“Thank you, no,” Van Fleet replied. “As long as I’m here, I’ll have my lunch and get a cab later. Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful,” he said sweetly.
“You’ve been very helpful, Herbert,” Stone said, “and we appreciate your cooperation.”
“Have you found out anything else about Sasha?” Van Fleet asked.
“I’m afraid we can’t discuss an investigation in progress,” Stone said.
“The papers said you’re making no progress at all,” Van Fleet said, walking them to the front door.
“Don’t believe everything you read in the papers,” Dino said, as Van Fleet closed the door behind them.
Back in the car, Stone sighed. “Clean as a hound’s tooth,” he said.
“Yeah,” Dino agreed, disconsolately.
“Let’s go up to Sasha’s and go through those boxes.”
“Okay.”
There was a different doorman on duty when the detectives arrived at the building. Stone flashed his badge and asked for his key to the Nijinsky apartment. The man handed it over silently.
The moment they stepped off the elevator, it was obvious that something was wrong. The police notice fixed to the apartment door had been removed.
“The seal’s broken,” Dino said. “What the fuck?”
Stone led the way into the apartment. It was completely empty. The two men stood there looking helplessly about them, as if waiting for inspiration. Stone bent over and picked up a card from the floor.
Effective immediately,
Sasha Nijinsky is at
1011 Fifth Ave.
New York 10021.
Burn this.
“The movers,” Stone said.
“What?”
“The movers. She was moving the next morning.”
“What’s the new address?”
“Ten-eleven Fifth.” Stone didn’t mention that he knew someone else at that address.
“Let’s go see the doorman.”
Downstairs, Stone braced the doorman. “There was a police seal on the door of the Nijinsky apartment,” he said. “Who broke it?”
“Jesus, Officer,” the man pled, “I don’t know nothing. The moving people showed up and took her stuff; that’s all I know.”
They drove uptown in silence. The building was across the street from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The doorman greeted them.
“Can I help you, gentlemen?” he said, blocking the entrance.
Stone showed his ID. “Miss Nijinsky’s apartment.”