Chasing Manhattan

by John Gray

  Gavin shot Nick a look, and said, “I’m sorry. I know this seems nuts. I swear I do, Nick. But please just do as she asks.”

  Nick could tell something was happening that he didn’t understand, but he had lived long enough to know what it looked like when someone was scared, and there was no question, what he saw in Chase’s eyes was fear. This young woman who had moved into his old friend’s house was on edge about something this morning, so he let out a sigh, got down onto his back, and disappeared once again under Gavin’s truck, as ordered.

  By lunchtime not only had Chase heard from Nick, twice now, that Gavin’s truck was safe, but also her phone had rung a half dozen times, and every person she alarmed with her early morning call was happy to report that the brakes on their vehicles were all fine as well. Matthew called, asking if Chase needed a ride into the city, but she told him that she and Gavin had plans to visit the nearby village of Sleepy Hollow and Gavin could drive his truck.

  Chase devoured books as a child, and one of her favorite writers, Washington Irving, used to live a stone’s throw from Sleepy Hollow, New York. His legend of the headless horseman was must-reading when Chase was a teen, and she wanted to visit the places Ichabod Crane would have frequented had he been real.

  In Irving’s world the characters and scares were all for fun, and Chase thought that right about now, something make believe sounded good for a woman who just lost another night’s sleep worrying about Scrabble pieces and mysterious messages that even Einstein couldn’t decipher.

  Brake, break, give me a break, she thought. What Chase didn’t know, what she couldn’t know yet, was something frightening was coming, and it was anything but a work of fiction.

  CHAPTER 21

  So Glad You Came

  Two days had passed since the odd incident with the board game. Everyone’s brakes checked out fine, and nothing bad happened on their trip to Sleepy Hollow. The small town was anything but sleepy this time of year; it was all decked out for the upcoming holiday.

  Gavin could see his sweetheart had been on edge for the last 48 hours, worried something bad would happen, so as they sat outside, enjoying a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows on the front steps of the beautiful mansion, he said, “Looks like this time was a false alarm, eh?”

  Chase looked over at the neighbor’s property and saw Charlie riding her horse, Hermione, with her new puppy, Bella, walking right alongside and her tutor, Mary, close by, and replied unconvincingly, “I guess so.”

  After a slight pause she added, more positively now, “Which is fine with me. We’ve had enough excitement, don’t you think?”

  Gavin didn’t answer, knowing that was a rhetorical question.

  “So, what does my handsome boyfriend want to do today?” she asked with a smile.

  Gavin stopped her there and said, “Don’t you remember I promised to help your driver, Matthew, move something today, in the city?”

  Chase bit down on her bottom lip and said, “Oh, rats, that’s right. What time is that?”

  Gavin pulled out his phone and scrolled through the text messages. “I’m meeting him at eleven a.m., but he told me it shouldn’t take more than an hour. After that, I’m all yours.”

  Chase asked, “What are you moving, anyway?”

  “Beats me,” Gavin responded. “All I know is it’s very heavy and he needs a truck to take it a few blocks away.”

  Chase reached over to touch Gavin’s thick, long hair and said, “Want some company?”

  Chase then batted her eyes for dramatic effect, adding, “I ask because my favorite nail salon in the whole wide world is down in Soho. We can go after you help Matthew.”

  Gavin replied, “And what exactly am I doing while you’re getting your nails done?”

  Chase blurted out, “You can get a pedicure!”

  Gavin, right back at her, protested, “Ewwww, I am not letting a stranger touch my feet.”

  Chase again: “Fine, then, you can wait patiently outside to take me to lunch after. Tribeca Grill is only a few blocks from there.”

  Gavin frowned, as he said, “Why am I always the one sitting in the truck?”

  Chase leaned in close now, “Oh, come on, babe, bring me along. I promise that later you’ll look at me and say, ‘I’m so glad you came.’”

  Gavin smiled. “How could I say no to that face? Sure. Let’s go.”

  Chase walked Scooter over to Charlie and asked Mary to sign a question: would she mind watching the pup for a couple of hours as Chase and Gavin went into the city? Bella, the deaf puppy, gave Chase her answer when she jumped up on Scooter’s back and slobbered him with kisses.

  Matthew lived in a section of Manhattan called the meat packing district. It got that moniker from days gone by when this section of the Big Apple housed a number of very busy meat packing plants. Today, there were a few of them left, but it was mostly filled with high-end restaurants, shops, and loft apartments tucked neatly in hundred-year-old brick buildings. Matthew’s was ten stories high and was dwarfed, immediately to its south, by the skyscrapers that were home to Wall Street and the financial district.

  As Gavin pulled in front of Matthew’s place, their eyes drank in all the retail shops located just steps away: jewelry stores, banks, restaurants, a dry-cleaner’s, and a dance studio. And right on the first floor of his building was an accountant you couldn’t miss, ROBERT RAKER CPA.

  The accountant had two signs, one made of wood, painted forest green with raised gold letters that advertised the accountant’s name. It hung from a small pole that jutted out from the building, making it hard to miss for people walking up and down the sidewalk. The other was a large neon sign, with identical lettering, that hung in the front window facing the street. The neon letters were dark because the office was closed, but you could still read the accountant’s name.

  Gavin spied both signs and said jokingly to Chase, “If we need help with our taxes, I’ll bet Matthew can hook us up.”

  Chased dismissed the humor, instead asking, “Why aren’t you parking?”

  The entire street in front of the shops and Matthew’s building was marked “No Parking.”

  Gavin pointed at the bright red and white sign and said, “They don’t mess around with No Parking zones down here. They’ll tow me in a heartbeat.”

  He added, “I don’t see anything close, and since we’ll be carrying something really heavy, I think we’ll have to leave the truck out front. Would you mind putting the flashing lights on and staying with the vehicle? If someone comes along and gives you a hard time, just drive around the block.”

  Chase replied, “Sounds like a plan. You go and I’ll stay with the truck.”

  As Gavin got out and was heading toward the front door, Chase yelled after him, “Don’t hurt yourself lifting anything. Remember, we have plans for later.”

  She winked, causing Gavin to wink back and flash that charming smile of his.

  Chase put the radio on and looked around, noticing several of the businesses were not open yet.

  She watched as the woman in the dry cleaner’s unlocked her front door and flipped the CLOSED sign over to read OPEN. A steady line of people was going in and out of the Starbucks on the corner, and just to her left was an older gentleman, well dressed, sitting in a small chair in front of his jewelry store. This busy street reminded Chase a lot of her old neighborhood in Manhattan, Lenox Hill, offering so many options for spending your money.

  Gavin went into the building and found a quaint lobby, with white marble floors and dark wood walls. A large grandfather clock stood watch in the corner, keeping the time. On the wall to Gavin’s left was a row of brass mailboxes, each with tiny windows allowing a tenant to peek inside. It was typical of New York City, seeing a random building with such unexpected details hiding inside. It’s what made these old buildings so great, he thought.

  To Gavin’s right were two elevators. One was the normal kind you’d find in any building in America, perfect for shuttling people up and
down. Farther down the lobby wall was a freight elevator, a large metal contraption that looked more like a torture device than a mode of transportation. It had a steel door that housed a see-through cage. Inside this ancient contraption there were no buttons. Instead, it had a lever that you’d crank left or right, indicating which floor you need to travel too.

  Gavin had never seen an elevator like this, outside of those old black and white movies his father was fond of watching on Turner Classic. Before heading up, he noticed something else too. Taped to the front of the freight elevator was a piece of cardboard with three large words printed in magic marker: DO NOT USE.

  Gavin took the advice and rode the modern elevator up to the top floor, where Matthew was already waiting by his open front door.

  “What’s up, amigo?” Gavin offered, as a friendly hello.

  Matthew shook his hand and replied, “Thanks for helping me out. I can’t move this thing by myself.”

  The two walked into the spacious apartment, and there, in the center of one room, was the item that needed transport.

  “What the heck is that?” Gavin inquired.

  Matthew was used to the question, answering, “It’s a late-nineteenth-century authentic butcher block.”

  What Gavin was looking at was a large square piece of wood that was two feet deep and four feet in length and width. It was solid as a rock.

  Gavin was intrigued, saying, “So this is an original butcher block from more than a hundred years ago. Cool.”

  Matthew agreed, “Yes, cool and heavy. A normal butcher block is about 250 pounds. This one is double that weight. The steel rack that holds it is more than a hundred pounds just by itself.”

  Gavin squatted down, looking at the butcher block from below, then asked, “So where’s it going?”

  Matthew responded, “There’s huge meat facility a few blocks from here. They sell choice cuts to most of the high-end restaurants in the city. I know the owner and asked if he wanted it, to display in his lobby.”

  Gavin nodded. “Makes sense. So, you need me to help you get it downstairs and into the truck.”

  “Exactly,” Matthew replied. “It’s tricky to move, but if we both put our legs into it, I think we can get it onto this dolly and wheel it into the elevator.”

  It took three attempts for the men to lift the heavy block of wood and rack, slamming it onto the dolly. It made such a loud thud that Gavin was certain it might buckle the wheels and render the device unable to roll. They then leaned hard into the handles to get the dolly moving, and slowly made their way to the outer hall.

  Just as Gavin saw in the lobby, there were two elevators to choose from; the modern elevator that carried people and the freight elevator collecting cobwebs. Again, just as he saw downstairs, a white piece of paper was taped to the door with the words DO NOT USE.

  Matthew had never used the freight elevator and couldn’t recall the last time he even saw it moving, although he was certain the maintenance man did operate it from time to time. He pushed the button on the regular elevator and waited patiently with Gavin.

  “You a Giants fan?” Matthew asked, trying to fill the silence.

  “Um, no, Patriots. Being from Vermont we tend to follow the Boston teams,” Gavin replied with a smile.

  More silence, then Matthew said, “I can’t thank you enough for doing this, Gavin.”

  “No problem, Matthew,” Gavin responded, “Happy to help.”

  The elevator made a ding, and although the doors were closed, both men could hear laughter from within. When the doors opened there were a half-dozen college kids on board, and one of them, wearing a baseball cap backwards, looked at Gavin and Matthew and said, “This isn’t the lobby.”

  Both men could see the butcher block wouldn’t fit in the elevator with this crowd, so they stood motionless as the elevator doors slowly closed. The two gave each other a look that said kids, and both let out a sigh knowing it was going to take a while for that car to stop at each floor on the way back down and then find its way back up.

  “I’ve waited ten minutes for an elevator in the past,” Matthew explained, “It’s the only thing that stinks about living on the tenth floor. I usually use the stairs.”

  Gavin tapped the butcher block with his hand, and said, “Yeah, I don’t think that’s an option.”

  Matthew laughed and replied, “Ha, no way.”

  Gavin pointed to the freight elevator and asked, “Does that work? I mean, I think this the kind of thing a freight elevator was meant for, right?”

  Matthew couldn’t argue with the logic and responded, “I think it does. I know there are signs all over telling tenants not to use it, but I think that’s so the maintenance guy can get where he needs to go.”

  Gavin thought a moment and said, “There’s an easy way to find out. If it’s out of service, they’d cut power, right?”

  Matthew walked over to the freight elevator and pushed the button on the wall just to see what would happen. Without hesitation, the air was filled with the sounds of the metal machine coming to life.

  “See, it does work!” Gavin said happily.

  Downstairs, still parked in front of a sign that said NO PARKING, Chase sat patiently with her lights flashing. She watched customers go in and out of various shops, as the late morning sun was just starting to creep over the building tops and warm the busy street. Up ahead she saw a policeman approaching on foot, and Chase said out loud, “Oh crap.”

  The fifty-something man in the NYPD blue uniform found his way to Chase’s truck, looked at the plate, then smiled warmly and waved hello through the windshield.

  Chase knew what was coming next, so she rolled down the window and offered her explanation: “My boyfriend is helping a man upstairs move something super-duper heavy. That’s why I’m parked here. If you need me to move it …”

  The cop shook his head and said, “No worries. If there was an emergency you’re right there behind the wheel, so you’re fine. You don’t plan to be here all day, right?”

  Chase replied, “God no. They should be out any second.”

  With that the officer moved on, giving her another friendly wave.

  The streets were bone dry on 9th Avenue in lower Manhattan, something that was not the case a few days earlier when that minor snowstorm blew through. Chase remembered Matthew telling them about the snow on the roof melting and causing flooding in his building. What Chase, Gavin, and Matthew himself didn’t know, was that for years water had been leaking into this old building and causing damage that no one could see.

  Back upstairs the freight elevator finally arrived on the tenth floor, the steel door creaking open with a painful groan that reminded them of an old man trying to get out of a chair. Gavin and Matthew shifted their weight for better leverage and slowly pushed the butcher block into the center of the freight elevator. The exertion left both men wiping sweat from their brows and breathing heavily.

  Before the elevator door shut, Matthew asked, “Hey, we still have a lot of lifting ahead of us. Do you want a bottle of water?”

  Gavin nodded, “Yeah, that would be good.”

  The two men stepped out of the elevator car, Gavin standing in the hallway now, as Matthew ran back to his apartment to grab them both drinks.

  Downstairs, Chase waited and watched and noticed an older gentleman in a nice suit making his way to the front door of Matthew’s building. Just to the right of the main door was a separate door that led to the accountant’s office, and the man was fiddling to get his key in the lock.

  Chase looked up at his unlit sign and read it out loud: “Robert Raker CPA. You must be Robert. Can I call you Bob? Ya wanna check my deductions, Bob?”

  With the windows of Gavin’s truck rolled up, the man couldn’t hear her joking, of course, but Chase had to do something to amuse herself.

  She wasn’t trying to be nosey, but through the CPA’s large front window she could see the man toss his bag down on a desk and start turning on lights to begin his lo
ng day of crunching other people’s numbers. What a boring job, she thought. Chase didn’t know it, but her boredom was about to end.

  Upstairs, Matthew returned with the bottle of Poland Spring water, handing it to Gavin, who then made a distressed face and said, “Don’t kill me, but I think I have to use the bathroom really quick. Do you mind?”

  Matthew had just locked up but tossed Gavin the keys and said, ‘No problem. It’s the first door on the left after the living room. Just do me a favor and lock it again when you leave.”

  Gavin went back into the apartment to take care of his business, while Matthew stepped just inside the open freight elevator, leaning on the large wooden block and drinking his water.

  Downstairs, Chase was still watching the accountant set up shop for the day, and after finally getting situated in his seat, she saw him smack his forehead with an open palm. It was the kind of thing a person does when they realize they’ve forgotten something. The man then got up and walked toward the front window and reached for a small silver chain that was dangling there. He gave it a hard pull and the neon light advertising his business came to life.

  Only it didn’t, not even close. Chase saw, as is often the case with old neon signs, the bulbs in many letters had burned out and didn’t light at all. So instead of ROBERT RAKER CPA, blinking on and off in bright red, Chase saw the O,E,R,T were missing in his first name, the R,A,R stayed dark in his last and the CPA had just the A lit up. His name was easy enough to read when the sign was off, but when it blinked on, the letters looked like gibberish.

  A loud bang pulled Chase’s attention to her left, where she saw a delivery man had slammed his truck’s back door a bit too forcefully, startling Chase. Why so jumpy? Everything is fine, she thought.

  Chase looked around some more and saw two men sitting on a front stoop laughing. Across the street, a young mother was pushing her newborn in a pearl-white baby carriage. There was more foot traffic in and out of Starbucks.

  But as she occupied her mind with these random strangers, there was suddenly a sour feeling in her stomach, telling Chase something was wrong. She had an instant sense of dread, but no clue why. Everything was perfect on this beautiful December morning in lower Manhattan, except it wasn’t.