Ja Fa Woo told his wife to be quiet. Couldn't she see that April was on her feet? Almost fine.
Help!
Mike stepped in to regain control. "Querida, where do you think you're going?" he demanded.
To work. Did you bring me clothes? Still trying to get some sound out.
"What?"
"What's wrong with her?" Skinny screamed at Mike in Chinese, unaware that he could not understand her when she lapsed out of English.
"Don't you know you can't come in here at this hour?" A nurse in a pink uniform came to shoo them out. "Visiting hours start at eleven."
Mike flashed his badge.
"I don't care who you are."
"I'm getting out of here." April pulled on the nurse's sleeve to get her attention.
"What do you need, dear?" The nurse turned to her.
Skinny grabbed a shopping bag from Gao and pulled out some clothes. While the nurse's head was turned, she gestured April toward the bathroom. Go get dressed. We're going home.
Eight
Only a few hours later Officer Greg Spence gave April his usual line with an encouraging smile. "You don't need to think about this today, but it would help if you could get your impressions out while they're fresh."
Greg was thirty-five, tall and attractive, with a more boyish look than Mike, who was only two years older than him and sitting on the other side of the table. April studied the two cops. Greg had married a few years ago, and his wife, Judy, was pregnant. April knew he'd make a good father. He was patient with witnesses. Patient with uncertainty. She was sorry she couldn't help him out now.
"Okay?" he said, fiddling with his equipment. "You look a little shaky."
Shaky? No, she wasn't shaky. She was angry. The last thing she wanted to do right then was go over the details of her failure. She took a painful breath and tried to calm down. She was a captive of the system just like every other victim of a crime. Like it or not, she had to go through the process.