Slaughter

“Nursing home” was what Pearl’s mother called Sunset Assisted Living in New Jersey, where she had a well-furnished one-bedroom apartment. The kind of place that would have cost a million and a half dollars in Manhattan.

“That all?” It was a short message to be coming from Pearl’s mother.

“No,” Jody said. “She wants us to buy her something here in the city.”

“You know about real estate prices in Manhattan. She’s better off—”

“No, no, Mom. She doesn’t want a better apartment—at least not now. She needs one of those folding contraptions with metal claws on the end of a long pole. For picking up objects she can’t reach.”

“What kind of objects?” Pearl asked.

“I suspect desserts, snacks, wrapped candies. She uses a walker now and doesn’t like it.”

“So she wants to use her walker and a grabber on a pole?”

“No, no. Just the pole contraption, like a lot of the other patients have here.”

“Tenants.”

“And maybe a new wheelchair.”

“Good God! Are they going to joust?”

“She’s your mother and my grandmother. Don’t make a joke of it.”

“Okay. Sure.”

“The longest pole they make, she said.”

“Sure. But with her walker she’s standing up.”

“It’s getting to things,” Jody said. “Her walker isn’t fast enough. Some of the other women are always ahead of her. She gets the last or the smallest or what’s broken.”

“She has te

Jody giggled.

“What’s that I hear?” Pearl asked. “You’re an attorney. You’re supposed to be serious.”

“Oil your te

“For God’s sake,” Qui

Pearl looked over at Qui

That was when they heard the three loud explosions.

Qui

“Business?” Jody asked.

“Business.”

“Be careful, Mom.”

“I’m a cop.”

Qui

45

When they got to the end of the block, a crowd was begi

Sirens yowled, horns blared, voices screamed and pleaded for help. Qui

He was close to the child who had screamed and, along with others, began to dig through and throw debris.

Five feet away, Pearl was working to free a woman who was trapped beneath what looked like a large fallen beam.

Qui

Five minutes later several others joined their efforts. Qui

Someone yelled, a joyous whoop, and across the jagged and blackened pile of rubble two men were carefully removing the child they’d been working to free. No more than three or four years old, the child appeared to be in shock, but definitely alive and still protesting with healthy lungs.

More noise, more calls for help, more people trapped in the rubble. Qui

A particularly large chunk of concrete was eased aside by several bloody hands, and the man who’d been screaming but now was quiet was carefully removed from beneath the debris. He was white with shock, and his right leg was missing. The sobbing woman who’d directed searchers to him rushed toward him but was restrained by several men and a teenage girl.

Qui

Movement and noise around him, more voices. Qui

The Fire Department had arrived.

Sirens of every kind of emergency vehicle were still yowling. Uniforms at both ends of the blocked street were letting them pass in and out with alacrity. No one wanted to come in here unless compelled by compassion or occupation.

A woman obviously in shock, wearing a tattered pants suit, stumbled over to Pearl and collapsed. Pearl held her, helped her to walk, urged her to keep breathing, and led her toward where at least three ambulances were parked, their light strips putting on a colorful but muted display in the thick dust.

Exhausted, Qui

“Take him, please!” a woman’s voice pleaded alongside Qui

He turned and saw a woman holding an infant less than a year old. She was obviously about to pass out and drop the child.

She thrust the infant at Qui

He could think of nothing to say, nothing to do but accept the child. The woman turned around and made her way back toward the center of hell. Qui

He gripped the silent, staring boy and walked toward the ambulances. As he strode in shuffling, zombie-like strides, he felt a glimmer of hope that the damage was less than it might be. There seemed to be some control of it now, since more police and the fire department had arrived.

When he reached the ambulances he turned the boy over to white-uniformed paramedics. As the back of the nearest ambulance opened, he saw the woman Pearl had been helping, sitting with others in the ambulance who were sobbing or simply sitting and staring.

He glanced around, walking along the line of parked ambulances, looking for Pearl. Finally he saw her sitting on the back of one of the vehicles with an open back door. It struck Qui

When she saw Qui

“The woman find her other daughter?” he asked.

“I think so. Yes.” She seemed to have no idea what he was talking about. He realized she thought he meant the first infant they’d help rescue.