the end would never have to justify the means, a cop could always work within the rules and evil would always take the big fall. How am I doing so far?”
“You must be on the right track, you’re starting to annoy me.”
“You asked for it. Shall I go on?”
“You mean there’s more?”
“You have an intense dislike of oppressive procedure. It galled you when the courts let creeps and thugs walk on technicalities. You nailed a guy one time on an end run that cops in Denver still talk about…probably illegal but they never stuck you with it. So the guy went up.”
“He was a serial rapist, for Christ’s sake. He got what he needed.”
“You’re getting annoyed all over again, aren’t you? They told me you would. That case still bothers you, it’s the one time you really stepped over the line and let the end justify the means. Your fellow cops remember it with a good deal of admiration, but it rankles you to this day, the way you had to get that guy.”
“I sleep just fine. My only regret is that I didn’t get the son of a bitch a year earlier, before he started using the knife.”
“You’re a guy out of time, Janeway. You were a good cop, but you’d‘ve been great fifty years ago, when there weren’t any rules.”
“There’s probably a lot I’d appreciate about life fifty years ago.”
“You don’t like telephones, television, or computers. I’ll bet Call Waiting drives you crazy.”
“People who load up their lives with crap like that have an inflated sense of their own importance. You might not believe this, but I’ve never missed an important phone call.”
“I do believe it. It’s all in the eye of the beholder.”
“If it’s that important, they always call back.” I looked at her hard. “You really are getting on my nerves.”
“Good. If I can’t get you to talk to me, at least I can ruin your day. If I tell you enough about yourself, maybe you’ll understand something.”
“And what is that?”
“If you don’t talk to me, somebody else will.”
“I can’t help what other people tell you.”
“They tell me you’ve got this code you live by and you’ve got it down pat. You see a lot of things in black and white: if you give your word, people can take it to the bank. The problem is, you expect the same thing out of others. You tend to be hard and unforgiving when someone breaks the code. When you come up against a brick wall, your tendency is to go right on through it. You had little finesse when it came to official policy and no patience with politics.”
“I can’t think of anything offhand that’s as evil as politics. It turns good men into bad all the time.”
“You spend a lot of your time alone. You trust no one in a pinch as much as you do your own self. You’ve got such self-confidence that sometimes it strikes others as arrogance. Your reputation as a smart-ass is as high as the Rockies. Richly deserved would be my guess.“
“I work on it every day. I hire four people to sit on a panel, test me once a week, and tell me how I’m doing. Lately I’ve been unable to afford the sex therapist, but you could probably tell that. I don’t feel that my day’s properly under way unless I’ve run three miles and verbally abused someone of far less mental dexterity than myself—preferably in public, where the scars of their humiliation will be shattering and damn near impossible to shake off.”
She gave a little smile. “Actually, you’re a champion of the underdog. The strong never abuse the weak in your presence.”
“Now I’m a regular Robin Hood. You’ll have to make up your mind.”
“You’ve got quite a name as a fighter. People don’t mess with you much.”
“Some have.”
“But they didn’t come back for seconds.”
“Not since I killed that blind crippled boy last summer.”
She laughed. “You’re an American original, aren’t you? Listen to me, Janeway. I mean you no harm. I come in friendship and peace.”
“That’s what Custer said to the Indians.”
“You and I are probably a lot alike.”
“That’s what Sitting Bull said back to Custer.”
“And like the Indians and the cavalry, we’d probably end up killing each other. But I’ll tell you this, it’ll all be up front. I never break my word.” She leaned forward and looked me straight in the eyes. Our faces were closer than strangers ought to be. “Who is Slater?”
I looked at her hard and gave her nothing.
“Maybe it would make a difference if I told you what else I know.”
“What’s that?”
“That Darryl and Richard Grayson were murdered.”
