A Clean Kill

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.