Murder in Alphabet City Read Online Free PDF Page B

“No one’s lease is expiring. I am very busy. Good day.”
    Defino’s foot was ready and the door remained open. Two shields were thrust in front of the super’s face.
    â€œWhat is this?” he asked. “There’s no one here to bust. I live a clean life.”
    â€œWe’d like to talk to you,” Jane said. “May we come inside?”
    He wanted desperately to turn them away. She could sense his outrage. They had disturbed him during his work or meditation or whatever it was that kept him going. But he wasn’t stupid. He opened the door and let them in.
    It was the neatest super’s apartment Jane had ever seen. Not only was it clean and orderly, but the furniture was attractive, some of it made to order for the space. They sat on a firm modern sofa, the super sitting opposite on an upholstered high-back chair.
    â€œYour name?” Defino said. The case and the weather seemed to have hardened him.
    â€œLarry Vale.” He looked a little rattled.
    â€œYou were the super here when Anderson Stratton lived in this building?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDid you know him?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDid he go out every day on a regular basis?”
    Larry Vale sighed as though he had been through these questions so many times he could not imagine why anyone would ask them again. “Sometimes.”
    â€œYou want to be more specific?”
    â€œWhen he felt like it, when he was up to it, when the weather permitted, when he wasn’t wrapped up in his work, he usually went out in the afternoon. If I had to guess, I would say he worked into the night and slept late in the mornings. He wasn’t a morning person.”
    â€œDid you have a friendly relationship with him?” Jane asked.
    â€œYes.”
    â€œYou go up to his place sometimes for a chat?”
    â€œMore often he came here. He’d be coming back from wherever he went and he’d ring my bell and come inside and we’d talk.”
    â€œAbout what?”
    Vale looked disdainful. “About poetry and music and philosophy.” He sounded as though there weren’t a chance in the world that either detective would know what the words meant.
    â€œAnd it didn’t strike you as strange that Mr. Stratton didn’t show up at your door for a month?”
    â€œI didn’t think about it. It wasn’t a regular thing. I took care of the building, not the tenants. What is this about anyway? Andy died six or seven years ago.”
    â€œEight,” Defino said.
    â€œWe’re reinvestigating the circumstances of Mr. Stratton’s death,” Jane said.
    â€œThe guy starved to death. What circumstances are you talking about?”
    â€œHow many people do you know with a pocket full of cash who starve to death?”
    â€œI don’t know people with pockets full of cash.”
    â€œBut you knew he paid his rent on time and you knew he had money to live on.”
    â€œI knew that, but even if it crossed my mind that I hadn’t seen him for a week or two, it didn’t make me think he was sick or dying.”
    â€œWho visited him?” Defino asked.
    â€œHe had friends in the neighborhood. Maybe some of them went up to see him.”
    â€œYou see people go up there?”
    â€œNot often. I’m below street level here. I can’t see the tops of people without bending over and looking up. I tend to mind my business, strange as that may seem to you. I would see the pizza guy sometimes at night. Oh, and there was the little girl.”
    â€œWhat little girl?”
    â€œSome little Chinese girl, maybe from the laundry, but maybe not.” He screwed up his face as he finished speaking.
    â€œWhere’s the laundry?” Defino asked.
    â€œThey were on Avenue A. I think they’re still there.”
    â€œShe have a name?”
    â€œI’m sure she must, Detective, but she never told me.”
    â€œHow old was