'Yes.'
'Why?'
'He thinks Jumbo might be getting railroaded,' I said.
'Can't he stop that himself?'
'No,' I said.
'He's in charge of the investigation, isn't he?'
'Officially,' I said. 'But there are a number of people in charge of him.'
'Such as?'
'Senior command staff. Commissioner. Mayor, governor . . . and such. All of them pressured by the media.'
'It's why you quit being a cop,' she said.
'Some of it,' I said. 'But to be fair, I don't know that there is an organizational structure into which I would comfortably fit.'
'Nothing bigger than you and me,' Susan said. 'Could he quit?'
'Quirk?' I said. 'Quirk is a combination of two things. He's married and has kids. That's one thing. And he's a cop. That's the other thing. Without those, he ceases to be Quirk.'
'Love and work,' Susan said.
'Same as we are,' I said.
'And he cares about the law,' Susan said.
'He has to,' I said.
'Yes,' Susan said. 'Doing what he does. Defining himself as he must.'
'Quirk has killed people,' I said. 'Lot of cops never draw a weapon their whole career. Quirk has. And even if he hadn't, his business is forcing people, and preventing people, and incarcerating people.'
'Without rules, the responsibility would be daunting.'
'It's daunting anyway,' I said. 'But without rules, for a guy like Quirk, it would be impossible.'
'And the law provides the rules for him,' Susan said.
'Yes,' I said.
I could hear a couple of mourning doves in Susan's backyard. They sounded like contentment. Pearl raised her head for a moment and stiffened her ears and listened. Then she decided they were inaccessible. Her ears relaxed and she put her head back down.
'How about you?' Susan said.
'You're the rule,' I said.
'Surely there are some besides me,' she said. 'Some principles other than my well-being.'
'Depends, I guess, on how you think about it,' I said. 'I know that I would sacrifice any principle for you. And I know I would not sacrifice you for anything.'
'I understand that,' Susan said.
I could see a couple of treetops outside the bedroom window. They were still in winter. No buds yet. But the light had become even brighter, and it was windless, and the mourning doves continued hoo-hooing.
'I'm a simple tool,' I said. 'I know what I like and what I don't like, and what I'm willing to do and what I'm not, and I try to be guided by that.'
'And you do this difficult, sometimes dangerous, thing that you do because?'
We'd had this talk before, and never quite got the question answered. Pearl made a snuffy sound and got herself a little more comfortable at our expense.
'Because I can, I guess. Because I'm good at it.'
'And because you want to see things come out right,' Susan said.
'Yes,' I said. 'That, too.'
'I'm much the same,' Susan said.
'I know,' I said.
4
ON MONDAY MORNING, Susan and I had some cheese and fruit and hot biscuits made by me before she went downstairs to shrink heads. I cleaned up the dishes, shaved, showered, and, dressed to at least the sevens, went downtown to see Rita Fiore.
I always enjoyed seeing Rita. I'd known her since she was a prosecutor in Norfolk County, and we had stayed in contact while she moved into the private practice of criminal law, and rose to a partnership in Cone, Oakes, and Baldwin. Plus, she was hot for me, and I like that in a woman.
Cone, Oakes had fifteen floors on top of a high-rise with a view of the harbor and the ocean beyond. Rita was
