'Any priors on the Brothers Karamazov?' Suddenly the tadpole Woody Baum kicked in. He was on a roll today.
April glanced at him in his blue sports jacket and blue button-down shirt.
No, she had not heard of the Popescus just because they happened to have a business in Chinatown. She didn't come from a sweatshop family. Her parents were skilled workers in the restaurant trade. The thought made her want to smile for the first time that day.
'Who the fuck are
Creaker demanded.
'Russian serial killers,' Baum said with a straight face. 'You never heard of them?'
'Fuck you, asshole.'
'These guys are French. Get on with it.' Iriarte was losing his patience.
'Popescu is not a French name. They must have just passed through,' said Baum, happy being an asshole with legs and suddenly the self-appointed expert on passing through.
'Anton doesn't pay his parking tickets. And he's a speeder.' Charlie gave Baum a dirty look. 'Typical lawyer stuff.'
'We need more on Anton. Where he went, who he hung with. Name of the girlfriend,' April said. She was beginning to have her doubts about the girlfriend.
'That's your job,' Charlie reminded her.
'All right. That's it. Check with the health department, see what you come up with on a birth certificate.'
'You're not going to find that under his name,' April told him. She had a feeling there was no birth certificate.
'It never hurts to check,' Iriarte said. Everybody else filed out. He flapped his hand at April to stay, then gave her a little smile.
'Guess what, this guy Popescu wants to drop the whole thing.' Iriarte shook his head. 'Looks like he's gotten himself between a rock and a hard place on the adoption and wants out before it gets out of hand.' He smiled cynically.
'What's your take?'
'This guy certainly has something to hide. Wife and a girlfriend. One baby between the two of them. Looks like the other woman has it. His wife in the hospital, beaten up. Let me tell you, the media would go nuts with this, so keep it to yourself.'
'Has Popescu made an offer for some kind of resolution here?'
'Yeah, he says he won't sue us if we go away now. I told him that won't cut it. A baby's missing and a woman's assaulted. That's about as big as it gets for us, and we're not going away.'
'I talked to Heather's mother in California last night. She had no idea the baby wasn't her daughter's.'
Iriarte shook his head, looking impatient at all the lies. 'Do you have any more thoughts about it?'
April did have another thought about it, but she didn't want to open a new can of worms to her boss just yet. What she hadn't verbalized, even to herself, was that the baby in the picture Anton had given them looked an awful lot like him and Heather Rose. Of course, she could be wrong. How much, after all, could one tell from the eyes of a three-week-old? She could easily put it down to just another creepy feeling. She wasn't seeing a white baby, she was seeing a Chinese baby with blue eyes. That didn't speak of an adoption from China, but of something closer to home. Oh, she didn't like this.
Iriarte changed the subject. 'How you doing with Woody?'
'He'll be fine.' April didn't want to say he could think but couldn't drive, so she didn't say anything.
'Oh yeah? That sounds tentative.'
'He'll be fine,' she assured him. 'He's quick on his feet.'
'Go find that baby.' Iriarte flapped his hand. 'Yes, sir.'
CHAPTER 16
Jason Frank was in front of his building at Riverside Drive and West Eightieth Street, studying his watch, at exactly two P.M. when the blue-and-white police cruiser pulled up at the curb. The police car took him by surprise.
'April?'
April leaned out the window on the passenger side. 'Hi, Jason. Thanks for this—I know it's an imposition.'
'No problem.' Jason smiled at her. 'You know I'd do anything for you'
'I appreciate it, really. This is Detective Baum. Dr. Frank.' She introduced them.
'Hi.' Jason leaned over and smiled at Baum, too.
The sandy-haired young man in the driver's seat raised his hand in acknowledgment.
'Well, get in, Jason. Let's go.' April got serious fast.
Jason gave the car a doubtful look. 'What's with the squad car?'
'The unmarked unit we usually take has a flat. You have a problem with it?' She gave him an amused look.
'Yeah, I have a problem. I don't want my colleagues and patients to see me driven away in a police
car. It's bad for my image.' He grinned as he said it, though, playing with her.
April grinned back. 'Come on, don't make a political statement out of it, get in the car. We're in a hurry.'
'All right, all right.' Jason rolled his eyes and opened the car door. The outside was as clean as could be, but inside the car smelled as if the great unwashed had been living there for the entire millennium. Not only that, there was a thick wire screen between the front seat and the back. 'What is this, your arrest car?'
'Yes.' April turned around to talk through the screen. 'Jason, I love you without the beard. When did you shave it off?'
Jason raised a hand to his chin, smooth for the first time in nearly a year. 'This morning.'
The car took off fast, throwing him against the backseat.
'Fasten your seat belt, it's the law,' April ordered. Now she was playing with him.
'Whatever you say,' he said, suddenly meek now that his life was at stake. 'Where are we going?'
Woody sped down Riverside, hit the siren, and turned left onto West Seventy-second Street, plowing through oncoming traffic without slowing down. Jason had the uncomfortable feeling he was going to jail. No one relieved him of that apprehension.
He gasped when Woody braked suddenly. 'Oh, God.'
'Gee, I'm so glad to see you. It's been a while.' April grinned some more again.
'Same here, I think. You look great, April.' In fact, she looked gorgeous—radiant—in a red jacket, a navy skirt, and a white shirt with an oversized collar. In her ears were the jade studs she sometimes wore for good luck. His eye caught a chain around her neck.
'What's that?'
April reached to the middle of her chest for the medal hanging there. 'Oh this? It's St. Sebastian. He's the patron saint of soldiers and policemen. Kind of like an evil eye, so I'm told.' She said it deadpan.
'I didn't know you were a Catholic.'
'I'm not.' She smiled, shrugging.
'Boyfriend?'
April cocked her head in the direction of her driver. 'Don't ask.'
'Oh, I forgot how secretive you cops are. So what happened to Mike?' Jason couldn't help teasing, pretty sure the gift came from her old partner, Sanchez.
'He's in Homicide now.' End of subject.
'Is Baum your new partner?'
'Jason, you're just full of questions, aren't you? We don't have partners in detective units. You know that. How's Emma?'
'Emma's great. She's taking a leave from the play, may or may not go back to it, depending.' He grinned,
