“I’m dead serious.” He smiled. “I don’t get more serious.”
“Fine, then let’s go in.”
The barking grew frenzied. Mike leaned back against the wall, scratching his chin. “Are you sure that’s the right thing to do, Detective? We don’t exactly have a warrant.”
“It’s too quiet in there. Open the door.”
“Unh-unh. What if nothing’s happening?”
“Come on, Mike. The dogs are going crazy.”
“Oh, what do you think is going on?”
“I have no idea. But there’s an old Chinese proverb—”
Mike rolled his eyes. “Yeah, what is it?”
“He who ignores barking dogs misses boat.”
“Sure.” He punched her in the arm. She punched him back harder. Inside, something had definitely unhinged the dogs. They were screaming like abandoned babies. Maybe one of the women was torturing the dogs. To April that constituted a call for help.
“Let’s go. If I’m wrong, you can say I needed to use the bathroom.”
“Wonderful.” Mike tried the door. The main lock offered no resistance to his key. None of the three additional locks were set. He clearly wasn’t happy with B & E because of a barking dog. “Do you really need the bathroom?”
She shrugged. “Another old Chinese proverb say: Never miss an opportunity to pee.”
Inside, one of the little dogs was running up and down the stairs in a barking frenzy. The other was not in sight. From somewhere above came the grunting and thrashing of several bodies in a savage, wordless brawl.
Mike took the stairs three at a time and got there first. But April was not too late to see Camille, with her big skirt and tangled mass of red hair billowing around her, sitting astride Milicia on the bed, grunting “Uh, Uh, Uh.”
Bouck’s beautiful room was in chaos. His elaborately fringed pillows were scattered all over the floor. The elegant silk brocade bedspread had been yanked off the bed. It was twisted around one of Milicia’s legs, binding it like a bandage. She was on her back, bucking and kicking her one free leg as Camille tried to strangle the life out of her. The other tiny poodle stood on its hind feet, scrabbling madly at the side of the high bed, trying to jump up, failing, and howling its frustration.
“Stop! Police!” Mike shouted just before he plowed through the pillows to separate the two battling women.
The small pillows flew up in the air when he dove on the bed. A white lace heart sailed across the room, landing with a soft thump on the other side. At his touch, Camille’s body went rigid. Falling abruptly silent, she released Milicia’s neck. She looked stunned as he dragged her to her feet and quickly cuffed her hands behind her back.
Milicia sat up sputtering and gasping, her hands on her throat. “Oh, God—she’s crazy. She—she just grabbed me. Just like that. We were—talking. She took me by surprise. She would have killed me.” She untangled her leg from the bedcover and pulled her skirt down. Inched over to the side of the bed, away from her sister. April crossed to help her.
“It’s okay. Stay where you are. I’ll call an ambulance.”
“No, no. I’m all right.” Milicia rubbed the angry red blotches on her neck, looking over at Camille with total surprise and horror. “Did you see that? She was going to kill me.… Just like the others.” She stroked her throat with both hands. “Something must have triggered it. I don’t know what … I can’t believe it. My own sister … I’m lucky to be alive.…”
Dazed and wobbly, Milicia pulled herself together and stood up. She took only a tiny second from her recovery to kick the whimpering dog out of her way. The dog yelped. Unsettled by the unexpected cruelty, April reached to scoop the puppy up in her arms. Instantly, it dropped its head to her shoulder and sighed. April was shocked by this sign of tenderness from an animal.
She turned to Sanchez. “Mike, you all set there?”
“Yeah. Call for an ambulance.” He was ashen under his Mexican tan. He had Camille by the elbow, but it wasn’t easy holding on to her. The woman’s body and face had become a mass of tics and jerks that were beyond her control. Her torso trembled; her mouth was slack. So their killer was the psycho sister, after all. It was the kind of thing cops pray for: They’d caught her in the act.
Still holding the puppy, April glanced down at her watch. It would be a long night before they got it wrapped up.
81
You aww light? No rook so good.”
Sai Woo held the door open for April and swiftly bundled her inside. As soon as the door was shut and locked and chained—as soon as the outside light was turned off—she began scolding in Chinese. “You have big test tomollow. Why home so late? You clazy? How pass test with no sreep?”
Skinny Dragon Mother was wearing black silk pants and a bright red shirt, had been waiting up for her husband and daughter as usual. Tonight wasn’t so late though. Only twelve-thirty. April knew her father wouldn’t be home for another hour. There was deep red lipstick on Sai’s thin lips, and her eyes were as shrewd as a Chinese gambler’s. She studied her wilted daughter.
“Hi, Ma.” April gave her a weak smile. “What’s up?”
Sai did a little two-step, heading toward the kitchen. “Maybe no pass test. Maybe get malleed instead.”
Maybe no pass test. No get married either.
“Uh-huh.” Whatever you say.
“How’s case?”
April frowned. “Case closed. Ma?”
“Yeah, who did it?” Sai realized April was still standing by the front door, eager to go back outside and up the stairs to her second floor apartment. Spiteful daughter was not respectfully following Wise and Helpful Mother into the kitchen. “Where you going?”
“I have a test tomorrow. I’m going to bed.… Ma, I have a question for you.”
“Whuh?” If possible, Sai’s eyes sharpened to an even greater degree of acuity.
“You remember how I always wanted a dog when I was little?”
Sai screwed her features into an angry scowl. “No rememba.”
April tried again. “Remember you had a dog?”
“Long ago, in China. Come, have lice. We talk.”
“The dog disappeared, and you thought the neighbors ate it.” April leaned against the door. She was bone tired, as tired and discouraged as she’d ever been. She had just witnessed one sister’s attempt to kill another. And even after seeing that—then going through all the paperwork, and the trip to Bellevue because the suspect appeared to be having a psychotic breakdown—she still couldn’t get over the little poodle’s curly head resting on her shoulder, the two poodles nestled together on the front seat of the squad car while a uniform sat with the assault victim in the back. At the moment the dogs were in cages in custody. Soon one might be without a home.
Sai nodded, the long-ago fury at her beloved pet’s terrible end burning in her eyes. “So?”
“We’re not in China anymore. No one will steal a dog and eat it here.”
“So?” Sai didn’t get it. What did that have to do with big test and getting married? Nothing.
“So I know a dog that maybe needs a good home. A very cute dog. A baby. You have a backyard already fenced in. Wouldn’t even have to walk it. No work. Just open the door.” April shrugged.
“You clazy?” Sai’s voice sank to an anxious whisper.
“Maybe.”
“Why want dog? Dogs nothing but troubber.”
“No one would eat it here, Mom. It’s a nice one, expensive. This kind of dog costs five, maybe six hundred dollars.”
