The Prince of Paradise (35 page)

Agent Mullen and his men then searched the building next door, which housed the offices of Convention Concepts Unlimited.
From there they removed five computers, one laptop computer, and an external hard drive.

Everything seized from the property was then flown to the Westchester County District Attorney’s Office for forensic examination.

*   *   *

The next morning, Narcy Novack hired prominent New York criminal attorney Howard E.
Tanner to represent her.
His first action was to request a second independent autopsy on Ben Novack Jr.’s body, still on ice at the Westchester County Medical Examiner’s Office.

Now feeling threatened, Narcy had her eldest brother, Carlos Veliz, move into 2501 Del Mar Place as her bodyguard.
He would remain there for the next year.

“He was basically protecting her,” said Charlie Seraydar, “and she very rarely left the house.”

Seraydar was one of the few people Narcy allowed into the house, and they remained on friendly terms.
On several occasions, he asked her what had happened in the Hilton Rye Town hotel suite.
And Narcy always stuck to the same story she had told detectives.

“And I said, ‘Narcy, now you can understand why people think you’re involved,’” said Seraydar.
“‘It sounds stupid.
It sounds not plausible.’”

*   *   *

On Thursday, July 16,
The Miami Herald
asked the Broward County Medical Examiner for a copy of Bernice Novack’s autopsy report.
But the office refused, saying that the autopsy report—which is usually a public record—had now been “put on hold.”

The following day, a spokeswoman for Broward County medical examiner Joshua Perper claimed that the Fort Lauderdale Police Department had asked that the autopsy report not be released.
“They are going to be reviewing whether to reopen the investigation or not,” the spokeswoman explained.

However, when a
Herald
reporter called the police department for confirmation, she was told there were no plans to take another look at Bernice Novack’s death.

“This is a closed case,” said Fort Lauderdale Police Department spokesman Frank Sousa, “and at this time there are no plans to review it.”

Late Friday afternoon, thirteen hundred miles away in Westchester County, Chief Greg Austin appealed for any information on a pair of Valentino sunglasses that had been found, asking anyone who saw someone wearing them on Sunday morning to come forward.

F
ORTY-
T
WO

THE LETTER

Soon after Ben Novack Jr.’s murder, Meredith Fiel phoned Narcy to offer her condolences on her cousin’s death.

“So I started talking to Narcy,” Meredith recalled.
“I said, ‘Well, what happened?’
and then, oh my God, she befriended me.”
Narcy complained of police harassment, accusing the press of ruining her and Ben Jr.’s good names.
“She talked to me for hours about how they’re accusing her,” Meredith said, “and they’re besmirching her name.”

Then Narcy invited Meredith to Florida, offering to give her some of her late aunt Bernice’s things to remember her by.

When Meredith said she was scared of flying, Narcy said her brother Carlos could drive her down to Fort Lauderdale, as he was coming to take care of her.
“She was talking about him being her bodyguard,” Meredith said.
“And that she was afraid.”

Over the next year, the two women talked on the phone regularly, as Meredith tried to gather enough evidence against Narcy to reopen the investigation into her aunt’s death.

“I was suspicious of Narcy,” Meredith said, “The police never even [interviewed] me about her.
So I was trying to get information from her all on my own.”

Several times, Meredith asked Narcy about the morning of her cousin’s murder.
Narcy told her a different version of events from the one she’d told investigators—and Meredith found her very persuasive.

Narcy said that Ben was still up working that Sunday morning when she finally went to bed at around 5:00.
Two hours later she got up and went down for breakfast.
The hotel manager told her they had run out of silverware because of the bigger-than-expected turnout, and they would have to use plastic knives and forks.
Narcy said she knew how Ben despised plastic cutlery.

“Her story was that she called him to say they had to go to plastic,” Fiel said, “and when he didn’t pick up the phone, she got a little angry.
She thought that he must have gone to bed and went up to tell him about the plastic and found him [dead].
So when she told me that story, I believed it.”

Narcy also reached out to Bernice’s best friend, Estelle Fernandez, telling her a similar story with slight variations.

“Narcy called me,” Fernandez said, “and kept me on the phone for two hours, feeling me out.
I knew what she was doing, but I wouldn’t let on.”

Narcy said she and Ben were asleep in bed when he had woken her up, telling her to go and do the convention breakfast.
“So she went downstairs,” Fernandez said, “and there was a problem with the silverware, because they’d overbooked.
So she called him and he said, ‘Okay, I’ll be down in a little bit.’

“When he didn’t come down, she called again, and he didn’t answer.
So she left May in charge and went back upstairs, and that’s when she found him.
That’s what she told me.”

At the end of the conversation, Estelle asked Narcy what she planned to do, as Narcy was now rich and no longer had to work.
Narcy replied that she had no intention of winding up the business, and was already booking new conventions.

*   *   *

On Tuesday, July 21, the Miami Springs Police Department received an anonymous letter containing details only the police knew about Ben Novack Jr.’s murder and his mother’s death.
Dated July 21, the five-page letter, handwritten in Spanish, accused Narcy and her brother Cristobal of masterminding a murderous plot to gain control of the Novack family fortune.
It also warned that Narcy’s daughter, May Abad, would be the next victim.

“I am a person who had heard rumors,” it began, “but true without a doubt.
I write out of respect for God and the precious life of human beings.
[These murders] were undoubtedly committed by the wife of Mr.
Novack and her brother.

“Together they killed … his mother Mrs.
Bernice Novack in the most ruthless way [with] an overdose of medication to make her mad or extremely nervous.
That night they went to her house.
The daughter-in-law had keys to the house and had taken the cellular phone.
They beat her up so bad that she could not call her son Ben.
The killers assassinated the defenseless [old woman] that they had pursued for months.
For weeks they had scared her through the windows and doors.”

The letter writer knew that Bernice Novack had fallen a week before her death, and had been treated in hospital.

“That’s what made the murderers’ crime so perfect,” the anonymous correspondent wrote, adding that the killer had laughed at Fort Lauderdale Police for failing to realize Bernice Novack had been murdered.

The letter warned that Narcy and her brother would stop at nothing to get their hands on the Novack millions.

“This woman is related to other crimes,” the letter stated.
“She is also highly dangerous, ruthless and ambitious for Mr.
Ben Novack’s money.
This woman should not be at liberty at home.
Her daughter is innocent and could be the next victim.
Protect her.”

After receiving the letter, the Miami Springs Police sent it to Rye Brook Police, who took it very seriously.
They processed it for DNA and fingerprints, but were unable to identify the writer.

“We believe that it’s probably [written by] a religious person,” Detective Sergeant Terence Wilson said.
“Maybe an older person, possibly a Spanish female who is very close to the family and knows a lot of the players in the family.”

Almost three years later it would be revealed that the letter was written by Narcy’s elder sister Letitia Turano, a very religious woman who strongly disapproved of what her siblings had done.

*   *   *

The same day the letter arrived, Broward County medical examiner Joshua Perper met with Fort Lauderdale Police to take another look at Bernice Novack’s autopsy results, after receiving numerous calls from Maxine Fiel and other relatives.

After reviewing the autopsy results, Perper confirmed that Bernice had died from an accidental fall, and that there had been no foul play.
He also refuted any suggestions that there was a connection between her death and her son’s subsequent murder.

Bernice’s eighty-three-year-old sister, Maxine, was livid when a reporter asked for her reaction.
“They both died suddenly and really violently,” she told the Westchester
Journal News
.
“Both died from blunt force.
At this point I’m very concerned my sister was murdered.”

Maxine vowed to do everything she could to get her sister’s case reopened and to get justice for her.
“I went on a mission,” she said.
“I said, ‘My poor sister was murdered,’ and I kept calling the Fort Lauderdale Police and the Medical Examiner’s Office, refusing to take no for an answer.”

*   *   *

Soon after the meeting between the medical examiner and the Fort Lauderdale Police, somebody leaked the Fort Lauderdale Police’s 2002 report of the alleged Novack home invasion to
The Miami Herald.
With its lascivious details of bondage sex games, amputee pornography, and death threats, the story made headlines all over the world, taking things to a new level.

“Details of Novack Home Invasion Describe Sex Games,” screamed the next morning’s
Miami Herald
front-page headline.
The accompanying article went on to provide sensational details about the wealthy couple’s unusual sex life.

“The turbulent marriage of Ben Novack Jr.
and his wife Narcy,” began reporter Julie Brown’s story, “is detailed in a 2002 Fort Lauderdale police report that describes a home invasion planned by his wife and thugs with mob ties, robbery and death threats, surprise breast implants and peculiar sex games.”

The
Herald
said that it had sent Narcy a certified letter seeking her comment on the 2002 report, which Rye Brook detectives were now examining, but had received no response.

The Associated Press also ran a wire story, which was picked up by hundreds of newspapers coast to coast.
“The wife of a man who was killed last week in a suburban hotel,” the story read, “told police in 2002 that he often hit her and once broke her nose.
[She said they] had a very violent past together.

“The 18-page report included references to the Novacks’ use of portable urinals, to nude photos of women with artificial limbs, to a roomful of Batman collectibles and to a claim from Narcisa Novack’s mother-in-law that Narcisa tried to poison her.”

*   *   *

A few hours later, Narcy Novack appeared in public for the first time since her husband’s death with her new criminal attorney, Howard Tanner.
She told reporters that the accusations against her were “getting wilder by the minute.”

Tanner said his client was “distraught” over her husband’s murder and should not be considered a suspect.
She had nothing to gain from Ben’s death and was cooperating with investigators, he added.

“Any allegation that she was involved,” said the veteran defense attorney, “is absolutely ridiculous.”

*   *   *

In the last week of July, Maxine Fiel received a telephone call from a woman claiming to be the writer of the anonymous letter, warning her to be careful, as she was in danger.

“I spoke with her on the phone,” Maxine recalled.
“She was an old lady and very religious, and had this very heavy [accent].
I think she was a member of Narcy’s family.”

The woman, who wouldn’t give her name, told Maxine that Narcy had planned everything.

“She told me that I should be very careful,” said Maxine, who never reported the call to police, “and she wants me to know that my sister had been stalked before her death.”

After the call, Maxine vowed to have her sister’s death reexamined, and began calling all the various law enforcement agencies involved in the Novack case.

“I wouldn’t stop,” she said.
“I just kept calling everybody and clawing like a dog with a bone.”

*   *   *

At the end of July, Rebecca Bliss was evicted from her luxury apartment at the Falls at Marina Bay, as she could no longer afford the rent.

“Ben was no longer there,” she said, “and my lease was up.”

Down and out, she lived in a women’s shelter for a couple of months, before moving into the garage of the same ex-boyfriend who had once shot her and ended her career as a tattoo artist.