The Prince of Paradise

by John Glatt

  * * *

  As investigators Ed Murphy and Alison Carpentier prepared to interview Narcy Novack, they had several reasons to suspect she had been involved in her husband’s murder. The electronic door lock codes for the Woodlands Suite had now been examined and it had been determined that no key cards had been used to enter the room between the time Narcy and Ben entered the suite the previous evening at midnight and when Narcy returned from breakfast at 7:45 A.M. to discover Ben dead.

  Detectives were also skeptical of Narcy’s implausible claim that the arm of the fake Valentino’s sunglasses had come from a pair she had broken. How could Ben have tried to fix them, they asked, if the remaining parts were missing?

  Also, after learning from Narcy about Ben’s fondness for being tied up, investigators wondered if this had played any part in his murder. It seemed more than just coincidence that his body had been found bound in duct tape, in the exact same bondage position that he so enjoyed for sex.

  Additionally, a few hours earlier they had received a tip-off from Florida that Ben Novack Jr. had been the victim of a 2002 home invasion, and that Narcy was behind it.

  * * *

  At 6:01 P.M. on Monday, Investigator Edward Murphy and Detective Alison Carpentier turned on a video recorder in a small interview room at Westchester County Police headquarters. Then Narcy Novack was brought in, without being told that the interview was being recorded.

  Over the next eight hours, a team of five detectives would take turns questioning her about her husband’s murder. Narcy had not eaten since Sunday morning, and over the course of the interview, she refused repeated offers of a slice of pizza, water, or even a visit to the restroom.

  The two investigators began by asking what Narcy and Ben’s movements had been since arriving in New York on Thursday night for the Amway conference.

  Narcy said the Amway conference had posed “a lot of problems,” after 1,900 people turned up instead of the 1,200 expected. The detectives sympathized as Narcy explained that it had been double the amount of work for everyone.

  Narcy seemed chatty, describing herself as her husband’s “eyes and ears” and his “foody partner.”

  “When Ben says, ‘Come,’ I run like a maniac,” she told the investigators.

  Slowly they steered the questions around to 6:30 on Sunday morning, when Narcy claimed that Ben had finally come to bed and woken her up.

  “He just snuggle a little,” she said, “and he was playing with my hair.”

  As soon as he fell asleep, she had gotten up and taken a shower. Then the phone rang and Ben had answered it and had a brief conversation with Angelica Furano. He had then ordered Narcy to leave so she wouldn’t be late for breakfast.

  “And he start barking at me,” she told the detectives. “He was rushing me [and] he realized that I was leaving without giving him a kiss, and we don’t do that. He said, ‘Come on, give me a besito.’ So I went back. I kiss him and I left.”

  Narcy had then wheeled her suitcase, containing her computer and makeup, along the corridor to the banquet hall, where a large crowd had gathered for breakfast.

  “The line is humungous,” she said.

  A few minutes later, after her daughter, May, and Matt Briggs had come down, the caterers ran out of china and silverware.

  “When I find out it was plastics and disposables,” Narcy said, “I knew right away that I had to get hold of Ben. Ben doesn’t like surprises.”

  She had tried to call his cell phone but there had been no answer, so she had gone back to their suite to tell him.

  “And I said, ‘Novack,’ you’re not going to like this,” Narcy told investigators. “And I usually called him ‘Novack’ when we … have a problem. He didn’t answer, so I thought he was asleep.”

  After using the bathroom in the parlor, she went into the bedroom.

  “And that is when all hell broke loose,” she said. “I walked in … and I trip on something … and I realize that he was on the floor. It did not look like Ben. Ben won’t be on the floor. Something was not right. When I saw him I started screaming. And I don’t know if I got on the phone. I was screaming on the phone … and then I run outside the hallway, through the bedroom door. I was screaming and knocking on every door.”

  She said a couple had then come to her assistance and followed her back to the suite.

  “I was holding Ben and rubbing his leg,” Narcy said.

  “Holding him where?” Detective Carpentier asked. “Show me?”

  “From his underwear and his butt,” she replied. “I was just rubbing his leg and holding his butt and trying to move him. Somebody grabbed me. They were trying to get me away. I was hysterical.”

  When Investigator Murphy asked if she had seen Ben’s face, Narcy was evasive.

  “He’s very hairy,” she said, “so I knew that was him and he was not moving.”

  Murphy asked if she had tried to help him and turn him over, as he was facedown on the carpet.

  “I have a problem with blood,” Narcy replied. “If I have a little cut or something. I cannot see blood. If they take blood out of my arm I faint.”

  “Did you faint?” Carpentier asked.

  “No,” she said. “I’m afraid of blood. I don’t know if I passed out at that time. I blacked out. Something happened to me.”

  After a hotel security guard had sat her on a couch, she said, she tried to grab his gun and commit suicide.

  “I just wanted to kill myself,” she explained. “They were telling me he was gone. I said I want to be gone too and I want it to be quick. So I just grabbed his gun and I guess he was quicker than me.”

  Detective Carpentier said she felt bad that May had been physically sick after seeing her stepfather’s body in the morgue. “Nobody should have to see that,” Carpentier said.

  “I wanted to see him,” Narcy stated. “I didn’t go there to see the injuries. I wanted to see him and I was happy I went to see him.”

  “I wish we could have done more,” Carpentier said. “His condition is bad and they had to try to put the blanket in a way that wouldn’t … really upset you.”

  “Only a monster can do this evil thing,” Narcy replied.

  * * *

  A few minutes later, observing how Narcy had already revealed how Ben liked “kinky sex” and being tied up, Investigator Murphy asked if his murder could be connected to this.

  “Shhh, she doesn’t know,” Narcy said, referring to Detective Carpentier.

  Murphy then informed her that Rye Brook Police had received a call from Florida about Ben being attacked during a 2002 home invasion.

  “Was he ever a victim of a home invasion?” Murphy asked.

  “He was not! He was not!” Narcy said indignantly. “And that’s why we went back together, because he lied. He was not!”

  Narcy then explained that her husband “likes a lot of weird things” involving “dirt” that she didn’t want to dig up.

  “He likes rough stuff,” she told them. “He made up the home invasion. He thought that he would convince me to have sex.”

  She claimed that in 2002 she had merely handcuffed Ben to a chair before taking her own jewelry and watches from a safe and leaving.

  “He say[s] that I had the house robbed. No,” she snapped. “I took my stuff. I have the right to leave the house. I’m not his prisoner. I’m not his sex slave. I was fed up. I find some weird stuff. I freaked out.”

  She then accused Ben of being a pedophile, saying she had found his collection of pornographic pictures of children, which he feared she would use against him.

  “He wants me to come back and [not to] expose that,” she explained. “And he would do anything not to have that out, because he knew they would put him in jail.”

  Narcy said Ben had dropped the criminal complaint and they’d reconciled after she returned the pictures, which he’d had stored in a warehouse. As a precaution, Narcy said she had kept a few of the pedophile pictures back, and Ben had been suspicious.r />
  She also claimed her husband courted young female amputees, taking them out on dates and promising to buy them prosthetic limbs.

  “He likes somebody to be … helpless,” she said. “I guess that they cannot run away from whatever he does to them, because they don’t have the legs.”

  Narcy said when she discovered his fetish for amputees, it had freaked her out.

  “I was in love with him,” she explained. “And when you love somebody and they explain to you that it’s a screw loose, you’ve got to hope it’s gonna get better.”

  She also claimed to have seen his love letters from amputees dating back to his youth at the Fontainebleau.

  “He would promise them,” she said, “okay, you come to the hotel [and] I’m going to wine and dine you. I want [us] to get to know each other and when you’re comfortable … we will start dating. But his only purpose was to have sex with them.”

  After the 2002 incident, Narcy told the detectives she had shown Bernice Novack her son’s amputee photographs, some dating back to when he lived with her.

  “I said, ‘Bernice, I loved your son, but he’s sick, and since I’m leaving him I think I owe it to you … he needs help.’”

  According to Narcy, her mother-in-law had refused to believe her until she saw the pictures, along with envelopes addressed to Ben at her address. Then she had commended Narcy for having the “courage and honesty” to tell her that Ben was so sick, and for staying with him.

  Changing the subject, Investigator Murphy asked if anyone had pressured Narcy to let them into the suite to rob Ben.

  “I’m so confused,” Narcy replied. “What are you telling me?”

  Murphy told her that a young boy had seen two men go into the Woodlands Suite, and a lady coming out shortly afterward.

  “That woman has to be you,” he told her.

  “Beats me,” Narcy replied, throwing up her hands.

  Again Murphy asked if she had been threatened, but Narcy insisted she would have called the police if she had been.

  “Suppose they tell you,” Murphy pressed, “if you don’t let us come in and take the money, then we’re going to kill him.”

  “No,” Narcy replied.

  “I’m not saying that you knew something was going to happen,” said Murphy. “I think that’s why you black out when you went back into the room, because you didn’t expect to see that.”

  “Wait a minute,” Narcy said. “You’re telling me that I saw the people that went into the room?”

  “I’m saying that you opened the door for them,” Murphy said.

  “No I did not,” she snapped.

  “You had to open it,” Detective Alison Carpentier said.

  “There would have been a reason for it,” Murphy added.

  “Nobody’s threatening me,” Narcy replied. “Nobody’s threatening.”

  “Narcy,” Murphy said, “every one of these crimes always gets solved, okay.”

  “I hope it does,” she replied.

  “And when the people get caught they always try to point fingers,” Murphy continued. “I just want you to tell me now if … somebody threatened you, and they told you that they wanted to go in because they wanted to make some money, all right. And they weren’t going to harm your husband … did that happen?”

  “Okay,” Narcy snapped. “Do you think I’m a suspect…”

  “I don’t think you’re a suspect,” Murphy replied calmly.

  * * *

  The detectives then asked about Ben Novack Jr.’s wrists and legs being bound with duct tape prior to his murder, which closely resembled his favored sexual position. Confronting Narcy with the obvious similarities, they asked if a sex game with a stranger could have led to his killing.

  Narcy said what they did in bed was “very private” and “embarrassing.” She explained that Ben could get an erection only by taking Cialis or Viagra forty-five minutes before sex.

  “He takes it every day,” she told them. “I’m pouring my heart out to you.”

  “But we need to know everything,” Detective Carpentier said. “We’re not trying to make you embarrassed.”

  “Yeah, but you’ve got to understand this is my husband that we’re talking about, and I don’t want you to look at him as a pervert.”

  “I’m not looking at him as a pervert,” Murphy said. “We’re not taking any of this personally. Everybody has their own lives.”

  “But I should not be saying this,” Narcy continued. “This is betrayal.”

  Then Carpentier asked if Ben had taken Viagra or Cialis Sunday morning.

  “No,” Nancy replied.

  “Would you be surprised if we find it in his system?” Carpentier asked.

  “He told me on Saturday to come up because he was going to take it,” Narcy said, “and I told him that I was busy.”

  “And what about Sunday?” Carpentier asked.

  “I don’t know,” Narcy said. “I don’t count the pills.”

  Carpentier then asked about their unconventional sex life.

  “He played rough,” Narcy said. “We [both] played rough. It’s a thing that we did.”

  Narcy said that they had always used Ben’s Miami Beach Police Department handcuffs for bondage purposes, until he had retired from the Reserves. Now they made do with belts from hotel robes.

  Detective Carpentier then asked if she wanted Murphy to leave so she would be more comfortable talking to another woman about such intimate details. Narcy said yes, so Murphy left them alone.

  Carpentier asked if Ben liked to be in control during sex.

  “Yes,” Narcy replied. “He ties [my knees] or he does it between my boobs. I have implants. And he likes to show me different things to do. Sometimes he likes the vibrator. But not inside him.”

  She said that Ben had recently wanted to experiment with erotic asphyxiation, after seeing a program about it on television. But she’d refused, as it was too dangerous.

  “He’s been asking me … to do the passing-out thing,” she said. “He said it must be fun. We left that alone because … somebody might die.”

  Detective Carpentier then asked how Ben liked to be tied up.

  “He will ask somebody to tie him up to the armpit,” Narcy replied, “because [of] his hair there.”

  Ben also loved to be blindfolded, and Narcy said they have a special chair with restraints in their bedroom at home.

  “He has special blinders,” she explained. “They have little balls. I don’t mean to be sick, but when we do it, it’s fine. I don’t want you to think bad of me.”

  “Listen, I’m in a marriage, too,” Carpentier said, trying to relate to her. “I appreciate that this is difficult for you. I’m not judging you at all.”

  Narcy said Ben loved being tied up and helpless, and became very excited after taking Viagra. She said Ben also tied her up and left her alone for hours while he went into another room to work on his computer.

  Then the detective asked how long before foreplay would Ben take Cialis or Viagra. Narcy said anywhere between forty-five minutes and an hour and a half.

  Carpentier then questioned whether Ben might have invited someone else into the room for bondage sex.

  “Ben was not doing anything,” Narcy snapped. “He’s married.”

  “Narcy, don’t you think it’s odd,” Carpentier reasoned, “that he dies in a position that he finds sexually arousing? So that’s why we’re asking you about the sex part of it.”

  “But he doesn’t like anybody hitting him,” she said.

  “But isn’t it odd,” the detective repeated, “that he dies in the same manner as he gets pleasure in life? It’s a little ironic?”

  Then Detective Carpentier asked Narcy if she had any involvement in her husband’s death.

  “No,” Narcy replied resolutely.

  “Narcy, would you take a lie detector test on that?” the detective asked.

  “I will,” she replied. “I will take a hundred lie detectors. I do wha
tever you want me to do.”

  * * *

  Investigator Murphy then came back in the room and offered Narcy a glass of water, which she refused. Carpentier stepped out, and the seasoned investigator Murphy remained. He now concentrated on Narcy’s exact movements before leaving the suite to go to breakfast. As he tried to pin her down, Narcy became increasingly dramatic.

  “I want to die,” she declared. “So if by any chance you think I’m a suspect or something, let’s kind of clear the path. I’m very fragile. I’m afraid my husband is not around to protect me. I don’t know who to trust. Let’s be a little bit compassionate.”

  She then accused the two detectives of playing “good cop/bad cop” with her.

  “We’re wasting time. I’m hurting” she told Murphy. “All I want to do is kill myself and forget about the whole thing. Nothing is bringing my husband back.”

  Over the next four hours, one by one, the detectives took turns trying to break Narcy, without any success. The marathon interview went into many areas.

  Narcy discussed Ben’s affairs, their marital problems, his relationship with his mother, and his obsession with Batman, which she’d never understood. She even talked about Ben’s childhood at the Fontainebleau hotel, which she referred to as “Dirt Castle.”

  “He was like a child in a lot of ways,” she told detectives, “because he was naïve. He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He didn’t have friends to play with because he was raised in a hotel. He was born in a hotel.”

  She said that Ben had had a miserable childhood at the Fontainebleau, having to deal with his father’s business and growing up around entertainers. “A lot of misbehaving and all kinds of stuff,” she said. “He was exposed to a lot of things, and the parents did not see anything wrong with that because that was their lifestyle.”

  Narcy claimed that mental illness ran on the maternal side of Ben’s family, and he had received psychological counseling for his amputee fetish. “He has a disease,” she told the detectives. “His grandmother was committed, his mother was on medication and always to the psychologists. When my husband was little he started [going to] a psychologist, medication and the whole thing. He stuttered.”

  Calling Bernice Novack “this old biddy,” she said their relationship had been difficult at the beginning, but they had eventually become very close.