Judging Time

me? Don't you know you're colored, too?'

'No, Rosa,' April said. 'Come inside. We can talk about this later.'

'Yes, you are. Chink and spic—colored.' She spat out the words. 'No better than I am.'

'Mike!'

'I'm here. I'm right here.' Mike reached out the door and touched April's shoulder, encouraging her to move aside. 'Come inside, April.'

April shook her head. She didn't want to move and give the hysterical woman a chance to jump. '1 didn't do anything wrong.'

'Rosa, let me talk to you,' Mike said. 'No one wants to hurt you. And you don't want to get hurt.' He nudged April. Will you get out of there!

There wasn't room for three of them on the balcony, no way to each take a side of Rosa and move her downstairs into the car before she was totally out of control. They'd wanted her to go quietly. They'd played nice. But Rosa was screaming now, calling for help.

'Help! help! Police brutality! Somebody help. They're trying to kill me. Helllp!' The noise soared out into the street. Later witnesses would recount the scene. Two against one. Police brutality.

'Okay, that's enough,' April said sharply. She reached out to take hold of Rosa to pull her inside. At April's touch, Rosa lunged, grabbing April's arm as she tried to launch both herself and April over the railing.

April dodged, shifting her position to throw Rosa off balance so she could save the woman, take her down on the right side of the abyss. But both women were holding on to each other, and Rosa's weight propelled her over. April lost her balance and her breath as her knees banged against the railing, then caught as Mike grabbed her around the waist, stopping both women from plunging to the pavement below. April's shoulders wrenched from their sockets. A scream caught in her throat.

She tried to pull Rosa back, grunted with pain, as

Rosa dangled by her wrists, kicking against the side of the building.

'Let go!'

'Take my hand.'

April couldn't breathe, couldn't think or speak. She heard noises from below, heard Mike say something, but couldn't tell what it was. Some language she didn't know. She heaved on Rosa's arms, but couldn't budge the bigger woman. Sirens rang out on the street below.

'Hold on, baby.' This she heard. 'Switch hands,' Mike said.

Whose? How? April's fingers were frozen. She heard the sound of a fire engine. Had she been there two minutes? Five minutes. How long? Her body trembled. She didn't think she could hang on.

'Switch hands,' Mike said again.

How could they do it without the woman falling? Tears froze in April's eyes. She didn't want to let go. Mike moved around to her side and grabbed one of Rosa's wrists, taking some pressure off, then reached to grab the other. Now April and Mike both had hold of Rosa's two arms. They started dragging the woman back. Someone banged on the apartment door, trying to get in. Must be the fire department.

Rosa kicked at the building's brick wall, screaming at them to let her go. People started calling up from below. More instructions April couldn't understand. A ladder was coming up. 'Hold on.'

Behind them, the door to the apartment crunched.

They pulled, and Rosa's head rose above the railing. Mike adjusted his grip. 'Come on, Rosa, you don't want to die.'

'Oh, God,' April cried. 'Help us, Rosa.'

Rosa's face was contorted with pain and fury. She let them heave her chest up on the railing. Then, when the tragedy was averted, when April and Mike moved their hands to haul her higher and the firefighters rushed in with their axes, Rosa turned her head and sank her teeth into Mike's arm. He recoiled, letting go. As the firefighters spilled into the apartment to help, Rosa twisted from April's hold and propelled herself out from the building.

A gasp rose from the crowd on the sidewalk as she fell, missing the round trampoline-like contraption that six firefighters held out too late to catch her. She socked into two of the firefighters holding it before hitting the pavement.

Then, upstairs on the sixth floor, something happened that April would be ashamed of for the rest of her life. Overwhelmed with the pain of two dislocated shoulders and regret for not having saved the suspect they'd been charged with bringing in, she did a very uncoplike thing. She fainted in the sergeant's arms.

49

The TV was on most of the time during the seven days of April's recuperation. For the first two days she was stuck in the hospital' where her room was not far from that of Rosa Washington, who had survived her fall with more than two dozen broken bones, some so badly shattered the doctors were confident she would never walk again. It was predicted, however, that before the year was out Rosa Washington would be well enough to appear before the grand jury in a wheelchair and be indicted for her crimes.

Through the haze of painkillers, exhaustion, and a bad chest cold, April saw clips of Liberty finally returning to his home at the Park Century. He had nothing to say. She saw Cinda Stewart make an appeal on TV for Liberty to come on Ahead of the News and tell of his ordeal. She saw Emma Chapman get out of a car in front of the theater where she was acting. Asked to make a statement for the press, Emma said she was grateful to the police for finding Merrill Liberty and Tor Petersen's killer and clearing Liberty's name. She talked about Sergeant Mike Sanchez and Sergeant April Woo on TV, then said the department, indeed the whole city of New York, was indebted to those first-class detectives for their extraordinary police work. Emma stated she felt they deserved commendation, thus making Skinny a happy Dragon Mother, finally with something to brag about. April, however, had no doubt they would not receive medals. During April's confinement in bed, Jason Frank and Mike Sanchez both visited, called every day and sent flowers. April did not hear from Dean Kiang. But she was not thinking of him. She lay in bed thinking about Mike Sanchez and what a great man he was.

At six-thirty on the morning she was supposed to return to work, April awoke in her own bed. Her shoulders were still aching badly and the cough from her cold was not entirely gone. Carefully, she sat up and punched out Mike's number.

Yawning, Mike picked up after the third ring. 'Yeah? Sanchez.'

'My car won't start,' April murmured.

Instantly, Mike's voice got soft with concern. 'How are you feeling?'

'Fine. Great,' she lied.

'Uh-huh . . . well, did you try putting the key in the ignition?'

'I don't think that would help. The car's—you know . . .'

'No kidding, it's you know. Well, what time is it?'

'Sorry to call so early. I just didn't want to miss you.'

He didn't say anything for a minute. Then he said, 'I'll be over in twenty minutes.'

Twenty minutes later, Mike stood on the cement sidewalk in front of April's house in his new leather coat, completely oblivious to the rain. The frowning face of April's mother was in its usual place in the front window, watching him with a Chinese curse on her lips. She looked as if her head had been separated from her body and planted there as a warning that she would never forgive him for loving her daughter. Too bad for her. This time April had summoned him. He waved at the head.

'Good morning, Mrs. Woo. Howya doin'?' he mouthed into the wind.

Though she certainly couldn't hear him, a tentative hand came up from below the windowsill in reply. Mike considered the almost wave an extremely good outcome and felt ridiculously happy. Half a minute later the front door opened and April came out. She was wearing black rubber boots and a black slicker with a hood. Burnt cinnamon lipstick. She glanced up at the sky and put up the hood before dashing down the walk to meet him. The rain slowed to a fine drizzle as they got to the sidewalk where the Camaro was parked behind the Le Baron.

'What do you want to do about the car? Want to jump-start it and take it in?'

'Thanks for coming to get me,' she said. A flash of lightning behind her eyes caused his breath to catch and the radar in his mustache to quiver.

'You don't want to jump-start it?' He took a deep breath and blew steam out into the cold misty