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 She says no, so he punches her in the mouth. She still says no, so he hits
her again. He s got her on her knees, trying to make her do it when another
renter hears the commotion and tries to help old Mrs.
Zalina. The perp has the good sense to run out and never come back.
 How s Mrs. Zalina, Frank?
 Patrol responded. Took her to Mount Sinai. Say she s fine. We logged it as an
attempted sodomy and an assault.
Shook her up pretty good but she was tough as nails.
Doctors gave her a head-to-toe exam, and the rape crisis counselors spent time
with her and took her home. She told them she didn t need counseling about
nothing if the late Anthony Zalina didn t ever make her do  that disgusting
thing in forty-two years of marriage, she wasn t about to do it for some
drunken garage mechanic.
 Good for her. I take it we know who the guy is, right?
 Yeah. We found a lot of papers in his room with his name on it.
Worked in a body shop in the Bronx, only he didn t show up this morning. It s
just a matter of time, Alex we ll drop him.
 Okay. I ll assign it to someone in the unit on Monday, so we ll be ready when
you pick him up.
 You ll like Mrs. Zalina. She wants to go all the way with this. Says she
could recognize his penis anywhere -  looks just like a teeny-weeny, crooked
little sausage.
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Cops put that right in the original report with the rest of the description.
 Ought to be an interesting line-up, Frank. Maybe we should hold it in a
butcher shop instead of the precinct.
If that s it on the bad news, what s the good news?
 This could be a new one for you, Alex. I had a call today from a young lady
who wants to remain anonymous for now. She was raped a week ago by her
ex-boyfriend.
They both work at Merrill Lynch, went out for drinks, reminisced, and then she
brought him home with her.
Wants to know how long she can wait before she reports it and still has a
case. But her big question was about the evidence. Seems she kept a washcloth
that he wiped himself off with, put it in a baggie, and then stuck it in her
freezer so she ll have his semen to prove he did it.
Wants to know how long she can keep it and still have the police lab be able
to use it.
 Are you serious? What did you tell her?
 I told her it depended on whether she had it stored with the frozen peas or
with the ice cream& 
 Frank, that s revolting.
 And I told her that I absolutely refused to go to her house for dinner until
she got that stuff to the lab. Anyway, what I really told her was to call your
office next week and one of the lawyers could answer all her questions about
prosecuting.
 That s it? I asked.
 For the moment, that s all we ve got, Alex. You ll be the first to know if we
need you.
I hung up and decided to busy myself in getting ready for Jed s arrival:
setting the table, straightening up the apartment, and removing the tags from
Isabella s slinky birthday present to dress up for the occasion. The Four Tops
were singing to me as I tried to lighten my mood for the night ahead, urging
me to reach out for them if my life was filled with confusion. I put the list
of people with motives to kill Isabella, which I had started to scratch out
during the funeral, in a drawer, closed the file which contained the motion
and bill of particulars that I had to respond to by Thursday for the Vargas
case, and finally settled down unable to concentrate on anything else with a
two-month-old copy of Architectural Digest.
 Mr. Segal on the way up, ma am, the doorman announced on the house phone
when Jed finally arrived from the airport.
I checked myself again in the bathroom mirror and got to the front door just
as I heard the elevator opening. Jed stepped out, carrying his suitcase, and
did a double-take when he saw me in the doorway of my apartment at the end of
the hallway wearing my sexy silk outfit. It was a radical departure from my
usual lounging uniform: an oversized man-tailored shirt and a pair of
leggings.
 You re in the right place, darling. Welcome home.
 You may have found the perfect antidote for my jet lag, Alexandra, he said
with a smile as he pinned me against the wall and reached down to find my
mouth.
We kissed for several minutes, hard and deep, our tongues exploring each
other s mouths. Jed ran his hand down the smooth surface of the pajama top and
found my nipple waiting at attention for him. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]