Read Online The Silent Bride by Leslie Glass - Free Book Online Page A

Mike jerked up his chin with a little smile. "The place was never the same after you left."
"Thanks." Bellaqua went on reminiscing. "That's right, almost four and a half now. We had some good times, busy place. How are you dom' over there, April?" The inspector gave April a long, speculative look, trying to read her.
"Good," April replied, flat as a pancake.
"It's a good command. You want some coffee, doughnuts?" Unperturbed, Bellaqua moved right on.
Hospitality at NYPD meant offering the official food of the department any time of day. Twenty-four/seven, doughnuts were highly acceptable.
"I sent out for a box. What kind do you like?" she asked.
    "Thanks, we like them all," Mike said.
    "Coffee?"
    "Sure, that would be great," Mike said.
    "Take a seat, please." The inspector rose. She was wearing a black pantsuit. She'd been up all night with the Schoenfeld family, but didn't look sleep-deprived. As she left the room, April assessed her back.
    "Good woman. You should have seen her working with those people last night. A real inspiration." Mike took a seat on a new-looking chair in front of the
    desk.
    "Good, we need some inspiration," April murmured.
    When the inspector returned, her expression had changed. She was through with nice. Now came management. The Detective Bureau consisted of more than six thousand people working in precincts and special units all over the city, also in the puzzle palace of headquarters. In big cases like this detectives were pulled in from different units to work together, often displacing the precinct detectives on whose turf the crime occurred. The rivalry between precinct detectives and special-units detectives was well known. Everybody jockeyed to keep important information in his own court, to be the one to break the case and get the credit for himself and his own unit.
    "Tovah Schoenfeld's body was released early this morning. Mike, you know this. I've never seen a victim move through the system so fast." Bellaqua put her index finger against her cheek and tapped. "I'm telling you, it was a very emotional scene at the ME's office. You know how it can get."
"What happened?" April asked.
"The family refused to leave without the body. The family staged a sit-in. They didn't want to leave the body alone. They also tried to get the gown released to bury her in." Bellaqua shook her head.
"How did they do on that?" April asked.
"An offer of a possible forty-eight hours was made. I don't know how real that was/' Mike jumped in.
"Well, Jimmy might have been able to do the ballistics work in forty-eight, but the DA's office would have taken a stand that the dress was direct evidence in the case. When it was put to them that way, the family decided not to delay the funeral. They're putting her in the ground this morning. They've requested security at the funeral," Bellaqua said. "And they're getting a lot of it. The cemetery is in Queens."
"What's the rush?" April asked.
"They're very religious. They wanted her in the ground as soon as possible." The inspector lifted a shoulder. You know how it is.
"So what's the muscle?"
"Money. Riverdale. Real estate. Take your pick. You don't think ultra-Orthodox when you think of the area, do you?"
April glanced at Mike. He smiled. No one had to tell Mike about Riverdale. He'd grown up there, just a block or two from the Five-oh. But he let his superior talk.
"It's always been an enclave, classy. But pretty much of a mixed neighborhood. You got your pockets of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn, in Morningside Heights. Upstate, of course, out in Port Washington, in Queens. Riverdale's Orthodox population has been growing lately. It's upscale, quiet, and, most important for them, geographically a confined space."
Mike nodded thoughtfully, as if he'd never heard this before, as if Poppy Bellaqua, who'd worked with him on several occasions, didn't know perfectly well where he came from.
"This neighborhood is bounded by the Henry Hudson Parkway and the Hudson River, from as far