Stealing Time

'The doorman would have seen her come up or go down. No one saw the baby go out. Try again.'

'He knows where the baby is.' Woody turned on the radio, listened to the dispatcher for a moment. Just a lot of static. Nothing new. He turned it off.

'I get the feeling he doesn't.' April checked her watch. 'We have to nail this today.'

'I really got him going, didn't I? I thought he was going to pee in his pants over the FBI.'

'Telling him she might die was a nice touch. I liked that. Let's hope we do better with her this time.'

Woody parked in his usual no-parking zone in front of the hospital and locked up the car again. A few minutes later, they were upstairs, looking through the window into the room where Heather lay tucked up in her bed with her good eye half open. 'Any change?' April asked.

The patrolman outside the room shook his head.

'Can I come in this time?' Woody asked.

April shook her head, entered Heather's room, and closed the door behind her. 'Hi. It's April Woo,' she said softly.

Some of Heather Rose's bruises were black. Some were purple and others yellowing. Her long inky hair lay in two loops on the pillow at either side of her face, like two nesting animals. The open eye didn't move as April stepped into her view, but April had an eerie feeling it was watching her. She took a step closer. Heather's arms were outside the sheet. Right below the elbow were several perfectly round scars that looked like bum marks. An IV was stuck in the top of her hand. April reached out and touched the hand. 'You got beaten up pretty bad. Can you hear me?'

Heather's good eye didn't flicker.

'How are you feeling?' Stupid question.

April tried Chinese again. 'M

hao? Wo shi

Sergeant

Siyue Woo.'

Nothing.

April muttered on in Chinese. Heather's parents spoke Chinese, so it had to be the language of Heather's infancy. '

Wo shi

Sergeant

Woo.'

I'm Sergeant Woo.

'Shi zenme le?'

April continued to stroke Heather's hand. The hand was cool and lifeless. ' 'Heather Rose' is beautiful, but it's a mouthful. What's your Chinese name?' she asked in Chinese.

'Chouchong

,' Heather's eyelid was hanging at half-mast; under it her eye was dead as a fisheye. The word seemed to come from behind her. April looked around. No one.

'Come on,' April urged her. 'Come back, I need you.'

'Tien na!'

The mouth didn't move. The sound came from the ceiling. Oh, no.

'You can hear me, can't you? You're okay now,' April whispered back into the ether. 'Come on, wake up.' Heather had long slender fingers, and her hands would have been beautiful if the nails and cuticles and flesh at the sides of the nails hadn't been chewed and bitten to the quick. April stroked and squeezed the hand, got nothing back.

'Chouchong

.' The eyelid hung at less than half mast.

'Wake up, Heather.'

The next sound came from outside the window. It was a baby's cry. April's heart stopped as she listened. The sound came again. Now her heart was pounding.

'Come on, Heather. Don't go spooky on me. You're the only one who knows who did this. Wake up.'

The patient looked dead, but the cry continued. Nothing April tried could make it stop. The baby's cry sounded as if it came from somewhere else. Finally April let go of the hand. More scary sounds and words filled her ears before April left the room. All Heather had told her of real significance was that her name was Insect. April's own mother called her Worm. They must be sisters. The rest was too frightening to think about. Shaken to the core, she hurried down the hall toward the elevator. Woody ran to catch up.

 N

anci Hua knew Lin's boss was lying to her, and she had her suspicions why. But whatever the story, she had to find Lin. She walked around the neighborhood asking people she knew, old friends and shopkeepers, if they'd seen Lin. Nobody had seen her since yesterday, when she'd been observed by many people, sitting on the curb with her pink laundry basket filled with clothes. After her brief encounter with Nancy and Milton, she'd disappeared. Nanci figured Lin must have gone home. Much as she hated to do it, she broke down and went to the apartment on Essex Street where Lin lived.

Only one ignorant Lao woman was there, and she seemed surprised to see Nanci at the door.

'Where's my cousin?' Nanci tried to go inside, but the Lao woman blocked the door. Not very polite.

'Not here.'

'Where is she?'

'Hospital.'

Nanci's eyes popped. 'What hospital?'

The woman looked at her pretty jacket and skirt and didn't answer.

'What's wrong with her?' Nanci demanded.

'She has a cold.' The woman looked at the diamond engagement ring on Nanci's finger, at her gold watch.

'She went to the hospital for a cold? You mean she went to the clinic.' Nanci calmed herself. The clinic. She could find her there. 'What time did she go?'

'Yesterday.'

Nanci thought she must have misunderstood. The woman's speech was slurred, and she looked frightened as she repeated herself.

'You mean today. She went today, this morning.'

'Okay, today. She maybe very sick,' the woman offered shyly.

'Oh, my God. What hospital, Beekman?' Now Nanci was upset because she was being made to stand out in the hall. The woman wouldn't let her come into the apartment and wouldn't tell her what hospital Lin had gone to. She'd dealt with people like this many times before and never gotten angry. Anger was not helpful when people were ignorant and frightened. Nanci usually had a lot of patience, but not now. Her voice shook with fury. 'Why didn't you call me? I'm her only relative. You should know better,' she scolded. The woman kept looking stupidly at Nanci's ring finger. Nanci wondered if there was something wrong with her. 'Who took her to the hospital? You?'

The silence was thick; then the Lao woman shook her head.

'Well, who then? Her boyfriend?'

'No have boyfriend.'

'Yes, she did.' But Nanci didn't want to argue the point. The talking going on inside the apartment got louder. Suddenly the Lao woman turned around to join in the conversation behind her. Something about her placating tone of voice made Nanci think she had a boyfriend, too.

'A lady came and took her to the hospital,' she said after some discussion.

'What lady?' Nanci demanded. She didn't believe a word of it.

'I don't know her name. Nice lady.'

'Why?' Nanci was losing it.