said to me in a low voice, “Won’t he just call someone to let him out?”
I turned to her and said, equally quietly, “It’s a bluff. I’m not really going to leave him in there all night. That would be unlawful detention, and I’d prefer not to spend the holidays at Rikers.”
We waited silently for about ten minutes. I was starting to get annoyed at the thought that this Barr guy might have more patience than me. It was getting late and we really needed to wrap this up.
Then I heard the door rattle as he tried to lift it from the inside. He did it over and over. Then all went silent again.
I stepped up to the door and said, “Are you ready to come out, Leonard?”
The door was jerked violently. But the shackle from the padlock held it in place perfectly. From inside I heard a male voice growl, “Let me out of here.”
I sensed urgency in his voice. Maybe he was afraid of closed-in spaces. “So you want to talk? It might be better to talk through the door. That okay with you?”
“Open the door!” He sounded agitated.
“Will you behave?”
“Open the goddamn door right now!”
I looked over to Maggie for some guidance. Then I smelled something. I looked down at the door and saw smoke coming out from underneath the door.
I alerted Maggie. “He started a fire inside. Keep your position. I gotta open the door right now!”