"Looks interesting," Rollie said, peering out of the van’s front windshield and yawning.
"Mira is giving Francis some grief but," Angie said and stood up, looking over Rollie’s shoulder, trying to make out the two clearer, "Francis is not giving in. Get her, Francis!" She grinned as Rollie swatted her on the rear.
"Well, let’s go join the party. What could be so important that she would call us in the middle of the night, and knowing that we have been high on hash earlier?" Rollie said, winking at Angie as she rolled her eyes.
They got out of the van, Francis spotting them first and broke away from Mira to meet them. Mira was not far behind, still yelling at Francis.
"And another thing," she shouted at his back, "I want to be notified from now on!"
"Yeah, yeah," Frank murmured under his breath as he met up with Rollie and Angie in the middle of the street. "Hi guys! Guess you’re wondering what all this is about?"
"Yep," Angie replied, making a face as Francis smiled. Francis adored Angie. He was happy for Rollie because he couldn’t have thought of a better choice than Angie for his wife.
"Hey, you telling this or me?" Mira cut in, Francis looking directly into Rollie’s eyes with a steely determination. Rollie got the look and smiled at Mira.
"Whoever, you guys got us out here, so what gives?" Rollie asked, rubbing his chin.
"Francis was doing his search of the floor that Czewt rented this entire week. We got a tip that he had fled but it was within minutes of his departure that Francis got over here," Mira began as Francis moved his head from side to side, almost in mimic.
"Yeah, and then we go room to room and nothing! Every room clean, like no one had used any of them. Finally, I get to the room on the end of the hall and we go in. We see the gypsy woman, Eckvara and she is jumping out the window. I, like- run over and try to stop her but man, it was too late and she sailed down and bounced smack into the awning and then off, to the pavement," Francis told them, interrupting Mira who clamped down and put her hands on her hips.
"Is she alive?" Angie asked, trying to peer past them to the throng of police around the front of the Plaza.
"No, she is very dead!" Mira replied, snapping.
"Hey, Mira- give us a break, here," Rollie warned her, as Angie just shrugged her shoulders. She gathered that Mira was not feeling good and something that Francis had done had really ticked her off.
"Okay, sorry- but damn it, Francis! I told you to start with that end of the hall first," Mira told him, opening up the argument wound again as he snapped back at her about procedure.
Rollie whistled loud enough to wake every New York cabbie in his bed sleeping. Everyone stopped talking and the police milling around the Plaza, stopped in their tracks.
"Whoa, everyone- just cool it. Why did you call us down here, Mira?" he asked, plainly and on edge now.
"I need you to make a mask of her face, Rol. We got to catch up with Czewt. I figure he doesn’t know about Eckvara jumping. If we can just use her to get the drug information and bust him, I can keep my job here!" Mira replied, lowering her face and sighing.
"Vanduran on you about the pull out at the Expo?" Angie asked her.
"Him, the FBI, everyone. If he had just let me bust him with what we had, none of this would have happened, damn it!" Mira was losing it, talking about Vanduran in front of them.
Francis looked at her and gave up, "Look, I thought it was best to start with the rooms the bellhop told me were the ones he had gone to with room service. I know Vanduran screwed us up. Come on, Mira- you aren’t going to lose your job over this."
"A lot you know," she said, shaking her head, "I have been on thin ice since Loubar. The fact that he got away…then killing both his brother and sister in that warehouse- Vanduran wasn’t pleased."
"Hey, Internal affairs cleared you!" Francis told her, exasperated at her own beratement of herself.
"Francis, Czewt got away! Vanduran warned me, you know. I can’t take much more of this!" she said bitterly, and walked off away from them. Angie ran after her and grabbed her around the shoulders, taking her over to the van.
Rollie and Francis looked at each other and Francis just mumbled; "Preggars, what can you do? They get all emotional like that and chew the hell out of your ass the next minute. I went through that twice. Rollie, don’t start a family too soon, okay?"
Rollie really hadn’t thought about it much and grinned at him, "Angie would be worse than Mira, I think, eh?"
"Oh, like a nuclear reactor!" Francis chuckled.
Rollie and Francis walked over to where the gypsy woman had landed. Her body lay in a bizarre, twisted heap. The blood was still oozing down the cracks of the sidewalk into the gutter.
"Don’t have much to work with here, Francis," Rollie said, grimacing.
"Yeah, but we gotta make this work. We think Czewt might be headed back toward Canada."
"Was he tipped off?"
"I don’t think so, I don’t think he suspected you guys but then again, with both you and Angie getting that toxin and then, him leaving; it makes you wonder that someone told him," Francis said, shaking his head.
"Well, let’s get this over with, at least we can go back to the loft after this," Rollie said, looking back at the van, "Angie and I will get this mask done before you get her body down to the coroner’s. We need to close off this area so we can work, okay?"
"Yeah, whatever you say, Rol. Hey, you think I was right about going to the rooms where the guy told me he had worked, right?" Francis asked him, now doubting himself.
"Francis, whatever made that woman jump, it wouldn’t have made a difference, I don’t think. But, I would have done the same as you. Mira would have as well. She is just…" Rollie started to say when he was interrupted by Mira who had come back out of the van with Angie and was staring at the two of them.
"What?" Mira asked, raising her eyebrows, ready for another round.
"Tired, I imagine," Rollie said, trying to put in a save as he smiled at her and she gave him a dirty look.
"Ange, come on- we have work to do and then, we are out of here," Rollie told Angie who nodded and the two of them walked back to the van, anxious to be rid of the whole affair on 59th.
"We got mixers and some goopite?" he asked her in the van as she grinned at his colorful use of words.
"Sure thing, boss. I got it right here," Angie replied, pulling out the GARP unit. " Hey, the one thing that we got from Loubar that was actually quite useful," she continued.
"I don’t know what is really going on here, Ange, but I going to ask anyway, okay?" he asked her as they were busy setting up. Angie looked at him and shook her head.
"She is worried about her job, Rol. Vanduran didn’t take the news of the pregnancy well. He wants her on the desk soon. He was not pleased with how she handled cases recently, you know that."
"He can be a real dickhead, sometimes," Rollie mumbled, under his breath as Angie laughed.
"Well, I am sure Mira would like you to share that feeling with her as well, she thinks you and Francis are in the good old boy network with him."
"Me? Francis? Nah, we are solid for Mira, you know that."
"Right," she snapped back, picking up the bucket of water and the mix packs. She strained with all of the equipment as he hardly noticed. He was sure that the two of them had their own opinion set on the matter.
"You coming or going to stand there all night?" she yelled from the street outside.
"Okay!" he answered, coming out, then seeing her dilemma, grabbed the bucket from her as she shook her head at him, "just tell me, next time. You know I get stuff cranking in my head and forget about the world as we know it…"
"Everyday," she replied as they made their way through the crowd of police and set-up.
Angie stopped within a couple feet of the body. A wave of nausea hit her suddenly as she stared at the remains of the gypsy woman. This was the woman who had cut her, drugged her, probably, gotten into the loft, and placed the toxin on the apples. She put her hand to her mouth as Rollie saw her turn for a moment.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, will be in a minute, hold on."
"I can do this myself, if you like?"
"No, let me get a grip, okay?"
"Fine," Rollie replied, as Mira walked over with Francis in tow. Francis walked over to Angie and smiled.
"Pretty gruesome, huh? Give it a objective presence, Ange. Go for looking at just a small field, concentrate on the application of the plaster," Francis told her.
She smiled, nodded, and took a deep breath. Rollie had started to pour the mix into the bucket. Without further words between them, Angie squatted and turned the head of Eckvara back to an upward position, trying to ignore the sound of broken neck bones as it stiffly came back to normal position. She began cleaning the face off with a towel and water as she looked up at Mira.
"This is going to be okay with the coroner? Moving her around and cleaning her off, like this?" Angie asked.
"No, it won’t be okay, but that isn’t going to stop me," Mira replied, nonchalantly as Angie gritted her teeth and continued to cleanse Eckvara’s broken face. She gingerly tried not to disturb too much as she brushed back the matted hair with her gloved hand.
Rollie was finished mixing, the heat generated in the bucket now almost at 110 degrees. He was ready to apply the plaster before it started to harden. He watched as Angie finished cleaning off the woman’s mouth and patted at the broken nose. He noticed that Angie had closed the eyelids earlier. She looked detached now and calm. He smiled as he came over next to her and squatted beside her .
"Don’t worry too much about putting things back right, love. We can fix that when we put it in the GARP."
"Yeah, somehow, I am getting this feeling about her right now," Angie said, still trying to concentrate like Francis told her to do, "and something isn’t right here, Rol."
"As in what?" he replied, as she finished and he began applying the wet plaster clumps to the dead woman’s face. He was affected by Eckvara's body as much as Angie as he choked slightly, trying to hide it.
"I don’t understand why she jumped? This woman was a very strong, forceful type of person. I didn’t get the impression when I was with her that she would have ever opted for suicide instead of getting arrested, you know?"
"Umm, got a point, Ange. You think someone pushed her out? Francis was there, remember? He saw her go out by herself."
"I know, I was thinking maybe she got a dose of her own medicine…" Angie said, pondering the issue.
"Good suspicion," he remarked, as he put the finishing touches on the face, "did you get the length of her hair down, color of her eyes and all?"
"Yeah, forever etched in my mind," she replied, biting her lip as she swallowed hard and he did the same.
"Come on, stand up with me. We have to wait ten minutes while it sets. Let’s get some coffee," Rollie told her and they left the scene, flipping off their gloves.
"Pretty snazzy place," Francis remarked as the four of them sat in the Oak Room Restaurant inside the Plaza.
"Well, nice of the Hotel to get us some coffee and let us sit in here," Mira replied, looking around at the beautifully carved, beamed ceilings.
"Yeah, without a suit jacket on, even!" Rollie voiced, grinning, knowing the dress code for this restaurant.
"Mmm, this coffee is great!" Angie said, smiling at the waiter who had just brought her a second cup.
"Nothing but the best for New York’s finest," Mira said, staring at the black liquid in her cup.
"Should you be drinking that?" Angie asked, frowning.
"Ah, not you too!" Mira replied, making a face at her.
"Who else?" Angie asked.
"His name will not be mentioned…" Mira replied and put her cup down.
"Oh, yeah, well- I’ll shut up," Angie said, catching Rollie’s eye who then felt her foot stroke his leg under the table.
He smiled as she playfully moved up and down his shin and finally rested her foot between his knees as she sat across from him.
"You know, I have to be on the set in less than four hours, Mira. We need to wrap this up. I can get you the mask by this afternoon. Angie will be working on it at the loft all day. You can pick it up then," Rollie told her, sipping his coffee and then, shifted his position in his seat.
"Oh, but I am not through with you then, Tyler!" Mira warned him.
"What now?" Angie wanted no more to do with Czewt or drugs.
"I got my feelers out, we will find Czewt and then, I got a score to settle with him. Eckvara will be back to assist him one last time," Mira told Rollie and Angie.
"He’ll know!" Angie said, strangely aware that the man was no fake and really was psychic.
"No, he won’t. I won’t allow it!" Mira snapped at her.
"O-kay…" Angie commented, releasing her foot from between Rollie’s knees and slipped her shoe back on. She got up from the table as Francis came out beside her.
"Angie, come on, we got a couple of minutes, help me pick out a birthday gift for Sarah so I can come back and buy later when the place opens. I saw something in the gift shop window…." He began as they left Rollie and Mira alone at the table. Both of them knew that Mira wanted to talk to Rollie alone.
"What is it, Mira?" Rollie asked her, softly. He looked at her, sitting beside him as she looked down at her lap, not meeting his eyes, "hey, this is Rollie asking you now, come on…"
He put his arm around her shoulder and she immediately began to shake, silent sobs forced out of her as she still tried to hide her face.
"Mira, it’s okay. You don’t have to pull this tough stuff with me, right?" he told her, lifting her chin and finally, their eyes met and he looked at her tear-stained face and smiled.
"Get off it, Rollie!" she started to say in her brisk manner, but then completely broke down and sobbed into his chest as he pulled her closer to him.
He held it like this for sometime as Francis and Angie returned but quickly retreated back to the lobby when they saw them.
"I love him so much, Rollie."
"Where is he?"
"I don’t know, South American- some place down there," she told him, thinking of Michael in danger, and not caring about her worrying so much; not caring to leave that miserable business with the baby on the way. Not wanting to really try again and make it right with her.
"He loves you too, Mira. He told me so, you know. I don’t began to understand him. He’s sort of a strange bloke, you know?" Rollie said, and then laughed as she joined him then, smiling slightly.
"I know it’s been real hard on you, and now with the baby and all. If you need anything, you tell me, okay?" Rollie continued, reassuring her.
"Oh, why did you go off and marry Angie!" she told him, jokingly, "when I needed you to make me an honest woman."
"Oh, Mira- I didn’t know…" he replied, a look of playful shock on his face.
"Yeah well, that jezebel stole you right out from beneath me," she added, sitting up, wiping her eyes, and laughing.
"She’s a real strumpet, but then, you know I like that type of woman, eh?" he remarked and seeing Angie standing at the door to the Oak Room, he winked at Mira who looked up and waved, shaking her head.
"Hope you guys are okay with this. I know you would rather be doing anything but this right now," Mira told him, apologetically.
"Doing this is me life!" Rollie told her, with a brogue.
"Okay, too much coffee," she told him and started to stand up. Rollie smiled and they walked out together, joining Angie and Francis. Rollie put his arm around both Mira and Angie in the lobby. Francis just led the way.
"Back to work," Mira said then, at the lobby entrance and moved off from them, her face returning to the hard-lined look of a cop with a bad attitude.
Rollie and Angie returned and removed the hardened plaster mold of Eckvara’s face. They bagged the mold carefully and moved away from the scene. Angie took a final look at the dead woman’s form lying on the sidewalk. She still had a strange feeling about all of this that she couldn’t get over.
"Okay, we will see you later," Rollie told Mira, and smiled, their conversation earlier re-strengthening their friendship.
"Yeah, I check with Angie around six tonight. Good luck!" Mira told them both and headed back to the squad car with Francis. She was calmer and ready to go home after wrapping up with the coroner.
The ride back to the apartment was quiet. Angie was setting up the GARP system in the back. Rollie was thinking about Michael and what a jerk he was of late.
"Hey, we’re here," he told Angie, pulling up to the apartment building and stopping.
"Good, a few more hours of sleep, and you will be ready for Ben Poe and Roddy!" Angie remarked, walking up to the front and putting her hands on his shoulders.
"You moving back over to the loft, right?" Rollie asked her.
"Yeah, I don’t feel so bad now. I just needed to get out of there last night, you know?"
"Yep, but you did get to have me sleep in your little bed."
"It just didn’t live up to my dreams, though," she said, looking at him sadly, then smiling.
"Plenty of other dreams came true," he reminded her.
"Yes, the best ones did," she told him and kissed him quickly as he spun out of his seat and joined her outside.
Rollie was out the door at five that morning with Angie having packed up and joining him. He dropped her off at the loft, carrying in the GARP unit and finding out if everything was secure. Bluey was vigilant as ever and he kissed her quickly, satisfied with the police sweep the night before and his own perusal.
"See ya later," he told her, running to the door.
"I should have this for you by this afternoon," she told him, already working with the controls of the GARP.
"Give us another kiss for the road," he asked her, standing there and she shook her head and came over to him.
He lowered his head, kissing her warmly and then deeply before letting her go as she collected her wits and grinned at him; "you better get out of here," she warned him.
"Going, going- gone!" he said, and was out the door as she called for Bluey to secure the loft.
As she turned to go back to the GARP unit, she ran right into the formidable figure of Nicholas Czewt. She gasped in shock as he put his hand over her mouth, muffling her scream.