Reckless Endangerment (50 page)

Marlene took a deep breath. “That’s fine, Posie. Are you saying that Chouza Khalid and Walid Daoud are here? Right now?”

“Yeah,” said Posie, her smile sagging slightly. “You said I could entertain my friends in my room sometimes, and the boys are fine. I figured they would be at Larry’s, and I checked in there and …”

“It’s fine, Posie. I tell you what: I think we’d all like to meet your friends. Clay? Why don’t you lead the way?”

On Easter Sunday, Marlene took her kids out to Ozone Park to spend the holiday with her family. There was an egg hunt in the tiny backyard for the twenty-odd cousins in Lucy’s generation, and it was a tradition important enough to Marlene that she was willing to stand the grilling from her folks about her recent exploits, and to bear the associated load of guilt. (“What’re you,
crazy
!
I almost had a heart attack! Your father couldn’t eat!”) Karp had to work. Chouza Khalid was spilling his guts out at the jail, and Karp had first dibs, and every agency from the Brooklyn D.A. to the CIA was lining up, hat in hand, for a taste. Rabbi Lowenstein held his march without either incident or publicity, the media being fully occupied with the capture and shoot-out stories. The Muslim march never developed.

On Monday, Marlene cold-cocked a TV reporter who was trying to interview her child. The reporter insisted to the policeman on duty in front of the Karps’ loft that he arrest her for assault. He declined to do this, having seen not a thing, but he did confiscate the cameraman’s tape as evidence, which tape later proved to be completely blank. The press got the hint, and after a day or so the Karps were left alone. On Tuesday, Rabbi Lowenstein was arrested along with several young Israelis, and accused of conspiring to firebomb the Daoud shop and two other Arab businesses. He gave an impassioned speech at his arraignment, comparing his arrest to Kristallnacht, but this was not much covered by the press.

On Tuesday, the United Jewish Philanthropies announced that their $25,000 reward would be given to Tran Vinh and Lucy Karp for the capture of the terrorist chief.

Marlene thought this hilarious. “What are you going to do with all that money, Tran?” she asked.

“I believe I will invest it in stocks,” he replied after due consideration. “I will first determine which companies are best at grinding the faces of the poor and exploiting the oppressed masses of the Third World. These, I have heard, are the ones to choose.”

“Sounds like a plan,” said Marlene.

On Friday, Karp came home from a hard day (he was doing his regular job and helping out with the preparation of the case against Ibn-Salemeh, who still insisted he was a Lebanese businessman named Ali Ibrahim Mansoufi and knew nothing of any bombs, and keeping an eye on Homicide while Roland Hrcany was laid up), sat down to dinner, and looked down in amazement at the steaming bowl his wife placed before him.

“What is this?” he inquired.

“What does it look like?”

“It looks, smells, and”—using his spoon—“tastes like matzo-ball soup.”

“It
is
matzo-ball soup. I went down to Rivington Street today and got an elderly kosher chicken for the purpose, and your daughter sculpted the balls with her own semi-Jewish hands. How is it?”

“It’s incredibly good. Thank you, Lucy.” He paused. “Is there some special reason for this that I’m missing?”

“Well, as it’s the first day of Passover, I thought it’d be nice to recognize the other half of your children’s heritage.”

“It
is
nice,” said Karp, abashed. “Are we going to have seders from now on?”

“Not unless you want to,” said Marlene. “I just primed the pump.”

Lucy trilled some Mandarin and translated: “Respect for ancestors is the basis of character.”

“I’ll think about it,” said Karp, which seemed to satisfy the moment, because Marlene smiled and handed him a postcard. “This came today.”

Karp took it. It was a picture of the famous Hollywood sign, white letters on a hillside. On the back it said: “Dir Luci: I am fine. Im having apratment in Hollywood hills and boyfriend in movie busnis. He thinks im eiteen ha ha. His gets me serin test soon and I will be star soon too. On day I com see you. Bye bye. Yor freind, Fatyma.”

“Well, well,” said Karp. “I guess we should contact the authorities out there. Technically, she’s a fleeing felon. Old Khalid claims she lifted around two hundred K off him, quite aside from the manslaughter charge we had pending.”

“You wouldn’t!” said Marlene.

“I’ll think about that too. What’s this Arabic stuff down at the bottom?”

Lucy got her dictionary and consulted it. She said, “It means, ‘Everything has transpired according to the will of God.’ ”

A BIOGRAPHY OF ROBERT K. TANENBAUM

Robert K. Tanenbaum is the
New York Times
bestselling author of twenty-five legal thrillers and has an accomplished legal career of his own. Before his first book was published, Tanenbaum had already been the Bureau Chief of the Criminal Courts, had run the Homicide Bureau, and had been in charge of the training program for the legal staff for the New York County District Attorney’s Office. He also served as Deputy Chief Counsel to the Congressional Committee investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. In his professional career, Tanenbaum has never lost a felony case. His courtroom experiences bring his books to life, especially in his bestselling series featuring prosecutor Roger “Butch” Karp and his wife, Marlene Ciampi.

Tanenbaum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He attended the University of California at Berkeley on a basketball scholarship, and remained at Cal, where he earned his law degree from the prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law. After graduating from Berkeley Law, Tanenbaum moved back to New York to work as an assistant district attorney under the legendary New York County DA Frank Hogan. Tanenbaum then served as Deputy Chief Counsel in charge of the Congressional investigations into the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.

The blockbuster novel
Corruption of Blood
(1994), is a fictionalized account of his experience in Washington, D.C.

Tanenbaum returned to the West Coast and began to serve in public office. He was elected to the Beverly Hills City Council in 1986 and twice served as the mayor of Beverly Hills. It was during this time that Tanenbaum began his career as a novelist, drawing from the many fascinating stories of his time as a New York ADA. His successful debut novel,
No Lesser Plea
(1987), introduces Butch Karp, an assistant district attorney who is battling for justice, and Marlene Ciampi, his associate and love interest. Tanenbaum’s subsequent twenty-two novels portrayed Karp and his crime fighting family and eclectic colleagues facing off against drug lords, corrupt politicians, international assassins, the mafia, and hard-core violent felons.

He has had published eight recent novels as part of the series, as well as two nonfiction titles:
The Piano Teacher
(1987), exploring his investigation and prosecution of a recidivist psychosexual killer, and
Badge of the Assassin
(1979), about his prosecution of cop killers, which was made into a movie starring James Woods as Tanenbaum.

Tanenbaum and his wife of forty-three years have three children. He currently resides in California where he has taught Advanced Criminal Procedure at the Boalt Hall School of Law and maintains a private law practice.

Tanenbaum as a toddler in the early 1940s. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York.

A five-year-old Tanenbaum in Brooklyn, near Ocean Parkway.

Tanenbaum’s family in the early 1950s. From left to right: Bob; his mother, Ruth (a teacher and homemaker); his father, Julius (businessman and lawyer); and his older brother, Bill.

Tanenbaum’s high school varsity basketball photo from the ’59–’60 season. He played shooting guard, center, and forward, and earned an athletic scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, where he continued to play.

Tanenbaum shooting during a basketball game his junior year of high school. He wore the number 14 throughout high school and college.

Tanenbaum’s senior portrait. In addition to basketball, he also played first base for his school’s baseball team.