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what she wanted. Three, she slept around like other people
shake hands. And four, she had a thing for older guys. The
judge kept his gaze fixed on his plate, where the meat juices had
tinged the cottage cheese a nauseating shade of pink.  Maybe
you haven t heard, she said.  But Paula was pregnant when she
died. Isn t that sad?
He tried to cover himself, but she still caught it: the sharp in-
take of breath, the reflexive clenching of jaw muscles. Her
hunch was right. Sweringen had been screwing her.
 Maybe you don t recall, the judge said.  But the publisher
of the Transcript is a close friend of mine.
She revived her saccharine smile.  How terrific for you both.
He smiled back.  It would be a shame if those troubles of
yours made their way into the paper.
 Tragic, she said.
He opened his mouth for what was doubtless going to be an-
other cagy riposte, but he never got the chance to deliver it.
Rolly had walked in and made a beeline for her, all florid jowls
and indignation.
 Look who s here, he said.  Detective Buttinski.
Oh, hell. At least he wasn t calling her Angie Dickinson any-
more.
 Hi, Chief.
 Don t  hi, Chief  me, he growled.  Who do you think you
are, calling in the staties and the Pittsfield M.E. behind my
back?
Ginny opened her eyes wide, fluttering her lids at him.  I m
sorry, she said.  Wasn t that the right thing to do?
She thought she heard the waitress snicker, but she couldn t
see her anywhere nearby. Ginny was starting to like her. Rolly,
for his part, had turned a darker shade of purple.
T he M or ti ci an s D aughter 205
 Now, listen here, he said.  Just because you re some big-
city cop doesn t mean you can run around my town like Perry
Goddamn Mason.
 Perry Mason is a lawyer, she said.
 Whatever. I m not gonna stand here and argue with you.
He aimed a doughy thumb at a man sitting alone at a booth,
reading the paper.  That s the fellow I m having lunch with, he
said.  You know who he is?
 Sure, she said.  Bob Gianelli. I went all through school
with his daughter.
 Well, now he s Mayor Gianelli. Or maybe you didn t hear.
She glanced from Gianelli to Rolly to the judge, who was
looking at her like she was the hamburger on his plate.  So
what s your point?
 Mayor pretty much runs everything around here, Rolly
said.  The building inspector s office, for instance. And I hear
Molly s is up for its certificate of occupancy. He winked at her,
and she noted that even his eyelids were fat.  Be a damn shame
if it flunked and Jimmy Griffin had to close down.
Ginny looked from Rolly to Sweringen and back again. She
wouldn t be surprised if the two of them broke into song, like
the chorus of a Broadway musical.
 For chrissake, she said,  did the two of you practice this
beforehand? You re one hell of an act. You re the goddamn Ice
Capades of extortion. She d cracked a wide smile, something
that seemed to throw Rolly off his game.  But hey, the more the
merrier. Maybe Mr. Mayor d like to come over and threaten to
bust Sonya for unlicensed day care.
Rolly was at a loss for words. The judge wasn t.
 You re making a mistake, he said.
 Wouldn t be the first time, she replied.  But hey I m an
amateur. It s hard to beat building a new hunting lodge with
money you stole from a drug dealer. She turned to the judge.
206 E li zabeth B loom
 Or letting the town whore off the hook for the price of a
blow job.
Sweringen s fork fell to the plate with a clatter.
 By the way, she told him,  make sure to tell your friend at
the Transcript that I changed my name. It s Virginia now. With an
 a, not an  e. Virginie just didn t suit me. She turned back to
Rolly.  Oh. And one more thing. If you go after Jimmy Griffin,
I will well and truly kick your fat ass from here to New York
City.
She tossed a ten-dollar bill on the counter, offered a jaunty
wave to the newly elected mayor, and walked out into the sun-
shine. There was sweat under her armpits. But otherwise, she
was cool.

His name, she said,  was Michael Scott. He was a detective in
my squad. And he was married.
Jimmy sat opposite her on a folding chair in his office, a tiny
space filled out by a desk and his racing bike suspended from a
hook in the ceiling. The air around them was thick with the
smell of chocolate-chip cookies. Ginny was pretty sure she
could also detect another odor call it eau de guilt but it was
probably just her imagination.
 You know, he said,  you don t have to tell me this.
 Seems like I do, she said.  I d rather have you hear it from
me than read it on the front page of the local rag.
 You really think Sweringen ll make good on his threat?
Even though you know he was screwing Paula?
 Maybe, she said.  Maybe not. Either way I think it s time
to come clean.
She took a deep breath. It wasn t as though the story hadn t
been playing in her head every night for two months. But put-
ting it into words was a whole other thing.
T he M or ti ci an s D aughter 207
 Mike wasn t my partner, she said.  But we worked together
on a couple big cases. She examined her pinkie finger, then
started chewing on the nail.  I fell for him. I don t know how to
explain it. But I knew he was married, and I didn t give a damn.
What I didn t know was that he was dirty.
 Dirty how?
 You name it. He was on the take practically from the day he
graduated from the academy. Nothing big at first just taking
favors from the stores on his beat.  Keep the street kids away
from my shop, and I ll give you a big-screen TV. That kind of
thing. Eventually, he was taking bribes from defense lawyers to
help get their clients off the hook forty, fifty grand a case.
 But how 
 How did he pull it off? A bunch of different ways. If it was
his case, he d screw up on the stand not so you could put your
finger on it, but he d give the jury reasonable doubt. Mike s a
bastard, but he s not stupid. Or he d call in a favor, and a material
witness would come down with amnesia.
 And somehow you got dragged into it?
 Internal Affairs had their eye on him for years. One day
we re working our cases, and two guys from the rat squad come
in and read him his rights. And there I am with my mouth hang-
ing open I thought the whole thing was a mistake.
 So what happened to you? Guilt by association?
She shook her head.  Mike s not what you d call a stand-up
guy. The first thing he did was start naming names. He cut a deal [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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