THE MERCURY HOVERED around ninety degrees after the sun went down. I sat on the stoop in the front of our house on Nord and watched the twilight encroach. Inside, Dad moved about, finishing up the dishes from dinner, the domestic clatter a comforting distraction from a needlessly hectic day.
Ned came out with two sweating beer bottles and handed me one. He sat down next to me and took a long slug. “You sure it’s okay to leave Beth here overnight?”
“Two kids are the same as one, and she’s already asleep. Looks like they really played hard today with toys scattered all over the house.”
“Sorry about the crayon mural on the wall.”
“Don’t worry about it. They’re kids.”
“Who do you think drew the dinosaur and who do you think drew the house and tree?”
“If you can make out a dinosaur and a tree with a house, then maybe you better go see a shrink, pal.”
“It’s great that they get along so well. Thanks, I owe you. I’m beat, I can really use the break, even if it’s only one night.”
“You don’t owe me a thing. And if you want to make it a couple, three nights, it’s not a problem. Olivia can use the social interaction.”
“I might just take you up on that.” He held up his bottle. “Didn’t think that RPD copper would really pay off with that case of beer.”
“Yeah, a three-hundred-dollar case of beer, enjoy it.”
“I’m in for half of that. We’re partners, remember?”
“Thanks, but I didn’t slow down long enough today to ask you if you wanted to play in my game.”
He started to take another drink and stopped. “Bruno, you can always count me in for any game you wanna play. You never have to ask.”
I took a drink to hide the emotional lump that rose in my throat, then said, “Hey, don’t sit so close. People will think we’re a couple or something.”
He chuckled. “It’s good to be back working together. I thought it was a little weird at first, but as soon as we started rollin’ hot, we fell right back into the groove. I gotta tell you that was the most fun I’ve had in at least a year.”
“Yeah, it was all right, wasn’t it?”
“How big a piece of your ass did Coffman chew off?”
I gave him a fake smile. “He wasn’t happy. In fact, I can safely say he was the maddest I’ve ever seen him. He yelled and waved his arms, damn near bit through his cigar. Couldn’t help thinking, though, that some of it was just for show to ease the FBI’s damaged ego. Hoped some of it was for show, anyway. Man, he was mad. No way did I mean for it to turn out that way.”
“He had no right to go at you like that.”
“Yes, he did. We should’ve waited for him.”
“In our place, under the exact same circumstances, do you think he would’ve done anything different than what we did?”
“No.”
“There, you see. Did he at least say, ‘Atta boy,’ for puttin’ the Habeousgrabous on this guy so quick?”
“Yeah, he did, right at the end when I was walking away. I’m worried about him, Ned.”
“Give it a rest. I told you, you don’t have to worry about Coffman. He’s a solid dude.”
I clinked my bottle to his. We drank some more.
I said, “You never told me what got you launched from the street narco team and banished to the desk.”
“Eh.” He waved his hand. “It was nothin’. Really. The brass, you know how they can be, how they think. They always make a big deal outta nothin’.”
“Ned?”
“All right. All right, if you gotta know. I can’t believe you haven’t already heard this. The story shot around the entire county and beyond, like some kinda black plague that’s chased my ass ever since.”
“You’re stalling.”
“All right. Here it is. I was workin’ street narco outta Lennox station. You knew that part, right?” I nodded.
“Okay, so it was my turn in the barrel. I had to take all the cases for the team over to the court to get them filed with the filing DA. I was hung over and in kind of a foul mood.”
“Oh, really. That’s odd.”
“You wanna hear this?”
“Go ahead.”
He paused, as if reliving the event, or trying to sort out which way he really wanted to tell it.
I elbowed him. “Go on.”
“I’m in the DA’s office, you know, in that outer room, waiting my turn along with all the other coppers there to file cases. Took a couple of hours to get to me. My turn comes. I go in, sit down at this guy’s desk, and hand him the cases for the whole team. This dude, you know the type—dress shirt, tie, no jacket—is sittin’ there smiling like he’s havin’ the greatest day ever, like this is the best job in the world. And there’s absolutely nothin’ to be smilin’ about, and I mean nothin’. He’s sitting in an office without windows, doing the old paperwork shuffle for a long line of dirtbags waiting in jail for their turn at the revolving door. Anyway, I’m not paying much attention to him because of my hangover. He’s jabbering away and the first words that get through is that he’s not gonna file one of our cases. And it happens to be one of my cases. He said the PC was too thin, not enough probable cause. I opened my mouth to argue with him, and that’s when I see it.”
“Oh no, what? What did you see?”
“Get this: the dude was under the influence of a stimulant.”
“Ah, crap. Don’t tell me that, Ned. Don’t tell me you busted the deputy DA right in his own office?”