charge of a major investigation that was going terribly wrong, and she couldn't get there to stop it. Someone would die who shouldn't die and as a result she, too, would lose her life or her job, or lose face, which was just as bad. She needed to get out of that car. Same old, same old. The traffic lights were too slow, and cars and trucks blocked the way no matter how aggressively Woody drove, or how loudly he used the horn with the siren to tell people, 'Police—get out of the way.'
One minute she was in the passenger seat of the black Buick on Second Avenue. The next minute the dispatcher made an all-points bulletin, asking for officers to respond to a report of gunshots fired from a residence on the four hundred block of Fiftieth Street. 'Fuck, that's us,' Woody said. 'Call for an ambulance,' April told him. Then, as sirens started wailing in the distance, she jumped out of the car and started running down the block in the pelting rain, determined to be the first re-sponder. She didn't feel the rain and nothing went through her mind, not her past life, or her future with her husband or the Skinny Dragon Mother she loved as much as anybody on earth. All that drove her was her instinct and training. Dodge the oncoming traffic and pedestrians with their umbrellas up and get there.
'Police, move back,' she screamed at two men standing outside the house as she unholstered her weapon.
'I called 911. He's in there. He has a gun,' a man standing outside told her.
'Get back,' she said. 'Get away.'
She went through the gate, sidestepping as she looked through the shattered panes of the_kitchen window. She'd seen plenty of bad things in her life, but nothing in all her years in police work prepared her for the blood in the kitchen.
'Oh, shit. Oh, shit.' She didn't hear herself whimpering as she raised her weapon and fired into the lock. People were yelling behind her, but she didn't hear what they were saying. Like her own Sergeant Gelo before her, she did the same thing. She entered the house alone, and the horror she saw did not stop her from moving forward into the gore. She was trained to go where the trouble was, and that's what she did. The kitchen was awash with blood. Sergeant Gelo was so drenched with it, she couldn't tell what color her clothes had been. She was sprawled across a kitchen chair, and a female body was pinned under it. Neither moved, and for an awful second April thought both were dead.
'Aw, Jesus, Eloise,' she said softly.
Eloise took her hand off her stomach. 'She got me.'
'Looks like you got her, too. Hang on. We'll get you out of here.' April moved forward to see how bad it was. Eloise yelled.
'Watch out.'
April didn't see it in time. The woman on the floor grabbed her foot and yanked hard, trying to pull her down. 'No,' she said sharply, wrenching her wet boot from the bloody hand. Then she leaned over and tapped her on the back of the head with the butt of her gun. The Glock was not heavy steel the way the old .48s were. But it was hard enough to put her out.
'She did it,' Eloise gasped. 'She killed those women.' She was already in shock, shivering, and couldn't hold her head up. 'Please don't be mad. I got her.'
'You sure did. Just hang in there, and I won't be mad. I promise.' April ripped off her jacket and murmured encouragement. She didn't even know what she was saying. As she waited for the ambulance to arrive, she prayed for a life and offered her own in exchange. She made a vow to whatever gods might be listening.
April knew that it was one thing for her to mess up personally and get hurt herself as she had done in the past. Her many failures in this case, starting with Alison's death, and ending with one of her own officers doing the unthinkable, was something else. As Gelo's commanding officer, April felt it was her fault that the sergeant took such a crazy risk, and Chinese face demanded that she be the one to go. Gelo was still breathing when the ambulance arrived. April got in with her, an held her hand all the way to the hospital.
Epilogue
On Friday, April and Mike's honeymoon cruise departed without them, but they were hardly in the mood for rejoicing in paradise and barely noticed. As, police officers say when they miss important life events, 'Something came up.'
In the days that followed Lucy Walters's (aka Leah) interment in Bellevue for psychiatric evaluation, all April could think abut was the fate of her second whip. Fast work by surgeons at New York Hospital—and a miracle— saved Eloise Gelo's life. Doctors on the case said what others in the Department already knew about her: Eloise was as tough as they come; she always beat the odds.
Patching her up, however, took time and more than one surgery. April and Mike were among the many police officers who gave blood for her transfusions, and April was a daily visitor during the weeks that she remained in the hospital. Included in her gifts were some special (and quite disgusting) herbal medicines purchased by Skinny Dragon Mother in Chinatown to cure her. Who knew, maybe they helped.
The only bright light in the very dark story was that Eloise was the sole survivor of Lucy's wrath.
The badly decomposed remains found wrapped in garbage bags and locked in an old steamer trunk in the basement of Jo Ellen's house turned out to be Marsha, the Anderson employee whom Jo Ellen said wasn't with them anymore. Along with her teacher of years ago, Maddy, Alison and her unborn baby, Marsha brought the number of Lucy's victims to five.
Working at Jo Ellen's house brought the troubled young woman in contact with the mothers and their households. Jo Ellen, who'd been stealing from her clients throughout her long career, encouraged Lucy to continue the tradition. If the customers complained about theft or other irregularities, innocent employees were fired and replaced with new ones. The scam had worked until Lucy started killing the employers she despised. Furthermore, she lost all her wiggle room with her attempted murder of a police officer. Jo Ellen was exposed and faced prosecution for her many crimes.
But April weathered the storm; she always did. Her promise to quit the Department if Eloise lived was not forgotten, but in the end no one wanted her to go. Two months later, when the case was fully resolved and the legal system had taken over, she and Mike sailed from San Juan to the West Indies for the vacation of their lives.
SIGNET
Leslie Glass
Hit the streets with NYPD detective April Woo
THE SILENT BRIDE 0-451-41037-8
JUDGING TIME 0-451-19550-7
TRACKING TIME 0-451-20228-7
STEALING TIME 0-451-19965-0
A KILLING GIFT 0-451-41091-2
'I'D drop what I'm doing to read Leslie Glass any time.' —Nevada Barr
Available wherever books are sold or at www.penguin. com
S301
Leslie Glass
grew up in New York City, where she worked in the book publishing industry and at
magazine before turning to writing full-time. She is a New York Times bestselling author, best known for her novels featuring NYPD detective April Woo. Leslie Glass has two grown children and lives in New York and Sarasota, Florida. Visit her Web site at
www.aprilwoo.com
