They finished their trek down the stairs and came to the elevator. Ava checked her watch and saw that it was 9:16. If this Dooley fellow was a creature of habit, he’d be long gone by now, if her brief conversation with the foreman up top had been accurate.
When they finally made it back to the ground floor and stepped out of the elevator, Ava relaxed, noticing that she’d been quite tense the entire time they’d made their trip up—even on the stairs. Her legs and knees felt lighter and she walked with a fluid ease that she’d never noticed before.Maybe just the way normal people walk when they aren’t accustomed to just having been way up in the sky,she thought.
There was a different group of workers on the ground floor now, roughly a dozen or so all standing in a circle and speakingquite loudly. Ava couldn’t tell if there was an argument or if they were just trying to speak over one another. As she looked over, she noticed that one of them was the same man that had stopped them when they’d come in the front doors. When he saw her looking in his direction, Ava waved him over. He muttered something to the man beside him and then hurried over.
“On your way out?” he asked them.
“Well, we were hoping the night watchman might still be around. Dooley, according to one of the men upstairs.”
“You’re in luck! Dooley usually dips out around nine, but one of the construction foremen offered him some scratch if he helped clean up some of the mess out back. He’s still out there if you need to talk to him.”
“Out back?” Pawlowski asked.
“Yeah, just head out the front and go around the left side. You’ll see a small space with a lot of discarded building materials. Dooley and a few others are out there right now.”
Ava and Pawlowski thanked him and took his directions When Ava was outside, she found herself glancing up to the top of the building, in awe of the fact that she couldn’t actuallyseethe top when she was standing so close to the building. Her stomach rolled a bit when she thought of how she’d been way up there only moments ago.
They came to the side of the building, finding the clean-up areas easily enough. It was blocked off from the rest of the street by flimsy metal fencing, broken only by a single gate along the side to allow people in and out. There were five men working hard to carry scattered junk and debris into a series of large, black garbage containers.
“Excuse me,” Ava said. “Is one of you named Dooley?”
All five of them turned around. Two stared with the eyes of curious adolescent boys, while the others looked concerned to have two young women at a worksite like this one. But of thefive, one raised his hands rather bashfully. He looked to be in his late forties and in need of a shave.
“That’s me,” he said with an uncertain smile. “I’m Dooley.”
This time, it was Pawlowski that flashed her badge. “NYPD. Can we talk to you about some of your duties in the building?”
Dooley looked confused now, his eyes narrowing in on the badge. “Cops? Is something wrong?”
“No, sir,” Pawlowski said. “We just want to ask you some questions about some things.”
Dooley nodded and stepped forward, coming through the gate. “There’s not much to tell, though. I mean, the building isn’t even open for operation yet. Won’t be much longer though. They think maybe another three or four months.”
“Do you work as the night security every day?” Ava asked.
“Nah. It’s me and one other guy that sort of rotate.”
“Were you here two nights ago?” Pawlowski asked.
“I was. Been here for the last four nights. The new guy will come on tonight and cover the next three.”
“I assume you know about the man that seems to have jumped from the top two nights ago, correct?” Ava asked.
“Yes, for sure. But, you know, the first cops on the scene poked around, asking questions. And I’ll tell you exactly what I told them: I never saw anyone come in. And I sit right there in that lobby all night. The most I ever get are some curious gawkers, coming by hoping to get a peek before the place opens up. But I haven’t had a single person try to actually come inside for a few weeks now.”
“Well, we know someonedidcome in two nights ago,” Pawlowski said.
“Seems that way. It could have been while I was using the restroom. And there was a period of about ten or fifteen minutes when I did fall asleep.”
“Is that common?” Ava asked. “Do you doze off often?”
“No,” he said, suddenly seeming to regret that he’d said anything at all. “I mean…I could lose my job if people found out. I mean…no one has to know, right? I can’t afford to lose this job.”
The desperation in his voice was genuine and Ava couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for him. “Okay, then,” she said. “Between just the three of us, how much time were you…unavailabletwo nights ago?”
His sudden look of discomfort told Ava that he was starting to understand that he’d made a mistake. He’d openly invited such questions because he’d seen them as innocent, albeit curious, women rather than investigating cops. Therefore, he sounded almost ashamed when he answered: “Maybe an hour.”
“Any clue what time?” Pawlowski asked. She made no attempt to hide her annoyance.