They'll want a statement. And this kid, Randy, might have been an asshole, but technically he's a juvenile-he's already got a social worker assigned and she's all pissed off about him getting beat up. She doesn't want to hear about any assault on a police officer…'
'We could send her some pictures of the woman he worked over…'
'Yeah, yeah, we'll do that. Maybe that'll change her around. And your jacket will help, the cut, and we're getting statements from witnesses. But I don't know… If the jacket wasn't cut, I'd have to suspend your ass,' Daniel said. He rubbed his forehead with the heel of his hand, as though wiping away sweat, then swiveled in his chair and looked out the window at the street, his back to Lucas. 'I'm worried about you, Davenport. Your friends are worried about you. I had Sloan up here, he was lying like a goddamn sailor to cover your ass, until I told him to can it. Then we had a little talk…'
'Fuckin' Sloan,' Lucas said irritably. 'I don't want him…'
'Lucas…' Daniel turned back to Lucas, his tone mellowing from anger to concern. 'He's your friend and you should appreciate that, 'cause you need all the friends you've got. Now. Have you been to a shrink?'
'No.'
'They've got pills for what you've got. They don't cure anything, but they make it a little easier. Believe me, because I've been there. Six years ago this winter. I live in fear of the day I go back…'
'I didn't know…'
'It's not something you talk about, if you're in politics,' Daniel said. 'You don't want people to think they've got a crazy man as police chief. Anyway, what you've got is called a unipolar depression.'
'I've read the books,' Lucas snapped. 'And I ain't going to a shrink.'
He pushed himself out of the chair and wandered around the office, looking into the faces of the dozens of politicians who peered from photos on Daniel's walls. The photos came mostly from newspapers, special prints made at the chief's request, and all were black-and-white. Mug shots with smiles, Lucas thought. There were only two pieces of color on the government-yellow walls. One piece was a Hmong tapestry, framed, with a brass plate that said: 'Quentin Daniel, from His Hmong Friends, 1989.' The second was a calendar with a painting of a vase of flowers, bright, slightly fuzzy, sophisticated and childlike at the same time. Lucas parked himself in front of the calendar and studied it.
Daniel watched him for a moment, sighed and said, 'I don't necessarily think you should see a shrink-shrinks aren't the answer for everybody. But I'm telling you this as a friend: You're right on the edge. I've seen it before, I'll see it again, and I'm looking at it right now. You're fucked up. Sloan agrees. So does Del. You've got to get your shit together before you hurt yourself or somebody else.'
'I could quit,' Lucas ventured, turning back to the chief's desk. 'Take a leave…'
'That wouldn't be so good,' Daniel said, shaking his head. 'People with a bad head need to be around friends. So let me suggest something. If I'm wrong, tell me.'
'All right…'
'I want you to take on the Bekker murder. Keep your network alive, but focus on the murder. You need the company, Lucas. You need the teamwork. And I need somebody to bail me out on this goddamn killing. The Bekker woman's family has some clout and the papers are talking it up.'
Lucas tipped his head, thinking about it. 'Del mentioned it last night. I told him I might look into it…'
'Do it,' Daniel said. Lucas stood up, and Daniel put on his computer glasses and turned back to a screen full of amber figures.
'How long has it been since you were on the street?' Lucas asked.
Daniel looked at him, then up at the ceiling. 'Twenty-one years,' he said after a moment.
'Things have changed,' Lucas said. 'People don't believe in right and wrong anymore; if they do, we write them off as kooks. Reality is greed. People believe in money and power and feeling good and cocaine. For the bad people out there, we are a street gang. They understand that idea. The minute we lose the threat, they'll be on us like rats…'
'Jesus Christ…'
'Hey, listen to me,' Lucas said. 'I'm not stupid. I don't even necessarily think-in theory, anyway-that I should be able to get away with what I did last night. But those things have to be done by somebody. The legal system has smart judges and tough prosecutors and it don't mean shit-it's a game that has nothing to do with justice. What I did was justice. The street understands that. I didn't do too much and I didn't do too little. I did just right.'
Daniel looked at him for a long time and then said soberly, 'I don't disagree with you. But don't ever repeat that to another living soul.'
Sloan was propped against the metal door of Lucas' basement office, flipping through a throw-away newspaper, smoking a Camel. He was a narrow man with a foxy face and nicotine-stained teeth. A brown felt hat was cocked down over his eyes.
'You been shoveling horseshit again,' Lucas said as he walked down the hall. His head felt as if it were filled with cotton, each separate thought tangled in a million fuzzy strands.
Sloan pushed himself away from the door so Lucas could unlock it. 'Daniel ain't a mushroom. And it ain't horseshit. So you gonna do it? Work Bekker?'
'I'm thinking about it,' Lucas said.
'The wife's funeral is this afternoon,' Sloan said. 'You oughta go. And I'll tell you what: I've been looking this guy up, Bekker. We got us an iceman.'
'Is that right?' Lucas pushed the door open and went inside. His office had once been a janitor's closet. There were two chairs, a wooden desk, a two-drawer filing cabinet, a metal wastebasket, an old-fashioned oak coatrack, an IBM computer and a telephone. A printer sat on a metal typing table, poised to print out phone numbers coming through on a pen register. A stain on the wall marked the persistent seepage of a suspicious but unidentifiable liquid. Del had pointed out that a women's restroom was one floor above and not too much down the hall.
'Yeah, that's right,' Sloan said. He dropped into the visitor's chair and put his heels up on the edge of the desk as Lucas hung his jacket on the coatrack. 'I've been reading background reports, and it turns out Bekker was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division in Saigon during the Vietnam War. I thought he was some kind of cop, so I talked to Anderson and he called some of his computer buddies in Washington, and we got his military records. He wasn't a cop, he was a forensic pathologist. He did postmortems in criminal cases that involved GIs. I found his old commanding officer, a guy named Wilson. He remembered Bekker. I told him who I was, and he said, 'What happened, the sonofabitch kill somebody?' '
'You didn't prompt him?' Lucas asked, settling behind his desk.
'No. Those were the first words out of his mouth. Wilson said Bekker was called 'Dr. Death'-I guess he liked his work a little too much. And he liked the hookers. Wilson said he had a rep for pounding on them.'
'How bad?'
Sloan shook his head. 'Don't know. That was just his rep… Wilson said a couple of whores got killed while Bekker was there, but nobody ever suggested he did it. The cops were looking for an Army enlisted man. They never found anybody, but they never looked too hard, either. Wilson said the place was overrun with AWOLs, deserters, guys on leave and pass, guys going in and out. He said it was an impossible case. But he remembers people around the office talking about the killings and that Bekker was… he was spooky. Since there were GIs involved, Bekker was in on the autopsies. He either did them himself or with a Vietnamese doc, Wilson couldn't remember. But when he came back, it was like he was satisfied. Fucked out.'
'Huh.' The printer burped up a number. Lucas glanced at it, then turned back to Sloan. 'Did Bekker kill Stephanie? Hire it done?'
Sloan pulled the wastebasket over to his chair and carefully snubbed out his cigarette. 'I think it's a major possibility,' he said slowly. 'If he did, he's cold: we checked on her insurance…'
'Ten million bucks?' Lucas' eyebrows went up.
'No. Just the opposite. Stephanie was starting a business. She was gonna sell architectural artifacts for restoring old homes. Stained-glass windows, antique doorknobs, like that. An accountant told her she could save money by buying all the family insurance through the company. So she and Bekker canceled their old life insurance and bought new insurance through the company. It specifically won't pay off on any violent nonaccidental death- murder or suicide-in the first two years of coverage.'
'So…'
'So she had no insurance at all,' Sloan said. 'Not that Bekker can collect on. A month ago she had a hundred
