The Prince of Paradise (32 page)

In her autopsy report, Dr.
Ashar listed the cause of death as “Blunt and sharp injuries of body with fractures of skull and ribs, contusions of brain and lungs; hemorrhages; aspiration of gastric contents; found bound and gagged.
Homicide.”

*   *   *

Back at the Rye Brook Hilton, Westchester County District Attorney’s Office investigators Michael LaRotonda and Art Muhammad had learned that $105,515 in cash from the Amway convention was in the hotel front desk safe.
Under the present circumstances, the hotel management was “uneasy” having such a large sum of money there, and wanted it removed as soon as possible.

Narcy Novack offered to take the cash back to Fort Lauderdale, but the detectives suggested she deposit it in a local bank instead, for security purposes.
At 10:30
A.M.
they drove her to a nearby Wachovia Bank, where she had a joint account with Ben, and the cash was counted and deposited.

At the bank, Investigator LaRotonda observed a teller handing Narcy Novack a pile of money, which she put in her bag.
Later, back at the hotel, the investigator saw Narcy’s bag on a table and looked inside and saw $5,000 in cash.

“It was open,” he later testified.
“I observed currency on its side in thousand-dollar straps.
There were five of them.”

*   *   *

Later that morning, senior investigator Edward Murphy asked Narcy Novack to come to the Westchester County Police Department headquarters in Valhalla to give a full written statement before returning to Florida.

“[She] agreed,” said Murphy, “indicating that she wanted to be as helpful as possible to the law enforcement officials investigating her husband’s death.”

But first, Narcy said she had to take care of some personal errands, including getting a new charger for her cell phone.
Detectives Murphy and Carpentier then drove Narcy and May Abad in an unmarked police car to a nearby Verizon store to buy one.

*   *   *

At 11:30
A.M.
Chief Austin held a press conference at Rye Brook Village Hall.
The tiny hall was packed with local and national TV news crews and reporters.

Standing at a lectern, the youthful police chief said the attack did not appear to be random.
There were no reports of screams from the room, he told reporters, and no valuables were missing.

“We feel the person who did this was not a stranger who anonymously, randomly picked him up,” said Chief Austin, “but had some sort of connection which we haven’t determined yet.
We have no suspects at the moment.”

The chief said there were “visible signs” that Novack had been beaten to death but refused to elaborate on the weapon used.
He said an autopsy was now taking place and he needed to see the results before releasing any further details.

Answering reporters’ questions, Chief Austin said Ben Novack Jr.
and his wife had checked into the Hilton on Thursday night, to work together on the conference.
He refused to name the victim’s wife, warning that security at the hotel had been heightened, and no reporters were being allowed inside.

He said detectives were now busy reviewing hotel surveillance video for any leads and interviewing Amway delegates and anyone who had been staying on the fourth floor on Saturday night.

“We’re hoping people at the hotel may have seen something or heard things,” said the chief.
“We’re trying to put the pieces together.”

A few hours later, Chief Austin gave a telephone interview to
The Miami Herald
, providing one further detail about the murder.

“He was bludgeoned with some sort of blunt instrument,” Austin said.
“We have no suspects at this time.”

*   *   *

On their way to Westchester County Police headquarters, Investigator Murphy told Narcy that he did not expect her to identify Ben’s body, as it was in such bad condition.
But Narcy said she wanted to see her husband one last time.

“She insisted on seeing her husband at the morgue,” Murphy later wrote in his report, “and making the identification.”

Murphy and Detective Alison Carpentier then drove Narcy and May Abad to the medical examiner’s office, arriving at 3:50
P.M.
The two women were led into the morgue, where Ben’s butchered body was laid out on a gurney, a blanket strategically placed across his face, where his eyes had been gouged out.

Unprepared for such horrific injuries to her stepfather, May was physically sick, and had to be taken away.
Her mother just coldly stared at her husband’s body without a hint of emotion.

“Narcy stood at the window with me for fifteen minutes,” said Murphy.
“She was very calm.
She didn’t say much.”

After Narcy officially identified the body, she and May were driven to the Westchester County Police headquarters in Hawthorne, New York, to be formally interviewed.

*   *   *

Just after 5:00
P.M.
Charlie Seraydar called Ben Novack Jr.’s cell phone.
When there was no answer, he called May Abad.

“Narcy and May were at the police station,” Seraydar recalled, “and then May handed her phone to Narcy, who started saying that she had come back to the room and found Ben dead.”

Narcy then got off the phone, saying the police wanted to interview her, and May would explain everything.

“So May gets on the phone with me,” said Seraydar, “and we talk for about fifteen to twenty minutes.
Then she says, ‘I’ve got to go.
The cops want to talk to me.’”

When detectives questioned May Abad, she told a different story from her mother.
She claimed that Narcy had not come down for breakfast until around 7:20
A.M.
, and then had left at around 7:40
A.M.
to go back to the suite.

After making her statement, May texted Charlie Seraydar, asking if her mom and Ben had been fighting.

“And I just sent her a text message back,” said Seraydar, “and I said, ‘Call me.’
And that alerted me that the cops already knew that there was something going on.”

*   *   *

As investigators Ed Murphy and Alison Carpentier prepared to interview Narcy Novack, they had several reasons to suspect she had been involved in her husband’s murder.
The electronic door lock codes for the Woodlands Suite had now been examined and it had been determined that no key cards had been used to enter the room between the time Narcy and Ben entered the suite the previous evening at midnight and when Narcy returned from breakfast at 7:45
A.M.
to discover Ben dead.

Detectives were also skeptical of Narcy’s implausible claim that the arm of the fake Valentino’s sunglasses had come from a pair she had broken.
How could Ben have tried to fix them, they asked, if the remaining parts were missing?

Also, after learning from Narcy about Ben’s fondness for being tied up, investigators wondered if this had played any part in his murder.
It seemed more than just coincidence that his body had been found bound in duct tape, in the exact same bondage position that he so enjoyed for sex.

Additionally, a few hours earlier they had received a tip-off from Florida that Ben Novack Jr.
had been the victim of a 2002 home invasion, and that Narcy was behind it.

*   *   *

At 6:01
P.M.
on Monday, Investigator Edward Murphy and Detective Alison Carpentier turned on a video recorder in a small interview room at Westchester County Police headquarters.
Then Narcy Novack was brought in, without being told that the interview was being recorded.

Over the next eight hours, a team of five detectives would take turns questioning her about her husband’s murder.
Narcy had not eaten since Sunday morning, and over the course of the interview, she refused repeated offers of a slice of pizza, water, or even a visit to the restroom.

The two investigators began by asking what Narcy and Ben’s movements had been since arriving in New York on Thursday night for the Amway conference.

Narcy said the Amway conference had posed “a lot of problems,” after 1,900 people turned up instead of the 1,200 expected.
The detectives sympathized as Narcy explained that it had been double the amount of work for everyone.

Narcy seemed chatty, describing herself as her husband’s “eyes and ears” and his “foody partner.”

“When Ben says, ‘Come,’ I run like a maniac,” she told the investigators.

Slowly they steered the questions around to 6:30 on Sunday morning, when Narcy claimed that Ben had finally come to bed and woken her up.

“He just snuggle a little,” she said, “and he was playing with my hair.”

As soon as he fell asleep, she had gotten up and taken a shower.
Then the phone rang and Ben had answered it and had a brief conversation with Angelica Furano.
He had then ordered Narcy to leave so she wouldn’t be late for breakfast.

“And he start barking at me,” she told the detectives.
“He was rushing me [and] he realized that I was leaving without giving him a kiss, and we don’t do that.
He said, ‘Come on, give me a besito.’
So I went back.
I kiss him and I left.”

Narcy had then wheeled her suitcase, containing her computer and makeup, along the corridor to the banquet hall, where a large crowd had gathered for breakfast.

“The line is humungous,” she said.

A few minutes later, after her daughter, May, and Matt Briggs had come down, the caterers ran out of china and silverware.

“When I find out it was plastics and disposables,” Narcy said, “I knew right away that I had to get hold of Ben.
Ben doesn’t like surprises.”

She had tried to call his cell phone but there had been no answer, so she had gone back to their suite to tell him.

“And I said, ‘Novack,’ you’re not going to like this,” Narcy told investigators.
“And I usually called him ‘Novack’ when we … have a problem.
He didn’t answer, so I thought he was asleep.”

After using the bathroom in the parlor, she went into the bedroom.

“And that is when all hell broke loose,” she said.
“I walked in … and I trip on something … and I realize that he was on the floor.
It did not look like Ben.
Ben won’t be on the floor.
Something was not right.
When I saw him I started screaming.
And I don’t know if I got on the phone.
I was screaming on the phone … and then I run outside the hallway, through the bedroom door.
I was screaming and knocking on every door.”

She said a couple had then come to her assistance and followed her back to the suite.

“I was holding Ben and rubbing his leg,” Narcy said.

“Holding him where?”
Detective Carpentier asked.
“Show me?”

“From his underwear and his butt,” she replied.
“I was just rubbing his leg and holding his butt and trying to move him.
Somebody grabbed me.
They were trying to get me away.
I was hysterical.”

When Investigator Murphy asked if she had seen Ben’s face, Narcy was evasive.

“He’s very hairy,” she said, “so I knew that was him and he was not moving.”

Murphy asked if she had tried to help him and turn him over, as he was facedown on the carpet.

“I have a problem with blood,” Narcy replied.
“If I have a little cut or something.
I cannot see blood.
If they take blood out of my arm I faint.”

“Did you faint?”
Carpentier asked.

“No,” she said.
“I’m afraid of blood.
I don’t know if I passed out at that time.
I blacked out.
Something happened to me.”

After a hotel security guard had sat her on a couch, she said, she tried to grab his gun and commit suicide.

“I just wanted to kill myself,” she explained.
“They were telling me he was gone.
I said I want to be gone too and I want it to be quick.
So I just grabbed his gun and I guess he was quicker than me.”

Detective Carpentier said she felt bad that May had been physically sick after seeing her stepfather’s body in the morgue.
“Nobody should have to see that,” Carpentier said.

“I wanted to see him,” Narcy stated.
“I didn’t go there to see the injuries.
I wanted to see him and I was happy I went to see him.”

“I wish we could have done more,” Carpentier said.
“His condition is bad and they had to try to put the blanket in a way that wouldn’t … really upset you.”