April said all this matter-of-factly, but Jason could tell it was a subject that upset her.
"Greed is one of the seven deadly sins. It's not a uniquely Asian thing," Jason told her. "Kidnapping is common in a lot of countries these days."
"Yeah, but in other places it's the rich who get nailed," April pointed out. "The ones who have the money to pay. These people are the poorest of the poor, and they have no one to help them. They're as afraid of the police as they are of the people exploiting them."
Emma came back into the room with a tray of fancy open-faced sandwiches, a glass of milk, and some cans of Coke. Jason did a double take: the love of his life was serving lunch. Then he got a better look at the two combinations: grilled peppers, eggplant, mozza-rella, and anchovies and blackened chicken, provo-lone, avocado and sprouts. Honey-pepper relish on the side. Very creative. He hoped they wouldn't have the leftovers for dinner.
"So, I'm wondering if someone didn't get the idea of extorting a newborn from some poor woman, then selling it to an uptown couple for a lot of money," April was saying.
"Oh, my God." Emma flinched, almost dropping the tray. Baum jumped up to take it from her. April gave him an approving look as he set it down on the coffee table.
"Honey, you okay?" Jason put his arm around her. "You don't have to listen to this."
"I'm not an invalid. I made lunch; eat up."
Jason glanced at the tray of food without seeing it. April was staring at Emma's protruding navel again. "You sure you're okay? Aren't pregnant women supposed to think only happy thoughts?"
"Eat something. I have to feed people now. I'll get my happy thoughts from that."
Baum raised his eyebrows at his boss.
Could he take a sandwich?
"Take one," Emma insisted. "I need reassurance, really."
"Take one," April told him.
Jason took a sandwich and examined it. He knew he was going to have trouble eating it but didn't want to ask where the top of the roll was or when she'd made it. "Thanks, Emma. This is terrific."
Emma nodded at him proudly.
See, I'm going to be a good mother.
Jason liked very simple food, like tuna fish and chicken salad. As he struggled with the Cajun chicken paired with Italian cheese and soapy avocado, he wondered how wild Emma was going to get in the coming years with her cooking and if she knew that the sudden urge to supply food at regular intervals was part of nesting. But he couldn't complain about the impulse or the result. At thirty-four and forty, they were ready for domesticity. It had taken them both a while to grow up and settle down enough for children. Now they were truly exuberant parents-to-be. The baby they were expecting in just a few weeks had become the focus of their lives, and along with that, apparently, came lunch.
As for the case at hand, Jason had mixed feelings about Anton Popescu and felt terrible for Heather. The truth about their relationship had yet to come out. Depending on which of the clocks all around him he consulted, he had between five and twelve minutes of his free hour left. By the time the first one started chiming, the exotic lunch was over and the two detectives were gone.
CHAPTER 26
A
fter their gourmet lunch at the Franks', April and Woody checked in at the precinct to brief Iriarte. He was alone in his office, talking on the phone, when they got there. He put his hand over the mouthpiece. "Yeah?"
"We lucked out with Heather Rose, sir," April told him.
He hung up without saying good-bye. "She give it up?"
"Some, not everything. She didn't nail her husband as a beater, but she did tell Jason the baby is with its mother."
Iriarte heaved a great sigh. "Sometimes I think there is a God. Who is it?"
"She didn't say."
"What do you mean she didn't say?" Iriarte erupted again.
Hagedorn appeared at the door, rapped on the window, then plunged in without waiting for an invitation. "Ten," he announced.
"Ten what?" Iriarte looked at him expectantly.
Hagedorn held up a file. "Ten mixed babies." He stood there, grinning, one hand raised and his pudgy body frozen in the pose of triumph as he offered, like a precious trophy, the regurgitations of his computer.
Iriarte blinked. The blink meant he didn't really care ten what, and furthermore he didn't want to know. But for Hagedorn, his favorite, the lieutenant had the tolerance of a saint. "Go ahead, Charlie."
Hagedorn gave his boss another shit-eating grin. "I checked them all out. Guess what?" Excitedly, Hagedorn pushed his lank hair back from his pale forehead.
"What?" Iriarte asked nicely.
"One hundred forty-two babies born in downtown hospitals during your time frame, Sergeant." He nodded at April.
"Uh-huh."
"Eighty are black or Hispanic or mixed. Fifty-two are pure Asian." He looked up. Here was the triumph. "Only ten others are mixed Asian and other."
"Good work, Charlie." Iriarte looked impressed.
"Do you have home addresses for them?" April asked. Only ten was too good to hope for.
"Yes."
"Let's go, Baum." April reached for the file.
In four minutes, she and Baum had once again evaded the specialists and were on their way down to Chinatown to start checking them out. April was too preoccupied thinking about Emma and Jason having a baby, and of the 142 other couples engaged in productive monkey business nine months earlier, to worry about Woody's driving.
She wondered how many of those fornicating couples wanted the babies they got. Were all the parents still together and able to keep their offspring? Had one or more of the infants been sold or given away? These were not terms in which April thought very often. Usually, she tried to avoid thinking about normal people getting married, having babies. She was still reeling from the sight of Emma's protruding belly with a human being inside of it. It was disturbing.
She braced a hand against the dashboard as Woody braked suddenly for a pedestrian. But she was excited about the case now, keyed up for the hunt and undaunted by the fact that searching for an infant born almost four weeks ago might turn out to be like looking for a lost item in a landfill. Chinatown was a maze, but people were connected there; they knew things about each other, even if they didn't tell. Somehow she didn't think this was going to be a hard one.
Upbeat and optimistic though she was, April was surprised when she stopped in Bernardino's office in the detective squad room and he punched the air at her accusingly.
"I've been trying to get hold of you," he said.
"No one told me. What's up?"
"We found your stroller," he announced.
"No kidding? What was in it?" Now April was really excited.
"Groceries. Sit down, make yourself comfortable."
April took a chair and nodded at Baum to do the same. He sat. "Groceries?"
"Madison spoke with her. Ah, thanks, Madison." The Chinese detective April had noticed yesterday, with the serious narrow face and the receding hairline, came in and handed Lieutenant Bernardino a cup of coffee.
Bernardino made the introductions: "Sergeant Woo, Detective Madison Young, Detective Baum."
Young nodded at Baum, then at April. "Good to meet you both," he said.
"Same here," April said.
"Ask the sergeant if she'd like some coffee," the lieutenant prompted.
"Would you like some coffee, ma'am?" he asked politely.
"No, thanks," April told him, noting again how the situation had changed for her. Now guys were getting her coffee.