Ed continued, “The victim had a Long Island Rail ticket to Hempstead in his pocket.”
“A fairly big town. I think it’s the biggest in Nassau County. He have relatives there?”
Ed said, “I spoke to his parents, who live in Hicksville. They weren’t expecting him. Of course, they’re in shock. The only thing they could think of was that his grandmother has a house in Hempstead she lets him use. I looked up the address. Good place to lie low. It would be hard to connect it to him.”
I said, “You think he had a change of heart about the trip to Estonia. Maybe he was running.”
Ed finished my thought. “And whoever he was running from caught him. It’s possible. We have some grainy surveillance photographs that show him leaving Penn Station with a couple. A well-dressed white woman and man in their thirties. Not enough to make an exact ID. But the surveillance cameras downstairs show what may be the same couple visiting the building earlier that evening. Excellent images, but not a single match in our system, and they may have been visiting someone other than Payne. This one really has us stumped.”
“No drug connections?” That was usually the first and most likely reason for a homicide in New York.
“No, nothing. He’d been in school until eighteen months ago.”
“His parents pay for this apartment?”
“Nope.”
“Interesting.”
“And confusing. I can’t find what the kid did for money, but he was doing okay.”
“I’d say so.”
I had told him I was looking for a witness. Technically, it was true. I had been waiting for the next question.
Ed said, “What’s the connection between the witness you’re looking for and Payne? Can the witness help me on this homicide?”
“Truthfully, I don’t know. But if I ever find her, it will be one of my first questions.”
“What kind of case is she a witness to?”
“Ed, this is gonna sound weird coming from me, but I can’t talk about it.” It was embarrassing to tell one of my brother cops something like that. The FBI did that kind of shit all the time. That’s why none of the local cops worked with them much. I didn’t like saying it to a fellow detective.
But he took it in stride and we continued exchanging a little information and looking through the apartment again.
Finally I said, “Okay, Ed, I’ve seen enough. Will you keep me in the loop?”
“Sure, no problem. Will you do the same?”
“As soon as I’m authorized, you’ll hear the whole story. For now, I have to shift my focus to another witness.”
“Down here in Manhattan South? I have a lot of contacts.”
“I think I need to go to Columbia first. Last I heard she was registered there.”
Ed said, “I seem to recall you having a little trouble at Columbia not that long ago. Will they let you on campus? They’re not known to help the police much.”
“I have a few contacts. I need to find this girl. I’ll see what I can pick up on her and if she knows anything about your victim.”
“Is this witness’s name a secret, too?”
“No, not really. Her name is Jennifer Chang. She’s a computer genius, too. That’s why I think it might all be related.”
Ed laughed and said, “If you don’t know it by now, everything’s related in police work.”
CHAPTER 28
I HADN’T BEEN to Columbia University in some time. During my last visit, looking into rumors of a teenage hit man, I’d found the student studying at Columbia’s Butler Library. The young man was bright and eloquent. He was also an armed psychopath, which became clear when he pulled a pistol on me while we were chatting. We’re credited with the only running gunfight in history inside a Columbia library.
Thinking about that shooting, and my most recent shooting, left me feeling a little dejected. It really did seem like people were much more open to using violence to get away from the police. It made me scared for the generations of cops to come.
A security guard at the campus was a retired NYPD sergeant. It was clear on the phone he didn’t want anyone to see him talking to a current NYPD detective, but he did a search of the university’s records and found that Jennifer Chang was an enrolled student.
There was no way to tell if she was attending her classes, but he knew some of the university’s IT people. That’s where I was headed, north of the main campus. I should’ve picked up on his tone and chuckle. He said, “Jason is a little different.”
“How so?”
“Let’s just say he lives in his own world. Play by his rules, and he could be a big help.”
I found the offices not far from the Hudson in a four-story brick-and-glass building that looked more like a large warehouse than a hub of technology. I entered the front door, and the first thing I saw was a page of copy paper with the word Infrastructure scribbled on it with a ballpoint pen. An arrow pointed down. I took the narrow staircase next to the sign.
It felt a little like a horror movie. The underground floor was poorly lit and there was no one around. Literally. I had not seen one person since I entered the building. I found another sign just like the first one with an arrow pointing to the end of the hallway.
My shoes echoed off the concrete floor, which looked just as cold as the colorless walls. A stale odor assaulted my nose.
Finally I found a door with one more matching sign that said Infrastructure.
I knocked and heard someone shout from inside.
I opened the door and saw a man, about thirty, with long red hair tied in a ponytail. He looked up and said, “Are you Bennett?”
I nodded.
“Todd in Security told me you’d be coming. He said you were trustworthy and on a noble quest. I respect anyone on a noble quest.”
It took me a moment to realize this guy had played one too many Dungeons and Dragons games.
He said, “My name is Jason. Jason A. Manafort. But Todd said you wouldn’t put my name in any reports. Can I trust your word of honor, sir?”
“No one will ever know I was here or that you spoke to me.”
“And your quest? Is it really noble?”
“I’m looking for a missing girl, and Jennifer Chang might know where to find her. I just want to make sure she’s safe.” I waited while Jason considered this. He wasn’t taking our encounter lightly. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
Then Jason patted the seat next to him and turned to his computer monitor. He said, “I did a little background. I needed to meet you and make sure you were worthy of receiving this information.”
I watched as he brought up Jennifer Chang’s registration information. I copied down an address in Midtown. It looked like more of a warehouse area. Some of the warehouses had apartments above them. I also looked at Jennifer’s official school ID photo. Like most college students, she looked too young to be in school, but that was just a product of me getting older.
She was cute and had purple streaks running through her hair. She had been born in California and appeared to be of Asian descent. Nothing in her file was useful for my investigation, other than the address, which I intended to visit as soon as I was done with the Royal Handler of Information.