A Clean Kill

forty-two

A t seven p.m. April returned to Midtown North Hagedorn and Sergeant Gelo, who'd been due to end their second tour at four, were waiting for her. Three hours into the second shift of the day was a quiet time in the unit. Most of the detectives were out. The secretary was gone. The phones were still, and no one was raving in the holding cell. April collapsed at her desk, took a few minutes to go over the paperwork on her desk, then summoned Eloise. Charlie followed so close on her heels that he could have been her shadow. April stared at him in surprise. The milk white yin of a male for whom she'd had no expectation in the personality department seemed to have acquired an expression overnight. He was smiling.

"Boss," he said with a toothy grin.

"Hey, Charlie, how ya doin'?" she asked.

"Real good," he replied.

The reason for the smile looked like a cocktail waitress in an all-night bar. Wearing tight pants and a clingy sweater, Eloise took a chair and crossed her legs. Woody, the prepster, entered without being invited, passed a mug of hot water over the desk to April, then moved back to hang out by the door as if he were her bodyguard.

"Thanks, Woody." Automatically, April reached into her desk drawer for a tea bag.

In the old days when Lieutenant Iriarte had been the boss, April and Woody had been out; Hagedorn and two monkeys had been in. Now the apes were in counterterror units, and this was the unit's inner circle. April studied her team. If she hadn't been so tired, she would have smiled; they were an odd trio. Hoping for an energy boost, she dumped the tea bag into the hot water. She had seven cups to go for good health. As soon as the tea hit the water the smoky aroma of Lapsang souchong wafted into the air.

"How did it go with Lorna Doone?" she asked.

"Name's Lorna Dome actually and she goes by the name Cherry Red," Eloise said.

"Because she has red hair," Charlie explained.

"No kidding." April glanced at Woody. "You have a photo of her?"

"It can be arranged. Why, do you need one?" Charlie asked.

"Just a fluky thought." April had looked through Woody's photographs from the Wilson house the day before. There were lots of pictures of kids and strollers, reporters, and dog walkers. Old people. One redheaded woman, young, wearing jeans and a peasant shirt, and she had long hair. Someone was checking it out.

"Lorna's twenty-three, looks like she has a heavy habit herself. Real thin with big boobs and lots of long red hair," Eloise said. "She spilled like a fountain. She was all over that Peret kid—she and two other girls. They didn't know who he was, and made him think they really liked him. It won't be a problem giving the chief what he wants. We can keep Peret's name out of it. Maybe," Eloise added. "And she told me they have a private ambulance."

April was startled out of her musings. "What?"

"She said they have a room downstairs where they put ODs. They collect them, then drive them to the ER in their vehicle and drive off. We can catch them at it, no problem. Peret was the kind of customer they don't like. He got out under his own steam, then crashed outside."

"This is great news. I'm really proud of you." April looked from one to the other. "Good work," she said again. Maybe she could go on vacation after all. "Did you copy the Alison tapes and get them over to the task force?" she asked.

"Yeah, no problem there. Sergeant Minnow has it. He's something of a cold fish, isn't he?" Eloise replied.

"They call him Fish for a good reason. Anyway, what did you find out about the nannies?"

"Here's where we stand on that. Charlie—"

Hagedorn cleared his throat, taking over. "There are no priors dn Lynn Papel or Remy Banks. The Anderson file indicates the Wilson house as a first-time placement for Remy. Lynn, however, was fired from her last job."

Eloise took it from there. "We paid a visit to her previous employer this afternoon at five-oh-seven. Anna Currant lives in a town house on Sixty-first Street between Second and Third."

"Another town house," April remarked quietly. She jotted down the owner's name. "Any other similarities?"

"Well, she has a daughter and son, two and six. Lynn worked for her for nine months."

"Nine months is three months less than a year," April murmured.

"What's the significance?" Eloise asked.

"The fee for placing them in based on a year's salary. The client gets credit on the next one only if the girl leaves, not if she's fired. What did Mrs. Currant tell you?" April asked.

"She told us that Lynn was attractive, competent, and reliable, but she suspected that something was going on between the girl and her husband. Mrs. Currant had a good relationship with Miss Anderson, who had placed other household help with her in the past. She considered Miss Anderson a friend because she seemed to take a personal interest in the household and called from time to time to find out how things were going. On one such call, Mrs. Currant confessed that she was. concerned about Lynn getting too friendly with her husband. According to Mrs. Currant, Miss Anderson said that kind of behavior was totally unacceptable. She advised her to fire Lynn and take a new girl who had just come in with great recommendations. Which Mrs. Currant immediately did."

"Was there any basis to the woman's concern?" April asked.

"Well, Mrs. Currant is not an attractive woman," Charlie said.

"What about Miss Anderson?"

"I hear she's a dog, too," Woody remarked.

"Stop it with the looks thing." Eloise slapped him playfully.

"I meant priors," April said wearily.

"No priors on Jo Ellen Anderson. She doesn't even have a driver's license."

"Okay, this is very good. We have a new angle to work. Something's not right here. We're going to take the agency apart. You mentioned the excessive probing into the girls' lives. I'm wondering if this Anderson woman isn't manipulating delicate domestic situations, so she can move the nannies around to create more business for herself."

Charlie nodded. "It might be a Better Business issue. We can see if there are any complaints there."

"And I want to see the hiring history of both the murdered women. We need names of every single person who has worked in those houses. We can widen it from there. The victims were close friends and shared many of the same sources. Maybe someone worked for both of them."

"You mentioned before that they were users. What about their dealer?" Gelo said.

April shook her head. "The trainer was dealing and sleeping with both of them. He loses both ways. The time frame isn't right for Derek, and he hasn't been out today. We'll keep on him. If they want to make something of that later. . . ." She shrugged. It wouldn't be their call.

"What about his supplier?" Eloise asked.

"We'll let Minnow work on that angle. He needs to do something."

They snickered, and April was sorry she'd said it.

"Remy and Lynn?" Charlie said.

"Lynn is a helpful witness. She told me Alison's wedding rings were missing." She shook her head again, remembering Lynn's very real fear the moment she'd walked into the house after she returned from taking the girls to play school.

"But she took Alison's diamond bracelet," Eloise said.

"Alison gave me a different story on that, so someone's lying. Let's see the file," April asked.

Charlie went to get it. April sipped her tea.

Charlie returned in less than thirty seconds with the file. "Here's the note about the bracelet."

April reached for her own notebook and read the page where she'd written what Alison had told her about. a previous nanny's taking her bracelet and how Jo Ellen had convinced her to replace the girl with Lynn. As she spoke, a chill entered the room. She could feel it curl up from the floor and grab hold of the hairs on the back of her neck. For a long moment nobody moved. Then April reached for the phone and called Sergeant Minnow.

"Sergeant," she said when he picked up his cell. "It's April Woo Sanchez."

"Hello, Lieutenant," he said coolly. "We're about to get started over here. Will you be joining us?"

"Yes, and we need to find a place to park Lynn and Remy where they can't be reached for a while."

"We're already working on that. What's up?"

"I'll tell you when I get there." She hung up and smiled apologetically at her team. "You're going to have to give me the files. I'll take them over," she said.

"I already made copies," Charlie replied, and Eloise grimaced at another broken rule.

"Okay, everybody go home and get a good night's sleep and come back in the morning. Looks like you don't get your day off tomorrow."

Nobody seemed the least bit surprised about that.

"And Woody, 1 want you to pick me up on First and Fifty-sixth Street at eight a.m. Good night, all."

"Wait, you don't have your car. I'll drive you over there," Woody said.

"Thanks." She grabbed her purse and her jacket. She hadn't even been there an hour. On the way back across town, she left a message for the medical examiner. She wanted to know Alison's cause of death as soon as possible.