21
M O said, “This Huff guy’s a cop, right?”
“Right.”
“So he won’t intimidate easily.”
They had already parked outside the Huff house, almost exactly where Mike had been last night before it all exploded around him. He didn’t listen to Mo. He stormed toward the door. Mo followed. Mike knocked and waited. He hit the doorbell and waited some more.
No one answered.
Mike circled around back. He banged on that door too. No answer. He cupped his hands around his eyes and the window and peered in. No movement. He actually checked the knob. The door was locked.
“Mike?”
“He’s lying, Mo. ”
They walked back to the car.
“Where to?” Mo asked.
“Let me drive.”
“No. Where to?”
“The police station. Where Huff works.”
It was a short ride, less than a mile. Mike thought about this route, the short one that Daniel Huff took pretty much every day to work. How lucky to have such a quick commute. Mike thought of the wasted hours sitting in traffic at the bridge and then he wondered why he was thinking about something so inane and realized that he was breathing funny and that Mo was watching him out of the corner of his eye.
“Mike?”
“What?”
“You got to keep your cool here.”
Mike frowned. “This coming from you.”
“Yep, this coming from me. You can either rejoice in the rich irony of my appealing for common sense or you can realize that if I’m ad- vocating for prudence, there must be a pretty good reason for it. You can’t go into a police station to confront an officer half-cocked.”
Mike said nothing. The police station was a converted old library up on a hill with horrible parking. Mo started circling for a space.
“Did you hear me?”
“Yeah, Mo, I heard you.”
There were no spots in front.
“Let me circle down on the south lot.”
Mike said, “No time. I’ll take care of this myself.”
“No way.”
Mike turned to him.
“Sheesh, Mike, you look horrible.”
“If you want to be my driver, fine. But you’re not my babysitter, Mo. So just drop me off. I need to talk to Huff alone anyway. You’ll make him suspicious. Alone I can go at him father to father.”
Mo pulled to the side. “Remember what you just said.”
“What about it?”
“Father to father. He’s a father too.”
“Meaning?”
“Think about it.”
Mike felt the pain rip across his ribs when he stood. Physical pain was an odd thing. He had a high threshold, he knew that. Sometimes he even found it comforting. He liked feeling the hurt after a hard workout. He liked making his muscles sore. On the ice, guys would try to intimidate with hard hits, but it had the opposite effect on him. There was an almost bring-it-on quality that came out when he took a good hit.
He expected the station to be sleepy. He had only been here once before, to request keeping his car on the street overnight. The town had an ordinance making it illegal to park on the street after two A.M., but their driveway was being repaved and so he stopped by to get permission to keep the cars out for the week. There had been one cop at the desk and all the desks behind him had been empty.
Today there had to be at least fifteen cops, all in action.
“May I help you?”
The uniformed officer looked too young to be working the desk. Maybe this was another example of how TV shaped us, but Mike always expected a grizzled veteran to be working the desk, like that guy who told everyone “Let’s be careful out there” on
“Are you here about those bruises?”
“No,” Mike said. The other officers started moving faster. They handed off papers and called one another and cradled receivers under their necks.
“I’m here to see Officer Huff.”
“Do you mean Captain Huff?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask what this is regarding?”
“Tell him it’s Mike Baye.”
“As you can see, we are pretty busy right now.”
“I do see,” Mike said. “Something big going on?”
The young cop gave him a look, clearly suggesting that it was none of his concern. Mike caught snippets about a car parked in a Ramada hotel lot, but that was about it.
“Do you mind sitting over there while I try to reach Captain Huff?”
“Sure.”
Mike moved toward a bench and sat down. There was a man next to him in a suit, filling out paperwork. One of the cops called out, “We’ve checked with the entire staff now. No one reports seeing her.” Mike idly wondered what that was about, but only to try to keep his blood down.
Huff had lied.
Mike kept his eyes on the young officer. When the kid hung up, he looked up and Mike knew this was not going to be good news.
“Mr. Baye?”
“Dr. Baye,” Mike corrected. This time maybe it would come across as arrogant, but sometimes people treated a doctor differently. Not often. But sometimes.
“Dr. Baye. I’m afraid that we are having a very busy morning. Captain Huff has asked me to assure you that he will call you when he can.”
“That’s not going to do it,” Mike said.
“Excuse me?”
The station was pretty much open space. There was a divider that was maybe three feet high-why do all stations have that? Who is that going to stop?-with a little gate you could swing open. Toward the back, Mike could see a door that clearly said CAPTAIN on it. He moved fast, causing all kinds of new pains to sparkle across his ribs and face. He stepped past the front desk.
“Sir?”
“Don’t worry, I know the way.”
He opened the latch and started hurrying toward the captain’s office.
“Stop right now!”
Mike didn’t think the kid would shoot, so he kept moving. He was at the door before anyone could catch up to him. He grabbed the knob and turned. Unlocked. He flung it open.
Huff was at his desk on the phone.
“What the hell…?”
The kid officer at the front desk followed quickly, ready to tackle, but Huff waved him off.
“It’s okay.”
“I’m sorry, Captain. He just ran back here.”
“Don’t worry about it. Close the door, okay?”
The kid didn’t look happy about it, but he obeyed. One of the walls was windowed. He stood there and looked through it. Mike gave him a quick glare and then turned his attention to Huff.
“You lied,” he said.
“I’m busy here, Mike.”
“I saw your son before I got jumped.”
“No, you didn’t. He was home.”
“That’s crap.”
Huff did not stand. He didn’t invite Mike to sit. He put his hands behind his head and leaned back. “I really don’t have time for this.”
“My son was at your house. Then he drove to the Bronx.”
