Amber nodded and whimpered.
“Amber,” Erin said. “Where did the chocolates come from?”
The hygienist’s eyes filled with new tears. “I gave them to him!” she wailed. “I put… I put one… right in his mouth! And then he started gasping, and his face went blue! I killed him! Oh God, I killed him!”
“Well, this’ll be a short case,” Vic whispered in Erin’s ear.
She ignored him. “Amber,” she asked the young woman, “was the box opened?”
“What?” Amber sniffled.
“When you went to give Doctor Ridgeway the chocolates, had the box been opened previously?”
“I… I don’t understand.”
Erin knew it was important to be patient during witness interviews. “Was the box wrapped? With plastic?”
“Oh. No.”
“Were any chocolates missing, or disturbed?”
“Yes,” Amber said. “It wasn’t a full box. Maybe four or five were missing. Rocky said he ate a few. It’s so typical of him. Even a gift, he just can’t help himself.”
“Who’s Rocky?” Webb asked sharply.
“Rocky Nicoletti,” she said. “My… my boyfriend.”
Webb’s eyebrows went up. “Your boyfriend,” he echoed in a flat voice.
She nodded. Then a thought hit her. “Oh my God. He might have eaten… he might be… oh God. Rocky!” Then she started crying again.
Erin exchanged glances with Vic. He shrugged. Rolf, at Erin’s side, was the only one who wasn’t surprised. To him, most human interactions were nonsensical. He kept watching his partner, in case she decided to do something more up his alley.
“Miss Hayward,” Webb said. “Were you and Doctor Ridgeway getting along?”
“Wha… what?” she snuffled.
“Had you been fighting?” he asked gently. “Was he putting pressure on you to do something you didn’t want to?”
Amber shook her head. “No! Norm… Norm’s a sweetheart. He’s kind and… and good with kids. He talked about dinosaurs with Teddy Coogan!”
“So you weren’t angry at him?” Webb pressed.
Erin saw recognition hit Amber. “You think I wanted to hurt him?” Amber exclaimed. “You think I took a box of chocolates, and… and poisoned them… and gave one… to my Normie?”
“Normie?” Vic said, but he said it quietly and no one took any notice of him.
“You…” Amber advanced on Webb, waving her used tissue in his face. “You… you big jerk!” She threw the soggy scrap of paper at him. It bounced off his trench coat and landed on the carpet. Then Amber buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
Webb didn’t react. If a cop didn’t get called something worse than “jerk,” it was a good day on the Job.
“Amber,” Erin said gently. “Rocky gave you the chocolates?”
It took a moment to get through to her, and she had to repeat the question, but the other woman finally nodded.
“Were they a Valentine’s Day gift?” Erin asked.
Amber nodded again.
“Amber,” she said. “Please listen. This is important. Did Rocky know about Norm?”
“I… I don’t… I don’t know,” Amber managed to say between hiccupping sobs. Then she lost whatever was left of her self-control and became useless from a police perspective.
Erin cocked her head to Webb and Vic. They stepped into the hallway just outside the examining room.
“What do you think?” Webb asked his two detectives.
“If she’s a murderer,” Vic said, “I’ll field-strip my gun and eat it, one piece at a time.”
“I’m with Vic,” Erin said. “I don’t even think Ridgeway was the intended target.”
“It does seem like a pretty iffy way to kill someone,” Webb said. “You think it was meant for Miss Hayward?”
Erin nodded. “If she’s telling the truth, and Rocky gave them to her…”
“Then Rocky’s got some explaining to do,” Vic finished for her.
Chapter 2
Rocky Nicoletti’s address was in Little Italy, in one of the nicer apartments in the area. Webb had looked him up on the way over. What he’d found was a little surprising.
“He’s connected,” Webb said.
“To whom?” Erin asked.
“The Lucarellis.”
Vic whistled. “I didn’t know we’d be tangling with the Mafia when I got out of bed this morning. I’d have worn my good suit.”
“The Mafia?” Erin repeated. “Seriously?”
Webb didn’t look like he was joking. “This kid’s got a jacket,” he said. “Mostly small-time, but he’s a known associate of some heavy hitters. His uncle is Marco Nicoletti, alias Broken Nose Nicky, otherwise known as Nicky the Nose.”
“I don’t know him,” Erin said.
“Neither do I,” Vic said. “But I bet I could pick him out of a lineup.”
“Your nose is broken, too,” she reminded him.
He put a hand to his face. “Yeah, but if I had a Mafia nickname, I’d be ‘Vic the Russky,’ or some shit like that.”
“Nicky the Nose is a leg-breaker for the Lucarelli Family,” Webb explained, trying to pull them back on task. “He’s currently doing a dime upstate, attempted murder.”
“What about the kid?” Erin asked.
“Rocky Nicoletti,” Webb recited. “Birth name Rocco, age twenty. Did a stint in Juvie, arson. Set fire to his junior high school bathroom, nearly burned down the school. Got expelled, as you might expect. He’s been in and out of trouble since. Lots of petty theft, harassment, that sort of thing.”
“Sounds like a real solid citizen,” Vic said. “What’re we waiting for? Let’s haul his ass downtown.”
“He may not even be home,” Erin said.
“Won’t know until we try,” Webb said.
* * *
The detectives lined up at Rocky’s eighth-floor apartment. They weren’t serving a warrant, and there was no reason to expect trouble, but Erin and Vic both had their hands on their sidearms when Webb knocked on the door. If Nicoletti was a mobster, there was no telling who might be inside, or what he might do when the cops came calling.
“Hey, Rocky Nicoletti!” Webb shouted. “This is the NYPD! Come on out. We want to talk to you.”
There was no answer.
Webb gave it a few seconds and tried again. “Nicoletti!” he called, a little louder than before.
“The hell do you want?” a groggy voice mumbled from the other side of the door.
“Open up. It’s the NYPD.”
The voice suggested something Webb could do with his mother.
“You coming out, or are we coming in?” Webb retorted. It was a
