'I know how to deal with them.'
April could hear him swearing; she cut him off. 'The cousin's name is Nanci Hua. I'll call you in an hour or so.'
'You get the hell—'
April quickly tried to make some static noises with the saliva in her mouth. The sound was more like someone trying to choke her.
'Hey, April—'
Then she got an idea and pushed the channel button. Real static crackled on the line. After a few seconds the phone went dead. She dialed Jason. He picked up and started complaining right away.
'Where are you? What's going on? You promised to get right back to me,' he chided.
'Sorry; I couldn't talk before. The baby's biological mother—her name was Lin Tsing—worked at the Popescu sewing factory. She was beaten to death in their building last night.'
He was speechless.
'Jason, are you there?'
'Yeah. Jesus.'
'It's a terrible thing. Did you meet his relations?'
'I met the brother in the hospital.' He had nothing else to say about Marc.
'They'd been keeping Lin in a closet in the storeroom. I'm sure one of them got her pregnant. She probably gave birth there. That's why we couldn't find a hospital record.'
'Jesus.' Jason fell silent again, then asked after a moment, 'What's Anton's involvement?'
'That's what I'm calling about. Some of the pieces are coming together on Heather's end. She's been identified as the person who gave the baby to Lin. Lin gave the baby to her cousin on Long Island. I'm on my way out there now.'
'You don't think Anton's the killer of the baby's mother, do you?' Jason sounded horrified by this idea.
'Could be. I'm not placing any bets. I want you to talk with Heather again.'
'But, April, I was with Anton at his apartment last night. There's no way he could have killed that woman.'
'What time?'
'Between eight and nine.'
'The 911 call came in at ten. But the death report puts the TOD at several hours before that. She could have died as early as five or six. The killer must have waited until the cover of darkness to move the body. It was light until nine last night.'
'Couldn't have been Anton. I talked to him. I talked to Heather Rose. We know he couldn't have gotten the girl pregnant, and he didn't kill her. He doesn't have the profile of a killer. I'm sure of it,' Jason insisted.
'You seem pretty invested in that theory,' April remarked.
'I think Heather's protecting someone else.'
'She's at the station house right now with her parents. She says she's ready to talk.'
'So what to you want from me, April?'
'I'd like you to talk with her. We need to know who assaulted her.'
'Why aren't
talking with her?' he demanded.
'I told you, I have to go out to Garden City.'
'Why?'
'We have a situation. It's looking like Anton thinks if he recovers the baby, he can put his family back together again. He's gone out there to get him. The victim's cousin is a friend of mine. I don't want anybody else hurt.'
'This whole thing sounds volatile.' Jason sighed.
'You said Anton's not a killer,' April reminded him.
'He may be unpleasant—grandiose and delusional. That doesn't make him a murderer.' Jason sounded concerned, though.
'He could be the killer. He's certainly an abuser. You get Heather's testimony. I pick him up. Either way, we get him for something. I don't want this guy to slip away.'
Jason sighed again. 'Give me twenty minutes,' he said.
CHAPTER 45
G
et the fuck out of here. You can't come in without a search warrant.' Ivan Popescu started screaming the moment he opened the door and Mike introduced himself as Sergeant Sanchez. Marc rushed to the door and held out his hand to Mike, who pretended not to see it.
'I'm Marc Popescu,' he said. 'Sorry about my cousin, Ivan,' Marc went on. 'He's upset. We're under a lot of stress here.' Marc used the rejected hand to pat Ivan's shoulder. 'Calm down, kiddo.'
Ivan shook him off. 'Don't kiddo me, you asshole.' The two men blocked the doorway to the office, bickering.
Mike chewed on the ends of his mustache for a moment and watched them argue, wondering if this was collusion, or a party act, or both. The one called Marc rubbed and patted the one called Ivan, and the one called Ivan punched him back, insisting he wasn't a kiddo. It was diverting for exactly thirty seconds.
'Let's get started here.' Mike pushed them aside and went into the office. The remains of pizza and deli, Cokes and Bud Lights on the coffee table indicated that the two men had been ensconced in the office for many hours. They broke apart and followed him into the room.
'What are you here for?' Ivan demanded.
'I just want to ask you a few questions.'
'They already did that.'
'We do it more than once.'
'What are you talking about, you do it more than once? Get outta here.'
'We still have a few things to clear up.' Mike glanced around the room. At the front stood a sofa, and a table with fashion magazines and food on it; about a third of the way back were matching rolltop desks, one on each side of the room, one with a laptop on it. And finally, all the way at the end of the building-deep room, were the office computer, filing cabinets, and back door. It was the back door that interested Mike.
'It
cleared up. I don't want anyone else in here.'
'It won't take too long,' Mike said mildly.
'Shit, you're not listening to me. We already did this last night.'
'There's been a little upgrade in the case since then.'
'You in there, Mike?' Bernheim and Cartuso came through the front door, then sloped into the office with their open knapsacks slung over their shoulders.
Marc Popescu's jaw dropped at the sight of them. 'Who the hell is this?'
'What are you talking about, 'upgrade'?' Ivan broke in.
'This is the Crime Scene Unit, Officers Bernheim and Cartuso. Messieurs Popescu, Marc and Ivan.'
Marc's eyes popped. 'Crime scene! She jumped out of a window!'
'No. She was murdered.' Mike watched their reactions.
'Murdered! No way. We have someone who saw her jump out of a window.'
'The witness is at the station now. She's changed her story.'
'What?' Marc was shocked. Ivan didn't seem surprised.
'Maybe she jumped to escape her attacker.' Ivan glanced at his cousin.
Bernheim and Cartuso ignored them both. 'We're going up now. You want to clear out of here so we can get to work?'
'Fine, I'll take care of it and be right with you.' Mike punched out some numbers on his cell phone, then
