'Matt?' I looked at him. 'That conversation we had the other night. At that bar where you hang out?'
'Armstrong's.'
'Right, Armstrong's. I said some things I didn't have to say.'
'Oh, the hell with that, Eddie.'
'No hard feelings?'
'Of course not.'
Pause. 'Well, a few guys who knew I was gonna drop down today, which I was doing, figuring you'd be here, they asked me to let you know there's no hard feelings toward you. Not that there ever was in a general sense, just that they wished you weren't hooked up with Broadfield at the time, if you get my meaning.'
'I think I do.'
'And they hope you got no bad feelings toward the department, is all.'
'None.'
'Well, that's what I figured, but I thought I'd get it out in the open and be sure.' He ran a hand over his forehead, ruffled his hair. 'You're really figuring to take it easier on the booze?'
'Might as well give it a try.Why?'
'I don't know. You think maybe you're ready to rejoin the human race?'
'I never resigned, did I?'
'You know what I'm talking about.'
I didn't say anything.
'You proved something, you know. You're still a good cop, Matt.
It's what you're really good at.'
'So?'
'It's easier to be a good cop when you're carrying a badge.'
'Sometimes it's harder. If I'd had a badge this past week, I would have been told to lay off.'
'Yeah, and you were told that, anyway, and you didn't listen, and you wouldn't have listened, badge or no badge. Am I right?'
'Maybe.I don't know.'
'The best way to get a good police department is to keep good policemen in it. I'd like it a hell of a lot to see you back on the force.'
'I don't think so, Eddie.'
'I wasn't asking you to make a decision. I was saying you could think about it. And you can think it over for the next little while, can't you? Maybe it'll be something that starts to make sense when you don't have a skin full of booze in you twenty-four hours a day.'
'It's possible.'
'You'll think about it?'
'I'll think about it.'
'Uh-huh.' He stirred his coffee. 'You hear from your kids lately?'
'They're fine.'
'Well, that's good.'
'I'm taking them this Saturday. There's some kind of father-son thing with their Scout troop, a rubber-chicken dinner and then seats for the Nets game.'
'I could never get interested in the Nets.'
'They're supposed to have a good team.'
'Yeah, that's what they tell me. Well, it's great that you're seeing them.'
'Uh-huh.'
'Maybe you and Anita- '
'Drop it, Eddie.'
'Yeah, I talk too much.'
'She's got somebody else, anyway.'
'You can't expect her to sit around.'
'I don't, and I don't care. I've got somebody else myself.'
'Oh.For serious?'
'I don't know.'
