The Prince of Paradise (19 page)

T
WENTY-
S
EVEN

“UNUSUAL SEXUAL GAMES”

On Tuesday morning, Ben Novack Jr.
arrived at Fort Lauderdale Police headquarters to make a taped statement under oath.
Since Detective Steve Palazzo’s visit the day before, Ben had called and texted him dozens of times, for updates on the investigation.

He was taken to an interview room, where he repeated that Narcy had orchestrated the home invasion.
He even brought along a surgical eye patch that he said had been used to blindfold him.
There had been further calls from Narcy, he told Palazzo, and he was now negotiating with her to return his money and business documents.

After Novack made his statement and left, Detective Palazzo and Sergeant French discussed how to proceed with the investigation.
They decided to call Narcy’s cell phone there and then and record the call.
She answered, agreeing to come to the police station for an interview.

“She told me that she was anxious to tell her side of the story,” said Palazzo, “[and] agreed to be at the police station the following morning.”

*   *   *

At 7:30
A.M
.
on Wednesday, Ben Novack Jr.
called in Pat Franklin for help.
The retired Miami Beach detective, who now ran his own private investigation company, had once worked security details at the Fontainebleau, where he had first met Novack as a teenager.

“So I said to Ben,” Franklin recalled, “‘to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?’
And he began to tell me a very bizarre tale.”

Initially, Franklin thought it was a joke, as Ben spoke in whispers, as if scared someone might be listening.
But Franklin soon realized Novack was deadly serious.

“He told me that the police in Fort Lauderdale were not doing their job,” said Franklin in 2011.
“That he didn’t think that they believed him and were not acting quickly enough for his liking.”

During their conversation, Narcy Novack called her husband’s cell phone, and he held it up to his landline so the private investigator could listen in.
Franklin then overheard Narcy admitting to being involved in the home invasion.

After hanging up with Franklin, Ben Novack Jr.
called Detective Palazzo, informing him that he had now hired a private investigator.
He said Pat Franklin intended to follow Narcy after she left the police station later that morning, and get his property back.
He also invited the detective to call Franklin, saying he had proof Narcy was involved in the attack.

“I called Franklin,” Palazzo later noted.
“He advised me that he had in fact heard Narcy Novack talking about details of the incident.”

The private investigator said that he had met Narcy several times in the past, and recognized her distinctive accent.
He then asked Palazzo if he had any problems with his taking the case and putting Narcy under surveillance.

“[Palazzo] inferred that he had problems with [Ben’s] story,” said Franklin, “but if I found out anything I should give him a call.”

After hanging up, Pat Franklin called his new client and negotiated a $3,000 retainer to take the case.
Novack told him to come straight over to his house.

When he arrived, the front door was ajar, so he let himself in, calling out that he was there.

“Ben came walking downstairs,” the private investigator recalled, “and he definitely was shook up.
He looked as if he was beaten about the face.
He had abrasions and a swollen eye and had clearly been beaten or manhandled.
He had ligature marks on his wrists.”

Novack brought him into the living room, which was full of Coca-Cola memorabilia, including a large old Coke machine.
They sat on the couch and Franklin asked Novack to tell him what had happened from the beginning.

“He told me two stories about Narcy,” Franklin said.
“I don’t know which one’s the truth to this day.”

In his first version of the incident, Novack said he and Narcy were with another woman for a bondage threesome.
“They were going to have sex together,” said Franklin.
“They were going to tie him up in a chair at the foot of the bed, and Narcy and the woman were going to have sex.”

He said they had tied him to the chair and blindfolded him when some men suddenly burst into the bedroom, hitting him in the face.

“He wasn’t sure where Narcy was in all this,” Franklin said.
“And I said, ‘Well, did you hear her voice?’
and he goes, ‘Yeah, I’m not sure what she was saying.
It was very confusing.
There was a guy and different voices.’”

Novack said he thought there were six men there, and had no idea what had happened to the other woman.

Pat Franklin then asked Ben to take him upstairs and walk him through the chain of events.
Once inside the bedroom, Franklin observed foursquare impressions in the shag carpet at the foot of the unmade bed, impressions that matched the feet of an orange reclining chair.

At the foot of the bed were identical nightstands, with the door of the right one open.
Franklin asked where his gun was, and Novack replied that his attackers had taken it.
Franklin’s follow-up question was from where, and Novack pointed to the nightstand with the open door.

“I said, ‘Ben, you’ve got two identical nightstands on either side of the bed,’” said Franklin, “‘How do they know to go to that one?’”

When he said Narcy had told them, the private investigator became suspicious.

“I said, ‘Why don’t we start over and why don’t you really tell me what happened.”

In his second story, Ben Novack Jr.
recounted the original version he had told police.

“He was asleep,” Franklin said, “and that two men jumped on the bed, covered him with the sheet and pillows and began pounding the shit out of him.
He screamed and reached for the gun, at which point Narcy said, ‘He’s got a gun!’”

The assailants then threw him in the chair and tied him up.

“He said that Narcy was on the phone during this with someone named Lou,” Franklin said.
“And he knows of a Lou that just got out of prison, who Narcy had dated when she was dancing as a stripper in Hialeah.”

Novack told the investigator he thought Lou was still watching the house, and was in touch with Narcy.

Franklin asked Novack what he wanted him to do.
Novack replied that he wanted Narcy and his money back, and was prepared to drop the criminal prosecution in return.

“I said, ‘Ben, you know this is pretty dangerous shit,’” Franklin said.
“‘She just sent you a home invasion robbery with a [guy] she used to date that just got out of prison.’
He goes, ‘I want her back.’”

Novack then gave the investigator Narcy’s cell phone number, and Franklin called and left a message.

“I said, ‘Narcy, this is Pat Franklin.
I understand that you’ve had some trouble with Ben, and I want to talk to you before we move forward.
I think that there may be a way to resolve this matter without pursuing formal charges.’”

*   *   *

That afternoon, at 1:35 as arranged, Narcy Novack arrived at police headquarters in her Mercedes, carrying several large bags and boxes.
As Detective Palazzo brought her into an interview room, she explained that these were items she had taken from the house.

Then, before the detective could say anything, she opened up a large brown accordion file and emptied the contents out onto the table in front of him.

“She began by showing me a large number of photographs of naked and partially clothed women,” Palazzo later reported.
“She showed me several magazine pages of women with artificial limbs … and photos of women with artificial limbs posing nude or partially nude.”

Narcy then started telling Palazzo, in explicit detail, about her husband’s strange sexual desires.
“She insisted that he was into many different and unusual sexual games,” wrote Palazzo.
“They are both into bondage and most of their sexual relations involve handcuffing each other to the reclining chair in the master bedroom.”

Narcy Novack said their relationship had always been violent.

“She said that he has often battered her,” Palazzo noted.
“On one occasion several years ago, she received a broken nose after Ben hit her.
He later took her to a plastic surgeon.
She was put to sleep by the doctor and insisted that when she woke up, she not only had a nose repair, but also breast implant surgery.
While she contends that this was done against her will, she never made a complaint to anyone.”

It was some time before Narcy allowed the detective to speak.
He then told her that their interview would be taped, and he began reading her Miranda rights.

When he turned on the tape recorder, Narcy announced she needed medical attention, explaining she had come straight from a doctor, who was treating her for allergies.

“She said she was not feeling well,” Palazzo wrote.
“That she was supposed to wait for one hour before leaving, to allow the medicine to take effect.”

Detective Palazzo offered to put the interview on hold until she was feeling better, but Narcy wanted to continue.

“She denied ever tying Ben to the chair,” reported Palazzo, “and said he was only handcuffed on one hand.
She denied that he was ever attacked in the bed and said that he got into the chair willingly to have a sexual encounter.”

Narcy then claimed that on Sunday morning Ben had been working in his office next door when a moving van arrived at their residence.
He had later come home to discover she was moving out.
She refused to identify who was helping her move, saying she had sent them away when Ben came back, to avoid an argument.

“She told me that she and Ben talked for several hours,” Palazzo reported, “eventually decided to have sex.
She got in the chair and Ben handcuffed her and performed sexual acts on her.

“She said that Ben then got in the chair and once she handcuffed him, she decided that she would leave him there while she continued to remove her belongings.”

Narcy told the detective that her husband had been unable to get out of the chair to summon help, as it was too heavy for him to move.
She denied that he had been blindfolded or bound to the chair at any time.
When Palazzo asked about the portable urinal found in the master bedroom, Narcy explained that they both used it while watching television, or in the middle of the night.
She explained that Ben likes the portable urinal, so he doesn’t have to get out of bed and wake his cat.

The detective then asked her about removing all her husband’s business files.
Unfazed, Narcy replied that she had taken them only to find certain photographs and documents she could later use as ammunition in a divorce.
She said that she had already agreed to return them.

“When asked about taking the money … from the safe,” Palazzo wrote, “she told me that it was equally her money.”

Narcy also insisted that she had taken only $5,000, and not the $440,000 her husband was claiming.

“Throughout the statement,” Palazzo wrote later, “I did not confront her with any inconsistencies or untruths.
I allowed her to provide whatever explanation she chose.”

Narcy told the detective that there had been ongoing problems in the marriage for the last seventeen years.

“It is a sick vicious circle,” she declared.
“I have left him twenty times, or forty times, or fifty times.
He has … gotten me back.
He goes to my sister … he goes to my brother … we kiss and make up.
It’s a vicious circle that I need to break it.”

After turning off the tape recorder, Detective Palazzo left the interview room to brief his superior, Detective Jack DiCristofalo on Narcy’s version, telling him it was riddled with inconsistencies.

“[Narcy] was unbelievable,” Detective Palazzo said.
“I’d never met anybody like her.
She was obviously lying, but her arrogance was what struck me the most.
Just very, very bizarre.”

The two detectives then agreed to go back and confront her with the discrepancies between hers and her husband’s versions of what had happened.
When they did so, Narcy changed her story, saying that she had planned it all several days earlier.
In preparation, she told the detectives, she had rented a U-Haul truck and a car, in case she could not use her own.

“She admitted that several things she told me were untrue,” Palazzo noted in his report.
“That she lied because she was afraid that Ben Novack would hurt her.”

Although Narcy now admitted to tying Ben up with a rope, she insisted that the incident had begun on Sunday morning while her husband was working in his office.
She told the detectives that she had also threatened to cut off her husband’s penis and throw it in the canal, but would never have done this, as she was “not that nasty.”