The Prince of Paradise

by John Glatt

  After turning off the tape recorder, Detective Palazzo left the interview room to brief his superior, Detective Jack DiCristofalo on Narcy’s version, telling him it was riddled with inconsistencies.

  “[Narcy] was unbelievable,” Detective Palazzo said. “I’d never met anybody like her. She was obviously lying, but her arrogance was what struck me the most. Just very, very bizarre.”

  The two detectives then agreed to go back and confront her with the discrepancies between hers and her husband’s versions of what had happened. When they did so, Narcy changed her story, saying that she had planned it all several days earlier. In preparation, she told the detectives, she had rented a U-Haul truck and a car, in case she could not use her own.

  “She admitted that several things she told me were untrue,” Palazzo noted in his report. “That she lied because she was afraid that Ben Novack would hurt her.”

  Although Narcy now admitted to tying Ben up with a rope, she insisted that the incident had begun on Sunday morning while her husband was working in his office. She told the detectives that she had also threatened to cut off her husband’s penis and throw it in the canal, but would never have done this, as she was “not that nasty.”

  She now admitted hiring someone, whom she refused to identify, to help her move and return to the house later while Ben was tied up.

  “She asked that he help her scare Ben,” Palazzo wrote, “into believing that several men were in the house armed with guns. He did this and was paid $200.”

  She said she was now staying with a friend, whom she refused to identify, in Kendall, forty-two miles south of Fort Lauderdale. She also spoke of plans to stay with her sister Leticia in Naples, joining her daughter, May Abad, and two grandsons.

  She told the detective she had filed for a restraining order against Ben, but would return everything she had taken if he accepted responsibility for his actions that led up to this. She viewed the incident as the only way she could escape Ben without being hurt.

  “From the onset of this investigation,” the detective observed, “it was apparent that the entire incident is related to a domestic disturbance. After hearing Narcy Novack’s version, it became clear that there was even more history between the two than either chose to share with us.”

  Detective Palazzo then left her in the interview room, going back to his office to call Ben Novack Jr. He explained that Narcy was now threatening to expose Novack’s most intimate sexual secrets if he went ahead and prosecuted her.

  “For several minutes,” Palazzo wrote, “he pondered dropping the charges. I explained the problems with the case and the low likelihood of obtaining a conviction. I felt certain that Ben Novack would not continue to desire prosecution once his property was returned. I also believed that, as confusing to me as it is, the two would get back together in the near future.”

  * * *

  After Ben Novack Jr. agreed not to prosecute if his business documents were returned, Detective Palazzo went back to the interview room and told Narcy this. She then agreed to give back all the items immediately, but when Palazzo called Novack to tell him this, Ben Jr. suddenly changed his demands, insisting that she return the $440,000 in cash she had taken. When Palazzo told Narcy this, she maintained that the sum had been only $5,000. Palazzo called Ben again to confer.

  “He said he would forget the money,” Palazzo noted, “if I would draft a letter indicating that she waive all rights to any future claims against Ben, his estate or his business. I informed him that his request was out of line … that he should contact a civil attorney and not rely on the police department to settle his legal issues.”

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  “I CAN’T BELIEVE WHAT I’M HEARING”

  On Thursday morning, Narcy Novack called Pat Franklin, who had been leaving messages on her cell phone for two days. He explained that Ben now wanted to drop the formal charges and urged her to meet with her husband to work out an agreement. Narcy said she would think about it.

  “About an hour later,” Franklin remembered, “she called me from a coffee shop and gave me the directions there.”

  When the investigator arrived, he saw Narcy seated in a booth and looking out of the window.

  He came in a side door and slid next to her on the banquette in the booth, he recalled. “And she jumped. I said, ‘If you don’t trust me, I hope that shows you can, because I could have had you arrested right now.’”

  He then sat across from her in the booth and waited for her to speak.

  “She started venting anger,” Franklin said. “I mean she really harbored a great hatred for Ben and couldn’t stand him, calling him a bastard. And she alluded to his various perversions. ‘You don’t know what he makes me do. He makes me go with other men and blah, blah, blah. He spits. He stutters.’ All in her broken English. She’s very emotional.”

  Franklin suggested they call Ben from the coffee shop, so he would know she was all right. The private investigator had an ulterior motive in this, wanting to prove to his client that he had done the first part of his job and found Narcy.

  “So I put her on the phone,” Franklin said, “and she begins to sob like a baby. Giving him baby talk. And I’m scratching my head, because I can’t believe what I’m hearing.”

  Narcy told Ben she was sorry for what had happened, promising to make it up to him. She then broke down in tears, begging him not to prosecute and get her sent her to jail.

  “So finally she hands me the phone,” Franklin said. “I said, ‘Ben, I’m with her now. She’s going to help us. She’s agreed to take me where she has your property.

  “And I’m nodding at her, like I’m putting words in her mouth. We never had that discussion yet, but I’m using this moment, and Ben is sort of a prop for me at this time.”

  Franklin told his client that he felt Narcy was genuinely sorry and would take him immediately to collect his property. He promised to call Novack back when he and Narcy got there.

  “And when I hang up,” Franklin said, “her tears dry up and she winks at me. And I’m like, ‘What the fuck is this?’ She winks [again]. She’s a bullshitter and she’s letting me in on her secret.

  “I just smiled and said, ‘Narcy, you work with me on this thing and you’ll be fine.’”

  * * *

  After leaving the coffee shop, Narcy directed Pat Franklin to a public storage facility eleven miles away, off Interstate 595, in Davie, Florida. Once there, she led the way to a twelve-by-twelve storage unit, produced a key, and opened the padlock.

  “It’s filled from floor to ceiling with boxes, furniture, and clothing,” Franklin recalled. “And I looked at her and said, ‘You didn’t do this alone.’ She goes, ‘No.’”

  Narcy said it had taken six guys to bring everything over in a truck. Then she walked over to a desk, pulling out the brown accordion file she had shown detectives the day before.

  “You want to know what kind of sick bastard your client is?” she asked Franklin. “Well, open it up.”

  The private investigator said he would rather talk first about what she had done with the contents of the safe, but Narcy insisted he open the file.

  “So I look at it,” Franklin said, “and there’s a folder in there of pictures. Some are dated from the sixties and seventies. Some are Polaroids. And there’re a variety of pictures and photographs of amputees—male, female, and children. Peculiar. Some of them were being fitted for prostheses.

  “I’m certainly no prude, but I’ve never been aware of any kind of fetish involving amputees. But I guess there are all kinds.”

  As he quickly thumbed through the hundreds of photographs, he noticed one from the 1960s showing a young bikini-clad female amputee on crutches outside the Fontainebleau hotel.

  After Franklin inspected the locker, he called Ben Novack Jr. to tell him he was with Narcy and had recovered Novack’s property.

  Novack immediately asked if Narcy had shown him any photographs.

  “I said, ‘Yes, she did,�
�” Franklin said. “He goes, ‘Well, I’m not interested in that anymore. She’s blackmailing me over this.’” Then he explained that he had first become interested in amputees as a young boy, at the Fontainebleau. “Ben told me,” Franklin said, “‘Well, you know my dad used to do charity work, and that’s how I got interested in that.’”

  Franklin then handed the phone to Narcy. They had a brief conversation, with Ben agreeing to drop all criminal proceedings against her and not file for divorce.

  “He’s scared of those pictures,” Franklin said. “It’s as simple as that.”

  * * *

  A few hours later, Detective Steve Palazzo met with Ben Novack Jr. at his home. Novack informed the detective that Narcy had agreed to return everything she had taken. He then signed a “lack of prosecution” form, indicating that he was not going forward with the case.

  He told Palazzo, however, that he would “immediately file for divorce, and never wanted to deal with Narcy Novack again.”

  * * *

  On Friday morning, Ben Novack Jr. called Narcy; he recorded the telephone call on his microcassette recorder. Novack’s first priority was persuading Narcy to return all his company files, as his business was now at a standstill and his reputation on the line. With three upcoming conventions and next month’s mortgage due, Narcy’s actions were now threatening to ruin Convention Concepts Unlimited.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Narcy told him. “Tell me which is the first file that you need.”

  When he told her he desperately needed all the paperwork for three upcoming conventions, Narcy coldly replied she would try to get to it when she had time. She said it would have to be tomorrow, as she didn’t have the files in one place.

  Then Novack cautiously broached the subject of the $440,000 in cash she had taken, offering to negotiate. Narcy immediately disputed the figure, refusing even to discuss it with him now.

  Then he implored her to return a drawerful of personal bills she’d taken, as their credit rating could suffer if payments were late. “Narcy,” he pleaded. “I’ve got to make the mortgage payment.”

  “One day less is not going to make any difference,” she told him.

  After Narcy agreed to return the rack of files to him the next morning, Novack had one further question.

  “Could you put the Batman picture in, please?” he asked.

  “No,” she snapped. “You and I have to talk about that. Listen I don’t want to deal with you too long. If you give me the room to move around, it will make it a lot easier for you to get that stuff. If you start claustrophobing me, you’re not going to get a thing.”

  When he told her that he urgently needed to make a 2:00 P.M. post office deadline, to send off files and papers for the conventions, Narcy flew into a rage.

  “Don’t give me no time, okay,” she shouted.

  “I need to get the work out,” Ben reasoned.

  “I understand. But you need to understand that what you did last night was not right, because we agreed on something.”

  Then Narcy accused him of hiring a divorce attorney.

  “I haven’t done anything,” Novack said defensively. “We agreed.”

  Then she hung up.

  A few minutes later, Ben called her back, trying to get evidence on tape that she had masterminded the attack.

  “Narcy,” he said. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Yeah, but quickly,” she said, “because I cannot talk more than two minutes.”

  “Okay. Could you tell me why you felt it was necessary to have these guys come in and almost kill me, while they try and get this stuff.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she answered.

  “Narcy,” he continued, “why didn’t you just ask me for what you wanted?”

  “I cannot talk,” she replied. “You’re making no sense, okay. I don’t know where you’re coming from with that.”

  “Narcy. Narcy. Why was it necessary to do that?”

  There was a long silence before she hung up on him again.

  Ben immediately called back, pleading for his business papers before he left for Texas, and asking her to return two guns she’d taken.

  “That’s a lie,” she told him.

  “Okay, Narcy, the two guns that are missing are the ones that you took out. One that was in my black bag and the one in the night table, that I tried to get when they assaulted me.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re talking about,” she said.

  “Okay, Narcy, could you just tell me where the guns are?”

  “I told you … what you’re talking about, I don’t know.”

  “Narcy,” he pleaded, “please tell me where they are because that’s—”

  Then the line went dead.

  He called back, asking if the “guys” who had attacked him had taken the guns.

  “Listen,” she told him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What guys you’re talking about or what?” Then she said her cell phone battery had run out, and asked where she could get more batteries. “Listen, let me tell you one thing,” she said. “If it is not [working], you are not going to be able to reach me.”

  When Ben patiently told her the name of an AT&T store where she could get more, she said it was too far away.

  “Narcy, please tell me,” he pleaded. “Will you bring my files back?”

  She said she had “a lot of sewing” to do before she could return anything.

  “I need my receipts, Narcy,” he implored. “I need my paid bills.”

  “Bye,” she said, hanging up again.

  When he called back, Narcy accused him of taping their phone calls.

  “I just don’t want you to be talking nonsense on the phone,” she shouted. “You’re taping everything.”

  “I’m not taping anything,” he said. “I’m just talking about files—”

  “You have a detective and you’re taping everything and you’re trying to get—”

  “Narcy,” he reasoned, “I’m not doing anything except asking you about my files. I’m not getting into any nasty—”

  “You need to call me back,” she told him, hanging up.

  He called back, and Narcy accused him of trying to trap her, saying she could hear voices in the background.

  “I’m not trying to trap you at all, Narcy,” he told her. “I just would like to know when I can get those files. I’m desperate for them.”

  “Don’t trap me,” she warned. “You are not giving me enough room to move, okay.”

  “Narcy, could you just tell me what time they’ll be here?”

  “You have no time with me,” she said angrily. “You’re not timing me.”

  “Narcy, can you have somebody drop them off before—”

  She hung up again, and for the rest of the day refused to answer her phone.

  * * *

  On Saturday, June 15, one week after the home invasion incident, Narcy Novack called Detective Steve Palazzo with some news.

  “She advised that she had been in constant contact with Ben Novack,” he reported. “They are negotiating the return of the property and possibility of getting back together.”

  TWENTY-NINE

  “THE WOMAN IS ABSOLUTELY WHACKO”

  On June 17, Detective Steve Palazzo received an angry call from Ben Novack Jr., demanding that he arrest Narcy immediately for threatening his life. The detective refused, advising Novack to hire an attorney instead and get her threats on tape.

  “Throughout the whole thing,” Palazzo said, “I kept telling Ben, ‘You need to get as far away from her as you can. You need to get restraining orders [and] see a divorce attorney. The woman is absolutely whacko.’”

  The next morning, as a precaution, Palazzo arranged to have a patrol car drive past 2501 Del Mar Place, to see if Narcy’s car was there. After learning that it was not, Palazzo called Ben Novack Jr. and asked if he had seen his wife recently.

  “He said that he was busy,” Palaz
zo wrote, “and would call me later.”

  Suddenly the detective heard Narcy’s distinctive voice in the background, and asked Ben if she was with him.

  “He told me it was none of my business,” Palazzo wrote, “and he would call later. Then … Narcy picked up another phone in the house. Both began speaking. Narcy stated that they were getting back together. They had arranged to get counseling. Suddenly both began to argue.”

  The detective turned on his tape recorder and recorded the conversation. Now they both admitted that Narcy had been back home for days, and that Ben had gotten her a room in a hotel after she took his amputee photographs to the police.

  “The two continued to argue,” Palazzo wrote, “and eventually blamed me and the police department for interfering in their lives.”

  Then Novak said he had only let her back to the house to record her threats against him on tape. On hearing this, Narcy announced that she was leaving and never coming back.

  “The conversation is preserved on tape,” Palazzo wrote, “and will be placed in evidence along with the other tapes.”

  The next day, Narcy went to Broward County Family Court and swore out another complaint against her husband. A judge then evicted Ben from his own house, allowing Narcy to move back in.

  * * *

  The following morning, Ben Novack Jr. hired Fort Lauderdale attorney Don Spadaro to help him get back in his house.

  “He was just very upset,” Spadaro recalled in 2011. “He had been physically removed from the house when they served him with the restraining order.”

  Then Novack recounted to Spadaro how he had been held at gunpoint in his bedroom while some men took $440,000 from his safe, and that Narcy had been involved.

  “So he told me this wild story,” Spadaro said, “and his focus at that point was that he wanted to get in the house, because all his business paperwork and whatever was in [there]. He felt that his business was going to go down the tubes if he couldn’t get in there.”

  After their meeting, Spadaro filed for an emergency hearing at Broward County Family Court, which was held the next day in front of circuit court judge Geoffrey Cohen.