Page 3 of Two Marlboros

Had there just been a robbery at the post office?

I tried to move a step towards the entrance, but I couldn’t. I stood there dumbfounded in front of the stained-glass window, my pulse becoming more and more pounding, my hands beginning to sweat, with the memory of those two green eyes that had been watching me for only a moment.

At that instant, another chill froze me. Would that person remember me? What if he decided to shut me up? No, this was no time to ask questions. I just had to pick up the phone and call the police.

I slipped a hand into my pocket, but the phone slipped from my sweaty fingers; I raked through the pocket again, fumbled, until I pulled it out with a firm grip. I unlocked the phone and brought my fingers to the keypad.

911.

Just the idea of pressing those digits put a terrifying anxiety on me, because it made everything extremely real. That became a robbery, those hooded fellows were really thieves, and someone in there could have been hurt; the last thought roused my consciousness and I pressed the digits with rapidity.

The free signal interrupted earlier than expected and caught me unprepared.

“New York, 911, what is the emergency?”

I stammered out the first information that came to mind. “I’m on Lexington Avenue, in front of the post office and...”

Shouts from inside startled me; I ran away in a flash and ducked behind a car parked in the front. The voice on the other side urged me on.

“What’s going on?”

“There has been a robbery, you must come!”

My voice was shaking as never before. I ended the call, and only then did I realize that other people were holding their cell phones, just as I was. I breathed a sigh of relief: I had done the right thing.

After a few minutes a group of NYPD squad cars made their arrival, followed by a couple of ambulances. The cops got out of their cars and began to cordon off the perimeter of the affected area, shooing away onlookers and regrouping witnesses, while paramedics made sure there were no injuries.

I eyed the officers closest to me and moved toward them. They were in pairs, two men, quite young. One had a serious look on his face, and I did not see a single smile come out of him, while the other seemed more friendly and tried to put the rather distraught postal worker at ease, reassuring her with pats on the back and perhaps a few words of comfort.

I watched them and hoped my gaze would be enough to make it clear that, hey, I’d have liked to make a statement, but the two of them kept focusing on the attendant and didn’t give me any attention. So, I walked toward them until I was close enough to hear what they were saying to each other.

When I came face to face with the two officers I was amazed, because those two greenhorns must have been barely twenty-five years old. Were they really police officers?

At any rate, the tenebrous man sighed and held out his hand to me.

“Alan Scottfield,” he only said to me, looking annoyed. It seemed that shaking my hand and introducing himself was an obnoxious formality to be rid of as soon as possible, so much so that he looked me in the eye just long enough for the shake. As I had imagined, however, the other was much friendlier and introduced himself as Ashton Stoner.

“And you would be...?”

“Nathan Hayworth.”

It was Scottfield who asked me a few questions after I had left him my personal details.

“Were you here? Did you see anything?”

He looked up just to utter that sentence, after which he did not give me a glance, even as I stood in silence.

“I was on my way to the post office to pick up a package, but when I tried to open the door, one of the two robbers came at me. Immediately they ran away, and it was at that moment that I called you.”

The officer finished writing down what I had said, after which he weighed my words, as if looking for a clue.

“You don’t remember anything else? Did you hear any noises?”

I shook my head. Maybe I remembered something, yes, but at that moment my head was completely clouded.

A light bulb went on in me. “A shot. I heard a gunshot.”

“Are you sure?”

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