"Why?"
Lori shrugged. "He likes her."
"Okay so how did you travel up there?"
"We drove with Wendy. We had to, because Kim needed his sewing machine and all his, like, sewing stuff. It took up the whole trunk."
No one mentioned this before. Kim and his sewing stuff.
"Why did everybody stay at Wendy's?" April asked.
"The bride's father wouldn't pay for a hotel for everybody, and Louis complained it was too expensive for him. So she gave in. Believe me, Wendy wasn't happy about it."
"When did you start shooting the guns?" April moved on.
"I told you I didn't," Lori insisted.
April gave her a cold look. "Come on, Lori, you want to stay here all night?"
"I'm telling you. It was terrifying. That first night Wendy got so mad at Kim she shot a pistol into a pile of pillows right next to where he was sitting. I was never so scared in my life."
"And what did Kim do?"
"You better believe he stopped complaining and got to work. Who wouldn't?" Lori said this as if April were some kind of dummy.
"What had Kim been complaining about, Lori?"
"Oh, a thousand things. Marriage is terrible. His wife is mean to him. His sister is dead. Whatever. He's a real pain in the ass."
"Who else was there when Wendy fired the gun?" The recorder was taping, but April took quick notes. She always thought best with a pen in her hand.
"Ubu. Oh, my God, Tito! Louis. Everybody freaked. I thought Louis would have a stroke. The living room was just filled with these cans of water and all his flowers. And they were, like, leaping around insane, yelling at her to put the gun down."
"What kind of gun was it?"
"I don't know, a pistol gun."
"Did the gun have a silencer on it?"
"Hell no, it made a huge bang." Lori paused for a few moments, remembering that big bang. "And then the next day after the wedding everybody was out shooting in the woods. It started to rain and they put on these gray ponchos and kept shoodng. It was just
weird."
"Everybody except you."
"Yeah. Everybody but me. Wendy told me I better not say anything about it because shooting was illegal, or something."
April gave the time and turned off the tape recorder. She was bone tired and had had enough of Lori for the moment. She went out to confer with Poppy and Mike, and they all agreed that Lori was no flight risk.
"Okay, you can go home now. Here's my number. Call me if you think of anything else."
"I don't have any money," Lori said, tearing up.
"Someone will take you home. Oh, and Lori. Don't go anywhere tonight, okay?"
"Okay."
A uniform took Lori home in a squad car. Then, eighteen hours after they'd set out in the morning, April went home with Mike to his apartment in Forest Hills.
Fifty
O
nce again morning came too soon. Light and the racket of a ringing phone pierced April's sleep long before she'd had enough of it. Her first thought was that one of their suspects was on the move, and she jerked awake.
"Showtime," Mike grumbled and rolled over to pick up. "Sanchez." He listened for a moment; then his voice got sweet. "Hiya, babe, how ya doin'? No, of course not. No one's avoiding you."
Mike handed over the handset. "It's for you."
A babe for her? "Yes?" she said, hoping it wasn't her mother he was calling
babe.
"April, didn't you get my messages?" Ching's frantic voice.
"Oh, Ching! What time is it?"
"Almost six. I didn't wake you, did I?"
"Almost six?" Was she nuts? April groaned. Four hours' sleep, less a half an hour for Latin meltdown.
"Look, I'm sorry to call so early, but I have to talk to you."
"Okay, you're talking to me. Speak." April closed her eyes.
"April, you told me you had him. You told me everything was fine. Oh, God, what happened?"
"You know I can't talk about it. We're working on it. That's all 1 can say."
"Oh, April, this is terrible. Can't you stop these killings?"
As if April were personally in control of the situation. So early in the morning the presumption of her power made April's head ache.
"There's a huge task force working on it," she said in as neutral a tone as she could manage, considering the hour, the amount of sleep she'd had, and the gravity of the situation.
She opened her eyes, lifted her head a little, and glanced over at her lover He was out cold again with his face buried in the pillow.
"I thought this was your case," Ching said, accusing.
"It's never only one person; you know that. Hundreds of people are working on this." Okay, she was up.
"Well, look, I'm really worried. Tang called me a dozen times. I told her you were the head of it. Why didn't you call me back?"
"I've been working round the clock. I'm not the head of it; you know that." April didn't want to scold, but this was too much.
"April, Tang is a very important person! She's being hurt by this. Why didn't you talk to her? You're making me look bad."
"I'm going to talk to her today, I promise."
"Well, turn on the TV. She's on right now, offering a reward for the killer."
"Really?" That was news. April nudged Mike with her knee. Time to get up. He didn't stir.
"Chico!" No response.
"Everybody is terrified. No one knows who's going to be next. April, the city is going wild over this!"
"I know."
"Are you watching the news?"
April yawned. "Not yet."
"Hurry up! Oh, it's over. You missed it."
"I'm sure they'll show it again." April nudged Mike a second time. It was just as well that Ching called. They had to get going.
Ching sounded a little better. "April, my fitting is today. Ten o'clock. Should I still do it? Tang said I should come."
"Yeah, okay. I'll meet you there. And I'll talk to her then. Tell Tang I'll be there at ten, okay?"
"Thanks, April. I knew you could help."
April said her good-byes and hung up with a shiver of excitement. She'd never met Tang Ling before. She nudged Mike again.
"Mi amor. Vamos."
He rolled over the other way to avoid her.
Fifty-one
L
ate Saturday afternoon, the PC had officially named a Bride Homicide Task Force to link up the investigations of the two wedding homicides— virtually the same cast of characters. But the commissioner did not move the Tovah case from the Five-oh in the Bronx at that time.
By Monday morning, however, Sergeant Hollis had lost points for not having followed through on the Martha's Vineyard angle. And in the same war for detective supremacy Sergeant Woo and Lieutenant Sanchez had gained points for traveling up there and locating Wendy Lotte's gun cache.
Monday morning headquarters for the Tovah case was moved into the city, and the investigation had its focus. Wendy's trunk was in transit to the police lab in Jamaica, the movements of all the key players were being watched, and a search warrant for the residence of Clio Alma and Kim Simone was in process. Definitely they were material witnesses, if nothing else. Kim had to be questioned about his whereabouts Saturday. Clio as well. They were narrowing it down. Ubu was off the hook because he'd been in Bellevue when Prudence was killed.
April had already requested the first set of DD-5s of Kim and his wife Clio Alma from the file up in the Bronx as well as the second set after Calvin Hill and his partner, Detective Moulder, went back to talk to them again. All the DD-5s were in the Hate Unit being studied by Mike and Inspector Bellaqua over coffee and doughnuts in Bellaqua's office. April had seen them all before.
The gist of it: Kim Simone, with his wife translating, told the two detectives that last-minute alterations on the wedding gown of Tovah Schoenfeld ordered by her mother meant he had to work overtime on the dress. It wasn't finished until late Saturday afternoon. Tang Ling had been out of town for the weekend. Since the shop was closed Sunday, Kim had taken the gown home with him on Saturday night, then personally delivered it to the synagogue on Sunday afternoon.