SERGEANT PRISCO APOLOGIZED for being a few minutes early. “It's not as much trouble to park round here as it is downtown,” she said by way of explanation.
I didn't know what to say. “Would you like some coffee?”
“Great. Thanks. Black. No sugar.”
That gave me a couple of minutes to get my head together.
I brought back two mugs. She sat in my Client's Chair. I retreated to my own.
I fondled my mug like it was a precious thing. I felt bleary, stupid and tired. Anger was giving way to confusion. It didn't help at all that confusion was becoming a way of life.
“I don't feel very bright,” I said.
“It must have been a disturbing experience,” she said.
“What? Oh. Yeah, a bit.”
“I'll be gentle,” she said. “What?”
She waited.
“Oh,” I said. “A joke. Huh.”
She took a sheet of paper from a zippered case. “I have the report from the officers who attended the incident last night. It seems clear enough, but maybe if I read it to you . . .”
The written material the police had provided was accurate, if brief. It reminded me of what had happened and I added more detail about Cola Lowis/Monique Seals/Mrs. Ashworth's words before she had pulled the replica gun. But we did not make a lengthy job of it.
After I signed the statement form I said, “I understand that Ms Lowis has done this kind of thing before.”
“Yeah, but we've had trouble getting, statements from victims because they don't like to admit how foolish they looked.”
“It was all over pretty quickly,” I said.
“Course you might have waited a lot longer for officers to respond to your call if it had happened a couple of hours later.”
“I don't understand,” I said.
“Don't you watch the TV in the morning?”
“Not usually.”
“So you haven't heard?”
“Heard what?”
Ivory Prisco leaned forward. “Those goddamn Scum Fronters went and did it.”
“What?”
“They set one off. A bomb.”
My heart jumped yet again from jog to full sprint.
“They blew up a government office building on Ohio Street.”
“Last night?”
“A little before two. There's a night watchman in intensive care.”
I was losing the power of speech.
“People who put bombs around like that just aren't normal, you know?” Ivory Prisco said. “Sure as can be, they were always going to blow something up and I'll tell you this,” Ivory Prisco said. “The whole damn city's going to be after those bastards now.”