"Um, no, usually I have to buzz for the janitor, but I was just walking up the stairs to the entrance when Sarah, I mean Miss Ryder, came out of the door. I asked her to hold the door; then I noticed she was crying."
"Was there anybody else around?"
Vanders hesitated again but shook his head. "No. I guess the janitor must have been on break or cleaning one of the other offices."
"Okay, so go on…Miss Ryder was crying…"
"Yes," Vanders said. "And her hair was messed up, and her blouse was sort of out of place."
"So what happened next?"
"I asked her if she was okay, and if there was something I could do. At first she wouldn't say anything…just kind of stood there crying. So I asked her again and she said, 'I was just raped by my professor.'
"I asked her who, but she wouldn't say. She seemed sort of disoriented. Like she was on drugs."
"Had you ever met Miss Ryder before?"
Vanders shook his head emphatically. "No. We don't exactly travel in the same social circles." He tried to laugh.
"You've never met her but you can tell that she's disoriented. How do you mean?"
"Well, she was wobbling around a little and just seemed high or something."
"And this stranger confides that she'd just been raped?"
"Yes."
"Did you go call the police?"
"She asked me not to. She said she just wanted to forget about it."
"So why did you come forward later?
"I read an article in the newspaper that Professor Michalik had been arrested for raping a student. I put two and two together and figured that the girl I saw had gone to the cops. I thought it was my civic duty to come forward."
"Your civic duty," Marlene repeated. "Of course. And again, you met her at the front entrance to the building?"
"Yes, the front," Vanders said. He was growing more nervous, alternating putting the cigarette down and picking it up but not always putting it to his lips. "Is that all? I really do have to get back to studying."
"Yes, for the moment," Marlene said, "but could I impose on you to use your bathroom. I had a venti caffe latte at Starbucks and my bladder isn't what it used to be. Then I'll be out of your hair."
Vanders practically leaped to his feet. "Yes, of course." He escorted her to the bathroom.
Marlene noticed that the door to what had to be the bedroom was closed. He saw her glance at it and almost shoved her into the bathroom. "There you go," he said. "Sorry it's a mess."
Once inside, Marlene shut the door. She noticed that the toilet seat was down. Sure sign of a woman in the house, she thought. Someone's training him. Everything else about the room was, as he said, a mess. A tube of toothpaste was open on the counter, its contents oozing out, and the mirror looked as if it hadn't been cleaned since Nixon was in office.
She flushed the toilet to disguise the sound of her opening the medicine cabinet. A quick survey of the contents yielded what she hoped to find. Bingo, roofies, she thought, and opened the pill container. She removed two pills and then replaced the cap and put the bottle back in the cabinet. Running the water down the sink, she closed the cabinet door, and then listened for her cue.
Outside the door of apartment 4A, two men began arguing. Vanders looked out the peephole to see who was yelling, but the men were just out of sight. He banged on his door. "Hey, quiet down out there. I'm trying to study."
The voices got louder. Vanders opened the door and saw a large, horribly filthy man tussling with a smaller man with a long nose, who was swearing with an expertise the likes of which Vanders had never heard before.
" 'Ooh gonna get it 'ow!" the large, filthy man shouted.
"Yeah, you and…motherfucker shit face…what army, crap," the little guy yelled back.
"Hey, you guys get out of here or I'll call the cops," Vanders threatened. "You don't belong in this building. And, oh, God, one of you smells like something crawled up inside of you and died. Get out!"
" 'crew 'ooh," the filthy man said to Vanders.
"Yeah, screw you, cock vagina mouth," his opponent added, before turning and pushing the big man, who roared something unintelligible and swung his fist. The smaller man easily ducked the punch, which carried past and struck Vanders squarely in the nose.
The blow knocked Vanders back into the apartment and to the ground just as Marlene emerged from the bathroom. She ran over and looked out in the hall. The two antagonists were hustling away in the direction of the staircase. They paused at the top and looked back. Booger flashed her the victory sign and then they ran down the stairs and out of sight.
Marlene ducked back inside and knelt next to Vanders, who was crying and trying to stop the blood that poured from his nose. She produced a large white handkerchief from her purse and started to dab at his face. "Oh, my God, are you all right?" she asked.
"My node, I dink dey broke my node," Vanders moaned.
"Lie back until the bleeding stops," Marlene advised. "Shall I call the cops or an ambulance?"
"No, I don't dink dat's necessary. Are dey gone?"
"Yes," Marlene said. "A couple of bums, by the looks of them. They're probably a mile away by now."
Vanders sighed and lay back. Marlene continued to sop up the blood and once "accidentally" gave his nose a poke.
Vanders screamed. "Wad did oo do dat for?" he cried.
"Sorry," she said. "I was just trying to see if your nose was broken. It doesn't look crooked." A minute later, she added, "The bleeding seems to have stopped. You can probably get up now."
Vanders sat up. "Yes, I dink I'm otay. Danks for da handkerchief. Sorry, I dink it's ruined."
Marlene looked at the bloody cloth in her hand and shrugged. "That's okay. I'll just take it home and wash it. I hear vinegar will get blood out." She stood up. "Well, if you're sure you'll be okay, I'll be going."
Vanders stood up and gently felt his nose. "Yes, danks, I dink I'll lie down for a few minutes."
When the annoying Ciampi woman left, Vanders wandered back to his bedroom and opened the door. Sarah Ryder was sitting on the bed with her arms crossed. "What in the hell was going on out there?"
Vanders explained. "How 'bout a kiss to make it bedder?" he said.
Ryder smiled back and tenderly patted his cheek. But instead of a kiss, she grabbed his nose between the knuckles of her fore- and middle finger and twisted as he yelped.
"Fuck, you know I hate kissing smokers," she said. "I might as well lick an ashtray."
"I did what you tol' me," Vanders complained.
"Yes, Ted, you were a good dog, like always. Just keep it that way or I'll really break your beak," she said; then, more to herself, she added, "I wonder what that bitch was up to."
Vanders shrugged. "She's just fishing for any-ting."
Ryder looked at Vanders. What a pathetic weakling, she thought, too bad he's so perfect for my plan. "Yes, you're probably right. Now you just be a good boy and maybe Sarah will give you a doggy-style treat one of these nights… But first you'll have to brush your teeth for an hour and gargle with Listerine. I really can't stand cigarette smoke. In the meantime, I got to go. I need to call my friend Rachel at the DA's office and see if they're ready to press charges against dear professor Michalik."
A few minutes later, Ryder left the apartment and headed down the stairs. She didn't know that a large man in apartment 4B across the hall was watching through the peephole in his door. Milan Svetlov was not quite as immense as his brother, Sergei, but he was just as loyal to their boss, Yvgeny Karchovski, whom he now called on his cell phone.
Yvgeny had rented the apartment after one of his men, who'd been assigned the task of following the Ryder woman, saw her visiting the "witness." Milan had been given the job of watching Vanders's apartment and reporting any unusual activities. A visit by the woman Milan had seen at Alexis Michalik's loft two weeks earlier certainly qualified, especially with the little bit of street theater he'd just watched.