Velvet and Gold

0:00 Every Window Open, Kohlrabi Again, One Muddy Beet

0:04 Watson: From the case log. November, two thousand fifteen. Brooklyn. A Saturday evening, the twenty-first, warm enough that every window in the brownstone stood open to the street. For three weeks our farm share had sent kohlrabi, and I had run out of ways to disguise it. Tonight Holmes sat at the newspaper-lined table with a jeweller's loupe and one muddy beet.

0:28 Watson: Holmes, I'm begging you. What does a person do with kohlrabi? Holmes: Feed it to the tortoise.

0:36 Watson: Clyde won't touch it. I tried Tuesday. Holmes: Then Clyde and I are of one mind. Hush, this soil is interesting.

0:44 Watson: It's a beet. It came in a cardboard box from upstate. Holmes: Upstate, they say. Red shale, flecked grey. That's Columbia County, not Orange.

0:55 Watson: You could at least help me peel. Holmes: I could. I'm choosing to name the county instead.

1:01 Watson: Naming counties doesn't make dinner. Holmes: Slaw. Grate it raw with green apple and lime.

1:07 Watson: That's... actually a good idea. Holmes: I have them occasionally. Watson: Twice a year, in a good year.

1:16 Holmes: Someone's leaning on that. And the engine's been idling since we sat down. Watson: I'll get it.

1:22 Paloma: Doctor Watson? I'm sorry, I— I've been circling your block for an hour. It's Paloma. From the clinic.

1:29 Watson: Paloma. Is it the ankle? You shouldn't be driving on—

1:32 Paloma: The ankle's fine. And step, and turn... sorry. Habit. I drove over from Chelsea.

1:40 Watson: Come up, at least. The stairs are steep. Paloma: I need Mister Holmes to— I need my savings back, Doctor. I can't be told "next month" again.

1:52 Holmes: That's a job for a lawyer, Watson. And she's your patient. Whatever we turn up, you'll still be taking her pulse on Monday.

1:59 Watson: She didn't say stolen. Someone is holding that money, and they keep promising. Holmes: Paloma, how long have you been promised?

2:08 Paloma: Months. And every time, I say okay. I don't even know why I say okay...

2:15 Holmes: Now that's worth a drive. What buys a person that kind of patience? Watson: You've changed your mind, Holmes. And the kohlrabi?

2:24 Holmes: It'll outlive us all. Your engine, is it still running? Paloma: I couldn't make myself switch it off.

2:31 Holmes: Then we're already late. Coats. Watson: The kohlrabi went back in the refrigerator for a fourth week, and by the time I'd locked up, Holmes was in the passenger seat.

2:46 A Mirrored Room Two Flights Up, a Class Due in Twenty Minutes

2:51 Watson: Paloma's studio was a mirrored room two flights above West Twenty-Sixth Street; her last class of the night was due in twenty minutes. You teach here every night on that ankle, Paloma? Paloma: Seven days, Doctor. Don't make the face.

3:05 Holmes: And you meant to buy it. The tape on the floor runs straight into that wall. You'd planned a second room.

3:11 Paloma: Huh. The tape's so the kids don't crash. But yeah, that wall was coming down. The owner offered me the whole floor.

3:21 Holmes: For how much down? Paloma: Thirty-four thousand dollars. Eleven years of private lessons and no vacations.

3:30 Watson: And somebody's holding it. Paloma: Madame Odile. She reads cards on Tillery Street. Go ahead, laugh.

3:38 Holmes: I wasn't going to. Paloma: I went for my birthday, as a joke. She told me I'd lived before. A Venetian countess.

3:48 Watson: It's always a countess, isn't it. Paloma: My sister said that too. But Madame knew me. Like how I— I can't spend a dime without feeling sick. She said the countess loved her gold too much, and it followed me. My savings were cursed. Anything I built with them would fall.

4:09 Holmes: And the cure, let me guess, was to hand the savings to— Paloma: To cleanse! Not to keep. Every dollar back when the curse lifted. That was May.

4:18 Holmes: Six months, then. And still you go back. Paloma: Because she's kind to me. Because if she's not, then I'm— then I'm the idiot who handed a stranger her whole life.

4:30 Watson: You're not an idiot, Paloma. You trusted someone. Holmes: Where does she keep it, meanwhile?

4:36 Paloma: Wrapped in silk, in a box. She swore she'd never touch a dollar of it. Holmes: Did she, now.

4:44 A Lamplit Window, a Bead Curtain and a Client Leaving

4:48 Watson: Madame Odile's parlor lay behind a lamplit window on Tillery Street, in Greenwich Village; we arrived with Paloma the next afternoon as a client was leaving. Odile: Bon, Ingrid, you go home and drink something warm. No more crying tonight.

5:04 Ingrid: No more, Madame, I promise. Oh, gosh, Paloma, hi. You've got people waiting. Are you two new? You're so lucky. She's the only one who ever told me the truth about him.

5:20 Watson: About whom? Ingrid: The man I'm waiting for. Madame says he'll be home by Christmas.

5:26 Watson: Ah. Holmes: No coat, keys already in your hand. You live in this building.

5:32 Ingrid: Three doors up, actually. I never— I can never remember a coat. You're in such good hands. Bye now.

5:41 Odile: Bon. Paloma. And you bring me two gentlemen.

5:46 Paloma: Mister Holmes and Doctor Watson. They're friends of mine. Odile: Friends who stand by the door like bailiffs.

5:53 Paloma: Madame, I need my money. Not next month. The owner won't hold the studio for—

5:58 Odile: Child, we've spoken of this. A cleansing isn't a bank. Paloma: I know. I know. But it's been six months...

6:08 Holmes: She tells me you keep it boxed in silk. Then it's no great trouble to count some out. Odile: Bon. You are a clever man, and you think I'm a thief.

6:18 Holmes: I think she's waited long enough. Odile: The cards were kinder this morning. A little can come home. One thousand dollars.

6:27 Paloma: Oh — oh my God. Madame, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I ever—

6:33 Odile: Enough now. You're tired, that's all. Paloma: I thought I'd never see a dollar. I thought — I thought...

6:42 Watson: Sit a moment, Paloma. Breathe. You're all right.

6:46 Odile: The rest, child, when the curse lifts.

6:50 A Box of Lost Shoes and an Envelope on the Desk

6:54 Watson: Behind the studio was Paloma's office: a desk, a stereo and a box of lost shoes. That evening she cleared the desk for the envelope. Paloma: One, two, three... hold on. There's writing on this one.

7:09 Watson: Let me see. Blue ballpoint, block capitals. "Desmond."

7:14 Paloma: Four, five, six, seven, eight... Nine, ten. That's a thousand dollars. And it's Desmond, on every single bill.

7:26 Watson: Good Lord. Holmes: Who's Desmond? Paloma: Nobody. Not a student, not a cousin, not some guy from a bar. I never heard the name.

7:37 Holmes: Same pen on all ten, same weight, the D gone over twice every time. One hand, one sitting. Watson: People scrawl on cash all the time. Half our clinic's co-pays have phone numbers on them. But ten bills, one name?

7:52 Paloma: Madame sees people all day. Somebody else's money got in with mine. Cash is cash.

7:58 Watson: It happens. Bills get mixed in any drawer. Holmes: Perhaps. Are these the bills you gave her?

8:04 Paloma: A hundred's a hundred, Mister Holmes. How would I know? Holmes: Then tomorrow you'll show me where yours came from.

8:12 Paloma: I've got a ten o'clock class— Holmes: Then we go at nine. Paloma: Fine. Nine. And I'll ask around the parlor. Somebody there must know a Desmond.

8:22 Holmes: No. Tell no one about that name, Paloma. No one.

8:26 Nine Sharp, the Third Window From the Door

8:30 Watson: At nine sharp Paloma led us across the lobby of her bank, a branch on Eighth Avenue, to the third window from the door. Paloma: This one. Same teller's on today, see? She's waving.

8:42 Watson: You drew all of it at once, Paloma? In cash? Paloma: Madame said a check would carry the bank's bad energy. Cash, she said.

8:52 Holmes: Naturally. Thirty-four thousand dollars across a counter. A branch won't keep that in the drawer. You'd have ordered it the day before.

9:00 Paloma: Two days before. They sent for it special. Holmes: So it came up fresh from the vault.

9:06 Paloma: They were clean new hundreds, not a mark on one. Three hundred and forty of them. Watson: You'd swear to that? Not one mark?

9:15 Paloma: I fanned every stack in the car. I was scared of fakes. Holmes: And before the car?

9:22 Paloma: The teller counted them twice, right in front of me.

9:26 A Café Window on the Parlor as the Streetlights Come On

9:31 Watson: The café across the avenue gave us a window on Madame's parlor; Paloma came there straight from teaching as the streetlights came on. Keep that ankle moving under the table, Paloma. You'll stiffen.

9:44 Paloma: Circles. Five, six, seven, eight. Happy, Doctor?

9:49 Holmes: There. Ingrid, in a coat for once. The closed sign is up, and she walks straight in without knocking.

9:56 Paloma: She never knocks. She's in there every day, sometimes twice. Holmes: Then she's no ordinary client. What is she to Madame?

10:05 Paloma: The favorite. Madame jumps up when she comes in. The good chair, the fresh tea.

10:12 Watson: And what is she to you? Paloma: Nothing. She's— she's sweet. Too sweet, maybe.

10:19 Holmes: Maybe? Paloma: Whenever I'd bring up my money, at the table, in front of Madame, Ingrid hushed me, every time. "Not now, hon. Not in front of the cards."

10:30 Holmes: And Madame? Paloma: Madame let her. Madame lets Ingrid do anything. Don't make it about Madame. She gave me a thousand dollars back, didn't she? She's good to me.

10:42 Watson: What does Ingrid gain if you're never repaid?

10:46 The Morning Class Gone, a Mop and the Long Mirrors

10:50 Watson: The morning class had gone by eleven, leaving Paloma alone with a mop and the long mirrors while Holmes and I waited by the windows. Holmes: The tape along the far wall is gone. Pulled up this morning; the glue's still tacky.

11:03 Paloma: Last night, after you left. Mop, two, three, four. The owner's showing the floor Friday.

11:10 Holmes: Madame has kept you waiting six months. Doesn't that count against— Paloma: Don't start. She paid me a thousand, right in front of you.

11:19 Holmes: One thousand, out of thirty-four. Paloma: So? And the waiting's on me, not her. She was straight with me that first night. She said wanting it back proves the curse holds, so I tried real hard not to want it.

11:36 Paloma: You want to know who made it hard? Every time I opened my mouth at that table, there was Ingrid. Watson: She has a point, Holmes. Ingrid has the run of that parlor.

11:46 Holmes: A favorite client isn't a— Watson: No, but a favorite who keeps Paloma from asking for her own money is worth a closer look. Paloma: Thank you. See? The doctor gets it.

11:57 Holmes: Does he. Watson: In every waiting room I've worked, the one who answers for the patient has something riding on it. Holmes: Very well, Watson. Ingrid, then.

12:09 A Walk-Up Door Open an Inch at Noon

12:13 Watson: Ingrid's walk-up was three doors from the parlor. At noon we found her door an inch open and her voice running on behind it. Ingrid: Thirty days more, please. I've never been late. Not— not once in six years.

12:29 Ingrid: No, I can read the letter. Okay. I'll call back.

12:35 Ingrid: Oh! Gosh. You're Paloma's friends, from Madame's.

12:40 Holmes: Sherlock Holmes. Doctor Watson. Your door was open, Ingrid.

12:46 Watson: That sounded like your bank. Ingrid: Oh, that? Paperwork. Business is fine. Business is great, actually.

12:53 Holmes: What business? Ingrid: Weddings. I plan weddings. Isn't that a hoot?

13:00 Holmes: The letter under your mug has a red band across the top. Banks don't print that for great. Ingrid: It's orange, actually. And it's private.

13:09 Holmes: Then here's what isn't. Paloma asks Madame for her money, and you shut her up. Ingrid: That's not— Holmes: Madame runs to please you. You need money fast. I think Paloma's savings are paying your bank.

13:22 Ingrid: You think I — that I took Paloma's money? Watson: Holmes, that's enough— Ingrid: No. Let him stand in my kitchen and call me a thief. I've never taken a dime from anybody. I'm the one who — I'm the one...

13:39 Holmes: The one who what? Ingrid: Get out. Get out of my home. Never come near me again.

13:46 Chairs Going Up at Closing, One Lamp Left on the Block

13:50 Watson: Chairs were going up on the café tables at closing, and Madame's lamp was the last light left on the block. They're sweeping round our feet, Holmes. That's a hint.

14:01 Holmes: Ingrid hasn't gone in tonight. Every day, Paloma said, sometimes twice. Today, not once.

14:08 Watson: You called her a thief in her own kitchen. I'd stay home too. And I still think she's in it, tears or no tears. At Madame's table she shushes Paloma, reading after reading. At home she's begging the bank for a month's grace.

14:24 Holmes: Two facts, side by side. Yes. Watson: A woman going under, sitting next to a box of someone else's cash, and you—

14:31 Holmes: Or a woman going under who's kind to fortune-tellers. Those two facts don't touch, Watson. Not yet.

14:38 Watson: "Great, actually," she said. Nobody who's solvent volunteers that to strangers. Holmes: Agreed. She owes. Then what does she owe, Watson, and to whom?

14:50 Behind the Bead Curtain Again, Two Teacups Rinsed in the Basin

14:54 Watson: We went back behind the bead curtain the following afternoon, Holmes and I alone, and found Madame rinsing two teacups. Odile: Bon. Mister Holmes, and the doctor. No Paloma today?

15:07 Holmes: Two cups, one still warm. Ingrid slipped out the back when she saw us— Odile: By the front, five minutes ago. You were buying a newspaper.

15:15 Holmes: Ah. Watson: These drapes are new, Madame. Still creased from the bolt.

15:22 Odile: Bon, you have an eye. Velvet. The spirits come easier to a beautiful room.

15:29 Holmes: Sewn by a shop on Bleecker Street. The label's on the tieback. Odile: You read my curtains the way I read cards.

15:36 Holmes: Does Ingrid have some hold on you? Odile: A hold? Ingrid? She can't hold on to a coat.

15:44 Holmes: She walks in under your closed sign. She hushes your other clients. And you allow—

15:49 Odile: Because her heart is broken and I'm soft. That's my whole terrible secret. Watson: And the thousand you gave Paloma? Where did that come from?

15:59 Odile: From her silk. The very bills she brought me, untouched, every one. I keep my word.

16:06 Holmes: Then it's Ingrid I don't understand. Odile: She sat in that chair this morning and cried over you two. She has nobody but her waiting. Leave poor Ingrid be.

16:18 The Window Table Again Before the Parlor Opens

16:22 Watson: Before the parlor opened next day, we had the window table again, and Holmes kept one eye on the café door. Somebody paid for that velvet, Holmes, and not with forty-dollar readings. Find out who.

16:36 Holmes: I asked yesterday. Here comes the man I asked. Captain Rafferty. Sawdust on your cuffs. You came straight from the decorator's workshop.

16:45 Rafferty: Guy sands picture frames out back. Coffee. Black.

16:50 Watson: Since when does homicide chase a fortune-teller? Rafferty: Your patient filed a complaint at the Sixth Precinct. Larceny was gonna sit on it a month. I owed Holmes one. Nobody's dead. Means I get lunch.

17:03 Watson: Lucky you. Rafferty: Bleecker Street decorator's book. Tillery Street: velvet and gold, thirty-four thousand. Cash. Three payments, a month apart.

17:17 Holmes: Paloma's figure, to the dollar. Rafferty: Yeah. I can count.

17:23 Watson: In three payments, though. Paloma handed over the whole— all of it, at once. Somebody sitting on a box of cash pays the lot. Monthly is how a borrower pays. And who's begging her bank month to—

17:35 Rafferty: Or the guy just got paid as he hung the stuff. Watson: Then why does Madame jump every time Ingrid walks in? Because Ingrid's the money behind that room.

17:44 Holmes: The book says cash. It doesn't say whose. Watson: Ingrid's cash, passed through Madame. It must be.

17:52 Holmes: Must it.

17:54 Near Midnight, Two Stairs at a Time, a Chain on the Door

17:58 Watson: Near midnight Paloma took Ingrid's stairs two at a time, her refund envelope in her fist, Holmes and I a landing behind. Paloma: Take the chain off, Ingrid. We need to talk.

18:09 Ingrid: The chain stays on. I told your friends never to come— Paloma: The doctor says your bank's after you. And Madame gives you anything you want.

18:18 Ingrid: Paloma, hon, I don't know what they've told you— Paloma: Don't "hon" me. Every time I asked for my money, you shut me up. Where is it?

18:27 Ingrid: I've never touched a penny of yours. Not one. Watson: Then tell us about this, Ingrid. It came out of Madame's drawer for Paloma.

18:37 Watson: One name, inked across it. "Desmond." Ingrid: Oh — oh, no. No. Where did you get that?

18:46 Paloma: She paid me back with Desmond, on every single bill. Who's he? Holmes: That's no stranger's name to you, Ingrid. Whose hand wrote it?

18:56 Ingrid: Mine. He's — Desmond's the one I'm waiting for. Madame had me ink my savings with his name. Every hundred I had, and she kept them for me.

19:08 Paloma: Your savings. Then this is... this is your money? Ingrid: She said writing his name would bring him home.

19:17 Eight the Next Morning, a Kettle Beginning to Sing

19:21 Watson: Holmes rang Ingrid's bell at eight the following morning carrying an apology. I carried the coffee. Ingrid: Five minutes, Mister Holmes. And the door stays open.

19:32 Holmes: Fair. I was wrong in your kitchen, Ingrid, and loud about it. I'm sorry.

19:38 Ingrid: Well. Gosh. Okay.

19:42 Holmes: The bank letter's out flat now, the figure circled twice. You were doing sums all night. Ingrid: Most nights. It never gets any smaller.

19:53 Watson: Whose debt is it, Ingrid? Not the weddings, I'd guess. Ingrid: There aren't any weddings. There haven't been— not for two years. That was pride talking.

20:06 Ingrid: Desmond wanted a taco truck. The bank wouldn't lend to him alone, so I co-signed. Then he left for Phoenix, and the payments... they came to me.

20:17 Holmes: And you've told nobody he left you owing. Ingrid: Thirty days more, please, every month since. If I said the loan was his, I'd have to say he wasn't coming back.

20:28 Holmes: So the money you inked was your cushion against all of it. Ingrid: A hundred and fifty-eight thousand dollars. Twelve years of other people's weddings.

20:39 Watson: Good grief. Holmes: Captain Rafferty will want that in a statement. The pen, the table, the promise.

20:48 Ingrid: Then he'll have it. I'll tell anybody that Madame had me ink my savings, and swore they'd sit untouched till Desmond came home. Watson: I told Paloma about your bank. I shouldn't— that was never mine to tell.

21:03 Ingrid: She threw it at me through the chain. I figured it came from somebody. Watson: I owe you an apology too, Ingrid.

21:12 The Last Pupils Clattering Down, a Captain Coming Up

21:16 Watson: The last of Paloma's pupils were clattering down the stairs when Captain Rafferty came up them, a receipt book under his arm. Rafferty: You're the one who filed at the Sixth Precinct. Captain Rafferty. I found where your money went.

21:30 Paloma: Where? Where is it? Rafferty: Page with the clip on it. Read it yourself.

21:35 Paloma: Eleven years of my life is velvet and gold, thirty-four thousand, in some guy's book? Holmes: Three cash payments to a Bleecker Street decorator. That's not how a woman minds a silk box.

21:48 Paloma: I sat in that room every week. I told her the new velvet was gorgeous. I complimented my own down payment.

21:59 Watson: Sit down a minute, Paloma, you— Paloma: I've been sitting for six months, Doctor. Holmes: You asked her more than once. What did she say each time?

22:08 Paloma: Same thing, every time. She'd pat my hand, so sweet. See, wanting it back proves the curse holds.

22:18 Watson: That's why you kept saying okay. You said so in Brooklyn, and you didn't know why. Paloma: So every time I asked, I was the one keeping it cursed. I was... it was never going to lift. Was it?

22:33 Paloma: Not while I wanted it. And I wanted it every single day... Holmes: "When the curse lifts." The money comes due the day you stop wanting it, and she knew that day would never come.

22:47 Rafferty: I've seen guys sell the Brooklyn Bridge. Never one who sold a lock that opens when you quit wanting in. Ingrid gave me a statement this morning. I can take Madame in. You want to be there?

22:58 Paloma: Look at this floor. I pulled the tape up myself. Take me to her tomorrow.

23:05 The First Table at the Café, the Parlor Lamp Coming On

23:09 Watson: Holmes and I took the first table while the café was still setting out its chairs, and Madame's lamp came on across the avenue. Holmes: The lamp's on, and the blind has twitched twice since. She's watching the street for Ingrid.

23:23 Watson: Two days without her favorite. She'll be wondering what's been said, and to whom. Holmes: Watson, the bank. What exactly did Paloma swear to?

23:33 Watson: Every bill came fresh from the vault, with no ink on any of it. She fanned them in her car, and the teller counted them twice. Holmes: And Madame, at her basin, about the thousand she paid back?

23:45 Watson: That it was Paloma's own money, out of the silk, every bill untouched. She said it like a vow. In clinic I write down whatever a patient tells me the first time. By the second time they've tidied it up.

23:59 Holmes: So we hold Madame to her first telling, with a captain listening. Then how did Desmond's name get onto Paloma's very own bills? That's the question I'll put to her.

24:10 The Brass Chime at Ten Past Nine, Cards Laid Out for Nobody

24:14 Watson: The brass chime rang the four of us in at ten past nine, the Captain last. Madame looked up from cards laid out for nobody. Odile: Bon. Paloma, the gentlemen, and now a policeman. The cards said nothing of a policeman.

24:30 Rafferty: Captain Rafferty. They never do. Paloma: I want the rest of my money, Madame. Today.

24:37 Odile: Child, it's safe in its silk. Not one dollar has moved since the night you brought it. Holmes: You swore to the doctor and me that the thousand were the very bills she brought you. Out of her silk.

24:50 Odile: And so they were. Holmes: Yet when I asked you to count some out of the silk, you never went near a box. You opened a drawer.

24:58 Paloma: She did. I was standing right there. Odile: Silk, drawer, what does it matter where I—

25:04 Paloma: It matters what was in it. I gave you clean new hundreds, Madame, with nobody's name on them. And you gave me these. Desmond. Desmond. Ten times Desmond.

25:17 Odile: So a client's bill slipped in with yours. Money mixes, child, it— Holmes: Ten out of ten, one hand, one sitting? Nothing of Paloma's got mixed in, Madame. There was nothing of hers left.

25:27 Holmes: Her thirty-four thousand hangs on that rod. The Captain has the decorator's book. Rafferty: Paid in cash. Bleecker Street.

25:36 Holmes: So with me at your door, there was only one stack to reach for. Ingrid's. Watson: Inked at this table on your orders. And you promised Ingrid you'd never lay a finger on them.

25:47 Holmes: You didn't pay back one woman. You robbed a second to keep the first one quiet, and broke two promises doing it. Odile: Bon. And Ingrid will say so? Ingrid, who believes everything I—

25:59 Rafferty: Ingrid already said it. She signed it yesterday morning. Odile: Then she's braver than I read her.

26:07 Rafferty: Madame Odile, you're under arrest for grand larceny. Get your coat. Odile: Bon. For this, I need no cards.

26:17 A Brooklyn Front Room Short of Chairs, a Tortoise Scraping Past

26:21 Watson: Two nights on, the front room in Brooklyn ran short of chairs: Paloma had the armchair, and Ingrid a kitchen chair at her elbow. Ingrid: Oh, gosh. Is that a tortoise?

26:33 Watson: Clyde. Ignore him. He's ignoring you.

26:37 Paloma: Ingrid, I owe you. I sat in that café and— I told them, "Ingrid hushed me, every time," like you were her partner. Ingrid: Oh, hon. Madame said a client's doubt feeds every curse. Yours, mine, everybody's at that table.

26:55 Ingrid: Every time you asked, I thought you were keeping Desmond away. Paloma: Oh, honey... Watson: Holmes, one thing still nags. She stalled for six months. Why hand over a thousand that—

27:10 Holmes: That afternoon? Because a stranger stood in her parlor and asked her to tally a portion from the silk. One more stall in front of me, and Paloma might have stopped believing. So she reached for the drawer you heard slide open, not a silk box, and the only cash in it was Ingrid's.

27:27 Watson: And her curse kept Paloma from asking. It couldn't stop you. Holmes: Paloma's wanting was the lock. Mine wasn't part of the bargain.

27:36 Paloma: The owner's showing my floor to a couple from Jersey. They want the mirrors out. Ingrid: And Desmond won't be home by Christmas. I think I always knew.

27:46 Watson: Madame's been charged. Grand larceny. And Paloma's thirty-four thousand dollars... it's gone. For the log, then: curse lifted, by the NYPD, at no charge.