Chapter 14
Danny led his partner and a small group of officers into the tiny lobby of the Vagabond Hotel on the Lower East Side. While scanning the sterile interior, his brow furrowed as he considered how far Sanfino had fallen to have to stay at a dump like this or maybe he was so hell bent on revenge he was willing to sacrifice the creature comforts he was normally accustomed to. Whichever it was, he'd managed to stay a step ahead of them at every turn. "I want an officer posted at the bottom of the stairwell in case he decides to run. And make sure our guys are set up at the rear of the building," Danny ordered. One of the officers complied immediately as he moved to his assigned post and checked in with another unit.
Danny stopped in front of the check-in kiosk and eyed the clerk behind the wall of security glass. The man didn't appear at all shocked to see a contingent of officers approaching and odds were he was used to housing the less desirable in his hotel and willing to do so as long as they paid their rent.
"Excuse me, we need to speak to your manager," Danny said through the small window.
"That's me," came the response from the clerk who was more interested in the novel in his hands than the officers on the other side of the glass.
The partners traded glances before Danny slapped the photo of Noble Sanfino against the glass. "Have you seen this guy?" he gruffed at the manager.
The disinterested clerk finally lowered his book and raised a brow at the photo the detective had on display. "Is he in trouble?"
"Nah, we're here to thank him for being such an fine, upstanding member of society," Danny shot back quickly.
"What do you think, sir?" Maria droned.
Danny thought of how Sanfino had tormented his little brother the past few weeks and lost all patience with the man's apathy. "Answer the question! Listen to me, we're here to serve a warrant. If he's been staying in your hotel and you don't tell me the truth, I'll personally run you in for obstruction of justice."
The manager let out a put-upon sigh before answering. "Yeah, he's staying here."
"What room?"
"410."
"Is he here now?
"He's paid up through the end of the month, but I haven't worked since Monday and I haven't seen him today."
"Officer, keep an eye on our helpful friend here," he directed one of the uniforms while motioning for the rest to follow him. "Let's go."
The detectives and officers made their way to the fourth floor and had room 410 cleared faster than it had taken them to get past the manager downstairs.
"That didn't take long," Maria mumbled under her breath. "I think my closet's bigger than this dive." She and her partner filled the small room, the other officers who had tried following behind turned back around when they saw there was no space for them. The room consisted of a small single bed pushed up against a filthy window, a teeny nightstand and rickety desk. But it was the cluttered wall of the room that had Danny gasping in disbelief. "Jesus, would you look at this."
Maria's eyes flittered amongst the printouts of photographs and articles taped to the wall like some teeny bopper's shrine to their favorite heartthrob. "Sanfino did his homework. He's got articles on your brother going back to his academy graduation," she pointed out, feeling creeped out just by being looking at the collection.
Danny took one small step closer to the wall, frowning at all of the information Sanfino had managed to gather on his brother. "Yeah, I think he's got every one of the articles the Post has put out on Jamie." Suddenly, Maria couldn't believe what she was seeing. Newspaper articles and photographs were one thing, but this was on a whole other level of creepy and added another crime they would need to investigate. "That's not the worst of it. Look at this, Danny. These look like department personnel records - medical information, Jamie's promotion to sergeant and his reassignment to the 1-5, work schedules...he even has that same stuff on Eddie."
"How the hell would he get those?!" Danny barked. Noble either has someone in the department or found a way to access those records. "If he hacked into the system, he didn't do it on his own. Sanfino's not that savvy."
Maria walked over to the nook in the wall which was supposed to be the closet and found it empty. "His laptop is on the desk, but other personal belongings are gone."
"What does he need the laptop for? He already gave up the camera, I think he's already moved on. Call CSU to come process this place and let's get his computer to TARU and have them see what else they can find," Danny requested as he eyed the photograph of Jamie and Eddie leaving the church after their wedding. Seeing the happiness on their faces made him curse the fact that he would be the bearer of bad news for the second time that day.
Danny was in the hallway, speaking to one of the techs from TARU, making sure they'd go through every bit of information they could find on the laptop they recovered from Noble's room when Jamie and Eddie stepped out of the small elevator at the end of the hall.
"Alright. Call me as soon as you have anything," he dismissed the tech as he turned to meet his brother and sister-in-law. "Hey, you two. You really didn't have to come down here. I told you we got everything under control."
"And I told you I might be able to help if I got a look at his room," Jamie countered. He'd been more than frustrated to hear that Noble wasn't found and couldn't just sit around his father's house doing nothing, so he'd headed to the Lower East Side hotel with Eddie hoping that he'd be able to point out something useful for the investigation.
Danny sighed, it was no use arguing with his brother considering he'd be doing the same thing. "Hey, take a break guys and let us have the room for a few minutes," he shouted at the crime scene investigators.
"Like I told ya over the phone, the room's got a certain creep factor to it with what he collected on you two," Danny warned over his shoulder.
"I don't think it gets any creepier than being watched in your own apartment," Eddie commented as she followed the Reagan boys into the room, her eyes widening when she saw the the countless items on the wall. "I take that back," she muttered as her eyes landed on the infamous wedding article from the Post taped in the center of the disturbing collage.
Jamie scanned the wall, surprised at the amount of information Noble had on him and Eddie, most of it was public from news sites and the local city blogs that would fixate on his family, but it was a row of forms near the bottom that alarmed him the most. "Jesus, Danny, these are personnel records," he said.
"How would he get those?" Eddie asked, looking over Jamie's shoulder at their work schedules going back to before Noble made himself known to her. Eddie hugged herself, feeling more frightened with each new discovery.
"I have no idea, but we're going to find out. He either had someone in the department or hacked the system," Danny surmised. "I already have the department geeks checking for security breaches."
"There's no way Noble hacked the NYPD. He may have put most of this together on his own but he doesn't have the knowhow to hack into a server like ours," Jamie explained.
"If he had any help, we'll find them too," Danny promised. "Is there anything that sticks out at you?" he asked Jamie while glancing around the room with just a few quick turns of his head. There wasn't much here, but if Jamie was able to spot something of use, it would make his visit worthwhile.
Jamie studied the desk and wall when something jumped out at him - a light scribble in pencil on one corner of the article on his suspension his fourth year on the force. Jamie squinted at the writing and pointed a finger at it. "Does that say 'Richie'?"
Danny leaned in, frowning at the light pencil mark. "How the hell did you see that? That's what it looks like. You recognize the name?"
"Richie was the name of the drug dealer Noble put in the hospital that first night of the Sanfino assignment," Jamie informed them.
Danny thought back and snapped his fingers when he remembered Jamie telling him about that night. "Yeah. Yeah, I remember. We'll pull the file and look him, maybe he reached out to him."
"Maybe, but he'd be an idiot to do that. He might have had the upper hand back then, but if he starts letting people know he's back in town, someone's bound to get word to the wrong people."
"He's been pretty cocky so far, so he's bound to screw up. Maybe this Richie character can lead us to him," Danny said.