"I don't know anything about any tunnels in Vietnam. Are you suggesting we have tunnels in Central Park?" Leonore asked impatiently.
"He's referring to the soft tissue finds," April translated.
Mike nodded. "Zumech's theory is the tissue was a plant, you know, maybe as a hoax or a message of some kind about Vietnam."
"What kind of message, and why does it have to be something to do with Vietnam? Why not something else?" Leonore gathered up her stuff She didn't like this angle.
"Like what?"
"Like a medical student hoax?" April threw in. "Maslow is a doctor. Maybe he was treating a doctor nut. Are there other possibilities?"
"I'm just quoting John. He's convinced this tissue thing has something to do with Vietnam. Pee Wee was a vet."
"I'm not following you on this one," Leonore said.
"The tissue samples turned up the day after Slocum's search with his dog," Mike went on.
"You're suggesting that someone saw the rescue dog on the news, then came out and planted the tissue samples later? Why?" April demanded.
"It wasn't my hypothesis. It was John's," Mike replied.
"What about the killing of Pee Wee? Who would kill him?" Leonore drew blood on a cuticle, checked her watch. She wasn't interested in this. Too far-fetched.
"Maybe Pee Wee really did see Maslow out there. Maybe someone didn't want him sobering up enough to tell what happened," April said.
"I don't see what this has to do with the tissue finds. It wouldn't have taken a dog to find them. Look, I've got to run."
"Maybe they were planted to cover Maslow's scent. Yesterday we were searching for Maslow. Maybe we would have found him today. We didn't even have time to get Peachy on the trail. The dog was distracted from the word go." April looked unhappy. "Mike, how did your interview go with those two kids? Did you meet their parents?"
Mike paused. "The boy, David Owen, looks like something of a nerd. His mother is a big shot at the bank where she works. Public relations, and Dios, did she work a public relations number for the kid. I get the feeling he's a major disappointment. Right in front of me she says he has ADD. I didn't see any signs of hy-peractivity. He didn't act aggressive or even angry. He was very polite to me. But what do I know? I'm a cop." Mike shrugged modestly.
Leonore was interested. "Medication?" she asked.
"Maybe, for ADD. I'd call the kid a loser. But we'll have to dig a little more. A few weeks ago we had a case of a kid freaking out in school, burning people with cigarettes. He put out someone's eye. When we asked why he did it, he said it seemed like a good idea at the time. He didn't even know the kid he injured."
Leonore shook her head. "I'll never have children. So, where was David Owen last night?"
"At home in his bed. His mother said he had the flu. He's missed school for two days because of it."
"Not true," April cut in quickly. "She's either lying or doesn't know what she's talking about. Yesterday afternoon he was out in the park with his knapsack looking pretty healthy to me." She sipped her tea and grimaced at the taste. "What kind of mother?"
"She seemed very concerned. Kept saying, 'I love this boy' She was out at a party last night. The father was at work."
"So no one was home to confirm he was there." Leonore perked up. "What about the girl?"
Mike pulled on his mustache. "The girl is a whole other thing."
"I'll say," Woody remarked.
"Her mother's a recent divorcee, recently restructured. She wanted to give me a private viewing of her new butt."
April made a face. "Where was her daughter last night?"
"She said she was at home and Brandy was with her the whole evening." Mike smiled.
"Well, if this is all we've got, you two have a lot of work to do. You have my number. Let me know when you have an autopsy report." Leonore pecked Mike on the cheek before heading out the door.
"Good working with you again," he murmured.
"Yeah, sure. Bye, April, take care." With that she marched out.
April turned to Baum. "Woody, we need a search warrant for Dylan Rodriguez's apartment. Get on it," April ordered.
"Can I finish my coffee?" he asked.
"At your desk."
He pushed himself off the wall, went out, and closed the door.
"What's that all about?" Mike said.
"He almost ran me down this morning. So, you slept with her, too." April clicked her tongue.
Mike looked shocked. "Naw."
"Looked to me like the two of you have something going."
"She's got a serious boyfriend. They've been together for years. What's the matter with you?"
"Doesn't matter, I can tell."
"Naw. She's nice, though, isn't she?"
"Who dumped who?"
"The whole thing, nada. Two ships passing in the night."
"My mother warned me about the perfume. I absolutely despise womanizers."
"Maybe a long time ago, but that's all over. If a man has a perfect woman, why keep looking?"
She tilted her head to one side, like a bird, considering. He smiled. One good thing about April was she could move on. She moved on now. "This is some kind of bizarre kid thing, isn't it?" she murmured.
"Looks like."
"What's your take?" She swiveled in her chair.
"We need to bring them in and talk to them together. There's something here. I know it."
"It's the dog, isn't it?" she said. "We keep getting back to that."
"Yeah, it's the dog thing. No doubt about it."
Fifty-four
A few minutes later April called the ME's office to find out if the autopsy on Pee Wee was done yet. As she hung on the phone in her office, she thought about Grace Rodriguez being in the dark about the activities of her own child, about Mike and how much she loved him. She thought about Skinny Dragon's wanting the best for her like any mother, and like many mothers, not getting it quite right. Skinny had spent many hours educating her about all the Pernicious Influences in the bodily landscape that led to trouble with men. Skinny had learned these things from the Chinese "fake" doctors she consulted frequently in Chinatown.
Chinese medicine was complicated. It dictated that the precipitating factors in illness could be external, as in the case of attacking diseases, or they could be internal, arising from one of the seven emotions. Running from woman to woman was one of those disharmonies that was caused by emotion rather than germs. Mike told her she was the perfect woman. If he believed it, then happiness must be the cause of his problem.
According to Skinny Dragon, excess joy scatters the Shen Qi-heart energy. Skinny warned that men get reckless when feeling too good. The heart gets muddled and uncontrolled and can't be contained. Skinny herself worked on the principle that being mean to her husband and daughter was good for them. Happy, softhearted people were notorious for wasting their money and bodily Qi outside the house. The Dragon was dead set against that. April tapped her fingers impatiently, waiting for the ME.
After a long time, Dr. Gloss came on the line.
"This is Dr. Gloss."
"Sergeant Woo, Midtown North."
"Oh, hi there, April, interesting case."
"Tell me."
"I haven't got anything down on paper yet, but this guy James was a walking disaster."
April had known Pee Wee for a year or two and wasn't surprised. "What killed him?"
"Oh, he had lung cancer and cirrhosis of the liver, and a number of other things that must have made his life pretty uncomfortable, including gangrene in his left foot. Let's put it this way, the man didn't exactly have a bright future. But I'll give it to you in a nutshell. He has a number of bumps on his head, recent cuts and bruises on his face. Looks like he was beaten repeatedly with a branch. Tree bark and leaf particles in his wounds. Big hematomas on his chest. Looks like he'd been stomped and kicked in the side, too. A real brutal thing. He was lying down during the attack. There were no defense wounds on his hands…scalp lacerations on his forehead. The important head injury, however, was on the right side of his head. It put quite a dent in his squash and caused a subdural hematoma. Blood clot on the brain to you. Here's the interesting part. When the skull is cracked like an egg and begins to bleed inside, there's no place for the blood to go except down to the brain stem, and when it does that, the brain gets choked. Death comes fast. But this was a focal injury, in one spot, and it caused slow bleeding in his brain that occurred over a period of many hours. If he had been a healthy person in a car wreck, and been taken to a hospital promptly, we could have saved him." Gloss paused.