talking. There’s nothing I can tell Chu. He’s nuts on this race thing anyway. If I try to tell him what really happened I’m not only going to make trouble for myself, for the precinct — for everybody.” He dropped into his chair and rubbed at the twitching corner of his eye. “I’m telling you straight, Andy. I’m going to pass the buck to you, let you take the blame. I’m going to put you back into uniform for six months until this thing cools down. You’ll stay in grade, you won’t lose any pay.”
“I wasn’t expecting any award for cracking this case,” Andy said angrily, “or for bringing in the killer — but I didn’t expect this. I can ask for a departmental trial.”
“You can, you can do that.” The lieutenant hesitated a long time, he was obviously ill at ease. “But I’m asking you not to. If not for me, for the good of the precinct. I know it’s a raw deal, passing the buck, but you’ll come out of it okay. I’ll have you back on the squad as soon as I can. And it’s not like you’ll be doing anything different, anyway. We might as well all be walking a beat for the little detective work we do.” He kicked viciously at the desk. “What do you say?”
“The whole thing stinks.”
“I know it stinks!” the lieutenant shouted. “But what the hell else can I do? You think it’ll stink less if you stand trial? You won’t stand a chance. You’ll be off the force and out of a job and I’ll probably be with you. You’re a good cop, Andy, and there aren’t many of them left. The department needs you more than you need them. Stick it out. What do you say?”
There was a long silence, and the lieutenant turned back to look out of the window.
“All right,” Andy finally said. “I’ll do whatever you want me to do, lieutenant.” He went out of the office without being dismissed; he didn’t want the lieutenant to thank him for this.
13
“Half an hour more and we’ll be in a new century,” Steve Kulozik said, stamping his feet on the icy pavement. “I heard some joker on TV yesterday trying to explain why the new century doesn’t start until next year, but he must be a chunkhead. Midnight, year two thousand, new century. That makes sense. Look at that.” He pointed up at the projection TV screen on the old Times Building. The headlines, in letters ten feet high, chased each other across the screen.
COLD SNAP IN MIDWEST SCORES OF DEATHS REPORTED
“Scores,” Steve grunted. “I bet they don’t even keep score any more, they don’t want to know how many die.”
FAMINE REPORTS FROM RUSSIA NOT TRUE SAYS GALYGIN
PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE ON MORN OF NEW CENTURY
NAVY SUPERSONJET CRASH IN FRISCO BAY
Andy glanced up at the screen, then back at the milling crowd in Times Square. He was getting used to wearing the blue uniform again, though he still felt uneasy when he was around any other men from the detective squad. “What are you doing here?” he asked Steve.
“Same as you, on loan to this precinct. They’re still screaming for reserves, they think there’s going to be a riot.”
“They’re wrong, it’s too cold and there’s not that many people.”
“That’s not the worry, it’s the nut cults, they’re saying it’s the millennium, Judgment Day or Doomsday or whatever the hell you call it. There’s bunches of them all over town. They’re going to be damn unhappy when the world doesn’t come to an end at midnight, the way they think it will.”
“We’ll be a lot unhappier if it does.”
The giant, silent words raced over their heads.
COLIN PROMISES QUICK END OF BABY BILL FILIBUSTER
The crowd surged slowly back and forth, craning their necks up at the screen. Some horns were blowing and the roar of voices was penetrated by a ringing cowbell and the occasional whir of rattles. They cheered when the time appeared on the screen.
23:38 — 11:38 PM — JUST 22 MINUTES TO THE NEW YEAR
“End of the year, and the end of my service,” Steve said.
“What are you talking about?” Andy asked.
“I’ve quit. I promised Grassy to stay until the first of January, and not to talk it around until I was ready to go. I’ve signed on with the state troopers. I’m going to be a guard on one of the prison farms. Kulozik eats again — I can hardly wait.”
“Steve, you’re kidding. You’ve been ten, twelve years on the force. You’ve got seniority, you’re a second- grade detective…”
“Do I look like any kind of detective to you?” He tapped his riotstick lightly against the blue and white helmet he was wearing. “Face it, this city is through. What they need here is animal trainers, not policemen. I got a good job coming, me and the wife are going to eat well — and I’m going to get away from this city once and for all. I was born and raised here, and I have news for you — I’m not going to miss it. They need police with experience upstate. They’d take you on in a minute. Why don’t you come with me?”
“No,” Andy said.
“Why you answering so fast? Think about it. What’s this city ever give you but trouble? You break a tough case and get the killer and look at your medal — back on a beat.”
“Shut up, Steve,” he said, without animosity. “I’m not sure why I’m staying — but I am. I don’t think it’s going to be that great upstate. For your sake, I hope it is. But… my job is here. I picked it up, knowing what I was getting into. I just don’t feel like putting it down yet.”
“Your choice.” Steve shrugged, the movement almost lost in the depths of his thick topcoat and many wrappings. “See you around.”
Andy raised his club in a quick good-by as his friend pushed his way into the press of people and disappeared.
23:58 — 11:58 PM — ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT
As the words slipped from the screen and were replaced by a giant clockface the crowd cheered and shouted; more horns sounded. Steve worked his way through the mass of people that filled the Square and pressed against the boarded-up windows on all sides. The light from the TV screen washed their blank faces and gaping mouths with flickering green illumination, as though they were sunk deep in the sea.
Above them, the second hand ticked off the last seconds of the last minute of the year. Of the end of the century.
