watchband to illustrate his point.
“Yes, but it can’t shrink down past a certain size. Take your watch off.”
Hale did.
“You see? When the tension is off the segments, they close up to a fixed size. A person with a larger wrist than yours might be able to wear your watch. But if a person with a smaller wrist than yours put it on, it would slide around on him. The wear pattern on the Time Masters watch indicated a man with a smaller wrist.”
“So it wasn’t Lefebvre’s watch in that evidence box. That doesn’t mean he didn’t put it there.”
“I think that’s unlikely. Lefebvre only saw that box once, very briefly, and not long before he was murdered.”
“No — you’ve got that much wrong. His name was on the evidence log twice.”
“His name, but not his signature. The first signature was forged. Ask Flynn if you don’t want to buy that off me.”
“Flynn? How the hell many members of this department have been hiding this for the last ten years?”
“Flynn just discovered the forgery on Monday. He got curious about people who had looked at that evidence box, because Bredloe had looked at it just before he went to the Sheffield Club. And Bredloe was asking Flynn questions — wanted to know who in the department knew what was in that box.”
“Damned near everybody, unless I miss my guess.”
“Flynn said as much to Captain Bredloe.”
“So what are you going to do? Go around making everyone who was at that press conference try the watch on? It will probably work something more like O.J. and the glove than Cinderella and the slipper.”
Frank shook his head. “Even if I had that original Time Masters watch, people gain and lose weight over ten years.”
“What do you mean ‘that original’?”
“Someone replaced that watch since Lefebvre disappeared. The one down in the box in Evidence Control isn’t the one that Lefebvre saw that night.”
“Replaced? Why?”
“I’m not sure. All I know is that the watch that was substituted for it is newer. From the looks of it, it hasn’t ever been worn. And when I spoke to Time Masters this morning, I learned that this one was made seven years ago. They could tell by the serial number and by the ‘China’ stamp. They were making them in the U.S. until then.”
Hale sat down heavily in his chair, his face set in stubborn lines. But he said nothing. As he watched the chief, Frank took hope from that silence. He knew that Hale was going over all that he had said, looking for holes, for weaknesses. Hale was the bishop in this little cathedral, and the man clearly didn’t want to change religions at this point — for ten years, Hale had knelt at the altar of Lefebvre’s guilt and preached it to not only his congregation, but city hall, the press, the public.
“Whatever else you want to believe about Lefebvre,” Frank said, “you know he couldn’t get up out of that wreckage to go buy a watch, then stick it into an evidence box before heading off for his final reward.”
“Don’t get cocky. It may have been impossible for Lefebvre, but it was nearly as impossible for anyone else to do so, with security cameras, and—”
“Seven years ago, sir.”
“Oh, back to calling me ‘sir,’ are you?”
“Seven years ago.”
Hale’s face reddened. “Don’t push me, Harriman.”
“Seven years ago, sir, Flynn was not in charge of the property room. Five years ago an investigation into the theft of drugs and other materials from the—”
“Yes, yes, you’ve made your point. There were no cameras before Flynn, and we did have problems with evidence control.”
Hale stood up and began pacing.
“Whom do you suspect?”
“No one in particular yet, sir.”
“So you’re telling me that you’ve spent your first week creating chaos.”
“I wouldn’t put it like that, sir.”
Hale stopped pacing. “No. Neither would I.” He paced again.
“I want to talk to a couple of commissioners today, sir.”
“Police commissioners? About this? At this stage of your endeavors? Don’t be an ass.”
“No, sir, about Trent Randolph. I need to know who in this department identified him as an enemy.”
“Maybe you’re still looking at Dane, you know. Dane hated him, and while I will admit that there appears to be insider help here, we’ve always known that Dane must be getting at least some assistance from someone in this department.”
Frank said nothing.
“You don’t believe it.”
