sink, her heart beating. I didn't do anything wrong, she told herself. Why panic like this?
'Anywhere you'd like,' the cop said.
'I don't think you're here to apologize.' Rosa surveyed the dangerous adversary. The cop's lips were red. She wore a short red jacket over a black skirt buttoned from the waist to the knee. At her waist was a automatic. Rosa knew firsthand how much damage those guns could do. At April's knee, her skirt flared open to reveal her legs.
Rosa sniffed. She didn't think much of the looks of Asian women, even though they were highly thought of by both black men and white ones. Very few were genuinely gorgeous. More often, they had broad flat faces with deep-set, snakelike eyes. They were bow-legged and too long-waisted. Their butts were flat and they had no bosom. Asian women were not generously proportioned and open like African women. They were closed and secretive. Rosa knew from the ones who worked in the lab, from the ones with whom she'd gone to medical school, that you couldn't guess what an Asian was thinking. They were tricky and not to be trusted. Rosa didn't think she was prejudiced. She just didn't like them.
Sergeant April Woo looked like some kind of geisha with a gun as she shook her black helmet of shiny straight hair in denial. 'You have a great many supporters, Doctor. I got your message. It's clear I was out of line last night. I'm sorry about that.'
'Really? Why don't I believe you then?'
'I'm sure you know how much pressure we're under right now to clear this case. It's been almost a week. I guess the urgency to make an arrest was getting to me yesterday.'
'What about today?'
'It's still getting to me. We've got three suspects, two of them are missing, and we've got to plug these holes.'
Rosa didn't say anything.
'And Petersen's dying first kind of changed the way we had to look at the thing.'
'Ducci's an asshole,' Rosa muttered.
'We can't change what the bloodstains tell,' April replied softly. 'Got to work with the evidence.'
Rosa made a face. 'Okay, you've said you're sorry. What else do you want?'
'Oh, nothing. That was it.'
'You have something else on your mind. I can see it sitting there on your brain, like a tumor the size of an apple.'
you must be good if you can see that without an X ray.' April moved a step toward the door.
'Who are the suspects? What's the theory now?'
The cop paused. 'Oh, could be Liberty, could be Petersen's driver. We're still troubled about the murder weapon. We haven't found anything yet. As you indicated for us, measurements of the wound show that the hole in Merrill Liberty'S throat is smaller and neater than what we'd get with an ice pick. We're trying to figure out what kind of knife blade, or needle, might make a round hole that size.'
'I suggest a knitting needle. They come in all sizes. Did the Liberty woman knit? He could have used one of her-'
April shook her head. 'If she was a knitter there was no evidence in her apartment.'
'He could have killed her with a knitting needle,' Rosa said again. She liked that idea.
'That's a thought I hadn't had. Thank you, I'll check it out.' The cop turned to the bathroom door again.
'No problem.'
Rosa peered in the mirror. She sighed, then spoke again. 'Who's the third suspect?'
'Daphne Petersen.'
'Don't fuck with me, April. Petersen died of natural causes. It's in my report.'
April shrugged and headed toward the door. 'It was just a thought.'
Rosa calmed down fast. 'Anything else you want to know?' she asked, eager to make amends.
Again April paused before she got to the door. 'Well, a lot of things. But probably nothing you can help us with.'
'Maybe I can. What do you need?'
'A miracle.'
'Well, I have a feeling you'll get one today, and then we can all get on with our lives.' Rosa sighed, knowing it was wishful thinking.
'That would be nice. I wouldn't mind a day off,' April murmured.
'No, I'm sure of it, and we women have to support each other, stick together more, know what I mean?' '
An Asian lab technician with heavy black eyeglass frames and permed hair pushed the door open, forcing April to move aside. She had a cup in her hand, nodded curtly at Rosa and April, then filled the cup at the sink.
Rosa frowned at her. 'I wouldn't drink that if I were you, Marsha,' she said.
'I wasn't planning to,' the technician replied.
'Drink from the water fountain, not from the tap, don't forget,' she admonished.
'Well, I've got to go now. Good talking to you.' The cop opened the door and hurried off.
Rosa followed her out into the hall, thinking it hadn't been good talking to April at all. She was more tired than she'd been before. And now she had to go back downstairs to the stink chamber. She really needed a rest, but the next one was a five-year-old boy who'd possibly had his neck broken by his father. Rosa didn't want to keep him waiting.
38
Six days after the murder of Merrill Liberty, there were no more reporters hanging around Midtown North. A number of crime junkies from the local newspapers were now parked at the Two-O, bugging everybody in sight for printable material on progress in the Central Park basher case. Downtown at One Police Plaza, a huge crowd of reporters from all the communications gathered each afternoon, where Public Information held a press conference on the state of the Merrill Liberty investigation. The state that Public Information reported did not necessarily bear any resemblance to what was actually going on. Excessive amounts of airtime and page space, however, were filled with background stories on Liberty and Merrill and Tor, featuring the many highlights in their lives. Since all three of them had led very full lives, the saturation point had not yet been reached.
When April returned to the station from the medical examiner's office at 4:37, there was a chilling message on her desk. 'Call mother.' There were another two from Dean Kiang and one from Mike. In addition to those, there were five more messages related to cases she'd put on hold because of Merrill Liberty. She was looking through the little pile when Creaker leaned in the door.
'What's up?' April asked.
He smirked. 'The lieutenant wants to see you pronto.'
'Okay. Tell him I'll be right there.' April didn't move. She stood at her desk with her coat on and called her mother.
Sai picked up on the first ring and spoke in a dangerously angry dragon voice.
'Hi, Ma, you all right?' April asked.
'No aw light,' Skinny screamed. 'Velly bad.'
'What's the matter?'
'He die. Father no home. No can go.'
'Who died?' April bit her tongue. Oh, God, she didn't need this.
'Unca Dai die,' Sai screamed. 'You worm,
'Oh, Ma, I'm sorry. What happened?'
Sai switched to Chinese for her account of going to the hospital with April's father (in a taxi because worm daughter wasn't there to drive them). Dai was in intensive care. She couldn't even recognize him he was so full of tubes and needles, Sai said. Tubes going in, tubes coming out. She began to weep. All the relatives were there. Al the friends. Out there in the hall, of course. April's father had to wait in the hall. Everybody in hall. The nurses only
