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Max watched the street and the mission, smiling to himself as the events of the previous day played themselves out in his mind. He and O'Grady stood outside the commissioner's office watching the group of detectives waiting to join the task force file out a side door while Flynn and the commissioner took the door to the outer hall. Hubbard and Trenchcoat stayed behind.
"I'll be back in a few minutes," O'Grady said, slinging her purse onto her shoulder. "Have to make a pit stop."
"Meet you back here," Max said. "I need to talk to Hubbard and his buddy."
"Hope you're still not holding a grudge about Savin Hill," Hubbard said when the door closed behind O'Grady. “Nothing personal. We only did what Flynn told us." He gave his friend a sideways glance. Trenchcoat nodded.
"Forget about it," Max said. "To be honest, I don't have time for this silly shit. There's a nutcase running around out there who needs to be stopped, so if you two are done fucking around, we can work together and do some real police work." He allowed himself a tight-lipped smile. "I've had the chance to get to know you, Detective Hubbard, but my meetings with your partner have been brief." He gestured toward Trenchcoat. "We never did get introduced. I'm Special Agent Broderick, U.S. Justice Department."
"Detective Thompson. Listen, um..." He tugged at his ear. "Flynn's not really a bad guy, it's just that..."
"Flynn and I can work things out for ourselves."
Thompson stared at the floor. "Yeah, sure."
"I need you two to find out where Barbara Brice is buried, then I want you to stake out her grave."
Hubbard cleared his throat. "Her grave?"
"Three shifts. You, Thompson, and Flynn. Decide between yourselves who gets what shift, but I want the grave covered and a report on my desk every morning."
"You want us to stake out a grave?" Thompson said. His Adam's apple bobbed. "At night?"
"I do it all the time," Max said. "You Beantown badasses aren’t afraid, are you?"
Thompson scowled. "Of course not."
Flynn and the commissioner came in from the outer hallway. The commissioner glanced at Max and went straight to his office without speaking. Flynn joined Max and the two detectives.
"I was just giving Hubbard and Thompson their assignments," Max said. "You're in charge of the stakeout, Flynn."
"Stakeout?"
"Of a graveyard," Hubbard said.
"What?" Flynn's brow furrowed. "Say it ain't so, Broderick."
"I wish I could, but I can’t. You’re in charge of the commissioner’s report too."
Flynn's eyes narrowed. He stuck his hands in his pockets and kept his gaze on Max. "Okay, Thompson and Hubbard," he said without looking at them. "You know what to do, so get on it." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder. "I'll be in touch. Broderick and I need to discuss the case."
The two detectives left.
Flynn continued staring at Max, then became animated. "Listen." He put a meaty hand on Max's shoulder. Max smelled gin on his breath. "I'm sorry things didn't get off to such a great start between us. I didn't think they'd go so far."
“No shit, Flynn. You probably thought they'd end at Savin Hill. You’re lucky they didn’t go any further than they did.”
Flynn patted him on the back and pulled out a cigar. "But I want you to know I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. Way I see it we've got common interests."
"And what are they?"
"Catching this killer and watching out for the safety of my ex. What do you say we cut the bullshit and work together."
“That’s what I’m doing.”
Flynn ran the cigar under his nose, then stuck it in the corner of his mouth. "Between you and me, Broderick, this is a man's thing. I don't like to see Colleen exposed to this shit. I've done my best to keep her out of it, but when it comes to the shit, she's like a fly, if you know what I mean."
“Nobody's forcing her into anything. She wants to do this."
"Yeah, I know, but face it Broderick, she's a broad."
Max stiffened.
"Don't put me on this stakeout," Flynn continued. "It'll drive me batshit. Let me do some of the digging for you. That's what I do. Stick Colleen on a desk where she belongs. Give her a job filing. She don't belong on the streets."
Max rubbed his chin as if considering Flynn's proposition. "You think she should be a desk jockey?"
"Absolutely." Flynn jabbed at the air with his cigar. "Let me do the investigating. I'll do it right."
"Let me get this straight. You think I should put O'Grady on a desk and put you on the investigation in her place because she's a broad and doesn't have what it takes to do a good job."
An expansive smile filled Flynn's face. He patted Max on the shoulder. "You're a pretty sharp guy. I knew I liked you, Broderick." He lowered his voice. "Like I said, sorry we got off on the wrong foot, but I know she turned you against me from the get go."
"What makes you say that?"
"It was obvious when you had me yanked from the Brice case.”
Max felt his anger rising. What a snake. The more he talks the more he puts his foot in his mouth.
"You and me, Broderick. We'll put a lid on this case. Reassign Colleen for her own good. All this blood and gore is messing her up and she's screwed up already." He lowered his voice. "I'm telling you, Broderick. I've always done my best to protect her."
"This is a man's thing, isn't it? Women don't belong. We men have to straighten this out, right?"
Another smile. Flynn gestured with his cigar as he talked. "I was good to her, kept the shit off her. She didn't appreciate it. She left me because she couldn't hang. Now all the bitch does is talk shit about me. Colleen's one hell of a good looker, but up here in the cabeza." He pointed to his head. "She's just another whacky broad."
Max stifled the urge to jam Flynn's cigar down his throat. "Let me tell you something," he said between clenched teeth. "You better treat that lady with the respect she deserves."
Flynn's mouth dropped and his eyes grew wide.
Max jammed a finger into his chest. "Quit while you're ahead. You've gotten off easy so far. I hear you bad mouthing her any more, especially in front of any other cops, you're going to get more than a beating in a subway station." He grabbed Flynn by the lapels and put his face inches from Flynn's. "Colleen has more class and more smarts than you..."
Max looked past Flynn and saw her coming. His face flushed.
Letting go, he waved Flynn away. "You'd better get going. You have a stakeout to oversee." He nodded toward Colleen. "Come on partner, let's get out of here."
They left Flynn staring as the door closed behind them.
While O'Grady drove them back to Dorchester, Max stared out the window. "Tell me about you and Flynn," he said without turning from the window.
"What do you want to know?"
"I don't get it." He shrugged and turned to her. "I'm not kidding when I say you're a good cop and I respect you. Aside from that you're smart and good looking. A class act. How'd you ever get involved with a slob like him?"
She gave him a sideways glance, then looked ahead, concentrating on her driving. "I was young when I joined the force. Twenty-two, starry-eyed, and impressionable. Flynn was in his prime. You should have seen him back then." She shook her head. "He was a rugged, hard core homicide dick with a reputation for tenacity. He has one of the highest arrest and conviction records in the city."
"He'd be really good if he wasn't so busy being petty."
"I realize now that I saw him as a father image. To a young girl of twenty-two a man fifteen years older is very exciting. A take-charge kind of a guy. Problem was he wanted to take complete charge."
"How long did it last?"
"Two years. It wouldn't have lasted that long, except that we both worked strange shifts and sometimes wouldn't lay eyes on each other for days. I didn't see it at first, but even then he had a drinking problem. The stuff he's had to put up with in homicide, the things he's seen..."
"Explains why he doesn't like you working with me."
She nodded. "That's a big part of it. Flynn cares in his own way, but I suspect his bigger motivation is jealousy."
"Of me?"
"For the most part, but he's also jealous of me."
"Do tell."
"I stayed in the administrative section of the department, but I wanted to get out into the action. All my requests for transfers were denied. I can't prove it, but I'm sure Flynn was responsible." She bit her lower lip. "In spite of his manipulations I went to school and rose in rank. He went nowhere. His drinking got worse. So did the violence."
Max’s gut tightened. "He hit you?"
"It was more mental than physical. He smashed things and yes, he smashed me a few times, but the mental part was the worst."
"Why didn’t you leave him sooner?"
"It's hard to explain, but I felt sorry for him. I don't know if you've ever had the experience of watching someone self-destruct. It's not pretty."
"He's been smoldering all these years."
"You kidding? It's not easy for someone with an ego as big as Flynn's to deal with rejection."
Neither one spoke for awhile. Max kept stealing glances at her, wondering what it would be like to be with her. The thought of his lonely hotel room made his desire all the more poignant. The idea of a relationship developing outside of working hours flitted through his brain, but he didn’t want to complicate things any more than they were. He was too emotionally fucked-up as it was.
He looked up and down Dorchester Ave., then at the mission again, thinking about Lieutenant Colleen O'Grady. Striking green eyes and red hair. A beautiful Boston cop with a model’s figure and some of the greatest legs he’d ever seen who also happened to be his efficient and more than competent partner in the investigation of a series of grisly ritual murders. With all she had been through and all she saw, she still retained her dignity. No, more than dignity, she had class. Max understood why Flynn tried to keep her away from the shit. Not that it was right. It wasn't. But he understood.
Best thing he could do now was to keep an eye on things here. He did another scan of Town Field and the mission, recognizing the kid he saw hanging around earlier running across the street.