Burning Time

61

“Nine-one-one Emergency, can I help you?”

“Yes, this is Detective Woo up in the Two-O,” April said. “I’d like you to check and see if you got a call last night from a woman, name of Emma Chapman.”

“I’d need an official request, Detective—”

“Woo,” April said. “Okay. Who shall I send it to?”

Fifteen minutes later, April faxed a request for information downtown to Headquarters, where the 911 calls from all five boroughs came in, were recorded, and were dealt with.

An hour later she tried again. “I’m trying to locate a call from a female, name of Emma Chapman.”

“Okay, Detective. I can check that now. Would that be Manhattan?”

“We don’t have a confirmation on that. We’re trying to locate her.”

“You want me to run them all?”

“Yes,” April said.

“Any particular time?”

“Yes, we’d like it right now.”

“I mean any particular time last night?”

“Oh.” April thought for a minute.

“Where do you want us to start, Detective?” The operator sounded impatient.

April didn’t let it bother her. Emma had called her husband at just before midnight. Would she call her husband first, or the police first?

“Start at eleven-thirty,” April said, just to be safe.

“All five?”

“Yes.”

“Manhattan, too?”

“I want them all,” April said. How many times did she have to say it? Yes, she wanted five, all five boroughs, from eleven-thirty on. She sat back in her swivel chair.

“It’s going to take some time.”

“Why?” April asked.

“You want last night. That isn’t even twenty-four hours ago.”

So? What did that mean? Didn’t they have some kind of printout of who called on what complaint? April tried to imagine what it looked like down there at One Police Plaza where all 911 calls in the city came in. She’d certainly been sent out on enough calls to know they were dispatched through the closest precinct.

But the calls were organized by borough. Did they have one huge room in the basement of Headquarters with dozens of operators answering the phones? Or did they have a different unit for each borough? She had never been there. She had no idea what the setup was. Probably a different unit for each borough, she guessed.

“How long will it take?” she asked, careful not to sound impatient herself.

“A while. There’s no one to do it right now.”

April looked at her watch. Maybe she should go down there and do it herself. Then she looked up. She saw Sergeant Joyce in a new green-and-black plaid suit that was ugly in the extreme, talking rapidly to Bell, Davis, and Aspiranti. Even from here, she knew they were discussing the case.

Bell had located the afternoon doorman of the building and gone to talk with him. The doorman was able to set the time of Chapman’s disappearance at just about six P.M. He had watched the actress walk to the end of the block. She crossed the street and he didn’t see her again after that. Now they had a description of the clothes she was wearing: jeans and a gray sweatshirt. She sure wasn’t going out to dinner dressed like that.

For a second, Joyce turned and looked in her direction. April didn’t like the look at all. “I’d like to talk to your supervisor,” April said, to irritate the voice on the phone.

She always hated it when people did that to her.

“Certainly. What was your name again?” the operator said sweetly.

“Woo,” April said. “Detective Woo, from the Two-O. You already have my ID.”

Ginora waved at her. “Dr. Frank on the line,” she called. “Want him to wait?”

“Tell him I’ll call him back.”

April sighed. Frank called every thirty minutes. He just wouldn’t let up. She repeated her request to the 911 supervisor. The supervisor said the calls from last night hadn’t been printed out yet. That meant someone would have to listen to every single tape for calls that came in during the time frame in question. Problem was, at the moment no one was available to get the tapes together and run them.

“Look, this is an emergency—” April pressed. “Can I come there and do it myself?”

“No—but … I’ll get someone on it—What’s your name again?”

“Woo, Detective April Woo, and thanks.” April hung up.

A few feet away at Aspiranti’s desk, Sergeant Joyce was waving at April to come join the discussion.