Murder in Greenwich Village by Lee Harris Page A

Defino pushed away from the typewriter. The parole officer’s name was Alan Williams, and his office was on Thirty-first Street between Sixth and Seventh. Williams was black and had the tired look of a man who had come to realize that even the best he could give would not only not change the world, it wouldn’t change one small actor in it.
    â€œSit down, Detectives,” he said after shaking hands. “I take it you’ve been to the shoe store Sal has been working in.”
    â€œProbably not working,” Jane said. “We talked to the owner.”
    Williams raised his eyebrows. “He quit?” He pulled over a file and opened the folder, shaking his head. “I went over there a few weeks ago”—he looked at something in the folder—“maybe a month ago. He was still working there. And last time I saw him here he said he was still selling shoes.”
    â€œHe hasn’t been there for a month. Right now he’s supposed to be on vacation in the Catskills with his girlfriend.”
    â€œFranklin?”
    â€œYeah,” Defino said.
    â€œSome women just don’t get it. He brought her in once to show me what a nice woman he’s hooked up with. Even that day you could see a little green and purple on her face where a bruise hadn’t finished healing. She must be a glutton for punishment. Here’s this guy never did a nice thing for anybody in his life and this good-looking woman with a good job lets him live with her. Probably gives him money when he needs it, too.”
    â€œYou know how long they’ve been together?” Jane asked.
    â€œMore than five years that I know of. I would guess longer.”
    â€œWe’re looking into the murder of Micah Anthony,” Defino said.
    â€œThe big moment in Sal’s life. And he got away with it. He’s done time for lesser crimes but nothing I know about recently. We don’t talk about the Anthony killing.”
    â€œHis apartment is a couple of blocks from where they found Anthony’s body,” Jane said.
    Williams’s eyebrows went up. He rummaged through the file. “He listed his mother’s apartment as his address till a couple of years ago. He must have changed it when she died. He could even have been living there on and off. I don’t think the Franklin woman can take him as a steady diet, not that his mother could.”
    â€œShe’s not in the Anthony file at all. The only addresses for him are the place on West Fifty-second where the three of them were picked up and another address in Brooklyn.”
    â€œThat’s his mother.”
    â€œSo he could have kept Franklin a secret for ten years,” Defino said. “Maybe they were driving Anthony to her apartment and he broke out of the car on Waverly Place, and they shot him so they wouldn’t lose him.”
    Jane nodded. “Or they’d already talked to him in her apartment and they were on their way somewhere else. Either way, the location makes sense if Manelli was involved with Franklin at the time.”
    â€œI’d bet on it,” Williams said. “There could have been other girlfriends, but she’s been in his life awhile. She’s the one who always takes him back. Like I said, she’s a glutton for punishment.”
    They talked another few minutes and then left.
    â€œHe learned more from us than we got from him,” Defino said when they hit the street. “I bet Sal’s gonna miss his next appointment while he thinks up a good story about why he’s not working.”
    â€œMaybe he’ll duck out on her and find another girlfriend to sponge off. Williams is right: They never learn. Think that old guy across the hall from Franklin would remember a night ten years ago when there could’ve been a lot of noise?”
    â€œFrankly, no. He said he always heard screaming from the apartment. What would’ve been different that