Night Fall

“Are you available-?”

She opened the door, and I said, “Jill, I’d like you to meet my wife, Kate.”

Jill smiled, walked over to Kate, and they shook hands. Jill said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. John was a little worried about you at the airport.”

Kate replied, “And with good reason, as it turned out.” She smiled. “I’m pleased to meet you.”

I checked out the situation, and it seemed to be cool. Kate’s not the jealous type, and she’s a professional, and Jill Winslow was every bit the lady-except, of course, for her sexual escapades on the beach. But that was long ago.

Kate said to Jill, “John has been telling me a little about the last few days. How are you doing?”

“Very well, thank you. Your husband is like a rock.”

Perhaps not a good choice of words considering the shared suite, but Kate replied pleasantly, “You can count on him.” She added, “I want to thank you for coming forward, and for being so honest about everything. I can’t imagine how this is affecting you.”

Jill replied, “I actually feel better than I’ve felt in five years.”

I suggested, “Why don’t we have some bubbly?”

I opened a bottle of champagne, poured, and we all clinked glasses. I said, “To Kate’s homecoming and to Jill’s being here.”

Kate added, “And to a great detective.”

Jill added, “And to… justice for those who lost their lives…”

We drank in silence, then Jill said, “I feel like I’m interfering with what should be a private reunion.”

Kate replied quickly, “Not at all. John and I already hugged and kissed. We can swap war stories later.”

Jill said, “That’s very nice of you, but-”

Kate interrupted. “No. Youmust stay. I have so many questions to ask you, I don’t know where to begin.”

Jill replied, “It’s actually not that long a story, and it comes down to me doing something I shouldn’t have-and I don’t mean having an affair. I mean, I should have been brave enough to come forward five years ago. If I had, a lot of lives may have been ruined, but more lives, including my own, would have been better.”

Kate looked at Jill awhile, and I could tell she was as impressed with Mrs. Winslow as I had been since we’d met Sunday morning. Kate said to her, “Sometimes we can’t make the hard decisions when they have to be made. Sometimes we have to come to those decisions after a lot of soul searching.”

Jill replied, “Your husband showing up on my doorstep was like a sign that the time had come.” She glanced at me, smiled, and said, “Also, he’s very convincing. But I still feel that I didn’t do the right thing on my own.”

I said, “You could have shown me the door, but you didn’t. I’ll tell you something else-had you given up that tape five years ago, it probably would have been destroyed. So, in some way, through fate or chance, it worked out for the best.”

We sat there awhile and chatted. This is called putting the witness at ease, wi

Also, I hoped that Jill and Kate would bond a little, and that seemed to be happening. I envisioned Kate being designated as Jill Winslow’s hand-holder, as we say. The fallout from all this would go on for a long time, and I was glad to see that they were getting along.

At some point, Kate asked Jill, “Did you pick out that shirt for John?”

“Yes, I did. He couldn’t leave the hotel room, and I was able to go out, so I got him a fresh shirt.”

Kate said to Jill, “He looks good in coral. It brings out his tan. He never wears anything bold or trendy. Where did you get it?”

“Barneys. They have wonderful things for men.”

I felt excluded from this conversation, so I stood and said, “I’m going to talk to the patrolman at the elevator. I’ll be about an hour. If you’d like, you can watch the videotape while I’m gone. It’s under my mattress.”

I left the suite and went down the hall to the elevators.

The uniformed cop was sitting in one of the upholstered chairs in the small elevator lobby reading theDaily News. I introduced myself to him, and showed him my Fed creds and my NYPD retired detective ID.

I sat in the empty chair and asked him, “When do you get off duty?”

The young officer, whose name tag said Alvarez, replied, “Three hours ago. Hey, who is this guy Fanelli? He’s got more pull than the police commissioner.”

“He is a man who trades favors. Favors are the currency of the police department. You can’t take money, so you pay in favors, and you collect favors. That’s how things get done, and how you get ahead, and how you keep your ass out of hot water.”

“Yeah?”

“Let me tell you about it.”

I sat there with Patrolman Alvarez, telling him how his world actually worked.

At first, he seemed bored, but then he got interested when he realized he was in the presence of a master. After half an hour, he was asking questions quicker than I could answer them. I thought he was going to kneel at my right hand, but instead he pulled his chair around to face me so I had to keep my eye on the elevators.

He was getting a lot out of his overtime, but to tell you the truth, I was getting more out of it.

After an hour, I stood and asked him, “When do you get relieved?”

“At midnight.”

“Okay, I want you to do me a favor and be back here at seven-thirtyA.M.”

“There’ll be another guy-”

“I wantyou.”

I gave him my card and said, “Be alert, and be careful. The guys who may be coming out of those elevators are not ordinary scumbags. They’re trained professionals, and to make this real for you, I’ll tell you they’d shoot you in a heartbeat if they had to. Take your piece out of your holster and keep it tucked in your belt, with your newspaper on your lap. If you smell trouble, pull it. If you have to, shoot.”

Patrolman Alvarez’s eyes were wide open.

I slapped him on the shoulder, smiled, and said, “Don’t shoot any paying guests.”

I went back to the suite, which was dark because Kate and Jill were watching the last few minutes of the videotape.

I went to the bar, poured a club soda, and waited.

The lights came on, but no one said anything.

I suggested, “Why don’t we order room service?”

Kate, Jill, and I were at the dining table having a light supper. I didn’t bring up the subject of the videotape, and neither did they.

I suggested that no one check their cell phones, because as far as I was concerned, anyone who called had nothing to say that would change anything. The only person I needed to hear from was Dom Fanelli, and he’d call on the room phone.

We talked mostly about Yemen, Tanzania, and Old Brookville. Thankfully, no one had slides to show.

Jill was very interested in Kate’s assignment in Tanzania, and her work on the embassy bombing. Jill was also interested in my assignment in Yemen, and the USSColecase. In our business, we tend toward understatements, as we’d been taught, and to watch for security breaches, but this usually makes people more interested. I thought about telling the story of the desert tribesmen on horseback attacking my Land Rover on the road to Sana’a, but I didn’t have a good ending for it yet.

Kate seemed genuinely interested in hearing about life on Long Island’s Gold Coast, but Jill said, with the same understatement that Kate and I had affected, “It’s not as interesting or as glamorous as you might think. I got tired of the charity balls, the parties, the designer showcases, the country club, and the displays of affluence. I even got tired of the juicy gossip.”

I said, “I love gossip, and I could get used to affluence.”

By all outward appearances, it was pleasant enough di

At about 10P.M., the room phone rang. I picked it up and said, “Hello.”