Naked Cruelty

deemed contemptible. “Do not let anyone else under your command eat his gun, Lieutenant Marshall, do you hear me? This time it’s a caution, but if there is a next time, the full weight of the Law will fall upon you!” He dropped the letter. “A reprimand! Me!”

“No aspect of Morty’s death should be the object of sarcasm, especially when you choose Judge Thwaites. The enquiry wasn’t conducted under any Holloman public official, which should tell you that its findings are impartial,” Carmine said.

Corey sneered. “Oh, sure!”

“I still don’t get your drift, Corey.” Make him say it out loud, don’t let him suppress it to chew like a cow its cud.

“You and Silvestri have more pull than any other cops in the whole of Connecticut, including the Staties. You made sure I was reprimanded, you and Cousin Silvestri. All you had to do was pick up the phone. and call in a few favors.”

“Jesus, Corey, how paranoid can you get? This was an enquiry into Morty Jones’s death, not any alleged negligence on your or anyone else’s part,” Carmine said, stunned. “And you’re right about Form 1313-it would have been considered and discarded as the right of two superiors to differ. What made the panel sit up and take notice was your own conduct, Corey. You harangued them about your innocence.”

“You and Silvestri killed my chances of being exonerated,” Corey interrupted.

Carmine stared, stupefied. “Exonerated? What a word to use! No one is persecuting you, Corey, and you weren’t on trial. But you behaved as if you were, and that’s what earned you the reprimand. The panel became convinced that at least some of the smoke originated in a fire. You talked for a full half hour not about Morty Jones, but about yourself, the demands of your duties, how difficult I, and ultimately John Silvestri, made your job. Have you been listening to Maureen? Have you? I’m sure she’s an admirable wife domestically, but she knows nothing about police procedures. Whenever she sticks her oar in, you’re the one gets in trouble. And she’s been worse ever since you became a loot, Cor. Much worse! Like that crap about Abe Goldberg and my favoring him over you-I could hear Maureen saying it.”

“You can’t bring my wife into this,” Corey said aggressively. “It’s the pot calling the kettle black-rumor says your wife is a basket case. You’re passing the buck.”

“My wife is ill,” Carmine said, holding on to his temper, “nor does she try to interfere in my police business. I can’t say the same for Maureen. And if I see it, Cor, so does everyone else. Including Cousin Silvestri. Tell her to butt out.”

“She’s got my best interests at heart,” Corey said stoutly.

Oh, a lost cause! thought Carmine. “You deserved to be reprimanded,” he said. “Morty was reaching out for help, and you refused to see it. I know why. For exactly the same reason that you can’t be bothered writing a good report-there’s too much pain in the effort. No one has demoted you. The reprimand will go on your record, and that’s a shame, but it could only matter if you were moving on-”

Light dawned. Shit, Carmine, you fool! Maureen has made plans to move onward and upward, which means out of Holloman and out of the Holloman PD. Now it can’t happen. Corey has spoiled her plans. Not me. Not Silvestri. Corey. She’s known right along, but gave him the wrong advice-harangue the enquiry panel.

“If you wanted to look squeaky-clean, Corey, you should have blamed yourself a little. Tell Maureen no one’s perfect.”

Corey swallowed. “Why are you here, Carmine?”

“I’ve come to see why you’re making no use of two highly experienced and intelligent detectives in Delia Carstairs and Nick Jefferson,” Carmine said. “They’ve been with you two days, yet you haven’t even bothered to see them, let alone give them orders. What’s going on?”

“No, I haven’t seen them or used them,” Corey said, waxing indignant. “They appeared out of the blue, and I’ve had no kind of written direction from you-any kind of communication, even a phone call. According to Captain Vasquez-” he held up a fat pamphlet “-I could be sued if either of them was injured on the job. I mean, what’s the matter with this place these days?”

“I’m amazed that you read boring stuff like that,” Carmine said solemnly. “One of the penalties of a captaincy, you may tell Maureen, is an overwhelming amount of paperwork that can’t be avoided or postponed, plus a daunting number of conferences and meetings that achieve virtually nothing. And, if the captaincy is in the Holloman Police Department, it comes with a uniform coat whose collar could double for a guillotine. In the current landslide of duties that have little to do with Detectives, I overlooked the particular piece of paper that notified you about Carstairs and Jefferson, both of whom, for the purposes of shuffling paper, are men. They are now your men, Lieutenant, to do with as you please.”

“Carstairs is a woman!” Corey protested.

“Does paper have a sex? Perhaps they should be its?”

“You’re a sarcastic bastard, Carmine.”

“I am indeed. If you think that my ability to slip the dagger between your ribs is formidable, Corey, almost six years of being associated closely with me should tell you how awful it is when I twist the dagger inside the wound. And the first twist of the dagger is this: make sure your wife keeps her place.”

“Wives are off-limits for discussion, Carmine, you know that.”

“I ought to-it’s my own regulation. Sometimes, unfortunately, the rules have to be broken. You should be asking when, not why-you know the why. The when is now because this person who is vital for your well-being-your wife- has made your police business her business, and put a black mark on your career that would otherwise not have happened. Maureen’s made herself the subject of this talk, which I find extremely distasteful. I have nothing to say about her apart from her police interference, which has got to stop. Do you see that?”

“How come you never talked to Morty about his wife, then?”

“Oh, come on, Corey! Ava wasn’t my business.”

“Nor is Maureen.”

“She is, when she makes mischief within my division.”

“She doesn’t. It’s your imagination.”

“Okay, then I’ll drop the subject. You’ve been warned, and so has she.” Carmine leaned forward, looming. “If you don’t improve your attitude, Corey, there will be other reprimands. You’re going to have to learn what nearly a year of winging it hasn’t taught you-how to be a good lieutenant. You’re slipshod and careless, which you never used to be. How much of your apparent efficiency when you were on my team was due to Abe Goldberg’s covering up, I don’t know, but now you shape up, hear me? We’re looking at a green winter, and that means trouble.”

“You can’t possibly be naive enough to think there are still weapons at Taft High, Carmine. Did Genovese go over my head? If he did, I’ll crucify him!”

“No one has gone over your head, but in asking me, you’ve just revealed one of your deficiencies-you don’t trust a man the moment his opinion conflicts with yours. Differing opinions are healthy, Corey, they indicate your men can think for themselves. Trust doesn’t enter into it. Buzz Genovese is a new detective, he needs guidance, not derision. Or are you in favor of the trainee system and more Helen MacIntoshes?”

Corey looked horrified. “The old way is the best way!”

“Then don’t fuck up. Whatever you do, don’t fuck up.”

Delia was waiting outside Corey’s office door, which Carmine had closed on leaving. He stared at Delia in surprise.

“What’s up? Isn’t Corey treating you right?”

“If being ignored is incorrect, he isn’t. But is there any way Corey can do without my talents?” Delia asked.

“Give me a good enough reason, and I’ll cut you loose.”

“Helen.”

His brows furrowed, something stirred in his eyes that Delia couldn’t assess, except that Helen worried him. “Expand.”

“She’s a very good girl, but younger and more inexperienced than she’ll admit. That’s the trouble with growing up in that particular household, I imagine. Stacks of success, money, power-and ego. It hasn’t escaped me that you’ve chided her several times for arrogance and insensitivity, and I agree, she has too much of both. It’s just that-” her long, red nails fluttered like the tips of flesh-colored butterfly wings “-my thumbs are pricking, as the Bard