“Sorry, no picture,” he said. “Guy doesn’t drive. What I can tell you is that eight years ago he was fifty-three. Little guy, glasses, reddish brown hair. Your basic Russian Woody Allen.”

“Thanks. I walked by the building on West Thirty-fifth. It’s back to being a factory.”

“Strictly speaking, it’s a warehouse, Doc. The braid’s manufactured in Queens, they store it on Thirty-fifth. So how come, after all that rigamarole, Korvutz never built his condos? What I heard is he got caught in some kind of financial squeeze, leveraged himself, then the market dipped, he had to sell a bunch of properties at a loss, including that one. It’s all about timing, Doc. The market’s crazy again, crappy tenements getting gentrified in the Lower East Side, Hell’s Kitchen’s full of yuppies, got a new name, Clinton.”

“The boom hasn’t hit West Thirty-fifth.”

“Those building’s are worth plenty,” he said. “Right now it pays to keep ’em commercial, but give it time. One of these days, the only people living on this island are gonna be the limousine bunch.”

I waved the tenant board list. “Any problem with me contacting Glusevitch and Mercurio?”

“Not from my end,” said Polito, “but you’ll have problems on both counts. Mercurio’s dead, got into trouble over a woman five years ago, ex-husband beat him to death, dumped the body in the Bronx. Nothing to do with Korvutz, the ex had a history of beating up boyfriends, only reason I found out is I noticed Lino’s name on a vic list. Kid was a moron and a wiseass, one of those hair-gel guys wants to come across like a gangster. I can see him ticking someone off real bad. Him, I woulda liked as a suspect, I could picture him thinking he could make his bones by taking on a contract job. Problem is, he was alibied tight. Vacationing in Aruba with a girlfriend the week the Safrans disappeared.”

“Convenient.”

“But righteous, Doc. I checked hotel and airline records, Lino was definitely there. Maybe he paid for the trip with money Korvutz gave him for being on the board.”

“Korvutz bribed the members to serve.”

“Can’t prove it, but why else would they want to bother?”

“And my second problem is Sonia Glusevitch is Korvutz’s distant cousin, why should she cooperate.”

He held up his palms.

I said, “Just in case, any idea where she is?”

“Let’s see if we can find out.” He pulled out his cell, dialed information, asked for listings for Sonia Glusevitch, came up empty, tried “initial S.”

One hand flashed a Victory V. “Three forty-five East Ninety-third. You wanna try Sonia first, be my guest, but I think it would be a mistake. Better to use the element of surprise with Korvutz, don’t risk Sonia alerting him.”

“I agree. What was Sonia like?”