and talk about this some more?'
April shook her head. 'Sorry, I can't.' She let him stew for a moment. 'Jason, I need your help.'
He heaved a deep sigh. 'April, April, what am I going to do with you?'
'You're going to help me.'
He shook his head. He knew whatever he indicated, his no meant yes, and she knew it, too.
She argued anyway. 'Don't you want to find the killer?'
'I'm not a cop.'
'That's never bothered you before.'
'Well, it bothers me now.'
'Look, all I want is for you to talk to Liberty, explore his violent fantasies a little, his true feelings about women, especially his wife. Find out if he could get mad enough to kill. You can uncover that.'
Jason smiled. 'I know how to do an evaluation, April.'
'I know you do.'
'Why don't you just give him a lie-detector test? That should do it.'
'If it turned out he had opportunity, I'm going to need a psychiatric evaluation. Come on, Jason, you're talking to him anyway.' April had her notebook in her lap. Her booted foot was vibrating with impatience. Jason stared at it. April was wearing a different kind of outfit than he'd seen on her before. Suddenly he realized that she was a different person now. She was all dressed up and a department big shot.
'He's still in denial, April,' he murmured.
'Oh, yeah, what's he denying?'
'He can't believe they're dead yet.'
'Could he look like a woman getting out of a cab?'
Jason laughed. 'I think Emma would have known if she'd seen Rick that night. Have you searched his place?' '
April shook her head. 'We don't have a warrant yet.'
'What makes you think the person whose cab Emma took was the killer? Didn't she leave sometime before it happened?' 'The killer could have been waiting for them to come out.'
'Have you worked out your time frame for Rick's arrival and everything?'
'Working on it.'
'Is a search warrant for his place forthcoming?'
'It's possible. Will you talk to him?'
'If you want a formal evaluation, my fee is a thousand dollars.' Jason said it deadpan, but his eyes twinkled at April's shock.
'Jason . . . I'm not authorized to spend that kind of money.'
'And you wouldn't anyway,' Jason laughed.
'No, I wouldn't anyway. Why let money ruin a great friendship like ours?'
Jason smiled. A cop was telling him they had a great relationship. 'What about my friendship with Liberty?' he pointed out.
'I'm not asking you to be an informer. This is not a formal thing. You probably wouldn't have to testify in court or anything.'
'You're putting me in a difficult position here. I could get subpoenaed to appear in court.'
'Look, it's getting late. I have to go. If you don't want to do it, just say so.' April slammed the notebook into her purse. 'It's not a big deal.'
It was a big deal. Jason owed her. And so did Emma. He sighed again. Yesterday Emma had the night off because the theaters were dark on Mondays. Tonight she'd have to go back to work. He didn't like either of their positions. He and Emma were going to have to betray the secrets of a friendship to save a friend and repay a debt to a cop.
'You have the autopsy reports yet?' Jason asked.
'They're in the middle of Merrill's right now.'
'Will you call me with the results?'
April looked surprised. 'Anything particular you want to know?'
Jason pulled on his ear. 'Cause of death, bruises, old injuries, condition of female organs—tox results.'
April jumped up, excited. 'Thank you, Jason.' She grabbed her coat. Jason got up and came around his desk to help her put it on.
'Okay,' he said. 'I'll talk to Liberty. But I can't give you my results without his permission.'
He was gratified by her many expressions of gratitude.
Still, he didn't rush to make the call. It took a few hours for Jason to dial Rick's number. When he did, the phone rang ten times before Rick's machine finally picked up.
'This is 555-8830. No one is available to take your call. Please leave your message after the beep.' Beep.
'Rick, this is Jason Frank. If you're there, please pick up.' Jason waited for a few seconds, then spoke again.
'Rick, this is Jason. It's four-thirteen in the afternoon. I'm between patients right now. How are you doing? Let's keep in touch. I want to talk with you about what's going on. Do you want to have some dinner with me later? If you're busy with your family, I could drop by for a few moments. How's your head? Let me know. I'll be screening my calls. . . .'
Finally Rick replied. 'Yeah, Jason, what's up?'
'Ah good, Rick, You're there.'
'I'm here.'
'Thanks for picking up. How are you doing?'
'A lot of people are asking me that dumb question. I don't have an answer for it.'
'Well, try. I can translate.'
'I'm going crazy.'
'Oh, yeah. What's happening?'
'I pace around and can't feel anything. It's nuts. I don't know what to do. I keep turning to Merrill and she isn't here.'
'How's the head?'
'I have a hundred clients. Every single one has called me. They're hearing things about me and Merrill. There are these bulletins on TV. Every hour.
They're saying I'm suicidal. They're speculating about Merrill and Tor being lovers. It's crazy. She didn't even like him. He was my friend—'
Jason said, 'Look, I'm going to have to go in a minute. Can I call you in an hour?'
'What are the police saying? What was the cause of death? Do they know what happened? Do they have any leads on who killed them? I can't stand this. I have to know!'
'I may have some news later. Do you want to meet?'
'Yes, but I can't get out of here. There are—' '—Yeah, I know, press everywhere. They don't know me. I'll come there.' Jason told him he'd be over around seven and hung up. For the next few hours he tried to convince himself he was doing the right thing.
14
April always tried to learn from other people's and her own mistakes. On the evening of the murders, she had been dressed in her usual uniform: a turtle-neck sweater, jacket, slacks. Functional, not classy. The next day she had worn the same outfit most of the day until she had the chance to change into the wrinkled pants and jacket she kept in her locker for emergencies. Sometime during the night in a random dream about the ADA on this case, she suddenly felt that it was time to improve her image. She knew lawyers thought themselves many steps up from cops. She knew they thought cops were uneducated bullies who beat people up on the street, then lied about what their victims had done to deserve it. To appeal to a man like Dean Kiang, she knew she had to make herself look better than a cop.
