Page 81 of Stay Awake
Looking out the window, I try to absorb everything that’s happened since I arrived at my office. Down on the street below, pedestrians crowd the sidewalks like pesky ants as they head home from work. It’s a scene I’ve seen thousands of times before. This time it feels as if I’m watching it from another dimension.
The reflection of the red-haired woman in the tartan skirt appears in the window. “I’m so sorry for your loss, Liv,” she says, standing behind me.
“Thank you,” I answer without turning around.
“Even though you and Ted ended your engagement, it must be unbelievably painful. He always raved about how much talent you had, and how you worked your way up the ladder at the magazine,” she stutters. “I guess I just want you to know that I’m here for you. We all are.”
I’m shocked to learn that Ted and I were engaged. How could I not remember the man I was going to marry? “Why would someone kill him?” I ask.
She swings around to face the reception area.
“Looks like the police are here to find out,” she says.
Chapter
Forty-Five
Wednesday 6:14P.M.
Joe Chalmers was carrying home a six-pack of beer from the bus stop when the three detectives beelined toward him on the concrete expanse outside the public housing building where he lived with his girlfriend.
Lavelle and Halliday followed Regan toward Chalmers, striding in unison, their badges displayed on the waistbands of their suits. It was obvious that Chalmers immediately knew they were law enforcement. He was visibly torn between dropping the cans of Bud and bolting off, or staying put and talking to the police.
“He’s going to run,” Halliday said, reading his body language.
Chalmers’s flight instinct, honed by years of being on the wrong side of the law, took over from his common sense. He dropped the beer with a thud and bolted toward the street, where a bus was pulling up.
Halliday, who was on the side closest to his escape route, sprinted after him. She chased him onto the grass, where he tripped over an exposed tree root and went flying.
“You okay there?” She approached the patch of grass where he waslying splayed on the ground and held out a hand to help him up. He looked at her outstretched hand skeptically.
“We can talk here or we can talk at the precinct,” she said. “If we take you to the precinct, then we might as well charge you with failing to stop when requested by a police officer. I’m sure we’ll think up a few other charges while we’re at it. What’s your preference?”
“I’ll talk.” He scrambled to his feet without her help. He had a gap between his two front teeth just the way the dry cleaner had described to Detective Regan two years earlier.
“What do you want to know?” he asked.
“Two years ago, you were living in an apartment that you couldn’t possibly afford in Williamsburg,” Halliday said. She recited the address. “What were you doing there?”
Halliday’s eyes fixed on Lavelle for a second as she waited for Chalmers to answer. She didn’t want the other detectives joining them and changing the dynamics. Lavelle nodded to let her know they’d give her space.
“I don’t got to justify where I live,” Chalmers said.
“Sure you do,” said Halliday. “Especially when the neighbor you’d been spying on with binoculars turns up dead.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with that. I wasn’t even living there when it happened. Left town a couple of days before.” He slapped his hands together to wipe off the dirt from his fall.
“How did you know about the murders?” Halliday asked.
“Read it in the papers.”
“I don’t believe you,” said Halliday. She reached for her handcuffs and snapped them open.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you what I know,” he said. “A dude paid me to live in that apartment for a couple of weeks. In return I had to do chores.”
“What chores?”
“I had to drop off laundry. One time, I had to buy food from some fancy restaurant and heat it up in their oven. Another time I had to go inside in the middle of the night and put a carton of milk in the fridge. I didn’t hurt anyone. I just did things to mess with the women living there.”
